Friday, January 22, 2016

january: sickness and books.

We've had a few dreary, cold, sickness-filled weeks over here...resulting in not many exciting stories or pictures to share. 


There's been a lot of time spent sitting around in our jammies. One of my favorite things to do is watch Millie as she plays by herself. She jabbers and points and laughs as she reads or plays and it is basically the cutest thing ever. Most of the time she ends up making a huge mess, so on this day...I took a picture right as she was getting started. Ha.


Millie decided to pull all of the shelves out of her kitchen (an endless source of entertainment these days) and take a look under the sink. Maybe she has a future as a plumber? I missed the perfect plumber picture where she was laying on back, looking up under the sink...ugh. It was amazing. Darn my slow reflexes.


She's been hard at work perfecting the important life skill of eating cereal and milk like a Big Girl.

She's doing a good job. Except for when she decides to dump the whole bowl in her lap. Or on the floor. Then it's not so great.

(When I texted my mom these pics, she was like "wow, no bib!! Amazing!!"...hahaha, no. What's amazing is how often I still forget to put a bib on her. Or think 'eh, this won't be too messy'...and I'm pretty much always wrong.)

This is the face I got when I spent five minutes hyping up talking to Nanny and Pop Pop (my parents) on FaceTime...and then they didn't answer and I had to say "my bad, never mind. No FaceTime."


She made this face as she pathetically moaned "Poppppp Popppp!!! Popppp Popppp!!!" It was heartbreaking. I think my parents learned their lesson, though, and they will never again neglect to answer a FaceTime call.

And I know you can barely focus on the sad face in the above pictures because OH MY GOSH THOSE PIGTAILS!!!! It's a common situation. Her hair game is ON POINT (on fleek? Is that what the kids call it these days?) lately. And she knows it. As soon as I put her clothes on, she starts patting her head-- girlfriend isn't fully dressed without a ponytail (or two)!



Ignore her expression- I was trying to get her to look at the phone (and smile, ideally, but yeah right) and asked her where her ponytail was as a distraction. She proved that she knows!

Lots of lazy sick days has resulted in lots of reading for me! My 2016 goal is to read (and keep track of, haha...that's the harder part for me!) 40 books. So far I've completed four (point five), so I'm off to a good start! Several folks on Instagram requested that I do more "book reports" or updates or recommendations or whatever on my blog, so I'll try to include those periodically! Of the four books I've read this year...I recommend all of them. And I'm terrible at doing summaries, so I won't even really try. Ha. I'll (affiliate, FYI!) link them to Amazon and you can read much better summaries there! 

1. The Boston Girl (Anita Diamant): A+ 
    This was a historical fiction book club pick and I LOVED it! We all described the book as just refreshing. The writing, the story, the characters...it was just a joy to read. It was great to discuss, too, so a good pick for a book club!

2. After You (Jojo Moyes): B+
    This is the much-anticipated sequel to Me Before You, which my book club read last year (and I loved). I really enjoyed this one too. I didn't really know how she would pick up the story, but I thought she did a good job. I must admit, though- I finished this like two weeks ago and already I can barely remember what it was about. Ha. Not sure what that means, but I do remember liking it!

3. The Red Tent (Anita Diamant): A++
    I picked this one up as soon as I finished The Boston Girl, just because I enjoyed TBG so much! This one is historical fiction, but of a MUCH earlier time period- it's a fictional retelling of the story of Jacob (you know, Jacob of "Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob" Biblical fame) and his wives and children. It's from the perspective of his daughter Dinah, whose story is told in only a few short (and terrible) verses in Genesis. I honestly never would have thought this book would interest me, but because I loved TBG so much, I wanted to give it a try. And this book BLEW MY MIND. We are actually discussing it at Book Club tomorrow night and I can't WAIT. I'm serious. This book isn't new or anything, but if you haven't read it...do it. I couldn't put it down and I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. For that reason, I have to give it an A plus PLUS. Because it needs that extra plus.

4. Ready Player One (Ernest Cline): A+
     Oooookay. Here's the thing. NOTHING about the summary/description of this book appealed (appeals) to me. Gamers (as in video gamers). Sci fi. 80s pop culture. Nope, nope, nope. So I can only say that the reason I even picked up this book is because of the cover art and the fact that a few other bloggers/Instagrammers I know (and typically trust, book-wise) recommended it...despite ALSO proclaiming to not like any of the premises of the book. I actually thought this would be one of those books that just sat on my shelf until it was overdue and then I'd return it, never having actually opened it. But NOPE. I broke into it and COULD. NOT. PUT. IT. DOWN. It is indeed chock full of video games (endless video games), sci fi, and 80s pop culture. And yet it's one of the most compelling stories I've read in a long time. I can't explain it, I can just recommend it. 

