Back before I has children, I used to read All The Things, All The Time. I wandered after my mom in the grocery store with my nose in a book. I stayed up until midnight to get a new Harry Potter book, then generously let my sister read first, knowing she would fall asleep and I've have it all to myself- at 2am. I've always had a special place in my heart for YA fiction, reading it long before and after I was actually a young adult. I've been reading it more again lately, since the bearing and raising of children has alternately turned my brain to mush and made me so emotional adult books get thrown in the trash. Here are some of the latest:
Divergent Series: I've heard about these for a while, and they didn't seem particularly interesting. But, more and more people had read them, and finally something tipped me over the edge and I impulse-bought the first paperback from T*rget. The first half of the first book was good, and it trailed off after that. By the time I got to the third book, it was like a train wreck- I just couldn't look away. I read these pretty fast, as we had a fever in the house and I was spending a lot of time holding and comforting sad sick children. If it weren't for that, I may have gotten distracted and not finished the second and third. On the other hand, I'm a sucker for YA dystopian romance, so perhaps not. I thought the ending was distinctly unsatisfying, which I feel is a common issue in this genre. The political storyline, in particular, frequently goes through so many twists that by the end, I just don't care.
Wonder: I really enjoyed this. It chronicles the school year of a kid with an extreme facial deformity attending school for the first time, in about 6th grade. I found out after I read it that it was a "middle-grade" book, which I guess is for younger kids than YA. I loved the different narrators, and felt the different perspectives brought a lot to the story. While the ending was maybe a little cheesy, it was also very fitting.
Eleanor and Park: This is a story of young love, and is really all about the characters. The plot is cute enough, and I was grateful that most of the tension in Eleanor's life was about things that could happen, not that had. The character of Park made this book, though perhaps Eleanor made Park.
Fangirl: By the same author as Eleanor and Park, this is about a socially anxious twin- Cath- attending her first year of college. A very, very cute and clever story, though I sometimes found the alternate story- excerpts from the fan fiction Cath wrote, and the book she wrote it from- more entertaining than the main storyline. Though, perhaps, that made Cath's obsession with it a little more realistic. In this book, the male protagonist was a bit weaker, though still a fun a quirky character. Rainbow Rowell has two other books out, and while they don't look particularly appealing, I may give them a try. I look forward to seeing what else she does. (Can that really be her real name?)
Thursday, February 6, 2014
Monday, January 6, 2014
New Start 2014
I'm not usually much for New Year's resolutions- the only one I've ever kept, I think, was to write in a journal every day when I was a young teen. (I came across it some time ago. Most. Boring. Journal. Ever.) In recent years, I've resolved to exercise more (of course), eat better (which I think has more to do with post-Christmas than the New Year), and wash my kitchen floor. I never did wash my floor that year, but I've done it several times in the few months we've lived here in the Slight South. Last year my New Years ambivalence hit an all-time high, as I was pregnant/depressed and E was on the job market, so our case scenario for the year was 7 more months of pregnancy, and then a new baby, cross-country move, and new job, in a two month span. And then, three more months to finish out the year. I think I said my resolution was to survive, which we did.
After a lovely-though-we-may-never-do-it-again two week holiday trip, we are back here in our tiny Slightly Southern house, and it feels more like a fresh start than we've had in years. Once again, I'm tempted to make grandiose plans and let them slide by day three. I've already fallen off the Instagram bandwagon. I did not use every minute of my day today productively tackling my epic post-holiday to-do list or interacting positively with my two growing girls. However, I am posting here- maybe I can re-create the journal experience. Though, certainly not every day, and hopefully a little more interesting. Really, though, I'm not making any specific resolutions other than to have a fresh start and end our season of family-in-transitional-crisis. And, on a related note, be on time. Anyone else have plans for a fresh start this year? Or is this not the moment for you?
After a lovely-though-we-may-never-do-it-again two week holiday trip, we are back here in our tiny Slightly Southern house, and it feels more like a fresh start than we've had in years. Once again, I'm tempted to make grandiose plans and let them slide by day three. I've already fallen off the Instagram bandwagon. I did not use every minute of my day today productively tackling my epic post-holiday to-do list or interacting positively with my two growing girls. However, I am posting here- maybe I can re-create the journal experience. Though, certainly not every day, and hopefully a little more interesting. Really, though, I'm not making any specific resolutions other than to have a fresh start and end our season of family-in-transitional-crisis. And, on a related note, be on time. Anyone else have plans for a fresh start this year? Or is this not the moment for you?
