Oh Baby! Board Books Galore

My New Year's Resolution this year, the main one at least, was to do something once a month that scared me. I made a list of possibilities at the beginning of the year, enough to do something at least once every month. Then I watched as the months flew by, never really doing any of them. Can I make an excuse? It's a good one and it was on my list.

I had a baby! That's right. We kept it pretty quiet - an attempt to limit the oversharing our society, myself included, likes to do these days. I mean, I blog about my life, I have the Instagrams and Facebook and Twitter. I need to figure out where I draw the line on what is private and what I am willing to share. So we kept this private. But man was I terrified of giving birth. That went on my list.

Reader, I did it. I made it through what was a pretty traumatic experience. What I feared was the pain. What was worse were the complications that I didn't even know existed. Thankfully, I am supported by a rock solid partner in life and man did he help me through this one.

Please allow me to introduce to you Oscar Nathaniel. He was born on 6/17, Father's Day and also, coincidentally, 617 is the Boston area code. He is a true Bostonian! He is now just over a month old and the man and I have learned a whole lot about a whole lot. I have a super amazing support system and that has helped us through some of the toughest parts.

I don't want to blog too much about the little guy - I do believe in limiting posts about kids since they can't choose yet what goes on the internet about them. But I will tell you all about the books we are reading! Before Oscar, I already owned about 400 children's books so I felt pretty prepared for this adventure. What I was lacking, and not realizing the true value of, were the board books. We've been gifted some great ones though.

I was never really too interested in board books. Now that I am a mama I totally get the appeal. Sometimes we get about 2 minutes to read and a board book fits nicely into that time slot. Also, the pictures are generally high contrast and little babies are definitely into that. Nothing grabs Oscar's attention like the very hungry caterpillar or or all the letters of the alphabet climbing up a coconut tree.

Here are some of our recent favorites.

This is Not a Book by Jean Jullien

This was given to us by my friend Mas. Her son, Oliver, walked us through the book and pointed out all his favorite pages. No words, just creative uses of the page. Why didn't I think of that??

Oliver's favorite page

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle

A classic, for sure. I've read it a hundred times but reading it with Oscar's eyes glued to the bright pages brought home the beauty.

Pride and Prejudice: A Babylit Counting Primer by Jennifer Adams

A great intro into a classic - counting all the very important parts of Pride and Prejudice. Oscar couldn't get enough of the simple illustrations.

Look, Look! by Peter Linenthal

The parent of a student gave us this book. Babies love high contrast colors, especially black and white. So this book is a sure win!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr., illustrated by Eric Carle

Another classic. Oscar particularly loved the white dog and the black sheep, because, well, see above.

Everywhere Babies by Susan Meyers, illustrated by Marla Frazee

Every page starts with, "Every day, everywhere..." and then continues to share what is universal, and special, about babies. I LOVE the diversity in this book.  There are all sorts of families, all sorts of babies. This perfectly illustrates what makes love and family amazing.

And now, here are more pictures of Oscar. I swear this won't take over my blog. Mostly because getting to this post has taken me so long, who knows when the next post will happen!

Day 1! Welcome to the family Oscar Nathaniel!!

Our first selfie

He's a smiley guy!

I mean, come on...that nose!!!! <3 <3 

Just over one month old!!!