The best laid plans of mice and men

. . . gang oft agley (go oft awry).

This has been another busy week. Poor Andrew, after the excitement of last week's trip to Park City and a weekend playing with his cousins, was rather disappointed to be confronted with reality this week: i.e., not nearly so much excitement. Every morning he'd ask excitedly, "who's coming today? Where are we going today?" And usually, the answer was "no one and nothing much."

I spent much of the week prepping for the start of BYU's semester next week, meeting with professors who are using the Writing Fellows program and working on lesson plans for my class. Most of the time, this didn't interfere with whatever meager plans Andrew and I had, but on Friday we had a definite crisis. Andrew has had a cough for the last several weeks that mostly only manifests itself at night. But Thursday, the cough seemed much worse and his nose was running pretty much constantly so we decided to take him to the doctor. The only appointments the doctor had available Friday were either during nap time or at a time when I was supposed to be meeting professors on campus. So my mom took him to the doctor, where he was super good during the whole appointment, until the doctor was done examining him and then Andrew demanded his sucker (the doctor usually has a supply). Much to our surprise, we found out that Andrew had ear infections in both ears, that had spread to his throat. Surprising, because Andrew hadn't manifested any symptoms and hadn't even complained that his ears hurt, although one ear was apparently pretty bad. (Apparently Andrew has inherited his daddy's stoicism).

We've tried to make up for a rather quiet week this weekend: Saturday morning, Bubby and Poppy showed up at our house at 8:30 a.m. enroute to Sarah's. They helped us round Andrew into the car, and then we headed up to SLC. After the kids ran around the house for an hour or so (and the grown-ups prepared for lunch), we headed to the historic Wheeler farm. The kids all got a chance for a real pony ride, and then we walked around and looked at the animals. Andrew was disappointed that we didn't bring bread for the ducks, but he was placated by offers of lunch (especially the chocolate brownie that he got all over his hands and face). I also ran into an old friend of mine unexpectedly, and that was nice. (And of course, we forgot our camera, so until we get pictures from Bubby and Poppy our blog will remain un-illustrated).

We spent the afternoon just hanging out, and Skyping with Dan's brother Matt (Bubby insisted that Laurie--who's due any day now--show us how big her belly was. I'm sure she was thrilled with that). After dinner at Crown Burger, we headed back to try to get our kids to bed so we could go into party preparation mode: we blessed Evelyn today, and we were trying to help my mom get the house cleaned and make some deserts in preparation for the arrival of other family members. I think I got a little overambitious as usual: I made some "Oeey-Gooey Stuffed Cupcakes" last night, and another batch of cupcakes, this time Paula Deen's "Lemon Blossoms" this morning. I think they both turned out pretty well, but it was a lot of extra stress on top of trying to get everything and everyone ready.

And of course, since I carefully planned for everyone to have coordinating outfits, fate (in the form of a fruit snack) conspired to thwart me. Just after the passing of the sacrament, Andrew tried to swallow a whole fruit snack, with predictable results. He started choking, had to be carried (as quickly as Dan could get him there) out of the chapel into the foyer where he "cast up his accounts" all over himself and Dan, so they had to come home and change. So all I have are pictures of Evelyn in her blessing dress (and rather mediocre pictures, at that). But I thought she looked sweet. The dress she's wearing is the dress I was blessed in, a dress my mom made from left-over fabric from her wedding dress. The bonnet I picked up this spring in New Orleans, while I was there for a conference, at a lovely little lace-store that sold locally made items. And I spent the last several days hunting for the shoes because, unlike my small behemoth of a son, Evelyn's feet (at 3 1/2 months) still don't quite fit into a size 1. I discovered that very few retailers stock anything smaller than infant size 2, which would fall off her feet. At any rate, I was finally successful in finding some small white dress shoes that would stay on. Her Poppy tells me that she can't wear these shoes after labor day, but I figure that what Poppy doesn't know won't hurt him. :)


I suppose I should have suspected that the blessing wouldn't go entirely as planned when, midway through the blessing (as I was trying frantically to take down what Dan said in shorthand so I'd have some kind of record for Evelyn), Andrew spotted the power ranger that one of his cousins had brought with him. He suddenly announced, "I don't have my power ranger. I need to go home and get him!" and started to climb down from the pew and head towards the door. I was torn between wanting to keep recording the blessing and the need to chase after my son--I chose the blessing and was lucky enough that Dan kept it short and Jared was able to catch Andrew before he reached the doors to the foyer.



