dashing in for a moment

We were about to turn right out of a parking lot onto a busy street and the "leave the parking lot" lane was CLEARLY slanted to the right and it had a big sign that said, "no left turns." The car in front of me wiggled out of this left slanting exit lane and went straight across the busy street to get to the stores over yonder.

Me: "HEY! That's not allowed!"
Husband: "Where does it say 'No turning straight?'"
Me: "THE DICTIONARY!"
Husband: "What are they gonna do? Throw the book at him?

Vignettes

First things first, I want to send you all over to Maureen Johnson's blog to wish her a happy WAY belated birthday (because I've been stinking at updating this thang lately. She's one of my favorite YA authors and she had a hysterical birthday post that made me giggle and wish we were personal friends. I would love to sit around a big bowl of pasta with her!

Hehe - wow. A week of crazy updating constantly, then just one measly update in a week. I'm SO good at this, eh? And it's especially sad because my google docs is absolutely full of things that I want to talk about, books I love and feel the need to ramble on, etc. (That's how I organize my blog thoughts. I'm weird, I know.)

Can I blame my lack of updates on Just A Mom? She's a good friend from college who I've only recently reconnected with. This past week we've been sending long rambly emails to each other and I'm afraid some of the things I would have rambled about here have instead gone into emails with her. So anyone who is absolutely addicted to my blog should run over and yell at her for being so fantastic. Or maybe just be nice because I'm enjoying having a friend to ramble at.

A while back I wrote about Kinsie almost pretending like she could count. She's frickin' rocking at it now. And by frickin' rocking I mean she can count to ten. Or - at least she knows what order the numbers go in up to 10. The other day, though, she pointed at a 2 on tv and said "two!" I couldn't get her to do it again, but that's ok. She's brilliant and I know it, right? (:

She's also going through this absolutely wonderful kissing stage. She just loves kissing. This morning I don't have to be at work until noon and the husband decided to get up at SEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING! And yes on a normal day I am already in the car by seven thirty, but my goodness, lady! It's the weekend! Learn to sleep in a little! So my husband got up, snuggled her, and crawled back in bed with her between us. She then spent HALF AN HOUR giggling, leaning down, kissing me, sitting up, giggling, leaning down, kissing her daddy, sitting up, giggling (repeat ad nauseum). It's amazing that neither of us got sick of it before she did.

It's crazy - I have a ton I want to ramble about, but I also have a jam covered daughter who wants to snuggle and really? That's more important right now. I just have to remember to take a shower after the snuggle and before work.

A storytime I wish I had the guts to do.

I was doing the best storytime EVER today (seriously - these kids were uber into it. It was massive, though. Friday storytimes always are ... ), and one of the books I read was Froggie Gets Dressed which is part of my dream storytime. A storytime I don't quite have the guts to do quite yet (I've only been at my job since September. Wait until they know me a bit better. (: ), but someday. Oh yes, someday. It'll be awesome.

SO! What is in your dream storytime, Miss Pirate, you may ask? Well I'll tell you!

It starts, as you may have guessed, with Froggie Gets Dressed by Johnathan London. Always start with the longest book, IMHO, while their attention spans are still unused. Froggie gets up in the middle of winter (a big no no in his hibernating froggie family) and keeps running out into the snow missing important pieces of clothing. His mother keeps calling him back to put on whatever he's missing, culminating in her screaming across the snow that he forgot his "UNDERWEAR!" TONS of giggles everytime I scream that out. Seriously. You want to make a room full of three year olds beyond happy? Just scream "UNDERPANTS!" at them. In that vein, we will be continuing with ...


Aliens Love Underpants by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort. The pictures in this book are just beyond giggle worthy, and the rhyming text is brilliant. See, aliens don't come to earth for any of the reasons most people surmise (to eat our brains, commune with our culture, steal our nitrogen or whatnot), but to steal our underpants. Oh, this is where my book rambling without having the book in front of me is going to come back to bite me, right? Because I would love to flip through the book right now and tell you about all the fantastic things the aliens DO with our underpants, but the few I can remember are them making a slide out of grandpa's wolly long johns and ... I think they make a parachute out of someone's massive bloomers? Maybe? But trust me! You want to check it out.

