More Reading...

 The Winter Sea is a book I've had on my to-read list for quite some time. I've actually checked it out of the library before, but had other things I decided to read first. So, finally, I got to this rather large book!

 

"In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors and starts to write.

But when she discovers her novel is more fact than fiction, Carrie wonders if she might be dealing with ancestral memory, making her the only living person who knows the truth-the ultimate betrayal-that happened all those years ago, and that knowledge comes very close to destroying her..."

 

Have you ever heard the term "genetic memory"? I hadn't, but it plays a big role in this novel. I was about 100 pages into the book before I decided that I liked it. It has a slow start and I considered not finishing it a few times. But by the 100 page mark I was hooked and read it voraciously to the end. The end was pretty great. I'd read more of her books, but I wouldn't say she's a favorite. Yet.

 

 Rules of Civility "On the last night of 1937, 25 year old Katey Kontent is in a second-rate Greenwich Village jazz bar with her boardinghouse roommate stretching three dollars as far as it will go when Tinker Grey, a handsome banker with royal blue eyes and a tempered smile, happens to sit at the neighboring table. This chance encounter and its startling consequences propel Katey on a yearlong journey from a Wall Street secretarial pool toward the upper echelons of New York society and the executive suites of Condé Nast--rarefied environs where she will have little to rely upon other than a bracing wit and her own brand of cool nerve."

 

I had a difficult time deciding between 2 and 3 stars for this book.

I did love parts of this book. A scene here, a description there, a line every so often. I think my favorite part out of the entire book is a scene where the heroine and her boyfriend of the moment enjoy a night in, spying on their uptown neighbors with binoculars and flying paper airplanes.

However, I unfortunately found much more to dislike in this book. the characters are... hard to connect with. I found them hollow or too cliche and lacking depth. I didn't care much for or about the central character Katey. She annoyed me frequently. The author did a poor job building his characters, therefore it was hard to know what drew them to one another and on what substance the various stories between them were based. Often I was annoyed by relationships or the decisions made by characters about them.

One thing the author consistently did well was descriptive writing. When it came to places instead of people the writing was beautiful and detailed. You could see buildings towering in all weather in NYC. I especially loved the description of the city in autumn. The night jazz clubs, the fancy country parties, the various NY apartments all were vivid, real and so intriguing. Those things connected the reader to the story more than anything. It kept me reading.

For all the negatives, including a scattered and fragmented storyline, I did finish the book. I wanted to get to the end and see what happened, how it all ended, what the fuss was about. I must say the ending didn't magically pull everything together; I had no final "ah ha" moment that made the book worth it in the end. However it's not because the author left things in confusion, on the contrary everything is neatly explained and finished for the reader. I was surprised at the mundane and quick finish after the long, rambling and off beat body of the book.

Overall it is a strange book, the characters are lacking, the whole work choppy and odd. But it has some good bits and wonderful descriptive writing. Not sure I'd be quick to seek out this author again

Summer is going fast

I think summers always go by quickly. But I don’t ever remember them going this fast. Is it because I’m getting older and time is going faster, or that I am now a Mom, or most likely because we live in a place of harsh, eternal winters?

I remember last summer as an idyllic time without nearly the number of pesky mosquitoes. This year while we’ve enjoyed long days, and warm weather I feel almost as trapped indoors because of all the darn bugs.

That being said we have taken a lot of walks, grilled outside, made s’mores, had the windows open nearly every day, made trips to the farmers market, and enjoyed time out on our back patio.



There has been a whole lot of hamburgers and roasted tomato bruschetta and wine. I’ve also made lots of rice crispies and iced tea. I’ve enjoyed fried zucchini and roasted beets, but sadly we’ve yet to have fresh, local sweet corn or tomatoes. We’ve watched The Sandlot and made dozens of batches of fruit salad. We’ve had a lot of visitors, all thanks to miss C because otherwise I know North Dakota wouldn’t draw so many eager guests.

In a few days we are going on our first trip as a family of 3! A kind of last minute trip to Ohio over Labor Day weekend. It will be so nice to get back and see everyone and introduce C to Aunts and Uncles and friends she’s not yet met. I’m nervous about packing for and flying with an infant, but we’ve got to start sometime right?

We got both of the cats shaved. I suppose it sounds better to say summer haircuts. They look funny, but I haven’t been able to get a good picture yet. Most importantly it’s reduced the amount of cat hair floating around our house.