In retrospect, this has been a fairly disaster prone week for our hurricane Andrew. This morning's puking incident was probably the third one of the week (my charming child has an overdeveloped gag reflex, which means that if he coughs too hard--or even cries too hard and starts coughing--he loses everything). And two nights ago, while I was out shopping for Evelyn's shoes with my mom, Andrew decided to ram his head into a door knob (not deliberately, of course) and gave himself a lovely goose-egg. (I'm not sure how well you can see it in the picture, over his left eye).


He has also, this week, begun to show a renewed interest in potty training. On the one hand, this is promising, as it means we might be able to get him out of diapers before he outgrows the sizes available in the store, but it also means more accidents--especially if you're his mother and you're stupid enough to experiment with putting him in underwear before he's had his daily poop . . . Anyway, I know some of our readers are squeamish, so I'll spare you the details. Suffice it to say this happened twice and was not at all fun.

At least life with Andrew isn't all messes: after he tasted one of my cupcakes this morning, he told me, "This cupcake is really good, mommy." ("really" came out sounding more like the Japanese prounounce it: "rearry"). So at least he appreciates our efforts. Some of the time.

We're looking forward tomorrow to one last hurrah from the summer before the semester (and my new job) starts in earnest, and hope you all are too!

non sequitur

Today Andrew announced to me, "I don't like Evelyn."

"Why don't you like Evelyn?"

"Because she's the bad guy."

"Why is she the bad guy?"

"Because . . ." Pause. "No, she's not the bad guy. She's a Power Ranger."

Where do people come from?

Our family home evening lesson last night was on Adam and Eve (and on our identity as children of God). We've been following the lessons out of the sunbeam/nursery manual for primary, so this lesson followed a series of lessons on the creation of plants, animals, etc. Andrew understood that Heavenly Father created the plants, the fish, the birds, and the animals, but he was having a harder time grasping the creation of people.

I asked him, "Did Heavenly Father create Adam and Eve?"

Andrew said, "No."

Curious, I pressed, "Where do people come from, then?"

To which my pragmatic little boy answered, "From their houses."

Park City

This week underscored our general impression that Andrew *loves* water. In any form. He loves to water grandma's plants, turn on the hose (by himself, no less, and usually unasked)--he even did this when I went visiting teaching last month, much to my chagrin. And he especially loves swimming. Unfortunately, we haven't done much of it this summer, because I didn't feel up to taking him and the baby, and Dan didn't have much time. This last week we finally decided to go to a local swimming pool I've been wanting to go to all summer (the Veteran's pool), and it was a big hit. In fact, we (especially Andrew) enjoyed it so much that I wish we'd discovered it sooner in the summer. It has a wonderful little water playground for kids, and a kiddie pool that doesn't get much deeper than about 24 inches. Sadly, the pool is only open for the summer, and closed on Saturday until next summer. We tried to cram as many visits in as we could--our family went for FHE on Monday, and Andrew, Evelyn and I went again on Wednesday with Jeni and her kids. Evelyn wasn't as enamored of the water as Andrew was--she cried the first time, so I pretty much just held her and walked around the pool (and took pictures). The next time, she actually condescended to be put in the water, and, though her eyes got really big, she was pretty placid.



Doesn't Andrew have a lovely farmer's tan?
This week also marked my family's annual trek to Park City, where my parents have a time-share condo. My parents went up on Sunday, but, since Dan had to work, we didn't go up until Wednesday (my parents kindly arranged for us to stay in *another* of their time-shares--they really like the Park City time share thing, apparently!). Our first night was pretty horrible--we had a late departure (due mostly to our visit to the pool that afternoon)--and didn't get up until after Andrew's bedtime. Then, our room was a studio room, that's really only appropriate for a couple who plan to be out most of the time--a single room that's mostly taken up by the murphy bed. There wasn't really anywhere to put Andrew's bedrolls except for the closet--so that's where we put him. But Andrew was so stimulated by the novelty of it all that he didn't go to sleep until past 9 (this for a boy who's usually asleep by 7:30), so of course he woke up at 5:50 the next morning. And Evelyn chose that night to be particularly fussy, and was awake most of the time between 2 and 4 in the morning. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep.