We end, of course, with Chicken Cheeks by Michael Ian Black and Kevin Hawkes. Animals are piled on top of each other and WE get to know what wonderfully alliterative or rhyming thing Michael Ian Black calls their arses. Chicken Cheeks, of course, but I think Moose Caboose was my favorite. Maybe bumblebee bum? Either way - this fantastic book. And the best part? The last page ... "The Ends!" Oh, wonderful fantasticness.

So yes, I have the same sense of humor as a middle school boy and think the best thing to do in the whole wide world is have a storytime on underpants and butts. You know what? I like my sense of humor, thank you very much! And someday I am going to make the best ever underpants or keister themed flannels and find some amazing underpants or keister themed storytime songs and then the STORYTIME OF AWESOME will unleash itself upon an unsuspecting public ...

AND THE WORLD WILL BE BETTER FOR IT!

(:

Starstruck

Today was the BEST DAY EVER! Did you guys see that? Did you? OH MY GOODNESS! Jeremy Tankard commented on last night's this morning's blog post! Can I be gooshy and giggly and silly? I spent some time today wandering around his site because I was completely and utterly starstruck, and he says that his next book Boo-hoo Bird is a better read aloud than Grumpy Bird. That makes me laugh - hahaha! I double checked to make sure that Boo-hoo Bird is ordered at my library. I put myself on the hold list so I won't miss it (it comes out RIGHT before the bambino is due). But believe that some book is a better read aloud than Grumpy Bird? Oh no, Mr. Tankard. That I will not believe until I see. Grumpy Bird does deserve a better explanation than I can give, but fortunately Fuse #8 gave it one so I don't have to try and write an actual review. I'm much better at enthusiastic rambles.

I've been having brushes with my own personal celebrities lately. I emailed Mimi Smartypants back when I was barely blogging because something she said made me want to ramble and since I was out of blogging practice, I just rambled in an email to her. A little over a week ago - I got an email back! A few days later, ABBY THE FREAKIN' LIBRARIAN sent me an @ reply on twitter (!!!). Then, I won an ARC from Meg Cabot and I got an email from her saying that I had won said ARC! Yes, so it was a form email that she sent to everyone who she's sending an ARC too, but still! There is an email in my box FROM MEG CABOT! Because I'm just that awesome. Or whatever. (The ARC is for Allie Finkle #3. I'll ramble about it up here when I get it. I've been loving the series so far - but I'll ramble about the whole series when I can ramble about all 3!)

SO ANYWAY - Today wasn't just the best day ever because of Mr. Tankard. Read on, dear ... reader. (yes, somebody buy that librarian a thesaurus. Or send her to the 423.1s.

I did a family story time today (which we gear to all ages). We had a Valentine's Day dance party - they were loud and rambunctious and much younger than the normal family storytime, but I am always paranoid about that sort of thing so I had tons of extra younger books and was good to go. Afterword my boss said she was worried about me when I was Shakin' mah Sillies out, but even though I have doubled in size this week I had no trouble with being as incredibly active as that storytime demanded I be. (Full disclosure - I will be investing in a massive Sports Bra because while I can shake my sillies out, now that the pregnancy GAZUNGAS have popped, when I Jump my Jiggles out ... I worry about jumping my jiggles out. If you know what I mean)

THEN just before I started blogging I put my daughter to bed. She has been singing a lot to me lately, and as I put her down she sang to me:

Tinkle tinkle ittle ar
How I J K M M M M PEEEEEEEE
Row Row Row Row Row
Up abov orld hiiiiiiiiigh
T U V T U V T U V
five six seben eight NINE!!!!!

(for those who don't speak 21 month old - that was twinkle twinkle, the ABCs, Row Row Row your boat, and random counting all moshed together into one song that was beyond adorable.)

I really need to go to bed myself, because after typing up that last bit I am thinking about how wonderful it would be if I wrote a children's book that was basically just a transcription of some of the Kins's mooshed up songs. Thank you all for reading this. I really shouldn't blog when overtired, eh?

