Library & Favorite Children's Books

I love the library (especially while on a little spending fast) since it's oh-so-free and I love that Rachel gets excited to go to the library. And this week we even found a museum pass to the zoo (small blessing) which is AMAZING because it is almost impossible to get them here - seriously - Chicago was a piece of cake compared to here and the Mesa museum pass only gets in 2 people.

Anyway, I wanted to list my favorite Children's books - both mine and Rachel's top 10 list (in no particular order). I just love it when Rachel gets excited about books and when her face lights up when she finds a familiar book in the library! (Keep in mind that my list only includes books for kids under 2 years old since that's all I know.)

1. "That not my ..." series (princess, puppy, etc.) by F. Watt/R. Wells (board book) - all the Usborne books are very high quality

2. Priddy books by Roger Priddy (board book) are bright colored and real pictures - good for colors, animals, first words, etc.

3. Sandra Boynton series (board book) are great for the infant stage and have clever rhymes

4. "Global Babies" by the Global Fund for Children (board book) - reminds me of the Chicago libraries

5. "Owl Babies" by Martin Waddell (board book)

6. "From Head to Toe" (board book) &/or "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?" (picture book) by Eric Carle

7. Gossie series by Olivier Dunrea (board book or picture book) - likes them more as a toddler than she did as an infant

8. "There's An Alligator Under My Bed" by Mercer Mayer (picture book)

9. "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman (picture book)

10. "King Bidgood's in the Bathtub" by Audrey Wood (picture book)

Rachel enjoyed the board books until just a couple months ago and now she really likes the paper books, but I'm always reminding her to be careful with the library books and not to rip them. Once I left her unattended with the library's copy of "King Bidgood" (this book was at the end of it's life I must add) and she ripped multiple pages. She got in trouble at home and then she had to go apologize to the librarian and said, "A sorry a lib-ary book ... rip pages .. not do again. Sorry lib-ary book." It was her first official public apology and the librarian thought she was the cutest little thing ever. However, that did not get us out of buying the book from the library (fyi moms - they were overcharging us for the book, so I asked for another option - they said I could buy a used one online and give it to them as a replacement - much cheaper option many times).

Recently, I have been looking for picture books in certain topics (hospital & doctors, being a big sister, etc.) and have found this SO helpful at home to help teach her things.

Feel free to leave a comment with one or a few of your favorite children's books - I'd love to hear what your family loves to read!! Happy reading!

p.s. The spending fast is going fine - almost done with week 2. I've spent less than $50/week on groceries, but have also been using some pantry/freezer items, so I think the last couple weeks will be more "telling" as to how I'm really doing. I like it - it's a good budget-cleansing process / reality-check-point to go through and also helps test my self-control. After this, I'm hoping to bring down my monthly grocery budget a little bit and come up with a realistic number that I can stick with.