Monthly Book Review - Oct 08

Well, I guess I read a little bit more than I expected, but again a couple are parenting books, which I always rush through to get the pertinent bits. And there is actually a little fun (although not really fluffy) fiction book! Enjoy and remember there is always time to read.

Diaper Free Before Three: the healthier way to toilet-train and help your child out of diapers sooner by Jill Lekovic - 3/4 stars A friend reviewed this book on her blog and recommended it. And then it seemed like everyone I knew with kids Andrew's age (or younger) already had a potty seat. And so we got one. And then I had no idea what to do - so I read this. I liked the idea of this book - basically, in my opinion, train a kid before they hit those terrible twos (or more like terrible 18 months, 2 1/2, 3 1/2, or whatever) and make it a nice easy part of the routine. People potty trained their kids really young until recently (i.e. disposable diapers came on the seen), so we are just getting silly. Basically all based on some unsubstantiated (?) work by Brazelton on how kids need to show "readiness" or they might be emotionally damaged by too young of toilet training. Of course, I always take books like this, to some extent, with a grain of salt. I mean, their "agenda" is early potty training, so they only include information that encourages their point of view and disparage all others. But overall, I thought this was a good idea (i.e.,, start putting kids on potty as soon as they can sit well), but was very very short on details.

Early Start Potty Training by Linda Sonna. 3.5 / 4 stars Of course, I can't read just one book about a subject, so I had to compare to this one. I actually much preferred this one. I think they had the exact same idea, but better explanation or inclusion of research and also gave a lot lot lot more useful tips on actually implementing. I especially like the idea that if we start potty training now ... Andrew might be done (of course, saying when potty training is done is very subjective as these books explain) potty training by day in 6 months. I think that's a pipe dream, but stay tuned.

Parenting, Inc.: How we are sold on $800 strollers, fetal education, baby sign language, sleeping coaches, toddler couture, and diaper wipe warmers and what it means for our children by Pamela Paul 2/4 stars. I expected great things of this my favorite genre of books, but it wasn't all that good. I loved some parts and it never ceases to amaze me things people will do or buy for their kids (I mean, fetal education?!?!? REALLY?). That is true entertainment. But the book didn't flow very well and was kind of boring, all in all. The basic jist of the book is this - people have kids when they are older, more educated, have more money, and live far away from family and they ultimately have less of them. They are also starved for time. And they have totally bought in to the idea that has been marketed to them shamelessly that we need to stimulate our children and educate them from the womb up and that if they don't give their kids all these opportunities and stuff that they are somehow disadvantaging them. I do have to say that I found it AMAZING how quickly kids toys all became "educationalized" - it really is crazy. I'll have to post sometime on what I think about parenting, but let's just say that this book backed up a lot of what I feel about how crazy parents are nowadays. Also, I LOVED LOVED LOVED (okay, I know some people are going to get upset over this, but ...) what they said about baby sign language. And how the studies on how useful it are are actually VERY conflicted and show both positive and negative effects. And how it really is part of this trend of parents being obsessed with classes and learning (regardless of its true effectiveness). (I am not a huge fan of the whole baby sign language thing). Anyways, some interesting, some not so much (like I care about toddler couture ... but then maybe that was the point). Let's just say - someone is making MAJOR money off parents.

Thank you for all things by Sandra Kring - 3/4 stars. This was an interesting fiction read about a girl and her twin brother (they are like 11 maybe?) and their single mom and their grandmother who go to take care of their estranged dying grandfather. The daughter narrates the book and tries to uncover the family secrets and all the conflict that underlies the whole family and figure out where she really came from (like who her father is). She is very sneaky about it and reads her mom's old diaries and tries to get anyone from her mother's hometown to tell the goods. It's a sad story and I have to say that watching the lives of the characters in the past is so sad to watch the amount of abuse that went on. Overall, though, I really enjoyed the book. I thought the earthy-granola-y, New Age grandma was hilarious.

An exact replica of a Figment of my Imagination. by Elizabeth McCracken - 3.5 / 4 stars. This is a very sad book. Very sad. It is about a women who has a stillborn child. She describes the event both from the past (her pregnancy leading up to then), the past (after the event) and the present where she now has been blessed to have a second child. Sadness notwithstanding, I really loved this book. The way she wrote was beautiful and helped open a tiny window onto a topic I know I have NEVER heard anyone discuss. And knowing how many women who have suffered and will continue to suffer under such a problem ... it just brings all this heartache and emotion to old family records that simply show a child as stillborn. If nothing else, I loved the title of the book. I think this book is a great read ... though maybe too anxiety provoking for many if you are pregnant. So, then, you might want to steer clear.

