We've launched

In case you have missed my announcements elsewhere, I am writing for a new blog. I don't think clicking on that picture will actually do anything, but you can find the blog here. Click on my name in the sidebar and you can find my post. (It's quite controversial.) Come to my defense!

And please tell your friends about this blog. Maybe someday they'll decide to pay me for contributing and then I can be a paid writer. How cool would that be?

7

Jonah just turned 7. (Side note: When did I get old enough to have a 7-year old?) Jonah approaches his birthdays with the enthusiasm and joy of an Oprah Winfrey show audience getting a new gold-plated cashmere rice cooker. We have been talking about it for months. He has written lists of all the gifts he wants and told us months ago that his birthday would be at Chuck E. Cheese. So needless to say, it's been a week of celebration.

I do want to say this about Jonah. We make jokes about him on this blog about how tough he can be and how exhausting. But he truly is amazing. I am proud to have him as my oldest son. He is smart, creative and ambitious. He is loving and affectionate. He is driven (see above: exhausting) but I think he will be successful in whatever he tries. He is a good sport. We have him in piano, violin, baseball and karate and he (rarely) complains. He is amazing with Noel and Lila. Noel and he are think as thieves and Lila thinks  that Jonah is the greatest thing that ever happened. He is musical and artistic and athletic and creative and a genius.

Jonah's latest obsession is Mario, so there was a definitely a theme at the birthday. We had a Mario cake:

And many Mario themed gifts. Like...a Mario game!

Side note: This game is AWESOME! It is like the old school Mario. I am quite good at it, too.

And a Mario bag. Evidently the messenger bag is the way to go. Jonah has been insisting for months that he needs a messenger bag. I guess it is what the cool kids do.

Not pictured: a Mario T-Shirt and a Mario poster. And a Mario curling iron and Mario gold-plate cashmere rice cooker. I think every single gift had Mario on it. 

Amy made his favorite dinner: chicken and rice. Thanks for smiling nice, Jonah. Thanks. 

And we did indeed go to Chuck E. Cheese. We were understandable scared. But here's the thing about Chuck E. Cheese: it kind of rules. When you show up, they have your table all set up for you. They give you a party host who takes your food order, hands out the tokens and tells the kids how much time they have to play games. Then when it is time for the birthday celebration they gather your kids up. They cut the cake and serve it. And at the end, they clean everything up!! The only thing that could make that better would be if someone did all that for me and I WASN'T at Chuck E. Cheese!

Jonah played lots of games with his friends and won lots of tickets and traded those tickets for lots of junky trinkets.

Jonah even got an awesome crown that had tokens inside. Also, now Chuck E. just comes out and dances around. There is no longer that whole creepy band thing. Remember these guys? With that creepy space dog? And cheerleader monkey? And evil gorilla? WHO THOUGHT KIDS WOULD LIKE THEM? Are they bears? Are they gophers? WHAT ARE THEY?!?!

Jonah also got stuck in a booth full of tickets that flew around and he could grab as many as he could catch in 30 seconds. It was like one of those booth's full of dollar bills, except instead of getting to trade those dollar bills for exciting goods and services, you get to trade them for plastic snakes and Chinese finger traps. (Is that offensive? Do we call them Asian Finger Traps?)

The picture doesn't do it justice. It was super awesome. 

So happy birthday, Jonah. May you have many more years of tokens, singing mice and ticket-whirlwinds.

Josh's Book Corner: March!!!

Part three of my monthly reading log. Read past entries here or here. Or follow me on Goodreads here. 


I know you have been dying to know what I read in March. I can hear your over-dinner conversations now. "Honey - I am DYING to know what Josh read in March! He only read two books last month! Is he going to make his 2011 goal of 40 books?"

Well, rest assured, I am back on track. 5 book in January, 2 books in February and 6 books (!!) in March.
Here we go.
Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
5 out of 5 stars. Usually when I say a book is 5 stars, it means I loved it, I would read it again and that I would recommend it to everyone. I did love this book, but I don't know that I could recommend it to many people. It is the story of two brothers who were born in Ethiopia to a Nun and...to someone else. The mom dies in childbirth and the dad disappears. It is told from the point of view of Marion. It is one of those sweeping, epic tales that takes you all over the world and across time, through the civil wars in Ethiopia to a hospital in New York City. Fantastic.