Storytime!

We had our monthly departmental meeting on Wednesday and we all shared some of our favorite storytime books. I thought I was copping out a little bit by bringing what I brought: these books are all so good! I'm not going to be introducing anyone to anything! But they are also my favorites, and I wanted to bring my favorites, so I brought these ... and all my coworkers were amazed. Where had I found such great books? This made me realize - I should stick all these books up on my blog. If these books were new to most of my coworkers (who live and breathe storytime books), then I need to share them far and wide.

Another thought is that I have very sweet coworkers. They tend to read and chose quiet, sweet books. I tend to be exuberant and bouncy. I would say that there are 3 others of the 11 in my department who tend to go for the loud crazy books, and the rest go for calmer, sweeter books. All of these books make me want to run and jump while reading them aloud.

Please note that I do not have any of these books in front of me, so all quotes are from memory. In fact, in general, I rarely have the book I'm blogging about in front of me - so ignore any factual issues! I just talk ...

Grumpy Bird by Jeremy Tankard

Grumpy Bird is my absolute go to favorite. I remember once when the K-9 officer suddenly had to go catch some bad guys and was 45 minutes late to the program he was putting on at the library. I grabbed my favorite books and sang songs and the kids didn't even care that the dog wasn't there when I pulled out this book. THAT is how brilliant it is.

When bird wakes up he's grumpy. He's too grumpy to eat, he's too grumpy to play, he's EVEN too grumpy to fly. Looks like he's walking today. As he walks, animals keep flocking to him, telling him how much fun walking seems, and joining in. By the time his entourage has 5 other animals in it, he starts having fun! Hoaky, I know, but combine Tankard's bright, bold pictures with his laugh out loud words and you have a hit on your hands. Check this out, use it at every chance you get, and then be happy.


New Socks by Bob Shea

After discovering the brilliance that is Bob Shea's Dinosaur vs Bedtime, I had to see what else this brilliant man had done. New Socks was the first one I found. I love this little bird. He's got NEW SOCKS! And he's going to go down the slide IN HIS NEW SOCKS! And he's going to do other things IN HIS NEW SOCKS! YAY! Did you SEE his NEW SOCKS? Are they not the MOST AWESOME THING IN THE ENTIRE WORLD?

This little bird reminds me of me. Yes, I just spent my last post trying to convince you that I am a crazy, neurotic lady and I stand by that statement ... but I am a happy, crazy, neurotic lady. I am a contradiction in terms. I get unreasonably excited about little tiny things: new socks, the awesome used kid's clothing store over on Aurora, discovering a great new website, good food. It's easy to make me happy and my happiness tends to bubble over into excited giggles and unnecessary song. My poor coworkers have to listen to me tell them in great detail about the great reference question I just got on chat reference or the new word the Kins is saying. I completely understand the need to write an entire book about NEW SOCKS! Especially when they are awesome Neon Orange socks.


>Big Plans by Bob Shea

I have never used this in a storytime, and I am not sure when I will get the chance. This is one of the most amazingly fun stories to read aloud, but it's a bit long for the ages we get at storytimes at my library. I think I might have to start bringing it to every single all ages storytime I do just in case I have one that skews old and I can read it! As it is, I've read it to my almost 2 year old (for those non storytime people reading this: you can get away with much more when you read one on one to your own child then when you read in large groups to other people's children. The Kins is happy to sit on my lap and try and repeat words that I say. Other people's children? Not so much.) and she went to bed tonight saying "BIIIIII PLAS! BI BI PLAS!"

So the little boy in this book has been sent to sit in the corner and he starts letting everyone know that he has BIG PLANS! BIG PLANS, I SAY! His plans involve
becoming mayor "You! Dig a hole. You! Build a school! You! Paint the town red!" I especially love after he becomes president what he tells the states "State that the Librarian has forgotten! Build a rocket! Idaho! Build me a spacesuit using your latest potato technology! Missouri! Cheer up, you're bumming me out. The rest of you? Mill about. MILL ABOUT, I say!"