Party Animal

We decided to go the Toledo Zoo on Saturday and when we checked the website, we noticed that they were doing trick-or-treating. We thought, well, we'll see and packed his costume and trick or treating bag, just in case. Well, it was pretty cold (low 50s and lots of wind) and his costume is warm and all the other kids were doing it, so we figured why not. So, us and our little dragon had a fun time at the zoo. He LOVED all the animals and was very excited and squealing with half of them. Plus, the animals were all so active. It was great. I don't think any of the animals were sleeping or just sitting there. Plus, Andrew got his first try at trick or treating and we got a little candy.

Sit & Cry

I know I shouldn't have done it ... but I couldn't resist. And now I just want to cry ... not really ... well, maybe a little bit. But Vanguard was calling my name and I just had to see how much $$ we lost. Yikes. Double yikes. How is it possible to lose many many many thousands of dollars since I checked it last week!!! Oh, well ... good thing we bought that furniture. But since I hadn't taken our house downpayment fund out of stocks yet ... well, let's just say, we might be in an apartment longer than I hoped.

Andrew is 17 months old!

Andrew is 17 months old today and is really growing up. Of course, as he gets older, each month he doesn't seem as different as he did when he was really little. But I'm sure I can come up with something to write about. :-)

Andrew is still obsessed with trucks. Completely obsessed. As in, he probably says the word like 50-100 times a day. Every morning starts with him running over to his trucks and lining them up on the air conditioner. Then, he moves them to another location and it all starts over again. This week he wanted to stack things - does he want to stack blocks? No, nothing that simple - he wants to stack his trucks on top of each other. In fact, his new favorite activity is watching clips on youtube. Sometimes Sesame Street ones, but usually truck ones. What, you haven't seen kids sing a longs on excavator trucks and bulldozers? You ARE missing out. Check it out.

Andrew is learning lots of new stuff this month. He is learning where body parts are and can point to a lot of them. I don't know how he learned some of them - one day I just asked him where his head was, and he knew. He knows body parts in Japanese and English and can point to his mimi and ago just as well as his belly button and feet. He figured out how a puzzle works and can match the right picture to the right hole and get it in most of the time. He also is getting much better at his shape shorter. He is learning how to stack. And he is also learning how to sort. His new favorite "toy" is the containers of chicken and beef bullion cube which he likes to dump and then sort by color. He also plays pretend - talking on the phone all the time, pretending his food is trucks (of course). He is starting to figure out crayons (but is much better with chalk) and play-doh.

Andrew loves to "help" and I love it, too. At home, he helps me push the laundry basket to the door and then in the basement, helps me put the clothes in the dryer (when he isn't running manically away and up the nearest stairs) and put in the dryer sheet. He LOVES to cook and whines until we put a chair next to the counter/stove and let me help stir and pour. Although when I tried to get him to help me take the pumpkin seeds out of the pumpkin, he thought the insides were too gross and wouldn't touch it. At the grocery store, he likes to help by helping hold the basket (which makes me look like a hunchback) and hates being in the shopping cart and so stands up the whole time (erghh). And at the library and grocery store, he helps me scan the items at self check out. He even "vacuums" (with his popper) and dusts - although he figured out Joe likes the duster and then will chase Joe all over the house with it. It is really a lot of fun.

Andrew's favorite things (besides playing with his trucks) are playing outside, playing with older kids, and reading books (and trying to convince me he needs to watch movies!). His favorite books are flap books (especially his book of mormon one), scrapbooks, and word books. He is outside for at least a couple hours a day if not more. We take at least one walk a day (if he is going to his babysitter, we go on 2-3 walks a day) in the stroller, plus 1-2 walking around the neighborhood without the stroller. He loves to wander around, walk up and down hills, peer into the drains, and throw leaves into the stream. I guess we'll see what the winter is like this year!

Andrew is very social. He waves to people almost constantly. He loves to "talk" to people whenever he sees them, even if he has to yell wildly at them and they are kind of far away. He will point out important things, like "trucks", "cat", or "dog". He says a lot more words now, though only a few words does he say all the time. Andrew's words: Mom, Dad, this, that, cat, dog, Joe, truck (anything with wheels), ball (anything round including peas, cookies, and eggs), rice, banana ('ba'), water ('wa'), bye bye, fish, hot, boat, shoes, socks, yea, bye bye, book, ba (this is the Japanese word they use in peek-a-boo). He also says the words (but not as often): head, (belly) button, train, Shrek, Jesus, prayer, cheese. And probably some others that I can't think of right now.

Andrew loves to dance. He has all kinds of "moves" - stamping his feet, twirling, waving his arms - and will lead you in a quite vigorous work out. Pretty cute. He likes to clap to music and also kind of sings/hums. He even starts to hum out a song after hearing it on the radio.

