The Airing of Grievances

The name of the game this holiday season is "behind schedule."  Maybe it's because I feel like last week was Thanksgiving since I had family visiting, but of course it was actually two weeks after Thanksgiving.  At any rate, here are but a few examples of the "a little late or maybe not at all" mentality we've got going on around here this year:

• Holiday cards.  For years I've been wanting to do one of those cutesy cards you create online and get printed out and they're just adorable, but could never talk the Yeti into it.  With Thumper, he's willing to take one for the team.  We even got our picture taken as a family, by someone else, in a place other than the toy-strewn living room and in clothes other than pajamas!  We just didn't actually get on doing any of this till about a week or so ago.  Now the cards are addressed, waiting to be stamped and sent, and we will buy stamps when Thumper wakes up from his nap.  Yes, they will be arriving after Christmas.  Since the card says "Happy Holidays" I figure it's still got a nice cushion of time before New Years. 
• Christmas tree.  I am not putting up our giant fake tree; there's no room with the baby paddock in the living room, plus I didn't want to use breakable ornaments this year anyway, and so on.  What I actually have been wanting is a small, white tree, and if I come across one I just might get it, but I have to drag myself out to find it and our Target - the only place I can really think of that might have one - is small, with a limited selection, so there's no guarantee.  In the meantime, I have put up some lights, the welcome sign, the stockings, and more, so it's not like we're not festive at all.  But speaking of stockings -
• Stocking for Thumper.  I've been driving myself crazy for over a month looking for a stocking that "said" Thumper to me.  I wanted it to be a little traditional, not too babyish, personalized, and fun, and I couldn't find anything that fit.  I probably put way too much importance on this, but my stocking from my first Christmas still lives at my mom's house and I kept thinking of it as a Big Decision.  Finally, as the clock ran out, I found the perfect stocking in an Etsy store and ordered it.  If it makes it here before Christmas it will be just barely. 

So there's a lot of last-minute going on but at the same time, I'm actually not stressing over it too much.  I know Thumper won't remember any of it and togetherness as a family is really most important.  In some ways I just consider it a dry run for time management in future years.  Oh, and speaking of a dry run: the Santa debacle.

We still aren't planning on perpetuating the Santa myth, but I hadn't given much thought about mall Santas.  Most kids don't believe those guys are Santa anyway, so I'm not particularly opposed, and there's some sheaf of Santa pics with my siblings and me at my mother's house, so there's tradition and nostalgia.  That being said, I still hadn't considered taking Thumper for a picture this year - just hadn't really thought about it - until both grandmothers started in on it in recent days.

So there I was, out looking for a stocking (unsuccessfully), and there's a Santa setup.  With no line.  It's just me and Thumper, and he's in a good mood, and I figure, well, why not give it a try?  He's been slowly coming out of his shy phase, and was fine when family was here, so maybe this will go well.

I started off sitting next to Santa, with Thumper on my knee.  I think the elf wanted me to edge Thumper slowly into frame next to Santa, but Santa wasn't having any of it.  "This guy won't fuss - he's just fine," he said, and convinced me to set Thumper on his knee and back away.  I don't know what I was thinking, but I went along with it.  It taught me an instant, early lesson about standing my ground when I know what's best for my kid.

Instant meltdown.  Sobbing, Thumper reaching frantically for me.  I took him back right away.  Santa, believe it or not, seemed offended.  "How old is he?  Usually they're fine until about age two," he said.

Seriously? "Uh, not this one," I said.  Naturally, a line had miraculously formed behind me and the other parents were giving us a look like, Your kid better not set off my kid.  I looked at the picture they snapped but it was terrible.  I'm not opposed to a funny crying pic - we actually have one from the photos we took for the Christmas card.  This was not that.  This was pitiful and sad.  And forty bucks.

At the time I said something like "Oh, ho ho, maybe I'll bring him back with his father and try again," but honestly I think that's all the Santa we need for this year.  We've got one cute crying holiday photo, one traumatic Santa experience, not at the same time, and we've reached the quota.

Speaking of holiday experiences I'm not into: am I the only one annoyed by the Target "What did you get?" commercial?  It basically promotes everything we want to downplay.  As adults, the gifts between the Yeti and I are usually thoughtful, fun, and small, and an experience we loved.  It was really annoying, though, getting grilled by friends and family about what loot we received or getting a pitying face when they heard it was just a few books or DVDs.  Thumper's going to be getting presents, but I hope that's not all he'll think of when he thinks of Christmas.

