7 months and favorite picture books

I wanted to post yesterday on Keagan's actual 7 month day, but Steven was off (he's gone to 4 day work weeks), so we spent the day out as a family. Have you ever been to Mimi's Cafe for breakfast? A-MAZ-ING!!! You MUST go! I just had the buttermilk pancakes because I'm uber-picky, but they were honestly the best pancakes I've ever had. Enough so that I was willing to blow over half of my daily calorie allowance just on them. You have to try them! I will be searching Pinterest to see if I can find their recipe.

So Keagan is now officially 7 months and well on his way to a year! Things that are new:

• He sits up independently and HATES to be on his back most of the time now
• He reaches for EVERYTHING he can get his hands on, especially our dogs
• He's not sleeping through the night every night (it's about every other night right now). We think he might finally have some more teeth coming in, but we're hoping he goes back to normal soon!
• He's such a flirt! He loves to cut eyes at pretty girls. Yesterday when we were shopping, one woman called him out on it. When we asked him where he got this from, he looked straight at his papaw and smiled. We may have trouble on our hands!
• He LOVES his new foods he can now eat. Not even sure what his favorite might be anymore. For a while, we thought it was sweet potatoes, but there hasn't been a food he's met that he didn't like so far.

 Like I said, everything goes in his mouth right now...

 I LOVE that he's happy and can sit in the basket now. Makes picture-taking much easier! 

He actually loved it so much that he wanted to stay in there once I finished. He stayed in almost half an hour after before he started getting tired and fussy!

I also wanted to participate in a linky party right up my alley. The Teacher Wife is hosting a favorite picture book linky.

Since I teach upper grades, some of mine are a little different to appeal to older kids, but they still LOVE sitting and listening to a good picture book! Some of my favorites are:

This book is great for talking about point of view. I love to see a classic story with a little bit of a twist, and this one always makes me laugh. If you haven't read it, you should!

At school, I'm known for being the teacher obsessed with this pigeon! My students come to me every year expecting to hear a pigeon story...or all of them! Even though I've been in 4th grade for the past five years, they still love this story, and I use it to teach persuasion. In previous years, I've had a board that says "Don't let the pigeon...", and I change it every month. Then the students would make pictures and quotes to go along with it. Don't let the pigeon go trick-or-treating is always my favorite. I've seen the pigeon dressed as a million different things trying to get some candy! Really any Mo Willems book is worth the read! I follow his blog, and one of my goals is to meet him! Maybe I should replace something on my 30 before 30 list with that!

Great for an entertaining lesson on some of our greatest founding fathers! It talks about John Hancock, Paul Revere, George Washington, Ben Franklin, and also Thomas Jefferson when they "were young" - liberties were taken with the history - and then shows how their quirks became useful during the American Revolution. SO funny, and I have to read it at least once every year!

Everyone has to have a favorite Dr. Seuss book, and this is probably mine. I've had this book for years, and I love all 3 stories inside (also The Big Brag and Gertrude McFuzz), but Yertle the Turtle is my favorite. Once again, it's a great history lesson about tyranny, but it's also a nice life lesson that you can't just "walk all over" people to get what you want.

Two of my other go-to authors are Patricia Polacco and Chris Van Allsburg. Both of their books are great for older readers. This book is one of my newest discoveries. Be prepared with tissues! You may or may not know that Patricia Polacco is dyslexic. This story is about her special education class and how they learned that they were special in a good way. It's especially great for teaching your regular-ed students that just because some may have labels doesn't mean they are any less of a person. You've GOT to read this even if you ignore all the rest!

Go link up and see what other teachers love to read!