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Lucky, again
So, I'm back to life. Not long after the last post, we found out I was pregnant! This was great! Amazing! Long-awaited! I was thrilled beyond measure!
And it was awful, because pregnancy is like death to me, except for the part where I live through it and we get another child. I took the pregnancy test because I felt off, and then I think that day I started taking a nap every day. The past week included the first days I've successfully not napped since then. I purposely set out to not record this pregnancy, because, while I can't state strongly enough how grateful I am to have carried and birthed two healthy, loved, biological children, I also feel just terrible, mentally and physically, while I'm doing it. Last time I tried to record it, because that's what you do when you're pregnant! You're happy! This time I got counseling, and went to yoga, and did what I could to support myself. It didn't really help, but at least I had given myself permission not to blog about it.
But now, the night is over, the dawn has broken, and we are grateful to be settling in here with Almost 3 H and Baby TT in our new, permanent, Slightly Southern home. (The house isn't permanent, but the location is! Yay!) TT is fat (FAT!), happy, and mellow -- where H was small and sensitive, and I'm grateful TT is the one who arrived three weeks before we packed up and moved. (Well, we paid someone to pack up, but you get the idea.) I'm sad that the issue between us and another baby will likely be not finances, or desire, or fear of never sleeping through the night or spending time together (though that one is close), but it is the ability of me, and E, and our marriage to survive another pregnancy. But, I feel just as super human postpartum as I did last time. More, in fact, since I avoided a C-section. And this is a great time to feel super human.
And it was awful, because pregnancy is like death to me, except for the part where I live through it and we get another child. I took the pregnancy test because I felt off, and then I think that day I started taking a nap every day. The past week included the first days I've successfully not napped since then. I purposely set out to not record this pregnancy, because, while I can't state strongly enough how grateful I am to have carried and birthed two healthy, loved, biological children, I also feel just terrible, mentally and physically, while I'm doing it. Last time I tried to record it, because that's what you do when you're pregnant! You're happy! This time I got counseling, and went to yoga, and did what I could to support myself. It didn't really help, but at least I had given myself permission not to blog about it.
But now, the night is over, the dawn has broken, and we are grateful to be settling in here with Almost 3 H and Baby TT in our new, permanent, Slightly Southern home. (The house isn't permanent, but the location is! Yay!) TT is fat (FAT!), happy, and mellow -- where H was small and sensitive, and I'm grateful TT is the one who arrived three weeks before we packed up and moved. (Well, we paid someone to pack up, but you get the idea.) I'm sad that the issue between us and another baby will likely be not finances, or desire, or fear of never sleeping through the night or spending time together (though that one is close), but it is the ability of me, and E, and our marriage to survive another pregnancy. But, I feel just as super human postpartum as I did last time. More, in fact, since I avoided a C-section. And this is a great time to feel super human.
Sunday, September 16, 2012
Lucky
The other day, while H was playing with her new kitchen, she was saying in her baby voice "I so lucky. I so lucky."
I really can't think of any exposition that can improve upon that sentence.
I really can't think of any exposition that can improve upon that sentence.
Monday, September 10, 2012
Having it All on the other hand
Also entitled "In which I vacillate aloud for your (or my) entertainment"
Baby H is two. Let's be honest, she will be "Baby" H at least until we have a new baby, which does not seem to be anytime in the near future. And on the one hand, she seems so old, so much her own person, not at all that baby we pretended was a toddler those long twelve months ago. She knows she is her own person, and likes to answer "no!", even when she means yes and cries and screams "yes!" and "no!" until sometimes, if we ask again nicely, she will answer honestly that yes, she would like milk and she would like socks and she would like help and now she needs a hug, too.
