A Good Morning

(Card courtesy of Card Generator)

A good morning... Despite the fact that my sore throat took a turn for the worse yesterday, and I lost my voice, am coughing up a storm, sneezing the rest of the time, and so on... a good morning. (I can still taste my coffee, which tetlls me there is still life within.)

After "egg boats," we ended up hanging out at the co-op for close to an hour, the boys having fun playing together in that setting (and quite cute riding down a slight hill on their bellies on little sliding boards on wheels). The little one did "not" want us to leave, but ultimately he was convinced to climb a ladder and wave to us over the fence. We headed to the bookstore for a new crop of chapter books.

We contemplated a number of things (or I did - he can be a bit of a hard sell on a new series), but I finally got his attention with this series that I think looks really cool. It's the Geronimo Stilton series - and, heaven help me, I can not believe I've launched us on a series where a mouse is the main character. (Though, I did read the BabyMouse graphic novel, on my own, last week, too - and didn't love it, but did read it.)

But, a bunch of things stood out about Geronimo Stilton... first, the "format" and layout of these books is awesome. They're longer than intro chapter books (which is good since he's reading more than one of those a day). But, they use color and varied sizes in the typography and have frequent and cool color illustration throughout and have little "extras" thrown in like a pirate soup recipe and sailor jokes (in the pirate-themed mystery). So, we'll see how they go. Just "looking" at them made me happy and excited. Seriously. And, did I mention that there are 25+ of them. That's a "good" thing. We like a good, long series. So, we picked three... and, amazingly, we didn't get 1, 2, and 3 (they didn't have 1 and 2). I'm glad though because by picking "topics" that sounded cool to him, I think we have a better chance of loving the series right off the bat. At any rate, we got The Mona Mousa Code #15 (my pick - I couldn't resist), The Temple of the Ruby of Fire #14, and Shipwreck on the Pirate Islands #18. We might have picked up a few more, but we noticed a set of full-color chapter books based on Sonic Hedgehog, and so we got a few of those as well (knowing, too, that the little one will like those).

We contemplated a number of other things. He was compelled by Stink: The Incredible Shrinking Kid, which I've looked at before because it is illustrated by Peter Reynolds (of The Dot and Ish) and has sections of comics inside.

From the library, he's reading the Captain Underpants series (forgive me), and though he really wanted a few of those, I have to admit, I'd rather "own" other things. But, those, too, have comic-style segments.

[I also spotted this one: Dear Max. Not necessarily something he'd like right now - but I found it really exciting. It's done as a series of letters (supplemented with photos and sketches) between an author and a young writer. Looked very cool.]

So, a bag of new books, and then we headed to the coffee shop for "snacks" and ATCs (what a difference a year makes, huh).

He's working on a few for a special trade.

I'm working on a few for a special trade.

I was feeling a tad bit inspired today. And, I drew out three cards - all of which I really like.

I. Said. That.

(Remarkable.)

So, a nice morning.

Okay... I'm off to find another box of tissues.