Half Baked

In honor of Prematurity Awareness Month, I snagged a copy of this new book Half Baked from the library.  Now, I don't have much time, or energy, to read these days for pleasure.  But, I ripped through this book in less than a week!

The author is the mom of a 25-weeker who chronicles the challenges of her pregnancy, hospital bed rest, delivery and her daughter's journey through the NICU.  It was great to read the "inner thoughts" of someone else who has been through a very similar experience.  And our stories have many eery parallels.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a NICU mom! 

I do have some criticisms though.  First, the author seems to resort to using her thesaurus too much, plugging in $.25 words in ways that do not flow naturally.  I mean, really, the word "soporific" shouldn't appear more than once in a book of this length.  I felt it detracted from her otherwise witty and "light" prose that made the book enjoyable (and easier to swallow given the gravity of its subject matter).  

Second, the author threw some stinging jabs at moms of preemies who weren't as sick or as premature as her daughter - as if our experiences weren't "bad enough."  I don't think it was her intention, and I can relate on many levels to what she was saying.  Its hard to be sympathetic when you are in the throes of the NICU toward moms of babies who were born weeks later than yours, and whose only "challenge" is to overcome some apnea or reflux issues.  When you are in that hell, those things seem trivial compared to the challenge of simply trying to get your baby to BREATHE on their own.  However, one mom's experience shouldn't diminish anothers.  You really cannot compare preemies.  I know I felt jealousy and resentment whenver I would hear of a baby who was Bennett's gestational age or younger who was doing better than he was.  Silly really.  I should be HAPPY that another baby isn't struggling as much as mine!  But, the NICU can make you a bit psychotic.  Regardless, I am assuming the book was intended to appeal to a wide-range of preemie-parents.  If were me I'd have softened that discussion a little more. 

Anyway - its still a great book, and it was great to hear that I'm not the only crazy psychotic preemie mom out there.  Read it!

Book Club: The Heretic's Daugther Discussion Post

Ok, book-clubbers! It is that time again. Actually, its past the date I had set, but I needed a bit of an extension and forgot to tell ya'll about it :)

This month, we read The Heretic's Daugther by Kathleen Kent. The book was set in a town not far from Salem, Mass. at the time of the Salem Witch Trials. I thought it would be a seasonly-appropriate book for Halloween.

So, let's give it a stab and DISCUSS!

1. What was your overall impression of the book? Love it? Hate it? Stopped reading in the middle of it? (ahem, Patty!)

2. What do you think of the character development? Were there any characters that you felt the author should have spent more time on? What about the main character Sarah?

3. Who were the "villians" of the story?

4. How did Tom's history play into the story?

5. If your mom had given you the opportunity to divulge all your complaints to her at the age of 12, would you have done it? Why do you think Sarah didn't want to?

6. What shocked you most about this book?

7. Did this book change your mind about the Salem Witch Trials and the people accused?

8. If you were Martha Carrier, would you have "confessed," or stood your ground to the truth even though you knew you would die for it?

9. If you were Sarah, would you have "confessed" or given testimony against your mother?

10. Closing thoughts?

Book Club: Brainstorm for October!!

Don't forget that this FRIDAY is our first ever Book Club discussion post for The Lovely Bones! I can't wait!! I've pre-programmed the post to come up at 6:00 a.m. for those who are uber-excited and anxious to share their thoughts!

Being that October is a mere two days away...we need to start brainstorming book ideas for our October selection. EVERYONE - please post some ideas of books that are on your list to read!

WOO HOO!

Also, while you're at it - I recently had a funny discussion with some friends about finding time to read and the funny times and places we read. My friend and I discovered that we both sneak in a page or two during the two minutes it takes to brush our teeth (on the morning Bennett isn't hanging off me...)!!

What are the "interesting" ways you squeeze in a little page turning???

La Verdad

The other day I was driving home from work, listening to NPR (yep, dork), when I heard a segment interviewing the author of this new book Nurture Shock. The author, Po Bronson, brought up a pretty interesting theory about lying in children.

Mr. Bronson said that all children lie (no duh), and that lying is a sign of nascent intelligence, indicating that the child understands the difference between reality and stories they create as an alternative reality. By age 4, all children "should" be lying. However, it is the parents' responsibility to "socialize" the child not to lie by age 7, or lying then becomes a coping mechanism for dealing with uncomfortable situations (in other words, they become pathological liars).

For the most part, children do not lie because they are just "bad." They lie because they do not want to be met with our disproval over the truth. In other words, Carter told us that he sat on Bennett because he thought he was a statue, because he thought that wouldn't make us mad, but telling us that he sat on his brother because he thought it was funny would (and yes, it would). What they do not have the capacity to understand at that age is that not only are we mad about the truth (because parents are after all omniscient, are we not???), but we're doubly mad that they lied about it.

