Tips for reading to baby

• Use your local library! We were blessed with many baby books from my family and friends, but Lily only liked certain ones (even when she was two months old, she would listen and look for certain books and not for others). The library is a great way for me to test out books on her without investing money into books she won’t like. Also, my library allows me to renew our books until three months which is a very long trial period for books.

• Get colorful, touch and feel, or action books to engage your little one (bonus if a book is all three). For instance, if the books talk about kissing, clapping, or parts of the body, you can act those out/show her those body parts. Colorful books are fun to look at, and you can demonstrate to your baby which parts are fun to touch (Lily went through phases where she loved touching them, and now she doesn’t).

• In the alphabet books, you can make the letter’s sound after its name (example: “A. Aaaahhhh. Apple.”) Similarly, in a counting book, you can count each item out (“6 apples. One, two, three, four, five, six.”)

• My husband’s family speaks Spanish, so when we go to the library, we get bilingual books to expose her to vocabulary in both English and Spanish (bonus points: mommy learns some more Spanish too!) Supposedly it is super easy to pick up languages when you’re really young, so maybe throw some extra language books in there too. You never know what might stick! These are some of our favorite English-Spanish books.

These are some of our favorite books.