Book Collection

When you have a veritable library of children's books in your basement, you might as well put them to good use!

Little Sponge

You know how some people say that little kids are like sponges and that they will remember and copy everything you do? Well, that couldn't be more true. William is ALWAYS trying to copy us--and it only takes us doing something one time for it to stick with him (and for him to think that is the "right" and only way to do something). Most of the time this isn't an issue--I like to think Darrell and I tend to carry ourselves in ways that are okay to mimic--but it hasn't been without its problems. Like the time William watched me eat soup with a cracker like I was eating chips and dip and tried to do the same (which, for him, proved to be a very ineffective way to eat soup and a very effective way to eat a lot of crackers. Probably a win-win for him). Or the time Darrell was trying to get him to eat some baked beans and they ended up playing a game of peak-a-boo with the beans before he would put them in his mouth. Next time we had beans--guess who wanted to play peak-a-boo at the dinner table?

The other night, though, we realized that one of our unintentional lessons about cleaning up was sticking--and we realized it in the cutest way possible. As I've mentioned, we've had some bedtime issues after taking away William's pacifier. The biggest one is that he basically doesn't go to sleep right after we put him to bed. Some nights he will just lie in bed and talk and kick the wall and move around until we either go back in there or he settles himself down; some nights he gets out of bed and sits on the floor by his nightlight and reads himself stories, usually until we go in there and put him back in bed. We've started giving him up to an hour of unwind time before we go in there because we've decided he isn't really doing any harm, and for whatever reason he always stays in his room (unless he poops, although even then he never actually leaves the room, he just opens the door and slams it shut until we go get him).

Well, one night during his unwind time we heard him scream, so Darrell went back to look in on him. Turns out he was just reading "Goodnight Gorilla", and he was screaming in surprise with the zookeeper's wife when she woke up to find all the animals in her house (the cuteness with which he "reads" books is fodder for a whole different post). Since everything was fine and it was still within his window of unwind time, Darrell left him lying on the floor with three or four books spread out around him. Thirty or so minutes later when I went in to check on him he was asleep in bed (which is standard--since we gave him a little stool he no longer falls asleep on the floor), with all his books stacked up nicely against the wall. You see, after bedtime stories every night, Darrell and I return the books to the stack of books in his room (maybe someday we'll get an actual bookcase for the room, but for now they just live in a stack on the floor), and without our even realizing it, William was watching this and started copying it at night when he would read books to himself after we left the room. Most precious thing ever.

Of course, he (and life) isn't perfect, and sometimes he falls asleep in bed before the books make it back to their pile... But that's still just as cute.

Every Day

I love my son. I love that my son loves books. I do not love that he thinks he has to pull EVERY book off the shelves before he can start reading one.

We seriously go through this every day. And I'd get annoyed by it, but once he has them pulled down he'll sit there in his pile of books and read them for at least ten minutes. Multiple times a day. And those are precious minutes that I enjoy having to myself. Which makes it totally worth the five minutes it takes me to put them away after he's gone to bed. (We've tried teaching him to put them away himself, but there are too many and they fit too tightly on the shelves that he has a really hard time with it. And since this Mama loves books as much as her little boy does, that's a problem that won't be going away any time soon.)

Your Book Might be Outdated if...

As I've mentioned before, Darrell and I have started putting together a pretty extensive library for baby William (let's be honest--Mom is probably more excited by the books than William ever will be). Most of the books we've picked up second-hand, because books don't exactly go bad (and a few crayon markings here and there just add character). However, it is apparently possible for a book to become just a little outdated. Here's a line (and corresponding illustration) from the version of "The Little Engine That Could" that we picked up:

"And there were cars full of toy engines, airplanes, tops, JACK-KNIVES, picture puzzles, books, and every kind of thing boys or girls could want."

Now, I'd consider that more of a pocket knife than a jack knife, but that's not the real issue here. I'm pretty sure that any children's book written these days that tried to pass off any type of knife (or gun or other weapon) as a desirable children's toy would be met with unending criticism--if it were even published at all. Clearly this was not the case in 1930, which is the original copyright date of this book (although our copy of the book isn't that old; the most recent copyright date is 1976). I imagine we'll have to explain that one to William a few years down the road when he wonders what a jack knife is and why, even if he did have one, it wouldn't exactly be viewed as a "toy".