Luckily, on Thursday my mom upgraded us to a bigger room with a real bed, a sofa pull-out, and a divider that could be used to separate the room into two smaller rooms (perfect for putting Andrew to bed at night). Dan drove down to Provo for work, but he missed the turn to Heber and ended up going through Salt Lake City instead, a detour that added a good thirty to forty minutes to his drive. All was not lost, however, since his new route took him right past a Krispy Kreme's store . . . I gather he had donuts for breakfast *and* lunch. Meanwhile, after moving all our stuff into the bigger room, my mom and I got down to what was the real business of our "vacation"--shopping (the Park City outlets, after all, are always a huge draw). I'm actually pretty impressed with how much I managed to resist buying, since my kids already have plenty of clothes (especially Evelyn, who is benefiting from the largesse of Jeni, Sarah, and Mitcee's girls). Anyway, our day mostly consisted of going to the outlet mall, going back for lunch and to put Andrew down, then abandoning Andrew to grandpa (guess who was less than thrilled about this arrangement?) while we went back to the mall, coming back for dinner . . . you get the picture. Andrew, I was reminded, is no fun to shop with--he tries to run off, hide in the clothes, open doors that aren't supposed to be opened, etc. As we drove back to the hotel for lunch before naptime, Andrew kept insisting (almost in tears) that he wasn't tired . . . only to fall asleep in the car. I carried him up to the room and was presented with incontrovertible truth: my baby is growing up. He's huge! And heavy. (I think he's around 37-8 pounds now).

My mom kindly offered to take Andrew Thursday night so that Dan and I could get some extra sleep (which we much appreciated!). I don't know that my mom enjoyed it much (Andrew was up at the crack of dawn again), but she said they had fun playing in the morning. One of the funnier moments came when Andrew, after trying to turn on the water in the bathroom sink, suddenly ran into the other room and picked up the phone. My mom told to put the phone down, but Andrew insisted, "But I have to call them and tell them to bring us a stool for the sink!" (Apparently he'd been observing closely when my mom called housekeeping and asked for some dishsoap for the dishwasher).

On Friday, Dan decided to take a much earned day off work, and so we took Andrew to a local park in the morning. Andrew loved it (as he does pretty much all things outdoors).

He was especially fond of this digger, and he was almost tall enough to make it work properly. He had to brace his legs against the handles, because he wasn't quite long enough to reach the ground. All went well until he fell off one of the cement retaining walls you can see in the picture. Although he wasn't badly hurt, this did make him a bit emotional, and when another little girl tried to play with "his" digger, he had a total come-apart and we had to head back to my parents' hotel.


This is what Evelyn spent most of her time doing at the park. Isn't she sweet?


Dan kindly stayed with Andrew while he slept (I don't think I could pay Grandpa enough to do it again--at least not without bringing some serious toys to distract Andrew with), and my mom and I went shopping again. But only for a little while, since we wanted to be back at the rooms when Jeni arrived with her kids that afternoon. After dinner, the kids all went swimming (Andrew for the second time that afternoon--he was one tired boy by bedtime). I tried to take Evelyn swimming with the others, but the water was a bit cold and, although she didn't cry, she was clearly not happy.

Saturday was kind of crazy. We had planned on celebrating Jacob's birthday, and were waiting for Samuel and Jared and his kids to arrive. In the meantime, Jeni wanted to go to the Outlet stores to find some new clothes for her, so she and I went with our two youngest, and my mom and Dan took Andrew, Emi, and Jacob to the park. We got back shortly before Jared arrived, and, while we waited for Samuel (and for lunch), Jared entertained the kids by blowing up balloons and letting them go. My favorite part of this was how all of them would jump up and down in excitement. This kept them entertained for a good twenty minutes or so. (The video gives you some sense of how excited they were).

After Samuel arrived, we had lunch, then presents, and then cupcakes (in that order). My mom presented Jacob with several power ranger toys, and, in a gesture of magnanimity, gave a power ranger to Emi, Andrew, and Joshua. I think Andrew was the most excited of all of them, and we've had to dissuade him from taking the power ranger to bed with him (mostly because he would stay up playing with it)--although he did take it to church with him today. (In my defense, Andrew was insisting that he needed to stay home with his power ranger, so I thought that at least going to church with it was the lesser of two evils).

