book recommendations

i want people to stop recommending books to me. i know they do it to be kind... to share with me books that they have really enjoyed. they know i'm a reader and that i'm always on the lookout for my next read.

but i never know what to say when i read their "favorite book" and think it's boring. or, even worse, i hate it. everyone has their own taste in books, but i still feel bad about having to say "it was ok" to something that they have read 10+ times... in the last year.

it always makes me feel better, however, when i go onto goodreads and see that others have given said book low ratings as well. i may not share the taste of a particular friend, but at least i'm not the only one.

all that to say, if you know a good book, please mention it to me. but don't hype it up like it's the greatest thing since Ben Hur (which is amazing, by the way). cuz maybe i won't think so. and then i'll feel guilty. and books should leave you feeling anything but guilty.

and megan, if you're reading this... this does not apply to you and the books you recommend to me.

obsession

have i mentioned that caleb likes dogs?

some friends bought him a dog stuffed animal for his birthday. since they weren't going to make it to his party, they gave it to him last time they came for a visit. he LOVES this little puppy. that night, he couldn't stop hugging the dog and "woofing" at it. and while i was nursing him before bed, he would take breaks to bark... i suppose he was letting me know what he was going to be dreaming about.

the next day, he woke up from naps barking. and all he wanted to do was play with that puppy. peek-a-boo, hide and seek, keep-away, catch, chase, etc. you name it, and he would play it... with his dog.

throwing food...

how do i stop caleb from throwing his food on the ground? i'm trying to introduce more and more finger foods to him and, while he still has issues with anything that isn't dry, he's getting better. i think quesadilla (with soy cheese) finally won him over and now he's willing to try some new things! but, he throws a lot of things on the ground. i've read a couple of places to just not make a big deal about it and he just loses the opportunity to eat the food he throws. that's fine for some, maybe, but he doesn't care. he only throws stuff that he's done eating. if he wants more, he's smart enough to keep it on his tray.

any other suggestions?

wish list

it's just over one week until caleb's birthday. i can't believe it. there will be much to report, i'm sure, about his party, but i just thought i'd post his first birthday list because i had so much fun at the toy store figuring out what my little man might like.

ride-on/push toy
blocks
bath book
flip phone
doggy stuffed animal (preferably black lab)
bath toys
stacking/nesting cups

more sounds

i mentioned in a previous post about caleb making the occasional dog and lion sound. i'm happy to report that those two have continued and he's adding to his repertoire. he now does dog *almost* on command. and lion when looking a picture/toy. he's also done horse (a very high-pitched "heeeeeeeeeee") and goat/sheep (a loud "ehhhh").

he's freakin' cute!

jamba juice

caleb had his first jamba juice last weekend. and he LOVED it. i didn't want to overload his little tummy with something new since it would be his first experience with citrus. so after about 4-5 straws-full, we decided he should be done.

he had other idea.

this is his current sign language capabilities... "light" while reaching for something means "i want that", "turn it on", "give me please", etc. "light" while reaching for something with eyes closed means "i need that NOW or i'm going to get very angry". and that's what he was doing at jamba. but we held firm. probably he would have been fine with more but once we said he was done, we had to stick to our guns.

again, he had other ideas.

troy was holding him and drinking his jamba (i know, rubbing it in the poor kid's face!) when, all of a sudden, caleb reached for the straw, yanked it out of his daddy's mouth, and stuck it in his own mouth. and do you think something as insignificant as a bent straw would stop him? no way! he got a mouth full and was VERY pleased with himself.

face your manga

i heard about face your manga on pomomusings. and while i don't know adam's face well enough to compete in the contest, i thought i could try doing my own face. it's not quite right (actually, i think it might be a little cuter than i actually am), but i like it. i love that i get to wear purple (my favorite color) and i don't love that none of the short hair styles are curly. what, do they think curly girls only have long hair?

if you want to try your own, go to http://www.faceyourmanga.com/ it's fun. and easy.

canadian olympics

i love the olympics. a lot. it's one of my favorite things. this time we've been watching most of the olympics on CBC, the canadian channel. while the reporters and commercials aren't as good, i love it. i love that there is more coverage of the games than "special interest" stories that no one's really interested in. i love that they show a wider variety of events and don't just focus on the U.S athletes. and i love that the events are actually live when possible instead of live for the east coast and three hours later for me. it's pretty ridiculous that i can watch michael phelps win gold on CBC and then turn back to NBC and hear "and coming up later in the show, we'll go live to the water cube where michael phelps swims for another gold". how can it be live when i've already watched it? who do they think they're fooling?

but one funny thing about watching CBC is the "Bell olympic moments". honestly, even if this station wasn't better anyway, i would watch just for this. once an evening, they announce the "olympic moment" from the day before that the people of canada have voted on. and it's just hilarious because it's always two really important olympic moments and some random canadian olympic moment. for example... day 1 choices: a)michael phelps begins his quest by winning his first gold medal. b) china wins gold in weightlifting. c) kyle shewfelt (candian gymnast) comes back from an injury. guess which one was the winner? that's right... c.

let's try again... day 6 choices: a) swedish wrestler walks off podium and drops his bronze medal in protest. b) france swimmer takes gold in men's 100m freestyle. c) candian gymnast adam wong finishes 15th in men's all-around. and guess which one wins? C again.

don't get me wrong, i think it's awesome that the candian olympic teams are getting better and better and placing higher than ever before. i was totally cheering for adam wong to do well in gymnastics. but seriously, is that the most important olympic moment of the day? personally, i don't think so. reminds me of the survivor "game changing moments" that are something like, "so-and-so finds a coconut on the beach". right...

please

if you happen to have two children and happen to take them to the library. and child 1 happens to be content snuggling on your lap while you read, please, PLEASE make sure you know what child two is doing. because it's possible she could be terrorizing a cute little baby and that baby's mother.

