Currently Reading

The daddy bear is currently reading...

Ya, daddy bear likes to keep his reading list pretty short.

The mommy bear is reading...

I'm enjoying Make the Bread, Buy the Butter, and have concluded that it's one of those books you have to own.  On my nook, I have The Wednesday Wars and it's frankly quite awesome so far.  

And finally, the baby bear...

These are the books that we read at least once per day.  Ethan is obsessed with Good Night, Gorilla.  I personally find it very challenging to read this book to him because, well, there are just so few words.  My estimation is that we read this book at least half a dozen times a day.  He is also loving the Llama Llama books which I find adorable.

Nook Simple Touch with Glowlight

Not long after I posted my two cents on the Nook Simple Touch (old Nook) on this blog and proclaimed how much I love it, the hubby surprised me with an upgrade: the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight (new Nook).  I've been using it for two whole months now and I'm absolutely head-over-heals heart-throbbingly in love.

The new Nook possesses everything I love about the old Nook and more.  First and foremost, they changed the on/off button in the back and man it's a million times better!  Thank you Barnes and Noble because that old button was, simply put, total garbage and it was starting to drive me up the wall.  Next, I love the glow light.  It makes reading so much easier when everyone else is sleeping!  The battery life is still awesome.  I don't need to charge it any more often than the Nook Simple Touch.  What I usually do is to let it charge when I put new books on the device and the new Nook has been holding up just fine in between charges.

When I compared the two devices side by side, I did notice that the text on the old Nook looks a little darker and have more "pop", but the new Nook still looks awesome.  One thing I wish Barnes and Noble would do differently is the "software" on the device.  I wish that you could organize your bookshelf better by putting them in different "folders".  Maybe there is a way and I just don't know about it?

The bottom line is that I love my Nook with GlowLight and I would recommend it to any devoted book reader.

Ten Books

There's a blog I really like called Everyday Reading.  I think I like it so much because I can relate to the blogger Janssen: she is a mom of a little girl, she likes to make nutritious food for her family, but most importantly, she loves to read.  She does these Everything I read posts quarterly and when I'm ready for a new book I always go back to those posts to look for a recommendation.  I love her book lists.  Then I thought, maybe I can do something like that on my blog as well but then I crossed out that thought because by the rate I'm reading my quarterly book list would have only a handful of books on it and that's just a little pathetic.  SO I've decided to do a 10 Books I've Read post featuring the last ten books I've read and giving one- to two-sentence reviews on the books.

Are you ready?

Here it goes.

The First Husband by Laura Dave.  This was a meh for me.  I didn't really like it.  It was not a very good story with a few holes in the plot, and there were things the main character did that I really couldn't imagine that anyone would do.  So no I wouldn't recommend this book.

Small as an Elephant by Jennifer Jacobson.  I really enjoyed this book.  It makes me want to be a better mother.

Jefferson's Sons by Kimberly Bradley.  I liked this book a lot.  I wrote about it a little bit more in this post a while ago.  For me, it wasn't so much about whether Jefferson really had children with Sally Hemings, but more about the point that even people who so honorably fought for their own kind's freedom could be completely blind to their own fault at holding others in bondage.

Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt.  This was okay.  It was kinda funny but nothing amazing.

What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty.  I loved this book.  The way the author led her readers to the truth one step at a time got me hooked.  Definitely my kind of book.  Read it.

Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross.  This was a very interesting book.  It was a little too long or maybe the story was too slow but a good read nonetheless.  I'm just glad that I was born in this day and age!

I've Got Your Number by Sophie Kinsella.  This was fun but I wasn't in love with it or anything.  I don't even know why I still read any chick lit, they never wow or amaze me, but I guess there are just times when you want to read a light hearted book that doesn't require your brain to work too hard.

Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear.  This was one of my favorites out of these ten as well.  It reminded me a little bit of the Number One Ladies Detective Agency series, but Maisie Dobbs is less witty and involves subjects that are a little more serious.

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer.  I think that when the vampire fairies or midgets or gnomes sprinkled their magic dusts over all the females in the United States that they must have missed me or something.  I just don't understand what's so mesmerizing about falling in love with a vampire or a wolf!  Seriously.  Maintaining a healthy marital relationship is hard enough even when you don't have to think about what you're going to grab and knock out your annoyed husband with so that he doesn't bite the noisy neighbors next door.

Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt.  Yes, I really liked this one as well.  It's fun and serious at the same time.

If you have read any of the books I've mentioned above, leave me a comment and let me know how you liked them!  Happy reading!

The Nook

Ah, the nook.  Let me tell you about the nook.  The moment those evil little e-readers came out on the market, I knew that they should never be trusted.  How suspicious I was of the kindle and the nook and the hundred other e-readers there were.  I was an inside-out gung-ho paper girl.  I love paper.  I love the feel and the smell of it, and that's why I got so entranced by bookbinding.  The idea of reading a book on a digital device was unthinkable!  Blasphemy even!  