(hehe - it's especially funny because my sister used to live in Missouri)

Oh, I love this book. I just want to stand in front of a large group of kidlets and shout at them that I've got BIG PLANS! BIG PLANS, I SAY! And hopefully inspire them to dream MASSIVE!


Sometimes I like to Curl Up in a Ball by Vicki Churchill

This poor book is going last and I need to go to bed so it isn't going to get as exuberant a discussion, but that is almost appropriate. It is the quietest of my selections, for when I need something less bouncy. Little wombat explains what he loves - "sometimes I like to scream ever so loud - not that I'm cross, I just like how it sounds." The art is beautiful, the text loveable, the wombat looks cuddlier than anything.

So ... now it's time for me to curl up in a ball (or not, as the MASSIVE STOMACH allows). Two posts in one day! But what will y'all think of me if I post one post right after the other? Oh, this trying to keep personal posts and library posts seperate is going to be the death of me if I can't keep my neurosis in check. AH! Brilliant idea! You who read through to the bottom will know that I finished this post at 11:58 on 2/12/09, but I'm going to tell blogger to stick it on up there tomorrow morning so I can fool maybe y'all into thinking that I'm not some pathetic person who spent all night after her daughter went to bed lazing about on the couch typing about nothing. BRILLIANT, yes? Ah, but I ruin it by telling you what I'm doing, don't I. OH WELL! Enjoy my neurosis. I'm learning to.

In which the librarian is neurotic

I have been becoming increasingly aware of how neurotic I am. I am completely ridiculous about it too. Now that I have a wonderful new job with wonderful coworkers and am away from a crazy destructive coworker who liked to very randomly insult everything from my clothes and looks to my lifestyle and storytime techniques, I am realizing more and more how little my belief that everyone secretly hates me and everything I do is wrong is rooted in reality. OY WITH THE CONVOLUTED SENTENCES, YO! To sum that sentence up in smaller more manageable bits: I tend to think badly of myself. I tend to think everyone secretly finds me supremely annoying. I used to work with a woman who fed those beliefs on a daily basis. NOW I work with wonderful, amazing, sweet people who are crazy supportive of me and crazy sweet and beyond amazing ... and I am realizing that I am neurotic.

SO instead of going to a therapist which I really don't have time to do, so that the therapist can say "wow, you're neurotic! Get over it!", I have started saying to myself "wow, that was such a neurotic thing to think! Get over it!" But wouldn't it be much more therapeutic for one such as myself who really finds writing and sharing WAY TO MUCH WITH THE WORLD to be cathartic if I told y'all about my crazies and y'all could say "wow, Qsie the librarian pirate is NEUROTIC! She should get over it!" I thought so too.

I had a moment recently that convinced me I was the worst mother in the history of bad mothers. Note that this was not because I was actually doing something that made me a bad mother, but because I AM CRAZY!!!

A few weeks ago, The Kins woke up screaming around midnight. My husband and I were staying up watching Bones way later than we should have - but sometimes it happens, ya know? So anyway, I go running into her room and grab her up and she's had a cold for a few days and now she's burning up. I'd been noticing for a bit how warm it had gotten in the house that night (our thermostat is a hair unreliable) and she was wearing a blanket sleeper, so I took off the hot, sweaty, fleece pajamas and she immediately fell asleep on top of her daddy (Isn't she beautiful? Isn't he handsome? Ignoring the fact that she was really sick when she took this picture, I love it). The next morning she still felt a little warm to me, but nothing like the night before and I have a very low normal so I'm really bad at judging whether or not she's warm. We have a thermometer that will take her temperature orally, rectally (with special plastic sleeves on, of course), or under her arm. She totally isn't up for under her tongue, I totally don't want to try rectally, so armpit it is. She squirms and yells, but it tells me she's a healthy 98.4. I stop worrying and bring her to daycare ...

Two hours later I get the call from her daycare saying "your daughter has a fever of 102.6. Come get her, please." Of course I do and knowing that a fever combined with as much coughing as she has been doing could mean strep or it could be an ear infection so I bring her to the doctor's office where they diagnose her with a double ear infection and a throat infection that isn't strep.

