friday photos - sneak peak

First off, a sneak peak of our new apartment. This is our deck. I think it was advertised as 800 square feet. The sandbox is a bit lonely out there.

Now, some random photos of the kids. Since coming to a new place and figuring out new routines, Genghis and Xena have had a lot more playtime together. So here are some pictures of them around the house or around the park, which is where we mostly are these days.

Note: Genghis' underwear was a first feeble attempt at potty training. Not successful.

Genghis is wearing Xena's shirt. Xena, as usual, wears nothing. 

 What's she looking at?

Oh yes, him again.

2012 Reading List and Stats

While I'd like to complain that my life is nothing but work, work, work, my reading list for 2012 suggests otherwise. I managed to squeeze in 46 books (most of which I finished). Here's the overall list followed by some stats, commentary, and Erin Book Awards: 2012.

Fiction: Sci Fi / Fantasy

The Alloy of Law (Mistborn #4), by Brandon Sanderson

The Name of the Wind (The Kingkiller Chronicle #1), by Patrick Rothfuss

The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive #1), by Brandon Sanderson

Elantris, by Brandon Sanderson

Enchantment, by Orson Scott Card

The Awakened (The Awakened #1), by Jason Tesar

Fiction: General

A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel

Peace Like a River, by Leif Enger

A Very Private Gentleman, by Martin Booth

Master and Commander (Aubrey/Maturin #1), by Patrick O'Brian

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, by Jamie Ford

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Millennium #1), by Stieg Larsson

Unaccustomed Earth, by Jhumpa Lahiri

Falling Uphill, by Wendy Tokunaga

Hostile Witness (Witness Series #1), by Rebecca Forster

Transfer of Power, by Vince Flynn

Interpreter of Maladies, by Jhumpa Lahiri

In the Company of Cheerful Ladies (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6), by Alexander McCall Smith

The Kalahari Typing School for Men (No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #4), by Alexander McCall Smith

Whose Body?  (Lord Peter Wimsey Mysteries #1), by Dorothy L. Sayers

The Mysterious Affair At Styles (Hercule Poirot #1), by Agatha Christie

Her Royal Spyness (Her Royal Spyness Mysteries #1), by Rhys Bowen

Ella Enchanted, by Gail Carson Levine

Fiction: Classics

Around the World in Eighty Days, by Jules Verne

Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell

Anne of Avonlea (Anne of Green Gables #2), by L.M. Montgomery

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, by Jules Verne

The Three Musketeers (The D'Artagnan Romances #1), by Alexandre Dumas

The Phantom of the Opera, by Gaston Leroux

Les Misarables, by Victor Hugo

A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens

Persuasion, by Jane Austen

Non-Fiction: General

South, by Ernest Shackleton

Beethoven - His Life and Music, by Robert Greenberg

Beyond Band of Brothers: The war memoirs of Major Dick Winters, by Dick Winters

The Civil War (American Heritage), by Bruce Catton

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, by Susan Cain

Non-Fiction: Parenting & Kids

Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting, by Pamela Druckerman

Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book, by Pete Seeger

Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua

Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie-Girl Culture, by Peggy Orenstein

Between Parent and Child: The Bestselling Classic That Revolutionized Parent-Child Communication, by Haim G. Ginott

Toilet Training in Less Than a Day, by Nathan H. Azrin

The New Strong-Willed Child, by James C. Dobson

Setting Limits with Your Strong-Willed Child: Eliminating Conflict by Establishing Clear, by Firm, by and Respectful Boundaries, by Robert J. MacKenzie

1-2-3 Magic: Effective Discipline for Children 2-12, by Thomas W. Phelan

Stats

• 39% (18) of books read on Kindle, compared with 0% in 2011
• 24% (11) of books audio (on Kindle)
• 17% (8) of books were re-reads
• According to Goodreads, I read 11,382 pages this year. That's 32 pages a day. 
• A full 13% of those pages came from Les Misarables
• 9% came from The Way of Kings by Branson Sanderson (sheepish look)
• The mean (average) original publication date of my reading list was 1967. Median (middle) was 2000. Mode (most frequent) was 2011.

Commentary

• I read a lot of random books this year (particularly in the fiction category) because they were available for free (or immediately at my library) on the Kindle.
• For the same reason, I read more classics than I normally would.
• I would like to branch out my non-fiction reading to include more non-parenting books. Kids get easier after 2 1/2 anyway, right? Right??
• I like sci-fi and fantasy. Not the really crazy into it kind, but the crowd-pleasers.
• I do not like chick lit. I knew this in my soul, but re-committed this year.

