The books

You know, though it's really hard sometimes, I can keep myself from buying all the cute girl clothes that I see. It makes it easier because I know that in a few months either she'll outgrow what she's got or the seasons will change and I'll be "forced" to start buying all over again.

But books I have a problem with. I partially blame the Internet. I read a lot of blogs about kids stuff - products, activities, etc. - so that I can keep up with great toys and books and things I wouldn't have otherwise thought or heard about. And many of these blogs have posts on books, of course. I just want, like, all the books I see.

How many is too many books to have in your kid's personal library? I'm not sure it's possible to have too many, but maybe I'm not the best one to answer that question. All I know is Violet loves books. Adores books. Can't get enough books. She brings me books several times a day to read. She wants to read them over and over. "Again, again," she says. I'd use a stronger word for love if I could think of one.

And I want her to have them. I mean, of course I do, right? I want her to learn letters and numbers and words and about artists and myths and other countries and friendship and animals and how to handle sadness and anger and how to go to the potty and how to express her imagination.

So I buy them new when I have to, used when I can find them used, and on sale when I see them. I'll admit I'm not planning on slowing down my book purchases any time soon (don't tell Ross. Ha.). Yesterday I bought her Where the Wild Things Are. I figured it'd be a little old for her yet, and it probably is, but she loved it. We've already read it probably 10 times. I also got Knuffle Bunny, another huge hit (already looking forward to the sequel, which comes out in September). The third book we got yesterday is called Anno's Spain. This will be one that she grows into, but she made it about halfway through. No words in this one, but I believe that eventually she'll be spending a lot of time looking at the pictures.