penn

Summer Reading

I've had the opportunity to do a good amount of reading this summer. In June, swollen feet meant I had a good excuse to sit in bed with my feet up. And, with a kindle I borrowed from my mom, I've started reading while feeding Julie. I must say, I have always resisted e-readers, but the kindle is significantly easier to handle than a traditional book while breast feeding.

Right before Julie's birth, I finally started The Hunger Games. I devoured the books and was quite close to finishing the trilogy as I went into labor. Of course, it took me several days to finish the last hundred pages. While it won't win any literary excellence prizes anytime soon, I still enjoyed the books. The story was captivating and felt fresh. I had studiously avoided anything related to The Hunger Games before I started reading (mostly out of disdain), so I was happily spoiler-free. In the end, I was quite satisfied.

Since the birth, I've read 2.5 books. Both of my completed books should have come with trigger warnings; they both involve adoption and losing children. I read the first book when Julie was just weeks old, and I sobbed through an entire chapter. The first completed book is Moloka'i, by Alan Brennert. This book starts in the late 1800's and follows the path of a young Hawaiian girl named Rachel. At the age of 7, Rachel was diagnosed with leprosy and exiled to the colony on Moloka'i. The story follows her long and eventful life and intertwines with the history of Hawai'i. I love Hawai'i, so this book was a really fun read. Rachel originally lived on Oahu, and I've been many of the places mentioned. My favorite part was coming to understand more about leprosy/Hansen's disease. I knew there were leper colonies but knew little about them prior to reading the novel. I'd say this one is a must-read.

The second book I finished was Orphan Train, by Christina Baker Kline. This one is a dual story where we read about a contemporary young woman in foster care while also hearing the first-person narrative of an old woman who was shipped west on an orphan train during her youth. I read many orphan train novels during middle school, so I suppose I have some background here. Even though I knew about orphan trains, I still found the story compelling. Both women struggle with rejection, poor family fits, and not truly knowing who they are. They find each other due to court-ordered community service for the young woman. I did enjoy the novel, but I would mark this one an "if interested" rather than a must read. If you like historical fiction, it's worth a look. The writing is simple, but that does help the reading go quickly.

Finally, I have started The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, by Rebecca Skloot. As a biology teacher, I should have read this ages ago. This book is why my mom loaned me her kindle. I'm approximately 30% done (I love the progress bar on the kindle!) and definitely into the story. I'm not sure what I expected, but the narrative wasn't it. Still, I am enjoying learning the backstory of Henrietta's family, her ancestry, and the prevailing conditions from the time in which she lived. I'm outraged about the lack of informed consent for medical procedures, and I'm glad cases such as hers paved the way for patient consent laws. I'll try and report more when I've finished the book.

School starts soon, and I'm sure I'll have less time for reading. Still, I love this time of nursing, snuggling, and getting in some quality books. Happy reading!

My cat and my baby

Ways that my cat and my kid are similar:

1. They both weigh approximately 9 pounds.

2. They both wake me up in the middle of the night insisting to be fed.

3. I have to clean up after their bodily functions.

4. They both have razor sharp claws. Seriously, have you felt little baby nails?

Top 5 reasons I like living in a dorm

I should clarify that I'm a dorm parents, so we live in a nice apartment in the dorm. No room sharing for me these days. Well, at least no room sharing with people I'm not related to by blood or marriage.

1. No weird drops in water temperature or pressure. Perhaps the boilers can run out of water, but I've never had that problem. The water doesn't get super duper hot, but it's hot enough for me at the highest setting. Plus, no worries about scalding yourself, because the water just can't get that hot.

2. Industrial strength toilet -- we have a public restroom style toilet, thankfully with a lid. That baby never clogs. Bonus: hopefully Julie will never be scared by loud public toilets, because our toilet is that loud.

3. My friends live just down the hall. Of course, the downside is that people move to new apartments many years, so the same friends aren't always down the same hall (this also leads to the funny bit of who else has lived in your apartment, and we swap apartment tips and tricks all the times about the idiosyncracies of each place). I love being able to throw on flip flops and visit people. We also loan stuff to each other all the time. It's like being in a commune without actually having to share my living space.

4. Free rent! Do I need to say more? It is in exchange for keeping track of 115ish teenage boys, but that's not as bad as it sounds.

5. I can submit a help ticket anytime something breaks, and someone will come fix it for me. I even got someone to paint a room once, in the winter, when projects were slow.

For us, this lifestyle works well. I hope it continues to be good for our family; hard to say what changes are in store. We've had kids living here all summer, and that's gone fine. Matt even got paid to do supplemental dorm duty. I'm excited for our school-year boys, as some of them will even play with Julie or our cat. Here's to "alternative" living.

4 week video

I've got some non-baby posts in the mental works, so this blog won't be all baby, all the time. I do want to share this video I filmed on Friday when Julie was 4 weeks old. We're having a lot of fun with her.

4 weeks

It is hard to believe that the 4th of July was four weeks ago today. The entire month of July completely slipped by in a whir of baby. When we first held her, she was this new little alien in our lives. Despite being acquainted with her for 40+ weeks on the inside, it was so different to hold Julie in my arms.

Now, we are comfortably acquainted. I almost always know what she wants (usually, to eat). She focuses well and sometimes even turns her head to look at us. Suffice to say that every day I fall more in love with our little girl.

Here are some photos from the past month. I'm doing weekly pictures, but I also try to snag shots with my nice camera from time to time. I am doing daily iphone pics, but they're not quite as nice as the ones from my dSLR. This first one is on her literal birth day; one of Julie's first pictures.