Summer Vacation

an unrelated, but cute, snapshot of our vacation [outside Target field]

I've been enjoying a vacation in Minnesota, visiting family and friends. I'll be sure to jump in feet-first to my usual routine (which I am fortunate to love) when we get back. But for now I just wanted to show you the two new books that Baby A acquired on vacation, much to her delight:

Find the Puppy (Usborne), illustrated by Stephen Cartwright, is packed with patterns and "hidden" pictures so that 3-5 year-old readers can glean much more than a showing of the messes this puppy makes. Grandma got it for her from the Usborne online party, and then got to read it to her in person! The book is simple and short enough to read with younger babes, too, especially if they like dogs as much as Baby A does.

Moomin's Little Book of Words (Farrar, Straus and Giroux) is naturally adorable. Funny to read her a Finnish book in English, hu? But it's only one word per page, so we just say it in Finnish. An object is by itself with the word on the left page, and then in a picture from a Muumi scene on the right page. A friend found it at FinnStyle in Minneapolis. 

(Side note: At Finnstyle we also found a Marimekko Kaiku shower curtain, Marikmekko Orange Clover child headband, Muumi chapter books, and plenty of other things to drool over, so I'd check it out if I were you.)

A few playtimes, fireworks, barbeques, restaurants, lounges, swims, and long chats are shaping this vacation quite nicely. I hope you're enjoying your summer! Any new (to you) book suggestions to share? Do you read more or less in the summertime than at other times?