Gaga For Lulu

Last summer my mother in law made cloth “paper dolls” in carrying cases for each member of The Tribe. Every doll had a few separate pieces of clothing and accessories with them. They were great! She even made a boy model and sent it to my nephew out west. The kids played with them without the worry of ripping or tearing the new dollies. As you can all deduce, nothing is truly safe in my house. Not even the three, living, breathing dogs! Just ask The Babe.

I have been searching for this type of product online. I think that it would make an original gift. It is something that can be given without the thought of duplicating a toy. Well, thanks to a fellow blogger, I think I have found the answer. Melissa’s site Little Wool Gatherings has the cutest selection of felt dolls and appliques. She even offers the templates for all her products. So cool! My favorite is the felt jungle animals. I love the colors. What kid doesn’t want to make a lion roar?

If anyone had spare time, which I know is few and far between, it would be cool to have a group of mommies over and make some of the dolls and animals using the templates. Hell, you could throw a couple of bottles of wine in and have yourselves a good ol’ time. LOL!

Deviating from the sarcasm of my last few posts, I want to let you all know about some great books. As you know, I have three girls. The oldest is reading and the middle one is just starting with sight words. We have been buying Step Into Reading-Reading With Help books for the last year or so. They are published by Random House and have a website at www.stepintoreading.com. The have hundreds of books that are categorized into 5 steps. My girls are reading the stage 1 and 2 books right now, which are “ready to read” and “reading with help” for preschool through first grade. They progress to step 5, “ready for chapters”, which is suggested for grades 2-4. I love how the books assist the children in reading success. They build confidence and establish the joy of reading in kids.

The Boss is currently reading The Statue of Liberty (Step-Into-Reading, Step 2). I think this is wonderful, since it teaches her about history at the same time as teaching her to read. A lot of these books are about history, instead of cartoons or dolls. Oh, yeah, Marsha Marsha Marsha is reading Barbie: School Days (Step into Reading). Baby steps people, baby steps.