Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Double-one / Valentines 2016

Well, our girl is just one month shy of hitting the big birthday, but before that here's her 11-month update, with some delicious Valentine's Day sprinkled over the top.  (Wife's blogpost is here.)

This girl is on the mooooove.  She crawls all over the place and at the time of her monthiversary was this close to taking those first few steps.  She isn't a very picky eater, though she does like variety and will often protest unless we break up the monotony by giving her bites of different things.  Her naps are hit-and-miss, but she sleeps quite well during the night.  As I said in the ten-month post, there have been a few times lately when she has been very vocal about bedtime and not wanting to put herself to sleep, and even resisting being put to sleep, but we calm her down and I've been really glad to take chances to put her down myself, not even bothering to rush because I realized with work and everything we don't get all that much daddy-daughter time, and those lovely and (eventually) quiet times come into my mind and linger there often for days after.  Oh, the soft and snoozy snuggles.  She and Big Brother are becoming really good friends and just sit there and laugh at each other, which never ceases to amuse Mom and Dad, and she is usually quite resilient whenever she happens to receive (on purpose or not) a bonk or a bop or a push or a kick).  She's starting to get into books, turning pages, admiring the interactive elements, even responding and making animal sounds (lion so far, and it is adorable).
There are few things these two love better than the car carts at Maceys.
I love whenever we get a chance to put these li'l Hmong hats on my babies!
Entranced by waking up to snow.
Just waiting for Mommy to get up from her well-deserved weekend sleep-in...
And then we had Valentine's Day!  There was a surprise snowstorm and we stayed home most all the day long and just enjoyed each other's loving company.  The kids were very excited to give Mommy her sundries (and some had to be a little late in coming, what with certain treats being hard to find every year for some reasons none of which being that I procrastinated and actually might have forgotten this year), and as per our usual tradition The Wife and I watched a Disney movie (Lady and the Tramp this year),
It was very important to him that Kitty had her socks on.
All my Valentines!  Not counting the balloon "cat" from Pizza Pie Cafe the night before.
Love is in the air and our smoochface only increases it so!  Is it so weird that it's already almost March??

Friday, February 5, 2016

Blogkeeping -- Spring 2015

No big deal, I've only been putting this off for like six months...

Movies watched from December 2014 (bottom) to July 2015 (top).  Verdict:  Catching up with DreamWorks animation like I do for some reason, and LOTS of Parks and Recreation and 30 Rock!

Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast *** 1/2 • Legends of Oz: Dorothy's Return *** • Oz the Great and Powerful [r] *** 1/2 • My Best Friend's Wedding [r] *** 1/2 • My Big Fat Greek Wedding [r] *** 1/2 • The Muppets' Wizard of Oz *** • Return To Oz [r] **** • Dorothy In the Land of Oz [r] ** 1/2 • The Wiz [r] *** 1/2 • Journey Back to Oz [r?] *** • The Wizard of Oz [r] ***** • A Deadly Adoption * 1/2 • Far From the Madding Crowd (2015) ***** • The Prestige [r] ***** • Inside Out ***** • Jurassic World ***** • 30 Rock (Season 7) *** • Sherlock (Season 3) ***** • 30 Rock (Season 6) *** 1/2 • Live Free Or Die Hard ** 1/2 • 30 Rock (Season 5) *** 1/2 • The Professional ** 1/2 • Daredevil (Season1) *** 1/2 • Unbroken *** 1/2 • Big Eyes **** • Tomorrowland *** 1/2 • Survivor: Worlds Apart (Season 30) *** 1/2 • Grimm (Season 4) *** • The Amazing Race (Season 26) **** • The Big Year **** • Gotham (Season 1) *** • Bates Motel (Season 3) *** 1/2 • 30 Rock (Season 4) *** 1/2 • Veronica Mars [r] **** • Argo *** 1/2 • Song of the Sea **** • 30 Rock (Season 3) *** 1/2 • Middlemarch ** 1/2 • Zero Dark Thirty *** 1/2 • Broadchurch (Series 2) ** 1/2 • Romy and Michele's High School Reunion *** • 30 Rock (Season 2) *** 1/2 • Into the Woods (Regent's Park) **** • Never Let Me Go *** 1/2 • 30 Rock (Season 1) *** • Into the Woods [r] **** 1/2 • Parks and Recreation (Season 7) ***** • Parks and Recreation (Season 6) **** 1/2 • Parks and Recreation (Season 5) **** • Parks and Recreation (Season 4) **** • The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 [r] **** • Parks and Recreation (Season 3) **** 1/2 • Parks and Recreation (Season 2) **** • Parks and Recreation (Season 1) *** 1/2 • The Book of Life ** 1/1 • The BoxTrolls *** 1/2 • X-Men: Days of Future Past [r] **** • Big Hero 6 [r] **** • Mr. Peabody and Sherman *** 1/2 • Turbo ** 1/2 • The Croods *** • Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted ** 1/2 • Puss In Boots *** • Shrek: The Musical *** 1/2 • Agent Carter (Season 1) *** • Tangled [r] **** 1/2 • Looper *** • Project Runway: All Stars (Season 4) *** • Luther (Season 3) **** • The Last Five Years (x2) **** 1/2 • Luther (Season 2) **** • Luther (Season 1) **** • The Amazing Race (Season 16) ** • Magic In the Moonlight ** 1/2 • No Good Deed *** 1/2 • Galavant (Season 1) *** • Resurrection (Season 2) *** 1/2 • Shakespeare Retold **** 1/2 • The Hobbit (Funny Puzzle edit) **** • The Amazing Race (Season 15) *** • Romeo & Juliet (2013) ** 1/2 • Little Dorrit [r] **** • The Amazing Race (Season 14) **** • Oliver! [r] *** 1/2 • Oliver Twist (2007) *** • What's Eating Gilbert Grape? [r] *** • Oliver Twist (1998) **** • Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ** • The Guardians of the Galaxy [r] *** • The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King [r] ***** • The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers [r] ***** • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring [r] ***** • Prometheus ** 1/2 • Click [r] **** • It Could Happen To You [r] *** 1/2 • If I Stay ** 1/2 • Frozen [r] *** 1/2 • Into the Woods (1990) **** 1/2 • The Cabin In the Woods ** 1/2 • Into the Woods **** 1/2

