The DaVinci Code

I just finished listening to the audio book version of The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown. I really didn't know what the book was about, only that it's been popular lately and than both Vicki and Sara told me they enjoyed it. I got hooked from the start. I just wish I had picked up the unabridged version instead cuz now I wonder what I missed. Maybe I'll go pick up the unabridged one. The only difficulty with audio books is that there are sometimes parts of a book where it would be easier to look at on a page than to hear a narrator read it (such as the many "codes" mentioned in this book).

I'm thinking of reading another Dan Brown book. Which one should I read next?

Finding time to read

It's quite challenging to find time to read anything... books, magazines, whatever. Suzanne shared her tip for reading while taking care of her baby. She told me that she would bend back the covers and use a rubberband to keep all the pages back, leaving only about 10 pages free. She said it was easier to deal with 10 loose pages than a whole book of loose pages. This allowed her to hold the book in one hand (while holding baby in the other), and she could easily find her place in the book. She told me she managed to read 30 books in one year by this method. Hey, that's pretty cool!

At first I thought this was a great idea. However I don't think I can bring myself to mutilate a book by bending the spine, etc. I'm usually very careful with my books and keep them in pristine or near pristine condition. No bent pages. No cracked spine. No marks on the pages. Am I just being too anal?

I think I'm just going to have to put reading on the backburner, or accept reading at a much slower pace than my usual slow pace. My other alternative is to listen to audio books, converting them to MP3 so I can place them on my MP3 player to listen to while taking baby out for walks.

Or maybe I should just stick to watching TV and DVDs...


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Reflections

I've discovered that mirrors and glass windows are my friend. They help me see what baby looks like (viz. whether she has her eyes open or closed) when I can't easily see for myself because she is looking away from me.

I used to take her out for walks in her stroller until I discovered the Baby Bjorn. Ever since she got used to being worn in the Baby Bjorn, she has hated being in the infant carrier for any extended length of time. I loved wearing her facing me. I loved looking down and seeing her look back up at me. Now that she's a little older and a little bigger, I put her in the Baby Bjorn front facing. I think she enjoys this as it affords her a better view of the world around her. She loves looking at everything. The downside is that I can never see what her facial expression is, or whether her eyes are open or closed. Now when we go out for walks I have started to use glass windows or car windows to get a glimpse of my baby girl, and also to straighten out her hat because it gets shifted as she turns her head.

When I am holding M over my shoulder and she has her face turned away from me, I use the reflection of a mirror or glass to see whether she is awake or whether her eyes are closed and she has fallen asleep.

M knows she can see a baby in the mirror (don't yet know whether she realizes it is herself), however I don't think she has caught on to the reflection on glass. She loves to look at herself in the mirror, she always greets the mirror-baby with a great big smile. She sometimes tals to the mirror-baby too! It's cute.

Well ventilated car ride

I can't believe our car window is broken! We had parked the car down the street on Friday and had forgetten about this until this morning when we were about to go visit the inlaws. So I went to go fetch the car and drive it up to the house so we wouldn't have to lug M in her car seat to where the car was parked. It was a warm sunny day so the car was kinda warm inside. I decided to open both rear windows a crack to let it air out a bit as I drove back to the house. After pulling into our driveway, DH asked me to close both windows. The right (passenger) side rear window closed OK. The left (driver) side rear window would not go up when I pressed the "up" button. DH asked me to push it the other way, so I pushed it "down" and the window went down. Then I tried the "up" button again and it would not go up. Oh no! DH tried to manually pull the window up, it would kinda slide upwards, but then fall back down to the lowest open position. Sigh...

We ended up driving to the inlaws with the rear passenger side window down. Thank goodness it was a nice warm day. They live an hours drive away and it was certainly windy/noisy due to the open window, but it really wasn't too bad.

On the way home, M seemed to settle into a deep sleep pretty easily. We think it was the added "white noise" from the open window, plus the nice breeze coming in.

