February 2008 Books & Such

For the one person who actually cares, here is what was going on in our house this week, reading and entertainment wise. Note - everything is on a scale of 4 stars.

Books

The Choice, by Nicholas Sparks – 1.5 stars – I like Sparks’ sappy romantic books, but not this one. I thought the story boring and prosaic and the entire idea of his “choice” somewhat unappealing with a fantastical ending.

The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil, by Phillip Zimbardo – 3.75 stars – I really really love this book, but it is a very long nonfiction book. The book spends a great deal of time outlining the Stanford Prison Experiment and then discusses in general the ideas of not only personality but also (and mostly) situation and the “system” causing good apples to go bad – the bad barrel philosophy. I love the perspective this book gives me and find the psychology experiments very very fascinating. I loved it!

The Saturday Wife, by Naomi Ragen – 2.5 stars – For this kind of book (and genre), this book really made me think. The main character is (in my mind) nominally an Orthodox Jew but ends up marrying a rabbi and trying to convince him to follow her’s life dream – basically living a life of leisure in a really really expensive suburb. And the corruption that follows. I just had such a hard time believing that people can be so shallow.

The History of Love, by Nicole Krauss – 1.5 stars – This was our book for book club in February and I just didn’t love it. It follows the story of an old man (a bit crazy, I might add) and a teenage girl and you see all kinds of love. But as I and another reader wondered, “When is the book going to start?”. A very slow story and the “and yet” and “but”s of the novel started to grate on my nerves. But some people really love it – what can I say.

Austenland, by Shannon Hale – 1.5 stars – A quick read on a night when Katsu was at a friends watching movies. An interesting take on what it might have been like to live in a Jane Austen novel (boring, boring, and a few hot guys). But unfortunately boring.

Another day in the frontal lobe: a brain exposes life on the inside, by Katrina Firlik – 2.5 stars – This interesting memoir by a brain surgeon wasn’t quite what I expected … though I did learn some about the brain and got a different impression about what brain surgeons do. I don’t think I’d like this job.

CDs

Putumayo Kids - 1.5-4 stars - Andrew has really really loved these CDs the last month or so. African Playground and Dreamland both get 4 stars each. French Playground is 3.5 stars. Reggae Playground is 2.5 stars, Folk Playground is 1.5 stars. Animal Playground is 2 stars. Asian Dreamland is 2 stars. And yes - we have listened to WAY too many of these in the last month. But the African Playground CD rocks. Andrew dances along to EVERY song and only wants to listen to this CD.

Dallas

We're (Andrew & Amanda) are in Dallas with the family. Today we went to the zoo and had a pretty fun time, though Andrew got a bit tired at the end. It's great how beautiful the weather is - much better than daily snow in Michigan.

Cold & Snowy

It has been a really cold and snowy winter. Katsu loves to go outside and throw snowballs at the window while Andrew is watching. This last big snowstorm, or maybe the one before, Katsu built a snowman while Andrew watched. He did a really good job, I think. Now, we feel like someone is always watching us through our window. Creepy ... Andrew and I can not wait until we are in Texas next week!

Food Frustrations

Andrew seems like he has grown up a lot since his doctors appt on Monday. He has started crawling, though he is still not so sure about it and only does it for something he really wants. We realized that we need to babyproof more as he is starting to get into everything. He also seems to have finally got a pincer grasp (can hold things between his thumb and finger).

Of course, that means he can now pick up cheerios and those little Gerber food things. Which he now decided he really wants to eat. Which is nice that he actually wants to eat something ... except he gags and then barfs everytime he eats one. Seriously, he may barf all over himself three times during dinner. We are very frustrated. He won't eat spoon food and he spits up or gags and barfs up everything solid he puts in his mouth. Everything. I think he has eaten maybe 4 tablespoons of non-breastmilk food in his whole life. Anyone experience anything similar. If this hasn't ended by the time we get back from Texas, I am going to the pediatrician again and see if we can get a referral to a specialist. Looks like I'm going to be nursing FOREVER.

Andrew is 9 months!

Today we had a doctor appt at 7 am! What was I thinking when I scheduled it - esp when it was only -2 degrees (-15 wind chill) outside when we left. Way too cold and way too early. But the results are in ...

Height - 29.4 inches (84%) as usual
Weight - 22.2 lbs (76%)

He is finally coming back down in weight (in percentile). Of course, this is probably due to his (as his doctor called it) SOLID FOOD AVERSION. In other words, Andrew refuses to let us feed him anything. He doesn't mind playing with food, but if perchance it gets in his mouth - well, then he will spit it out and sometimes throw up just to get rid of the icky feeling. Which means my dreams of weaning seem ever and ever further away. The good news ... we don't have to feed him anymore so he won't be "controlling the situation" and only tell him how good food is and wait until he asks for it. Which is way better than suffering through feeding time.