On the subject of Christmas commercials, this one's really good but chances are you will cry, so beware; and this one is my favorite.  I also like this one, cheesy as it is, and the latest offering here isn't bad (and I may be softhearted given the subject matter).  I'm always pulled out by that mom at the end, though, luxuriously stretching.  Like she'd be the last one up.

PS I'm having an issue with pictures as I swap computers, but I didn't want the blog to just sit till I got it worked out.  More pictures in the future!

Whoa, whoa, whoa

So this is a post about how time keeps sneaking past me.  This past month?  Gone in a flash!  But there are reasons for that - for example, one of my siblings (with family) is coming to visit next week, so even though I knew Thanksgiving was on its way, the REAL family get-together wasn't here yet.  And I have cleaning and organizing to do.   And so on.

But on a larger scale, I feel like one day I woke up and Thumper had gone from Tiny Baby to Near Toddler.  He's almost eleven months old, which is just a blink from being a year old.  He's not walking yet, but he's creeping along the edges of furniture, and standing on his own for a few seconds at a time.  We've had to block off parts of the living area with fences to create a baby paddock.  Basically, low-level toddling!  Crazy.

A week ago I looked around and realized that though Thumper has toys, they're all more of the baby variety and not particularly challenging anymore.  We even still have the soft collapsible activity gym out, though to be fair it's been stripped of toys and used more as a fort and balance bar for a few months.  So over the weekend we got an activity table and a shape-sorter (yes, I know Christmas is coming.  I also know there's no real point in waiting an extra month for something stimulating and besides, at this age it's probably better to dole out the toys a few at a time than in one overwhelming clump).

Yesterday I was sorting through Thumper's clothes, pulling out everything too small.   I went into the drawer where I stash the too-big clothing I bought in advance and realized he could now fit into a few pieces.  In fact, they were the only pieces left.  I'm officially out of clothing I bought in advance, because basically I wasn't sure how fast he would grow and I couldn't really visualize a baby that was over a year old or wearing clothing bigger than 18 months.  But now here I am, buying clothes in 12-18 months and the size after that is 2T.  T for toddler.

The other day I was at Target and looked at their Baby's First Christmas onesies.  Then I realized there was no point, because that brand runs small and they only stocked up to 9 months.  He's pretty much out of the baby section.

If it sounds like I'm sitting here with a glazed look of shock on my face it's because I am.  Probably because the last few weeks have been one reminder after another that time is flying, combined with the usual holiday tearjerker stuff.  But I'm not moping around like Albert from the Birdcage all the time, I promise.  Because there's no time!  Company is coming in a week!  Did I mention Thumper has a cousin almost exactly the same age?  I'm actually really excited and can't wait for the double trouble.

Though I don't know why I bother with impatience, since apparently I just need to sneeze and the week will have flown by already.

While Snoozy Sleeps

In general, I try to keep sleeping talk to a minimum because I feel like otherwise, I could go on all day.  I think there's a natural focus on our babies' sleeping habits because they really affect everything else.  If Thumper isn't sleeping, I'm not sleeping.  Then that leads to grumpiness on both our parts, and finally something approximating despair for me.  But when he's sleeping better?  No problem!

Plus, sleep is ever-changing.  I think the last time I had really mentioned it, we'd been forced to ditch the swing, but things were going surprisingly well.  Thumper was napping in his crib, though every day felt like a gamble.  What I don't think I mentioned is also that things had gotten weird.

He'd been working on rolling from his back to his stomach for some time.  He'd been able to go from stomach to back at about three months, but the opposite way took until almost six months.  And then, within a month, he started rolling onto his stomach in his sleep.

I had known this would happen eventually.  Even though SIDS-prevention protocol says you should lay babies down to sleep on their backs, eventually they'll roll around on their own.  And the theory goes that if the baby can roll back if they need to, it's fine.  Since he'd had that escape rolling down since three months, I didn't think I needed to worry.

Until he started rolling.  Because a more accurate way of describing it would be that he was rolling onto his face.

Seriously.

Thumper wouldn't roll his head to the side.  If I tried to nudge it myself, he resisted.  Sometimes he wedged his hands under his face like in the above photo, sometimes he just full face-planted into the mattress.  I am not exaggerating when I say this was terrifying to me.  All I could do was roll him over.  Sometimes, in his sleep, he would try to roll right back, and if I fought him he'd wake up.  Eventually I discovered that he was more likely to prefer to "roll" in one direction, so if he started to fight, I'd switch direction.  Meanwhile, I was waking up in the middle of the night, in-between feedings, to check on him and roll him.  