We are going to get the window repaired tomorrow. We had this problem with the rear passenger side window before, fortunately it was covered under warranty at the time. This time it won't be under warranty. :( We have discovered that this malfunctioning window is a known issue with Audi and VW vehicles. We've been shopping around for a new car, a stationwagon, for hauling M around and have decided to avoid Audi andVW wagons due to their reliability. We've looked at Consumer Reports ratings and they weren't that great. Besides, I DO NOT want an Audi even though they do make some nice looking wagons. The Audi climate control system drives me batty since it doesn't work in any logical fashion.

We gave my MIL her birthday present today. I made a point of using a minimal amount of tape as I wrapped the large box since I knew she likes to save gift wrap to reuse when she wraps her own gifts to other people. I only used three small pieces of tape, each piece no longer than an inch. I place one on the main side to secure the paper, then used one at each end. That's it! I think she was pleased with not having to carefully cut a lot of tape off. :)

M was on good behavior as usual. Not fussing much. Being cute. Letting grandpa hold her, and falling asleep in his arms! Showing off her new baby skill of sitting up while supporting herself with outstretched arms. Grandpa wanted to capture this on video but was a little late getting the camcorder; M was pooped out by the time he came back with it. Perhaps next time...

14 pound bundle of joy

M had her 6 month appt today. I can't believe she grew nearly 2 inches since the last appt 2 months ago. She is 26 inches and 14 pounds. I knew she was getting heavier. She's really part of my weight training program, no need to join the gym. :D Well, she's still lighter than a 25 lb sack of rice ... and I would think that by the time she is 25 lbs, she will be able to use her arms to help ease the weight.

She received 3 shots today: dpat; haemophilus b; pcv7. This time the doctor gave her the shots instead of the nurses. I think he has more experience points. He did it so quickly, and although M cried at first, she settled down quickly and didn't fuss as much later in the day. Yay! M will be getting only 1 shot at her next appt in December.

Boy do they grow fast!

People weren't kidding when they told me that babies grow fast. I'm still amazed at how tiny my baby was back in March when she was born. I have pictures that prove she was an itty bitty little thing! Looking at her now, is she really the same baby?

She's had a tendency to outgrow her clothes slightly ahead of schedule (according to clothing tag sizes). I bought 6-9 month clothes for her on August 13 (4 months, 3 weeks, 6 days... yes I'm still counting) and she is just fitting them perfectly now a month later. I imagine she will outgrow these in a couple weeks or so. Sigh... she's growing so fast.

There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to baby clothing sizes. At 3 months, she was fitting into a body suit that was labelled as 12 months! I wish there was some sort of size standards to make it easier to shop for clothes. Some brands have slightly better labelling with a range for weight & length along with the size.

Is Dumbledore really dead?

It was quite a challenge for me to read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince when it was finally released. I had been looking forward to this book for such a long time that I was determined to read it somehow. That's quite a challenge with a 5 month old baby around! I hadn't yet mastered reading the book while holding my "high needs" baby, so I decided to try the audio book instead which turned out to be more efficacious than trying to hold a hard cover open book with one hand. I converted to MP3 and placed it on my little MP3 player so I could listen while taking baby out for walks. I'd listen for 10-15 minutes when we nursed. I made progress by listening to bits here and there, and managed to finish the book within a week.

Omigosh, is Dumbledore really dead?

While reading HP6, I realized that I had forgotten many details from the previous book. I plan on rereading that soon. I need to refresh my memory!

Vicki sent me a link to a very interesting website, Dumbledore Is Not Dead. Check it out, but only after you have finished reading the book (since it has spoilers) ...

testing

Just a test post to see what this looks like.

Ton scooter est japonais.
Ta pizza est italienne.
Ton couscous algérien.
Ta démocratie est grecque.
Ton café est brésilien.
Ta montre est suisse.
Ta chemise est hawaiienne.
Ton baladeur est coréen.
Tes vacances sont turques, tunisiennes ou marocaines.
Tes chiffres sont arabes.
Ton écriture est latine.
Ton Christ est juif...

Et tu reproches à ton voisin d'être un étranger !?