Otherwise, Andrew is a happy kid. He now has 4 teeth, but of course won't let us take a picture of them. He isn't crawling, but manages to get around with rolling and sorta crawling (he can crawl a bit backwards ...). He has this push toy he can walk around with and he is also starting to cruise some. His favorite activity - pulling books off the bookshelf, CDs out of the CD player, and dancing to his new favorite CD "African Playground". Still has severe separation anxiety if he is being babysat at someone else's house. As my friend said, "I was surprised at the intensity of his crying. At one point, he was even hyperventilating". As the doctor said, the kid obviously has an opinion of the world around him. Umm ... yes, I believe so. He is a very talkative kid and seems to perhaps know how to say Daddy, though it's all speculation on our part of course.

On a side note - I am still in graduate school (Barely) and my first journal paper was accepted for publication last week! Big yeah - that is essentially 1/3 of the way to being done with my PhD. I also got a conference abstract accepted so the whole family will be going to Toronto the first week of May for me to learn all the new stuff being done in MRI and to present my work on B1 Mapping. It will be a fun month ... but that is a separate post. Happy February.

Cute Cute Cute Pictures - Japan Photo Shoot

We finally got some scanned pictures from our photo shoot of Andrew in his kimono. Isn't he so cute? Enjoy!

January Books & Movies & other Entertainment

Since I'm sick and just trying to get better, I have time for a quick blog about the books & movies we watched this month.

Books (out of 4 stars)

The Book of New Family Traditions: How to Create Great Rituals for Holidays and Everyday 3 stars - this book had some good ideas, but I guess nothing that I loved or was really spectacular. Probably would enjoy it more if I had older kids.

Playing for pizza 2 stars - No offensive, John Grisham, but your legal thrillers are way better than the rest of your books. I mostly enjoyed the story and learned about the American football teams in Italy (who knew?), but I admit I mostly skimmed the text about the actual football games (do I care). Mostly this book gave me a craving for Italian food, most especially Parmesan cheese.

The death of the grown-up : how America's arrested development is bringing down western civilization 1.5 stars - I was really excited to read this book and liked the first chapter, but it all went downhill from there. I just don't think rock n' roll was the death of American civilization. I was really hoping for a more in-depth reading of the problem or at least a solution. And how this all related to the Iraq war - well, you have lost me there. I admit, I didn't read the last chapter or two.

Nineteen minutes 3.5 stars - I really enjoy Jodi Picoult's books to begin with, and this story of how a boy becomes a school shooter was interesting (with an interesting, though not entirely unexpected plot twist at then end). I really liked how the book was told, starting with the shooting itself (all 19 minutes) and then going both backward and forward in time. Makes you think about being a parent too. A little language and a little sexuality (though you can skip those parts without missing any of the story).

How Starbucks saved my life : a son of privilege learns to live like everyone else 2 stars - This book was interesting ... I guess. The author had everything going for him before he slept around, lost his marriage and lost his wife, prompting him to start working at Starbucks. However, the writer made himself sound really stupid or like he was mentally deficient, though I don't think that's the case, he using to be an advertising executive. But the lessons he learned were interesting. So it's a bit of a mixed bag, but a quick read.

Women & money : owning the power to control your destiny 2 stars - Not the best personal finance book I've read, but not the worst. This has pretty decent advice, though I didn't learn much except that Suze Orman really really recommends trusts with a will as a backup which sounds like an awful lot of work for me. The book comes with a deal where you open an Ameritrade account and make regular deposits to get a free $100 - I am taking her up on that.

Movies

Breach 3 stars - This movie, based on a true story, about a spy in the FBI was a little slow moving but very interesting. I especially liked the take home message, which I won't spoil.

The War, Disc One 2.5 stars - I love Ken Burns films, especially the one on the Civil War, so my expectations were high and so far I am just not that impressed. I guess I was hoping for a little more explanation at the beginning instead of ... oh, it's Pearl Harbor and now we are at war. Although I guess that is how the US experienced. Katsu finds the movie a bit US-centric, which it is. Here's to hoping that the next few discs are better.

Shrek the Third - 1 star - I was just so not impressed with this movie. Oh, well. What can you expect.


Other

Ann Arbor Hands On Museum 2 stars - I think this would be a fun place, but for Andrew's age there was really only one tiny little section. A nice way to get out of the house, but unfortunately we will have probably moved out of Ann Arbor before he can really enjoy this museum. A lot like a science museum.

Detroit Institute of Art - 4 stars - I have been waiting to see this museum since we moved here and the big new renovations were finally done in November and we finally got over there. I love big art museums, but I especially like how this one was done more or less thematically in places. I really liked their more modern art (Picasso, etc.) as well as the European art. The African area was nice, but the Asian collection was TINY. They had so many fun things for kids to do - I think it would be really fun for elementary schoolers and maybe even preschoolers. Even Andrew liked some of the art.

And Andrew's Beautiful Hair

Some more cute pics

Our Handsome Little Boy

Andrew and his balloon from Old Country Buffet - he loved it! But it only stayed up for about a day.