Mama, come play with me!

Some friends and I were recently having a discussion about the trials of parenting, and I made a HUGE confession.  Don't judge me, but I admitted I really don't like playing with my kids.  Shelby begs me to play board games with her, and it is 15 minutes of torture.  Haley wants me to play school with her, and all I do is get mad about the mess.

Anyway, back to my "wining and whining" discussion with fellow moms.  After my great reveal, one of the moms gave me some great advice.  She said I need to think about what I love doing and then try to do that with my kids.  As Oprah would say, it was my "Aha!" moment.  One of my all-time favorite things to do is curl up with a good book.  I read with any spare time I can get.  While my hubby watches his t.v. shows, my Kindle is put to good use.  I've been guilty of staying up WAY past my bedtime to finish just one more chapter, adding to my sleep deprivation.

For some reason, I had only been reading to my girls at bedtime.  But, I'm trying to change those habits.  When the girls come to me wanting attention, encouraging them to go pick out a book for us to read is my new goal.  The girls love for us to snuggle up in bed and read.  They still have their quirks that test my patience i.e. squirming, interrupting, and asking questions I can't answer, but it is far less torture than another round of Diggity Dog.

We have books coming out of our ears around here, so there are lots to choose from.  Keeping my fingers crossed, there aren't any that I'm sick of yet.  My mom stills complains about having to read George and Martha to my sister so many times that it dulled her brain.

Messy Bookshelf #1

Messy "Bookshelf" #2

Messy Bookshelf #3

Because I like lists, here are some of my favorite books:

• Any of the Llama Llama books.   Anna Dewdney's rhyming and cadence make reading her stories fun.  I love the build-up to Little Llama's meltdowns, and then the calmness of his mama's lessons.  
• Time Life Library of First Questions and Answers.  Shelby brought home Do Fish Drink? from her pre-school library, and it was love at first page for me.  As a child, I loved reading the encyclopedias we had at home, and this series of books from the early '90's reminds me of that.  Each page answers a different question, so we can read 1 page or 50 pages depending on attitudes.  Thanks to the internet, I was able to find a few of the books from this series used from Half Price Books and am hoping to stumble upon more.

Were these used books stolen from the library?

• Pinkalicious and Fancy Nancy.  Both series have great lessons that I hope are sinking in with my kids.  And, the illustrations are adorable!  

• Are You My Mother? or, as it is known around here, Are You My Mudder?  Our favorite part is when the little bird asks the bulldozer, "Are you my mudder?" and the bulldozer answers, "SNORT!" 
• And, thanks to Shelby's teacher, Ms. Monica, our new favorite is Where the Sidewalk Ends.  Bryon still had his 1st edition copy from when he was young, so we've been able to read "Ickle Me, Pickle Me, Tickle Me, Too" over and over again.  I don't quite get some of the poems, but the girls just love it.