SHHHHHHHHH....quiet (books)

Warning:  this post will reveal my inner nerd.  My dweebalicious dorkfulness.  My hidden doofusina.  (Perhaps those weren't as hidden as I'd like to believe.)  But, continue as you'd like...and don't say I didn't warn you....

Christmas.  Since having children, I realize how easy it is to fall prey to the ads, the new latest and greatest gadgets...giving in to my kids' every wish.  But for the last 4 years, we haven't.  I know.  Roll your eyes.  Snort at my stupidity and naivete.  It's just that they are so young and don't know (yet) to ask for the big stuff.  And I KNOW that these days are numbered.  They will soon understand all this DS, IPad, insert-expensive-gift-here hype and want one.  And we'll have to deal with that then. But for now, we are simple.  This isn't bragging.  It's not comparing.  It's just recognizing that while they are young, we intend to keep it as simple as we can.  We are thankful that the true PRICELESS meaning of Christmas still edges out the glitter and excitement of Santa and presents....and we are happy to keep it that way....forever.  Although we're not naive....I was a teenager once, too....and HAD to have Calvin Kleins. [One pair.  That I wore all the time.  That certain girls made fun of me (as if I couldn't hear them) for wearing 2 days in a row.  Gasp.  How could I?  They had 46 pairs and never had to repeat an outfit.  Why couldn't I be more like them?  If they could only see me now: lounging in a hotel bed with 3 other little boys, who are tired and happy after an evening of swimming, arcade, pizza snarfing, watching a movie.  Guess what?  I'm wearing the same jeans I wore yesterday now, too.  Kiss my jeans.  Can't buy this amount of happiness and peace with a gazillion pairs of jeans.  I hope you have on your new fancy $200 jeans and that they still bring you all kinds of happiness...the kind you get from apparently making fun of others......Wow, yikes, guess I'm still a little bitter over that incident.]  Whew.  ANYWAY.....
Get to the point.  Yep.  Ok, I'll get moving.  Gotta get the blood pressure back down.

So, my point is...that while others are getting the cool stuff,  I wanted my kids to have....drumroll please.....QUIET BOOKS.  Is that not the antithesis of all the cool stuff these days?  Yep.  I warned you.  I know you're all thinking, "wow, what a super cool mom she is!  I bet her boys think she is the most awesome "with-it"-mom ever."  Or maybe you're thinking, "What in the world is a quiet book?!?"  Well, they are all over Etsy and other similar sites.  They've been around.  I casually mentioned to my mom a few months ago that I would love to have them for my boys.  They teach skills - lots of skills (as you'll see), and they teach them to sit still and work on the task at hand.  Which, frankly, one of my boys LOVES to do, and another NEEDS to do.  So I was beyond thrilled to see them open these over Christmas.  Ridiculously thrilled.  Like as thrilled as I (thought I) was when I bought my first pair of CK jeans. The boys LOVE them.  Like LOVE them.  Church, car, waiting for food, before naps, before bed, randomly throughout the day.  Love them.  And they are just beautiful. Amazing detail, talent.  Tons of stitches and work, and you can almost feel the grandma love oozing out of them ;)  Here's a few pictures of the books.  Not exactly the same genre as an iPad, but I'd argue they are even cooler...and they don't run out of batteries :)

Spell your name; button

Mail station:  write a letter, mail it. 

Lace and tie.  Farm; open the doors and there are 5 animal finger puppets 

Try on the glove. Buckle up the vest 

Whaddya know?  It fits! 

Counting/adding watermelon seeds 

Snapping and zipping 

Close up of the cute little lady bug 

Complete with tags.... 

The front of RYAN's book 

Snap the apples

Matching, lacing, tying, winding.  And an abacus for counting/adding..or just sliding beads around.

Working on zipping, buttoning, buckling (those are NOT the aforementioned CK jeans!). Lacing.

Weaving, Wallet (velcro, magnet, sorting, etc) 

Close up of wallet.  Too bad that gift card and money is a fake....

Tic-tac-toe!

My Mom's pretty awesome.  If you would want one for a gift, let me know and I'll get the information to you.  They are cuuuuute!