And on the same hand, some days I am so ready to send her off to Montessori school and pay for it with the money I'll get from my new full-time job. Though getting that job might be harder than it is in my imagination. I probably won't find out for a while, because on the other hand, I wonder who will give her milk, and put on her socks, and help her, and give her a hug now that she needs one? And then, I think, of course, of course her lovely teacher would, and H would love her as much as she loves Miss L, the librarian, who in H's world is the rock star above all rock stars, who stamps hands and sometimes will say hello if there aren't too many other kids watching who will need hellos too. (Once shy H, surprised by seeing L there on her day off, was distracted from playing and was staring and when I asked her what she was doing accidently shouted "MISS L!" and was a little embarrassed but then thought it worked out great when Miss L invited H over for a sticker. And now they are BFF.)
But as I was saying, I guess this comes down to the eternal question of moms of our time, about Having It All and what All are we having, anyway? It's true, in ways it wasn't, that you can have it all, if that means having a job and a family, and enjoying them both. It's not true, in the way people wish it was, that everyone can be the toddler milker-socker-helper-hugger all-day-every-day (except when Dad's home, sometimes) and have a successful, meaningful career. Or maybe it's just me that wishes that. Obviously, there are lots of Alls between and around and in those options, and everyone chooses their own All with their own mistakes and successes and failures and trade-offs, and most of those ways are good in the end.
So we are choosing ours. And with the Montessori, I'm stuck on the other hand, and I just can't and just haven't, even though some part of me wishes I was so passionate about something as to go out and get a job about it. It's true that the more I stay home the more I think daycare is great, a totally good way to structure your family for both the parents to work and kids to have their own little world where they're cared for and loved and do fun things all day, not just go to T*rg*t and play while Mama does the dishes. So I reserve the right to re-evaluate, and might do just that, any second. Really, she'd be fine, she is two, she is ready for college any day now. Though on the other hand, now that I think about it that way, maybe I'll wait a few more years.
Baby H is two. Let's be honest, she will be "Baby" H at least until we have a new baby, which does not seem to be anytime in the near future. And on the one hand, she seems so old, so much her own person, not at all that baby we pretended was a toddler those long twelve months ago. She knows she is her own person, and likes to answer "no!", even when she means yes and cries and screams "yes!" and "no!" until sometimes, if we ask again nicely, she will answer honestly that yes, she would like milk and she would like socks and she would like help and now she needs a hug, too.
And on the same hand, some days I am so ready to send her off to Montessori school and pay for it with the money I'll get from my new full-time job. Though getting that job might be harder than it is in my imagination. I probably won't find out for a while, because on the other hand, I wonder who will give her milk, and put on her socks, and help her, and give her a hug now that she needs one? And then, I think, of course, of course her lovely teacher would, and H would love her as much as she loves Miss L, the librarian, who in H's world is the rock star above all rock stars, who stamps hands and sometimes will say hello if there aren't too many other kids watching who will need hellos too. (Once shy H, surprised by seeing L there on her day off, was distracted from playing and was staring and when I asked her what she was doing accidently shouted "MISS L!" and was a little embarrassed but then thought it worked out great when Miss L invited H over for a sticker. And now they are BFF.)
But as I was saying, I guess this comes down to the eternal question of moms of our time, about Having It All and what All are we having, anyway? It's true, in ways it wasn't, that you can have it all, if that means having a job and a family, and enjoying them both. It's not true, in the way people wish it was, that everyone can be the toddler milker-socker-helper-hugger all-day-every-day (except when Dad's home, sometimes) and have a successful, meaningful career. Or maybe it's just me that wishes that. Obviously, there are lots of Alls between and around and in those options, and everyone chooses their own All with their own mistakes and successes and failures and trade-offs, and most of those ways are good in the end.
So we are choosing ours. And with the Montessori, I'm stuck on the other hand, and I just can't and just haven't, even though some part of me wishes I was so passionate about something as to go out and get a job about it. It's true that the more I stay home the more I think daycare is great, a totally good way to structure your family for both the parents to work and kids to have their own little world where they're cared for and loved and do fun things all day, not just go to T*rg*t and play while Mama does the dishes. So I reserve the right to re-evaluate, and might do just that, any second. Really, she'd be fine, she is two, she is ready for college any day now. Though on the other hand, now that I think about it that way, maybe I'll wait a few more years.