I’ve been able to get a fair amount of reading done lately as well. Thanks in part to audiobooks and also to the modern wonders of electronic libraries and my kindle device. I never thought I’d say it, but ebooks are awesome. With the help of night mode I have been doing most of my reading while nursing in the middle of the night. But I find that anytime I’m nursing is great reading time as well. Who knew?! I’ve read 20 books so far this year, not bad considering I set my goal at 24.



What do I still want to do this summer? Watch some of my favorite summer flicks; Rear Window, The Parent Trap, State Fair, Summer magic. It’s one thing to watch TV episodes, an entirely different thing to try and sit and watch an entire movie. I want to have some delicious Ohio sweet corn and big fat juicy tomatoes on a BLT. Not big goals, just fun ones.

J has been working, working, working. In fact this little trip to Ohio is due in part to the fact that one of his bosses is forcing him to take a week of well deserved leave. Now that he’s an instructor pilot he’s been flying a lot more, and some pretty horrible hours on top of his office job. Meanwhile I’ve been trying to stay on top of never ending laundry and produce something for meals. Although if I’m honest J has been making dinner a lot lately. C always seems to be nursing while I should be getting dinner ready. Which reminds me, we should probably go out to eat at the club soon!

So that’s what has been happening here. Not much excitement per say, but that’s not a bad thing.

Listening to Mystery Books

 A Pocket Full of Rye is another book that I listened to. However this was the full unabridged version so I feel like I really read this one. And I enjoyed it a lot!

 

"A handful of grain is found in the pocket of a murdered businessman! Rex Fortescue, king of a financial empire, was sipping tea in his 'counting house' when he suffered an agonising and sudden death. On later inspection, the pockets of the deceased were found to contain traces of cereals. Yet, it was the incident in the parlour which confirmed Jane Marple's suspicion that here she was looking at a case of crime by rhyme!"

 

I'd give this 4 out of 5 stars. It reads more like a general mystery than a Miss Marple as she comes into the story later and plays a smaller roll. Even J enjoyed listening and asked about the parts he missed.

 

 Whose Body is a new mystery writer for me. With my love of Agatha Christie and Sayer's contemporaries such as C.S. Lewis and Tolkien I'm not sure how I missed her for this long. Another audiobook, but it was a complete and unabridged version. I loved it; another 4 out of 5 stars. And I'm happy I found another good mystery author to read.

 

"The stark naked body was lying in the tub. Not unusual for a proper bath, but highly irregular for murder -- especially with a pair of gold pince-nez deliberately perched before the sightless eyes. What's more, the face appeared to have been shaved after death. The police assumed that the victim was a prominent financier, but Lord Peter Wimsey, who dabbled in mystery detection as a hobby, knew better. In this, his first murder case, Lord Peter untangles the ghastly mystery of the corpse in the bath."

 

My sister tried to read this book and said she found it hard to follow; the dialog, some of the words were confusing. Listening I didn't get that impression. But now that I'm actually reading the second book I can see what she was talking about a little bit. I think I'd have a harder time and not like it as much had I not listened to the first book.

Professional Birth Pictures

We had our doula take pictures during our labor and delivery. She’s had a busy summer full of babies and so we’re just now getting to see those photos. I have to say I’m not really much one for pictures of myself during that long, rather horrible labor. But I absolutely love the pictures of Catherine! I can’t believe how much she has already grown and changed. And these are our first family of three photos. Follow this link to the sneak peak blog. Once I have them all on a disk I will put up my favorites on this blog.

Playing catch up

I am never faithful with the blog when we are traveling or when we have visitors. And we have had visitors. My sister and niece came out in July and just left earlier this week. It was nearly a 3 week visit, but it flew by and I have no idea where the time went. C turned 3 months, my niece, MJ, turned 4 months and now it’s nearly halfway through August.

This was C and I on the day the Moldovan girls were due to arrive. Just hanging out playing with the play gym and waiting.


These photos were taken on the morning after their arrival. Aunt's meeting our nieces. My sister and I kept saying how weird it was that we have babies... it sometimes just feels like we've got extended babysitting gigs. Question: do you ever really feel "grown up"?


That was one of the days we managed to get both girls out of the house with decent success. We went to the farmer’s market downtown, and had a girls lunch out at the Blue Moose. Then we met J after he golfed and had some frozen yogurt.


We went out a few other times; dinner at the country club, pizza on a Friday night at Rhombus Guys, trips into town to browse Target and Old Navy and buy yummy things at Panera. Probably the most memorable trips of the visit were swapping babysitting so that each Momma could go and have an hour long spa pedicure! It’s the first big, relaxing moment totally baby free I’ve had to myself in the last 3 months. My sister’s husband was also in ND about an hour away for Army Reserve training at Ft. Grafton. So whenever he had an early day he would drive over for dinner and to visit which everyone loved.