Until the hubby got me one the summer I was pregnant, that is.

I didn't love it at first even though it was nice.  The words on the screen were clear and crisp, almost exactly like you're reading an actual book.  I appreciated how it was so well designed that it's very natural to hold and I love the page-turning buttons on both sides of the device.  The first feature that started turning my anti-e-readers guard off was the dictionary, of course.  The dictionary on the nook makes it so fast and easy to look up words.  Plus, it was far more precise than the walking dictionary (aka husband) that I had to use when we were out.  I took it on several road trips and vacations.  It was super nice that I didn't have to haul 10 pounds of books with me when I had the nook.  It's extremely light and it takes up hardly any space at all in my purse.  Also, you seldom have to charge it.  The battery lasts forever.

And then came the little one.  The mini made it quite hard to read.  You need some practice and extra flexible arms to turn a page without waking or distracting a little one sleeping or nursing in your arms.  And it's almost impossible to hold your baby's head (my baby's head size was in the 100th percentile let me remind you) and a hardcover that's on the larger size with one hand for more than fifteen minutes without it falling asleep so I once again turned to my nook and it served me well.  I grew to love it more and more over time.  I feel like the best thing about it right now is that I can get digital books downloaded onto my device from our library without driving in the hot hot car under the hot hot sun with a hot hot baby in the back seat to the library.  What's more?  I suspect that my paper-loving gene has somehow transfered to my child.  His little hands find papers to tear everywhere we go.  There was this one day when I found him tearing out pages of the Ensign and chewing them--he was literally feasting upon the word of God.  But I digress...  My point was that with the nook, I'm saving money from all the tape that I would otherwise have to buy to tape up destroyed pages or to tape the mini's little hands together to stop him from tearing my books up.

The nook, of course, is not perfect and there are things I don't like about it.  The on/off button on the back is total garbage.  Also, the material on the back is extremely prone to smudges and finger prints which makes it look dirty all the time.  But these are all little things that I can live with.

Anyway, I better sign off now to spend the rest of the evening with the hub.  How's that for an abrupt end to a blog post.  Happy weekend everyone!

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.

April Favorites

I've decided to do a little monthly favorite series because it's always fun for me to find out what products other people enjoy.  So here's my favorite products from the month of April :)

1.  CeraVe Moisturizing Lotion.  Ethan was born with very sensitive skin.  I tried everything on him including Cetaphil, Aveeno, Vaseline, etc., but nothing worked until we finally decided to try CeraVe.  It worked magic on him.  His eczema totally cleared a couple days after we started putting this on him and the good news is that it stays away!  I started using this as my daily moisturizer as well and it has been wonderful for my skin.  It's a little pricey but having eczema-free baby cheeks is totally worth the price tag!

2.  Aveeno Positively Smooth Shave Gel.  This shaving gel has a light almond scent and I personally find that very appealing.  It keeps my legs soft and smooth.  It's my favorite shaving gel/cream I've tried so far!

3.  Tarte LipSurgence Natural Lip Stain Pencil.  I stopped using colored products on my lips ever since I had mini man mostly because of his sensitive skin.  I kiss his little cheeks about 948 times a day and can you imagine how his skin would act up if it's covered in lip gloss all day long?  Plus, I just don't see myself re-applying lipstick every time I leave a smooch on my mini man's chubby cheeks.  But then this came in my Birchbox one month and I was in love!  The color that I have is Amused.  It's a very bright pink.  I don't usually wear such bright lips but it really brightened up my face and it stayed on my lips!  No transfer whatsoever :)

4.  Shiseido Majolica Majorca.  I've been using this mascara for years.  No matter what other mascaras I tried, I always come back to this.  It's great for Asian lashes.

5.  Tarte Amazonian Clay 12-Hour Blush.  I love this blush because it stays on my cheeks for hours.  I can actually see some color on my cheeks even after I step out of the house!  Some of the blushes I own fades away in minutes.  Geez!  The color I have is Blushing Bride and it's very natural looking.

6.  Nu Skin Sole Solution Foot Treatment.  I used to work at Nu Skin.  They have an employee store and I would grab a tube of this every month I go.  This stuff is amazing.  It feels amazing on my feet and keeps them moisturized all day long.  I never have cracked ankles even in the summer when I live in flip flops and I give all the credit to this foot treatment.  My personal feet massager (Jake that is) loves this stuff as well.  He can tell just by applying it on my feet that this is a wonderful product.  We have tried lots of other foot creams on the market but nothing comes close to the Sole Solution.  The sad story is that we just ran out of my last tube.  Sob.

7.  Bringing Up Bebe.  This is the book I'm currently reading.  I'm not very far in it yet but it has been fun.  Maybe I'll give you guys a full review after I finish.  We'll see!