Book Recommendations for Kids Who Like Bob the Builder

I've been checking out every building book I can find at the library and most of the books have been pretty underwhelming.  The non-fiction ones are basically pictures of big machines and descriptions of what they do.  The fiction ones are drawings of big machines and tools and descriptions of what they do.  Some of the fiction ones have a bit of a story, but really not that interesting.  The Bob the Builder books are abbreviated versions of various episodes on the TV show and thus Selena already knows them.  But I have come across a few that all three of us have enjoyed so I thought I would share them.

	David Gordon has wrote a few books (The Three Little Rigs, Hansel and Diesel, and The Ugly Truckling that are retelling of well known fairy tales, but where the main characters are machines. Allie especially liked The Three Little Rigs, where the rigs said "Not by the chrome on our chinny chin chins."
	Who Made This Cake? has baking and building in it, which was perfect for Selena. A whole crew of little people use their machines to bake a cake. The pictures are great and the concept is novel.

20 months old

Allie is impressing us every day.  She's 20 months old and is talking more and more, and when we can't understand what she is saying, Selena is there to translate.  Her favorite things to do are:

• Playing with her babies. She dresses them, puts them down for naps, wraps them up in blankets, has them ride Dyna, has them stand on their head, bathes them.  Selena says that Allie is one busy mom.  
• She likes playing with Duplo Legos.  She builds towers and then places them up on the TV stand and says, "Look at that."  She is very precise in how she puts the blocks, and will take apart towers she doesn't like and redo them.  Then when she is all done, she takes them all apart and does it over again.
• She likes reading books.  Silly Sally and Baby Bear, Baby Bear are still favorites.  She also likes Bob the Builder books, The Three Little Rigs, Five Little Monkeys Sitting in A Tree among others.  She likes pointing at every single thing on the page and saying, "What's that?"  But if she disagrees with how you label something she'll correct you.  
• She likes drawing and having you draw dogs, cats, girls, shapes, and Selena for her.  After she draws something she says, "Look at that."  Then when you ask her what it is she'll say, "It's a dog" or "It's a circle" etc.  
• She's started doing puzzles.  She takes a pieces and says, "Where's it go?"  Then points to where it goes and says, "Right there."  Then puts it in, then says, "I did it." Sometimes she'll throw an "Can I do it?", "Yes I can, Bob" in there.
• When she gets really excited she runs around in circles.
• She likes eating one bite off a banana.  She likes sitting in my lap and eating my breakfast of eggs and a smoothie.
• When she spills or makes a mess she'll go into the bathroom and get some toilet paper and then go and wipe it up. 

She is very independent and gets very upset at being told what to do, or being told she can't do something, or doing something for her that she wants to do herself.  I try to remember to ask her to do things instead of tell her, and using distraction when she is doing something she shouldn't.  But if I forget, or those two techniques aren't working she pretty much screams and lays down on the ground and cries.  Fortunately these tantrums only last a minute or two.  Unfortunately she had one while she was at the child care at the Y.  They told her she couldn't go up the slide and she lost it, and I had to cut my run short.  But if you ask her nicely she usually is sweet and cooperative.  

Miraculously the last few months she can usually be counted on to take a longish nap.  She never napped more than 45 minutes to maybe an hour when she was younger and all of a sudden she started taking 1.5 - 3 hour naps.  It is also fairly dependably around 2 o'clock.  

She can count to 10, and can even count things and is starting to recognize letters.  We don't "work" on these things, she just has picked them up from reading books and from playing.  

Christmas Present Recommendations for Young Children

Obviously Christmas is around the corner.  It seems like people are starting a bit earlier this year since we've been listening to Christmas music on the radio since mid November.  I figured I'd post the toys and books that have been a hit in our house and maybe I'll earn a bit of Amazon Affiliate money if someone buys them. ;)  Selena is not a toy person, nor has ever been, so when I find something she likes I feel like I hit the jackpot.

Fisher-Price Doodle Pro Classic Orange

I got Selena one of these when she was about 15 months old.  She has since gotten two more.  She still plays with them often and creates all sorts of amazing drawings.  When she was young she would have me draw our family over, and over, and over for her.  Allie now has us draw Dyna, over and over and over.  It's great that it leaves no mess and no waste.  You can find these at any store (Target, Walmart, Toys R Us, etc).