Sunday, September 9, 2012
Library Day
Oh Library Day, how I love thee. Of all of our weekdays, you are blessed, because Baby H and I both enjoy your activities. Just when we are starting to get crazy- which sometimes is as soon as the library opens- we get to leave our house! And go somewhere! With entertainment, provided by others! Mama gets to look at some books, for about 4 seconds. If it's a really good library day, there will be holds for us. (I have them pull holds for me even if they were at the library to begin with, so I don't have to drag poor Baby H though the adult section and look at books with one eye and half a brain while the other half watches H pull books off shelves and the the other eye checks for judge-y patrons/ scolding librarians.)
Then we head back to kiddie land, and I follow H around, until it's time to secure our spot in The Mosh Pit, aka the story time area. We have to get a good seat so we can be up close and personal with Miss L, the best storyteller ever. (Really, that part is totally true.) Once we fight off the camp and daycare hoards, story time can start. H tries to avoid falling asleep on my lap while I enjoy the feeling that I'm being a good parent while doing absolutely nothing. Win! Then, H gets to practice her social/pushing skills while she goes to get a stamp on her hand. If we came early, Mama is usually tuckered out of supervising, and we head home for lunch. And nap. During which I have new reading material! And then, the day is half over! Now, the only question is about the afternoon activity....
Then we head back to kiddie land, and I follow H around, until it's time to secure our spot in The Mosh Pit, aka the story time area. We have to get a good seat so we can be up close and personal with Miss L, the best storyteller ever. (Really, that part is totally true.) Once we fight off the camp and daycare hoards, story time can start. H tries to avoid falling asleep on my lap while I enjoy the feeling that I'm being a good parent while doing absolutely nothing. Win! Then, H gets to practice her social/pushing skills while she goes to get a stamp on her hand. If we came early, Mama is usually tuckered out of supervising, and we head home for lunch. And nap. During which I have new reading material! And then, the day is half over! Now, the only question is about the afternoon activity....
Monday, June 25, 2012
One Year Here
We're alive! It's summer! We've already abandoned our latest church, since our friends left with their new baby. Can you believe their nerve? They spend their whole pregnancy here, and then they whisk that baby off before she's even two weeks old. Or something like that. (No hard feelings, guys. We do miss you, though!) We're now attending sporadically at a different Catholic church, and we're just gonna wait it out until we move again. Unless someone awesome invites us to their awesome church. It could happen.
Baby H is all toddler. Examples:
Talking: Every morning when she wakes up, and anytime sleep of any kind is mentioned: "No, plaaaaaayyy!"
Opinions: "Baby H, are you ready to go?" (This has always been rhetoric before.) "No, pooping." Well then. We were a few minutes late.
Emotions: We got a new book from the library. She cries big, real, sad cries every time we get to the line about soap in the eyes. If it's bedtime, she doesn't quite recover before falling asleep.
Gross motor: What?! This is the child who didn't roll over until 14 months. Nothing impressive going on here. She can climb into a chair now, though.
Relationships: She remembers people better than we do. Honestly.
Chronology: She's started saying "Two Auga" when asked how old she is. She must have heard us answer a few times.
Favorites: Pool time, other people, laughing, running in circles, babies, nakey time and animals. Soccer, reading, "tackling," and fake nap time are high on the list also.
Eating: I made us a box of mac & cheese for lunch. I think she ate at least half. I was still hungry.
I could go on, but I have to save some material for next time. Soon, for reals.
Baby H is all toddler. Examples:
Talking: Every morning when she wakes up, and anytime sleep of any kind is mentioned: "No, plaaaaaayyy!"
Opinions: "Baby H, are you ready to go?" (This has always been rhetoric before.) "No, pooping." Well then. We were a few minutes late.
Emotions: We got a new book from the library. She cries big, real, sad cries every time we get to the line about soap in the eyes. If it's bedtime, she doesn't quite recover before falling asleep.
Gross motor: What?! This is the child who didn't roll over until 14 months. Nothing impressive going on here. She can climb into a chair now, though.
Relationships: She remembers people better than we do. Honestly.
Chronology: She's started saying "Two Auga" when asked how old she is. She must have heard us answer a few times.
Favorites: Pool time, other people, laughing, running in circles, babies, nakey time and animals. Soccer, reading, "tackling," and fake nap time are high on the list also.
Eating: I made us a box of mac & cheese for lunch. I think she ate at least half. I was still hungry.
I could go on, but I have to save some material for next time. Soon, for reals.
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