books galore

Mmm, books. I love them. I love that I can now focus on the written word. I lost that ability pregnant with Jonah, too, so I knew it would come back. Still, it's been a pretty dry spell. I'm not sure I read anything from the tornado until last week. I have a lot of ground to make up, clearly.

So here is the abbreviated version of what I read and what I thought: Oh, and each of these books was read carefully as I consider what I will choose for book club in 2 months. I would like it to be 1) easy to get ahold of, 2) not offensive to anyone, 3) easy to get into, 4) happy.


What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty: I loved this book. It made me think about what myself 5 or 10 years ago would think about myself now. I would pick this book in a heartbeat (and still may), but the library only has one copy and there are a few swear words that might make some of the book club members uncomfortable.

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand: Amazing. I can't stop thinking about it. That said, since the last half takes place in POW camps, it is a bit graphic. She did a great job not letting the darkness overwhelm the story, but it was disturbing (and rightfully so...what happened there was extremely disturbing).

The Last Anniversary by Liane Moriarty: I read this one to see if it would be a good substitute for What Alice Forgot (the library has 3 copies of this one!), but it isn't as good. It was well-written but was neither as thought-provoking nor as clean. It was hardly racy, but it did have more foul language that the other.

Forever by Maggie Stiefvater: Concludes the Shiver series. Book #1 is still my favorite.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor: Reminded me quite a bit of City of Bones. I enjoyed it but I'm not desperate for the sequel. It had a good pace but was all-in-all a bit forgettable.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak: The second book about WWII that I read in a week. It was such an interesting approach to the subject and I like how it portrayed normal German citizens, for whom WWII was a dark time for a lot of reasons. The end wrapped up a little quickly for me, but all-in-all it was enjoyable. I may pick this (lots of copies, plenty to talk about, enjoyable read) although I was really gunning for a happy or funny book this time around.

the midnight muncher

Imagine if when you cleaned the kitchen before bed, you put a dozen chocolate chip cookies in a tupperware so that no little crawly things would help themselves in the night. Upon waking up in the morning, there are 3 cookies left. Next to the counter is a stool used by a 3-foot son. This was what we found this morning. Things have progressed from eating Nutella and crackers for breakfast to getting up in the night and snacking. One night he told me he was up "looking for more marshmallows." This is how the conversation went this morning:

Josh: Jonah, did you eat these cookies last night?
Jonah: Yes.
Josh: Jonah, these are a special treat, not a meal. You can't just eat the whole container when you're hungry. You can eat an apple instead. If you can't stay out of the desserts, there will be no more.
Jonah: Well, we'll just buy more.
Josh: No, we won't.
Jonah: Then we'll get some Oreos or marshmallows...I didnt eat any of those.

I think we may be cutting the sweets for a bit. Josh thinks we should leave Jonah some cheese on a plate and see if he eats it in the night instead.

All the best authors live in Australia

I keep promising some book posts, more because I like to write about what I read than because anyone is checking the blog every ten minutes for a book post. Still, there's just not enough time or energy at the end of a day to do so now. That said, I just finished The Book Thief (finally, right?). I need to chew on it for a few days. I was surprised to learn that Marcus Zusak lives in Australia. Of course he does. So do Melina Marchetta and Liane Moriarty (authors of my favorite book and the other good book I just read, respectively).

Perhaps there's something in the water there.

time marches on

There is evidence that life will return to normal around here someday. Caroline can go 15 minutes without being fed, sleeping, or crying. We're enjoying the little glimpses of a pleasant child. Also, I read a book. And then I read another and another. More on those later. Since I haven't read much of anything since last April, it was a happy reunion.

The 15 minutes is over now. Ciao.

some more quotes

Whenever I get sad thinking that Caroline is going to grow up, I remind myself that someday she'll be saying funny things like Jonah. For example:

