First Joke

Samantha made her first joke last night.  We were eating dinner and I said, "excuse me" in a funny way.  It cracked her up so much that I started saying it over and over in all sorts of silly ways.  Of course, Steve Martin was in there, as was Mike Myers.  I pretended to let food fall out of my mouth and said "excuse me."  I "accidentally" ate some food off of Sam's plate and said "excuse me."  I stretched it out long, and then I said it as fast as I could.  I said it with a high pitch, I said it with a low pitch.  I had her laughing so hard she almost fell out of her chair.  Then she put her hand over her mouth and, pretending to sneeze, said, AH-AHHH-AHHH-SCUSEME!

More than Three, More than We Could Carry, and More to Come on that Subject

Three Good Things for the day:

1. I realized that Three Good Things was taking over all of my blogging ideas and finally started writing other stuff again.  I really love this whole blogging thing.


2. Sam's Christmas presents arrived from Florida.  (There was no way we were taking this awesome scooter back home on the plane.)  Thanks, Dad and Deb! 


3. I sent out the Evite for my party.  I'm telling you, this is really a big deal for me!

Book Reviews

Here's a recap of the last 4.5 books I've read.  I definitely want to review each book I read here on my blog from now on, mostly to keep a record for myself.  I think it will help me to retain what I've read better.  Please don't judge my overall reading habits by this selection of books.  I go through phases with my reading - I'll be into Russian literature for a few months, then biographies, then US Weekly.

• Mind Over Mood: Change How You Feel by Changing the Way You Think by Dennis Greenberger and Christine Padesky.  Great recommendation from Jean Moroney.  I would subtitle this book, "Exercises in Introspection," although I guess that would be confusing to a lot of people.  It really is a beginner's guide to introspection: how to differentiate thoughts from feelings, how to identify feelings that lead to moods, how to connect the situation and your evaluation of it to your emotions, etc.  There are worksheets to help you do exercises to work on these identifications.  Most of the book was old-hat to me, but I did like the section on assumptions and core beliefs, as I'm still trying to figure out where I get my misanthropy and some other issues.  The Three Good Things exercise is related, but not quite the same. 


• The Glass Castle: A Memoir by Jeannette Walls.  This was a choice from the library of my step-mother-in-law. (What a horrible title; she sounds like a witch.  Just the opposite - Deb is vivacious, sweet, and smart.)  This book is based on the author's experience as the child of two horrible human beings.  They were early hippies, rebelling against "the system," and so refused to hold down steady jobs, moved around constantly evading the law, and treated their children like animals.  The father was a drunk and the mother hid under a blanket eating chocolate while her children were starving; they were actually taking food out of garbage cans at school to survive.  I can't say I liked the book, but many of the horrifying stories will stay with me for a long time.  It clarified what immorality looks like in "regular" people.  What I find interesting, though, is that this memoir is really just a reality read - no different than reality TV - and yet books like this are heralded as "fine art," "intelligent," and "spectacular," while reality TV shows are seen as low-brow and disgusting.


• The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards.  Another selection from Deb's library.  I disliked this best-seller.  I found it to be shallow and pretentious.  The author asserted all of these "deep" emotions in her characters, but I didn't find that the situation and personalities actually gave rise to those feelings.  It was corny.


• You've Got Male by Elizabeth Bevarly.  Yes, I tried a romance novel.  I hadn't read one since my 20's, or maybe ever.  I'm not sure.  When Sam and I were at the library we walked past the romance section and Sam pointed at one of the girly girls on a cover and said, BARBIE.  It cracked me up and I picked up this book just for fun.  But I couldn't get past 40 pages.


• Hold Tight by Harlan Coben.  This is my usual fare: your basic mystery/thriller.  This one was average. 

A Little Thing

Today Sam was in the mood to name everything she came across.  She sat at the table and said:

WHITE SALT, BLACK PEPPER, TABLE, FORK, MOMMY SHIRT

and then she pulled up my sleeve, looked at my watch and said:

LATE

Troy

We just finished watching Troy.  It took us two nights, but even so, I was surprised to find it was a good movie.  I enjoyed it much more than reading The Iliad because the creators of the movie accomplished a rare feat: proper modernization of a classic.  The story is mostly the same, and what was changed just makes the conclusion more satisfying.  The gods do not participate, but belief in them plays a role in mortals' motivation.  The battle scenes are not gratuitous and serve to advance the plot, while being quite thrilling to watch.  There is no cynicism or self-mockery in the movie at all - it takes itself seriously.  Each character is unique and you can understand the motivation for all of their actions.  The central conflict is between two good men, not good versus evil, which is an important element to me, as I've written before.  And somehow, the creators of this movie essentialized the story so well that I actually found the plot compelling.  Homer left me cold in comparison.

I wish Achilles had been played by somebody other than Brad Pitt.  As Adam said as the movie began, it's getting harder and harder to watch a movie with him in it because of what we know about him as a celebrity.  Ditto Tom Cruise.  Maybe we need to stop watching The Soup so we can enjoy our movies more.

Survival Day

Three Good Things is an interesting assignment today, it being a Survival Day and all.  The Survival Day concept started when Sam was an infant and there were those nights of just a few hours sleep and I didn't know how I could possibly make it through the next day.  I would tell myself, "just survive the day," and that would help me take it easy and not feel guilty for getting nothing done.  Now I declare a Survival Day when I'm very sick and I just don't know how I'm going to manage.  Today I woke up with a terrible headache and just not feeling right.  Sam ended up getting sick later in the day, so I guess it's a bug.

The funny thing is that Survival Days can end up being the best days of all.  It's impossible not to do anything productive when you have to care for a child, but the pressure to work on my to do list is off.  I always end up spending some really good time with Sam on these sick days.  Today, I had more physical contact with my daughter than since she was nursing.  We watched TV, played tickle monster, read a lot of books, and just cuddled on the couch.  After her bath, Sam sat still on my lap for about 5 minutes while we did nothing but rock in the glider.  We had a nice day, and here are Three Good Things:

1. Sam decided that the funny phrase of the day today is, "Oh, drat!"  I was telling her a story, made up on the spot, and one of the characters said it and I had to drop the whole story and just keep saying, "Oh, drat!" for the next 5 minutes so that I could revel in that incredible giggle.


2. I taught Sam to say, "supercalifragilisticexpialidocious."  Two syllables at a time, only, so far.


3. An unexpected bit of money came our way, at a time when we really need it.

Grooming, Groceries, and Good Morning

Three Good Things for the day:

1. I got my hair cut.


2. I shopped at Wegman's for the first time.  What a beautiful supermarket.  I think I could live there.


3. I set my alarm and woke up before Samantha, so that I was able to shower and dress without begging a favor from my husband or sticking Sam in front of the TV.  I need to do that more often.