At Meyers picking up her antibiotics, I buy a new thermometer because under the arm is unreliable and I need a thermometer that can do ear or forehead or something better! The only ear thermometer there is Meyers brand, but I don't want to drag the sickie off to another store so I go for it, bring it home, and take her temperature. 93 degrees and a smiley face. First off, if she was really 93, she would NOT be this hot. ALSO, if she was really 93 degrees - that is NOT a good thing and I should be worried! I take my temperature - 91 degrees and a smiley face. My husband and I spend days trying to get this thing to work, lose the receipt, and are now stuck with an ear thermometer that tends to choose a number between 90 and 94 whenever you use it and goes with that. You can take your temperature twice in succession and get 90.3 and then 93.5. It's insane, but it is also the Kins's new favorite toy. She calls it "EARS!" and will try and take my temperature for hours on end, completely happy. Somehow she gets what this is for, but she wears her toy stethoscope as a belt. Whatever - I won't judge what she likes if she won't judge what I like.

Why does all of this make me neurotic, you may ask? What bit of this story has convinced me that I am a terrible mother? The fact that I cannot get a thermometer to properly take my daughter's temperature. In all thruthfulness, before the thermometer I was using at the start of this story, I'd had two OTHER thermometers that were just as bad as Kinsie's beloved EARS! I spent a whole weekend convinced that I am a failure as a mother and that EARS isn't defective, I just obviously shouldn't be allowed to parent because I can't figure out how to use at thermometer.

"Wow. Qsie, you're crazy. Get over it. The thermometer was defective."

Thanks! I really do feel so much better now that I've told you all that incredibly pointless story. Thank you for being my therapist!

As you can probably imagine, I read a ton - and it's mostly children's books. I also have a yen for YA (Young Adult for all y'all non-hip-with-the-lingo people!) and once in a blue moon I allow myself to read something adult. Then I feel all snooty and pretentious and have to wander around talking about the Lacanian imagery in and the Foucaulian bent to whatever book I'm reading. It's really obnoxious - steer clear of me at those times.

ANYWAY - here are some quick and dirty book rambles about a few books I've read recently.

The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas

The Magic Thief was on Anderson's Bookshop's Mock Newbery list for 2009 and I was working my way through that list ... starting with the fantasy first because I'm obnoxiously predictable like that, and because I was also trying to read all the Rebecca Caudill books as well as all the local school district's Battle of the Books (BOB) books ... so I didn't really get very far in any of them. This year I started the 2010 Rebecca Caudill list the day it came out, and I plan on being just as speedy when they announce the new BOB books in May. So anyway - I was pointed toward this book by the mock Newbery list, and I am eternally grateful to whoever at Anderson's picks their Mock Newberies!

Conn is a pickpocket who knows he is supposed to be a magician. When he picks the pocket of Nevery and steals his locus magicalus, by all rights he should drop dead on the spot but for some reason he doesn't and that piques Nevery's curiosity so the two pair up. Someone is stealing the city of Wellmet's magic and Nevery is out to figure out who.

This book was so utterly brilliant. When Conn is narrating out on the streets by himself he falls into this language that reminds me almost of Cockney rhyming slang (says the yank who knows very little about Cockney rhyming slang) but without the actual Cockney rhyming slang bits. I'm probably explaining this all wonky, but as a few examples from when Conn and Nevery first met: Conn "caught a glimpse of his keen-gleam eyes" (p. 5), the wizard "loom-doomed up before me" (p. 8), and then with a "quick-dart for the door and back out into the steep, rain-dark streets" (p. 10) he's away. See - it's not really at all like Cockney rhyming slang (which involves replacing a word with a word that it doesn't actually rhyme with but that works with a word that rhymes. Yes?), but it reminded me of it and that's what I'm sayin'!

I also loved the discussions of magic. Lots of fantasy books just blip right over this - magic just is. That's how the world works and why would it be any different? Conn, being a smart inquisitive student of magic does the obvious thing and asks Nevery what magic is and where it comes from and how it works. Nevery, being a pretentious, brilliant magician of course tries to explain it and just angers Conn because Conn is convinced that Nevery is wrong.

