Friesencold

Baby at 1 month.

Baby at 5 months.

Breastmilk, baby!

I haven’t cared about American Idol since the first season, or maybe the second. But for some reason, I think I’m going to be into this season. We have our DVR set to record the show and just last night, we finished catching up on the first few episodes. I am ready for the real competition to start so I can get to know some of the contestants and decide who my favorites are. We will probably just keep using the DVR and watching the show as we have time so that we don’t feel like we have to watch every Tuesday and Wednesday since we already watch 24 on Mondays, LOST on Wednesdays, and The Office on Thursdays.

And TJ told me Survivor starts in February. TJ and I were really into Survivor for probably the first 6 or 7 seasons, or maybe even the first 10 seasons. But then we got tired of the same old stuff and decided not to watch it anymore. We didn’t even know it was on last fall (for what? the 17th season or something crazy like that?) and when we found out toward the end of the year, we were both kind of bummed we hadn’t known, like maybe we should watch it again now that we had some time away from it. TJ and I both like to get to know the stories of the contestants (the same thing I’m feeling about American Idol this season) but I’m not sure we can fit in another show. We’ll probably just DVR it and

see what happens.

That’s what Bauer often says before we turn the page in his books:

see what happens.

Bauer isn’t allowed to wash his hands in the bathroom anymore unless he is being supervised. He has gotten into too much mischief in there lately. First he put handsoap on his toothbrush and evidently tried to brush his teeth because he soon began complaining of his mouth hurting. Second he had the hand towel in the sink of running water and when I walked in on him doing this, and asked what he was doing, he said he needed to wash his face. I didn’t want to wait to see what the third strike would be, so I just banned the bathroom hand-washing and now he has to come to the kitchen to wash his hands so I can

see what happens.

I had a great trip to Boston this past weekend with Cash to visit my sister Holly and her husband Dwight.

Cash was amazing, the baby who never cries. I loved being with my sister, seeing where she lives, getting to know Dwight better, watching two movies (Children of Men and Girl, Interrupted), eating dinner at a great pizza place called Za, watching Dwight make poached eggs the real way, finding out more about Holly’s job at OxFam, and wishing it wasn’t snowing so much. I just love the area of Cambridge where they live. It puts downtown Naperville to shame and that’s coming from one of DT Napes’ biggest fans. I’ve already decided that we must take a family trip back to Boston in the summer of 2010.

I’ve kind of been in a funk lately due to not having any good reading material. The best thing I’ve read in the last 2 weeks is probably the underlines I made during my first reading of Animal, Vegetable, Miracle (Barbara Kingsolver) back last fall. I’ve enjoyed going back through the book and remembering why I liked it so much, but I need to read. I checked out 2 books by writers that Amy Krouse Rosenthal mentioned in her Encyclopedia that she likes, David Sedaris and Annie Dillard. I took a good look at both of them, their outside covers, inside covers, copyright page, author bio, etc….which is what I always do before I dig in and start reading, but I am not really reading either of them just yet. I feel like I need something I can easily get into right now and enjoy the story (neither of the above two I mentioned are really story books). My sister was reading the book Dreams From My Father by our new President way back in ‘95 probably before he had any inkling he’d be President. I think it’s so cool that he wrote the book so long ago before he was famous, although I did see on the copyright page that there were updates added in 2004. I got the book from the library today – I HEART THE LIBRARY – and look forward to starting it tomorrow since LOST is about to take up my evening.

Bauer’s memory is stellar. Are all kids like this? I think so, but it is quite amazing to see what they can remember just from hearing words and not from seeing or recognizing words yet. At the beginning of the year, Bauer helped me make and decorate a Rules Chart for our family. I got the idea from a friend who had something similar displayed in her kitchen for her kids. In addition, I decided to add a Bible verse at the bottom of the chart that we can switch out every couple of weeks. The plan is to go through the whole alphabet this year, doing a verse beginning with each letter A-Z. I did this as a child, and the last time my mom visited I asked her to bring the Bible verse book that we had with all the verses in it. It was fun to see how many of them I was able to remember from over 20 years ago.

We put the decorated posterboard up by the table so when we’re eating we can take time to read over the rules and the Bible verse. We’ll leave each verse up for about 2 weeks and when the 2 weeks are up, we’ll make a special point to have Bauer say the verse all on his own and then reward him with a small toy that he gets to pick up from our special new toy bin. That night was tonight for the A verse. See this video (along with other new ones on the Movies tab)….

From Memory from friesencold on Vimeo.

Am I the only one who didn’t know you could check out magazines from the library??!!

Now I won’t have to be bored on the treadmill anymore! Yesterday when Bauer and I were returning his books, I saw a lady returning some magazines and I was like, “you mean you can check out magazines?” She had Oprah The Magazine! And now I can get it too. The most current issue or 3 of O was checked out, but I was happy to take 3 Cooking Lights and 2 EveryDay with Rachael Ray. They only let you keep them for a week, but no matter.

I HEART THE LIBRARY.

