Claire’s favorite author right now is Michael Buckley. We’re knee deep in his series, “The Sisters Grimm,” and are LOVING it. Imagine my surprise and her utter delight when he responded to a tweet from me!
Say what you will about Twitter, but last night it MADE OUR NIGHT.
Edited to add: Here is a photo of the "Box Set" I'm creating for Claire. Our Collection so far...
Connecting with the author of a favorite series, real time, just like that?
Mind-boggling.
Unbelievable.
Magical.
One of my gifts this holiday season was a Nook! If you don’t know, a Nook is Barnes & Noble’s answer to Amaz0n’s Kindle, both of which are eReaders for reading electronic versions of books. I’m sure the Kindle is great, too, but for reasons we won’t get into, we’d rather support Barnes & Noble than Amaz0n, plus, my hubby wants to get the Nook Tablet eventually, and the sharing capabilities led us in this direction.
I wasn’t sure if I’d like it. I mean, I look at screens all day. My reading time is a break for my eyes from the electronic stimulus.
My hubby assured me that he’d heard great things about the “screen” and the “ink” used and that I’d be impressed. He even said there’s be no glare, so I could read outside if I wanted.
Also, the Nook came for free on Eva, and due to her screen size and the speed at which I read, I was too distracted by all the scrolling than I was with following the story. Would I like the way the Nook felt when I “turned pages” with a swipe of my finger?
Bottom line? I love it. I’m carrying around 1431 pages of a trilogy I’ve been dying to finish, and it’s smaller than a paperback! The screen looks just like a paperback page to me. It doesn’t seem like I’m looking at a “screen” at all. In fact, I was so engrossed one evening that I accidentally turned my little Nook completely over while trying to turn to the next page. Ooops!
Despite that little blip, “turning pages” comes naturally to me on this device, and I love it!
When I’m done with this trilogy, I can download my next adventure directly to my Nook with a click of a button.
Then again, time will tell if this is really a good thing or not. ;)
Check out this post I wrote for Mile High Mamas back in January. I’m replaying it here in its entirety, because we’ve just finished By the Shores of Silver Lake, and Claire begged to go back and read Little House in the Big Woods. This was the perfect breaking point to do that, so I obliged. (The explanation of why we need to read Little House in the Big Woods out of order is told below…)
I just love these books!
So, without further ado, here is the post:
We’ve started a new chapter at our house.
Literally.
We’ve started reading Chapter Books to Claire at bedtime!
(Photos provided by The Casual Perfectionist.)
When she turned 4-years old at the end of November, I thought it would be a good time to see how she’d do with a Chapter Book. Moving on to books that are more words than pictures is a big step. These books make you create the pictures in your own mind. Sitting still long enough to get the images to form is a skill, and I just knew she was ready to tackle it.
And, she was!
What books did I decide to use on our maiden voyage to the land of Chapter Books? The Little House on the Prairie series. I loved these books as a child. My school district had a special reading rewards program (RIF = Reading Is Fundamental), and through that program, I collected Laura Ingalls Wilder’s books, amongst others. In addition to the single books I collected, I thought for sure I had the entire set. I could picture the pale yellow box, with the neat little books standing tall.
But, I couldn’t find it in my box of treasures. All I could find was a handful of the pale yellow books, and there were some major gaps in the storyline.
I wasn’t even sure if Claire would like them, so rather than insist on starting at the beginning (with Little House in the Big Woods, for those of you playing along at home), I got out Little House on the Prairie, technically the second book in the series.
She loved it.
Every night, we’d read a chapter, and she was enthralled. She wanted to read more than a chapter a night, but I held firm. I think a chapter is a good unit of measure, plus the thought of reaching the end of this one without being able to go on to the next one, On the Banks of Plum Creek, made me twitch. I couldn’t believe I couldn’t find my box set!
So, I turned to the Internet. I found the box set, and it was on super-sale. It arrived much quicker than anticipated, and just last week, we moved on to read about Laura’s adventures on the banks of Plum Creek.
