Showing posts with label children's books. Show all posts
Showing posts with label children's books. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Valentine’s Day 2016 (Husband Guest Post)

If there is something that I take pride in, it’s planning romantic adventures for Jordan. Valentine’s and our anniversary have been an absolute thrill because I have an excuse to go big without much restraint. But this year was gonna be different.

Jordan asked me, if she could plan Valentines. It’s like she just asked to lead in dance and I’m all thrown off because the wrong hand is up and my other hand is on the shoulder and not on her back. I felt weird. But I agreed.

Now, Jordan is pregnant with our baby girl, at home with Adler, has an achievement day calling, blogs, and listens to me whine about the traffic and other mundane items everyday. How she had the time to plan what would be a perfect Valentine’s Day is beyond me, but she pulled it off with style.

It began with a morning out with Adler. We took off to the mall where we visited the bookstore. Adler and I were to look for books that represented our past, our present and our future. We found a lot. It was hard to narrow them down to just three. But we did, and even found a Valentine’s gift for Grandma while we were at it.

(past, present and future)

We then took a few laps on the infamous Food Court Choo Choo train, complete with conductor, whistle and waving onlookers from the platform. Adler and I appropriately claimed the Valentine Red Caboose and waved at a really good-looking brunette who was totally taking pictures of us. We decided to ask her to lunch. She agreed to a Five Guys Burger. Score!



After nap time we took Adler out again, this time for his first salon haircut. He was not the biggest fan, but thanks to an iPhone and scenes from Toy Story, he made it through without too much fuss. His reward was a visit to Build-a-Bear (or in his case, Build-a-Cat) where Adler picked out a cat, watched him get fluffed with puff, stitched up, gave him a “bath,” then picked out red boots that matched the Hunter’s he was wearing. He then promptly named the cat “Boots.” 





After coming home and getting ready for our dinner, Jordan made some final preparations. I now completely understand why Jordan is always so inquisitive during the dates I plan. It’s hard to be patient to find out what is going on. I had no clue what we were doing, but if the bookstore had given me any hints it had something to do with our past, present or future. I started looking for a DeLorean.

We pulled up to the Ritz Carlton Hotel, where we had our wedding reception and it all clicked for me. Jordan had planned an incredible menu for our wedding but I wasn’t in town when she went to the tasting. And then on the wedding day I didn’t enjoy like any of the food cause I was worried I was gonna overeat and get a stomach ache on our wedding night. That was one memory I was ok not having.

So all that awesome food never made it into my belly. I have lamented many a night to Jordan about this. Well, she totally called the chef and had them prepare our wedding menu as our dinner. We’re talking artisan cheeses, fresh breads, beefs, wellingtons, bruschettas and crème brûlées. It was delicious. If Cupid hadn’t sunk his arrow deeply enough into my buttocks, he sure had now.





We spent the rest of the night spending time with one another, completing the conversations that had been interrupted by life and kids and then capping it off with a movie. It was a perfect night to be romanced by that brunette I picked up by the Choo Choo train. I think I’ll let her plan it again next year.



I am not one to pass up a good photo shoot opportunity! 





This was my present from Dane...37 roses and each rose represented something from our past, present or future (I'm glad his present fit into my theme!).

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Favorite Books from Adler’s Library:

We love reading together as a family and the older Adler gets the more he loves books too. When we first found out we were expecting I thought, “I need to build my library so we have tons of books to read our boy.” It was kind of overwhelming at first because there are obviously a lot of books to choose from. But we started with the basics and our favorites and once Adler was born it was fun to take trips to bookstore as a family and pick out new books. In my opinion we have found some great ones and I can’t wait to continue to grow our library. Here are some of our favorites:


Oliver Jeffers 
We love all of his books and will own all of them one day. He’s able to capture whimsy, silliness and true emotion all at once. Here are some of our favorites:

The Heart and the Bottle:
This book was Adler’s Valentine’s Day present and to be honest it made me cry. This book is a great book for anyone that has experienced loss. It really touched my heart and hit close to home for me.



Once Upon an Alphabet:
Each letter has a short paragraph so they are perfect to read when you don’t have time for a full book. Let me just say they are so funny and Dane and I each have our favorite letters.



How to Catch a Star:
This story is so cute and it just reminds you what it is like to be a child. Who doesn’t want a star?!


The Day the Crayons Quit by: Drew Daywalt and Illustrated by Oliver Jeffers 
This book is so clever! It’s letters from the crayons to their owner and it makes me excited to watch Adler color pictures and use his imagination. 



Classics
Classics from our childhood that will be timeless in our family.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Eric Carle
This is one of Dane’s go-to’s. We love the iconic, innocent and colorfulness of his stories.  Adler loves it too.



You are Special by Max Lucado 
This was probably my favorite book when I little. I will admit that I even cut out my own dots and stars. This book has such a great message and I hope it sticks with Adler like it did with me. 



New Finds

I Want My Hat Back by Jon Klassen 
This book is simple and funny. It is great for little kids because it has fantastic illustrations, few words and a great story. We also have This is Not My Hat and we love that one too! 


I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll
This is a great story about monsters under the bed and how they aren’t always a bad thing. This was actually a Christmas gift to us from Brittany. She thought we would love it and she was right. A great book for voices as a little boy meets new monsters under his bed.


The Book With No Pictures by B.J. Novak
This book is genius! There are no pictures but the story definitely makes up for that. Kids love this books and parents have an adventure reading it.   



These are a few of our favorites and we are always looking for new ones to add to our library so if you have any you like let me know!