My anxiety was through the roof on this issue.  After a few weeks, I brought it up to his doctor.  He was vaguely startled, but said, "Well, I won't lose sleep over this, and you shouldn't either... He can roll back if he needs to" etc.  But then he added, "But if you see him like that, I'd flip him over."  So my anxiety only abated somewhat.  

At some point - I'm not sure when - he really did begin to naturally turn his head to the side.   He'll still do the face-on-hands thing from time to time, but not for very long and then he'll shift to something else.  I'm no longer concerned about it.  But lest we think sleeping got easy...

Somehow, in-between teething and the swing and being sick, we fell into the habit of putting Thumper to sleep in my arms, whether he was nursing to sleep or not.  At first, I thought, "Well, he's a baby; if ever there were a time to let him fall asleep in my arms, this is it."  It didn't seem to particularly impact anything else.  

Over time, however, his sleep has slowly been deteriorating.  He used to wake up maybe twice a night, but that number has grown.  I really noticed it recently, when the Yeti had to go out of town for a few days and it was just me and the kid.  He slept straight through the first four hours, then woke up somewhere between every 45 minutes to every hour and a half thereafter.  And I couldn't blame it on the Yeti's snoring.  Also, getting him to sleep in the first place was becoming more and more of a battle. 

Naps weren't much better.  So in my bleary haze I started googling and I came across this article.  It basically described Thumper perfectly.   In short, it's saying Thumper developed object permanence and is freaking out at waking up in a different place.  

First I despaired at having screwed up so royally, since he was going to sleep in his crib before.  Also, the post says I could try slowly transitioning him - moving him when he's not quite asleep, aware of where he is, but too tired to care - but implies that since he's so old now I might have to just do cry it out.  While I am aware that some CIO methods are much more kind and nuanced than just saying, "You're on your own, kid," the idea makes me cringe and I want to avoid it if possible.  

So I started trying to transition.  I still hang on to him as usual, but around the time his eyes close for more than a few seconds I get up and move him into the crib.  Sometimes his eyes open on the way, sometimes when I lay him down, and he usually moves his hand around, feeling the crib sheet.  But typically he then goes right back to snoozing.

It's been about a week, and I'm telling you, the change was almost immediate.  His naps have switched from something like a half hour to around 2 hours.  He still gets up about three times to eat - that's a separate issue - but it's always at least 2 hours apart, and he's sleeping in later in the mornings.  And just getting him down in the first place is much easier and faster.  In the middle of the night, I'm getting him down faster because I'm not waiting for him to fall into that deep sleep, so I'm getting more sleep time that way, too.

We'll call this the Yeti Scissor Suplex

So that's where we're at right now.  Not perfect, but a heck of a lot better than I was - I even feel rested enough to post!  Here's hoping it keeps up.

A Baby Detective, Of Course

Halloween has come and gone!  Even though I wasn't very decorated this year, even though Thumper is just a baby and won't remember any of it, it was still the most festive I've probably felt in years.  

A few months ago I decided to pick up a Halloween book to read to Thumper.  We were in a major hurry and it wasn't the most thought-out decision.  I literally snatched up the first one I saw, which was "A Halloween Scare in (Our Home State)!"  That's nice, I thought.  Local.  Oh, was a rube I was.  

It's literally a fill-in-the-blank book.  Like, you can actually tell, in the illustrations, where the name of the state was inserted.  Random names of towns are completely out of place in a generic poem.  I was so dumb.  I read it a few times anyway, to have something spooky and really out of sheer stubbornness, but next year I will actually, you know, flip through a book before purchasing.  Or just read reviews on Amazon. 

The costumes were considerably more successful.  We started out by looking at a Halloween costume store online, just to see what was out there.  We were just looking for something in which we thought Thumper would look cute.  We landed on a "Business baby" costume.  Later, we realized we might've been subconsciously inspired by a book we read called The Boss Baby.  I figured we'll have at least ten years of superheroes, animals or whatever else Thumper is into; might as well go outside the box a little this first year.  

When the costume arrived it fit perfectly, and the little felt hat was adorable.  The Yeti pointed out that he looked kind of like Nick Charles from the movie The Thin Man - and an idea was born.  Thumper's costume remained the same, but the new plan was for the Yeti and I to dress similarly old-timey and be generic detectives of that era. Actually, since the Yeti typically refuses to dress in costume at all, my first idea was to have him hold a sign that said "DUNIT."  You know, like the answer to "whodunit"?  Annnnd I'll see myself out.  

