Reaching sweet fun

Day 15

Nate had a mandatory after-dinner bath (due to remnants of bananas and beans in his hair). He has these little bath squares with images and words on them (ball, duck, crab, dog) and they stick to the side of the tub, even in stacks. During this bath, I realized they'll also stick to him, which delighted him immensely so he would just giggle and giggle. Bath time is always fun, but this was extra fun(ny).

Day 16

On day sweet 16, I finished this book:

I absolutely adore the feeling of finishing a book. It's kind of similar to that feeling your stomach gets when you do an underwater somersault in a pool. It's thrilling, but almost nauseating, but just so awesome that you have to do it again and again. So, yes, finishing a book is just like that. I'm always sad that the book is done, but I'm also happy I read another book, that I can read that same book again if I want to, and that I have the rest of my life to keep reading.

And it's a good thing I feel that way because this book is due back at the library in two days, no extension allowed, and I'm only on page 34 of 328.

Literary Likings

I have a few new favorite things these days.

NurtureShock
by Po Bronson and Ashley Merryman

If you are a parent, I highly, highly recommend you read this book. I read it as an e-book but am considering buying a hard copy so that I can flip through it at will as I develop questions and want to re-read certain chapters. The book challenges a lot of accepted parenting norms - like why it's actually better to praise your child's effort at something than tell them they're smart and exactly what happens to kids who are told often that they're smart. The chapter on why we should discuss race with young children was truly fascinating and informative and the chapter on language development is probably the first one I'll re-read a couple of times. I really cannot recommend this book enough.

The Perks of Being a Wallflower
by Stephen Chbosky

After my friend Kate mentioned her library the other day, I realized I had forgotten about the library. I was sitting around wishing I had the money to buy this book when I could just borrow it from the library. It isn't the sort of book I'd want to immediately keep and re-read over and over, so it made for a perfect library book.

It is a YA (young adult) book, so I had to go into the YA section at the library to get it, which was a real trip down memory lane. When I was in middle school, I used to hang out there all the time and just read... and read... and read some more.

The reason I was interested in this book is because it's being made into a film starring Emma Watson (Hermione from the Harry Potter films) and Nina Dobrev (Elena/Katherine from the Vampire Diaries television show). It's a film I knew I'd want to see, so I wanted to read the book first (I always prefer to read the book before seeing a film). The film promises to be quite good - not only because the cast is fantastic, but also because the book's author wrote the screenplay AND is directing the film.

If I were a high school freshman or sophomore English teacher, I would definitely use this book in my class - possibly even for 7th and 8th grade honors English classes. It's a real page-turner, too. I picked it up at the library yesterday morning and finished it last night - and I worked a full day yesterday! Like I said, it's YA fiction, so it's an easy read, but it's a truly compelling story with interesting characters. I highly recommend it.

Currently reading: The English American, by Alison Larkin

The plot of The English American is that Pippa is a young British woman who has always known that she was adopted, but also finds out that she's from the American South by birth. That's all I needed to read to add this book to my "to read" list when it came out - and now it's mine! (Okay, from the library.) I'm only 30 pages in but I already adore it.

I've also got some new (to me) non-book literary likings:

Ezra Pound Cake

Is that not the best literary nerd baking blog name ever? I've heard the name of the blog a few times here and there over the past year or so but I never took the time to really check it out. I recently did and I lurve love love it. The author is Rebecca Crump, which is even a simply awesome name to have as a baking enthusiast. "Rebecca Crump" sounds like a character in a novel about a British baking blogger, right? She's not British, though - she lives in the Midwest and has an English degree. She worked as a writer for ten years before deciding to switch gears and become a baker. I mean, really, it's a novel waiting to happen, right? Her autobiography would read like a wonderful novel I'd love to read on vacation.

To boot, her recipes and photos are fabulous. I recently made her "No Bake Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Cookies" and they are delish. I look forward to trying many more of her recipes.

What Would a Nerd Wear

This is a style blog I recently came across through someone else's blogroll. The title of it immediately caught my eye (as I like to fashion myself a nerd) and quickly browsing it, I loved it immediately. She calls her list of what she's wearing in each photo her "Works Cited" (love it!!), is studying British Literature in a grad program in the Midwest and talks about teaching and grad work and basically everything I adore. I definitely envy this blog a lot - I wish I was in a grad program in the Midwest, teaching undergrads and style blogging.

Is it weird that I feel like if I got together with the writers of Ezra Pound Cake and What Would a Nerd Wear, we'd have a ton to talk about? Okay, they'd talk a lot and I would try to learn, learn, learn from them. I think that means they're awesome bloggers. When your writing on a website makes ordinary people want to hang out with you and talk about what you love to do, you're doing something right (imho).

So that's what I'm into these days. I find it funny that there's a clear literary thread running through all of it. It feels very right, right now. Ever stumble on a theme in your life and think, "Yes. Yes, that's totally fitting right now for how I feel"?

An Object of Beauty

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before (in addition to the above) and blog about them. (30/30)

Completed!

