"New Home!"

We're moving. Not a big cross-country move, but to another town in our same metro-area. I am extremely stressed by moves and therefore hoping to help Ladybug through the move as gently as possible. We have been reading a couple books to introduce her to the idea of a move. My favorite is The Berenstain Bears' Moving Day.

What I love about The Berenstain Bears book is how well the authors capture why a young family moves. The book is set "when Brother Bear was an only cub," which nicely mirrors our family of three. Things aren't bad in the current home, but they could be better. Mama and Papa Bear will have better work opportunities in the form of forests for furniture making and rich soil for gardening. As a current city-dweller in a ninth floor apartment, I really appreciated the description of the bears' old cave high on a mountain with a magnificent view! The bears' new tree house is even a fixer-upper with a little peeling bark. So many of the details are likely to apply to a young family.

This book covers all the basics. A kiddo gets to see what packing looks like, contemplate saying goodbye to friends, watch moving bears pack up the truck, and take the journey to the new home. I have been referring to the way the bears packed up as we have been packing our things into boxes. I tell Ladybug they are all going to the new home. She can say, "New home!" and calls the book "Bears' Home." I'm hopeful that moving day will be a little less stressful with this dialogue in place for us.

Penguins

Long before March of the Penguins and Happy Feet, there was an ugly blue bathroom in a rental apartment. A beautiful shower curtain with a photo of penguins lined up on ice and snow came along and brought the whole bathroom together. Those penguins turned the look of the room around, making powder blue tile reminiscent of sparkling ice crystals.

I have been fond of penguins ever since. About ten years ago, when we were dating, my husband gave me a stuffed penguin. Years later, on the Mother's Day when I was pregnant with Ladybug, he gave me a stuffed mama and baby penguin to go with the original gift. Now I had a penguin family in celebration of our growing family -- adorable, right?  Ladybug found the penguin family today, and she's smitten. We got to talk about mama and papa and baby penguins. I love that this discussion isn't a total retreat from reality, since penguin fathers are involved in caring for chicks.

Tonight before bed, Ladybug picked a penguin book for me to read. We haven't done much storytime snuggling over non-fiction books, but I gave it a go. This is a book with way too much text for a young toddler, so I got to exercise my summarizing skills. We talked a lot about the mama and baby penguins. She was also thrilled with the knowledge that penguins "swim in wa-wa!" There was a drawing of a penguin skeleton, so I explained that many animals have hard bones in their bodies. I told her she has a long bone in her arm and her leg and that penguins have bones too. She said, "Penguin bones!"

How fun that we had a totally unplanned pre-preschool penguin study! Maybe I will schedule an aquarium trip soon.