I don’t know if this happens to all authors, but I’ve noticed that for me, at least, my favorite books often fall into two categories:

The Ones I Love So Much I Wish I’d Written Them, like

  (obviously!)  🙂

versus The Ones So Wonderful I’m Just Happy They Exist, such as

  and    

The difference, I think, is that I can imagine coming up with the ideas for the books in category 1 (although I’m sure I wouldn’t execute them as well as, say, Suzanne Collins!) and I so wish I’d had the fun of writing them.  Whereas I can’t at all imagine thinking up Walk Two Moons, but I’m ever so glad someone’s brain was able to come up with it (yay Sharon Creech!).  🙂

Now that I’m reading a truckload of picture books, I find the same thing is happening there, even though I don’t actually write picture books (unless you count the young books with stickers or tattoos which I did a while back).  But it’s hard not to think about picture book ideas when I’m reading them all day! 

So far my favorite author/illustrator has to be the inimitable, superlative Sandra Boynton, who it turns out also has a hilarious website.  All of her books are amazing, but the one I love most, and I SO WISH I had written it myself because it’s BRILLIANT, is:

Blue Hat, Green Hat is simple and perfectly perfect.  On each spread, animals are getting dressed — “Blue Hat, Green Hat, Red Hat…” and then there’s the turkey, whose yellow hat is on his feet.  “Oops.”

What I love about it is that (1) it’s very funny, and (2) kids will be able to “read” it themselves pretty much as soon as they can identify colors.  So satisfying!  So empowering!  So hilarious!

In category 2 – a book I love, which would never have occurred to me – is the one we’ve chosen for our regular bedtime book:

Boy, do we adore Dinosaur Vs. Bedtime.  There aren’t a lot of books I can read every day without getting sick of them!  But so far this one is fun every time.  It doesn’t have a lot of words…but it does have a lot of roaring!  Dinosaur has a very exciting day, conquering leaves and spaghetti and talking grown-ups, but when it comes time to face his biggest challenge (spoiler alert!)…bedtime wins.  Awww!  SO cute!

I have to admit, if I got to choose which boy obsession Jonah will pick in his toddler years, I’d much rather have dinosaurs than trains or cars or backhoes.  Dinosaurs are cool!  But yes, yes, I know, it’s not up to me.  ;-)  That won’t stop me from filling his room with dinosaur books and crossing my fingers, though!  🙂

Our other favorites so far include:

(Thank you, Annie!)  I Kissed the Baby! has great black and white images which Jonah loves, and a singsong refrain which my mom has turned into a goofy song she sings to him all the time.

(Thank you, Cyd!)  Everywhere Babies is another one that’s really fun to read (awesome rhymes), and there’s tons of babies for Jonah to look at on every page.  Yay!

and then there’s a whole line of touchy-feely books:

I love this one especially, but I must admit Jonah seemed particularly intrigued by That’s Not My Car (ruh-roh…).  ;-)  That’s Not My Monster was a big hit with both of us, too…lots of nifty textures to touch and stare at, and luckily there are oodles of these books!

Apart from books, what are some of the baby’s favorite things?  Well, right up at the top has to be:

Eating!  YAY!

So far he’s been absolutely thrilled about avocado, sweet potato, carrots, melons, and cauliflower, which are all the things we’ve given him.  He is a MOST agreeable baby!  🙂

He also loves:

rolling all over the place… 

watching the dogs act like lunatics…

and…

blowing raspberries!

Hey, it’s a skill!  And he’s mastered it!  And he’s quite excited about it! 

He’s also quite a big fan of “Walkin’ on the Moon,” the song by The-Dream and Kanye West, which is our never-fail method of calming him down.  It’s true, he’s very cool.  My secret plan to make him a tiny hip-hop star so he can be on So You Think You Can Dance and I can meet Cat Deeley seems to be on track!  ;-)  (He doesn’t have a favorite TV show yet, though, because he’s not allowed to watch TV.) 

So there you go…baby photos AND book talk!  It’s a blog bonanza!  Hooray!  Now let’s see if I can come up with anything at all to talk about next week…