Baby World

Um, my baby really disliked my being away from her today, even though she was with her father. Here’s hoping she gets used to my mornings away without much more trauma. (I did enjoy the class a lot, at least!)

68. Baby Born by Anastasia Suen. Illustrated by Chih-Wei Chang

This is a little book about the first year of a baby born in winter and her (very ethnically diverse) friends. Each spread shows a watercolour of babies and their families doing something season and age appropriate. There’s a flap to lift on each spread and the pictures are in slightly muted (but still colourful) watercolours.

I’ll admit I was slightly put off by the first spread being of rows and rows of babies in separate cots with never an adult (let alone a parent) in sight, but I’m remembering not being able to get our DD out of the hospital nursery fast enough. We couldn’t be moved to the rooming-in ward for half a day, and we went to the other ward a couple of hours before they’d let us take her to that room for the day – the sound of lonely newborns crying was heart-breaking. I couldn’t personally imagine choosing to leave mine there, and next time I’d probably fight harder to stay with her in the nursery, if necessary. Considering today’s experience, I’m probably feeling this particularly strongly. (Oh, and the nursery staff seemed very nice with the babies, but they only had so many hands.)

Anyway, the book. Each season the baby can do more and more, appropriately enough, and it’s nicely done. I think it’ll be an easy way to reminisce with DD about her first year, considering she’s also a winter baby, even though neither the climate nor the festivals fit here.

Maintaining people

Cover via Amazon

22. The Baby Owner’s Manual by Louis and Joe Borgenicht

I’m in two minds about this book. On the one hand the information is clear and occasionally slightly amusingly presented, with a recognition that there isn’t just one way to look after babies. On the other, I’m uncomfortable with discussing babies as if they weren’t people (the pretence is that this the manual for a newly acquired machine of some kind). Yes, it’s a joke here, but personally I feel it’s the lack of recognition of the very young as small individuals that leads to the parenting suggestions I like least. I don’t want to be my daughter’s owner, I want to be a decent mother to her. Yes, that means being in charge for the next few years, but that’s because she needs care and education to help her develop into a capable adult, and I (and DH, of course) have been given the responsibility of giving her the attention and interaction necessary to that end.

I’m probably making far too big a deal over a running joke, but there it is. As above, it’s a clear source of basic and necessary information, with stylised pictures that clearly show the given point without extraneous details. The actual advice is not too regimented, and certainly discusses options like cloth nappies and babywearing, as well as recommending breastfeeding. In the sections not specifically discussing those options, however, it does assume disposables, buggies/strollers, and even to a lesser extent bottle feeding. Still, it’s the only book I’ve seen that discussed swaddling (and has pictures showing how to do it) while admitting that not all babies like to be swaddled. (Ours certainly doesn’t.)

So for the most part I think well of this book – it does what it aims to in a clear and handy format that would be easy to read on the go. I have enough of a problem with the language, however, that it’s probably going to go back into our BookMooch inventory (that’s where we got it from), even though I am pleased to have read it.

Related Articles

• Gymnastics for babies (bbc.co.uk)
• Baby Einstein (socyberty.com)
• How Breast Pumps Became a Political Issue (thedailybeast.com)
• What About Swaddling? (psychologytoday.com)
• Call to end to bottle feeding (heraldsun.com.au)
• Flying With a Newborn: Is It Safe? (everydayhealth.com)
• Friday Rant: Applying Newborn Strategies to Managing Corporate Procurement Expectations (Part 2) (spendmatters.com)
• Bottle-feeding linked to tooth decay in infants (news.bioscholar.com)
• Bottle Feeding vs. Breastfeeding (brighthub.com)

Some great board books

We’ve been given a set of gorgeous board books to read to our baby, which we’re enjoying doing! She’s not really ready to pay attention or to get the idea of stories or anything (she’s only just over a month old, after all!), but there’s only one way for her to learn, right?

Oh, I’m adding these to my reading list, so I can review them, but will obviously only do so once in a given year. The fact that they’ll likely get read umpteen times each validates that, I think. I may end up waiting awhile to review them in 2011, so I can give some approximation of DD‘s reaction, while the response now is entirely mine (and sometimes DH‘s).

Cover of Snuggle Puppy (Boynton on Board)

55. Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton

This is the only board book we’ve been given so far that isn’t specifically meant to be a bedtime story. Instead, as the subtitle suggests, it is “A Love Song”, from a parent (by the pictures and sentiments, although it doesn’t have to be) to a child. It’s very validating, and possibly our favourite so far. (Probably helped by the fact that we haven’t tried to set up a bedtime routine yet, let alone an actual bedtime!)

The pictures show an anthropomorphised adult dog and puppy – thus the name of the book – but ‘snuggle baby’ fits the rhythm just as well, for anyone who’d prefer to recite it to their child that way.

Cover of Pajama Time

56. Pajama Time by Sandra Boynton

For something so very statedly a bedtime book, this is very active in both theme and rhythm (not to mention the suggested actions). It’s very good fun, however, and I can imagine many toddlers finding the pictures hilarious. I also guess that not every child or every evening is suited to the calming, soothing tale or poem.

I hadn’t come across Sandra Boynton myself before we were sent these three books, but I’d happily look out for more of hers, going by these two. The illustrations are great, and fit perfectly with the text (as one might expect of an author-illustrator), and there’s lots to appreciate for both adult and child.

Cover of Good Night, Mr. Night

57. Good Night, Mr. Night by Dan Yaccarino

This is definitely one of the quiet, soothing type of bedtime books. It’s also the only one we have so far that is fully in prose, and because of that I sometimes try to fit a rhythm to it, unsuccessfully until now at least! Unlike the others, it’s told in the voice of the child recognising that night has come, and it’s time for the world to sleep, until morning comes, when Mr Night will sleep instead.

Cover of Goodnight Moon

59. Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown with pictures by Clement Hurd

We received this one today, when I was already halfway through the draft of this post, but it certainly fits, as another beautiful board book that I hope (and expect) our DD will greatly enjoy in a short while. It certainly looks to be a classic (first published in 1947) for good reason. I had heard of it, of course, but I don’t think I’d come across it directly myself. I’m getting the impression being a parent is going to be a really great excuse to appreciate the best of old and new books for young children!