Countable Happiness

I have some new favourites. The library has been good to me this week, blessing me with an out pouring of fun children's books. So here I am, passing the blessing your way.

Numero Uno, Warthogs in the Kitchen: A Sloppy Counting Book by Pamela Duncan Edwards and Henry Cole. I'm so glad that Little Man can now count to ten with his freshly washed hooves and some pickle cupcakes. He'll always remember to remove stray teddy bears from the batter when he's baking. I feel that reading this book has prepared him for life in an all new way. Best yet, Edwards and Cole provided a Pickle Cupcake recipe at the back of the book. I have to admit though, as soon as those lovable warthogs threw the pickle jar in with the cupcake batter, I thought of this link for broccoli cupcakes that a friend of mine posted to facebook a couple weeks ago. I'm still so horrified by the thought of contaminating cupcakes with broccoli that I have evidently not been able to wipe the thought from my mind. And I actually like broccoli rather a lot.

Moving on (and counting to Two), Swimmy by Leo Lionni, which tells the tale of an intrepid young fish who explores the ocean floor after his entire family gets eaten and then mobilizes his new family to fight big fish bullying by swimming together in the shape of an even bigger fish. I wouldn't use this book for grief counseling, but I do love Leo Lionni's illustrations. He uses a sponging technique that is absolutely beautiful. And I love little Swimmy. On an educational front, Swimmy does provide a great look at ocean life, talking through the different animals on the ocean floor and a little bit of survival of the fittest. If you're into being educational. Some days I am.

Hold up Three fingers for me, and let me tell you about Mo Willems, who I think will become a close, personal friend of mine. I'm huge into his pigeon books, which just crack me up. In honor of the fact that Little Man stayed up all night last night (which makes me a wonderful person to spend time with today), I read him Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late! Pigeon's facial expressions are just classic. And who could resist a scrawny little bird who wants to have a hot dog party? Or who uses such great bargaining tactics as "Y'know, we never get to talk anymore" and "It's the middle of the day in China!" and "My bunny wants to stay up, too! You can't say 'No' to a bunny, can you?" It was like seeing my future...but pigeon sized.

Anyway, now that you can count to three, that's really all you need to know. Three is, after all, the perfect number. Tthree daughters (haha), three cookies with a glass of milk, God in three persons (wink), my three persons when I refer to myself in the royal "We", a three person family...not to be extended to four any time soon because I realized last night that I don't enjoy being up at freaking three in the morning with a screaming baby.