The French are coming, the French are coming...speaking, reading and what not

The French are coming, the French are coming.

We had a BBQ several weekends ago, in honor of our visiting French Friends, with beautiful sunshine and about 45 people, and then, the next day, a traditional SF summer picnic in the park, at the usual spot, and yes, in the fog. Beth said we are getting old. We used to do both all the time, and this time, it ruined us all.

Then, Christophe and his boys (the French) came to stay with us the next week. We went to the Oakland Zoo (rocking, our first trip) and to Alcatraz. Alcatraz with 3 adults, and six kids, and Malfi, this cool kids toy I found from some magazine. Christophe's boys, Noe and Elijah loved having the Alcatraz headsets in French, but Eli was done after the Ferry Ride.

And then had a rocking dinner party, 16 adults, 3 kids, outside, at night. Warm San Francisco nights. The menu was out of this world. New World cuisine, and I am still full thinking about it 3 weeks later.

And it is amazing how close friends, are still your friends, even if you don't see them for years on end. The gathering of the tribe is a good thing.

And speaking of that...a tribe at the beginning.

The next day was the first BAKE (Bay Area Kyrgyzstan Adoption Entourage) adoption picnic. I stumbled over, leaving all the boys at home, after a foggy day at the beach with Rumsey, Eli and the French. Suzanne hosted a lovely BBQ, replete with Kyrgyz food. It was so fun to see the three beautiful children home from Kyrgyzstan and cool to meet the fellow Bay Area prospective adoptive parents (PAP's). I hope that such a cool group can be a good touchstone for the children that come home from Kyrgyzstan. An adoptive child has their birth culture taken from them, and is given ours, no questions asked. With Central Asia is 22 hours away, the more connections that I, as a PAP can help build for them, the better. I hope it continues to grow into a good resource for our potential future children.

There was a post a few weeks ago on the Kyrgyzstan board about speech therapy. And I started to respond with a big list of books, but thought it might be invasive. Maybe they know all the books. But it got me thinking ...... maybe I should write down Eli's Favorites from when he was little. Share the wealth of literature my mom has shown me...and save it for some distant future.

I brought the list over here to my blog and decided to write down some of Eli's favorite books that I remember by age, more or less. Then, it got complicated, remembering and I have had been trying to edit it for the rest of July.

My mom is a children's book fanatic, and has turned me into one. I would never had know to read to a baby from the day they were born, the day they came into your family, each and everyday, unless she had shown me. And I would not have know what to read. She often would present some of Eli's favorite books just at the right time for him to fall in love with them. The only down side is that we have so many books, it is hard to choose and hard to find places for them...but one can have worse problems. My mom rocks Eli's library.

And keep in mind, they were Eli's favorites. Some of them I would never had even checked out of the library, but at that age, he LOVED them.


ELI'S FAVORITE BOOKS

0-9 months - any book that rhymes.....
Baby Goes Beep (Rebecca O'Connell) ***
Clap Hands (Helen Oxenbury)
Goodnight Moon (Margret Wise Brown) ***
Hushabye (John Burmingham) - we loved this one
This Little Chick (John Lawrence) - Still likes this one, & talking to mom is cool...
Tickle, Tickle (Oxenbury)
Time For Bed (Mem Fox & Jane Dyer)
Nursery Rhymes - Big pictures & multicultural
Who said Moo ( Ziefert & Taback ) ***

9 -18 months
Going to Sleep on the Farm (Lewison & Wijngaard)
I Like it When (Mary Murphy) - don't-run-in-the-street book, hold my hand!
I Love Trucks (Sturges & Halpern)
I love you like Crazy Cakes (Lewis & Dyer) adoption book
Mice Squeak, We Speak (de Paolo) - great sound and talking book
Runaway Bunny (Brown)
Moon Bear (Frank Asch)
More, More, More, said the baby ( V. B. Williams)
Trucks, Trucks, Trucks (Peter Sis)

18 - 24 Months
Love Songs of the Little Bear (M.W. Brown & Susan Jeffers)***
Carry Me (Rosemary Wells) ***
Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee - two editions
Four Fur Feet - two editions and loved them when he was tiny
Jamberry (Bruce Degen) - liked paperback version best
Over In the Meadow (Paul Galdone's edition is very nice)
Owl Babies (Waddell & Benson) - mommy always comes back book
Swimmy (Leo Lionni) ***
Where is the Green Sheep? (Mem Fox) - funny book ***
What Game Shall We Play (Hutchinson) - repetitive ***
The Yellow Ball (Molly Bang) ***

2 years
Bears in Pairs (Yektai) ***
Corduroy (Freeman)
Feathers for Lunch (Ehlert)
Good Morning Digger (Rockwell & Greenberg)
Goodnight Owl (Hutchinson)
Harry Maclary (lynley Dodd) *** the whole series
Mr Gumpy's Outing (Burningham)
Sam Who Never Forgets (Eve Rice) dug this book ***
Tough Boris (Mem Fox) - even Pirates cry
Pezzittino (Leo Lionni) ***
Who Sank the Boat? (Pamela Allen) ***
Zen Shorts (Muth) - he was Stillwater for Halloween, so he must have been 2
Nursery Rhymes - We reviewed, comparing different editions. He dug it.

2.5 years
Ant & Bee (Banner) - out of print, but well loved
Dog And Bear (Seeger) a great book about friends, which are becoming intriguing
Hey, Get Off our Train (Burningham)
Homemade Love (bell hooks) -great unconditional love book
How to Hide a Butterfly (Heller)
I'm Mighty (Kate & Jim Mcmullan)
Mama, If you had a wish (Jeanne Modesitt) - great unconditional love book
Pet of the Met (Lydia & Don Freeman)

3.5 years
Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti (Gerald McDermott)
Awful Ogre's Awful Day (Prelutsky & Zelinsky)
I'm a Pill Bug (Tokuda, Takahasi & Takahashi)
Puff the Magic Dragon (Yarrow, Lipton & Puybaret)
Skin Again (bell hooks & Chris Raschka)
Shirley, Come Away from the Bath (Burningham)
Superhero (Marc Tauss) - power is so important
The Magic Bed (Burningham)

Books on Reading to your kids:
Babies Need Books (Dorothy Butler) a great booklist by age, great for Library use
The Read Aloud Handbook (Jim Trelease) a great why to read book


I guess I am a book worm....