Purists would have problems with me skipping Little House in the Big Woods, and also Farmer Boy, but those people didn’t see the look on Claire’s face when I told her we had to wait until the next book to see what happened to the Ingalls family as they were forced to ride away from the homestead they’d built in “Indian Territory.” We’ll read Farmer Boy at the end, and Little House in the Big Woods will be a good way to start the series again, because I have a feeling she’ll want me to start all over when we’re done.
Every night, she begs for the next chapter. In all honesty, we’ve never had a lot of bedtime struggles. There was a time when she was three that we had to resort to trickery to get her off to bed, but it was never really a full-blown issue. (Yes, I know we’re lucky!)
But now? Now that the Chapter Book is waiting for us? Now, she never hesitates when we tell her it’s time to go to bed. We do our bedtime routine, and she snuggles under her covers, waiting to hear what happens next. She loves seeing the few pencil drawings there are in the chapter, but then lets her own images fill her head. There is a glimpse to another world waiting for her, and I’m thrilled that she’s discovered it hiding in a book.
Laura Ingalls Wilder’s writing is just as colorful as I remember, and I love ending the day submerged in another way of life. I love that my daughter is getting to experience a time that is so important in our history, even if it is one chapter at a time.
I love the memories these books conjure up for me, too. I’m enjoying the books this time around just as much as I did well over 25 years ago. My view has shifted a little, in that rather than seeing things only from Laura’s viewpoint, as I did all those years ago, I can also see things from the adult standpoint. The things Caroline and Charles went through are very real to me. I find myself fighting back the tears at things that mean so much more to me now than they did when I was little.
Even though I’ve read them over and over, I, too, can’t wait to see what happens next. And, if you must know, I have a confession: In my mind, Pa will always look and sound just like Michael Landon. Always.
What about you? Were you hooked on Little House on the Prairie (the books and/or the show) when you were little? What chapter books are a favorite in your house? (Feel free to comment here or pop back over to the original post to see what others have said!)
Have you taken my survey yet?
A lot of you have taken my MLM survey, and for that I’m eternally grateful.
The results are amazing and make me giddy. (Maybe it takes a true data-junky to be excited about survey results? Guilty as charged.) To be honest, I can’t say the results are shocking. In fact, they’re pretty much what I was thinking, but you never know unless you ask.
I can’t wait to share my findings with you, and your help has been instrumental in moving my book project to the next step.
I’m not ready to close the survey yet, so if you haven’t done so, please go take the survey. It’s a short survey, and quite painless.
If you have taken it, thank you! I will have to remember to include a formal thank you to you on the dedication page of my book. It will have to be a sweeping generalization of thanks, though, because it’s an anonymous survey.
Plus the font needed to include all your names on one page would be way too tiny.
Have you taken my survey yet?
It’s short.
It’s sweet.
It’s giving me all kinds of cool information.
(You can read more about it here.)
Of course, the “Are you the kind of person who takes surveys?” question is implied.
So, really, the information I’m getting is great…as it applies to people who take surveys.
There’s really no way around that…is there?
Luckily, a lot of people are falling into that category.
What about you? Are you the kind of person who would agree to take a survey? Click here if you know the answer to that question.
A couple weeks ago, I got together with the Mile High Mamas gang for a night of pampering. It was an awesome Girls’ Night Out, and amidst the massages, facials, makeup, and hairstyling, our very own Mile High Mama, Aimee took headshots of us.
This is one where they were trying to get me "to smile for real this time." I smile for real when I see this one.
I love this one, too! And, I'm using it right now as my personal Facebook Photo.
…until I switch it again. I’m funny that way.
And, this one is my favorite. I put this one on the About Page, too. It looks like it could be on the dust-jacket of my book.Have I mentioned I’m writing a book? Well, I am…and I’ll share more about that later. Seeing this photo inspires me to keep writing. Who knows where this photo will end up?
Recently, I was asked if I wanted to participate in fun little book shower involving The Double-Daring Book for Girls, by Andrea Buchanan & Miriam Peskowitz. I’d wanted to check out this book, so I jumped at the chance. After it arrived, I was flipping through it and I really enjoyed seeing the variety of daring things to learn and explore in this book. I wish I would have had a book like this years ago when I was a daring girl, and I can’t wait to pass it down to my daughter!
