wildflowersoul

Hey LJ, it's been a while! I thought I'd do a round-up of the best kids' books we've read recently.

First is The Book With No Pictures. Written by The Office's B.J. Novack. I was not expecting this to be as big a hit as it is. The first time I read it West laughed so hard he peed his pants, and he regularly laughs so much he falls over on subsequent reads.

The Rabbit Problem is gorgeous and also math-y. It has lots of little fiddly bits in the book that West loves, and the Fibonacci sequence running through it makes me feel like a smarty-pants mom even though I didn't actually realize that was a thing in the book until someone else pointed it out. I still feel kinda smart about it.

My First Book of Girl Power. I am not a huge fan of West seeing all the scantily clad lady superhero outfits, but I like the message, and I am really trying to make sure he has plenty of books about girls that he likes. In the vein of girl power, I also really like these books: Rosie Revere Engineer, The Most Magnificent Thing, The Three Ninja Pigs, and Ninja Red Riding Hood. There are so many books where the default is BOY, or if it's about girls, it is marketed solely to girls and is covered in pink, making it hard to get West interested in it. I like the Olivia books because they aren't always pink to the max, and he likes the stories.

Anyway, Christmas was whimsical, we had a really nice day and West was really cute and loved his presents.

Well, apparently an oven can decide that when you turn it off you really mean CRANK IT UP ALL THE WAY AND LOCK THE DOOR. So, our oven is broken. The soonest a new one can be delivered is Friday, so this week's dinners will be interesting. I have a freezer full of food, but most of it requires the oven. Hopefully I have enough leftovers tucked away in there to tide us over.

Anyway, I'm feeling chatty and listy, so I'm going to talk about my favorite children's books. Also, I had already typed up most of this post this afternoon, so might as well, right?

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I stayed up too late last night re-reading a book I've read twice already. D'oh. It's Divergent, this book seriously makes me want to write. I am just enamored with the tightness of the plot. I actually had a nerd conversation on the train today- the guy next to me wanted to know about the Kindle I was using, then he showed me he was reading the 3rd Game of Thrones book and we nerded out about GoT, then he was saying that he was going to read Wheel of Time next. I love cultural touchstone books.

West is now tall enough to actually open doorknobs. The other morning I heard him over the baby monitor say "oh, they're gone," I went up to check and he had opened the door between his room and ours and he was standing there clutching his snuggle doggie.

Also, I really need to stop making Youtube playlists. Here is my ridiculous 80s playlist.

Ok you guys I need to talk about books! I have been reading some seriously great YA books. First, I just finished The Fault in Our Stars. This book just shattered me. Wow. I'd read some serious hype about it, and I did not at all believe it could really be 5 stars worthy, but, um, it was. I haven't read such meticulous prose in a YA book ever. I'm actually suffering from post-book-itis where whatever I read next is just not going to come close so it's going to be a massive letdown. Anyway. Earlier this week (the drawback to YA- finishing a book in two days) I read For Darkness Shows the Stars, an eminently enjoyable YA dystopian future rewrite of Jane Austen's Persuasion. Before that, of course, was Divergent and Insurgent, which, OMG, if you at all enjoyed Hunger Games you need to read these books! Now I'm pretending like I'm going to read Naomi Klein's Shock Doctrine but it's already kinda depressing, so I'll probably just read the third book in a pretty crappy YA series about fallen angels being all broody and having problems.

We must get these baby lit books, stat!

As for what I'm reading, I just finished 50 Shades of Grey. If you know what it is, I can assure it is exactly as hilarible as you think it would be. If you don't know, wait until you are not at work to google it. And now I'm cleansing my mind palate with an actually well-written, gripping, young adult dystopian future book called All These Things I've Done. Yes, the Killers reference is what sold me on it. That, and it has an awesome cover. I really would love to have time in my life to start writing again.

West is all "myself, myself, I do it self" now. It's pretty cute. I thought we'd turned a corner on the sleeping stuff, we have some good weeks now, but the past couple of nights have been not-great. I think he's pretty much night-weaned, at least. I give in sometimes if he calls for a milk break after 4 am because I hope against hope that it will make him sleep a bit longer (not sure that hypothesis is proving true or not).

