I’m so excited for Teddy’s first Christmas! We’ve already hung garland on our banister and mantel and his eyes light up every time we turn on the lights. Pure magic!
I’m still deciding what we’ll do for gifts this year as he doesn’t have a ton of interest in toys yet and I’m ordering new clothes for him on the regular anyway, but one thing I know is we always want to encourage his love of reading. Will and I both love reading to him at night before he goes to bed and usually pick one or two books off the shelf in his nursery to read while I nurse him in the glider. Our baby shower hostesses gave us a head start in building his book collection by asking guests to bring books instead of cards (definitely stealing this idea for my cousin’s shower next month!) so I thought I’d share a few of our favorite reads thus far in case you’re shopping for a little one this year! Walmart has a helpful landing page on their site with gift ideas for kids of all ages, so definitely check that out if you’re stumped on what to give the kiddos in your life. I’m admittedly clueless about what kinds of toys are age-appropriate beyond Teddy’s current age (eight weeks on Friday!) so I have it bookmarked for future reference!
- Baby Animals: Black and White
- Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See?
- Corduroy
- Goodnight Moon
- The Rainbow Fish
- The Runaway Bunny
A few more favorites:
- Chicka Chicka Boom Boom
- Harold and the Purple Crayon
- Guess How Much I Love You
- Oh, The Places You’ll Go!
- On The Night You Were Born
- The Cat in the Hat
- The Lorax
- The Snowy Day
- Where’s Spot?
- Where The Wild Things Are
P.S. In addition to books, I love Teddy’s little line-up of stuffed animals! This puppy and this teddy bear from the brand Jellycat are so soft and cuddly and this singing elephant has kept Teddy awake through many a tummy time.
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*This post is sponsored by Walmart. Thank you for supporting the brands that support Design Darling!
These are all great books! I work at a library, and these are very popular among our infants/toddlers and their parents. I also love the Poky Little Puppy books (they are darling); Good Night, Gorilla; the Sarah Boynton books; If I Had a Little Dream; and, Tap the Magic Tree (very interactive and the kids in my story time LOVE it).
In the baby phase we love love loved Sandra Boynton (our favorites were snuggle puppy, opposites, personal penguin, belly button book, going to bed book), are you my mother?, Hop on Pop, and Go Dog Go.
When she was just a little older we loved “press here” and the lama lama series, and Going on a Bear Hunt.
My husband is a scientist so we were given a lot of the baby university books which are very cute (Quantum Physics for Babies, General Relativity for Babies, etc.).
Anything by Sandra Boynton, but start with Moo, Baa, La La La
(from a fellow Bucknell Alum)
Lots of great books listed but throwing in two of my favorites – The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton and Little Fur Family by Margaret Wise Brown.
I love you night and day and when animals kiss goodnight.
It’s probably a little early for Teddy but they’re in the processing of releasing all of the Harry Potter books in illustrated editions!
Instilling a love of reading is a gift that will last a lifetime!
Ummmm NEVER too early to foster a love of Harry Potter! We’re wrapping up the sixth audio book now 🙂
LOVE LOVE LOVE this post and list! There are few things more important than reading to a child, no matter the age! <3
We loved music class too and there are wonderful ones in the Fairfield Count area…
All good suggestions. We also really like the Todd Parr books, including the Feelings Book and the Thankful Book
Looking these up now! Thank you!