So, how do you deal? Mr. Bronson says that the more severe the punishment is for lying, the more we drive our children to become better liars. Rather, you have to "socialize" your child not to lie. Parents should "preempt" a lie ('cause you can see it coming from a mile away) and say "Look, it would make me really proud of you or happy with you right now if you tell me what really happened." So yeah, you have to give up some of your irritation about the preciptous event, and "reward" in a sense the act of telling the truth.

Hm.....there's something to chew on.

Then Mr. Bronson turned to a subject which already causes me great anxiety - teenagers. He said that a study done recently showed that out of 26 topics, the "average" teen will lie to their parents about at least 12 of the topics (I think those are the correct numbers). On the low end, the very "best" teens only lie to their parents about 4-6 of the topics. So, parents shouldn't be so delusional as to believe they actually have an honest and open relationship with their child. None of them tell the truth all the time. But what makes the difference between the 12+ -topic liars and the 4-topic liars? According to Mr. Bronson, if the parents allow for some negotiation of the rules, the teens are more likely to "argue/negotiate" the rules rather than just circumventing the whole ordeal and doing what they want anyway. Mr. Bronson posits that if parents deliberately create situations where they are willing to negotiation/argue for some leniency with their teens on "easier" issues, that will encourage the teen to be more honest about the harder issues.

Thoughts???

And the winner is....

Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold! Thank you for all who voted in the poll!

I will put up a discussion post for this book on October 2, 2009.

Happy reading all!!!

Now off to the library to pick up my copy.....

Online Book Club?

For the longest time, I've been wanting to join a book club. I LOVE books. And I love the idea of sitting around one evening a month with some lovely chicas, sipping wine and chatting about the books we've read.

Well, the latter part probably won't be happening anytime soon. I need to get the balls I'm already juggling organized before I can add another one to it, ya know?

So, it got me to thinking....how about an online book club?? And how about incorporating that into this blog?

What do you think??? We could choose a book every month, then have a designated day were I post a blog for that book and we can "discuss" in the comments! I know its not perfect, but its a start, right?

Who is interested?????

I'm a Quitter

Folks, I tried. My best. My very best. But I simply could not finish reading Founding Mothers. I love history! Yet, this book did nothing for me but put me to sleep within the first paragraph every single night. I've been working on it for months (have you noticed?), and still only made it about 1/2 way through.

I think the problem is that the content of the book seemed poorly organized. The author kind of rambled from one thing to another. I really couldn't tell how it was organized - not by person, chronologically, etc. I just couldn't stay focused!

I hate quitting a book. I feel like a failure. Especially a book like this that has such a wealth of information that my brain would like to absorb! But at this rate (one paragraph per night), it would take me years to finish this darn book!

So, I'm cutting my losses and moving on to Outliers (-->), which has already has me as a captive audience. I betcha I'll be done with it in a few days, so look for the review (its gooooood!!!!).

Random Recaps

Last night, Ace and I had free tickets to pre-screen the movie Angels & Demons that is released today. This movie is based on the book by Dan Brown, which is the sequel to the Da Vinci Code. I was wary of this movie because I really didn't think the Da Vinci Code movie was all that good. But, I had read the book first, and movies based on books never seem to measure up, do they? I have not read Angels & Demons yet though, and I thought the movie was EXCELLENT! And as a Catholic, I felt that it was much nicer to the Church than the Da Vinci Code was, which I appreciated. It did not really so much bash the church or make it suspect, yet it still had all the amazing "factual" and historical intricacies of the Da Vinci Code.

The fight scenes were awesome, as were the special effects. The actors were all very good, and the scenes really looked like the Vatican! I highly recommend this to anyone looking for something fun to do this weekend. I can't wait to read the book now!!


This week, I also finally finished reading The Mommy Wars. It was o.k. Yes, just o.k. I felt like the author picked mostly her friends and acquaintances to write the articles, so there didn't seem to be a wide variety of experiences or demographic represenation. Mostly, the contributors were all career writers. I found that most of them worked from home at least in some capacity. There were very few articles by women who are exclusively stay at home moms. There was very little of the divisive extremism that the real-life mommy wars are known for. All of the authors were very conciliatory about their choices and opposing choices. Not that it was a bad thing, but it was kind of boring after the first five articles or so.

One thing that struck me reading the book, is that very few of the contributors really seemed completely content with their choice to work or stay home. I know there are pros and cons to both sides, but reading this book left me with a sense that women (in general) aren't going to be completely happy no matter what we decide to do. That was ... disappointing ... for lack of a better word. Particularly from the stay at home mom side, I wanted to hear someone say "I absolutely love what I do, and here is why."