Going for the actual Thin Man era is a bit tricky (Nick and Nora are rich in the mid 1930s, when, you know, everyone was Not Rich - I'd recognize architecture from that era more easily than fancy clothing) so I figured 1920s was close enough.  I got the most demure flapper dress costume I could find - something a little more Downton Abbey and less night-at-Tina-Turner's-speakeasy - and did my best to make my pixie haircut approximate finger waves.  The Yeti wore a suit jacket and tie and a monocle, which made him look sufficiently deranged.  

For Thumper, we drew on a tiny mustache and got him a large, lightweight, plastic magnifying glass.  He was really what pulled it all together; separately we looked vaguely old-timey but together, it was obvious that he, at least, was a detective (I was intending to be a detective too, but once dressed I looked more villainous).  

Alas, though he looked adorable, Thumper was not in the best of moods.  We think he's teething yet again (6 teeth so far and counting) and though he had no problems with his costume when I first tried it on, he was not pleased with it Halloween night.  We basically wore our costumes to go out, run a short errand and pick up dinner, snap a few photos, and then took them off.  The whole thing was probably less than an hour.  

The felt hat has been played with since the costume arrived, and some of my favorite pictures are where he's wearing it, but I hadn't been able to post them since I wanted the costume to be a surprise.  Thus, I'm including some of those, since he's more happy and the lighting's better.  

Most of the Halloween photos were taken on the Yeti's phone and I didn't think to snare them, but I've got one pre-mustache, and one post-.  

So, without further ado: 

And the finished look - 

We got a murder to solve here, see

Happy Halloween!

Fall, Flu Shots and Clothes with Ears

Fall has finally arrived with a bang around here!  I went from wearing short sleeves and sunglasses to sweaters and raincoats within the span of a day or two, and though I knew it was coming, it's been a bit of a shock.

It's also time to break out the animal-head hoodies.  Last winter this tiger hoodie was my favorite thing to put on Thumper:

I wanted to get another one in a larger size this year, but apparently Old Navy switches up their animals each year (makes sense).  So we've got a bear instead: 

It hasn't even been a full year between these pictures - just cold weather to cold weather - and the rate at which he's growing just knocks me over sometimes.  

The entire family got our flu shots.  I have been getting them on and off since college and I bragged that I never experience any side effects (it always weirds me out when people claim they got the flu from their shot).  I therefore jinxed myself and while I didn't "get the flu," the shot actually hurt for the first time in years and burned for a good two hours.  Since we were literally all in the same room getting our shots (the Yeti and I going first to show Thumper it wasn't a big deal) I smiled through it with clenched teeth.  

Thumper, thus far, had never really shown a reaction to any vaccine, apart from screaming when he got the shot.  His flu shot is split into two parts, since he's a first-timer and a baby; he'll get the other half in a month.  This time he only squawked for a few seconds, and then the Yeti distracted him with some Superman action.  He was fine the rest of the afternoon and evening, but he slept in extra late the next morning and was sleepy the rest of the day.  

The Yeti appeared to be in the most pain out of the three of us - when he went to remove the Band-Aid a few hours later.  He's a furry dude.  

I actually did a tiny Halloween craft: taking Thumper's footprints to make a little ghost.  It was an idea from Pinterest.  It actually turned out rather like the ones on Pinterest, but then, when all you're going for is a vaguely ghost-shaped blob it's not like you're reaching for the moon.  I sent it off to the grandparents.  The finished product has Thumper's name on it but trust me, it pretty much looked like this. 

I haven't decorated much for Halloween.  My taste has always run to old-timey, classic Halloween stuff; not gory, not too cutesy, etc, and it's harder to hit that sweet spot than you'd think, so over the years my decorations have dwindled to next to nothing.  I've got some kitchen towels, a tabletop metal jack-o-lantern, and a few Welcome signs.  This was partly intentional; I knew I wanted kids soon, and I figured I'd get new stuff that fit the new family.  But that doesn't do me much good this year. 

Finally, fall means it's time for my not-famous-at-all veggie chili.  I make a big pot and then get lunch out of it for the next several days.  I've already made one batch, but it's been a few weeks and I'm getting a taste for it again...  

Not making an appearance: pumpkin spice anything.  I love pumpkin pie but can't really tolerate it in any other context.  Well, except this one. 