After the Golden Age by Carrie Vaughn
4 out of 5 stars. What makes this book super awesome is that I won it on Goodreads and that I got an ARC. (That's what those of us in the industry call and "Advanced Reader Copy." This book is yet to be published!) It made me feel exclusive and sheeshy. And it made me feel like the publisher cared about my informed opinion of this book to start the buzz. I am sure that is not the case, but it is easy to buy my affection. It is the story a girl, Celia, who is the estranged adult daughter of the Metrocity's two greatest superheros, Captain Olympus and the Spark. She is part of the legal team that is persecuting their arch-nemesis, the Destructor, who is on trial for tax-evasion. It is an interesting modern take on a classic super hero story.

13 Treasures by Michelle Harrison
3.5 out of 5 stars. Just in case you were starting to think I was too manly, this is a book that is clearly targeted to 12 year old girls. Tanya, can see fairies (I know, I know.) She gets sent to her Grandma's secluded country-side manor because her family is tired of dealing with her fairy seeing nonsense. While there she gets wrapped up in a cold-case about a young girl who went missing 50 years before. And then there are fairies. It is sort of like a slightly darker, slightly edgier, more British version of the Fablehaven series.

The Great Hunt: Book Two of 'The Wheel of Time' by Robert Jordan
3.5 out of 5 stars. Here is the story of "The Wheel of Time" series. When I was in high school and my early 20s, I loved these books! There are a lot of them (I think there were 7 when I first started reading them.) and they were all LONG (600-1000 pages each) and the new ones would only come out every couple of years. I would read them and wait patiently and then the new one would come out but I would have to reread a few so that I knew what was going on (they got more complicated and more epic as they went on) eagerly awaiting the final book, which rumor had it would be around book 12 or 13. And then after book 11, Robert Jordan died. For real. So those of us who had been strung along by this series thought we would never get to see how it ended. But then Jordan's widow hired another author (Brandon Sanderson, who I happen to love and think is a great writer) to finish the series. And he is currently writing the 14th (and last) book. So I have decided to reread one final time so I can finally see how it ends. That being said, book 2 was always one of my least favorites. It lays the groundwork for some great stuff it later books, but in and of itself, it is a little boring.

A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein
3.5 out of 5 stars. This was our March NWBC book, chosen by my lovely wife Amy. It is the story of a doctor who's grown son (he's 20) starts dating the messed up daughter (she's 30!) of a friend of the family. The doctor, who's name I forget, doesn't want them dating, but is sort of powerless to stop it. It was an easy enough read, with compelling (if somewhat unlikeable) characters. But nothing about the book made me anxious to see what would happen next. The interesting this was I was pretty ho-hum about the book overall and then we had our book club and after our discussion I bumped its rating up half-a-star. There were observations made at book club that I hadn't noticed on my own that made this book much more interesting. I would recommend it for your next book club.

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff
5 out of 5 stars. This was a great read. It is sort of like The Road for the pre-teen set. The story of a girl who is sent to live with family in England because of her eating disorder and her new step-mom being kind of a skanky ho. Whilst there, there is an invasion and her and the other kids are cut off from civilization. It has a great voice and feels very real. I am definitely curious to see what else Ms. Rosoff has written. I recommend it to anyone.

See you next month!

Salon

Today Amy had a hair appointment with Russ. Russ is the crazy tattooed man responsible for Amy's super cute and stylish haircuts. We figured as long as Amy was getting a cut we would see if Russ would trim Lila too. She's has darling hair (kind if auburn and curly) but lately it has been looking a little raggedy.

I was a little worried. We were in sheeshy Kroma salon in the uber-hip Pearl District in downtown Portland. And I was trying to get my toddler not to get cracker crumbs on the floor. But she did great. She started out with a little dancing and singing.

We were understandably nervous. Jonah and Noel's first haircuts were always really tough. I remember one haircut of Noel's where the stylists hands were literally bleeding because he was thrashing so much that she cut her hands in several places. Needless to say, we left a big tip and never went back. But Lila did awesome. She sat very still and seemed to think it was pretty awesome to sit in a chair and look at herself in the mirror. 

He didn't do much - just sort of squared off the bangs and cut some layering in the rest of it so it would lay (lie? help me out here.) on her head. I love the idea of Lila with layers.

Here is the after:

Pretty cute!

Also, I would like to point out that in my head it is officially spring, even though we haven't even cracked 60 degrees yet. The kids are in short sleeved shirts even if it is 42 degrees outside!