Kids' Picks (and a Kiddo Update)

Every month 5 Minutes for Mom does a feature called Kids' Picks where bloggers are invited to write about the books their kids are interested in at the moment. I try to write about what Kiddo is reading on a regular basis but I'm failing miserably at it, so this is my kick in the butt to actually do it. Here goes!

(For those new to my blog, or here just for Kid's Picks, Kiddo is my 7 year old son.)

We've had dragon theme in our house recently. I think Kiddo's love of dragons started with Harry Potter but now it has grown to encompass anything dragon related. He was even excited about the Barnes & Noble gift card that I won from Chartroose because it had a dragon on it (thank again Chartroose!).

But back to the books ...

A few weeks ago Kiddo came home from school with a library book called George and the Dragon. I've mentioned before that Kiddo is really struggling with learning to read but this book was PERFECT for him. First off, the story is adorable: A dragon is terrorizing the land but has a fatal flaw - he's afraid of mice. George is a mouse who accidentally learns that he can scare the dragon, so he becomes the protector of the castle. Second, the illustrations are fun: every page contains a glimpse of the dragon, and everything is bright and well-designed. And finally, the story is short: There's only about one sentence on each page, something Kiddo can handle without much difficulty.

The book was supposed to go back to the school library one week later ... but it has now been at our house for over a month. Since he loves it so much, I promised to buy him a copy. Of course, now I find out that it is no longer in print, and Amazon.com doesn't have it. So I'm on a hunt to track down a copy for him - wish me luck!

The second book with a dragon theme is one I picked up for Kiddo at his school book fair: Puff the Magic Dragon, book and music CD. I'm sure most of you are familiar with the old Peter, Paul, and Mary song by that same name (if not, I'm posting the video down below). I loved that song when I was a kid but Kiddo had never heard it. The book has lovely illustrations and the text is simply the words to the song. Kiddo and I took turns reading one page each. On my turn I'd sing the words. Kiddo quickly caught on to the chorus and enjoyed reading those pages. After we read the book - which we BOTH enjoyed - we popped in the CD and listened to the song. Kiddo LOVED it. In fact, he listened to it over and over again, and wanted to read the book several times over the next few days.

The CD has two other songs on it: The Blue-Tail Fly (which I remember singing as a child) and Froggie Went A-Courtin' (which I remember one of my grandfathers singing to me when I was very small and he was bouncing me on his knees - it is one of my few memories of him). Kiddo enjoyed both of these songs too, but not nearly as much as Puff.

A quick Kiddo update ...

For those who have been following along with Kiddo's oh-so-fun medical issues lately, thanks again for your thoughts, prayers, and comments. I love hearing from all of you and Kiddo thinks it is really COOL to hear from people he's never met. Like I said before, he thinks he's famous now.

We found a way to make the powdered version of the calorie/protein formula more palatable (because it really tastes nasty). We mixed orange juice, orange flavored Rice Dream (a rice-based dairy free ice cream), a bit of sugar, and lots of the formula in the blender and made a smoothie. Kiddo LOVED it. He's also drinking it in the mornings with orange juice and a bit of sugar. He still isn't up to the 32-42 ounces they want him drinking in one day, but he IS making progress. We are hopeful that he won't need the feeding tube after all.

The removal of chicken from his diet has been hard, but not as bad as we feared. We're coming up with new ways to make turkey (which is the only meat he can eat right now) and trying to think of ways to hide some beans in his meals (since he doesn't like them but they do have lots of protein). My newest idea is to puree some beans and put them in some turkey chili - that way he can't pick them out or say he doesn't like them. Ha! I'll get him there! ~LOL~

I promise to keep you all updated as the weeks go on. Thanks again for all your support.

And now that video I promised you ...