Santa: the Myth, the Magic, and the Monster

I was reminded that I still haven't gotten around to talking about my Santa conundrum.  I know it's not quite the season yet (in fact, I need to pull out Halloween decorations), but that doesn't stop most of the shops in this country and it won't stop me.  Okay, first, you have to understand that the Yeti and I have been together for over a decade, and been adults for most of that.  So here's what our life has been like, pre-Thumper:

Me: My side of the family is pretty much lapsed Irish Catholic, but by the time I came into the picture it was pretty generic secular.  Celebrated Christmas and Easter, didn't belong to a church.  As an adult, I love the spirit of Christmas - the lights, the magic, the powering through the long winter with a party, the peace on Earth, goodwill towards men sort of thing.  I'm not religious, so I don't see anything wrong with celebrating all sorts of winter traditions, and it interests me in a cultural/historical way.  I try to pull out the Christmas decorations no earlier than the week of Thanksgiving (and preferably Dec 1, but there's something fun about having the tree up or decorating it on Thanksgiving).

The Yeti: He's not religious at all.  He's not a Scrooge, and he'll assist me if I need it, but I definitely have to take the lead in decorating or else there wouldn't be any.  He likes white Christmas lights, I prefer multicolored twinklers, in the past we've compromised with steady-burning multicolors because the twinkling drives him nuts and that's probably some sort of metaphor for our relationship.

Perhaps most notably, we place almost no emphasis on big Christmas gifts.  The Yeti likes buying stuff when he wants it/needs it, and does not like surprises.  I do like surprises and unwrapping things, so every year he gets me several little things (books or DVDs) and wraps them.  Usually they're connected to an inside joke, and sometimes I do the same for him if I see something really perfect, but he really is content with nothing (something that took me years to really understand and accept).  There's no pressure, nothing big or fancy, and it's meaningful and fun for each of us.

We have no idea how this is going to change as Thumper grows up.  We want him to be excited on Christmas morning, but we don't want him to be wrapped up solely in the materialistic aspects of the holiday; we know we want to work in compassion and charity in there, too.  We don't want Christmas to be a holiday where it's all about "topping" ourselves.  And then another issue is that his birthday is in January.  Lots of factors to consider there.

Then there's the Santa issue, which is just as complicated.  Neither the Yeti nor I are particularly nuts with the idea of playing Santa as a real entity, for different reasons.

Growing up, I was somewhat of a rube.  I heard my mother or one of my siblings say offhandedly that when you stop believing, Santa stops coming, and I took it literally.  It wasn't about the gifts; I was somehow afraid that the magic of Christmas would be diminished if I didn't believe.  So I forced myself to shut off my ears and brain and believe until a ridiculous age (12, maybe?  I mean I had my first little boyfriend at 12, such an awkward time).

Once I finally acknowledged the truth, I got to help play Santa for those younger than me, and of course the fun and magic wasn't diminished at all.  And I honestly wish I had saved myself the angst and anxiety.

For the Yeti, he thinks the entire idea of Santa is unfair - for example, if you come from a poor background like I did, it's unfair to make kids think that Santa is somehow ignoring their wishes if they don't get what they want, or, if they do, they're then thanking Santa instead of their hard-working parents.  He thinks it plays into the materialistic aspect, since really Santa is just about presents.

But, but!  It's fun to create magic and surprises for little kids.  And honestly, at a very young age, a kid is going to think a Mickey in a costume is the real character, right?  I distinctly remember watching Grover on Sesame Street and holding an internal debate over whether he was "a puppet" or "real."   On the one hand, I could see the strings.  On the other hand, he was hugging a little girl who clearly seemed to treat him as if he were real.  So maybe at a certain age, Santa will be just as real as Mickey or Grover regardless of what we do.

On the other hand, no one tries to perpetuate the notion that Mickey or Grover are the real thing.  Most people don't even try to act like Mall Santas are real.  And yet we all grew out of that stage with a minimum of drama.

So where we're at now is the idea of essentially following Thumper's lead.  Read books about Santa and other Christmas stories, like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and don't place particular weight on any one part of it, or any more than Olivia or any other character.   Currently I'm leaning away from the idea of writing Santa's name on gift tags.

The one memory I sort of stall on is from when I was a teenager, well into my playing Santa phase: it was the late 90s, and we discovered that the NORAD website had a Santa tracker.  I thought the idea of live 'reports' and tracking was the cutest thing ever.  That's what I think of when I think of preserving the Santa myth.  On the other hand, I think it could be fun whether you believe or not - after all, it was for me.

