Books We Love: Faces faces everywhere (Yukiko Kido)

This is my pick.

I got this at the Popular fair ($3, at 50% discount) when J was a couple months old. That's really affordable for a big activity book like this.

Edit: While trying to find another copy for older J, I realise that this book is unavailable EVERYWHERE - Amazon, Book Depository, Kinokuniya. I also realised that it's retail price is not cheap at all. Should have bought another copy back then!

I'll be honest. I actually wanted the book for myself because I love activity books (I had many as a kid) but that would be difficult to convince the husband. So I thought I'll share it with my daughter instead. It would make a great mother-daughter bonding activity and it's really easier to tell the husband "But it's for baby!"

This book caught my attention immediately as it glowed amongst the pile of books.
Really.
The cover is shiny. And sleek. And clean.
It does stand out from the other books. The pages are of very good quality paper too, and very different from the flimsy brown pages of my old activity books (not to mention that they tear easily too.)

I had meant to save it for when J is old enough to do the activities properly, but she found it.
The early days were just flipping of pages and looking at the pictures. 

Until she discovered stickers, and know what they actually are.

And it began.

Most of the pages look like this:

I had to convince her that the pages on the left all already have eyes so let's stick them on the face-less ones.

The facial features are stuck at awkward angles for most of the pages.

But the one I like most, is this. The mama duck.

Those eyes. (I can't explain the bat though.)

I think she did a good job because all mothers look like this at some point right?

Or maybe, I look like that most of the time.

I really like this book a lot and as I'm typing this, "Why didn't I get another copy??"

First look.

The illustrations are adorable and I like that there's plenty of room for the children to get creative. You can colour, stick the stickers on, or draw the features in. And because of the empty spaces around, with just one colour on each spread, you can even doodle some background if you like.

There are some face-less characters without hair at the end of the book, so the child can draw/make anyone they like.

For all ages, really.

Even though I think this book works better for a preschooler, J is still able to enjoy the book at 18 months old. We end up with wacky faces most of the time but it's fun to watch how she tries to stick those eyes on. I didn't realise this until J made me change out the eyes of the characters -- the stickers are reusable!

I'm bummed that I am unable to find another copy of the same book (for now), but I am glad I went ahead and got this the other time.

{Daddy Reads}

{Daddy Reads} makes a comeback after 16 months because J has decided that Daddy is the best storyteller in the entire household.
True story.

16 months ago, The Husband was rather awkward when telling a story, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry. He sounded like a wizard talking. These days, he has improved by leaps and bounds that even I have to stop doing the dishes and listen to what he is saying. Somehow when he is reading the stories, J is mesmerized and just sits there, listening attentively. Some days, I peek over the door halfway through the dishes just to see if J is walking around as her daddy continues reading, like what she does with me sometimes.
Nope.
She sits in front of her daddy, points to the book, smiles so sweetly at him and looks like she's completely enjoying the session. She is.

The Husband surprises me.
He makes animal sounds when reading the books on animals, and is very animated when doing it.
He describes the scenes. "Oh look! There's a snow capped mountain behind the moose!"

And this book, J only wants him to read it to her.
I have no idea how to.

Image Source: Amazon.com

A Treasury of Princess Stories.
Shouldn't Mommy be the one reading this?
I later found out that The Husband doesn't really read the story (too wordy!) but they lift the flaps "with sound effects" and J loves it.

I must admit that I feel threatened because aren't I supposed to be the better storyteller?
But I am enjoying every bit of this daddy-daughter moments because it's just too cute.

When he reached 'Snow White', he said "Remember not to receive gifts from strangers."
Wow. Okay.
And one day I overheard him telling J, "The Princess and the frog. Do you know the name of the Princess? It's Tiana."
Did my husband just link a story to Disney?
And how did he know it's Tiana?
(Oh... From his colleague.)

In any case, I'm very heartened to see my boy put in so much effort for his little one.
Two years ago, I wouldn't have imagined him telling a story.

Okay,
I concede defeat.
You can be the official storyteller now hubby.

{Reading With Baby} Lift-the-Flap books

J has finally shown interest to the books she has.
For a moment I was worried about her level of interest in books.
In fact, I was worried about her development because for the first two to three months, she was just not interested in anything.
Not the activity gym.
Not her toys.
Not the crinkly books.