"google-whack"

i read about this game this morning and decided i had to play...


basically, what you do is try to put together words so randomly that google only has ONE search result for it. the funny thing is that once you blog about it, then there are two results... which means the more people who play, the harder it gets :) fun, right? you can read a bit more about this at http://www.googlewhack.com/. it used to be that people could actually find 2 word "google-whacks" but i'm not sure that's possible anymore.


i want to see who can do this in the fewest words. but i don't actually know how to do the "mr. linky" thing so you'll just have to leave a comment if you participate. or i can try to figure it out. i guess i should learn someday... whatever.


here's mine: muskrat potato shadow nihilistic curling participle festering miller pastiche liposuction peters Piccadilly warehouse Jamba


14 words. how about you?


**ps... i tried to learn and include a mr linky. but then gmail pooped out on me and i need my confirmation code. sigh.

why did we wait?

yesterday marked 6 years of marriage for troy and i. one conversation we had revolved around why we waited so long (5 years) to have a baby because, while it's the hardest thing either one of us has ever done, we love being parents. we were joking about the fact that if we had had kids right away, we could have a kindergartener right now. and why didn't we?


part was practical... troy had one more year of college left and i, well, what can you really do with just a b.a. in psychology? i think part of it was selfish, too. i wanted troy all to myself. i wanted to just enjoy being a wife for a while. the biggest thing, though, i think was because troy knows me so well. he knew that i have a hard time believing i can do something until after i've already done it. i know some stuff about me. like that i'm a pretty good friend, and that i'm good at games. but that's because i've done those things before.


what i didn't know, was that i'm also a good student and a good teacher. looking back, i know i would have loved being a mom anytime it had happened. but the lessons i learned about myself through getting my master's degree and teaching kindergarten were so valuable and i believe they have made me a better mom and hopefully a better role model for caleb. i hope now when i tell him he can do something if he sets his mind to it, he'll believe me because i know, from experience, that it's true.

happy anniversary

i knew you were the one when you ...

described yourself using the very words i used to describe the man of my dreams

wrote me a thank you note at the end of first semester

listened to me cry about why it was so hard for me to trust people

understood how important the promise of "forever" was to me

cared about getting to know my family and loved sharing about yours

learned to play guitar just to fulfill a bet

still wanted to play games with me even though i beat you (sorry, but it's true)

spent the whole day with me and we didn't run out of things to say

told me you wanted to talk to my dad first before starting to date me

talked about your dreams for the future and God changed mine to match

told me "our story" over and over and over, just because i liked hearing it

designed a ring that was more beautiful than one i ever could have imagined

stood in the church and held my hand while we worshipped


you are my love. you have been these last 6 years we've spent together and i know you will be forever.

at the dog park

today at the dog park, caleb did the cutest thing! we had been practicing our lion and dog sounds in the car on the way there. when we got there, he was doing a lot of "woof-woofing". all of a sudden, though, he starts growling like a lion. i looked to see what was going on, and i saw this...




a bernese mountain dog. not quite a lion, but caleb's only 11 months old... i can see how he might get confused!

friendship

i've been thinking about this for a while, now, and i'm not sure i've quite gathered all my thoughts. but i want to get some of them down anyway. specifically, i've been thinking about friendship in the media... books and tv, especially. admittedly, i'm not a very good person to be writing about this because i don't watch much tv and skip a lot of movies, too (except that i'm a total sucker for reality tv and superhero movies).

i caught a few episodes of high school musical: get in the picture. one gal had a very interesting (and, in my opinion, sad) comment. she talked about the fact that she didn't have very many friends. she thought that had helped her in life because she could be more selfish and didn't have anyone "holding her back". is that really how some see friendship? as something that can hold them back? friendship, true friendship, should help encourage you to be more than you could be alone. to grow and change and feel safe in taking risks because you know that there's someone who will always love you.

contrast that to the sisterhood of the traveling pants books that i've been reading lately (to get ready for the second movie, of course!). there was a wonderful line in the second book. carmen, after having been a brat, tells tibby about it. tibby encourages her to make it right. at the end of the conversation, tibby leaves and carmen reflects that, "a worse friend would have made her feel better." now that, is friendship. that's the kind of people i want in my life. people who love me too much to pad my pride and, instead, help me do things that are hard for me.

such a different perspective on friendship. so much more healthy. and difficult. i hope there are more models like that in the media than the former.

sounds

i took caleb to our favorite toy store yesterday. we went to look at the stuffed animals again. and guess what? when i pulled out a dog stuffed animal, caleb woofed. it was ADORABLE! i tried it a couple more times and he kept doing it. then, i pulled out a lion and he growled! i also pulled out a fox to see if it was just a coincidence. he said "aaglug glug" so i'm not exactly sure what that means :)

i was so hoping for troy to be able to have a chance to see this. and last night, when we were sitting outside on a blanket, a dog walked by. and, sure enough, caleb woofed again. i've heard him make the sound before but yesterday was the first time it was really directed toward a dog.

i love that little monster!

attention span

caleb has a huge attention span... at least, for an 11 month old. yesterday, i just couldn't get this one book out of my head and really wanted to finish the chapter i had started during his nap. so, i picked up the book and gave him a couple of his own books. i read and he read. i loved every single second of it.

10 minutes later, i was done with my chapter (plus an extra one) and he was still reading. i had to call him a couple of times before he tore himself away from his book to look at me. now i know how troy feels when i'm reading and tune everything else out!