30 Before 30: Books

Much like my 30 Before 30: Food list, I don't plan to restrict myself to thirty specific books that I want to read before I turn thirty. Because let's be honest--I have a list of over 200 books that I want to read, and there is no way I could whittle that down to a top thirty list. And while reading one book a month for book club will (hopefully!) keep me well on track to reaching my goal, I do have a few books that have been on my to-read list for far too long. So now is as good as time as any to force my hand at pulling these classics off the shelf and making them five of the thirty I intend to read in the next thirty months. And who knows, maybe I'll even convince my book club that we should read one of these classics together!

Pride and Prejudice
The Count of Monte Cristo
The Great Gatsby
Schindler's List
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

What books do you think should be on my list of "must-reads"?

Our Biggest Weakness

Darrell and I had quite a few reasons for choosing to not to find out the sex of our baby, but as we get closer to the due date, I'm realizing we could add another reason to the list: financial savings. If we knew the sex of this child, I can almost guarantee that every trip to Target or Babies 'R' Us or even a second-hand store would result in us coming home with at least one new outfit for little one. In fact, I've even been tempted to buy some of the super cute outfits I've seen because I'm afraid they won't be available once baby actually arrives, but I can logically reason myself out of those decisions because I know I won't be able to return the outfits (at least not this far in advance) if they end up being for the wrong sex. And let's be honest--none of the gender neutral pieces are really to die for (although Target did have some cute ones while we were there this weekend--and they've since been added to our registry).

However, there is one piece of baby gear that we haven't been able to resist spending money on: books. At the rate we are going, baby is going to have a library that will rival mine by the time he/she is born (and believe me--I have a pretty extensive collection). It hasn't helped matters any that as I get closer to my due date I become more reluctant to buy full-priced maternity clothes, which lands me at second-hand stores to do my shopping. Second-hand stores that just happen to have large selections of super cheap baby books. Who can resist this gem for just $3.00?

Or this classic for a mere $1.50?

And no child's library is complete without a little Dr. Seuss (just $1.00 for the book!)

And that's only the tip of the iceberg! I suppose there are worse things we could be spending our money on, though, right?

I've got Darrell working on a pretty sweet bookshelf project for the nursery that I'm excited to share once he gets it finished; we've also crossed a few other nursery projects off our "to-do" list that I hope to share by the end of the week!

NC Success!

A sure sign of a successful week at the beach with Darrell's family?

Returning with a bagful of (new-to-me) books to read!

I love doing book swaps with Darrell's sisters--and visiting the used book store on Topsail Island. Now I just need to get a Nook so I can borrow ebooks from Darrell's mom (hint hint Darrell--I do have a birthday coming up in a few months...)

More beach pictures coming later this week once Darrell gets his photos uploaded and edited--you won't want to miss them, our nephews are ridiculously adorable!

The Five Love Languages

Well, it only took us a year and a half, but Darrell and I finally got through The Five Love Languages. 

Even though it took us quite a while to get through the book, I would definitely still recommend this book to other couples. It really is a pretty easy read, and the author interweaves lots of stories from real-life couples which helps to make it more enjoyable (and relatable). We were slowed down mostly because we wanted to read it together, and going to bed ten minutes early to read a chapter or two was rarely a priority of ours. But I also don't think we lost anything by spreading the book out over that many months, which is also a good thing.

For anyone not familiar with the book, The Five Love Languages focuses on the fact that fairy-tale love is pretty much unrealistic. Eventually the butterflies fade, and how a couple adapts to that situation will determine the success of their relationship. Gary Chapman writes that most relationships fail because one or both partners have an empty "love tank", which basically means that their needs for love and appreciation are not being met by their partner. In many cases, this can further stress the couple because both partners may be feeling like they are showing their love but their partner is not receptive to it.

Enter the idea of the love languages. Chapman suggests that there are five primary ways people "speak" love and want love to be "spoken" to them: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Quality Time, Physical Touch, and Receiving Gifts. People may be trying to show their love to their partners, but if they are speaking the wrong love language, their partner might not recognize their act as an act of love (much like speaking English to a native Chinese speaker). The book gives pretty thorough explanations of all of the love languages, plus advice for how to begin speaking you partner's love language.