An Object of Beauty
by Steve Martin (yes, the Steve Martin)

I finally finished reading Steve Martin's An Object of Beauty. I started it ages ago but it kept falling by the wayside due to Nate and grad school and, oh, that job thing I have.

The length of time it took me to finish this book does not speak to how much I adore Steve Martin's writing, however. His novella Shopgirl continues to be one of my very favorite contemporary books. (The film is also really good and it's very interesting to compare the two. I always recommend reading the book first.)

Not everyone knows this, but Steve Martin is an avid art collector and incredibly knowledgeable about the art world, so when I read that he wrote a new novel and it centered around the art world, I knew it would be something special. The story is beautiful written with incredibly well developed characters and an adequate amount of sideways movement to the plot, by which I mean that the plot continually seems to take these small trips aside from the main point. This plot construction is so well written that I kept forgetting that the side details weren't the main point of the story (although they're always key parts of the main point of the story).

This book is a beautiful ride through two decades of the art world, full of interesting characters and details about great (or even not great) works of art.

If you've read any of Steve Martin's writing before and you haven't read this one, you should. If you haven't read any of Steve Martin's writing before, start with Shopgirl... then read this.

A Bedtime Accomplishment

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before and blog about them. (28-29/30)

When I made my 101 in 1001 list, I really did not believe I'd be reading parenting books at any point during the process. Ha. Not only have I read/skimmed/perused a ton, I have a little man who's about to turn a year old in less than two weeks.

As I've mentioned before, Nate is not a perfect sleeper. Now, no baby is perfect, but the key here is that the issues he's having don't work for us. We need him to go to bed earlier at night and sleep more soundly through his daytime naps. If in the process he also stops waking up in the middle of the night, that's great too, but it's not my primary concern.

After doing a lot of research, I decided to pick up two books: Elizabeth Pantley's The No-Cry Sleep Solution and The No-Cry Nap Solution.

I chose these books because the snippets I perused really, really spoke to me. Pantley is all about doing what works for you and what feels right to you. This was important to me because the hubby and I parents a lot based on what we feel is right. Obviously we (okay, I) read a lot about what we should be doing, what Nate should be up to, and so on - but we also like to trust our gut. For example, crying. I do not believe in leaving Nate to cry in his crib alone. Ever. (Unless there's an emergency in the house and we need to just put him somewhere secure for a few minutes. Even then, I'd prefer to put him in the playpen so his crib remains a place of rest.)

That said, I am incredibly envious of the parents who can plop their kid in their crib, say "Night night!" and walk out. This has never, ever happened for us. Nate would be screaming before the door to his room shut. So I needed to find a way to ease him into this process because I wasn't willing to let him scream and I needed a plan so that I didn't feel exasperated, angry, and like this would all never end.

Enter the No-Cry books. I've read them both now and we're going a little out of order with them, but that's mainly because the hubby and I don't have time to even discuss these books. What we need to do is start keeping track of his sleep schedule. At his age, he should be getting 11 1/2 - 12 hrs of sleep at night and 2-3 hours of napping in over the course of two naps. In the past week, his naps have gotten better and he's getting 1 hour in one nap and 2 hours in the other on most days. But nighttime? He's getting closer to 10 hours - not enough. We have to move his bedtime back, but haven't been successful at that yet.

Last night, though, I decided to try something. Every night, I sit in the glider with him and we glide and sing until he falls asleep. He starts out sitting on my lap and then at some point, flips himself over so he's lying on me with his head on my shoulder. Last night I decided to put him in the crib at the moment he flipped himself over, because that's his cue that he's truly falling asleep.

For the next 45 minutes, he alternated between lying down, rolling around, standing and shaking the crib rail, talking to his toys, standing and chewing the crib rail, and lying back down. All the while, I stood by his crib, rubbing his back in the beginning, but I eventually stopped when I realized that just me being there was enough. He wasn't complaining about being in his crib, he was just simply fighting sleep. This was already a step forward because in the past, he have been standing in there crying, even if I was right there. Last night he would stand at the crib rail, then put his face down on it as his eyelids drooped. He even fell over in tiredness a few times (which made me seriously have to hold in a giggle). All the while, I sat there on the glider's ottoman, just hanging out - not talking, not singing, not reacting to anything he did - just there as a presence.

And it took an hour from start (getting in the glider and reading three stories) to finish (quietly leaving his room) but he did put himself to sleep in the crib. I walked out feeling like I wanted to throw myself a parade.

I know, it's silly. Before I was a parent, I would have rolled my eyes at all of this. (Hell, I wouldn't even have read this blog post.) But now I feel like helping Nate learn to fall asleep on his own is a serious responsibility I have - one that we haven't done well enough yet.

The No-Cry Nap Solution had a great point that I believe is part of our issue with Nate. We all learn how to soothe ourselves back to sleep when we wake up in the middle of the night. You get in bed, you fall asleep, your rustle awake but go back to sleep. Now imagine you went to sleep in your bed, comfy with your blanket and pillow, but when you woke up in the middle of the night, you were on the kitchen floor with no blanket or pillow. You wouldn't roll over and go back to sleep, right? You'd be confused and upset.

