Little Treasures [First Edition]

Yesterday I felt like the character, Lauren, in Robin Jones Gunn's book Echoes, excited about the little treasures I found at a rummage sale.  Unfortunately I didn't get to take home a little kitten (chapter 12).  How-ev-er, I did score 2 books plus a cool toy camera for Leala and 1 book for me!

I'm always on the look out for story books containing moral lessons to help me creatively teach Leala character building truths as she grows.  Though she's not reading yet, I see building her book collection little by little now as a wise investment into her future.

The Carrot Seed was the first book I loved!  The illustrations and story are very simple, but I think the lesson is so big!  I think this book teaches a valuable lesson about having faith like a child, especially when faced with those who are critical.  It also reminded me of this story Amber Hutchins shared recently on her blog about her own daughter's experience with planting seeds.

I think most of us are familiar with the Beatrix Potter's classic Peter Rabbit story.  I am more fond of the classic illustrations I remember from my childhood that Beatrix Potter created herself, but the story is still the same.  I liked that the book description on the back cover said the story was a lesson on obedience [wink].

I found a book for myself as well titled Wild at Heart.  It was a recommendation actually by a guy from the Young Adult's Group Gregg and I are a part of at church after sharing with him that I felt it would be a good idea to read some books on raising boys if that's what I ended up having in October.  He said Wild at Heart would be a great book to read to help me in my goal to raise a boy to be a man.  I shared my find with someone else at the rummage sale and after explaining why I was getting the book they replied, "Oh, so you're having a boy?"  [laughs] My mind has been so set on our baby being a boy that I forgot that I hadn't actually found out for sure what we're having!  We find that out June 7th.  [smile]

Before leaving, I thought visiting the children's books one more time would be a good idea since I noticed one of the volunteers still putting them out on the table.  On my way over, a toy camera caught my eye.  Now investing in my daughter's moral character through story books is one thing.  But if I brought a toy camera home too, would my husband agree that it was a necessary purchase?  Well, I came to the conclusion that investing in my daughter's creativity was important too.  Besides, Leala loves getting her hands on my digital camera.  Maybe she'd grow up to enjoy taking pictures too.  Not only that, but awhile ago I saw an ad for a toy digital camera and I made a mental note that that would be a cool toy to get Leala when she was older.  There wasn't a price tag on the camera, but my total purchase came to $3.50, so yeah, I scored a deal there!  The only thing was, I was buying the camera on faith, not knowing if it actually worked.  I sure hoped it did!

When I got home, I scrounged for the couple of AAA batteries I saw the camera took.  I tried turning it on, but it didn't work.  I checked out the camera a bit more to figure out how it functioned and discovered that it actually took a total of 4 batteries.  So I went scrounging around the house for 2 more.  I tried turning the camera on again, but nothing.  But I couldn't give up quite yet... and sure enough, it turned on!  There were about 200 "free" photos already on there from the previous owner, but the camera could take up to 1,000 and there was a handy dandy delete button.  Once Leala noticed what I had, she took interest in it and loved it!  It was so cute I had to take pictures!

Q.  What are some of your favorite children's books? 

Q.  Do you have any parenting books that really helped you out?