Saturday, August 4, 2012

Our home library keeps getting bigger and bigger...

Ever since deciding to have a baby (to be honest, even before then) I dreamed of creating the baby's library. And boy have I! I had two showers that were each themed as "BYOBB" - or bring the new baby a book. So with that, the baby and kid's books I already had, and the books I've purchased since then, we have quite a baby book library!


My Chicago shower - the table of books
(there were more in the gift bags - we brought a lot of books home from that shower!)

I do have to admit though that I have a bit of a problem when it comes to buying books, and Lucy is rather spoiled. I suppose there are worse things to spoil a child with, however.


The one thing I have done that I'm glad I finally got around to doing before the baby came was to affix a sticker to the back of each book saying who it was from. So now, each time we read a book, we turn the last page, read who the book was from, and say "The End!"

And I have to be a blushing proud mom for a moment - lately, every time I say "The End!", Lucy gets the biggest, most sweetest grin on her face! I don't know why she likes the end so much, but it makes me want to read more and more books to her before putting her to bed to see that smile again and again!

Now I've never been good at finding kids books at one of my favorite places to buy - Half Priced Books - but my sister-in-law sure is!!! I think it's a great place for books if you have the patience for it, and as Lucy is old enough to pick her own books, we'll be making many more book purchases there!

Before Barnes & Noble closed in our town (still sad over that), I liked to browse the children's book section, but I rarely made purchases there because of the price. For some reason, I have a hard time shelling out $14 for a baby board book.

I'd have to say that the place I buy the most books from - which is odd, because I rarely find anything for myself at this store but get tons of gifts for others - is TJ Maxx. Their selection is random, but I have found some really good books there - including books I have eyed at expensive book stores but haven't felt like purchasing. And at $5 or less, I can't beat that.

But my all-time favorite place to buy books is Kohl's. Each season, they have a specific line of 4 books that are part of their Kohl's Cares campaign. The books also have matching plush dolls (and anyone that knows me knows that I'm a HUGE SUCKER for a plush doll of a book, movie, tv show...). The good part is that the book and plush are always just $5 a piece. The best part though is that the money goes to charity - 100% of it!! (According to their website, at least!) The money helps fund children's education and literacy efforts. So you really can't beat that. So I get super excited each time the new line comes out-



Lucy even has her own library card. I'm not sure if she's the library's youngest card holder at 9 months, but I figure she's got to be on the top of the list for sure. I felt a bit silly checking out two board books when she has probably 40 at least, but to me, the action of getting her a library card, picking out a book, and having her experience that for the first time was more important. It's a huge goal of mine to have her growing up excited to go to the library once a week to get new books and listen to the kids story time.

Obviously, reading is important to me ;)

Which is also part of the reason we're having a hard time finding our future home - it's going to have a lot to live up to to keep all of our books. We're going to have to come up with some interesting book storage solutions for sure!

PS - my Iowa shower was book and sweets themed - here's a reminder for those that were there of the cavities you left with. Also - sorry to those that brought kids. Especially sorry to those that brought kids that found out about the goodie bags to fill to take home!!!