We did a repeat of last year.
After an entire month off from library visits (the kids, not me)... we are once again making our weekly trips on Saturday mornings. Throughout December we were completely satisfied with opening our nightly Advent books and re-reading all of the favorite books we own. And with all of the holiday parties and commitments, it just wasn't practical to get to the library each week. However, I did continue to swing by a couple times a week, picking up or dropping off Christmas books and movies as well as a few stragglers that sounded interesting.
Here is our stack from some point in December. The rest were Christmas books, which I posted about previously.
Sophie has really increased her interest in making up dialogues and story lines. She likes to make her baby dolls/stuffed animals/doll house characters talk to each other and I love to hear the conversations she invents. She also "reads" aloud to herself and her babies more often now and it's about 50% what she remembers from hearing the story and 50% what she wants to make up from the illustrations. :)
When Will comes along on library trips, he has always looked around for books that interest him and then sat down to browse them before deciding if he wants to borrow them. But now he actually reads the whole thing and then borrows the ones he wants to read again. So he's able to read several books while I'm pulling titles from the lists I bring along. Oh! And I have a new source for book ideas! I just got my latest (huge) catalog from Lakeshore in the mail and they have all kinds of classroom favorites listed for sale. So I've put many of those titles on our lists lately.
Will's reading continues to excel and improve. He blows me away sometimes when I hear him reading aloud and his interest in books and reading has never slowed down. I am forever finding him with a stack of books and a flashlight when he's supposed to be going to sleep and he gets so excited whenever we bring new books home.
These were from the night of my birthday. We made it through bedtime and tucking in just before the power went out for a couple hours!
Last week's stack:
Some of the favorites:
These books are awesome. They really held the kids attention and were great for putting some illustrations and examples to these very important lessons.
One of Will's faves. Comparing animal traits to that of a child. "Put them all together, and you've got me!" Love it.
The cover of this book reminds me of LMNO Peas. A comical story about a macaroni penguin.
Sophie liked this one a lot. A little owl insists that it is her owley doll who is frightened, not her. :)
Both kids cracked up at this book, especially the part where the tiger starts doing karate moves. All the little boy wants to do is read his book in peace, but tiger keeps creating noise and distractions.
Another cute book. Little pig tries to convince his mommy that he can't take a bath because he is a pirate/cowboy/astronaut/etc... and they don't take baths. Mommy reminds him why he probably wouldn't want the other lifestyle traits of those people and outsmarts him into the tub at the end.
Both kids loved this one, but Sophie requested it every night. A big wind blows various items away from various people. They're all chasing down their belongings when suddenly the wind tosses them all around and drops them back down... to the wrong owner... before continuing out to sea. :)
This past weekend, we had Clifford on loan from Will's preschool again, so he came along with us to the library on Saturday morning.
Completely on Will's own doing, I found Will and Clifford (each wearing a set of headphones) listening to a story on the kiddie computer while Sophie and I pulled our new books. Haha!
Scanning bar codes at check out.
We often keep our bag of books in the dining room and read four or so at the end of a meal by the kids' request. Then for bedtime, Sophie will usually pick out a couple favorite board books and Will gets a chapter or two from a chapter book. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web this week!
Will's reading continues to excel and improve. He blows me away sometimes when I hear him reading aloud and his interest in books and reading has never slowed down. I am forever finding him with a stack of books and a flashlight when he's supposed to be going to sleep and he gets so excited whenever we bring new books home.I took a couple videos of him reading about a week ago, but I'm still not having luck uploading/embedding them on my blog. So here are the You Tube links. Also, please excuse his unmade bed - his sheets were in the wash. And you can hear him a lot more clearly in the second clip when I move to sit beside him and video the text, but I didn't get to video the whole thing because we got interrupted.
These were from the night of my birthday. We made it through bedtime and tucking in just before the power went out for a couple hours! 
Last week's stack:
Some of the favorites:Non-fiction books on planet facts. Great for the little outer space fans.
We are really missing the typical snow in winter... So we found a couple of snowman books to cheer us up. ;)
These books are awesome. They really held the kids attention and were great for putting some illustrations and examples to these very important lessons.
One of Will's faves. Comparing animal traits to that of a child. "Put them all together, and you've got me!" Love it.
The cover of this book reminds me of LMNO Peas. A comical story about a macaroni penguin.
Sophie liked this one a lot. A little owl insists that it is her owley doll who is frightened, not her. :)
Both kids cracked up at this book, especially the part where the tiger starts doing karate moves. All the little boy wants to do is read his book in peace, but tiger keeps creating noise and distractions.
Another cute book. Little pig tries to convince his mommy that he can't take a bath because he is a pirate/cowboy/astronaut/etc... and they don't take baths. Mommy reminds him why he probably wouldn't want the other lifestyle traits of those people and outsmarts him into the tub at the end.
Both kids loved this one, but Sophie requested it every night. A big wind blows various items away from various people. They're all chasing down their belongings when suddenly the wind tosses them all around and drops them back down... to the wrong owner... before continuing out to sea. :) 
This past weekend, we had Clifford on loan from Will's preschool again, so he came along with us to the library on Saturday morning.
Completely on Will's own doing, I found Will and Clifford (each wearing a set of headphones) listening to a story on the kiddie computer while Sophie and I pulled our new books. Haha!
Scanning bar codes at check out.
We often keep our bag of books in the dining room and read four or so at the end of a meal by the kids' request. Then for bedtime, Sophie will usually pick out a couple favorite board books and Will gets a chapter or two from a chapter book. We just finished reading Charlotte's Web this week!
The kids have new L.L. Bean coats and hats this year and we love them as much as always! I highly recommend their durability and quality. I've used Bean outerwear since they were babies and have never been disappointed. Look out for their 10-15% off sales and $10 certificates with $50 purchase. Plus they always have free shipping and the BEST customer service. Here are the links:
It's amazing how quickly they are growing... and outgrowing clothes in length. They could both use some new snow pants, but I am super thrifty with those. I will always buy gray or black so Sophie can wear Will's hand-me-downs. They don't get enough use at this age to warrant a better quality. But make sure there's an elastic boot cuff liner at the bottom of the legs!