And you should have seen how excited I got when I found a new series by Cynthia Rylant. I had asked the librarian in the children’s department where we could find some more “Frog and Toad” books and she pointed me to the Easy Reader section, under Lobel (first name, Arnold). Before I could get all the way down to the L’s, I was looking at the books as we walked past and saw a whole bunch of Cynthia Rylant books that are Easy Readers. I just about jumped for joy. We love Cynthia Rylant, and I’m all about the Easy Readers because that means they will be manageable in length and just right for me to read to Bauer.

My friend Beth clued me in to beloved children’s author Cynthia Rylant. We have borrowed and read about 10 different books of hers so far (I think she has written 80 or so!). Bauer fell in love with the Little Whistle series and The Great Gracie Chase: Stop That Dog! He also liked Christmas in the Country, which was one we used as part of our Christmas book countdown.

Now I’m hoping he will get hooked on this newest series of hers that I just discovered: The Mr. Putter and Tabby books, about an old man and his old cat. We got four of them yesterday (don’t know how many there are) and they are such funny little stories.  Bauer seems to be more excited about the newest Frog and Toad stories at the moment, but I think Mr. Putter and Tabby are going to become his friends before too long, just as Little Whistle did. I sometimes wonder if I should buy the books that Bauer loves, just so we can remember later how much he loved them. At the very least, I’m deciding right now that I’m going to make a list of them so I won’t forget. As you know, I love lists…

and I HEART THE LIBRARY.

I am proud to say I shoveled snow for the very first time on Saturday. I had gone to the grocery store just after lunch and it had been snowing all morning, this powdery white fluffy stuff, the kind you just want to drag/shuffle your boots through as you walk along. After making my two trips in from the car with groceries, I just saw the shovel sitting there by the back door and told TJ that I’m going to shovel the back walkway that goes out to our garage, and for him not to come out with the camera (although now I wish I had let him take my picture so I wouldn’t have had to ask a stranger walking by to do it this morning while TJ is away on his ski trip, plus TJ’s picture would have been a way better shot, I just know it).

And then yesterday, I just don’t know what got into me, but after Bauer woke up from his afternoon nap, I decided to take him outside and pull him around on his sled. I haven’t ever done that or even thought about such. Me and cold weather aren’t really the best of friends. But after two and a half years of getting to know CW, I am learning it’s not always bad and maybe even sometimes good. I bundled us both up and put Cash down for a little nap in his crib. And out we went.

I pulled Bauer around for like 15 minutes, just up and down the sidewalks near our house. And then I decided to shovel again. Bauer used an outdoor broom to sweep the snow while I began shoveling the public sidewalk that is in front of our house. I think the rule of the city is that we are supposed to be keeping that shoveled, but it seems sorta pointless since no one even walks on it in winter (not even the mailman: he trudges through the yards instead, poor mailman). Then again, maybe no one walks on it because it’s not shoveled.

But I thought it would be fun (FUN!) to shovel it….to do some exercise that isn’t walking on a moving belt of fabric staring at a wall for lack of a good magazine to read…to breathe some fresh air…to be outside with Bauer. Yeah, all that. Bauer decided about 5 minutes in that he was done, so I let him go inside and watch his Tigger and Pooh DVD while I continued for about 15 more minutes of shoveling. I got about halfway done with our sidewalk responsibility before taking a break for the night.

But I finished it this morning. Here’s proof.

Welcome to our new blog. I’m happy with it. TJ’s happy with it. And Bauer and Cash are just happy.

TJ has spent considerable time lately getting us up and running here. He wishes he had spent considerable time running. I know that because he’s mentioned wanting to do something active. You’ll have to ask him to post about the 7 lbs.

Yes, that’s right. TJ will be able to post here too. And he’ll be keeping the photos and videos updated, which he really enjoys doing.

I’ll just keep blogging away, updating the Gingerrific page (mostly with lists of different kinds, I’m thinking), and keeping my bookshelf on the sidebar current. As of now, the books you’ll see on my shelf are my favorite books from last year and so far this year. I haven’t decided yet whether to always show on my shelf what I’m currently reading or just put books there that I end up really liking. I just want it to be a resource to share with those of you who love books and who want to know the ones that are making me the happiest or that are inspiring me to write.

Like AKR’s Encyclopedia of an Ordinary Life. If I could add a couple entries of my own to her book, here’s what I’d add:

FOOTBALL. Why do football players get SO excited after every game? I mean, they get playoff-excited even when they’re up against a team that everyone knows they will beat and then when they win, it’s all this hooping and hollering and I just lost interest about 3 hours ago anyway. Which is to say I pretty much never watch football.

NUTRITION LABELS. When I look at nutrition labels on packaged goods, I often wonder why they don’t just go ahead and say the bag of chips has 4 servings instead of 10. Who really eats only 10 chips, which is a typical serving size, at least on the chips we buy. Our most recent purchase was Trader Joe’s organic longboard chips (shaped like surfboards). Don’t we all eat like 30 chips, especially when you have a good Trader Joe’s peach salsa to dip them in?