Success

Success is when you buy your daughter a shirt and she puts it on immediately when you give it to her and refuses to take it off for 3 days. I bought Emma an Elmo shirt I got on clearance at the store (mainly just because I was finding a lot of things for her sisters and I didn't want her to feel left out). She put it on as soon as I gave it to her and we're still working on getting her to take it off. She's been in kind of a bad mood lately (she's kind of having a hard time breathing) so it wasn't something worth fighting her on. I told her today was her last day and then we had to wash it. Hopefully she'll remember that conversation tomorrow. You never know with 2 year olds.

Book Report: Epitaph for a Peach: Four Seasons on my Family Farm by David Mas Masumoto

I loved this book. It was right up my alley. Masumoto just wrote reflections on one year of farming and trying to save part of his peach orchard. It was interesting to see how a farm works. But he related farming to every thing in life and also reflected a lot on his Japanese heritage. He is a third generation Japanese American. Anyway I liked it because it had a little biology, a little english/poetry and a little Asian-american literature. It was a great uplifting, thought-provoking book. Thanks Kaylyn for sending it to me. I'll pass it on to Bruce.

My favorite review on the back of the book was from Publishers Weekly: "A peach of a book."

Book Report: Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress by Dai Sijie

I read this book for one of my book clubs and I wasn't that excited about it. I had tried to read it before and it's one of those things where you can tell something bad and graphic is probably going to happen at some point and I just am not that excited about reading those kind of scenes (which is why I'm not a huge modern or best seller reader although I do like some mystery books). Anyway, before when I tried to read it I just decided it wasn't worth it. This time however, I decided to give it a chance and just skip any graphic scenes. And I'm happy to say it wasn't that bad. There's some sex and an abortion but they're not as crazy as I thought. And the whole idea for the book actually turned out to be pretty interesting. It's very ironic and I really liked that part.

Plot: Two Chinese city boys are sent to the boonies to be "reeducated" by the peasants in the Cultural Revolution. They find some smuggled french novels and begin to read them and share them with a peasant girl whom one of them is having an affair with. They really like the ideas of Balzac, Dumas, Bovary and others. They're so liberal and sexually free and different from their experience in China. Ironically though, the girl likes them too, refuses to become the wife of the one boy and leaves them for a "better" life like she read about women having in Balzac. At the end, heartbroken, the boys burn the books themselves, just like the Communists would have done if they'd known about them. Maybe some ideas really are dangerous.

Anyway, an interesting book. I don't know if I'd read it again, or if I would have ever picked it out for myself, but I love irony, and it's definitely ironical and well done.

Aida

John and I went to Aida last night. It was great. I have to admit though, the first 30 minutes were the hardest. I loved the dancing, even the gang dancing. It was great. It was lots more modern than I thought though. I was prepared for this old Egyptian sad love story. And it was all of that, but it was also pretty funny and cheesy at times (and hey, I love cheese, whereas, John doesn't so much). Anyway, I liked it and other people must have too, because it was sold out for the rest of their performances.

Kate was Queen of the Day in her class yesterday. As part of that she got a cute little paper crown to wear. She wore it almost all day yesterday and this morning and when she got home from school today again. I'm not sure if that means she considers herself queen of the house and is trying to give us subtle hints or what. It is a cute crown though.

Speaking of queens of the house, yesterday Emma told me to put on my robe in the middle of the afternoon when I was fully clothed already and wouldn't stop yelling and crying until I did it. I thought it was a small concession to make for peace. It was the funniest request I've had in a while though and was just glad nobody came by before I could quietly put my robe back away.

I just finished Gone With The Wind yesterday. I love that book. You've got to love Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler even if they have some serious problems. But the end is so sad. You just want them to be together. I know I'm being silly but after reading 1024 pages about them they feel like real people and I feel bad for them. When I told John it was so sad, he said, "Sad for who?" and when I said "for them," he gave me a funny look. Anyway it's a great love story but also a great historical novel of the Civil War from the point of view of the South, which you don't hear a lot. I really enjoyed it.

Progress?

Today I was changing Ruth and the phone rang, so I buckled Ruth onto the changing table and went to answer it. Now I know you're not supposed to do that, but so far that's been ok. But when I returned about 30 seconds later Ruth had somehow wriggled out of the buckle and was standing up playing. Ah the two-edged sword of mobility. So many things aren't safe to do anymore.

Finally

I finally finished a quilt I started in October and promised to someone then at a baby shower. It's an I-spy quilt and I think it turned out great, so great that now I want to make one for my own girls. You can never have too many quilts, right?

Kate went on a field trip to Maceys today, and she said they took them back where they store all the meat and talked to the butcher. Her comment, "Man, it smelled bad back there!" and then she said in a voice of awe that the butcheress, it was a girl, said that dogs really like the smell of meat and that when she goes home all the dogs in the neighborhood follow her around. I'm not sure what that says about their meat department, but I still like the store. She also said that they took them back where they make donuts and that the all the smells and the heat kind of made her sick. I couldn't believe a negative donut statement could come out of any daughter of John's but there it is.

Mary and Emma continue their power struggle. I think half the time neither one understands what the other is saying because when they're both yelling and I ask what's the matter I get totally different stories and usually Emma says something like , Oh you wanted that Mary. Here you go. They make me laugh.

Ruth is crawling and pulling herself up on everything. If she gets much taller she'll probably climb out of the crib. She likes to pat(smack) our faces when we hold her while she sucks on her thumb with the other hand. The other day when I tried to say No and put her hand down, she just laughed and hit harder. I tried it 3 times and finally put her down. She thought it was the best new game ever. I hope this isn't a bad sign.