One. Do you have a favorite sweatshirt that’s as old as dirt so its really soft? Wrap over a breastfeeding pillow to create great cuddle arms for your nightweaning toddler.
Two. Outgrown the infant bath? Make it a sand and/or water pit. This was fun for a gamut of ages at our house, and is infinitely flexible. This could work as a snow bath too in those cold places.
Now, that seems like every book of his I ever read.
Each one is a tiny, but explosive delight to the eyeballs and brain.
A visit to the library often reveals an unknown Eric Carl book, and I realize I have only just begun to unravel the beauty of his stories…
..and I have been reading since my Mama was both my eyes and ears.
I was just where my toddler was only recently-though now he is a little head and eyes and ears all his own.
What makes it so intriguing? I wonder, as said toddler collapses in sheer joy.
Let’s take a look at his three favorite books until now for some enlightening entertainment:
1. The Very Busy Spider
“No, no, no, no sun/cat/chicken, I’m spinning my web.” Toddler says in a singsong voice as he turns the many pages of animals trying in vain to deter a dead set spider from the task at hand.
He does love saying “no”, probably as most of us do, .but I think its more about that…
We read this book for the first time right when Toddler could touch his toes, wave his arms, etc. This is right after he had grasped the whole Head, Shoulder, Knees, and Toes thing.
“I can do it!”
Clearly, this book is a delight in…
GROWING INDEPENDENCE
SHARED ABILITIES AND ATTRIBUTES
3. Brown Bear Brown Bear (Co-authored with Bill Martin, Jr.)
Preschool Story time – Everyone in Everyday Ecstasy
No doubt the appeal of Oso Café (Brown Bear) is the constant page turning…
Element of splendid revelation
Who is looking at me? Why its a Blue Horse!!!! But of course.
Above all, children yearn like us all (deep down) to be one with the earth. I have never seen a toddler prefer a book over a pine cone, or rock, or feather.
But Carle’s books are special because they give us a…
A colorful NATURE WALK ANYWHERE ANYTIME
Thank you Eric Carle and children’s authors everywhere.
For the many chances to celebrate…
Hard work
Our similarities as living beings
Our own gifts and those that others bring to our lives
Innocence and simplicity
Growth
and
A kaleidoscopic ensemble of earth’s greatest treasures
1 chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and a picture book about polar bears to help my sweet babe to fall asleep
A couple of pages from a piece by Louis Carroll called Feeding the Mind
A few moments of mind quiet and rhythmic breathing during a long afternoon swim
A prayer here and there
An old short and some poems from the writer’s corner here on Miss Corrigan (Wondering how my thought processes have changed since 2012 when I began the blog.)
Last night my sister in law had a movie night with her best friends in our shared home. I told one of the friends to check out the Qatiaf recipe if she is interested on my blog. Her response:”You have a blog?! What is it and why don’t I subscribe to it??!”
Her enthusiasm apparently excited something inside me to get back to MissCorrigan. Maybe it had to do with remembering how much I enjoy close friends doing nothing but enjoying the evening. Maybe its the power of nostagia; or the need to make sense of things so not to lose perspective…its so easy to go off track.
Earlier that evening, I lost perspective (for the upteenth time) and yelled at my husband for a couple hours-what was the reason for my anger? Ok-Anything that comes to my mind in anger-I went through the crawl space of my subconscious and found some things in there…
Spilled Milk
Then I went to sleep and dreamed that I was in the front seat of a roller coaster that I knew was completely absent of track at the end. It went way too fast and ended in a loopdy loop at the end dropping to the ground and ending my life. I felt the very end of it-my life and woke immediately.
But somehow today my mind is clear. It is currently uploading 42,900 memories into my brain theater. I remember how I told a concerned adult at 16, when I felt the first twinges of real sadness (that is part of all lives but too deafening to deal with adequately as a naive human) that the reason I was depressed had to do with some girls at school making me feel bad. Almost 20 years later I am doing the same thing with my husband; telling him the reason for my tumultuous feelings had to do with this or that, him or her, and ultimately he was to blame.
But it never really is about any of that, is it?
Sunset on Hilltop
Why do the saddest songs have the most enjoyable beats and catchiest lyrics? (See for example Slave Driver(B.Marley))
I also threatened to leave. And it hit me the many times I did just that to people in my life. The times I walked away, couldn’t forgive, gave up, started fresh. Usually I am thinking of those who left me in one way or another. Why at that moment when I yell at my husband do I actually believe that that is what I want? When my head is clear, its absolutely absurd.
“They say time can play tricks on a mem’ry
Make people forget things they knew”
I was mean too, as mean as I could be. I wish I could always be clear. My only hope is to pour my emotion into art, into body, and into mind. And leave the real joy that is real life for the loves of my life. They deserve nothing less and really, neither do I.
Hands in at all times. Except for when they are courageously up in the air in delight.
Miss Corrigan 