Not to be "that mom" or anything, but West is really getting into gear lately. This weekend he added a bunch of new words- diaper, Elmo, cracker, banana (said as "nana!!" with the biggest smile ever because this kid loooooooves bananas). He also claps and says "yay!" at the end of songs and is generally just adorable. It is fascinating to watch him become a little person. Finally got him trying a bunch of new foods, too- apparently watching other people is the key, he sampled a bunch of stuff from our plates at Gulu-Gulu yesterday.

Drew's mom was up this weekend, so we had a lovely visit with her, and we had an amazing night out in Somerville sans-child. I really needed that. Sometimes Old Life seems so far away and impossible to get back. It's so nice to have some moments of not being on mom duty.

Also: A Feast For Crows... wtf, that is not a way to end a book! So glad I don't have to wait 5 years to read the next book.

Phrase I am so, so sick of: congress critter. OMG, stop it, internet!

There is a truck commercial that drives Drew & I bonkers, but now that I've noticed it I can't get its jingle out of my head. And I mishear the jingle as "bus stop living" instead of "push the limit," which makes me giggle every time it echoes through my brain.

I'm currently a pretty interesting book on baby brain development. It's more heavily scientific than I'd expected, but a surprisingly engaging read. I'm remembering vast stores of stuff I learned when I was on track to be a neuroscience major. Neurons and cells are pretty neat. It's kind of strange to think back that Immunology was one of the best classes I took in college, along with PoMo Lit and various gender classes.

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted.

First, politics. I can't believe now is when the Democrats decide to grow a spine. Like the caving in to Republicans on the tax cuts (I refuse to call them "the Bush tax cuts" because I am so sick of hearing that phrase) was never a foregone conclusion. According to the NYT, there's some muttering about a Democrat challenge to Obama in the next primary. Also, it irks me that the news insists on calling him "Mr. Obama," which I know is generally a NYT convention, but I don't recall hearing "Mr. Bush" for the previous 8 years, I heard a whole lot more "President Bush." Anyway. Grar.

Also, I am reading a totally entertaining book. Fluffy historical thriller/romance for the win!

So my days are going by in a blur lately. Here's the basic structure of every weekday:

Wake up between 5:00/5:20. Feed bunnies while Drew changes the first diaper of the morning. Put West on activity mat, eat breakfast while hanging out with him. Feed baby. Shower. Pack bottles, change of clothes, daycare accoutrements, pack lunch and whatever else I need for the day. Change diaper, dress baby for day, sing goofily and play peekaboo. Feed baby. Trundle baby into car seat. Drop off at daycare at 7:30 on the nose. Pull into commuter rail station just as a train is leaving, wait for next train. Get to work at 8:45. Half hour lunch break at noon- spend 20 minutes of it pumping. Leave at 4:15, walk as fast as my little legs can go to make the 4:45 train home. Get home around 5:30, feed baby who is usually on the verge of total hunger breakdown (Drew picks him up from daycare at 4:00, deals with daily screaming baby meltdown, then entertains baby into adorable baby laughter). Make dinner while West either plays in living room or sits in kitchen listening to me narrate the dinner-making (vocab building!), eat dinner (usually interrupted as soon as I take a bite by West deciding it's time for more breakdown, one of us holds him while the other eats, then switch off). Play with West. Bedtime ritual begins around 7:00/7:30 (bath on some days, change diaper, put jammies on, stories, feed, bed, hope he doesn't flip out upon touching the mattress). Drew does dishes while I get West settled to sleep. Wash bottles and pump pieces. Make lunch for next day, set coffee up for auto brewing next am. Possibly do a load of baby laundry. By then it's usually about 9:00. Collapse on couch for some tv, give up on being awake, go to bed. Get up several times in the night to feed the baby. Being working parents is exhausting!

There is a Little Caesar's opening soon in Salem. I seriously can not wait. Pizza pizza! My favorite author is coming to Danvers for a literary festival, but I'll be in Maine for a wedding. I am totally psyched for the wedding, of course, but man, I wish the festival was a different day. That's alright, I think the author will be doing a bigger book tour when the next book in the series comes out in the fall (Victorian lady solves mysteries with mysterious handsome gentleman who often stalks around like a panther, what's not to love!).

Last year's book post was an effective way of keeping track of what I've read, so I'm doing it again this year. Of course, my resolution to read "smarter" books is pretty quickly going out the window, but hey, reading is reading.

( Onward! )