We took Andrew back to our hotel room for a nap (and despite protests that he wasn't tired, he was asleep within minutes) while the older kids went to the pool, and when we returned to my parents' place we found that Jeni was on her way out with her kids (who had not slept much the night before and needed to be in their own beds). We went with my parents, Jared, Joshua, and Brielle up to the Alpine Slide, but were deterred by the length of the line waiting for the slide (and, on our part at least, some misgivings about trying to take Andrew on the ski lift). Instead, we opted for miniature golf and a carousel. We discovered that Joshua is a great little golfer, but Andrew lacks the patience and discipline for the sport (maybe Poppy needs to give him some lessons). Then we waited and waited and waited for the carousel. (I think they were short on attendants--no one was manning the ride). When the kids finally got on the ride (I watched with Grandpa and Evelyn), it was the longest ride in the history of the world (possibly to make up for the long wait)--it just went on and on. Andrew was so funny--he was determined to sit on this little elephant, even though it was one of the only animals that didn't go up and down. But he was perfectly happy with his choice until, two thirds of the way through what was probably a ten minute ride, he spotted the zebra right in front of him . . . At any rate, by the time we got through with the carousel, the people who were in line for the slide when we arrived were just coming down the mountain, so it turns out we didn't save much time. But I think the kids had fun, and that was what mattered.

Below, Andrew and Joshua were pretending to be frogs, hopping on lily pads.

We packed up this morning and drove back just in time for church. And this brings us to the end of a rather hectic week--Dan's spent the afternoon recovering from our "vacation" (i.e., hiding in the basement).

More Andrewisms

Dan and I were talking the other day about some of our favorite Andrew expressions. I think one of my favorites is his mispronunciation of piano--it comes out with an extra "p," as in "pipiano" (pronounced pi-pyano).

Andrew also recently invented a new game. I think it was partly inspired by a conversation he overheard me having with Dan about chaco shoes (a nearby sporting goods store was clearing out their summer stock), which Andrew heard as "Shopko." So he moved a whole bunch of toys into the kitchen and told Dan he was going shopping at "Shopko," and proceeded to put stuff into a canvas bag. He repeated the same game again today (see picture below).

We also got a cute video of Andrew singing "three little monkeys" (well, actually he keeps repeating "four little monkeys"). If you watch closely in the lower left corner, you can see Evelyn's feet appearing from time to time.

If you are wondering about the Blair Witch Project like production value (i.e. it looks like the cameraperson has a case of the shakes) of the Evelyn video it is because Andrew was trying to climb on my back during the filming.

An extravagance of eggplants

(And no, I'm not sure if there's any such thing as "an extravagance" [noun], but I thought it sounded better than "eggplant extravaganza").

So, my mom's garden is in full swing now that the heat of summer is upon is. Has been for a couple of weeks now. And, being my mother, she planted more of everything than she wanted, "just in case." Which means we have been swimming in beans--not that anyone's complaining, since fresh beans cooked with bacon is a hard dish to beat. But we also have lots of tomatoes, peppers (which my mom is allergic to, so we can only really cook them when she's not around), cucumbers, and . . . eggplants. Most of this abundance we can cope with, since we know more or less what we can do with them. But eggplants have posed a bit of a puzzle, since we're not really familiar with its culinary qualities. So I've sort of taken it on as a personal mission to figure out how to cook eggplant (at least, a better option than the semi-fried stuff Dan foisted on us last time his parents were here). I've learned, among other things, that eggplants are less bitter when you purge them (i.e., cut them up, salt them liberally, and leave over some sort of strainer for half an hour or so to draw the water out of them. Then you wash the salt off and cook them). We've tried three different recipes, and I have to say that all of them have been quite good. (All from the Food Network, of course). We tried an eggplant and tomato pasta dish (Dan thought the eggplant tasted just a bit like cooked dill pickles, only, of course, much tastier than that sounds), an eggplant pasta dish (from our favorite Alton Brown), which tasted a little bit like a linguini alfredo, only with eggplant instead of actual noodles (very good, very rich--the recipe used real cream!), and, most recently, what was supposed to be stuffed eggplant, only none of the eggplants were large enough. So we made the stuffing according to the recipe and stuffed garden fresh tomatoes instead. (I put the tomatoes under the broiler). I thought they looked so pretty, I had to include a picture here. And of course, I was rather proud of myself for using so many fresh ingredients--the tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers were all picked fresh from the garden. At any rate, I think I'm starting to become an eggplant convert--a very versatile little vegetable.