Andrew is eating - mostly lots and lots of rice and a side dish of peas. He eats other things besides, but nothing much consistently except maybe strawberries and gold fish crackers and soup. His babysitter makes him fabulous soup which he just gobbles up. He is weaning, slowly but surely. He usually just nurses in the morning and then before he goes to bed. Unfortunately, his morning nurse means he wants to nurse on and off continually from 4am - 6am. Let's just say his sleep is atrocious and weaning has given his supreme separation anxiety from me at night. No fun - enough said.

Besides nursing and sleeping, Andrew is really a lot of fun and has a great little personality (well, it's actually pretty big!). He doesn't have too many temper tantrums, loves to help, and even wanted to take care of me when I was sick this week. He is getting older which is great! Just one more month until nursery!!!!

Sept Book Review

I read a few books this month, so here we go ...

The most "controversial" for first:

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer - so, I didn't expect to really like this. I am not a huge fan of young adult books anymore unless they are really well written. And I expected to like this as much as Harry Potter (i.e. not very much). And it pretty much delivered. At first, the book was nominally interesting. But as soon as the protagonists (Bella and Edward or something like that, I forget and am too lazy to look it up) get together, I could no longer stand the book. It was so sickeningly sweet and sooo boring. I mean, I could see the appeal for a middle schooler, because I think Meyer hit the hopes / dreams of that audience right on par. I mean, the vampire definitely says things I remember myself as a middle/high school girl wishing a guy would say to me. But now, not so much. But I wanted to finish the book and it did get a bit more interesting after the baseball game. But I have to say, overall, I did not like the book. The dialogue KILLED me which was it's number one problem for adults. So, yeah, did not like it. 2.5/5 - maybe lower.

Home Decorating for Dummies by Patricia Hart McMillian - not very useful and I don't feel like I learned all that much actually. Not very recommended. 1/5.

The Scientist in the Crib: Minds, brains, and how children learn by Alison Gopnik. In the beginning I really really liked this book. I loved how they explained the kind of beliefs that children have when they are born and how those change and develop as they use their scientific reasoning to understand the world around them. I totally think this is what parenting books should be like - showing the wonder and mystery of children and how they develop mentally, emotionally, etc. Much more useful information than in most books. But at around the middle of the book, where the authors start positing about how much scientists are like big babies ... well, I feel like the book kind of went downhill from there and became boring and repetitive. I don't know if I even finished it. Oh, well. 3.5 / 5

American wife by Curtis Sittenfield - This book was interesting, although (especially at the beginning - say first section or two) there was a lot of sexual content and I had to skip TONS of pages ... so, I can't recommend it, but ... anyways, I really found this book fascinating. This is "historical" fiction of Laura Bush's life. It never really occured to me that you could do such a thing and I wonder what she feels about it. But it is loosely based on the major events of her life and then concocts a whole story around it. I thought the character development was GREAT until the last section when it all just pettered out. Though the whole time I have to wonder 1) Why did she put up with her husband? What a loser and 2) WOW! How much is this really based on GW Bush because if it is even at all based on his personality we have a really obnoxious, irresponsible person for president. Seriously, very scary!!! Good thing he is not up for reelection, because this book would totally scar me and bias me, regardless of the truth. An interesting idea and pretty well written. 3.5/5

My freshman year: what a professor learned by becoming a student by Rebekah Nathan. Although that is a psuedonym. She actually took a sabbatical as a professor to become a college freshman again. And I admire her audacity. I mean, what 50 year old professor has the nerve to take classes again and actually live in a freshman dorm!!! I mean, WOW!!! I still can't believe it. The book was interesting, but not as interesting as I expected. I could really relate to a lot of what she talked about. And it definitely helped me understand some aspects of college better. The idea that most students only really know a few kids well and they are kind of their "clique" and otherwise, you are just passing ships in classes really rung true to what I observed in undergrad, but I thought I was just missing something. I think this is definitely a must read for anyone interested in higher education or sociology. I especially found the concepts of how choice and community are linked. 4/5

The last lecture by Randy Pausch. I was expecting sort of another "Tuesdays with Morrie", but this was definitely different. Dr. Pausch is a computer science virtual reality professor who is diagnosed with terminal cancer and this is a book about his legacy - basically how he lived his life and achieved all his childhood dreams and was very happy. It is very interesting to read and I think he has a lot of good tidbits on life, especially for a college professor. I think part of the way he accomplished so many of his goals was having a family relatively late in life so he could focus completely single mindedly on his career and really do amazing things with it. But I did find it interesting. I guess I should actually watch the last lecture. 4/5

I'm starting to feel a lot busier with school so we will see what I have time to read this month. Maybe not much.