Children's books (up to 18 months)

We have a ton of children's books.  Like every mom, I have my favorites and ones that are just okay.  This post really is only relevant for what I've experienced so far with Madison.  It will be really fun to see how her tastes and preferences change as she gets older.

Up until about now, we've stuck to almost all board books with the nice paper page books mostly out of reach.

Some of my favorites...

Sandra Boynton books--It doesn't get much cuter than these books!  We have probably 6 board books of hers and they are pretty worn from reading them on a daily basis.

Pete the Cat books (which has a couple full books read through on youtube--Maddie loves this video with the song).  I love these books.  My mother in law has been a teacher for 30+ years and always knows the popular books in schools right now.  Apparently Pete the Cat is big!  There are songs to go with each book (found on YouTube) and the books are just really cute.  The groovy buttons book is my favorite because it teaches some numbers and it's an interactive book to read with your little one.  We work on numbers (1 through 4), holding up fingers for numbers, and she loves repeating "Oh no!" and getting excited at the end about his belly button.

Curious George books--We watch Curious George in the mornings on PBS a lot while eating breakfast and she also likes reading books about him.

The Pout Pout Fish books--She loves this book.  It's really cute.  The entire story is written in rhyme so I usually pat my leg and sing it like a song as we read it and she loves it.

Bright baby series (first words)--We have two of these books, the below and another one with animals. She loves to look at the books and pictures of *real* objects.  I think it can be so confusing when cartoon pictures show a cow walking on it's hind legs with human features, or a pig that isn't pinkish.  I really like the actual pictures of real life things.  It's a game for us to say "where's the ___" and she loves it.

I really love Dr. Seuss, but not necessarily for little kids.  The words are hard to understand and some of the books are funny to older kids and adults but just a little boring or confusing to young ones.  Plus, most of the creatures are completely made up so that's another thing.  We have a lot of Dr. Seuss, so hopefully down the road, we can enjoy some of those together.

Madison loves to count things, well, she is trying to learn numbers, but mostly just points at similar objects one by one and blabbers a sound for each number.  We just had a play date recently and our friends had an awesome book for learning to finger point and count!  Finger pointing is so important for learning to count, learning to read words, and fine motor skills in general.  It's a great skill and this book is so cute!  There are a couple different ones and I'm trying to decide which one to get.

She also loves pop up books and touch-and-feel books.  But much to my frustration, as much supervision as I try to offer with those nice pop up books (especially a hokie bird one that we have), almost every pop up is torn off or about to fall off.  #toddlermomproblems

There are some good board books that have the flaps to open.  At the end of some, there's a mirror which is always a fun way to end the book.  We got this one from the library and she loved it.

Then there are the great books that help with real life, like getting dressed (oh the suffering toddlers go through when mommy just wants to put on their clothes!!!!), brushing teeth, going to the potty, playing outside, eating, and FEELINGS.  At 18 months, Madison is now really starting to explore emotions, mainly happy, sad, angry, frustrated, and excited.  I'm sure it's a confusing thing to grasp.  I mean, look at adults, we even have a hard time expressing these.  So I'm also on the market to find a good book about different feelings and emotions with faces and/or situations.  She is on the brink of entering a phase that will last a few years.  The fun phase of learning, expressing, and controlling emotion...oh the joy and pain we will (all) experience with this!

While browsing the web, I found a great website with book suggestions.  I haven't checked out any of these books that they suggest, but at least it's a start!

I am so thankful that she loves reading.  Not exaggerating, I think we probably read anywhere from 10-30 books throughout a day.  That doesn't include the books that she sits down with by herself to "read" on her own.

We've just started going to the local library on a regular basis.  We have checked out multiple board books for bedtime reading.  I think she really likes the variety since we've been reading the same books to her for several months every night before bed.  I love the library.  I never took advantage of it until I realized they have great FREE kids story time and a fun kids section with puzzles, toys, and tons of books (obviously).  It's a great place to go when it's raining and we need to get out.

Do you have any book suggestions or favorites for the littles?