Blogkeeping -- Spring 2014

Gosh, I started this on 8 August.  Time to finally post it already and clean out the sidebar list.  These are the 100 movies watched from October 2013 (bottom) to April 2014.

Saludos Amigos [r] ** 1/2 / Stuart Little 3: Call of the Wild ** / Stuart Little 2 [r?] *** / Stuart Little [r] **** / Die Hard With a Vengeance *** / Blue Jasmine **** / Die Hard 2 ** 1/2 / Gravity **** 1/2 / Drive ** / Life of Pi [r] ***** / Iron Man 3 [r] **** 1/2 / Muppets Most Wanted ***** / The Muppets [r] ***** / The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo ** / Frozen [r] **** 1/2 / The Hunger Games: Catching Fire [r] ***** / Sherlock (Series 3) [r] ***** / Veronica Mars **** 1/2 / A.I. [r] **** / In Time ** / Bambi II [r] *** / Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters ** / Bambi [r] **** 1/2 / Captain Phillips **** / Dumbo [r] **** 1/2 / Love Actually [r] (TV version) **** 1/2 / Pacific Rim [r] ** / Pinocchio (2002) [r] *** / Abduction * 1/2 / Paranoia ** / The Talented Mr. Ripley [r] *** / Snow White and the Huntsman [r] *** / Date Night *** 1/2 / Ender's Game [r] **** / Fantasia [r] **** 1/2 / Austenland ** 1/2 / Chuck (Season 5) **** / Chuck (Season 4) **** / Pinocchio [r] **** 1/2 / Sherlock (Series 3) ***** / Beetlejuice [r] *** / Chuck (Season 3) ***** / Chuck (Season 2) ***** / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs [r] **** / The Secret Garden [r] **** 1/2 / Monte Carlo *** 1/2 / Blackfish **** / The IT Crowd (The Final Episode) [r] **** / Nacho Libre [r] *** / Project Runway All Stars (Season 3) ** / Chuck (Season 1) **** / Mary Poppins [r] ***** / The Three Musketeers (2011) [r] *** / Home For the Holidays (Mormon Tabernacle Choir with Alfie Boe) **** / Fast and Furious 6 ** 1/2 / Saving Mr. Banks ***** / The Lone Ranger ** 1/2 / The Way Way Back **** / After Earth ** 1/2 / The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones ** 1/2 / The Wolverine *** / Newsies [r] **** / The Prince of Egypt (halfish) [r] ***** / Star Trek: Into Darkness [r] **** / The Muppet Christmas Carol [r] **** 1/2 / The Small One [r] **** / Mickey's Christmas Carol [r] **** / Tinker Bell: Secret of the Wings *** 1/2 / Pixie Hollow Games ** 1/2 / Man of Steel [r] *** / The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [r] **** 1/2 / The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian [r] **** 1/2 / Survivor: Blood vs. Water (Season 27) *** 1/2 / The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug *** / The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey [r] ** 1/2 / The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe [r] ***** / Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (Season 1) (1/2) ** 1/2 / Kelly Clarkson's Cautionary Christmas Music Tale ** 1/2 / Die Hard **** / The Amazing Race (Season 23) **** 1/2 / The IT Crowd (The Final Episode) **** / Belles On Their Toes *** 1/2 / The Sound of Music LIVE! ** / Cheaper By the Dozen [r?] *** 1/2 / The One * / Frozen **** / Jerry Maguire [r] *** 1/2 / Much Ado About Nothing (2012) *** / Girl Most Likely ** / Thor: The Dark World *** 1/2 / The Hunger Games: Catching Fire **** 1/2 / The Hunger Games [r] ***** / Mary Shelley's Frankenstein ** 1/2 / The Shining ** 1/2 / Miss Austen Regrets *** 1/2 / Charming Jane [r] *** / The Odd Life of Timothy Green **** / Ender's Game **** / Addams Family Reunion * / Addams Family Values [r] ***

These are the 50 books read from January 2014 (bottom) to the end of May 2014.  A lot of children's books this time around.

BabyLit: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Jennifer Adams, ill. by Alison Oliver) ***** /  Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie, ill. by Scott Gustafson) ***** / Peter and the Starcatchers *** 1/2 / A Couple of Boys Have the Best Week Ever (Marla Frazee) **** / Walk On!: A Guide For Babies of All Ages (Marla Frazee) ***** / Wonderland Creek (Lynn Austin) ** 1/2 / Alice's Adventures In Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass (Lewis Carroll) **** / How Do Dinosaurs Say I Love You? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague) ***** / The Boss Baby (Marla Frazee) ***** / Ella Enchanted (Gail Carson Levine) *** 1/2 / Cinderella: A Grimm's Fairy Tale (Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, illustrated by Ulrike Haseloff) **** / Cinderella, Or, the Little Glass Slipper (Perrault, illustrated by Marcia Brown) *** / The Legend of Sleepy Hollow (Washington Irving) *** 1/2 / The Wind In the Willows (Kenneth Grahame) **** / Little Owl Lost (Chris Haughton) ***** / My Dad Is the Best Playground (Luciana Navarro Powell) ***** / Jack and the Beanstalk (E. Nesbit) **** / How Do Dinosaurs Go To School? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague) *** / How Do Dinosaurs Eat Cookies? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague) *** / How Do Dinosaurs Get Well Soon? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague) *** / The Trumpet of the Swan (E.B. White) **** / Charlotte's Web (E.B. White) ***** / Stuart Little (E.B. White) *** / Dinosaur Roar! (Paul Stickland) ***** / Bambi's Children (Felix Salten) *** 1/2 / Dumbo (Harold Pearl) *** 1/2 / Extreme Opposites (Max Dalton) **** / Flip, Flap, Fly!: A Book for Babies Everywhere (Phyllis Root) ***** / Zia (Scott O'Dell) ** / Island of the Blue Dolphins (Scott O'Dell) **** 1/2 / Urban Babies Wear Black (Michelle Sinclair Colman) * / Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen (Serena Valentino) *** 1/2 / A Good Day (Kevin Henkes) **** / Snow (Uri Shulevitz) ***** / The Sorcerer's Apprentice (Sally Grindley) **** / Nutcracker (E.T.A. Hoffman) *** / Les Petits Fairytales: Sleeping Beauty (Trixie Belle) ** / Cozy Classics: Moby Dick (Jack Wang) **** / Romeo & Juliet: A BabyLit Counting Primer (Jennifer Adams) ***** / Pinocchio (Carlo Collodi) **** / Fairest (Gail Carson Levine) *** 1/2 / Snow White (illustrated by Quentin Gréban) *** 1/2 / Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs: A Tale from the Brothers Grimm (illustrated by Nancy Ekholm Burkert) *** 1/2 / From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (E.K. Konigsburg) *** 1/2 / The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett) ***** / How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night? (Jane Yolen) ***** / Les Petits Fairytales: Snow White (Trixie Belle) ** / Les Petits Fairytales: Cinderella (Trixie Belle) ** / Cozy Classics: Les Miserables (Jack Wang) ***** / Merry Christmas, Big Hungry Bear! (Don and Audrey Wood) *****