Erin Book Awards: 2012

• Most hilarious: A Girl Named Zippy
• Great find: Pete Seeger's Storytelling Book
• Weirdest reading experience: A Very Private Gentleman (book about a man who makes custom guns for assassins, which I listened to at 3am every night while nursing newborn Xena).
• Most proud of: Les Misarables
• Most well-written: Peace Like a River
• Most forgettable: Whose Body?
• Most controversial: Bringing Up Bebe or Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
• Likely candidate for a re-read: A Girl Named Zippy or The Civil War

whew!

I have officially survived what has been the most trying 6 weeks of my life thus far. (Perhaps I shouldn't admit that, since I can think of at least two dozen other scenarios that would be harder than what I went through, but ... there it is.)

At the end of November, Abe flew out to California to start his new job in San Francisco. I stayed in Michigan with the kids and spent the next 4 weeks packing our house, arranging the moving logistics, and preparing our condo for our departure. Not to mention finishing a major work project and taking care of the kids. Aside from that and sleeping each night, I did nothing else. My to-do list felt never-ending and my energy level was at an all-time low. Also, the day before we were scheduling to leave (and coincidentally the day I had a culminating meeting and presentation for work), we all came down with the flu.

Somehow, I made it through my meeting and we all made it onto the plane the next day. Seven hours of plane travel with the kids seemed pretty easy compared to what I'd been doing. But I must have looked pretty spent. When the plane landed on the first leg of the journey, I was leaning against Genghis's car seat and didn't move while everyone else deplaned. I heard the person behind me say, "I think she's dead".

Reuniting with Abe was a great relief. Eating off of the floor for two days with two children under 3 while waiting for our belongings was not.

The ray of hope in all of this was a glorious 5 days off that Abe would have over Christmas, just after we arrived. Unfortunately, his first day off he was down and out with the flu we were all just starting to get over.

But I think we've made it through. We have mostly unpacked and settled into a spacious and comfortable penthouse apartment in the San Francisco Bay area (about an hour out of the city). More on the apartment later. We celebrated Christmas and New Year's and have been enjoying family time. More pictures of that later. Abe is better and I've had two wonderful days in a row of sleeping in while he's had the kids. Tomorrow I might actually make a fresh "to-do" list to start off our new life here, which would mean I'm feeling back to my old self again.

So Happy New Year! I couldn't have asked for a better one.

something sad...

I was recently made aware that our beloved alphabet book, alphAmuse, is missing the letter S. Although I would love to blame the printers, the fault is entirely my own. As such, for those who have purchased the book, it will sadly remain s-less forever.

I've given a lot of thought about how to remedy the situation. I briefly considered giving everyone a 1/26th discount ... it seemed impractical.

Instead, I am posting the missing page here, along with a special tribute to S. Also, I will be looking into how to update the book currently available on Amazon.

An Ode to _elf-Publi_hing

Silly socks secretly samba.

Sweet strawberries succulently smell.

Stately sweatervests sagaciously sit.

But even a jazzed up reader 

may zoom from cover to cover 

through a new alphabet book and unequivocally 

fail to meet the nineteenth letter 

before exiting.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Pilgrim in butter. Circa Thanksgiving 2009.

8 things I am loving right now

In the spirit of Thanksgiving - my favorite holiday - here are a few things I have been enjoying this month.

1. Gregorian Chant radio station on Pandora. It's like doing yoga without having to do yoga.

2. Winter layers! But only because I get to wear all my combinations once and then move to California before real winter comes.

3. Hot cocoa made with milk, cocoa powder and just a bit of sugar. So dark and delicious.

4. Deciding to work out every other day instead of every day.

5. "Close Your Eyes" children's book by Kate Banks and illustrated by Georg Hallensleben. My favorite line: "Dark is just the other side of light. It what comes before dreams."

6. My kids both demanding to sit at the piano and play together while I make dinner.

7. Neatly packed and stacked boxes, ready to move. As much as moving isn't fun, given that we have to do it, I like having some of it done.

8. Pumpkin flavored everything! (Except the decaying Halloween pumpkin that is currently over-flavoring my porch.)

Costumes 2012!

Theme: music.  From left to right, a Victrola (gramophone), Mozart, Half Note, and Viking Opera singer. This is the only picture we got of my costume and Abe's. I had an awesome gold skirt and green robe. Abe's Victrola reproduction was something to behold. He hid a portable speaker inside the box to play music too. 

Genghis considers his wig. He was very into being Mozart. It's his favorite composer. If you ask him what his favorite song is, he replies "Sonata by Mozart".

 Xena' half note was meant to attach to her shirt. But she made it clear that holding it herself was much more fun. (Side note: check out how she curls her right foot around - I never thought feet could look graceful until I met Xena.)