It’s time for an update to our What Clare is Reading Now intermittent series. We’re still reading quite a bit these days, but sometimes she has less of an interest in extended reading sessions because she has other things to do. When we do read Clare often brings her blankie and requests “snuggle and read book.” At least once a day we’ll find her reading her books by herself like the picture above.

A new favorite book is The Giving Tree. I don’t read it to her as much since it makes me cry (darn pregnancy hormones) but J reports that they’ve been reading it a lot lately. It’s a good way to talk about the concept of growing up. As we read the book Clare asks where the boy is – and we talk about how now he’s a grown up man.

“Baby Brigade” has been a popular choice these days. JP and Deb bought Clare this book (I think) and it’s a very fun one to read. It has a nice rhyming beat to it and Adam reports that he even does it as a bit of a rap. Clare really likes it – her favorite part are the babies.

Lately Curious George has gotten a lot of play at our house – specifically the original story book. Clare LOVES Curious George and even has her own little stuffed George who she carries around. The stories and illustrations are simple enough for her to follow, especially now that she’s able to follow a bit of a plot.

Grandma T brought Clare this book a few months ago. I thought we would bring it out more as we got closer to November, but Clare is loving it right now. She likes to point out the Mommy and the Daddy in the book, but we also talk about the baby and the Big Sister. It’s given her some reference points when we talk about the new baby coming to our house.

This is another Grandma T book, and it’s quickly become a family favorite. Again, it has a nice rhyming rhythm to it that makes it fun for us to read. It also has a cute little story about a baby Llama throwing a tantrum waiting for his Mama Llama. It’s a good lesson about patience for frustrated little toddlers 🙂

While not a book, I also want to remember some of Clare’s favorite songs these days. She has quite a memory for music and songs and really shows preference for specific ones. Her favorite non-nursery rhyme song (that is, a song that we don’t sing with her) is Here Comes the Sun by the Beatles. She LOVES this song and will stop whatever she’s doing to dance and sing to it. She also really likes The Lion Sleeps Tonight (“the lion song”) and the Black Keyes Howlin’. Howlin’ has a little verse that goes “da da da da” and Clare likes to sing along with that part. She’s also pretty specific with music she doesn’t like – shaking her head telling me “don’t like it” sometimes to songs on the radio. A little critic already.