A guest post by Nicole, first-time mum to Charlotte, 22 months.
At about 7:30pm every night Charlotte and I (and sometimes her Daddy) sink into her bean bag and read some books before she settles into bed with Dolly. Charlotte heads straight to her book shelf and starts pulling books out for Mummy to read to her that night. She has a couple of favourites that always need a once over before bed.
Continuing the music theme from Trudy’s guest post, one of Charlotte’s favourite books is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. On the front cover you press a section which starts the nursery rhyme and lights up the sky with tiny twinkle stars. The twinkling stars mesmerised her as a baby. (It was always a good book to have on hand when she was unsettled.)
We never seem to get past the front cover of the book, once the song is over and the lights stop flashing, Charlotte says, “MORE, MORE” and we start the nursery rhyme again. Along with flashing lights, Charlotte also performs the actions to the nursery rhyme, very cute…

Once we get pass the front cover, the book is brought to life with some beautifully illustrated drawings. Five little creatures of the night take us on a journey to find out what twinkles in the bright night sky. It is very much a book that can be enjoyed over and over again.

The other book is Rabbit Ears by Amber Stewart, which Charlotte got for Easter from her Granny. Hopscotch is a very determined little rabbit who knows exactly what he likes and what he doesn’t like. Sounds a bit like Charlotte and most other two-year-olds. What Hopscotch knows for absolute certain is that he does not like having his ears washed. Charlotte can relate to Hopscotch, as she knows for absolute certain that she does not like having her hair washed…

Hopscotch’s big cousin Bobtail comes to stay overnight. While eating some extra-chocolaty chocolate cake, Hopscotch inquires as to when he too can go and stay at Bobtails. Daddy replies when you are a big Hopscotch. While Hopscotch and Bobtail are in the bath, Hopscotch notices that bobtail is washing his own ears. This is where Hopscotch realises that maybe if he washes his own ears this would make him a big Hopscotch and he would be able to go and stays at Bobtails house.

Laura Rankin’s illustrations are exquisite and along with the story it makes for an every enjoyable read.

A guest post by Trudy, 30-something-year-old first-time mum to Oscar, 15 months.

Oscar and I go to Nanny’s house every Thursday night as Matt plays tennis and his parents love having us (that is Oscar) for dinner.

I have noticed over the last month or so that within five minutes of arriving, Oscar crawls to the toy box in the back room, and opens the lid. His face just lights up with excitement as he surveys the array of toys that are inside.

Much to our amazement, the first thing he always gets out are three books, all with a musical theme and they keep him (and his cousin Charlie) entertained for ages.  Reader warning: having all three musical books out together can drive you crazy within 5 minutes.

I asked Nanny if we could borrow the books so we could contribute to the weheartbooks.com family.  This post is the first of three guest posts I will make over the next week.

Incy Wincy Spider is bright, it’s fun, it’s interactive and above all else it seems to be entertaining Oscar no end.  The front cover has a hole at the bottom right hand corner, which is also the bottom of the water spout.  When you press the button it plays the tune, Incy Wincy Spider.  Oscar knows exactly where the button is and also knows if he opens the front cover of the book, the music becomes louder.

Once you open the cover of the book there is also another small button with a cartoon spider on it.  You can only press this once the music has finished, Oscar hasn’t quite mastered that element of the book yet!  When you press this button it makes a special sound effect which I just cannot describe in words but is something like “rip-raw”.

As you work your way through the book it tells the story of Incy Wincy Spider and has interactive pull tabs along the way. (Don’t forget the music button can always be pressed again for more singing…)

The “out comes the sunshine” page is one of our favourites.  It’s got the biggest brightest sunshine with a blue bird popping out.  You also get the opportunity to start the Incy journey up the spout again.  There a few other animals along the way too which are as equally bright and happy.  There’s a dog, or as Oscar refers to him, a “woof woof” and there is also a fat pink pig.

The illustrations and pop outs are so clever.  We also like the page (illustrated here) which has Incy climbing across a thin piece of string which represents his web.

By this stage of the book we have hit the song four times and the other rip-raw sound at least twice.  The final page in the book is just too exciting for words and you can see by the photo that Oscar is so intrigued as to how the legs are free and dangly. 

I tell Oscar it’s a special book and we have to take care when reading “Nanny’s special books”.  Nanny says it’s fine (as most Nannys would) but we want poor old Incy to last a few more years yet.  When he saw the books at our house today, his face was one of total surprise and joy.  There may be tears tomorrow night when we take the books back and leave them at Nanny’s house…

We’ve been tagged in a blog-tagging game by Sara O’Leary.

The rules of the game are that the ‘taggee’ must do the following:
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The passage in question for me is the following:
“It’s not unusual for a child to peer into the toilet and watch the water swirl down the hole to the sound of the loud flush and become confused or fearful about the noise, the hole, or the unknown. Children get past this fear in time, but there are a number of ways to help your child overcome his apprehension. For a while, wait until he leaves the room and then flush for him.”

The book is, for those who are curious, The No-cry Potty Training Solution by Elizabeth Pantley. Yes, sad, I know, but more on that later.

Here are the blogs we are tagging (all blogs we love, so sorry if you aren’t a willing participant…).
Potty Mouth Mama
Write Mama Write
Annie’s Organic Baby Blog
Only Books All the Time
Vintage Kids Books My Kid Loves

The draw for our inaugural competition is complete! Everyone who entered a comment between April 1 and April 15 qualified to enter, and 10 random entries were drawn.

Congratulations to the following winners:
Donna
Sonja
Anne-Laure
Cat
Sarah F
Steph (of Crooked House)
Sue H
Helena McAloon
Sue B
Beth (of Write, Mama. Write)

We will be contacting winners by email to arrange for postage of the prizes – each comprising three gorgeous picture books! Thanks to everyone who entered.

Our official launch competition closed yesterday, and thanks to everyone who entered by including a comment on the site. Lou and I really appreciated the feedback people left, with suggestions for new books and affirmation that the concept of this site is a good one.

Winners will be announced shortly… And stay tuned for other competitions and prizes over the coming months!