We never really sat down and taught Caroline her ABC’s.  It just happened because we provided lots of interesting materials for her to use.  We used them with her, to be sure, but she was mostly self-taught.

I saw these Baby Einstein Alphabooks when I was pregnant and I thought they were the cutest things.

I love little books in boxes so this was right up my alley. I didn’t buy them until after Caroline was born, but they were a great purchase.  She has used them time and time again.  We’ve probably had them well over a year and a half and she still regularly sits down and goes through them.

There is a little board book for each letter of the alphabet.  Each book has three words and a related photograph, work of art, or graphic.  They were also a great vocabulary tool as we talked about what was in each of the pictures.

Cute, compact, and clever.  Just what I like! 

I think Caroline was about four months old when we really started looking at books together and she would attend to them.  Like all babies, she definitely had her favorites and I thought I would share them here. I’m going to do this as a little series since there are too many books to put all in one post!  

NoisyFarm (Baby Fun)

This was, without a doubt, Caroline’s favorite book of the first year.  The flaps have been taped and retaped and taped yet again. She loved the piggy.

Baby Says Peekaboo!

We read this one over and over and over and over again.  You can tell by the fact that all of the pages are taped. She loved this touch-and-feel book with flaps to lift.

Peekaboo Bathtime

When we saw this book in the bookstore, we had already read Baby Says Peekaboo! a million times.  When we showed Bathtime Peekaboo! to Caroline, her face lit up and it was exactly as though she said, “I know how this works!”  So, of course, we bought it. It too has been taped up.

Touch and Feel: Farm

I can still see Caroline’s little chubby hands running all over the places to feel.  The sheep were her favorite to touch, but the piggies were her favorite animal.

Pat the Bunny (Touch and Feel Book)

Yes, Caroline enjoyed this classic just as probably millions of other children have.  To this day, she still asks to feel Daddy’s scratchy face and David happily obliges her.

A Friendly Day for Pooh (Play-A-Sound Books)

This was the best of all worlds in Caroline’s mind: flaps to lift, buttons to push that make sounds, and Pooh.  What more could a girl want?