Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Summer reading for babies! What books have you been reading to your baby?


This summer we've been reading Brown, Bear Brown Bear What Do You See a lot, we love our new Animal Alphabet slide and view ABC book as a daily read, and recently we borrowed from the NYPL One Two Buckle My Shoe which was fun to read and now I sing that little song all the time to Phoenix.

Sing-a-long books are fun and easy to read to your baby with expression and enthusiasm. Keep in mind your baby loves your voice and the tone of voices you use helps to shape your babies understanding of emotions, expression and mood.

We will be recording more "this is how you read to your baby" sessions soon.

Here are some books we have been reading:

This morning before Phoenix's nap we read these two and usually I pick a couple books we haven't read in awhile to keep it interesting, for me too. Phoenix fell asleep while I was reading Star Seeker.

One Gorilla, a favorite, has beautiful illustrations of primates.
That's our new Owl from the Central Park Zoo


One of our library reads

 

Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Crazy about Animal Alphabet: Slide and Seek the ABCs

I love Animal Alphabet: Slide and Seek the ABCs board book we picked up at Babies R Us. Mainly  because Phoenix is so engaged and curious when we read it, each page shares 2 letters of the Alphabet and part of the animal/s is/are seen (such as the tail of an alligator) and then you slide over the panel and the whole animal is seen. It's a great pick as a baby's first ABC's book and when your child starts using his hands more he/she will watch you slide the panel and begin to as well :)




Animal Alphabet on Amazon
Animal Alphabet on BN.com

Sunday, July 21, 2013

Goodnight Statue of Liberty a NYC book to share with your baby

goodnight Statue of Liberty, good night Hudson river settling down after a busy day with family in town, went to SoHo and Little Italy to Chinatown and a visit w the bull downtown and Trinity church, to the Seaport and Wall Street, the 9/11 Memorial and Battery Park.


Here is a goodnight NYC book we read often.

~Isobella & Phoenix

Tuesday, July 16, 2013

Central Park Zoo adventures

Central Park Zoo today! Phoenix loves the penguins and seeing the turtles and parrots! Yes again we are really using our membership and will be soon checking out the Queens and Brooklyn Zoo's too!

 

Library reads! Rain, 0, Bears, Green and Alligators in the mix!

Books we read and love from the library, part of our summer reading but are perfect books for year round reading, for babies of all ages. Coming up a post on how to be silly with your baby.

Listen to the Rain by Bill Martin and John Archambault and illustrated by James Endicott (a fun sound book to read to your little one about the drip, drop, putter, patter, sounds of the rain)

Zero by Kathryn Otoshi  (Zero shows us how big of a number she can be!)

Otto the Book Bear by Katie Cleminson  (a bear pops out of a book and searches for his new home and finds it at the library)

green by Laura Vaccaro Seeger  (creative cut-out book based on all things green)

There's an Alligator Under My Bed by Mercer Mayer  (a funny and creative story about a boy who uses his imagination to scare aware his fears)


We loved Fete Paradiso at Governors Island


Fete Paradiso at Governors Island is a must see this summer, very fun and beautiful vintage carnival rides for all ages, check it out!


All summer starting now.
http://www.feteparadiso.com/

Beautiful vintage carnival rides on governers island every weekend. Fete Paradiso opened today! Also, we didn't have time to try out the massive tree house exhibit on the lawn which also looked cool from a distance 

Oooo la la Check out the Parisian Ball: http://www.feteparadiso.com/parisian-ball


My Father passed away and I found it ironic that the collection was from Francis Staub when Staub was my Father's last name too.

Loving his new owl canvas toy bag from The Container Store

 

Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Creating baby art time at home

we've started doing *art time* at home. I bring out the sketchbook and we color and draw (well, right now Phoenix hits the sketchbook like it's a drum with a crayon and I draw boats and shapes and animals) but learning is about observing and Phoenix is always curious about what I'm doing with my crayon, and I will get more creative with our *art time* soon, but I like introducing Phoenix to hands on art at a young age. I want to check out these art drop in sessions: http://www.cmany.org/weearts/ and these hands on art classes for babies look cool too: www.kidsatworknyc.com

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Fourth of July pics





 

We had a nice time in Coney Island and went to the aquarium and Luna Park and walked around on the boardwalk :) 

Friday, July 5, 2013

Sit home with baby or go out and explore? EXPLORE!

Someone at the Central Park Zoo told me today I was brave to come to the zoo by myself with my baby, I told her "Thanks" with a smile but really what I've learned about parenting in the city is, it's about diving in. You can sit home or go out and get to see and do all the city offers and it allows your baby to grow and learn and you also become better at it: going out into the pavement jungle with a baby :)

Sure, holding a baby, a diaper bad while folding a stroller yourself it not easy (I think it's especially hard for petites) but we did it today and yes I was a little worried but we did it! And that feels great as a Mom.

:)
GO EXPLORE!
Isobella & Phoenix

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Summer reading for babies! Yes it's true! Now get on that!

We were at the library today, getting back into our "library reads" features at the www.phoenixbabybookclub.blogspot.com and excited for it, I checked out the library summer reading program and did you know there is a program for babies, whoo hoo we have One, Two Buckle My Shoe on reserve :) http://summerreading.org/booklists.php#gb

Share with your baby a book each day and to stay excited choose books that YOU like as a parent and books of all types, they don't have to be strictly baby books.  Pick books that relate to what's going on in your world, ex: we just got a zoo membership so we are reading lots of animal books! Books that involve animal characters and real fiction based animal books too. :)



Phoenix getting down with nature at Bryce Canyon this summer.

Monday, July 1, 2013

Our trip to the Southwest was amazing!



Grand Canyon! Bryce Canyon, Lake Powell and Zion Park! Amazing trip to the beautiful Southwest!  Also check out the books we bought on the trip to read during the car rides and at bedtime, and the Southwest book we discovered while in Arizona too.

Grand Canyon

Sedona 

Grand Canyon
Grand Canyon
Lake Powell
Lake Powell
Rainbow Bridge
Bryce Canyon Hoodooos

Phoenix with his prairie dog :)
Zion national park 


Vegas 

A book from the Southwest: How Jackrabbit Got His Very Long Ears


During our trip to the Southwest we purchased a cute book called How Jackrabbit Got His Very Long Ears at Zoolikins, Arizona's Natural Parenting store.

This beautiful story by Heather Irbinskas and illustrated by Kenneth Spengler is about noticing the greatness in us all, and it starts with The Great Spirit creating the desert and the animals that would live there. Jackrabbit is nominated by The Great Spirit to being all the desert animals to their new home and share with them how their characteristics can help them survive in the desert. Although Jackrabbit didn't listen to what The Great Spirit said and put down the animals for being too slow, not able to fly as high or not being as smart as him. When The Great Spirit finds out about this he comforts the animals and lets them know they are special and how to use their characteristics to survive in the desert and The Great Spirit gives the Jackrabbit bigger ears so he can listen better.

Overall I loved the illustrations and thought the story was creative, heart touching and a good lesson about paying attention to the special things about us all great and small. I only wish the reader got to see the Jackrabbit say he was sorry or make amends with the animals of the desert that he put down, it would have been nice to show him using his ears to help others. 

Check out How Jackrabbit Got His Very Long Ears on Amazon
Check out How Jackrabbit Got His Very Long Ears on BN.com