Books and cuddly things

With some of the new books Q got for Christmas (yup, the majority of her Christmas gifts were books--don't we have the greatest fam and friends??) I noticed that we had several stuffed animals that matched with the book characters. So this month on our reading shelf I am making an effort to find stuffed animals or puppets to match the books. Adds a little fun to our reading time. I remember my elementary school library had the shelf tops covered with the stuffed characters that matched the books and it was SO COOL to get to cuddle the character while I browsed the matching book. Obviously some aren't the EXACT character, but close enough. Here are some we have out now (with more to come):

Me and My Mom (this was actually a gift to me, and it came with the stuffed animals!)

Llama, Llama series--with a llama, of course! These are by far the most popular series in our house right now and everyone who sets foot in our casa leaves with them memorized.....We have: Llama, Llama Red Pajama (my fave), Llama, Llama, Mad at Mama, and Llama, Llama, Misses Mama (Q's fave). I definitely recommend these to the toddler/preschool crowd!

This is a fabulous, fun rhyme that promotes great phonemic awareness skills through the use of rhyme. Q has this whole thing memorized--it's definitely one of her favorite silly books! We had a little alligator finger puppet that came with something else, but goes perfect with this story!

So....give it a try! What book/stuffed animal matches can you make at your house? A fun way to rejuvinate both books and stuffed animals that may have gotten a little dull around your house! It's also interesting to note how many of the story lines are showing up in Q's imaginary play when she grabs one of the characters that matches a story. For example, Llama Llama was getting a ride in her shopping cart and she brought him over to show me he was making the "mad at mama face."