A Treasury of Children's Literature

I am cheating a little this week because this book is really a collection of classic children's stories. I found it hard to choose just one so I decided that the entire collection was worth mentioning. I bought A Treasury of Children's Literature for my little girl when she was performing Hansel and Gretel in the children's ballet series. I wanted her to be familiar with the original story so she would enjoy it more in the ballet. It reminded me that there are scores and scores of great stories out there that she has never heard of, and that it is up to me to make sure she is exposed to them. Stories like Jack and the Beanstalk, Little Red Riding Hood, The Brementown Musicians, Rumpelstiltskin, and The Ugly Duckling have enchanted children's story books for years, and now they are a part of our storybook collection.

Bottoms Up! Jokes From Bikini Bottom

What can I say? My girl loves SpongeBob Squarepants. It isn't something I am most proud of, but I have to admit that the little yellow sponge is amusing. What she loves more than SpongeBob right now is what we call potty humor. She laughs at the words pee pee and poop. She giggles at the word bottom and laughs hysterically when she sees Patrick wearing his underwear on his head. Maybe that is why this book is a particular favorite right now. So if you are in the mood for a good laugh, Bottoms Up! Jokes From Bikini Bottom will cheer your spirits.

My own shopping cart

We've all been to the grocery stores and seen those ginormous buses that they have bolted to the front of a shopping cart. My girl loves them! I want to know what the person who invented that thing was thinking? Have you ever tried pushing that monstrosity through Wal-Mart at rush hour?!! They don't exactly turn on the dime. We need to get Japanese automakers to team up with the yahoo who thought this one up and do a little more ideating. But alas...when all hope seemed lost, enter our super hero to save the day.

My little girl has one of those plastic miniature shopping carts (ironically, from Wal-Mart) and the other day she came up with the brilliant idea of taking it with her on our next shopping event. That sounded fun but I was going over in my mind the list of issues that would create. Now as I think back to it, I have no idea why that seemed like such a hassle to me. So one day, we walked in to my neighborhood Dillons. The day was like every other. We were rushing from one thing to the next and time was not on my side. As we passed through the sliding doors, my eyes looked for the nearest cart that didn't have a stack of newspaper inserts in it. And then we saw it. I think we saw it at the same time because the word EUREKA was going through my mind when I heard my girl squeal with excitement. There, next to all the big carts was a row of little plastic carts. I cannot tell you how much fun we had that day. Thank you, Dillons, for thinking of this dad and for reminding me that shopping is another one of those life experiences that I can share with my little girl.

Snowmen at Night

The thing I love most about reading to my little girl is watching her imagination come to life through the stories. Reality has taught us that snowmen don't really come to life, but what if they could? What if, in our world, snowmen could come to life...then it would only be natural that at night they would play games and go sledding down the hill. That would explain why they look so lop-sided in the morning. That is what it is like in the mind of a child because in their world, anything is possible. Snowmen at Night is a delightful read and is sure to exercise the playful part of your child's imagination.