Do you know a daring girl or are you one? Check out the book yourself!
The book shower concept was to have involved me and my daughter, and admittedly, she’s a bit too young for the book. But, I knew that we’d find something we could try in the book, something that would be a connection for both of us. Something daring.
And, then I saw it:
Dreams.
Dreams have always been a fascination of mine, and they’re something that I talk to Claire about all the time. I still write down my really vivid dreams, just as I started to do years ago in my old journal. A year ago, after we’d lost power one evening, Claire asked me if her dreams ran on batteries or needed electricity to exist. And, just a month ago, she asked me if she could watch the dream she’d had the night before on YouTube.
We always talk about our dreams, but I’d never thought about helping her write hers down…
…until now.
Starting on page 135, the book talks about dreams, and how to make a dream journal and a dream catcher and it even talks about some common dreams people have and their meanings.
Dreaming about losing your teeth? It’s in there.
Dreaming about flying? It’s in there, too.
Dreaming about showing up to a test naked? You guessed it. It’s in there.
I have more in depth dream analysis books in my personal library, but the list in the book was a good start.
It had never occurred to me to start a dream journal for someone so young, but why not? A 3-year old’s dreams are just as important as a 13-year old’s dreams, a 23-year old’s dreams, or even a 35-year old’s dreams. In fact, I don’t think you’re too young or too old to talk about your dreams. No, she won’t dream about showing up to her high school naked, but I was curious to see what her brain would focus on. Like I said, I always ask Claire how she slept and we talk about her dreams, but this was an excuse to get a little deeper.
So, I started writing down her dreams, and when she’s older, I’ll encourage her to record them herself.
Here are some of her dreams over the past five days (in her words):
The recaps of those dreams were pretty short and sweet. She didn’t elaborate any more than that when pressed for more information. They were pretty straight-forward and pretty easy to see the sources.
But, last night’s dream was more vivid. She got really excited and animated when talking about it. This is what she said:
I love that she describes her dreams like “movies in her eyes.” This reinforces why she asked if we could find her dreams on YouTube. When I asked her what a squidder was, she said it was like the little submarine in the movie “Dive Olly Dive,” but it wasn’t. It was an animal. “Dive Olly Dive” is a DVD we watched a few days ago. We’re going to review that one, so I asked her more questions about that than I normally do when we watch a DVD. Maybe that’s why “Dive” is in the title of the DVD in her dream? Puppy tends to disagree with Claire quite a bit, so that’s nothing new. And, we won’t let her watch “scary” shows, so that’s probably where that came from.
Still, it’s amazing to me how the mind works.
When Claire is a little older, I’m going to help her make a dream journal and a dream catcher. (There are directions for both described in The Double-Daring Book for Girls.) In the meantime, I will continue asking her what she dreamt the night before, and I’ll write down the more vivid ones. I may even have her start her own Book of Dreams that involves her coloring pictures to describe them.
What about you? I dare you to share your dreams in the comments. No, scratch that…
I double-dare you!
As you may remember, Heather Armstrong, creator of dooce.com put Denver on her book tour, and I couldn’t wait to meet her.
For real this time.
Let me explain…
I feel like I met Heather around this time back in 2005. I was pregnant with Claire and suffering from horrible morning sickness. In fact, “horrible morning sickness” doesn’t even come close to describing my experience. It got so unbearable that I remember collapsing in my computer chair and opening up a new Internet window. In the Google Search field, I typed something to the effect of “if I don’t stop throwing up from this morning sickness I think I’ll die please help” and I hit Enter.
It wasn’t really a search. It was a desperate plea to the Internet Gods and the Universe to make this miracle of life more bearable. Get me through the next five minutes without barfing. Please.
Through blurry eyes, I looked at the search results, and the top one was a blog post by Heather Armstrong at dooce.com. I clicked through to the website and read a post about Norah Jones. In that moment, I forgot how sick I was. I laughed so hard I cried. And, then I read everything she ever wrote.
I was hooked.
From that point on, I visited every day. I still felt sick, but I had something to look forward to. Heather and her stories became a close friend I visited every day over the years.
