"On My Way to the Bath": Kid Book GENIUS

We've got a new favorite book in our house.

It's called "On My Way to the Bath" written by Sarah Maizes and illustrated by Michael Paraskevas.

And it's awesome.

Here's the thing about kids' books: sometimes the ones we, as parents, love best are the ones our kids roll their eyes disparagingly at every time we pluck them from the shelf. And worse, sometimes the books our kids love best are the ones that make us, the parents, cringe in horror each time they are plopped in our lap, accompanied by hand-clapping and puppy dog eyes and "Read it AGAIN, Mommy"s.

So when a book comes along that is beloved by both parents AND children? That's known as a rare and precious treasure in our house.

"On My Way to the Bath" is one of those books.

Livi, the heroine, resists taking her bath by making up some awesome scenarios on her journey from the living room to the tub. It's clever. It's laugh-out-loud funny. It's not sappy or patronizing, does not contain words I hate saying out loud, and the kid seems like an actual kid. Like, one my daughter would love to hang with. Even the mom is lovable, sarcastic, and oh-so-recognizable in her long-suffering role as bath warden.

E thinks "On My Way to the Bath" is HILARIOUS. She loves it because of the pictures, the "funny parts," and frequently makes me read a certain page again and again and again. Which, because that page is actually really funny, I sometimes do.

I love it because it contains the word "minions" (could Sarah be a closeted Gossip Girl super fan like me?) and captures the epic bath time struggle with kid-friendly, adult-enjoyable comic perfection.

Attention LA readers: the lovely and talented Sarah Maizes is reading and signing books at the Grove THIS SATURDAY at 11:00am. E and I will be there getting our copy signed and picking up a few more for friends. If you can make it, we hope to see you there!

Disclosure: Sarah Maizes, in addition to being lovely and talented, is a friend. Her publisher provided us with a copy of this book to review at no charge. We love it. All opinions are our own.

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Three Little Words

I've been waiting a long time for Baby N to utter three little words.

No words in particular, of course. Just any three. I'm not trying to rush him, and I'm not trying to compare him to his sister (because I'd NEVER do that, ahem) but as he approaches 20 months and hasn't yet mastered a sentence more sophisticated than "MOMMY COOKIE," I'm eager to see that language boom everyone talks about.

With E (not that I'm comparing, because only bad moms do that) this was never an issue. She started talking at a year; by 18 months she was fully conversant. As in, "Mommy, please unbuckle me so I can get out of the car" and "I'm hungry, can I please have a hot dog and lemonade for lunch?" and "Daddy's laptop is on the couch, DON'T TOUCH."

She learned to talk early. And talked, and talked, and talked.

Baby N mostly communicates with head nods, grunting, pointing, and arm flailing. If he's particularly emphatic on a certain point, he'll use them all together. And while he CAN say well over 50 perfectly coherent words...most of the time, he chooses not to.

I get that Baby N is his own person. And that he'll master the English language in his own time. I've gotten quite good at translating his "alien language," as E calls it. I'm prepared to wait however long it takes for him to communicate like a regular person. And not an alien.

What I wasn't prepared for?

Was for his first official three word sentence...to consist of these three.

Sigh.

I guess this is what happens when your fully conversant big sister teaches you phrases she in NO WAY learned at home and realizes how funny it is when you repeat them (over, and over, and over again...)



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