its just fun to say

So, I am now madly in love with Uri Shulevitz's art work (and name - the author and illustrator are given made credit in our house and it is a fun name to say) and am going to request lots of his books from the library. As we are read SNOW in honor of our gray skies, our gray rooftops and our gray city turning wonderfully white this very evening.

(Picture of amazing "boy with dog" arriving tomorrow)

Notice that this dog is clearly outside - and is labeled as such by Mr. Ben. However, any dog inside a house and the first dog in Go Dog, Go is always "a cat." That is also fun:

"Go, Dog, Go by P.D. Eastman"

"A cat"

How does one explain the difference between a cat and dog?

This is subtle biology people.

pease porriage hot

Owl at Home is an inspirational book - we have enacted several of the stories.

Most recently, we performed "The Guest" where winter knocked on our door (did you hear the wind?), entered the house (because the heater broke), and when the heater was fixed we made delicious pea soup and hot buttered toast. YUM! Peas!

At my father's house, we often perform "Upstairs, Downstairs" where you try to be on both floors at once and get totally exhausted and sit in the middle.

And is it just me or does Arnold Lobel look just like Owl?

It's a CAT

Ben is obsessed with cats, and pictures of cats, and our cat Bonnie, and his newest trick: pointing. And when he gets going he has a full conversation complete with gestures and jokes with each picture, or at Bonnie, or of pictures of Bonnie.

So our new favorite cat books are:

The cover of James Herriot's All Things Wise and Wonderful. Notice the amazingly cute kitty.

The inside is rather full of words and no more pictures of cats, but the cover gets lots of kisses and giggles. Do you remember that when a book with only words was a complete bore?

And, yay for English relatives who sent The Tiger Who Came to Tea by Judith Kerr.

Look at this "big, furry, stripy tiger" - irresistible.

Ben with his tiger:


And I have to report that the horrible Touch and Sparkle books are now a big hit because there are pictures of kitties. These were in the give away pile because the "touch" aspect was just a circle somewhere on the animal, the pets have dumb names (that is Gerry below) and they have ugly pastel backgrounds.



win some, lose some.

Artist's Corner: Sylvia Long

Presenting Sylvia Long who fills her books with accurate, gorgeous, and playful rabbits. Long shows both craft work and place in all its specific beauty - there is a sense of "being there;" of a magical photograph into an alternate universe of dessert rabbit people. You end up spending lots of time just staring at the illustrations catching each forshadowing and detailed touch.

We always pause to see all particulars of the quilt in Hush Little Baby:
Long's alternate lyrics are also fun: And when that quilt begins to wear, Mama's going bring your teddy bear.


It is a delight counting and then tucking all the rabbits in as they sleep with Ten Little Rabbits:
(this is written by Virginia Grossman)


And I just like reading Because You Are My Baby; It has a clear message of love and parent child relationships without competition or obsession (sorry Guess How Much I Love You and Run Away Bunny - you all weird me out). (This is written by Jennifer Ward)


What Artists would you recommend?

heat antidote

I watched a good friend's three year old and after we roamed the Dominick's frozen food aisles to cool down, we moved on to the library to read BOOKS ABOUT SNOW! Now is when all the good winter books are at the library and hiding in a/c with a book about snow is the coolest way to go.

Without further ado...
The Snowy Day

There is something so magical about spending the day with Peter and having solo snow adventures. Peter's pace as he makes quiet slow crunches feels about the same as a hot three year olds' - s l o w l y w i t h l o t s o f s t o p s .




And the wonderfully silly Snowmen at Night (Didn't you want to know why snowmen look so beat up the next morning?):

We spent considerable time finding the pickle nosed snowman on every page.

Quoting Madly at the Edge

That is where I like to be - at the precipice, when two things meet and a third is begun. Isn't that the appeal of Shel Silverstein’s Where the Sidewalk Ends?


There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.


What happens when, because of a book, you get inspired or experience a resonance of truth or look up and the room looks different because you are different than you were before you started. What is that experience is like? Tell me how it happened to you?