Citiblocs Original Wooden Building Block Set - 200 Pieces

These blocks are so much fun.  You can make some amazing things with these blocks.  Watch this video to see some of the cool stuff possible.  Selena, Allie and their friends who have come over all enjoy playing with these.  These are nice because the creativity of the children is not limited.  You can use the blocks to build roads, train tracks, a xylophone, doll furniture, as well as buildings, towers, etc.  You can also buy the brands Kapla and Keva, but they are a bit more expensive and from what I've seen the quality of Citiblocs are just as good, maybe even better.  The 200 piece set seems a good amount.  As the kids get older I think I will buy more, or I might just buy more for myself.  You could probably find these at a specialty toy store, but buying from Amazon is probably the best bet.

Little Mommy Newborn Baby Dolls (Styles and Clothing May Vary)

This is the basic doll Fisher Price sells.  The doll has a hard head, arms, and legs, but a soft body.  I'm not sure why, but both of my children prefer this doll to all others.  Selena carried "Baby doll" around a lot when she was one, and when Allie turned one she started stealing Selena's, so we got her one too.  Now Selena lets her take care of her baby doll as well so Allie gathers all the dolls and takes care of them.  I made quite a bit of clothes for them, and maybe someday I'll post the patterns.  Selena also frequently gave Baby Doll baths, she got kind of stinky from being wet all the time, but if I soaped her up good and wrapped her in a towel for a day, then she seemed fine.  You can get this doll at any big box store and it probably will be cheaper.  It was $10 at Toys R Us when we bought one for Allie.

Silly Sally

I've decided that this is the best children's book.  Unfortunately it is not considered one of Audrey Wood's most famous books and thus I have never found it in a brick and mortar book store, but you can find it in the library and at Amazon.  Both my children walked around singing the rhyming verse from this book for weeks.  It is a current favorite of Allie's and every time she seems the book she says, "Sally, Sally."  The pictures are cute and both Selena and Allie love to point out Neddy Buttercup, the sheep, the dog, and the loon all hiding in the background, waiting for their entrance into the story.  I have bought this book as a gift many times and frequently the parents will tell me that it has become a favorite of their child's.

If you are looking for other great children's books any books by Eric Hill, Alexandra Day, Sarah Garland, Jan Ormerod, Mo Willems or Robert Munsch will probably be a hit.

Picture Book Recommendations

Here are a couple books Selena has enjoyed:

Knuffle Bunny: A Cautionary Tale and Knuffle Bunny Too: A Case of Mistaken Identity - Mo Willems is a funny author. His Elephant and Piggy series are good too. But these two books are really cute. We had to look through Selena's stuffed animals to find her and Allie their own Knuffle Bunnies.
Good Night, Good Knight - I've been surprised at how good some of the easy readers are. This is a cute story about some dragons who need the Good Knight's help to get to bed. The dragons are cute and it has some fun repetition in the story.

Favorite Toddler Books for the Month

She'll be Coming Around the Mountain - Level 1 Bank Street Ready-To-Read - Cute book with new verses to the song, and fun pictures.
Doing the Garden - Sarah Garland's books are really simple and just tell a short story of basic things moms and kids do. The illustrations are great and add to the story. It is very easy for us to relate to the mom, her two kids, and the dog.
Abiyoyo - When my mom taught preschool, her preschoolers loved it. My sister recently taught at a daycare/preschool and the kids loved it there too. Selena of course loves it as well.
The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig - Cute twist on the three little pigs.

Toddler Book Recommendations

Favorite books we've read in the last month.

Mama help me. I'll do it myself. Mama help me.

Those are the words I hear many, many times a day. Unfortunately being super pregnant makes me less patient and sometimes those words are very frustrating for me.

I forgot to sign her up for toddler gym this month, but fortunately the weather has been mostly nice so we've been visiting the park often as well as going to library story times. She's been riding her trike some and is starting to get the hang of it. The local children's museum has a program they started at the local libraries with arts, crafts, toys, dancing, and stories that is a lot of fun. Sometimes it gets pretty crowded, and then I get a little overwhelmed, but Selena doesn't seem to mind.