But she's so curious about everything, it puts my mind at ease.


Now that she understands the concept of "peek-a-boo", her current favourites are the lift-the-flap books we have at home.
We only have two.


1. Peek-a-boo Forest, Lamaze

I got this for her when she was about two months old. There was a sale on Qoo10 and this caught my eye. I can't exactly remember how much this cost, but it was around 10 bucks - close to half of what you get from retails stores.

J gets excited when she sees me holding up the book. She jumps on the spot in her playpen and gives a look of anticipation. I tend to read this book while she is in her playpen, so she is usually standing. She enjoys lifting the flap to discover the hidden animals, and give them her big, wide smile after that. Her favourite animal seems to be the moose because he gets the widest smile of them all.
I think we can see why.

I love that she can differentiate between the downward-flip and the side-flip.

What I like about the book:

* It's soft and crinkly, and that means that when J holds the book up and drops it on herself, she won't get hurt. (That happens a lot.)
* The crinkly flaps encourages little hands to lift it.
* The illustrations are adorable and in bright colours. Definitely eye catching. I also love that each animal is smiling so happily.
* It's simple and easy to read.
* Love that it's a rhyming book.


What I don't like about this particular book:
You get what you pay for. Some of the words in the book got sewn into the seams and it is clearly of a more inferior quality as what you can get from retail stores.




Perfect Pets Peek-a-boo

J received this as a Christmas present from a friend.

The flaps are hard so that makes it easy for her to flip it properly.

She loves it.

What I like about the book:'

*The sturdy flaps. No worries about J ripping the flaps apart!

* It's a touch and feel book too!

*This book is good for toddlers too because of the longer text. (Get them to search for the pet's name within the text!)

What I don't like about the book:
*The distracting background behind the text.
I understand the need for bright colours but I really wish that the background is less messy so that it is easier to read. (For kids especially.)


Lift-the-flap books are my favourite even as a teenager. I used to go to the library and pick them out for the baby brother. There's just so much to discover!
Now that J can better appreciate the books, I think it's time to expand our collection. :)

{Reading to Baby} The Ways I Will Love You

"Remember to read and sing to Baby."
I get this text from the hubby every.single.day.

I haven't been reading that frequently to Baby lately.
It could be the nesting instincts setting in, so I'm googling about baby items most of the time.
Or it could be that I'm more active lately, so I spend more time on myself, like organising my Pinterest boards.

I found this book in the library the other time.
I jotted down the text.
We've been reading this book for the past two weeks in the afternoons.
On the days I remember, that is.

 

"The Ways I Will Love You" by Mary Jane Gerber

It's a rhyming book that tells about the way a mother (or father) loves the child.
Through the activities they can do together.
I wasn't a fan of the book when I first read it.
But this is one book that grows on you.
Never mind that I think they could have used a better font for the text.

With each read, the words becomes more and more meaningful.
This is my favourite part, which also happens to be how the book ends.

I'll love you with lullabies,
patience and praise,
I'll love you your whole life,
in so many ways!

I just read this book to Baby.
She responded with gentle squirming, followed by a couple of jabs.
People say babies usually respond to the sound (my voice), not so much the content.
I choose to think that her movements are in response to the text.
Because she knows, that Daddy and Mommy will love her her whole life, in so many ways.

This Week

This week, 
Mummy went for a short getaway,
Hubby had to be home late a couple of nights,
dear friends went for a short work/getaway trip.

I stayed at home trying to keep myself occupied while feeding Baby with these:

 

You saw that right.
It's pasta with baked beans and egg white.
And a bit of pork floss.
Bizarre combination but this is what I have in the pantry.
Just these.
Thank you, haze.

Surprisingly, Baby seemed to like the pasta. She moved a lot while I was eating that huge portion.
I hope she's not protesting.

Friday
The hubby finally had the night off, and was ready to read to Baby.
As he was reading 'Daddy Hugs', Baby moved quite a little.

So he asked, "Do you like the story, Baby? If you like the story, high-five Daddy." *twitch*
Oh, the smiles!
"Do you want Daddy to read you another book?" *twitch*

The hubby leapt off the couch and got another book from the table.
He did so much better at "Guess How Much I Love You in the Summer" this time round.
I'm impressed!

