I’ve been shocked and amazed by what my 26 month old child imitates.  He’s recited verses from Iggy Peck, Architect, Barnyard Dance, and even Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin!  So the first time I read through this book with him I was a little nervous that he would imitate some of the things that the child did.  However, this has not been the case at all.  I’ve been pleasantly surprised by this book and it has become one of our favorites.  We’ve been reading this book fairly regularly for about 12 weeks now.

This is about a baby being a baby and getting into things like only a baby knows how.  First the baby starts crawling into the kitchen towards the dog food, then he chews up bits of newspaper and puts pieces of it into his mouth, then he grabs at grandpa’s glasses, starts climbing up a less than ideal bookshelf, splashes water all over the floor in the bathroom, and plays with his mashed potatoes.  Each time this baby does something, one of his family members stops him and says, “Woah, Baby, whoa!”  Then they explain to him why he should be doing whatever it is he was doing.  The book ends with the baby taking his first steps and his family cheering him on saying, “Go, Baby, go!”

Now whenever my son does something and I ask him not to do it — for example, when he was standing up on a chair yesterday at the kitchen table — I said, “Sweet Boy, please get down from there.”  He said, “Mama, can you say Woah, Baby, woah, please get down from there?”  So I comply and say it.  He then obediently gets down from his chair.  For whatever reason now, saying, “Whoa, Baby, woah,” when I ask him not to do something makes him listen just a little better.  Also, the other day we were in the kitchen and he said (of his own volition), “Woah, Baby, woah!  Hot things can burn you in the kitchen.”  He then proceeded NOT to touch the hot, hot tea kettle.  I was impressed.

The illustrations are beautiful.  Very Helen Oxenbury-esq.  (Which is a huge compliment.)  Also, the family in this book is multicultural.  You don’t see many books with multicultural families in them and it was great to see here.

I’ve really come to love this book.  My son has me read it to him over and over and over again.  What can I say?  It’s a win.

Where Obtained:  Library.

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