Read, Watched, Listened

I love reading just about everything, watching comedy and documentary-type things, and have wholeheartedly embrace the podcast.  I also enjoy hearing about what other people are reading, watching, and listening.  Here's my two cents worth.

Reading while eating fresh chocolate chip cookies is thisclose to being a religious experience. 

Read

Hungry Heart
I love reading memoirs, and ones from other creative people are especially interesting to me as they describe how they go about their own creative process. It's also interesting to get a bit of an "insider's view" of the publishing world. That said, I must confess that I've never read anything else that Jennifer Weiner has written, so it was a bit hard to relate when she described some of her other work. Beyond that, though, she has a fascinating and somewhat tragic personal narrative woven throughout, which she adds both brutal honesty and humor to.

The Mothers
LOVED IT! This is the best novel I have read in awhile. I know I'm slightly behind on giving this book some love, but if you haven't checked it out yet, it needs to be added to your list. The narration is very interesting (you never really meet the narrator) and brings up questions of whose stories are ours to tell. I fell in love with the characters and my only issue is all of the unanswered questions the book left me with. I have a love/hate relationship with books that don't tell me everything by the end.

The Magic of Motherhood
Written by the Coffee + Crumbs ladies, this book is BEAUTIFUL, both literally and emotionally. The essays on motherhood read just like the ones on the site, (and a few are repeats), and they are full of life and humor and emotion. I've already re-read a few of my favorites. This has been sitting on my bedside table for the past couple of weeks and won't be leaving that spot anytime soon. I'm planning to give this as a gift at baby showers from now on.

Watched

Chef's Table (season three)
We're die-hards. Go watch ALL the seasons. (There are actually four, since France has a season all to itself but apparently doesn't count in numerical order.) Each episode is shot so beautiful and they are all so different from one another. If you love food and/or are interested in hearing people's stories, this series is for you.

The Sixties
We really enjoyed this mini-series by CNN. The interviews added such depth and each episode captured an aspect of the '60's in an interesting way. It was a great overview of the time period, though I will add that some documentaries we have watched have done a better job of covering subjects in an in-depth way, such as When We Left Earth (on the space program). It's also like deja-vu in a way, to watch things unfold that seem still so prevalent now. (See: racial tensions, lying politicians, gender inequality, etc., etc., etc...) I don't know if 2016 is exactly going to go down in the books like 1968 did, but...what's that saying about history repeating itself?

Listened

Beautiful Writers Podcast
I'm intermittent on this one, but recently Linda Sivertson not only interviewed Anne Lamott, one of my all-time most favorites, but her co-host was Glennon Doyle Melton, one of my other all-time most favorites. Completely inspiring.

Coffee + Crumbs Podcast
Giving the Coffee + Crumbs girls some more love this time around! Their podcast is back for season two, and it's like having a conversation with my own girlfriends...minus the part where I can't actually join in (boo). Each episode they discuss a different aspect of motherhood, and also check in with each other to share what "little luxuries" they've been enjoying lately. It's one of my favorite parts of the show, and now I'm totally dreaming of getting my eyebrows microbladed...just as soon as I rustle up that kind of $$$ (!).

Post (Easter) Weekend

Easter is made for kids. Most holidays are, I suppose, but the combination of eggs and candy, bunnies and pastels, poofy dresses and bow ties are particularly made for the single-digit set. Add in the springiest of spring weather to celebrate our re-emergence from the chill of winter, and these three lapped up the fun of a full Easter weekend.

Except for maybe the taking pictures part.

(Attempt 1: not bad.)

(Attempt 2: cue weird faces.)

(Attempt 3: not everyone is exactly vertical.)

(Attempt 4: weird faces, part 2.)

(Attempt 5: so close)

(Attempts 6-348 not shown.)

(Attempt 349: Nolan: A+. Caden and Brooklyn: need improvement.)

Our church offered services on Friday night, so we took full advantage of attending at a less busy time to help free up our weekend (so many praise hands). And it's so nice to not deal with the rush of Easter baskets/quick breakfast/fancy clothes/church on Sunday morning. Which also meant that we could attend a birthday party on Saturday.

(Where Nolan flirted with all the lady babies.)

("So, does your mom bring you here often?")

(No seriously, so many lady babies. All the lady babies. Nolan, you get your pick.)

(I mean, we might as well cram all the juice boxes and cake into a weekend already filled with candy, right? Let's just get it all out of the way until the next major holiday/birthday party/desperate attempt at bribery.)