Selena's thing this month is making dresses and diapers for baby doll. She goes into my sewing room and picks out fabric, a pattern, and some velcro, and then gets her own "sharp, green, scissors" (they really aren't sharp, they are the round edge kind) and starts snipping away. So we've sewn four dresses for baby doll so far. The craftsmanship isn't the greatest on them since Selena sits on my non-existent nap and snips the threads for me and it isn't easy to get nice hems or seams with a wiggly toddler helping, but she enjoys the process so that is all that matters.

Favorite books for the month are:

• Who Ate All the Cookie Dough?
• What Will Fat Cat Sit On?
• There Is a Bird On Your Head! (An Elephant and Piggie Book).

Precocious Puzzling Birthday Girl

Selena's second birthday was a couple days ago. It doesn't seem like it has already been two years. I had a midwife appointment at the birth center where she was born on her birth day. It was kind of fun being there exactly two years later and remembering the excitement of that day.

Selena is doing great. She is a great kid and is so fun to be around. I am really starting to like this age. The stuff she comes up with is just so dang cute.

Puzzles are definitely the in thing right now. A few months ago it was drawing, but now it is "more puzzles" and "I do puzzles all day long." We can easily spend 1-2 hours doing puzzles (and sometimes do) and because she has spent so much time doing them she is getting super good at them. The hard puzzles that a month ago she liked watching me do she can now do by herself, or with just the bare minimum of help. I'm wondering if it is genetic because apparently Floyd was also a precocious puzzler. His mom wrote in his baby book. "He can do puzzles for 4 year olds at 2 years old". I teased her about that, but what do you know, so can Selena. :)

Of course books are still cool as well and I ended up getting Selena her own library

card so now we can check out a 100 books at a time though we still tend to stay around 50. Right now she really likes the early reader books. Which is kind of funny because the stories are pretty boring, but she seems enjoys them. Her favorites right now are Word Bird and Spot books. The Spot books have the peekaboo flaps which apparently are still enjoyable. Peekaboo books were the first books she really would pay attention to.

She has also started talking in the first person. For instance "I need a yellow bus story now!" Kind of demanding, but I guess that's a two year old thing. It is also very sweet because she will say "I love mama so much." She loves other people and things too, but my favorite is when she says she loves me.

The birthday girl making brownies.

The puzzler.

The very particular 22 month old

Selena is doing wonderful and is getting very close to being 2 years old. Which is really crazy for me, but every day she learns more new things and can do more things for herself, so it is becoming more and more obvious that she is not a baby anymore.

But with this new found autonomy I am starting to notice that she is a lot less flexible. She will get something in her head and she becomes very insistent that it be done her way, and no other. We also have to give her more warning when we are changing activities or are doing something new. She became very unhappy when we "all of a sudden" took the Christmas tree down, but I think if we had warned her she wouldn't have been so upset. But even when she throws her little tantrums, it is still really cute.

She loves to read and most of our day is spent reading books. She has pretty much mastered all her letters and colors and is increasing the adjectives in her vocabulary every day. She still loves to draw, and have other people draw for her, and her drawing abilities are becoming increasingly impressive each day. Honestly I am in awe of her. It is so crazy to think that a little less than 2 years ago she could was completely dependent for everything.

And now that she is becoming a jabber box she says lots of funny things. When we run out of something (usually food) and tell her it is all gone she states, "buy more." She is constantly bossing Dyna around--telling her to come sit next to her, or go there. Unfortunately for her Dyna isn't as good as mom or dad at listening to her.

Christmas was a lot of fun, but she wasn't too interested in opening presents. She pretty much wanted to play with or put on the first present she opened, and could care less about the rest. She is a huge fan of Elmo and Abby (Sesame Street) and got some dolls, books and posters that she was very excited about.

She also has stopped using a binky. We lost it one day, searched for it for about 15-20 minutes before bedtime but couldn't find it (and still haven't found it). But she didn't seem too upset about not being able to find "blue binky," and has been fine (well at least no more difficult than normal) with going to bed and going down for naps. So that was easy. It is such a relief when things you think might be hard don't end up being so hard. The only thing is, now she tends to stick her hands in her mouth a lot more than she did before.