My little culinary adventures notwithstanding, this past week has been a little crazy and more than a little hectic. Grandma Collings' funeral was Monday afternoon. It was surprisingly well attended, considering that she's spent her last couple of years in nursing homes, and the service was very nice. My aunt read the transcript of Grandma's life story (from an interview with one of my cousins) and I have to admit I was surprised by some of the things that Grandma had done, like her involvement in the Primary for many years in California (for some reason, Grandma never seemed much at ease with small children), or her years of work in genealogy.

I also started working on my new job in earnest--along with the outgoing coordinator, I met with thirteen of the professors we'll be working with in the fall (about two hours a day M-Th). Since my babysitter (my mom) was out of town with my dad (Grandma was buried in California), this meant a lot of scrambling on my part to find different people in the ward to watch the kids (and Dan took both of them one day, wonderful man!). It worked out okay--I think Andrew enjoyed interacting with different people, but I felt a bit bad about his unsettled schedule. It will be much better in the fall when things are a little more organized.

On Friday, Jeni and I decided to try taking the kids to the Utah County Fair. Like all of our expeditions, this required a bit of maneuvering. Luckily, the day of the fair was beautiful--the high for the day was in the low eighties, so it was sunny but not too hot. Our outing started out pretty inauspiciously--Evelyn woke up almost immediately and started to fuss in the stroller, so I tried to find an inconspicuous place to feed her. Jeni offered to take Andrew along with her, in their double stroller, but was back almost immediately because Andrew was having a come-apart and wanted to stay with me. And of course, almost immediately after she left again to explore with her kids, Andrew wanted to go with Jacob and Emi. He did okay staying by me (which is always something we struggle with, with Andrew), only straying to the nearest games where I could still keep an eye on him. When Jeni came back, however, I was trying to buy tickets and keep Andrew with me, but he was fascinated by a carnival game that involved ducks in flowing water, and he couldn't seem to mind to save his life. So we strapped him into the stroller, with much weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Andrew was placated, however, when he realized that we were heading to some of the fair rides, something that we indulged our kids in partly because we never really got to do that when we were kids, because the rides were too expensive (and they were, but somehow that seems like part of the fair experience). The fair as a whole had nothing on the Grange Fair, in PA, but we had a pretty good time. No fair food, though, because we spent all our combined money on the ride tickets!



A note about the above picture. Andrew, being Andrew, kept trying to stick his hands in the water (and tried once to drink it--gross!), and even tried to stand up a couple of times until the guy manning the ride yelled at him.






Friday night, I went with my mom (and Evelyn) to a couple of receptions, including one for my friend Cristie's younger brother. I really only went to see Cristie, whom I haven't seen for some time. Andrew wanted desperately to go with us, despite the fact that both Dan and my dad were emphatic that they didn't want to go, because receptions were "boring."

Saturday morning, Cristie, her husband Steven, their three boys, and Karin, Mat, and their two boys, met up with Andrew, Evelyn and I at a local park. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera. We had a lot of fun catching up with each other, and the kids seemed to have a good time running around the park. When we finally got home, Andrew was ecstatic to find that Emi and Jacob were once again visiting at our house, and the three of them ran around together until it was time for Andrew's nap.

And in case you missed pictures of Evelyn in the above account, here are a couple, including the obligatory Sunday dress-up shot (the pink one). I put her in the blue dress for the wedding receptions.

Happy Three-Month Birthday, Evelyn!

How can you resist a face like this? It's hard to believe three months have gone by already--but we're so glad we have her. Her general sweetness and calmness are a nice antidote to Andrew.

The big highlight of this past week was Joshua's birthday party. (I think his birthday is on Tuesday, but we celebrated early). Jared put together a treasure hunt for the kids outside, and, although they needed help deciphering pretty much every clue, I think they had fun chasing around in the backyard. Jacob was particularly enamored of the imitation lightsaber he found.



The end of the treasure hunt led them down the slide and to the side of the shed where they found candy galore (and which we promptly confiscated. We figured Andrew would get enough sugar with the cake--the rest we're saving for later. Whenever that may be.)


Andrew, decked out in his party gear. He took a definite liking to the golf clubs--maybe he'll follow in Poppy's footsteps yet.


Joshua, opening one of his many presents (with Andrew and Jacob hanging virtually on his elbows in case he needs help).

Brielle, ripping up one of her mom's magazines.

Enoch, hanging upside down.

Evelyn, enjoying some time with her dad.

