the hood.

My coworker is awesome and lent me the book ‘Beyond the Sling’, which is about attachment parenting. Attachment parenting involves but does not need to include all of the following: co-sleeping, babywearing, no TV, gentle discipline, baby using potty since birth, no one but the parents watching the children, and breastfeeding until the child decides they want to move on. I’ve only gotten about thirty pages into it, but I’ve read a few blog entries by the author, seen some interviews, and read a few reviews, so I have a basic handle on what the book is going to be about. It’s a book that is a guide but claims to not be a guide to attachment parenting. Bialik (author) says in a recent blog post, ‘I did not write a parenting book’ yet in the book she writes, ‘This is not that kind of parenting book.’ Notice how it does not say that it’s NOT a parenting book, just a different KIND of parenting book. Plus the face that the subtitle says ‘a real-life guide’ also points to the fact that this is a parenting book.

Bialik confesses that she and her husband have gone on three dates in six years. She is proud of this fact; this is working for her. I would personally need more separate, out of house time with Husband than that. But, honestly my question is how they’re doing it if there are two kids constantly in the bed with them and I am seriously interested in finding this out. I say, I love Husband, I love having sex with him, the kids are staying in another room. Because you know what? I felt completely loved and cuddled by my parents and I did not have to sleep in the same bed as them to get that. I view cosleeping as an extreme when there can be a moderation (for instance, if kids wake up at 5 they can come join parents in bed until 7 — Siblings and I did this a lot with my mom when we were little kids and my dad left for work; we would also cuddle with our mom in her bed before bedtime).

Parenting is crazy, it is different for everyone, and there is no one ‘right’ path to raising confident and loving children. I don’t think holding my newborn over a toilet or letting my two year old sleep in bed with me and Husband is going to change their outlook on life.

Also, I’m swinging the other way about having kids (not bc of this book but other factors we’re currently dealing with right now) and I’m thinking I can wait til I’m 30 to have kids! Much traveling to be done by Husband and me.

I’m sure I will rant (or possibly rave) about this book as I read more of it.

PS: We signed the lease for another year at our apartment and NO RENT RAISE! We were super nervous about that but our landlord is the best (mostly because we’re the best and don’t bother her!).

recommend.

SONG

“Fly Over States” — Jason Aldean

I find myself dialing back to the country station lately, and this song is truly a big part of it. I don’t like any of his other songs, but this one hits me right in the chest. Some country songs are just full of so much passion that I can’t find in other genres.

TV SHOW

30 Rock

My hobby now, thanks to Netflix, is to sit down and watch an entire series of a show, but not watch any of the episodes of the current show or bother to keep up with it. I’ve done this with How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Rec, and now 30 Rock. I think 30 Rock is quick, witty, relevant, and I love how they stare at the camera and do product placement (totally reminds me of The Greatest Movie Ever Sold).

BOOK

“Baby Proof” by Emily Giffin

And I’m not even done reading it. So there.

game.

Got into a bit of luck and Husband’s friend scored free tickets to a White Sox game. Then he was like, ‘Well, I also have Club Membership passes. Let’s go to the Club!’ It sounded super exclusive, and when we got there it was all linen napkins and NOT OUTSIDE IN THE COLD and waitresses taking your order. It was a pretty high class way to watch a baseball game.

We also had to pay $5/person just to sit there (for reals, ya’ll), food was daaaammmnnn expensive, and they threw a generous tip on the bill for you.

But you know what? It was once in a lifetime for me, (Husband got these perks from past gfs) so we lived it up and enjoyed ourselves and will not go get groceries for another week to make up for it. Hee.

Had good conversation, good food, and a decent game (they lost!).

Other news: conversation during the game and the L train rides inspired, so I’m excited about that.

Because there are so many neighborhoods in Chicago, there are a vast number of library branches to fit in them, and I finally found one that has good book selection, decent hours so I can after work, and close parking. A lot of the branches are small, and the one I had been going to changed its hours and now closes at 6 daily, which clashed with my work schedule. But I love the branch I went to today, and I’m going to stick to it. Plus it’s not too far from the apartment so Husband can also ride his bike over and drop off due books for me if I can’t make it there.