Saturday
(Disclaimer: This one is going to sound really angsty.)
We went for the 'Pregnancy Made Easy 2013' seminar at Raffles Convention Centre.
I wasn't expecting the scale of it. All the bellies.

We signed up for the talk ($20 because we are not intending to deliver in Thomson Medical Centre, so we are not the First Born Incentive (FBI) cardholders. These people go for free!) with two intentions.

1. Find out more about Cordlife. And perhaps, sign up for it.
2. Listen to the talks, particularly on nutrition (him) and troubleshooting breastfeeding problems (me).

We signed up for Cordlife after the event.

But to be very frank, we were rather disappointed by the turnout of events that day (especially since we paid $20 admission + $20 parking = $40 for it). I was upset about the tarts**, and the hubby found that it was a waste of money*. Can't help but agree.

1. *The content
It turned out that the content of the talks were rather generic. Really.
Whatever was covered could be easily found online and the enthusiastic husband has already done alot of research and reading so he knew them all. Even the three stages of confinement, which was new to me. Apparently he has already learnt it from some confinement recipe book he found in the bookstore.

The talk that I was most interested in on troubleshooting breastfeeding problems was rather disappointing too.
It didn't exactly cover the problems and ways to troubleshoot them.
It felt more like "how to latch on a baby", which we have read too.

It's probably more useful for mommas-to-be who are in the early stages of pregnancy.

2. The layout
It was so open. We had half expected it to be a closed door event.
Like, if you don't sign up for the event, you can forget about the consultation with Cordlife, and forget about signing up for it.

Later that evening after a short talk, we realise that this is one event we could totally gatecrash. (Read: No need to spend >$20 for it.)

3. The people and the whole organisation of events
The mini bazaar was supposed to start at 10am. We were there at 11am. They were barely set up.

You know pregnant ladies and their bladders.
There were closed to 200 couples so let's assume around 100 would need to empty the bladders during the break. 30 minutes doesn't sound quite enough, does it? Plus it's the time everyone rush forth for the refreshments (typically Singaporeans) and check out the booths.

**It was probably bad strategy on my part but the hubby waited for me to be done at the Ladies before we went to get our refreshments. He was holding my heavy bag.
We saw some doting husbands with their plates piled high with fruit tarts.

Let's do some simple Math shall we?
As with all buffets, the food is catered by the number of people.
So a generous gauge would be 3 fruit tarts per pax, or less.
So if you have 10 tarts on your plate, you are depriving some poor expectant mothers of the yummy dessert. (Meeeeee!!!)
Multiply that by a few doting husbands.
Subtract those tarts that were actually topped with pineapple (which a portion of pregnant ladies won't eat because of all the myths and stuff.. me included unfortunately)

The dessert was wiped out in less than 10 minutes.

I may or may not be whiny about it because I. really. wanted. to. eat. the. tarts.
Blame the hormones, but I was really upset about it. I thought fellow human beings should be more considerate than that.

Takeaway for the day:
1. Check out the organisers of the talk. I've been told that the talks organised by TV stations and magazines are really good.

2. Find out more about the venue prior to registration. If it's as open as this we went for, chances are you could totally crash the event (if you don't mind not getting a goodie bag).

3. If the husband has already secretly done tonnes of research and reading, he will be bored. Very bored.

4. There are still going to be people around who don't really care for others. So don't be upset if you don't get to eat the dessert. Even though that's what you have been craving for.
And even if you know you kind of have already paid for the food.
Go for better desserts after the event.

What made the day better?
Baby was so active throughout the entire day.
Moving all the time.

Sunday 
I slept through the whole afternoon.
Must be the long Saturday.
We made a breakthrough with vegetables.
I managed to stomach the vegetables Mummy cooked when we went over for dinner. :)

{Reading to Baby} An ethusiastic Daddy-to-be

Hazy-stuck-at-home-Saturday, 4 pm

Time for Baby's afternoon story.

Me: Do you want to read Baby a story? Or should I read it?
Him(enthusiastically, almost pleading): I'll read! I haven't read to Baby for such a long time...

This man is taking the storytelling very, very seriously.

Storytelling didn't commence until bedtime because the hubby was so busy with the chores.
(Poor guy. After a day of collecting, distributing masks and air cleaners to family, grocery shopping, getting me food, sweeping, mopping, cleaning... I do have to give him some credit here. He's always pretty much mistaken. He's actually really very sweet!)

