What fun we have had reading this title this week.  For some reason, I never read this title to the three olders.  I'm guessing perhaps the book wasn't avail. at the library we were using at that time. ???  That being said, they have ALL been gathering around for this reading. 

Mark has really enjoyed it and he has made me laugh too.  He says "Oh, Poor, Katy.  cry cry cry"  I'll ask:  "Why is Katy sad"  He says "no pocket"  Then he'll say "Poor Freddy" (Katy's baby) 

We have had fun pretending to be the different animals and I "carry" him like all the different animals in the book.  This has been much fun.  Since Mark loves to count, this book has been a hit in the counting department.  Lots of things to count (animals and tools) 

He is very happy when Katy gets her apron and we have learned some new animals too.  He did not yet know a raccoon or opossum or a snail.  Mark also added that Mr. Owl said "Whooo Whoooo" in a deep voice. 

I didn't post on this last week but we did Caps for Sale for Mark's B4FIAR.  We had much fun with it.  He loves being read to.  All week he went around saying "Caps for sale.  .50 a cap"  He is just too cute.  By Wednesday, he could "read" you the whole story.  He would sit down with the book and tell you what happened on each page.  His favorite parts were the man looking for his caps (to the right, no caps :-), to the left an behind the tree)  His next favorite part was where the man was trying to get the monkeys to give back the caps and the Tsz Tsz Tsz that the monkeys said back to him.  We played that part out more times than I care to count.  :-)  We counted and counted and counted some more.  We also practiced our sign languae for grumpy and angry since the man appeared to be grumpy when trying to get his caps back.  Mark said "man, caps back please"  Can you tell what we've been working on?  :-)  We also practiced walking with items on our heads.  That was much fun. 

WAHHHHH  I had all of this typed in and then for reason my windows closed out because of some error???  So I will type it again.

Last week we rowed Corduroy.  It is a favorite around here so all the children gathered around for most of the readings.

Mark received a stuffed Corduroy. 

He really likes his new Corduroy.  The overalls come off and the straps attach with velcro.  The velcro spots look like buttons so Mark enjoys pretending to put Corduroy's button back on.  It is so cute.  Another favorite part of his to act out is the part where Corduroy tries to pull the "button" off of the mattress and then falls off the bed.  It is so cute to see him play that part. 

Mark hasn't had Corduroy sleep in his bed with him which has been interesting to me.  I am thinking it is because in the book the little girl has a bed for Corduroy and Mark also has his Corduroy sleep in his own bed.  The girls have some doll beds so that's where Corduroy has been sleeping.  When I ask Mark "do you want Corduroy in your bed?"  He says, "No. Roy Roy ( his best attempt at saying Corduroy) box"  It is so cute.

Now if I can just find Cranberry Thanksgiving for us to read next week. 

I have been reading this title to Mark this week.  He has enjoyed it just "okay".  It's not his favorite.  I can tell because he doesn't ask for it to be read at all other reading times during the day like he has previous titles.  In fact, today before nap he asked for me to read Ask Mr. Bear. 

Mark says "thank you" at each time in the book that the little girl should have said "thank you".  I have so enjoyed seeing him understand the feelings of the characters in the book.  When the little girl leaves her purse on the bus and is sad, Mark said "oh" with a little sad face.  When the bus driver returned the purse he said "yeah" along with clapping hands.    It is neat to see him really understand and "get it" from the book.  

On each page he enjoys pointing out the Mommy and the Mommy's purse, the girl and the girl's purse. 

*I* really like this book and I think in time Mark will too.  When the older children saw that I was reading this book to Mark this week, they all said "Oh please read it to us" 

Today we began reading Blueberries fo Sal.  I wasn't sure how Mark would do with it.  It is a bit longer than the other books we have rowed.  He did GREAT.  His favorite page was the picture of little bear following Sal's Mommy and Little Sal following the Mommy Bear.  He would point to each and say "Mommy, bear, Mommy bear, al (for Sal)"  He is just toooo cute.  He asked for it to be read again before his nap. 

There is no way Mark would allow us not to continue reading Ask Mr. Bear.  He is so funny.  Whatever title we are on each week, he carries that book around with him each day.  We have read Ask Mr. Bear many, many, many, many times this week.  We read it before nap and bed in addition to all the other times he brings it up to me and with the sweetest face saying "read, please"

We have had lots of fun doing animal sounds with this book.  It has also been fun to see how good his memory is.  I'll ask him "what's next" and he can tell me what animal is next.  At the end of each reading, he gets up and gives me a big hug.  Sooooo sweet. 

Being a mom is the best job there could ever be!!!!

Today we began one of MY favorite books.  Our Ask Mr. Bear book is beginning to fall apart from all the "love" it has had.  The older children were so excited to see Mark rowing it this week. 

Mark, Jesse Bear and I snuggled up on my bed for our rowing adventure.  He sat in my lap taking in every word and picture.  He would occasionally look at Jesse Bear to see if he was enjoying the book. 