Fast forward to the near past, and the moment I saw she was going to be in Denver to promote her book, It Sucked and Then I Cried: How I Had a Baby, a Breakdown, and a Much Needed Margarita
I told my husband that he needed to be home early that day so that I could go to this book signing and meet my hero Heather.
I’d heard horror stories of the book signing lines, so when I found some other bloggers that wanted to join me, we opted to go really early to wait in line.
Yes, we were in line to get in line, and we loved every minute of it. There was one other person in line in front of me. (She claims that she’d just gotten there right before us, but whatever.) 
2nd in line & front row seats!
But, I’m okay with that. I’d rather sit and wait leisurely chatting with real live bloggers (and blog readers) than wait at the end of the line hoping to get a seat.
I got nothin’ but time when meeting Dooce is involved.
After Heather spoke, did a couple readings and then held a Q & A session, they called numbers 1 thru 20 to the front to get their books signed. By pure coincidence, I was first in line. I swear I didn’t knock anyone down. I even offered the position to Number 1, but she declined, and the lady in charge of organizing us said it was okay.
In my head, I’ve known Heather for four years, and I finally got to meet her in person last night.
For real this time.
Here I am NOT attacking Dooce with my claws.
My friend Lori was kind enough to take these photos, and I love that the first one looks like I’m going to attack Heather with my claws. What I’m doing, in fact, is telling her the story of how I met her. Everyone knows the international symbol for typing. Duh.
I still cannot believe I got to meet Heather Armstrong in person.
In person, Heather is so gracious and down to earth. Our encounter didn’t seemed rushed at all. It was easier talking to her than I thought it might be. I was pretty proud of myself for not choking up. She signed my book, and then Jon signed it! (He was actually touring with her on this leg of the trip!)
So, Heather, if you ever happen to read this, thank you so much for putting Denver on your list of stops in your book tour. You’ve been an inspiration for me for years, and it’s nice to finally meet you.
For real this time.
And! To the people in line with me last night! If I met you in real life, and you’ve stopped by this blog, welcome! Please comment or email me. It’s really cool to put faces with twitter IDs and blog URLs, isn’t it?
One of my favorite bloggers has written a book, and she’s going to be doing a book signing in Denver!
DENVER, CO
Monday, April 6
7:30 PM MST
TATTERED COVER
9315 Dorchester Street
Highlands Ranch, CO 80129
(Book signing info is from dooce.com)
I’ve been an avid reader of Heather Armstrong’s blog for years. Hers was actually the first “blog” I ever frequented. I stumbled upon her site after sitting at my computer and typing “if this morning sickness doesn’t stop I think I’ll die please help me” into Google and then hitting Enter. The post that came up was the one about where she meets Norah Jones, and I laughed so hard I cried. And, then I read everything she ever wrote.
She was one of the reasons I started a blog in the first place.
I know it sounds so cliche, but it’s true!
This week, I took one of the gift cards I got for my birthday to my local bookstore and bought her book. I’m almost halfway through it, and I love it. Her humor is not for everyone, as you can tell from the vastly differing opinions of the commenters on her blog, but she makes me laugh out loud.
Needless to say, I’m a fan. I can’t wait to go to the book signing and get a chance to meet the woman behind the blog…and the book!
The other day, Claire was reading one of the books from my childhood. I have a bunch of books from the past, and they’ve seen better days. We try to be careful with them, and I won’t let her play with the ones that are literally disintegrating.
But, this one isn’t too bad.
Click photos to enlarge.
The Animal Show is one of her favorite books.
It is inscribed in the front. The copyright is MCMLXV, which is 1965 by my calculations.
It is to Me from my Grandparents, for Christmas…1975!
Whenever we get to the Grandmother Grundy Poem…
Claire says…
“Look, Momma! They have your glasses! It’s your glasses!”
*gasp*
So they are! (It’s hard to tell by the angle that they’re sitting on the book, but they look almost identical to Grandmother Grundy’s!)
Part of me is taken aback. I guess everything old is new again! Or, maybe I’m just old! Or, maybe…maybe Granny’s got style!
Today is Day 18 of 30 in the NaBloPoMo Challenge! Check it out and/or join in the fun!
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