Matthew and I began shopping for Christmas presents for Marin a few days ago. For a 7 month old who is fascinated by even the simplest of every day objects, this is pretty easy. We have decided not to go overboard this year (or any other year) in order to keep him from thinking that Christmas is all about getting hoards of expensive gifts. Too many toys overwhelm a kid at Christmas anyway, so we're sticking with the simple. Nope, not telling/showing what we got yet. Marin reads this blog after all. :)

I will say that he still enjoys reading as much as he does playing with toys. He has a great attention span when it comes to books. When it comes to remembering that Mommy has already told him no 14 times for playing with the TV stand, well, that's another matter.

We started really reading to Marin when he was about 6 weeks old. By the time he was 3 months old, he would actively engage with the book (pointing at things and looking up at you when you made a funny sound that went along with the story). I really, really hope that he keeps his love of books since his Dad and I are such avid readers. Do you wonder what is on the reading list of a busy 7 month old? I have noticed that most of his favorite books, with the exception of 2, feature real life images in them. He seems to really like books with actual pictures or photos of every day objects and real people in them, as opposed to drawings or paintings .

Here are his current favorites:

First we'll start with his two exceptions. These books have cartoony-type drawings in them, but he LOVES both of them. He has lots of other cartoony-type books, but shows no interest in them yet.

1. Maisy's Favorite Instruments by Lucy Cousins. He adores Maisy and grins his little face off when he sees her. If you aren't familiar with the series, Maisy is a mouse. He loves the word maracas and just cracks up when you say it.

2. Five Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth. This is a clever little book, featuring the one by one disappearance of 5 ladybugs. I won't spoil the story and tell you where they've gone, but the book seems "mean" until you get to the end. It's really funny, but my dad and Matthew both said, "Aww, that's mean!" after they read the first couple pages. By the end of the book, you find out the punch line and its really cute.

The rest of his current faves feature real life photography. He sits still as can be when you read them to him.

3. Animals by Priddy Books/Bright Baby. This book has pictures of every animal you can think of. Marin's favorites to see are the goose, goat, and bee. He loves to make the "g" sound. It is his current favorite "word".

4. Zoo Crew by Tom Arma. This one features real babies dressed up as zoo animals.

5. Water Babies by Tom Arma. Real babies dressed as aquatic creatures.

6. Jingle Babies by Tom Arma. Cute little babies dressed up as Christmas themed things, from reindeer to presents. We just pulled this one off of Marin's book shelf to go with the current season, but we already knew he'd like it since he is such a big fan of Arma's other books. There is an entire list of Arma books, but these are the only 3 he currently owns.

Well I guess that's it. I'm off to catch Marin who is fiddling with guess what? Yep, the TV stand.