"There are a lot of us . . . who think the literary life is the loveliest one possible, this life of reading and writing and corresponding. We think this life is nearly ideal. It is spiritually invigorating... It is intellectually quickening... One will have over the years many experiences that stimulate and nourish the spirit. these will be quiet and deep inside, however, unaccompanied by thunder or tremulous angels." Bird by Bird, Anne Lamott

O cry you mercy sir. Nobel philosopher, your company.

Spreading out to enjoy

reading

black and white

So many ideas ran through my head for a mobile - but I never got around to it and one day, in the middle of a crying jag, Ben discovered the ceiling fan. He just stopped and stared. It moves and it is high contrast. And then I tried to get him interested in looking at other things (like the mural on his wall or the cat or a book) - but he wasn't. All he wanted to do was stare at the ceiling fan, and occasionally me, and then back to the ceiling fan.

So I talked to a friend who is a pediatrician and he recommended the Tanya Hoban books. They are black and white and red and just outlines -- good for little little babies. My brother gave Ben Who Are They for Christmas. This was fun because there were no words - it was more like a conversation piece. "The sheep has a lamb and says "baa" ... can you say "baa" good try ..." It is funny when your mom makes noises and so mostly we did that. It took me months to notice that there is a counting aspect.

Yesterday, we got Creature ABC by Andrew Zuckerman from the library. It was like the ceiling fan all over again - the surprise in extreme contrast. And the animals move; for example the Dd dove flaps between the photos and the Hh hippopotamus glistens. To make it more extreme, this is a paper page book so you can also accentuate moving the pages. And we sat and read the whole book - which has at least two pages for each letter, and then we looked through it again, and then we picked out our favorite page (mine: where the kangaroo meets the lion), favorite animal (his: zebra), favorite letter (Nn noctural) and then we read it again. This may never happen again, but it was an amazing 20 minutes.


(Today all that we could look at was the frogs and the binding page with zebra stripes and then push the book and crawl off.)

womb stories

I picked a special story for Ben before he was born. One that we liked and could read time and time again. To use as a starter for conversation with this new man in my body and as a comfort. I had heard that if you read the same book over and over while you are pregnant it will remind the baby of the same comfort (most recently I had read it in The Expectant Father) and books have always given me comfort. And it was a gift - this first book connection.

So I started reciting it to him in my womb when I was driving, or when I woke in the morning, or when I needed to slow down and breathe. I recited it during his birth and when he cried in the those first days of newness. And now we read it or say it anytime - anytime that needs a reset or a distraction or a bit of fun added in.

Each Peach, Pear, Plum . . .

Now that we know the rhythm and rhyme there is so much more to discover - characters to learn about, and find, and little details to connect with, and plum pie to some day eat!

Incredible is the strange sensation of someone kicking to the beat on the inside of your ribs. Weird is the transition from inside the womb to outside. More incredible is later watching that very person kick in time to the beat outside on your ribs. Wonderful is the soothing power of a story you know.

Milestones

I have not been good at recording the milestones in Ben's life - I cannot remember exactly when I felt the first push of his legs (he did not kick, he would just find a spot and push on it for hours), or when he first smiled (which he now does all the time forcefully, if you don't smile back he just smiles again and tilts his head to say "I am smiling at you" until you cannot resist and a smile comes across your face even if you try to hold it in).

But tonight, he asked me to read a book again (and again, and again, and again, and again until I hid it - ha ha - object permanence is not yet understood). And when I say "ask", I mean "demand" in a nine month old way - where there is a little whine and a shake of the book and a stare and peace when the mom understands, and the book is read again.

This is something special and fun that I would like to record. To create a place to keep track of books and thoughts and potential books and potential thoughts.

What book is worth such a fuss:
The Foot Book: Dr. Seuss's wacky book of opposites

Ben does love rhyming and rhythm and silly gestures - and this book has it all. There is more though, it is the something magical, something that is so good you just have to read it as many times as possible, something about Dr. Seuss which we got to experience tonight. Maybe it is the great lines such as "fuzzy fur feet" (best to say when the cat is around and you can grab her paws) or for Ben (S L O W F E E T) or that George has been chanting around the house "In the house and on the street, how many different feet you meet!"

"To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry." (Gaston Bachelard)