So it's been a good January, book-wise. The other book I started (but haven't finished...and might not, seeing as I put it down and have read two books since then...) is The Girl in the Spider's Web, which is the fourth book in the Millennium (Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) series. It's been a good story, but to be honest, I get so lost in all of those Swedish names that every time I pick it up, I have to re-remember who everyone is and it takes forever and it just makes me want to pick up something else where I can remember what's going on. So I don't know if I'll finish this one or not...guess we'll see how bored I get this weekend!

Anyway. So some not-wonderful pictures and a lot of good books...that's basically been January. There's a chance we'll get some wintery weather this weekend, so you know we're all falling to pieces and beating down the doors of the grocery stores! If you're stuck in the snow- stay warm! And read a few of these books! And put pigtails on your baby's (or your dog's...or your own...) head...guaranteed mood lifter!

18 comments:

  1. I love her piggies!

    I also love your slippers. Where did you buy them?

    (I'm somewhat slipper/bootie slipper obsessed. It's freezing cold here in the midwest and I work from home, my feet are always cold! Not ashamed to say I asked for and got, 3 pairs of bootie slippers for Christmas.)

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  2. I feel like this might be really similar to last January..."we're all super sick, but Millie is so cute." It's like your theme for January.

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  3. Those piggies are epic!!!
    Sorry about all the sickness. We've had some here ourselves. It's pretty yucky and had our eleven year old down and out for a week.
    You look gorgeous in the picture of you and Millie!

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  4. Boo to the sicknesses but hooray for the lounging! Also, just wait until you're potty training (many, many years from now) and she starts requesting to FaceTime while she poops... then Nanny and Pop Pop might not be so quick to answer ;)

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  5. I'm impressed. I need to read some books. I've gotten into podcasts lately. Maybe I need to do some audio books.

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  6. I am always impressed with how fast you read books!! I am almost done with my first for this year and am all like "Look at me go!!!" :)

    Hope everyone is feeling better soon!!

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  7. You're so lucky that Millie likes pigtails! It's a fight with Molly. A fight she usually wins.

    I think you've talked me into Ready Player One. Eric has it in print (can you imagine? So antiquated) and loves it, and he's not even a reader. But he IS into 80s/gaming, which is why I thought I wouldn't like it.

    Also, I've already sent him a request to find and download The Red Tent not even 30 seconds after reading this post. Keep those recommendations coming!

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  8. I love this! I feel like Abbie and Mille were quite different babies (aka Abbie was NOT the easiest baby ever), but they are very similar toddlers! Abbie keeps doing things that I remember seeing adorable pictures of Millie doing 6 months or so ago. I love it! And the fact that Millie keeps getting more awesome is very helpful as my baby is about to turn one (:cry: ). It's sad, but it's also so fun!

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  9. I never stood 'on fleek' i'm definitely still on the 'on point' train. But either way those ponytails are adorable. :)

    I'm going to write down some of those books for book club next month. If you are looking for a good book, The Good Girl by Mary Kubica is awesome!

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  10. First of all I loved the pics. Especially Millie the plumber. Also I'm pumped about the book recommendations! And, the pigtails are fleek. I wish I could post a pic of Fidgey rockin his. Not as great as Mill's though.

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  11. Love the pics & Millie's pigtails. Her face when she didn't get to Facetime your parents - so sad!! Haha!

    Okay, so which Anita Diamant book should I try first!? They sound so good!

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  12. Love Millie the plumber, that is hilarious!!

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  13. The pigtails! Drew sadly will never let me fix her hair anymore, so I love vicariously through other {obedient} little girls!

    I have read 4 of the 4.5 books you talked about! All except The Red Tent. I literally just finished The Girl in the Spider's Web yesterday. I really enjoyed it - give it another shot. The first 25% drug because I didn't know what we were leading up to, but once it gets going, I really loved it. I agree with all your ratings on the others - I had higher hopes for After You - I liked it {remember - she breaks her hip and then starts dating the ambulance guy} but I got so annoyed with her behavior about her job! Our book club's next pick is Defending Jacob.

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  14. I have been meaning to ask you.... do you follow modern mrs. darcy on FB or get her emails? She lets you know which kindle books are REALLY cheap. Of all the ones I follow, I think she has the best taste in books. And since I usually like all of the books you recommend.... I just thought you would like to know!

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  15. Loved the Red Tent and saving a few of these others now!! Hope y'all are feeling better!!

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  16. Ready Player One is my favorite book of all time ever. My fiancé and I met because I mentioned it to a friend in a bar and he overheard me.
    They are also making this into a movie, bt-dub

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  17. Okay, I LOVED The Red Tent so I am totally checking out The Boston Girl. And Ready Player One sounds good too. (I just put them both on hold at the library as well as my book club book so I should be good to go for awhile.)

    And I think Millie is too adorable to be a plumber, but that picture is awesome!

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  18. Now I have some book ideas! And seriously, could those pigtails be any cuter on her!?!?

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