There really isn't a lot to report about the party--it was nice to hang out with everyone and watch the kids run around together. (Andrew didn't beat on anyone too much, so from that perspective it has to be counted successful). The only fly in our ointment was that, due to some miscommunication (or rather, lack thereof), Dan and I arrived a full hour early, which made Dan extremely uncomfortable (he hates to discommode people). (This is, incidentally, entirely typical of the Collings family, where one person hears the same piece of information half a dozen times and someone else fails to hear it entirely).

And of course, our weekly Sunday ritual of dressing up the baby continues. Here she is in a lovely maroon number. She looks like she's not quite sure what to make of the whole thing.

In Memoriam: Thella Marie Hurd Collings

My last remaining grandparent passed away peacefully in her sleep yesterday morning, sometime between ten (when the nurses came in and spoke with her) and eleven a.m. I have to admit to some mixed feelings about this: when I initially heard, I was mostly shocked, since it seemed like Grandma Collings was the type who would last forever (if only out of sheer stubbornness). And I'm a little bit sad--mostly I wish I had gone to visit her last week like I thought about doing and then never did. (I haven't seen her since before Evelyn was born, since I didn't want to expose myself or Evelyn to anything that might be going around the nursing home). And I'm also sad that I don't feel more upset--if that makes any sense. But she was old--in her late 80s--and her husband died over twenty years ago, and her quality of life wasn't so great anymore. I'm also glad, for my mom's sake, since her nearly daily trips to the nursing home to take care of Grandma for the past year or so have been really wearing on her. I hope that Grandma, wherever she is now, is finally at peace.

Book List

(I got this from a friend's blog, so if there's misinformation here, I blame her! :)). Apparently the National Endowment for the Arts is concerned that most Americans have not read the "classic" literature on the following list. Well, mostly classics. I can't quite see how the Da Vinci code counts. I was curious to see how much I'd read, and how much more I'd like to read. So, for reference in reading the list, the titles in bold are the ones I've read, the italicized ones are books I'd like to read and the rest are . . . well, the rest. (I think my English major puts me at an unfair advantage.) By the way, I couldn't get the italics off the list I read previously, so some of the italics are mine, some are borrowed (but I tried to indicate which ones were not really ones I want to read!). So anything that's in bold and italics is something I read, but couldn't get the italics off of. (Don't ask me why the italics function wouldn't undo itself in blogger).

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D'Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13. Catch 22, Joseph Heller (actually, I'm not really interested in reading this, but I can't get the italics off).
14 Complete Works of Shakespeare (many, but not all)
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller's Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell (started, never finished)
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens (wonderful movie by the BBC)
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens (I read an edited version, does that count?)
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma- Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli's Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne (I've read parts, and some in Hungarian, but not all)
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown (for my sins, yes, I've read it)
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving (Justin made me--he read Middlemarch in exchange)
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid's Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan

51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel

52 Dune - Frank Herbert

53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons

54 Sense and Sensibility- Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy (hated it, Hardy at his most depressing)
68 Bridget Jones's Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight's Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson (but I've read other Bill Bryson stuff)
75 Ulysses - James Joyce (maybe)
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte's Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom (no, but I've read Tuesdays with Morrie)
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

By my count, that's fifty-one I've read (if I'm counting right, which of course I may not be). Not too bad, I think! (Although the literary snob in me wishes I could claim more and the rest of me, which rather resents literary snobbery, thinks I shouldn't care at all what some list says about me).

Conversations about Cars

So, on the way to the store yesterday, Andrew announced, "When I'm bigger, I'll get to sit in the front seat . . . and have keys . . . and drive."

Me: "Andrew, do you know how old you have to be to drive?"

Pause.

Me: "You have to be sixteen. How old are you?"

Andrew: "I'm sixteen."

New sightings of the Wasatch Monster, the "Yet-Me" or Abominable Andrew

Any observer of this monster (a.k.a. Andrew) in his native habitat (usually water or a messy room) would quickly notice two of this independent creature's favorite sayings are "yet me" (let me) and "I'm tired." This week reinforced my general sense that Andrew is indeed a two-year old of the fullest embodiment of the terrible twos--independent, incorrigible, and often intractable. Andrew has long been fond of saying "yet me" for everything from filling his own milk cup, pushing buttons on any kind of technology, pouring syrup on pancakes, getting silverware, turning on the outside hose--you name it, he wants to do it. I try to accomodate him in some of the small things, but obviously I'm not quite ready to let him do anything that requires more manual dexterity than he possesses--I don't think I can face maple syrup all over the floor.