Finally, this is lame but so what, I am going back and rereading the first Traveling Pants book, and then reading the subsequent books in the series. I know I read the first book when it came out soooo long ago, but I never got around to the others, and honestly when I think of the first one I don’t know if I’m remembering the book or the movie. So I’m kind of excited for that because I know that as they were getting published they drew a lot of buzz. I’m in the middle of the first of the James Patterson series Witch & Wizard, and I thought I’d get into it but A) it’s very cheesy and simplistic (even for being kid aimed) and B) the characters are not compelling enough for me. The chapters range from two to three pages, so it’s really hard for any deep development to happen to the characters. I think I’m going to finish up the first one and lay that trail to rest.

Time for bed! Night! Zzzzzzz

chase.

Lots of sucky news this weekend. Things that I can’t really talk about but are really making it hard for me to be pleasant to certain people.

Luckily, we’re getting some much needed distraction this weekend. We’re going to the zoo, and then later, my sister’s boyfriend’s music gig. There are some storms/rain in the area but we’ve been tracking it so I’m not worried about being out and about tonight. Tornadoes are really crazy, but so so rare in the area I live it’s a joke. The closest I ever got to a tornado was when I was like 3, and it destroyed part of the city I lived in plus the next town over. So our area is super lucky when it comes to tornadoes. Now that we live in the city, it’s really weird to imagine a tornado coming down the street, ha ha.

I’ve always been simultaneously scared and fascinated by tornadoes. I couldn’t imagine being in one, but I love watching them from afar and the storms that come with them. One of my favorite books when I was a kid (that also scared the crap out of me) was Night of the Twisters. With news of the system passing through the plains Husband and I used Netflix to watch a tornado doc and some of Storm Chasers. What’s great about Netflix is that whenever I’m interested in something, I can just search it on Netflix and watch videos about it, no problem.

I also finished The Book Thief last night, which I have been trying to read since my senior year of college, so about 4-5 years now. My situation with that book was similar to the one I had with Anna Karenina — I would read so far, lose interest, and move on to a different book. My other issue with TBT was also that it is a VERY tough subject — Nazi Germany — and I have to be in a certain mindframe to read about that. I read a lot about the Holocaust in junior high and early college, but not much since then. So to get back into that was a challenge.

I have to say that the book is definitely worth a read even if it is a struggle to get into and read at times. Some because of what was mentioned above, but also because I was a little confused as to what was happening at certain points. Without giving too much away, the book’s POV is Death, who doesn’t really name the characters at times as he talks about them, so it was hard to tell who he was talking about sometime. But still, must emphasis, a really great read. I can see why it won the awards it did back in ’06.

Ok. Moving on and taking on the day.

again.

Getting ready for work when I realized I haven’t posted on this blog in a long time, and I’d like to keep this thing updated somewhat, so. Life.

Writing here and there, sometimes in my head and sometimes on a laptop.

Last week was a split between the sorrow and the celebration. Death is a hard thing, but I was glad I was there to support Husband, and glad we were both there to talk about it with Stepson.

Anyway. Work is also going well right now and I’m in this place where I don’t mind going to work, where every day seems to go by pretty speedily and pretty well and I’m having a good time.

I saw Hunger Games, and I really really really liked it. Which is good for me, because every time I see a movie based on a book, and I have read the book FIRST, I always come out of the theater going, ‘COME ON!’. Like I had a serious issue with every Harry Potter movie, mostly because I hated the spawn of fans it created who now never had to pick up a book and could just sit and watch a three hour movie instead.

But Collins helped write the screenplay for Hunger Games, so I think that truly upped it into a good movie. Plus, and I’m saying this as a positive, Hunger Games’ plot is simple enough to become a movie plot without people who have read the books being like, ‘What about this plot point? What about this character?’ I feel like I rejected the HP movies so strongly because the plots of those books are so bogged with nuances and backstories, things very hard to convey in a movie properly. Also, I have always loved Josh Hutcherson and I thought he did a great job in the movie.

One of my go-to YA websites pretended to like the movie, but then when it came down to it a lot of the people on the site really didn’t, and I think it was mostly because A) they wanted more violence, which should not be an issue because there was ENOUGH, and B) they didn’t like the casting, so I think it clouded their movie viewing. They had set up a long time ago who they wanted to be whom in the movie, and then thought they would actually get who they wanted. I actually really hated the actor they imagined for Peeta — one of the boys from the Narnia movie, which I don’t think works at all because I don’t think he could have been silent and strong like Peeta without coming off obnoxious or stuck-up.

And that’s it for now.