It was so nice having them here. Always someone else in the house to chat with, or swap babies with when your own got to be too much. Another pair of hands helping to wade through the mountains of laundry and to get dinners on the table. I’ve heard before that becoming a mother can be an isolating experience; your life is somewhat homebound and centered on a tiny person totally dependent on you. I’m not sure how much all new Mom’s feel this, but I sure have. So having my sister and niece staying with us was absolutely wonderful!

We also watched a lot of TV shows. We finished season 6 of Doc Martin with Abbie because she hadn’t seen it yet. We watched the first two seasons of Giuliana and Bill and of New Girl. J and I both loved New Girl and are waiting on season 3 to be released. We watched season 2 of the new Masterpiece Mystery series Endeavour. We had a particularly memorable evening watching an episode of that. A storm just a notch short of a tornado blew threw. It was raining and blowing so violently we couldn’t see out the windows, massive lightening and thunder, it hailed and there were sirens going off everywhere. What a night for a scary show. Abbs and I also watched season 3 of Call the Midwife, which she'd seen but I hadn't. I'd forgotten how much I love that show!


C's 3 month stats: 12lb. 1oz. (so says our scale at home anyway). Her eyes are still blue and although she's still got her dark hair on the back of her head I keep thinking she's starting to look a little like a redhead... or maybe blonde?

She's been fussy this month. Probably the most fussy to date. Come evenings her fussy hour has gotten worse, sometimes she even has pretty good meltdowns in the afternoon. She's drooling like a champ and I suspect she may be early to get teeth. Most of the time her fussing is because she's tired and wont sleep. Other times I suspect gas because she doesn't like to burp. We've tried gas drops and gripe water this month.

Night time sleep is about the same. We are usually up once a night with the occasional "bad" night or sleep through the whole night thrown in. Bedtime is around 8:30. And she typically likes to sleep in if she's woken up to eat during the night.

She's really babbling and cooing a lot now. Always smiling (unless she's screaming which she can also do spectacularly!). She's rolling over to her tummy in her swaddle while sleeping, grabbing her play gym animals and chewing her Sophie. Her head is still a little wobbly, so we're working on tummy time. She loves being sung to!



We had several firsts for both girls during this visit. C rolled over! First in her swaddle while sleeping, and then on her own while playing (that happened during month 4). The very same day that C rolled over on the play mat, MJ did as well! We’ve both got rollers now. And miss MJ laughed, I mean really laughed for the first time. I took a great video of it that C and I keep watching now that they’re gone. And although C had been babbling and cooing, she really found her voice while her Aunt and cousin were visiting.



It was a lovely visit. Can’t wait to do it again soon! (And it was a very good reason to get behind on the blog!)

Book reviews coming soon…

Month 3 in pictures

Tuesday, July 8, 2014 C is 9 weeks old!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014 C is 10 weeks old! Double digits already…

Wednesday, July 23, 2014: 11 weeks and 1 day old

Tuesday, July 29, 2014 Our 12 week old is reaching for her toys with purpose!

Tuesday, August 5, 2014 spending her 13th week with her cousin!

3 months old! August 6, 2014

C is 2 months old!

 

Better late than never ;-)

 

Weight: 11 pounds,  0.4 ounces

Length: 22.5 inches

Head Circumference: 38.2 cm 

Hair: Dark brown

Eyes: Dark blue

Daytime: We now have a routine, a loose routine. It includes eating, playing, napping and repeat. There is a morning nap, a mid day nap, an afternoon nap and one or two shorter late afternoon/evening naps. We typically go on a walk every day, and evenings are bath and story time now. Playing is the newest thing; she likes her swing (watching the elephants) and play gym and is fascinated by hanging toys and mirrors.

Nighttime: Not always, but typically she sleeps from 9-ish until 2 or 3, is up for an hour and then sleeps again until 6 or 7. She doesn’t typically wake up unless she’s hungry and needs her diaper changed.  

Eating: We’re still breastfeeding (miraculously) and she is gaining weight like a star. Also pooping like a rock star! She does spit up quite spectacularly on occasion now. Still not an easy one to burp.  

Other Fun Stuff: She has officially outgrown newborn clothes and diapers. She is in 3 month clothes and size 1 diapers. Her newest face is her surprised face, or what J calls her ‘possessed, I’m going to steal your soul face’. She coos, likes it when you smile at her and will smile back, and likes when you make funny faces at her. She hasn’t quite laughed yet, but she’s tried a few times. Right now she’s a good napper. We are working on going down sleepy but not asleep.