Once we finished the book, we went back and looked at the first page where Danny is sitting and thinking.  We went around the house trying out different "thinking spots".  Mark had such fun with this.  At each spot he would put his finger over his mouth and say "hmmmm" (like he was thinking)  We visited our first few spots without Jesse Bear but when Mark realized we had left Jesse Bear out, we had to revisit those places so Jesse Bear could sit and think too. 

We have had great fun giving everyone bear hugs today.  Our answer to everything is "Ask Mr. Bear".  Then in a whisper the answer is "give a bear hug". 

Day 2 -- we looked at Yellow Ball and My Blue Boat side by side and compared the illustrations in each book.  We looked for the boat and ball to be in the same places (above, under, beside etc...)  Mark didn't grasp all of it but he had fun and it's all about exposure anyway.

Day 3 -- Today the older children were present as we read My Blue Boat.  It was such a fun time.  They each got very excited that Mark's book title is an alliteration.  They kept telling Mark "that's an alliteration, Mark"  Mark would smile really big and say "yes" as if he knew exactly what that was.  We also read Otters Under Water today.  It has great illustrations as well.  We pretended that the otters would swim beside and under blue boat. 

We weren't able to start this yesterday as we had to go pick it up at the library yesterday afternoon. 

My Blue Boat is very similar to Yellow Ball so, naturally, it was a hit.  We counted all of the sailboats in the book and enjoyed the illustrations.  Mark enjoyed acting out some of the book with Jesse Bear.  Yes, Jesse Bear is still a part of our home.  When I show the pictures, Mark makes sure that Jesse Bear is able to see too.  From doing Yellow Ball last week, Mark now wants everything to be yellow (lellow) 

He had big sister, Rebekah, read the book to him again later in the day.

Today as we read Yellow Ball, we really paid attention to where the ball was (above, under etc...).  Mark is enjoying this book very much.  It is not a book I would have ever checked out from the library.  I would have never thought that such a simple book would be liked so much.

We rolled the ball back and forth many times (with Jesse Bear, of course) and then Sam and Mark played with the book.  Sam did such a great job playing with Mark.  Sam would ask him "can you show me the page with the big wave" and Mark would happily and quickly find the page and then "read" it to him.  It was a JOY for me to watch them.

Today was our first day of Yellow Ball.  Mark really enjoyed the book and, of course, he REALLY liked his new yellow ball to go along with the story. 

We read the book twice because he wanted to read it again.  We played a few different 'ball' games and Jesse Bear joined us as well. 

He then sat with his new ball as I read The Raft to the older three. 

What can I say… children LOVE repetition.  Today we read the book again and AGAIN we hid our Jesse Bear cuts outs and he found them.  He truly loves this game.  Today we hid them for Jesse Bear to find as well.  We played “can you find the ….” In the book and he really enjoyed that too. 

We also read two other Jesse Bear books. 

We walked to the library today and as soon as we entered he said “bear bear” meaning he wanted a Jesse Bear book.  So we went over and looked at the Jesse Bear books they had, sat and read them while the older three looked at books and then we walked over to the grocery to buy our stuff for Desert Glass Candy (see Roxaboxen entry)

I took this picture of Mark sleeping last night with Jesse Bear.  Jesse Bear does everything with Mark now.  I enjoy taking sleeping pictures of the children.  I do scrapbooks for each child (one for each year of their life) and I end each scrapbook with a sleeping page so this picture will certainly be one to include. 

We read the book again today and Mark wanted to play our hide and find our Jesse Bear cut outs again.  So we played this game AGAIN.  He really enjoys this game.  He is starting to recognize some colors as well.  He can't say them but he can point to a couple of them when asked.  We looked at ways The Bear Family showed love today.  Much of it was "above" him but he totally understands hugs and kisses.  We then all gave each other ten hugs.  He really liked this too.  Of course, Jesse Bear had to get the hugs too.  He seems to be part of our family now.   

Today is  .  For today's lesson I had cut out five Jesse Bears.  Each one had different colored clothing (red, green, yellow, purple and green)  We read the story and then we counted our Jesse Bears.  We also went over all of the colors he was wearing.  I then hid the Jesse Bears for Mark to find.  He LOVED this.  We got practice with counting to 5 and those 5 colors during our game time.  We would say the color of each one he found and then we counted them all once all 5 were found.  We played this game for 20 min. 

Jesse Bear has some nice looking fur today too.  Mark has taken very good care of him. 

Yes, that's right.  I began B4FIAR today with our 2yo, Mark.  He really enjoyed it.  We read the book and then got out our bear and dressed him like Jesse Bear. 

Mark then had the most wonderful time playing with Jesse Bear.  Jesse Bear got sick and had to be cared for.  Mark prepared him a "meal" and had a wonderful time. 

Jesse Bear even got to visit Roxaboxen today (see Roxaboxen Day 2 entry).  He is now taking his nap with Jesse Bear, of course.