I have a feeling I'm overthinking again, and when Thumper is old enough for this to be an issue, it'll work itself out, one way or another.  Or maybe I'm just hoping that's what will happen.

Regardless of which way we fall on the Santa issue, as Thumper gets older I do want to incorporate and discuss other traditions from other cultures.  Back in 2011 I went on a trip to Berlin.  I stumbled into a winter festival and happened upon these guys:

Now I know that they were Krampuses, who are associated with St. Nicholas' day in early December.  And, of course, St. Nicholas, or St. Nick, is one of the origins of Santa Claus.  In the last few years Krampus has gotten more attention in the US and I was excited to buy a Krampus stocking: 

My hope is that in years to come, we'll put that up for Thumper to get an orange and celebrate St. Nicholas as well.  Krampus is such a good link between St. Nicholas and older traditions.  

And with Krampus we'll swing back into the spookiness of October.  I love hearing how others celebrate holidays - any of them - as well! 

Book Time

As I've mentioned before, I'm a pretty huge bookworm.  I don't remember specifically learning to read, but I know I wasn't some baby prodigy; still, I was always surrounded by books, read to, in a family of readers.  In fact, I found this picture the other day:

Years before I was ever pregnant, I was too superstitious to buy things specifically for a baby that was still just a dream, but here and there I'd pick up a favorite YA novel from my childhood if I spotted it at Goodwill.  In my head, I said it was "for my potential future children, maybe, but otherwise I might re-read them."  When we did decide to actively try for a baby, I was still too superstitious to buy anything more than prenatal vitamins - and this book in hardback: 

However, other than that book and a few others that were gifted, I didn't think much about reading when I was pregnant, and then when I had Thumper I was on survival mode - and suddenly I realized he was two months old, I hardly had anything to read to him, and I was hardly reading to him at all.  

In retrospect, this seems like a silly thing to get upset about; he was only a few months old and only recently could he probably even focus on a book.  Still, with the hormones and stress raging, I felt like I was a Bad Mom who was failing to do any of the things I'd always dreamed of.  Over the following months we've bought more books here and there, and received even more from family.  

At first I just randomly read him a little book here and there, but as we actively attempted to get a bedtime routine going, it became centered around Book Time.  Now Thumper pretty much only plays with cloth or bath books or the smaller board books during the day - the physically light stuff I don't mind him chewing on, ones that I consider toys more than books (though I'll read them to him, too).  

At bedtime we read two or three real books as a family, and I think it's possibly everyone's favorite time of day.  Does he sit and intently listen to every word of every book?  No, he's a baby.  Most of them are full-sized board books, so he might start trying to chew on the cover or the spine by the time I get to the end, or try to crawl around on the bed, or try to climb Mt. Parent (either one).  But he's usually excited at least at the beginning, and there are some books that are definitely favorites of his.  

I never had a baby shower, because the vast majority of friends and family are scattered across the country.  If I had had the chance to have one, I might have wanted a book party; we've been trying to buy new stuff as well as the classics we grew up with, but the options are endless, and it would have been nice to get input from other sources.  

Here are two favorites that were brand-new to both the Yeti and me:  

We bought Olivia because it was a Caldecott Award-winner and I had vaguely heard that this series was a hit with kids.  Honestly, I didn't expect Thumper to go for it yet, because it's fairly long and I didn't feel like the illustrations would have been that eye-catching to an infant.  But he started to get the biggest smile when I turned to the second page (filled with Olivia doing many activities) and now, he gives a Pterodactyl Screech of Approval when it comes out.  We've since bought one other in the series, but she's much older and it's not as much of a hit.  We'll have to explore more of the earlier books. 

This one was gifted to us by the Yeti's mom.  Had it been me, I probably wouldn't have ever picked it up - the title reminded me of I Love You Forever, which I haven't liked since we read it in my second-grade class.  But this is sweet and simple, and manages to occasionally get me choked up without feeling deliberately manipulative.  

More importantly, Thumper loves it.  We've turned it into an interactive reading; I'll read lines like "I love your fingers... and toes..."  and the Yeti will grab Thumpers hands and feet, and so on.  And it's fairly quick, so it makes it into the rotation quite a bit.  It's yet another one that gets smiles and squeals, which is honestly freaking adorable.  

Since we do read two or three books a night, Thumper will probably be sick of these before he can even remember reading them - and we do continue to look for new recommendations.  But in the meantime, these are family favorites, and no matter how tired or whiny we all feel, they never fail to lighten the mood and make us all smile. 

One of the earliest hits