2013's Books

The 23 books I managed to squeeze in this year...Many are YA and or late elementary chapter books, but some are grown up books. I didn't have the brain power to read for much of this year. The baby was born around #5, because I remember working my way through that in small chunks. I remember reading #6 and #11 in even smaller chunks while I was nursing, attempting to hold the printed books in one hand. #20-24 were in the last couple weeks of the year when TV ended for the winter break. I watched SO much TV this fall because it was easier to do when I was exhausted from work and the baby went to bed. Hopefully next year there will be more!

1. Matched Ally Condie

2. Crossed Ally Condie

3. Reached Ally Condie

4. Someday Someday Maybe Lauren Graham

5. The Storyteller Jodi Picoult

6. Six Years Harlan Coben

7. Wonder RJ Palacio

8. Thin Space Jody Casella

9. The PS Brothers Maribeth Boelts

10. Mighty Miss Malone Christopher Paul Curtis

11. The War for Late Night Bill Carter

12. Medicine Men Extreme Appalachian Doctoring by Carolyn Jourdan

13. Looking For Me Betsy Rosenthal

14. Ungifted Gordon Korman

15. Calico Joe John Grisham

16. Heaven is Here Stephanie Nielson

17. See you at Harry's Jo Knowles

18. The Light In The Ruins Chris Bohjalian

19. Laughter, Tears, and Braids Bruce Ham

20. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz

21. Reconstructing Amelia Kimberly McCreight
22. Drama High: The Incredible True Story of a Brilliant Teacher, A Struggling Town & The Magic of Theater by Michael Sokolove
23. The End of Your Life Book Club by Will Schwalbe

Wrapping Gift Cards

I'm not a huge fan of giving gift cards for presents. I enjoy thinking about and finding things I know people will like. However, I don't mind getting them ... so that makes me realize that thinking of the right gift card for someone can be a good gift in the long run. But if I do give a gift card, I like to jazz it up a little rather than just handing it to them.

Here are some of the gift card holders I made this year. While I found most of the basic ideas on Pinterest, I did tweak each of them to fit what we were giving.

Coffee cups, whether for a non-Starbucks card,

 or a Starbucks card. (The light did something - I did make it cup shaped but it looks very rectangular in this picture)

 This one is good for anything movie themed.

 This is to a sports bar, so I used sports paper and color schemes.

 This one is just a restaurant, but I liked the design so I went with it.

 (It opens up like a wallet)

 This one didn't photograph well, but I made the holder a little longer, with tan paper, and aluminum foil instead of designed paper...trying to go for the "burrito" look since that's where it's for.

9 month posting (super late, oops!)

Size : 29 3/4 inches and 17 pounds 9.6 ounces - As suspected he has grown too long for the car seat long before he grew too heavy.

Clothes: He needs to move to 9-12 in almost everything, but only because of length. Everything is so baggy! Things are capris instead of pants, 3/4 length sleeves instead of long, and onesies are pulled tight at bottom where they snap.

Eating: Just before the 9 month day, we went through almost a week of barely any eating because of top teeth erupting. It was a long week. We're trying to move to more food slowly. The doctor recommended trying to squeeze an extra container of food into him. Unfortunately, his gag reflex is holding him back on eating whole food. It's frustrating, but he'll figure it out eventually. He currently is happy to put food in his mouth and then he immediately spits it up. We hid a couple grains of rice in a spoonful of baby squash and he gagged but kept it down. He can also occasionally keep down a small spoon of real, unsweetened applesauce. Puffs and potatoes are no-gos right now.

He now eats every stage 2 food from Gerber that we can find that doesn't have dairy or soy. That is some grains, some meats (chicken/apples, turkey/rice, chicken/rice, beef vegetable (that was a problem, we think...some kids who are allergic to the protein in milk react to beef and some don't. We think he had a mild reaction - not sure about the blood, but lots of discomfort when filling diapers) He particularly liked mango, interestingly enough. 

Sleeping: No real changes - naps better at home than school, approximately 8p-8a on weekends, 7 or 7:30p - 6a on school days. A couple naps a day, usually a longer one and shorter one but sometimes two long or two short.

Physical: He can push himself backwards on his tummy now, but not always. The harder he tries to go forwards, the more he goes backwards. It is kind of funny. When sitting on our lap on the couch, he can launch himself to get something further down on the couch (remote, phone, cat, etc) and he can stand up holding on to things as long as we put him there and spot him. He can't lift himself to standing or sitting yet. His pincher grasp is pretty good. (About a week after the 9 month day, he managed to untie my double knotted shoe. Nobody saw it happen, so we don't know how he did it, but when we looked over he had both laces in his hands.)

Vocal: Sometimes we hear consonants - b, d, g, and starting with n. Sometimes there's raspberry sounds but not very frequently

Other: Two top teeth popped through right at the beginning of December. The week before that was rough on the eating front but we were home for Thanksgiving break so at least he got to be blah at home. He's enjoying musical toys these days like the musical mirror from Fisher Price and the Leap Frog learning table. He also likes unstacking the rings and stacking cups.