The only complaint that Darrell and I had with the book is that the quiz for people to take to "discover" their love language is at the back of the book. By the time Darrell and I got to the quiz, we had already read about all of the love languages and had a fair amount of discussion on them and what we feel to be our own. Because we were familiar with the languages, it was very easy for us to determine what language our responses would generate (it's a pretty simple "pick which statement best describes you" type of quiz). So we felt like it was kind of hard to be totally unbiased in our responses because we had already formed ideas on what our love languages were. I wish we had taken the quiz first, and then used the reading of the book to help us understand the results we got on the quiz. All in all though, it was definitely a worthwhile read, and one that I feel would be beneficial to most all couples, even ones who might think they have their significant other "figured out" (which--to be honest--Darrell and I thought we did. We definitely still learned a few things about one another). It may not be a panacea for all marital problems,  but I think it would definitely help increase satisfaction in all relationships, rocky or strong!

I Only Have Myself to Blame

Lesson Learned: When Darrell gets into a book, he really gets into it. Granted, I'm not exactly the person to point fingers on this issue.... But still. It's a little bit extreme (for him especially!) to come home from volleyball at 9:00 (which he went to straight from work for the record), shower, and then immediately pull out his book. He didn't even bat an eye when I pulled two shopping bags filled with 24 bottles of Woodchuck Fall Cider out of my car, brought them into the living room where he was reading, and proceeded to repackage them into a different bag so my parents can take them to my sister this weekend. No questions, no raised eyebrows, nothing. Sigh.

I guess this is what I get for literally pushing the book into his hands and telling him that he absolutely must read this book because it is so good. At least I'm validated in knowing that he doesn't think I'm lying about how good the book is.

For the record, the book in question is Chickenhawk by Robert Mason. It's a true-life account of the Vietnam War as told by a helicopter pilot--super intense!

Judgmental

I admit it. I totally judge a book by its cover. I love looking through lists of popular and highly acclaimed literature and the searching the books on Barnes and Nobles to see which ones I want to add to my "to read" list (the list is currently over 400 books long...I can be ambitious, right?). But in my searches I've discovered lots of books that deter me based solely on their outward appearance. Take for example, this one: 

I'm not a fan of partial images of people on my books. It's just weird. And often overly cutesy (although this image verges on creepy...) And from my experiences, a lot of books with covers like this tend to be young adult fiction. Not that I have anything against young adult books, but when I curl up with a book I don't exactly want to find myself roaming the halls of a high school and dealing with teenage drama when I'm dealing with paying bills and busted transmissions.
Or then there are books like this:

Does anyone else see a fantasy/supernatural/weird mystery/suspense story? I'm just not feeling it. Plus there is just so much going on--I'm a little overwhelmed and I haven't even opened the book. And don't get me wrong, I've read a few fantasy novels in my time, and they weren't terrible, but I've hardcore been sucked into historical/real-life fiction and I can't get enough of books like that. 
Now here's a book that I can get on board with:

Simple, cute cover with no overly-fancy lettering or excessive editing. Looks like a picture I could take (and would want to take). This is a book that when it pops up during my slew of searching, I take the time to read the synopsis to further decide if I should add it to my list (for the record, it's on there). Superficial? Yes. Judgmental? Yes. But I have to rule out books somehow--there are just so many good books and not enough time to read them all!

The Invisible Wall

So I just started reading The Invisible Wall by Harry Bernstein and I am In. Love. I am totally sucked in. Sadly I have to go to my second job tonight so it will be awhile before I can pick it back up again. I'm so excited though--the last book I read (As I Lay Dying) was one that I stubbornly pushed myself through just because it's a classic and well-revered and I am incapable of starting a book and not finishing it. But try as I might, I couldn't get into it. And it was making me disinclined to read. Although I'm glad I stuck it out because the ending ended up being more interesting than I expected. But I digress. The Invisible Wall is well on it's way to becoming a permanent fixture on my bookshelf--after a quick trip to North Carolina so Darrell's sister can read it (can you believe it? A sister-in-law I can swap books with! Heaven).