And these 50 books were read from February to July 2015.  Welcome to the list, Stroud.

The Housekeeper's Dog (Jerry Smath) **** • But No Elephants (Jerry Smath) **** • Under Construction (Paula Hannigan) **** • Otis Loves To Play (Loren Long) *** • Otis (Loren Long) **** • Bill Peet: An Autobiography (Bill Peet) ***** • Piggies (Don and Audrey Wood) ** 1/2 • But Not the Hippopotamus (Sandra Boynton) ***** • Dinosaur's Binkit (Sandra Boynton) **** • Son of a Witch (Gregory Maguire) ** • Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West (Gregory Maguire) *** • Ozma of Oz (L. Frank Baum) **** • The Marvelous Land of Oz (L. Frank Baum) *** 1/2 • The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (L. Frank Baum) **** 1/2 • How Do Dinosaurs Go Up and Down? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague) *** • Kittens (Laura Ellen Anderson) **** • Sector 7 (David Wiesner) *** 1/2 • Art & Max (David Wiesner) **** • The Ring of Solomon (Jonathan Stroud) *** 1/2 • Beatrice & Virgil (Yann Martel) *** 1/2 • Belly Button Book! (Sandra Boynton) **** • Happy Birthday, Little Pookie (Sandra Boynton) *** 1/2 • Little Pookie (Sandra Boynton) ***** • Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach To Punctuation (Lynne Truss) ***** • Hippopposites (Janik Coat) ** 1/2 • BooBoo (Olivier Dunrea) ** • Crocodaddy (Kim Norman) **** • You Are My Cupcake (Joyce Wan) **** • How Do Dinosaurs Count To Ten? (Jane Yolen & Mark Teague) **** • The Romance of the Forest (Ann Radcliffe) *** • The Royal Road to Romance (Richard Halliburton) **** • The Farmer and the Clown (Marla Frazee) ***** • The Book With No Pictures (B.J. Novak) *** 1/2 • Flora and Ulysses: The Illuminated Adventures (Kate DiCamillo) **** • It Looked Like Spilt Milk (Charles G. Shaw) *** 1/2 • The Borrowers (Mary Norton) *** • A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) ***** • The Devil In the White City (Erik Larson) **** • Guess How Much I Love You (Sam McBratney) ***** • The House In the Night (Susan Marie Swanson) *** • How Do Dinosaurs Learn Their Colors? (Jane Yolen & Mark Teague) *** • The Great Greene Heist (Varian Johnson) *** 1/2 • Ptolemy's Gate (Jonathan Stroud) ***** • The Golem's Eye (Jonathan Stroud) **** • The Amulet of Samarkand (Jonathan Stroud) **** 1/2 • BabyLit: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Jennifer Adams, ill. by Allison Oliver) *** • BabyLit: Frankenstein (Jennifer Adams, ill. by Allison Oliver) **** • Mr. Wuffles! (David Wiesner) **** 1/2 • Flotsam (David Wiesner) ***** • How Do Dinosaurs Clean Their Rooms? (Jane Yolen and Mark Teague) ****

(Also, why haven't I been using the • all this time?  It reads so much clearer than all those /s floating around.)

EDIT 14 November 2016: I almost just lost this entire post.  It wouldn't have been in the worst thing in the world, but still... X|  Thank you, forward/back/cache functions.