Things I'm Digging...

I cannot begin to tell you how happy I am that February is over. I'm not one to wish time away, but the month was filled with so much snow and dreary skies that I'm truly celebrating this new month. March has announced itself in a lovely way with warmer temperatures, a shining sun, and an easy morning routine with the family.

As dreary as the weather was last month, there were things that made it brighter. Our fireplace was put to good use every snow day and I enjoyed tending the fire. Finding a great recipe and making the best banana muffins ever was a joy as well.

A new tradition in our family is to ask people to remove their shoes when they come into our house. However, I don't want anyone to have cold feet so I decided to knit several Pocketbook Slippers to keep them in a basket by the door for our guests. So far I have one and a half pairs done.

There was a time in my life when my nose was in a book all the time. Over the past several years I have had trouble concentrating on reading and have missed it and knitting has never been a good match with reading until this little gem came along, thanks to my knitting buds. Currently I'm reading Love Walked In by Marisa de los Santos and so far I'm enjoying her prose and her references to The Philadelphia Story (if you haven't seen it, go and rent it now).

On TV, I'm tuned into LOST and through Netflix I've been watching Six Feet Under, which I can also recommend since every time I watch one episode it's like a potato chip and I just can't stop after one. The acting is good, the story lines are interesting and I'm now a big fan of Michael C. Hall and may have to check out Dexter next.

I'm also getting a package together for Leah at Our Yellow House for our swap, but I can't show you that yet.

Ok, I'm off to make some more muffins.

Thanks Stephanie!

Stephanie is the first blogger I've met in person since "meeting" in the blogosphere. Both of us have daughters who were born in China and we both blogged about that commonality (Forks & Chopsticks). Stephanie then started a book blog (Stephanie's Written Blog) and that's been going really well with authors stopping by to guest blog and give interviews and she's even had several giveaways. I entered and won an advanced copy of Knit Two by Kate Jacobs. I never read the prequel, but perhaps I should now.

On top of these two blogs, Stephanie added a third ("C" is NOT for cookie...) after finding out she has breast cancer. She wants to help people by letting them come along with her on this journey. She will get her first chemo treatment shortly after Thanksgiving, which will be her first since losing her mother to complications from breast cancer.

Perhaps you could stop by one of Stephanie's blogs and send her a hello.
In the meantime, thank you Stephanie. I look forward to reading the book and reading your critique.

As Read By...

This morning Buttons asked if I would read The Little Red Hen to her. I was on my way to the "water closet" and let her know I would happily read it afterward. "The words are easy for me, mama, so I'll read it myself" she told me proudly. I let her know she could read it aloud to me. As I'm sitting down, she pulls up a stool next to me and reads. Once finished with the "w.c.", we move onto the bed where I offer to read the rest. She thinks about it and tells me she'd like to read it to me, but would like me to hold it for her.

I wish I could make an audio cd of The Little Red Hen as read by Buttons. She had the phrasing down, the tone and the voices of the animals (which sound very similar to the voices I use) . You know the story, right? The little red hen finds a grain of wheat and asks the duck, the goose, the cat and the pig if they would like to help her plant, reap, carry, or bake it and they turn her down each time except when she asks who would like to eat it with her. After they all reply "yes", she responds "no, I'll do it myself". The take away message is of course intended to be if you don't help with the work, you don't get to help with the fun stuff at the end. After finishing the story, Buttons tells us the hen is not very nice to say no and she should have said "no thank you". We explain her reasons but agree that the nice thing would have been to share or at the very least not offer and then say no. I'm glad she gets that.

Just when I begin to think how grown up she is, she asks me to read it to her again, but I guess no matter what age we are, we always like having a book read to us. Snuggling in bed having her read that story to me before she marches off to school was certainly a gift to treasure.

Elephant Poop

As you know from a previous post, we own the book Everyone Poops by Taro Gomi. It's an animated book and while not extremely graphic, it gets the point across that indeed everyone poops. Well, a friend of our has a daughter Buttons' age and owns another book about poop. Graphic pictures of poop. Not images of these sweet (albeit including poo) statues entitled "V W X Yellow Elephant Underwear / H I J Kiddy" part of "Little Boy: The Arts of Japan's Exploding Subculture" by Japanese artist Chinatsu Ban. (Um exploding, as in my girls' diaper today?)
Not even a picture of this apparently poop-themed play area were included.
This was pretty much the picture of elephant poop in the Japanese book about poop at our friends' house. I've learned 2 things. Elephants eat alot of fiber and in my experience there seems to be a significant amount of literature from Japan with a poo theme.

I put my sweet child to bed and say to her "I love you. Good night. Sweet dreams". After that, she will often tell me what she's going to dream about in the night. Giraffes. Hippos. Our cat. Grandma. Tonight? Yeah. "I dream about elephant poop tonight Mama." Sweet dreams indeed.

Sometimes It Is Brown

We're working on potty training. Last week I went to a book sale at the library. R.E.M. is one of our favorite groups. You may be asking what do these things have in common?

Well, besides the fact that my brain can be very random like that, I'll tell you. I've been wanting to get this book for Buttons to read while she's going to the potty and lo and behold it was on sale for fifty cents at the library. After reading the book, Hubby begins singing "Everyone Poops" to the R.E.M. song "Everybody Hurts". We took "poetic license" and began singing "Everyone poops...sometimes. Sometimes it is brown. Sometimes it is soft. Sometimes..." Well, you get the idea. The book is fairly explicit with poop content and we were singing in the spirit of the book. Hubby and I have always made up new lyrics to old songs on the spot for various occasions.

The next time Buttons sat on the potty, she wanted me to read "Everyone Poops" and after the final page was read, she implored me to "sing it". So, it's now become a musical staple in our house. This morning was no different. After we all read the book together and sang the song, she sat on the potty and although she didn't poop, she did sing "Everyone poooops". Sometimes.