Just before naps. So I'm going to schedule in a book-reading-time in between getting dressed and getting out the door in the morning, and always keep a book in the bag in case she gets bored on the bus (unlikely).
I'm also going to read a very simple, one-word style book to the baby during Ana's nap, since they don't sleep at the same time anymore (gorram it!)
I'm rather a fan of both
Roger Priddy's books (they're full of these bright pictures) and
Dana Simson's (they're virtually indestructable) when it comes to one-word books, so I think I'll start building up a collection of their books for the baby. A small one - the sooner she knows enough words to be shifted onto real books (and only have those for toys), the better. When she learns to talk, I fully intend to be there to take all the credit, y'know :)
Anyway, I got the baby
this book, and it's the weirdest thing. On one page, they have Birds. And they have a flamingo, and an eagle, and a toucan, and a macaw. They don't have the more familiar exotic birds: peacocks, parrots, ostriches. And they don't have the more familiar birds the baby might see in her everyday life, either: pigeons, starlings, sparrows, seagulls, hummingbirds, crows, cardinals. What they *do* have is a kookaburra. A kookaburra? We're not Australian. I honestly never heard of a kookaburra until Ana got a CD featuring that round. I can only imagine they stuck kookaburra in there because it's a funny word.
Honestly, though, sometimes I think we should just make our own word books. Get some heavy-duty cardboard, ask somebody to laminate it later, and make our book using pictures from the house (and other things, if necessary). Hm... Actually, that's not a half-bad idea. How hard would this be, do you think?