Fin.

Five Years / Fifteen Months

So, as promised, here's my follow-up post about the happenings around about a month ago (I still want to do a post more about our house-buying shenanigans, but I won't bother with that just yet).

As it turned out, our anniversary fell squarely on moving weekend (or the weekend after, which is basically the same thing), so we didn't get a chance to go out of town or to a fancy dinner or really anything too special, except of course, you know, buying and moving into a house and everything.  There were still flowers and reminiscing about the blessed day five years ago, as well as anniversaries since then, but there was also a trip to Home Depot and a little frustration at trying to get this or that fixed or functioning.  It was enough to be together and have a nice place to live and be, and then we can celebrate more fully and appropriately sometime down the road.

After that we reached another little milestone in The Boy's lifetime, and at 15 months he's doing great.  His personality is definitely starting to show a little more prominently, and he's starting to assert himself (which is fun but also a bit bewildering at times).  He loves to make a mess at mealtime and is starting to be a little more selective with his preferred foods.  His favorite foods are bananas and Graham Crackers, both of which he will eat at pretty much any time and in almost no time.  He still sleeps like a champ, with the occasional (brief) episode at night or the occasional short nap (the new church schedule we just switched to might do a real number on the nap/lunch setup on Sundays, so we'll have to see how that goes...).  He loves to put things in and out of other things, and he can play with his set of IKEA stacking cups for ages.  He plays with any and every toy he can find, even if it's not a toy, and each night it's amusing to go around and pick up all the debris the li'l tornado has left in his wake throughout the day, just because you never know what you'll find or where.  He is very vocal, and says a handful of words, but definitely does plenty of animal sounds.  He sometimes growls for a good long while, no matter what animal he sees in a book or what animal sound we ask him to say.  He's very good and usually silent in the car.  He just stares out the window with a somewhat bemused expression on his face and watches the world go by (unless of course we're on a two-minute drive home from church, when he might probably fall asleep, and unless of course we're on a late-night roadtrip drive home, when he might fall asleep for a little while and then never fall back asleep again, much to his dismay... and the dismay of everyone else in the car).  But really, 98% of the time he is just an absolute delight, and his funny faces and tub splashes and squirmy diaper changes and elated wanderings around the house are a joy to his parents and all who meet him.  It's the best thing when your little one runs across the room just to be close to you or jumps into your arms with a huge, 7-toothy smile on his face.

Now it's time for an Instagram photo onslaught!

Make it blue!

You can be a champion too if you eat Kanine Krunchies!

The Boy who would be king.

Bath time with Daddy!

So many animals in this one!

Just a little pounce.

Bobo, Robin, Robin, Bobo.

He loved the splash pads this summer!  It took a little bit and he still mostly likes to skirt around the edges and flirt with the little spouts, but he still finds the whole thing pretty delightful.

The wonderful thing about Bobos is he's the only one!

Blurrily getting into things with cousin Nora.

Matching bedhead!

I really didn't mean to give him a scar on his forehead (L), but Elise definitely did (R).

Bleurgh, mushy stuff.  He'll change his tune one day.

Pop Rocks in my shave ice?!?  Oh my yes.  I love how Little Mister caught me taking the picture.

We finally made it to see the balloons!  (Okay, we missed the launch, but at least we saw some this year.)

The best of friends.

Time for a little visit to Prydain.

He's doing a little detective work of his own, I guess.

Just a family of cows at Chick-fil-A.  That tail!!!

Checking out the new Bean Museum (mixed feelings...) but he sure loved all the lions,  of which there was an abundance.

His first Disney crush?!?  He kept toting it around and giving her little kisses.

He just mostly likes to get around during these movie happenings, truth be told.

That's it, enough people have called him "her"...  time for a little trim.  Still so handsome.

Saying hello to Nana and aunties on the neighbors' U-Haul truck.

Pay no attention to the Christmas presents on the cart, young man.  We love a good consignment sale.

The one that started it all for me as a lad.  His first viewing didn't have quite the same effect as mine did.  Ah well.

Happy year-and-a-quarter, son!  You are a beloved child of ours indeed.