We have a specific bedtime story so the hubby had to read that.
As usual, he will usually read through the story on his own before 'officially' reading it to Baby.
It's funny how he tried to use different sounds for the characters as well and ended up sounding like how I did it.

"I sound like you."
"It's okay. You can make your own character voices."

He did.
That night, I couldn't stop giggling while he was reading the story.
This man puts in a lot of effort in making the story interesting.
Even though Big Nutbrown Hare did sound a lot like an old wizard that night.

"Sorry Baby, it's Daddy's first time reading this story. I will get better!"


Not-so-hazy-anymore-but-stay-indoors-Sunday

The hubby volunteered to read to Baby again.
Can you imagine how happy I am with the whole storytelling thing?
I like the hubby being so involved like this.

This time, he picked out a different book I borrowed from the library.

Source: Bookdepository.co.uk

When I read, I make sure I have my hands on my bump.
It's this strange rule that I have.
So when the hubby reads, he has to have his hand on my bump too.

Somewhere along the story, there was a little twitch.
Hubby must have felt the magic twitch too.
He was mighty pleased at the end of the story.
I am mighty pleased too.

{Reading To Baby} Daddy Reads!

It's probably a little early but I really want to inculcate the love for reading at a young age.

I managed a trip to the library yesterday and went a little overboard with the board books.
I didn't even realise that they have increased the maximum number of loans to 8. I always thought it was 4. That shows how long I haven't been to the library.

When I checked out the books, I noticed that the maximum number of loans at now at 16!! Must be the holidays!

Board books are not light at all.
I'm glad my mum-in-law was really encouraging and got me to borrow up to the maximum (we thought it was 8) because she can help me carry them home.
Let's consider our first 'MIL-DIL' date a success!

**********

Source: Barnes and Noble

I borrowed 'Daddy Hugs' so that the hubby can do some reading to baby.

Boy, this man is enthusiastic.

The first time he read through the book on his own, he was rather... umm.. boring..
"This is not even a story!!"
Uh.. yup. Not exactly. It has counting incorporated in it.


Being the educator at heart, I told him, while trying to convince myself as well, "It gets better with practice!"

When he was finally ready to read to Baby, I was pleasantly surprised.
He read well! I mean, he really read well!
Turned out that he was just fooling around during the 'trial read'.
Sorry hubby, I seriously thought you were really bad at reading/telling stories.
But you are good! And I'm impressed! :)

**********

Having the husband leaning over and talking to baby bump...
That couple of minutes was just pure magic.
My heart melted.

I wished we had a video camera set up just so that we can capture special moments like these.
Maybe next time.

{Reading To Baby} Our Reads This Week

I've been trying to read to Baby regularly once we found out that we are expecting.
This is what we read this week.

 

"I Knew You Could!" by Craig Dorfman

I like how it's like Dr Seuss' "Oh! The Places You'll Go!".
There's always something special about rhyming books.

I enjoyed reading the book myself (I read it from "We Give Books").
I even found a few lines to quote to some friends and the hubby.
I thought they are really meaningful.

This definitely looks like a good book to read before the little ones start school.
It will make it to our library one day.


***


I found 'We Give Books' from Pinterest and I'm glad I did.
I like to read stories aloud so I prefer this over Youtube.
 
"We Give Books" offers free access to a digital library of children's books.
I love the motivation behind this initiative and that they are still offering the books for free even after achieving their goals.
 
Editor's picks can be read for free (without registration and log-ins).
It's just a few mouse clicks to register as a member and have access to all the books.

{Reading To Baby} Our Bedtime Routine

I've been trying to read to Baby regularly once we found out that we are expecting.
This is what we read aloud before (my) bedtime each night.


"Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney

Source: bookdepository.com
 

Because we have been reading it every night, I'm now able to remember the words and read the story aloud while lying in bed.
The hubby is now able to narrate the title and the author. And complete some of the first few sentences.
I'm practising my voices.
Little NutBrown Hare sounds different each night.
The hubby says that I sound alike as the narrator and Big NutBrown Hare.
I'm still working on that.

*

I found the full text online.
I know that's very wrong.
We will definitely be getting the book for our library!
It's just... which version?
 The board book? Or the hard back?