Kiddie songs from your preschool days

Earlier this week while going through my computer looking for files to delete - having less stuff on your computer helps it run faster, as it frees up memory - I came across some memories of us: a collection of children's songs that we often listened to when living in the green house in Lancaster.

Among the songs were "B-I-N-G-O," the Chipmunks doing Beatles hits, "If You're Happy and You Know It," and "I'm a Little Tea Pot." I collected them by copying DVDs from the library.

You really liked listening to the Chipmunks songs and some of the railroad songs, especially "I've Been Working on the Railroad." Sometimes, though, you'd ask me to play more adult music, like the pop and rock hits from the Sixties. You had grown-up tastes in music even as a preschooler!

Though you probably wouldn't listen to those kiddie songs now, I refrained from deleting them. Maybe one day you'll want to hear them just for old time's sake...

Books from the library for car rides

One of my favorite things to do is to find library books for you that you can look at in the car as we travel from place to place. We live in a fantastic world with many great people and places, and I want you to learn about and experience as much of it as possible.

Having said that, it's always a challenge for me to find children's books at the library that will match your interests and that you can read!

In the past, I've checked out books on pirates, Star Wars, ancient Egypt, army soldiers, and the Old West, to name a few topics. One book that you REALLY liked was a Pirates of the Caribbean picture book from the Encinitas, Calif., library.

This weekend, I have books for you about football (specifically the AFC West with Philip Rivers on the cover), California, the Los Angeles Lakers, and a book of jokes!

Recall our gem trail hiking guidebook?

Do you remember the gem trail book that I used to have? I often used it to plan hiking trips for us where we could find fossils and cool rocks in Southern California.

Though the book was borrowed from the library, I photocopied a number of the pages, and read it quite a lot, so it sat prominently on my desk.

I remember when we once hiked Red Rock Canyon State Park in the Mojave Desert, and while we we were in the gift shop, you saw it on the bookshelf and said, "Hey, we have that book!" So I wonder if you still remember it today...

I think that day I got you stuffie at the gift store, though I can't remember if it was a bat, a road runner, or a songbird. Anyway, there are lots of photo albums on my Facebook site of our gem and fossil trail hikes, and I will show them to you one day (as well as some of the rocks that we'd collected!).

Photocopied football book for you!

One of the books we checked out from the Menomonie Library that you were unable to take to your mother's place was "Successful Sports: Football." It seemed to be the book you were most interested in when we stopped at Dairy Queen and then went back to Grandma and Grandpa's to make our football game.

Well, I photocopied the book and stapled the pages together for you so that you can read it whenever you like! I will give it to you when we next get together on Saturday.

I must admit that the book brought back some memories for me. It was published in 1997 and so had photos of great players from the 1990s, like Jerry Rice, Troy Aikman, and Deion Sanders!

Remember Star Wars' pop-up book?

When visiting bookstores as a preschooler with me, one of the Star Wars books you often enjoyed looking at was "Star Wars: A Pop-up Guide to the Galaxy." In fact, I think we got a copy of the book at the library in Lancaster, Calif.

With each page were several illustrations that popped up and flaps that could be pulled to create scenes from the various Star Wars movies. Among them was the cantina from "A New Hope"; it as so elaborate that it almost looked like a mini playset!

Another scene had the big battle between Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker from "Return of the Jedi." Sometimes you'd like to take the two characters and have a light lightsaber battle between them!

Remember reading 'Hi! Fly Guy'?

Your cousin Rebekah this week got from the library a great book that instantly made me think of you - mainly because we'd read it together long ago!

The book was called "Hi! Fly Guy," by Tedd Arnold. It's about a boy who wants a pet - but the animal he can catch is a fly! The stories tell about the adventures of the boy and the fly, usually as the boy tries to pass off the fly as his pet!

We checked out the book from the Lancaster library in Lancaster, Calif. Are there other books from the library that you remember us reading together?

Maybe you can find the book again at your local library and read it on your own!