What an incredible year! We have enjoyed so many wonderful books. Thank you to everyone who has bought, sent or recommended books for ...

A Year in Review

Thursday, December 31, 2015 BookBairn 6 Comments

What an incredible year! We have enjoyed so many wonderful books. Thank you to everyone who has bought, sent or recommended books for us to read. I cannot express how amazing it has been to have such wonderful friends who have supported our blogging adventure. We have turned many pages, lifted lots of flaps, played peekaboo with books, touched and felt textured pages and enjoyed some wonderful storytelling from mummy, daddy, grandparents, librarians and anyone else who offered to read. At nearly ten months old she is one of the most avid library-users I know, a huge fan of Bookbug, can say "book", can turn pages, and lift flaps. We need to read several stories at bedtime to satisfy her demand for more books.

So, here are our 15 favourites of 2015 (in no particular order, you must understand that would be an impossible task!):

1. Me by Emma Dodd
2. Dear Zoo by Rod Campbell
3. Where's Spot? by Eric Hill
4. The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
5. Miffy by Dick Bruna
6. What the Ladybird Heard by Julia Donaldson
7. Sense and Sensibility by Jennifer Adams
8. Hairy Maclary by Lynley Dodd
9. My Family by Mummy BookBairn
10. Lost and Found by Oliver Jeffers
11. Baby, I Love You (a lovely book given to all babies in Scotland by Unicef following the 2014 Commonwealth Games).
12. Mouse is Small by Mary Murphy (given out free in Scotland to all babies as part of the fantastic Bookbug scheme).
13. Funny Bunnies Up and Down by David Melling
14. That's Not My Owl by Fiona Watt
15. First 100 Animals by Roger Priddy

I have linked all of the books if you are interested in finding out more. (Not amazon/other retailers links, I'm not in the business of selling books, just recommending them!)

It is hard to put into words how incredible 2015 has been. In March, we welcomed our beautiful little BookBairn and life has been quite different ever since. She has brought so much joy. Pure joy. She is doted on by her loving daddy, grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts and uncles, honourary aunts and uncles and friends. And I cannot thank you all enough. You are wonderful. I hope you will indulge me as I list some moments that we are most grateful for in 2015.

10 March - BookBairn is born (safely and swiftly, emphasis on the swiftly).
15 March - My first Mothers Day.
18 March - BookBairn gets her library card (I have included this as it's a particular highlight for Grandma BookBairn!).
28 April - Mummy BookBairn turns 30!
31 May - BookBairn sleeps all night (for all those parents out there you know that this is a biggie, but you will also be able to guess that it was a one-off and she only properly started sleeping all night when she hit 8 months old).
16 August - BookBairn nearly meets Miffy at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
23 August - we enjoy the messy beginning of tiny tastes of real food.
7 September - those first teeth appear. (And coincidentally mummy doesn't get any sleep).
18 September - our first family holiday (And coincidentally nobody sleeps).
25 September - the first blog post is published.
27 October - BookBairn stands up by herself.
26 November - BookBairn appears in Gurgle magazine.
29 November - snow!
20 December - BookBairn talks (she said 'dad' but it was closely followed by 'book' and 'mum'
25 December - a truly wonderful first Christmas (And coincidentally nobody sleeps).
31 December - 2015 has gone by in a blur (I'll admit some of this was sleep-deprivation) and I wouldn't change a minute of it.

Thank you to all the wonderful people who enjoy our blog,
Thank you to all the wonderful people who have shared our blog with friends,
Thank you to all the wonderful people who have bought or sent a book to BookBairn.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.

May your 2016 bring as much joy to you as 2015 has to our BookBairn-y family! 
Love Mummy and BookBairn xx

6 comments:

  1. G'ma Bookbairn agrees! Number 9 is terrific; my personal favourite is Number 2! Bookbug is officially a genius initiative and I'm so proud that she feels at home in a library! Bring on 2016 and more books for Bookbairn x

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    1. Thanks Gma! There are books all over the house! Mummy can't stop herself, I'll be able to set up my own library soon xx Will you run it? xx

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  2. 18 September - I was on the family holiday and I slept - no probs.
    25 December - I was at the truly wonderful Christmas and I slept - no probs.
    It's been a fantastic year - many thanks to BookBairn and her Mummy and Daddy..... and GMaBookbairn did ok too.

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    1. You must sleep through anything! It has been a wonderful year! Thanks for all the cuddles x

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  3. I am so glad to have run across your blog, and shared in some book suggestions and activities (Picture Book Month Bloggers) with you two. Kaelyn and I look forward to following in your Reading adventures of 2016 from across the pond in Canada. Happy New Year and Happy Reading!! New Year = New Books. Horray!!!!

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    1. Thank you Regan! We have enjoyed all your facebook updates too and loved seeing what you are reading across the pond (and up a bit!). New Year does truly = new books. We've been book shopping already: http://bookbairn.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/books-always-everywhere.html
      Happy New Year to you and all your readers!

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