this moment

Inspired by SouleMama, here is a moment from our week.

~jkg

what we're reading

We are still spending lots of time reading and talking about Ponyella, but we do have something new from the library. We recently discovered the Crinkleroot nature series. I first brought home Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Trees; it was such a hit that we now have Crinkleroot's Guide to Knowing the Birds. Meris professes to love nature and animals, so he is the primary fan of these books. The Crinkleroot character is a knowledgeable little old man with a long white beard who takes the reader on nature walks. I haven't read them many times--Ariel is the preferred bedtime reader at the moment--but the illustrations are pleasing and the content apparently compelling.

As for me, I've been flipping through The Family Dinner by Laurie David. It's a cookbook, but with lots of tidbits about why we parents should make it a tradition to eat dinner at the table (as opposed to in the car) with our children most nights. I haven't tried any of the recipes yet, but it's a fun collection of anecdotes and photos to browse through when I've got my hands free to hold a book (as opposed to a newborn!).

Happy reading!

~jkg

what we're reading

Both Meris and Matea are budding bookworms. Meris finally can read on his own, which means that soon enough I'll be reading children's chapter books again. But for now, we are deep in picture book territory.

This week, we've had multiple readings most days of Ponyella, by Laura Numeroff and Nate Evans with illustrations by Lynn Munsinger. As you might be able to tell from its title, this is a Cinderella-inspired tale about a pony. I picked it up on a whim at a Scholastic book fair, but turns out that both kids love it.

As for my own book shelf, I am almost finished with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot. I've been reading it for a book club meeting (which I missed--it was last night!), but it also had been recommended to me by a friend. It's a fascinating look at Henrietta Lacks, a woman whose cancer cells have been an essential part of medical research for decades. However, the narrative includes way too much repetitive detail about the author's adventures reporting the story with the Lacks family.

And that's what we're reading!

~jkg

still pregnant....

Here I am at 40 weeks, 3 days pregnant.... Just for fun, I've got photos from the tail end of my previous two pregnancies.


This is a belly full of Meris, taken just days before he was born (as far as I can tell/remember).

Matea was born less than 12 hours after this photo was taken.

I'm not sure we'll take any more belly photos this time around unless I hit 41 weeks. I'm ready for some newborn pix instead!

~jkg