October 30, 2006

Fly Away Ladybug

Like every other woman pregnant for the first time, I was given a ton of advice and a ton of presents that would help me out. Nothing could really have prepared me for a newborn who was fussy all the time and only napped on my lap. The one product that would occupy Andy long enough for me to take a quick break (whether it was to write a quick email or go to the bathroom) was the Fly Away Ladybug book by Suzy McPartland and illustrated by Emily Bolam. One of my sorority sisters got it for me, telling me how much her daughter loved it and how she had been given it by a friend whose baby also loved it. I had never seen the crinkly paper books like this one is made out of, so I had no idea its affect on babies. But my sister told me that it was magic. I'm really glad I listened to her, as Andy's really loved this book for as long as he was aware of things. I always give it to him when he's sitting in his infant seat in the kitchen. First he just kicked at it a bunch. As he found his hands, he started playing with it. Later it started to go into his mouth. Now he stares at it and examines it for up to a half hour at a time. And as it's a book, I can read it to him as well. Really, this is one of my favorite products out there, and I'm definitely going to be giving it to all of my pregnant friends in the future. Hopefully it'll work for them as well as it's worked for me.