For more traditional reviews, check out The Well Read Child, Ms. Tingling, or The Purple Cow.

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

This book was recommended to me by absolutely EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD! And I am NOT EXAGGERATING AT ALL! By which I mean I am completely exaggerating, but lots of people did tell me to read this. It is very popular, had a massive hold list, and was YA, though, so I kept putting it off ... but then it was on the hold shelf waiting for me and I had just finished off whatever I was reading when it came in (probably Dealing with Dragons) so I actually read it. I am SO glad I did!

The Hunger Games is one of the best post-apocalyptic fiction novels I have ever read. It's right up there with Uglies by Scott Westerfeld.

A couple hundred years ago things started to go wrong with the world. Famine, flood, earthquake, etc. The usual. On North America, from the ashes rose the rich and prosperous Capitol surrounded by 13 poor Colonies. Eventually the colonies rebelled against the Capitol and were severely trounced. To prove their superiority, the Capitol destroyed Colony #13, and the rest of the colonies must each year send two tributes of a teenage boy and a teenage girl who will compete against the other 22 tributes in THE HUNGER GAMES! The Hunger Games are a The Most Dangerous Game-esque type of reality show where whichever tribute survives the longest wins. They will live a life of ease until they die and for the next year their colony will be showered with riches like sugar and butter and flour. ANYWAY - Katnis is a hunter from the one of the poorest colonies who provides for her mother and her 12 year old sister Primrose. When Prim's name is called in the lottery, she volunteers to take her place and joins The Hunger Games.

(someday I will learn to write a concise summary. There will be rejoicing in the streets and free cupcakes for all. This will be a beautiful day.)

The characters in this novel were amazing. Katnis is the main character, so of course I was rooting for her, but the other tribute from her colony was the son of the baker and I want nothing but good for him. Then there was the youngest tribute who was this sweet girl who was so scared and so shy and so wonderful! Then there are the tributes who have spent their lives training for the games and who are just so cocky and so cruel and so scary.

Just read it - seriously - and if you don't believe me, read Abby (the) Librarian (LOVE her), Fuse #8, or The Book Nut.

There are more books I need to talk about, but I'm going to take a break and come back with more books later.

Lobster-Plath part 2

Just after posting the entry from this morning I realized I am not making shrimp tonight, I am roasting a chicken. Ah well - the best laid plans, eh? But I did just send out an email to far too many people. I'm really not one of those people who sends out mass emails! I swear! This was just me saying something and I realized that I wanted a lot of people to read it! SO after sending it, I thought ... "but really, don't I want EVERYONE to read this?" so here you go: my mass Happy Lobster-Plath email to the world.

I'm sorry for the mass email, but if you are reading this it is probably because I figured you would love this as much as I am!

Today is Lobster-Plath, the anniversary of the day Sylvia Plath died AND the day the largest lobster ever was caught. I assume you're supposed to celebrate such a day by reading Sylvia Plath and eating lobster. I'm making roast chicken tonight and I today is much too boisterous for most of the Sylvia Plath that I know so I ended up perusing Billy Collins' Poetry 180 page which contains no Sylvia Plath - I guess I fail at this holiday, but I did discover a wonderful poem I had never read before. It is #7 on Mr. Collins' list and it is called "Do You Have Any Advice For Those of Us Just Starting Out?" by Ron Koertge.

I hope you all enjoy! And Happy Lobster-Plath!

(in the email I stuck the poem in here, but for my blog I'm just going to demand that y'all go on over to Poetry 180 and read the poem where the people who have permission to stick it up have stuck it up.

Lobster-Plath

A very happy Lobster-Plath to you all! I plan on celebrating by reading some Sylvia Plath and perhaps making some sort of shrimp related dish tonight. I know, I know - it's LOBSTER Plath not SHRIMP plath, but if you look at the spirit of the holiday, it's really CRUSTACEAN-Plath and that's why I'm going for shrimp. That and because the husband and I are watching our way through the first season of Chuck and I just watched the episode where they spend forever talking about how wonderful the Sizzling Shrimp is. Now I want sizzling shrimp and I don't even know what it is exactly!