This is what happens when babies are used to falling asleep in someone's arms, like Nate is. They go to sleep with someone there but then wake up alone. No wonder he's unhappy when he stirs; I would be, too. So last night's "experiment" was my first move in trying to get him to fall asleep on his own.

Truthfully, the hubby has the harder part: daytime naps. But we're going to try two solutions to start off with. 1 - Room darkening curtains. Nate's room has southern exposure, so it gets light all day long. I think this helps disrupt his naps and wakes him up early in the morning. 2 - Pantley suggests keeping track of when your baby wakes up from his nap (say after 45 minutes instead of the hour and a half you hope for), then going in to check on him five minutes before you expect him to wake, proactively soothing him to sleep when he stirs between sleep cycles. I have my doubts about how that'll work with Nate (especially since we don't have the darkening curtains yet) but we'll see. Maybe as part of the whole sleep revision package, it will be effective.

I think we also need to revise his whole eating schedule and bedtime, but I'm going to wait until his one year doctor's appointment for any big moves on that so we can see what she says about what he needs to eat since he'll be making the switch from formula to milk. (Hooray!)

I feel really hopeful about the plans based on these two books. Even though the whole bedtime routine took an hour last night (and meant that I didn't get to eat dinner until 10:30pm), the success of it made me really happy and I'm excited to try it again tonight.

Black Heels to Tractor Wheels - and chocolate chip cookies

Even though I had already read two-thirds of The Pioneer Woman's love story as it was published on her website, I was thoroughly excited about the publication of this book.

Not only did she promise some new material in the first two-thirds, there was also that final third that she added, which she promised would include the story of her honeymoon and the first year of her marriage to Marlboro Man.

While I have always absolutely loved reading her love story on her website (and I say "have always loved" because I've read it several times), at times it makes me jealous because in some ways she has led a very fortunate life.  She clearly didn't grow up wanting for anything and while she claims to have many of the same image issues that many women do, she's obviously very pretty and was adequately aware of that throughout her youth.  She attended college in southern California and enjoyed everything Los Angeles had to offer.  When she returned home between L.A. and her plan to move to Chicago, she very easily dated several men and enjoyed life before randomly meeting Marlboro Man one night.

And now - now she has an amazing website, is clearly a great cook, a very good photographer, maintains a beautiful home, homeschools her four gorgeous children, and still wants for very little (except DSL).  And she's still amazingly beautiful (absolutely stunning in person).  So I find a lot to be jealous of.

So I always find it interesting when she talks about something she struggles with, which she does in the newly added material in her book.  Not to be too spoiler-y, but the ranch had some struggles that first year, she didn't have a necessarily easy pregnancy with her first child (yes, she was pregnant in their first year of marriage) and she didn't immediately take to motherhood, which is something I found particularly comforting to read as I felt many of the same emotions she did (although without the circle of support she describes as having - I wish someone came over and cooked and cleaned for me).

I found that the writing style shifted a bit with the third section, which I would guess is because she wrote it separately from the first two parts and also because the subject matter was far less light than it was as she described falling in love with her husband.  If you want to fall in love with your partner all over again, definitely read this book, though.  That's why I've read the online version a few times; I always come away from it feeling happy to have found love and to be married.

This book isn't for everyone, of course, just like her website isn't necessarily interesting to everyone.  But if you like her website even just a little, you will probably like this book (and you can read the online parts of it first to see how much you like it).

And, naturally, she adds some recipes at the end of her book.  Most of them are ones readers of her site and owners of her cookbook will recognize, though - nothing new worth noting...

Except the recipe for chocolate chip cookies.  This recipe is available on her site but something about it at the end of her book called out to me.

And then, after I made them, they continued to call out to me, like an ex you've dumped who just won't take a hint.  (Not that that's ever happened to me, but I read about stuff like that.)  I told myself I can't ever make these again, by which I mean I must now make them every week for the rest of my life.  I might, in fact, make them tonight.  Last night I was craving them because I ran out of them the day before, but I was too lazy to start baking at 9:30pm so instead I ate apple slices with peanut butter and chocolate chips (which, by the way, is a totally awesome snack).

For the cookies, I did not use half butter and half margarine like PW does because I just couldn't bring myself to buy margarine.  It reminds me of all the bad parts of the 80s, like shoulder pads and Aqua Net and stirrup pants.  So I used all butter; tonight I'll probably use half butter and half shortening to see how that affects the texture.

I did, however, include two tablespoons of flax seeds, as she recommends - and I honestly do think they made a difference.  The little nutty crunch they add just tips these cookies over from good to obsessively irresistable.  And the ratio of semisweet to milk chocolate chips is just right.  Yumsa.  If you like chocolate chip cookies, go make these tonight.  Or don't, because then you'll eat them all and blame me for the five pounds you may gain.  But I dare say they're worth the risk.

16. Read 30 books I haven’t read before (in addition to the above) and blog about them. (27/30)