This week, Andrew has added a second favorite saying to "yet me" (and one that I'm already "tired" of hearing)--"I'm tired." Andrew has used this approximately six times an hour for the past week, most often when he doesn't want to do something. I think he has the erroneous idea that this will absolve him from work or responsibility. (The only time he doesn't use this is at bedtime--or rather, he uses it, but he quickly corrects himself: "I'm tired . . . no, I'm *not* tired.") We hit a particularly low point on Thursday while I was cooking dinner. Usually, one or more grandparents are around during the pre-dinner hour to sort of keep an eye on Andrew if it's my night to cook (I know, I know, I'm spoiled), but since they're out of town at a conference it was just me. I was trying out a new recipe (more on that later), so I wasn't paying as close attention to Andrew as I should have. In addition, he had refused to nap that afternoon so he was more than unusually manic, and I was more than unusually tired of trying to deal with him. Cooking was actually rather cathartic, that is, until I happened to ask Andrew (who was unusually quiet--always a bad sign) what he was doing. "I'm making a mess," was the response. I went over to investigate and discovered that he had dumped out every single toy container within reach, plus several puzzles for good measure. It was, indeed, a mess. So, I told Andrew he needed to help clean up before dinner, but every time I said, "Andrew, you need to clean up," he would languish theatrically and say, "I'm tired." Needless to say, by the twentieth repetition of this (I was still working on dinner at the time) I was rather tired of it and of Andrew. It's a good thing Dan came home when he did, as he likely saved his child from some sort of dire fate. (I try hard to be patient, but it sometimes appalls me how easily this one small human manages to irritate me--he can do it faster than anyone else I know!) Unfortunately, having discovered the phrase, Andrew refuses to abandon it and has pulled it out as a reason not to eat something he doesn't want to, not to clean up, not to obey . . . you get the idea.

Other highlights of the week: Wednesday morning I took the kids to the library to turn in Andrew's summer reading chart, for which he got a cheap plastic toy and some coupons from local restaurants and other vendors. Unfortunately, we didn't get to stay at the library long because Evelyn choose that occasion to become hysterical and wouldn't stop crying, so we left. We did, however, get to use one of Andrew's coupons to go to Sonic that night for a free ice cream cone (a belated family home evening treat, since Dan was in Colorado Sunday afternoon through Tuesday afternoon--a very short trip.)

Friday morning Jeni brought her kids over, and they had an enjoyable time running rampage over the house. Andrew, in another of his terrible two characteristics, has taken to pushing people when they do something he doesn't like--after trying to push Lydia down the stairs last week, this week he turned his charm on Emi and Jacob. After trying unsuccessfully to push Jacob, Jacob went crying to his mother and told her tearfully that he never wanted to play with Andrew, ever again. I tried to remonstrate with Andrew (after his stint in time out, of course) about why we don't push people--one reason, of course, is that other kids may not want to play with us. Of course, Jacob chose this moment (notwithstanding his earlier protest) to say, "Andrew, come play with me," so the object lesson was kind of ruined.

Saturday was, as usual, a busy day for us. We went to the ward breakfast at a nearby park and Andrew and I ate. Dan abstained--he has a curious fastidiousness about food at large group events, and he wasn't too impressed by the food (although I think he did end up finishing some of Andrew's food). Dan intended to help with some of the games after the breakfast, but Andrew thwarted those plans. He was really only interested in playing in the volleyball sand pit and getting water out of the drinking fountain. And since I was occupied with Evelyn (and chatting with some of the ward members), Dan was on default Andrew duty. Poor Dan. I tried to make it up to him by offering to watch the kids so he could get out that afternoon, and he took advantage of my offer by going to see Dark Knight, which, from all accounts, he enjoyed.

We also picked up a kiddie pool on clearance at Target for Andrew, our little water monster, who is never happier than when he is wet (except maybe when he is dirty and grubbing around in grandma's yard). Andrew had a great time with the water--but Evelyn (whom we cautiously introduced to the water) was less than thrilled.



Having a little girl has apparently gone to my head (Dan calls her my dolly, since I take such delight in dressing her up). At any rate, it's especially hard for me on Sundays to resist dressing her up in cute clothes for church. And then, since she looks so cute, I have to take pictures of her. I especially love the final picture--she has such kissable fat cheeks. And dimples! I think I've counted eight: two in each elbow, one on each shoulder, and one on each cheek. Such a nice, fat, dimpled baby. I think we'll keep her.