In other news, I was reading through some old blog entries and I came across this terrible horrible no good very bad cake that I told y'all I was about to make. Don't. Seriously - don't. The cider glaze, however, was lovely (I futzed with the spices because I don't actually own "pumpkin pie spice" and it seemed silly to buy it just for the cake, but that only made it better) and now that I've been reminded of it I think I'm going to make some gingerbread and put that lovely glaze on it. OM NOM NOM!

The Kins is learning a new word every day. It's crazy and wonderful and sometimes very very confusing. She has a favorite bunny who I named Marinara after she decided it needed to be dipped in Marinara often. She has just started to say "bunny" though, so her name has been stripped from her. Bunny, though, came quite out of the blue when she started looking around the living room while yelling "money! Money! MONEY!" It took me FAR TOO LONG to figure out what she was searching for. She's not quite putting words together into sentences yet, but she is putting exclamations together into lots of exclamations. Monday she had a bit of diarrhea. Each diaper was worse than the last! Tuesday morning when I changed her diaper she looked up and me and said "Oh goodness! Oh yucky! Oh eeeeeewwww." It was exactly what her father and I had said to her for each of her diapers the day before. Poor baby - I hope I'm not giving her a complex!

That said, YUCKY and EEEEWWW are two of her favorite words. I brought Mo Willem's newest Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed home from work the other day and read it to Kaylee. Wilbur is a Naked Mole Rat who likes wearing clothes. His fellow Mole Rats say to him "EEEWWWWWWW" and "YUCK!" Kaylee LOVED it when I read that part to her, and then she took the book from me, sat in her own corner, turned the pages on her own, and pointed to everything saying "eeeew! Yucky!"

(Side Note Mini Review: Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed is fantastic. It is Mo Willems, though, so I have to tell you that it is probably one of my least favorite of his books. That said it is one of my least favorite books by one of my favorite authors. It is really really good ... but if you're going for Mo Willems go for Leonardo or any of the Gerald and Piggie books.)

I don't think I've told the blog yet that I'm pregnant! How has that happened? Hi! I'm pregnant and I'm telling you waaaaaay down here. Yes, it is important to me, I just went through this (seemingly) looooong stage of not telling anybody about it and then told everybody all in a rush and now it seems like everybody knows. Do YOU know, intarwebs? Do ya? Good. Well anyway, I was about to talk about being pregnant and realized I should probably officially tell my blog that I am pregnant. Now it's done and I can get on with the whole moaning and whining and demanding foot rubs and ice cream, yes?

So this pregnancy has been so totally and completely different from pregnancy #1. Everyone said that probably meant I am having a boy this time, but then the ultrasound came in and voila - labia! My poor husband is going to be SO overrun with estrogen! This is going to be fun! YAY FOR TOO MANY EXCLAMATION POINTS! But seriously, ya'll! With the Kins I had morning sickness for 9 months. With this baby I threw up when I got a stomach virus and that other time when Brandon and Kaylee threw up all over the car and I sent them away so I could clean it up without the sickies being around (and it was just a ton of puke. Seriously - you woulda joined in just a hair too). Other symptoms that passed me by with the Kins I've been getting full force this time. Heartburn? check. Constant burping? check. A need to stick my hands on my lower back and WADDLE? CHECK!

It seems like everyone in my house has had the death defying crud for far too long (seriously - I got it at work and coworkers had it for 6-8 WEEKS. I think it's about as bad for all of us), so while I promised my siblings that I would be better about taking pictures this year ... it's hard to take pictures when everyone just wants to crawl in a hole and sleep until our sinuses clear, but I have taken SOME ... I just haven't uploaded them. I just pulled 3 of the most recent out to prove to the world that a) My daughter is still the cutest thing EVER and b) I am using my beautiful new camera for good, not evil.

This was when Kaylee had a horrible fever and she made herself a little nest on the couch then demanded I come cuddle with her. Of course I did, but first I had to take a picture.

Kaylee loves to empty out this one cupboard next to the oven and make herself a fort in it.

She loves it so darn much I don't mind moving all the pots and pans back into the cupboard when she's done - nor do I mind cooking around a kitchen floor full of random junk ... but I AM working on teaching her to put it away when she's done. She'll get there!