She is also very excited about the baby and she is constantly talking to, reading to, snuggling with, and giving kisses to my tummy. It is really adorable, and I know she is going to be a great big sister. When she sees other babies, she gets really excited. We were at the YMCA and a mom was there with a newborn, and she had set the newborn on the floor while she pushed her toddler in the swing and Selena saw the baby on the floor by itself and said. "Mama, baby, baby, help, help." It was really cute. She is constantly making me carry her baby doll around the house.

Selena's drawing of Dad

She loves to play dress up and wanted to immediately wear all the new clothes she got

She snuggled herself up on the chair to read

Sledding with dad

Taking care of her baby. She is very concerned that a baby must always be held.

Selena the silly girl

Selena has been very busy this month with toddler gym, swimming lessons and Halloween which has led to her telling lots of stories about dada and bubble, bubble, bubble, and frequent requests for candy.

Halloween was a lot of fun. Selena enjoyed trick-or-treating and though she couldn't say trick-or-treat she said hi, thank you, and bye. She did not want to help remove any of the seeds out of the pumpkin, but she did enjoy drawing on it, and eating the seeds once they had been cooked.

Selena is becoming quite an artist. She loves drawing on paper and on her magnetic doodle board and has started drawing people by drawing a circle with eyes and hair. It is amazing how fast she learns things. She also likes for me and dad to draw as well. Both me and dad have become very proficient at drawing all members of the family, including the dog, and putting hats, shoes, pants and socks on everyone, putting cups of apple juice, and apples in our hands, and having us all go swimming. We have to go through the same story lines with play-doh as well.

She is still a fan of reading books and she even recognizes and can name almost half the alphabet. Her favorite books right now are: If you Give a Moose a Muffin, If you Give a Pig a Pancake, and Room on the Broom. Her favorite number is nine and if you ask her any questions that you should respond with a number she'll answer nine. So you can make her sound very smart by asking her what 3 times 3 is, or the square root of 81, or the atomic number of Fluorine. We have a really cute video that I should post some time.

I've also been convinced that Selena is sillier than the average toddler. For instance when she sees the moon she makes the "bah-bah-bah-bah" sound when you tap your hand on your mouth. As far as I know no one ever taught her that. She's been making monster sounds (growling) or talking in a monster voice ever since she was 6 months old. When she sees her binky on the floor she bends over, without bending her knees, and picks it up with her mouth. When she is not drawing or reading a book she is pretty much always making funny noises and running or jumping. I am sure there are lots of other things as well. In general she just seems to be a very silly kid which is very entertaining.

Basically she is amazing us every day with the new things she learns and we are so proud.

Toddlers are strange creatures

Selena is now 18 months, which seems like a big milestone and I'm not sure why but I always get a little nervous at the milestone ages. But she is a really funny kid. She pretty much walks around making funny noises, and funny faces.

Things she likes:

• Playing "set go". "Set go" is great for anything, running, tickles, being tossed in the air, going down the slide, eating


• Going down the slide - We got her a new slide for the back yard and she loves to go down it and make Floyd and I go down it. She calls it "wheee"


• She loves to draw. She is really good too. She holds a pencil correctly and can make precise scribbles and draw circles.


• She likes reading the same books over and over


• Shoes, hats, bracelets, necklaces, trucks, airplanes, cars, balls,

Funny things she does:

• She has become particular about some things. For instance she will start crying if I let Floyd borrow my watch


• When she is watching football she will say "set go" when they are hiking the ball and then "go go go" while they are running and then pout/cry when they get tackled

Her vocabulary is increasing quickly and its funny when she "talks" about stuff. For instance today Floyd took her to the playground at the school and when she got home she kept saying "dada whee, dada whee" which means dada took me on the slide. :)

We have been experimenting with the potty. I think she understands that she is supposed to go poo poo, but doesn't quite get the pee pee.




I have night weaned her, basically because my milk supply has been lower and so she was waking up and instead of immediately falling back to sleep after nursing, she would stay up and suck on nothing, cry when I put her down, until an hour later when more milk came in, and then she would go back to sleep. We had some tears for one night, but that was it. She now sleeps for a longer stretch (7 or 8 hours), but after that long stretch she seems to wake up every hour or two until the morning. Whatever.