Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumbs - Aunt Becky sent Jilly this one. I hadn't heard of it before but it's perfect for Jilly. It combines repetition, rhythm, rhyming, and learning body parts. She asks for this one often.
Chicka Chicka Boom Boom - Another one from Aunt Becky (just call her the book fairy!). This is another I didn't know about- though I don't know how- it's great! It's too funny to watch all the little letters climb up the tree. Adorable. Again, repetitive and rhythmic, so it's easy for Jilly to get into it, plus the ABCs, which she knows now, so it's a fun reinforcement for her.
Jillian Jiggs - This is one my mom read me when I was little. I often heard the immortal line, "Jillian! Jillian! Jillian Jiggs! Your room looks like it's been lived in by pigs!" So when we announced we were naming our daughter Jillian, my mom immediately exclaimed "We can get her the Jillian Jiggs books!!!" And did. She bought all 5 books. Jilly likes hearing her name so much and it's a silly story we can repeat to her often. It's a bit long of a story (more for 5 years old), but the little lines in it are worth it.
Polar Bear Polar Bear, What Do Your Hear? - A follow up to Brown Bear. My Auntie Terry brought her this when they visited in October 2008, along with a stuffed polar bear. Jilly loves to look through this book and 'read' it to herself. It's a bit more exotic with it's animals (peacock, zebra, walrus, boa constrictor, etc) and sometimes the rhythm gets thrown off a little (hippopotamus has a LOT of syllables). But it's still very fun.
Olivia (by Ian Falconer)- The way this book was written sounds just like how I would write a book. My favorite page was "Sometime Ian just won't leave her alone, so Olivia had to be firm" with the accompanying picture of Olivia wearing a scary mask and little brother Ian running away. ;-) I love it. The illustrations are mostly gray scale, with touches of red, which are soothing and simple. Jilly asks for "O-wiv-a" at least 3 times away. We'll read it to her once or twice, then she'll 'read' it to herself over and over again.
And last but certainly not least, our very favorite Fox In Socks. Steve insisted on buying this one a few months ago, just because he wanted to read it. Jilly is now equally obsessed with it. Her favorite page is with Bim and Ben and the bands that BOOM. Seriously, she breaks out into giggles as soon as we turn to the page. I personally have a rocky relationship with this book, because sure enough my tongue was quite lame and went numb the first time I read it, even though I was going slow (my plea: heed the warning on the cover!!). So I decided that I wouldn't read it anymore, only Steve would. Alas, sometimes Jilly wants it read and Steve isn't around to do it, so I've had to fill in. I am warming up to it. I like listening to it, but the actual speaking part makes me nervous and I get annoyed when I mess up. But I digress. This book is definitely #1 in our hearts and ears.
Jilly loves books with a strong rhythm, especially with repetitive phrases and rhyming. She learns so much better through music (memorizes songs all the time), that I think the cadence of the poem-like stories really appeal to her. We'll hear her chanting phrases from the books often. Sometimes it's causes us to double take, like when she rushes saying Fox In Socks and it comes out Focking Socks. ;-) But I think one of the cutest things is when she sits on the couch and recites Polar Bear Polar Bear to herself, while turning the pages. "Hip-pah-mus, Hip-pa-mus, what da ya hear? I hear Ze-bwa yehping." It's cuter to hear, I promise. ;-)
We are so thrilled that our kids love reading just as much as their parents do!
Uncle Greg is really strong!
Husky Stadium.
Lake Sammamish. If you look close, at the bottom of the picture, you'll see the Seattle Temple!
I-90 and Mercer Island.
I think this might be SR-520.
Qwest and Safeco Fields.
Big Pointy (as Steve calls it).
All of us! (This is the only picture I think we took of all of us.)
After the plane ride, we went up to Voula's, a tasty restaurant at the very north end of Lake Union for brunch. It's mostly a breakfast and lunch place, with a lot of Greek options. Turns out they knew Greg was coming and planned their menu accordingly.
Not so perfect was the fact that it was INSANELY WINDY. Poor Jason hated the cold and wind, so we kept him inside the whole time, but we took some pictures of the rest of us out on the deck. 
Do you see how windy is? Whitecaps all the way across. 
While we were halfway across, they made an announcement that Hood Canal Bridge was closed because the winds were like 50+ mph, and that there were branches down on the road right off the ferry. Uh oh. We thought maybe it wouldn't be too bad right in Kingston, so we could kill some time until the next ferry back. We were wrong. We got off and just walking down the pedestrian walkway was nuts. It was so cold and windy, but we kept going. As we walked into town, hoping to find a place to get out of the wind and maybe get Greg a coat or sweatshirt (neither he nor Steve had one), everything looked closed. But I saw there were people inside. I finally figured out, the power was out! Yikes! We looked at each other and decided to race back to the same ferry we'd just got off and head right back to Edmonds. We booked it and just barely made it. (Yay for Greg carrying Jilly so we could go faster.)
Ahhh, much better inside!
We wanted to go to Anthony's Beach Cafe to get Greg some fish. He had two things he just had to do in Seattle, get fish and go to the temple. He'd gone to the temple the day after he got here, so fish was left. Of course, the whole Edmonds waterfront was out of power too! So I called my sister (a former server at Anthony's and wise in the ways of fish-since I don't eat it!) and she recommended Scott's near Aurora Village. We went there and dude, it was yummy!! Greg really enjoyed his meal, I think he got halibut.
The kids were so well behaved the whole day we were out and about, but they were ready to relax when we got home. We got them in some jammies and they cuddled up with Greg.
