I finished reading The Prisoner of Azkaban to Nick Friday night. Yesterday evening, we watched the movie. And so ends our Hogwartian adventure, at least for the present. From here on out, the books turn darker, deal with more mature subjects; I just

A couple days ago Nick dug out his Hooked on Phonics: Kindergarten set. I confess we haven't used that nearly as much as originally planned - it was a case of good intentions gone awry. But Nick liked the little books that came with it, so he set

After a full year of almost complete indifference, Zoe has decided she likes books. This is good; we like books too. We especially like books that are used for purposes other than chewing upon and pulling off of shelves. And when she sits and looks a

Woot! It's a streak! Three Saturdays in a row, felled by illness. Shall we try for the month? The trend varied slightly, though. This time Nick is fine; it's his parents who got sick. The flu, I'm guessing. Our flu shots availed us not, a

It's only fair to say something about Nick as well; he's been busy. At school he's learning how to write. Like, really truly write. They've started doing a sentence a day. The teacher gives them the sentence, then they write it down a

Zoë was one month as of yesterday. It's exciting: in this short span of time, she's progressed from a sleepy lump that wakes only to eat and cry to, well, a sleepy lump that wakes only to eat and cry. But she's awake more, nurses lik

Nick was tired last night. So tired, he fell asleep on the floor of his room, before he'd even managed to get his pajama top on. He does this occasionally; no big deal. I put a blanket over him and left him alone. Cut to 4 AM. A small hand pokes me

I can't say that the sun came out today, but at least it wasn't raining this morning. We sloshed around in our soggy backyard. It felt good to get out there, despite all the mud that was tracked into the kitchen. After lunch, we went to Barnes and No

Hmm, how about a quick summary? On Saturday we went to the Renaissance Festival. It wasn't one of our more successful trips. The problem is that Nick is old enough to demand to go on every ride, play every game, and purchase everything that catches h

Winter has arrived. I know this, because there was frost on the grass at seven in the morning. We turned on the furnace to keep ourselves warm at night. And we've had fires in the fireplace two evenings running. Kind of pathetic fires, because we hav

This was a good day. After a two week absence, we made it back to story time at the library. In the afternoon, Nick and I cleaned my car. This was an inspired idea: not only did my car end up cleaner than it started, but Nick had a fabulous time with

We took a trip to downtown Baton Rouge today, to the science museum. This went well enough; Nick had a good time fooling around in the children's area. When lunchtime rolled around, we walked over to the fountain across the street, where we tucked in

Our new neighbors are having their roof tiles replaced. A half-dozen men turned up this morning and spent the day hard at work, ripping off the old and putting up the new at an impressive clip. Naturally, we found the time to watch them work. One o

I'm still slowly getting better. The last few days have been a bit dull, though, what with me not being in the mood to do much. But I have been reading, so now seems like a good time to quickly review the last few books I've read. Inkheart will appe

I thought I was better, but today I am losing my voice. Which, unless it gives out entirely, is better than sleeping all day. But it's not what I'd call a good time. Speech therapy was cancelled today, because the therapist is sick too. So we spent

A few weeks ago, I was reading blogs and I came across an entry where a woman talked about reading chapter books to her four-year-old. And I said to myself, "Four is old enough for real books? With plots and characterization and stuff? Yippee!&q

The Alcoholic Republic: An American Tradition is a classic social history work, with much to interest the historian and the general reader alike. Oh, who am I kidding? None of y'all are going to rush out and read a thirty year old history book j

I've been meaning to review this book for at least a week now. It's more challenging than a review of a cheerful little novel, but I'll do my best. The full title is The Motherhood Manifesto: What America's Moms Want - and What To Do About

I have been reading a tad obsessively for the last few days. Possibly because I've had acquired three good books within three days of each other. Misty and John sent me a book in the mail, but I haven't even gotten to it yet; it being displaced by a

I'm leaving work shortly after lunch today. Lots of errands to run. They've been accumulating, and many can only be done on weekdays. Because it's SO EASY for the typical person to do personal errands in the middle of a weekday. Grrr.. So anyway, I'm

My borthday was lovely, thank you. I was fortunately already up when the phone rang at about 7:30 AM. Who would call at such an unreasonable hour? Why, my twin brother, of course, so that we could exchange birthday greetings before he went to bed at

Nick stayed awake through quiet time yesterday. This victory for personal autonomy turned out to be a bad idea, though. First of all, Grammy was more tired than he was, so he spent the next hour trying to convince her to get up and play. Secondly, he

It's a Boy: Women Writers on Raising Sons is stuffed full of essays by amazing writers. They are all about the relationship between, well, mothers and their sons. For those who'd rather read about mothers and daughters, a companion book, It's a Girl:

The weekend went fine. We didn't pay any social calls, mostly because I didn't want to be hacking all over my friends and their small children. I'm probably not contagious anymore, but I can't be sure. The main problem, for me, was that Nick was very

E. Nesbit wrote The Enchanted Castle in 1907. Despite being almost 100 years old, it remains a fresh and exciting story. The basic plotline doesn't seem like much - four children discover a magic ring which leads to many adventures. It sounds typical