Two Books and a Movie

Guess who read two books in four days after not reading a single non-parenting book for a whole ten months?  Me.  It's like I've been denied the happiness of reading and now I'm just soaking it all in while making up for lost time.  I really enjoyed both of these books and would highly recommend them.  Before you pick them up, know that they are both on the sad side.  Small As an Elephant really made me think about my relationship with Ethan and about the kind of mother I want to be.  Jefferson's Sons was very interesting.  This book motivated me to do some extra research on Thomas Jefferson, who I admittedly didn't know very much about other than that he was a founding father and the third president of the United States.  It also made me think hard about slavery.  I bawled hard at the end of this book.

Speaking of crying, this is a movie that will make you cry...

I know this movie has been out for a while, but the truth is that I haven't been to the movie theater since before Ethan was born (the last movie I saw in theater was Captain America!) so I'm a little behind.  Nevertheless, this is an excellent movie.  It breaks my heart to think of all the children who lost their parent(s) in 9/11.

I think of my own death someday in the future and of Ethan all alone in the world and it makes me panic.  I don't like thinking about it too much but I do think about it sometimes.  It could happen, you know, me leaving this world before Ethan is grown.  Maybe that's why I am always thinking of what kind of legacy I am leaving for him.  I have never been a very faithful traditional journal keeper.  I have a few of them stacked somewhere with only the first few pages filled because...  For starters, they don't spellcheck.  I would hate for my posterity to think that I'm no good at spelling (even though that's the truth!), and blogging is much more fun.  Whether I'm going to live till tomorrow or until I'm eighty years old, I would like E to have some of my words with him, telling him that I love him after I'm gone.  I love him so much, right now, as I type, and right now, as you're reading this.  I also hope that when he looks at the pictures I take of him that he'll be able to see himself through my eyes and realize just how special and important he is to me.  Life is fragile.  Love the people around you, be kind, breathe the air, and live life.