-One night, between requests for drinks of water and such, I snuck a piece of chocolate. When I went back to give him a kiss he said, "what's that smell of chocolate?"
-Similarly, he walked in the kitchen today and asked, "what's that cheeto smell?" It was actually margarine melting (which did sort of smell like cheetos), but he followed it up with, "I wish it was cheetos."
-Finally, today I had to open a new package of body wash that was a 3-pack from Costco. When he came rushing in to the bathroom, I assumed he had to go to the bathroom. "No, I just thought I heard a wrapper sound." I wonder if he thought I was eating candy in the shower without him? (Not that I have been known to do things like that...much.)
-He's been very in to wishing things recently. Some favorites include, "I wish I had a pet red ant", "I wish God made coffee good for our bodies" (after the chat about why we don't drink coffee), and "I wish I had a real magic wand".
-Another favorite phrase of his is "but what if it could?" For example, "what if we had a cat that was a nice cat but it was mean to sharks and stung them." To which I responded, "I don't think cats sting. They bite and scratch, but they don't have stingers." "Yeah, but what if they could? That would be neat."
-He loves giving us clues to what he's thinking about. The problem is, the clue is either the same every time or he gives away the answer. Today, he gave me the same clue ("it's red and yellow") five times. With each incorrect guess, he sweetly assured me, "that was a good idea, Mom! ...but try again." (The answer, which he had to give me, was that it was a nice worm that crawls into his little house and comes out a butterfly.)
-"When Caroline cries, I need a drink." (This was his way of asking for a glass of milk, but still..)
-"My nuscles are so strong for this." (I love when he says "nuscle" instead of "muscle".)
-"I do sometime." (as in,  "I don't like chicken nuggets, but I do sometime.") I've dropped the s off of sometimes now too, hoping that he'll keep it up a bit longer.

And whenever I get sad that Jonah will not always mispronounce words, I remember that he still has no idea who Harry Potter is or what Narnia is and we have plenty more fun ahead.

Having a "picnic" out in the lawn. Now he wants Caroline to come outside with him every time, even when it's 40 degrees and rainy.

rhetorical questions

Why are my children so grumpy today?

some pictures

With his magic wand:

Getting chunky:

And too sweet not to share:

because the Dixie post is sad

(nope, no news yet.)

Some Jonah quotes:

(said with the saddest voice): "I wish I had a nice pet skunk."
(in protest of bath time): "but I'm a skunk, a REAL skunk that doesn't take baths...but I'm an inside skunk."
"I'm a wizard because I don't have any wings."
"I have a good plan! I'll use my magic wand to make Caroline into a happy baby."

Also, the words/phrases I've had to explain recently. It doesn't seem that tough until you actually try to explain them to a toddler:

-chills
-stranger
-you've got a friend in me ("how can your friend by IN you?")
-friendship

And on that note, it's time to bathe my skunk-boy.

missing Dix

Dixie's been missing since Thursday. The thing is, she's an escape artist, so this is nothing new. In fact, she was out just last week. Every other time (but two, more on those later) she's either come back on her own or been found by a neighbor within a few hours. She never wanders far and is just too social to do a lot of traveling. As soon as she sees someone on the porch or out for a walk, she hangs out with them until we find her.

She went missing after the tornado. We were really scared. But animal control picked her up and a neighbor recognized her. She was hungry but otherwise unhurt.

She went missing at our temporary home this summer once for 4 days. I had just about given up when she just showed up next to me on a run. It's not like I hadn't been looking for her in that exact area for the last 4 days.

We're all a little (or a lot) sad about it tonight, though, because we figured we'd hear something by now.  She has tags and all, so it's not like someone wouldn't know how to get a hold of us. We even put up signs today (which Jonah is very upset about because the cars don't slow down and look at our sign). Other than that, Jonah is keeping pretty upbeat, but he is the reason we're so sad. Watching him go out and call for her every few hours is too much for me.

That said, here are some positives. If our dog is going to be out on her own anyway, at least:
*it's been unusually warm this week and looks to stay that way this coming week
*we haven't heard any bad news
*if she doesn't come back, at least we don't have to try and explain that to Jonah on top of explaining the tornado (which was too much to even contemplate the first time she went missing).

Poor puppy. I hope she comes home tonight.

strawberry cake with strawberry frosting

Body had a birthday, or so Jonah told us. She turned four. Josh, as usual, had the fun idea and we threw Body a party. When we told Jonah the plan, he responded with, "with a for real birthday cake?!" (I'm pretty sure this is where the idea of a birthday cake maker came from...)

Then, because real life happens, Jonah fell asleep before the cake was done, so the party was postponed until breakfast the next day. Not that anyone minded cake for breakfast. Especially not Jonah, who had Nutella and Oreos for breakfast today ("Don't worry, Mom, I already had breakfast" at 7 am).