Looking out the window now at the rain, cold, and wind that have taken over, it's a little hard to believe that Easter was only two days ago. I've since packed away much (though by no means all) of the Easter paraphernalia. I swear, Easter is second only to Christmas in the amount of stuff we store. I think it's all those darn eggs.

("You guys, I swear there were only empty eggs in here last night!")

(Discovering that the big kids got all of the good candy.)

("Whut? I'm totally not trying to eat a gummy bear right now.")

(They'll all work together to clean up a spill of bunny crackers.)

(And a little bit later, when they somehow got their little hands on an Easter basket: "We havin a picnic!")

(Dying Easter eggs. Except they were way more interested in the stickers that came in the package.)

(So I dyed some Easter eggs.)

(Rocking the bow tie in the Cozy Coupe.)

(Most of my Easter egg hunt photo attempts of Caden turned out like this.)

(Until he paused because he found an egg filled with some cash money.)

(Not quite sure what's going on, but picking things up and putting them in bags is pretty fun.)

(The aftermath.)

(Don't everyone's Easter celebrations involve watching some hockey?)

After a month of birthdays, quickly followed by a week of the stomach flu, then followed by two weeks of Tyson out-of-town, which led up right into a few days of travel for us, and now Easter under out belts, it feels like the first time things are really getting back to normal in quite awhile. Whatever that means anymore. We're ready to settle into a new normal. One that involves a lot more sunshine, flowers, and all things spring.

(Oh, and also, this:)

;

One Who Is One

Oh, Nolan...

What to say about you and those biggest blue eyes turning one?

(Cake coma.)

You like to play with balls and anything with wheels. Watching the cars go past out our back windows is one of your favorite activities. You have an enormous appetite, and there's not much that you won't eat.  (Except cheese. You're iffy on cheese. I didn't know I grew kids like that.) You are crazy good at walking, and amazingly fast. You walk just about everywhere now, dodging minefields of toys all day long. You're long but skinny, a string bean, and your height surprises everyone when they find out that you are just now turning one. You've learned how to scream recently, and enjoy doing so at every opportunity. You are the most ticklish baby I've ever met. They say babies aren't ticklish until a certain age, but I swear up and down that you've been ticklish since day one. Your brother and sister adore you, and you adore them. Playing with them (well, as much as you can) and watching them run around, jump about, and make silly sounds for your amusement gives you so much delight.  You'll never turn down attention but are often just as content to explore and play on your own.

You are determined. You know what you want and when you want it and there's absolutely no deterring you. You get mad when you don't get your way. You've reached every physical milestone early, rolling over, crawling, climbing, and walking before most of your friends. You love books, so much so that "book" was your first word. Despite quitting, cold-turkey, the sucking of the two middle fingers on your right hand nine months into your first year, you have figured out how to sooth yourself to sleep through the night again. You're not so sure about naps, though. You took three naps for the vast majority of this past year, took two naps for a hot second, but aren't quite sure how to transition to just one, or how long that one nap should be.  Let's work on that one, huh? Your enormous blue eyes are the first thing everyone comments on when they see you. Like your big brother and sister, you aren't a bit shy, and the 40 people that were here for your first birthday bash didn't phase you a bit.

That you were born a year ago seems both completely possible (it has been a long year, after all) and absolutely impossible, both at the same time.

(Wookit dat smoosh-face.)

(Family squeeze!)

You get lots of attention because you're the baby, yet you can also get lost in the shuffle.  A million times yesterday I realized with a start that, "oh, right, it's your birthday tomorrow", since we already celebrated a couple of birthdays just the day before.  Like your brother and sister, it's a bit surprising that you are turning one just now, since you've hit so many of the big milestones already: walking like a pro, a word or two under your belt. But less so. You are still the baby, after all. That you're growing into an actual toddler is still incomprehensible, in a way. When we make future plans it's impossible to think of you as 18 months, or a two-year old in your own right, able to keep up more and more with your siblings. I can understand having a couple of toddlers and a baby around, but a couple of kids and a toddler? That makes no sense to me. You'll just be a baby forever, right? Besides that nap business, I'd be content to keep you here, right where you are for awhile.

Of course, you're ready for more.  You're not shy about pushing your way into any situation that your brother and sister or other playmates are in. You want to be right there with them.

Go get 'em, you big one-year old.

(You know it's been a good party when everything is a bit blurry by the end and you find yourself wandering around without pants.)

I'm still going to call you Baby Nono, though.