So how about that diet, huh? Well, I made it a whopping 5 days before I cracked. My blood sugar kept dipping too low, no matter how much I was eating. I guess the fact that I started out hypoglycemic and am still nursing didn't help. So, I switched over to Phase II, with limited complex carbs, and am doing better with that. I cheated a lot over Bennett's birthday weekend. During Phase I, I lost 5 lbs total. I've gained back 1.5 lbs as of this morning. I am recommitting to doing better on Phase II and adding in exercise this coming week! I set my alarm for 5:30 a.m. every.single.morning. this week, and slept in every day. We're going to Virginia Beach next weekend for my nephew's first birthday (a mini-escape of sorts), and will be required to don a bathing suit. This is problematic because I don't own a one-piece, and I'm no wear near an acceptable level of skinniness/fitness at the moment to rock a bikini! So, momma is going to be VERY good this week!

We have an exciting weekend ahead of us! I hope you all do too! I'll see ya Monday!

My Birthday in Review

For my birthday, Ace took me to a quaint little French bistro in Baltimore - Petit Louis. We had received a gift certificate for this restaurant a while back but never used it. Perfect occassion! It was so nice to go out to dinner at a nice restaurant just the two of us. I can't even tell you how long its been since we had a date! We kept saying the entire time that we really should do this more often!!


I ordered a duck leg that came on a bed of mushrooms and these crispy tasty things, but I could never figure out what they were and forgot to ask. I also treated myself to a wonderful glass of French Pinot Blanc :) Ace ordered braised lamb that came with English peas, pearl onions and pee wee potatoes. For desert, we got this delicious chocolate cake that had some sort of carmel mousse swirled inside it and served with vanilla bean ice cream. It was all very yummy!!!

Then I came home and crawled into bed with Carter and conked out. What better gift to myself on my birthday than sleep??!! This sweet little boy made me a birthday card out of my scrapbooking supplies and hid it for an entire week just so he could surprise me with it today. That will definitely be going into the box of stuff a mom is compelled to keep forever.

I also happened to finish "Eat, Pray, Love" and have to say it was a very very good book. I highly recommend it. I can't say that I related to the author on a personal realm, but she has a way of writing that draws you in and makes you feel like you are experiencing her transcontinental trip with her every step of the way. It was like a mini-vacation to read the book! And of course, now I have a deep craving to travel - like that's going to happen any time soon!

Insanity: Repeatedly doing the same thing over expecting a different result

Many moons ago, I was in the habit of leaving the laundry detergent bottle on top of the washing machine (we have an upright) because it had the dispening spout, and it was just easier that way. Well, on one occassion, this proved to be not such a great idea, as the violent shaking of the washer caused it to fall off the top, break, and spill detergent all over.

So, for about a year and a half I have refrained from putting the detergent on top of the washer. Until recently. I don't know why I started doing it again. I KNEW that it could fall. But I thought "well, if I put it near the center, it won't fall, right?" WRONG. This is just further evidence of what I have suspected all along - I am insane.

Last night, I heard a loud thud. I looked around the house to see if anything had fallen, and didn't notice anything out of place. This morning, I got up to work out and went to take the laundry that I had put into the washer last night before bed and put it into the dryer. I opened the door to the laundry room and was greeted by a large pool of sticky, slippery detergent ALLLLLLL over the laundry room floor.

S&!#. I didn't have time for this! And how was I going to clean it up?? I grabbed some towels, but I'd soak an entire towel without making a dent in the pool of detergent. Kind of like trying to empty the bathtub with a tablespoon. I am standing there brainstorming more efficient ways of cleaning up the mess (in hopes of removing all evidence of my idiocy before Ace woke up and hit me with "I told you so"), when it struck me...

So, I present to you the perfect tools for cleaning up massive amounts of spilled laundry detergent (ya know, in case you ever do the same stupid thing): a spatula, a Spider Man plastic place mat (which is supposed to be going into Carter's Easter basket), a mixing bowl and some car detailing cloths. Simply squigie the detergent onto the place mat, and pour into the bowl. When the majority is up, use the car detailing cloths to wipe up the remainder. I'm still going to have to figure out how to get the residue off the concrete floor, as that will be hazardous when wet, but for now, I am satisfied by my effiency and ingenuity.

Yes people, insanity breeds ingenuity!

(Please ignore the lame attempt to make myself feel better for being so dumb in the first place!).

And in completely random news - I finished reading The Appeal (which ticked me off royally! the "good guy" is supposed to win!) and have moved on to Eat, Pray, Love. I'm 4 chapters in and HOOKED. Anyone care to read along?