Lots o' Cousins

We spent several days in Austin with Nana, Opa, my sisters, their husbands, and our nephews. I didn't anticipate how much fun Bean would have with her 4YO cousin, Bo. They played almost non-stop for 5 days. Bean is still talking about Bo 2 weeks later. Here are some of my favorite photos from the visit.


Squeaker and Nana


Opa and Cousin Max


Cousin Sam and Squeaker


Cousin Sam, Aunt Laura, Squeaks, Uncle Wes, Cousin Bo, and Bean

State of the Union

It's been a while since I've written about Bean and Squeaker and what they're up to. So here goes...

• Bean gets that there's a baby in my belly. She likes to put her head a few inches from my stomach and say "Baaaabyyy, wake up." If Baby kicks back, Bean exclaims "She kicked me!!" with a lot of excitement. Bean also likes to rest her head on my belly when we read books together at night.

• Squeaks' vocabulary is rapidly expanding. In addition to the 10 or so words she knew in early January, she's added Kate, down, bye bye, Connie (her babysitter), kitty, doggy, quack quack, noooo, please, thank you, more, milk, cup, shoe, poopy, pee pee, Boo Boo (Kate's bear), banana, nack (snack), hot.
  
• Bean loves to play soccer, which involves kicking the ball down our hall or down the street. She got a bike with training wheels for her birthday and has mad cycling skills.
• Squeaks is not a gifted cyclist, but she can climb... onto our bar stools, onto the kitchen counters via any number of things pushed up against them, on the coffee table at the babysitter's...

• Bean is in bed between 8-8:15 and is getting better about staying in bed once she's down. She usually sleeps until 7-7:30 in the morning. She's still a great napper--weekend naps are still 2-3 hours.
• Squeaks is in bed between 7-7:15 and usually asks to go to bed by walking into her room and pointing to her crib. She sleeps until 6:30 or so and is not a great napper on the weekends. Occasionally, she'll take 2 naps, but most of the time it's one afternoon nap.
• The girls take baths every other night. They love to pour water on each other, lie on their bellies to "swim," splash water out of the tub, and generally entertain Husband and I.
• Bean likes to have tea parties with Squeaker. The only must have for a tea party is water in some vessel. Which always ends up getting spilled.

• Squeaks still has very little hair. It's auburn-ish and slightly curly. She's really beautiful. Husband and I are amazed at how cute she is.

• Bean's memory of things is expanding. She wore a pair of tennies today that she hadn't worn since we were in Austin 2 weeks ago. She told me "Mommy, there's cow poopy on my shoe from the River. I was fishing with Bo."

2009 Favorite Books

Since we've crossed into 2010, I wanted to capture my favorite books of 2009 in a post. It got me thinking about reading and why it's a hobby of mine.

I read an article recently about Michael Silverblatt. Michael hosts a weekly public radio show in L.A. about books. I haven't heard his show, but he talked about books in a way that resonated with me and does a good job describing why I like reading.

"I believe in the elaborate taking care of others. And we live in a culture where 'I'm not my brother's keeper,' 'That's your responsibility,' 'Get a life' have become bywords, code phrases, anthems for elaborate indifference, selfishness, greediness, and the failure of empathetic acceptance. In the same way that we need to repair the economy, we need to repair the effects of an economy of selfishness. And that isn't just the filling in of the big bucks that have fallen out of the system. The rescue that we need is emotional rescue, communicative, large-hearted. I've always dreamed that people listening to the show would hear that readers and writers are expanders of feeling centers, of the global ability to imagine other lives.

So next time someone asks me WHY I like to read, I'll say it's because I'm trying to repair our/my economy of selfishness.

2009 Favorite Books

• "The Hour I First Believed" by Wally Lamb
• "The Girl Who Played With Fire" by Stieg Larson
• "The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz
• "American Wife" by Curtis Sittenfeld
• "Happens Every Day" by Isabel Gillies
• "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" by Stieg Larson
• "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein
• "Heat" by Bill Buford