How I Live Now

Book Blogging

I have been reading and reading, y'all - as is my normal raison d'etre. A few I wanted to mention:

Dealing with Dragons
Growing up, one of my favorite books was Dealing with Dragons by Patricia Wrede. I'd mostly forgotten about it, though, until the other day wandering through my library when I came upon it, promptly grabbed it up and brought it home (after telling everyone in the Children's department about the fabulousness of this book). I devoured that book and ZOMG it is just as wonderful as I remembered.

Princess Cimorene is completely bored with all the stupid bits of being a princess (embroidery lessons, curtseying lessons, poise lessons) so she always runs off and forces random members of the household staff to teach her interesting things until her parents find out and make her stop (which is why she's only moderately good at fencing - and they git her away from the cook when she'd pretty much only mastered Cherries Jubilee). When her parents engage her to this utterly boring prince, she runs away and becomes a dragon's princess. Contrary to popular opinion, dragons don't eat princesses, they keep them as very useful servants and Cimorene thinks this sounds just lovely so she organizes Kazul's library (I think this may have been where my desire to be a librarian started), makes Cherries Jubilee, and in general has a grand ole time with the dragons. There's more - there's much more, but really I'd suggest reading it. It's awesome.

SO ANYWAY - I was in the living room playing with the Kins when the husband walked in with a confused look on his face and he asked "why are you reading Dealing with Dragons?"

"Because," I replied, "it is the BEST BOOK EVER! It was my favorite when I was knee high to a grasshopper and just remembered about it and had to reread it right away."

"But it was MY Favorite book growing up."

I KNEW I loved this man for a reason!

The Graveyard Book
Y'all probably already know that I am absolutely in love with Neil Gaiman. That man makes my heart go pitter pat! I was slow, however, on reading his newest The Graveyard Book because he had done the audio version himself and he's an amazing storyteller and I was waiting patiently for my turn at the library copy because audiobooks are super expensive I was being cheap ...

I'm buying the audio version now. It's that good. I need to own a copy of that man reading that book for the rest of my life. That's just how it works.

I don't think I can properly tell y'all about this book. Sometimes when a book is very much loved by me, I have problems explaining it to other people because I have trouble sifting out the important from the unimportant. When I stop and think about it logically, I know you don't need me to spend forever telling you how great the first sentence was and how the hand was in the DARKNESS and it held a KNIFE and do you understand how beautiful a way it was to open this story like that and don't let that wondrous first line make you shy away from this book, afraid it might be a dark dark book because yes the story begins with three murders but ZOMG Then you get to the graveyard and in that graveyard Bod finds LIFE and he LIVES and he GROWS and he BECOMES and then I pass out because I haven't taken a breath or ended a sentence in FAR TOO LONG. So I'm not going to tell you about The Graveyard Book but fortunately you don't need me to because this happened! I'm sure you can find another review somewhere else. (:

It was funny - at my library there are two people who I work with and adore who just really don't like Neil Gaiman and had really disliked this book. There were two of us who had loved The Graveyard Book and were quite passionate about it. Most everyone else was still waiting their turn for a copy. (OY the hold list this book had on it!) I was watching ALA Twitter the awards as they came in (because the American Library Association is all about 2.0) and the twitter feed F-ING BROKE RIGHT BEFORE THE CALDECOTT AWARD WAS ANNOUNCED!!! So I was running around trying to figure out where I could see who had won the two awards that most people care about (because while more people SHOULD care about things like the Coretta Scott King awards and the Siebert Awards etc, the Newbery and the Caldecott are what people ask about) when suddenly this came through my twitter feed which was quickly followed by this. Yes, he may be an over-rated foul mouthed yahoo", but I love him.

There were a ton more books I was going to post about tonight, but for now this is all you get. Sleep is required. I'm still getting over a cold.

Also - I'm sorry. I know this post is probably riddled with typos and whatnot. I read it through once to try and figure out where the typos are and discovered that I'm way too sleepy to do that sort of thing. If spell check hasn't found it, it'll just have to wait!