What We're Reading

Philip and I just started reading Hoot, by Carl Hiaasen last night. It is usually pretty difficult to convince that boy that he'll enjoy anything other than Pokemon or Star Wars, but this time, it was all in the name! I requested he go get the book from our library crate and he immediately bounded out of bed, laughing at the name and wondering aloud what it could possibly be about. We only got through the first chapter before being interrupted by the littles, who were wondering very loudly why Philip was getting a book at THEIR story time, hehe. Philip also recently finished listening to all of the Harry Potter Audio Books. They are all narrated by Jim Dale who is just awesome to listen to! I just started the first book before we moved but trouble is, it takes too long to listen to them, I'd rather sit and read them myself. But this guy won the some sort of Hall of Fame or Guinness title for the most voices in an audio book ever. Pretty cool, huh?

The little ones and I have been reading TONS of books since we packed up our own books for the move here. One we got stuck on for quite a few nights was Hello Red Fox, by Eric Carle. They really enjoyed counting to ten on each page and waiting to see what color the opposite page would be. They were amazed each time they could actually see the new color! This book is based on Goethe's Color wheel. We've read quite a bit by Eric Carle, Dr. Seuss, P.D. Eastman, along with these other series:

Henry And Mudge, by Cynthia Rylant ,Suçie Stevenson (cute)
"Mr Putter & Tabby"by Cynthia Rylant (cute)
Commander Toad in Space, by Jane Yolen (laugh out loud funny!)
Wizard and Wart, by Janice Lee Smith,Paul Meisel (cute and funny)

Now what I'm reading for myself is quite another story, LOL. We had quite a rough month or so before the move, and another rough month once we were all settled in. We pretty much all imploded when Ed was out of town for two weeks, leaving us to unpack and settle in on our own. Lest you think my husband abandoned us, let me tell you this is how I wanted it! I did not want to be in our old yucky house with it on the market for two weeks, to clean and deal with the dog and the kids all alone for showings, etc. I am 100% happy with the way we did things, I just didn't know it would be so rough on the kids. I think the problem is that we started telling them we were moving a few months before we actually moved, so they lived, along with me, in la-la-land for quite a while. It is not a cozy place to be, let me tell you! Each time particular friends didn't show up for Playgroup, my kids were crushed, believing it was to be the last time they would ever see whichever friend it was. After the two weeks here w/out Ed, we met him in Columbia and spent the day with friends and had an awesome time! When we came home to Ed being home, in our new house, after two weeks w/out anyone else around, pretty much all hell broke lose, LOL. So, I stocked up on parenting books from our local library, and this is what I've read so far:
ScreamFree Parenting: Raising Your Kids by Keeping Your Cool, by Hal Runkel

I highly recommend that one for anyone, even non-screamers (though I don't believe I know any, haha!).

Now I'm working on The No-Cry Discipline Solution by Elizabeth Pantley This book is just ok so far. It has pretty much the same theme as ScreamFree, except it really uses words I don't like, such as "bad behavior," "good behavior," etc. I don't believe in labeling behavior as bad or good, it's just my kid being however my kid is. It did however, remind me to request help more often from Evan, who I rarely engage in chores, etc. I started the book yesterday, and last night asked Evan if he could get the clean plastic cups from the dishwasher and stack them in the cabinet for me. He happily did it, continuing even after I let him know this would be his new chore. In fact, he started singing about stacking cups and chores. Yahoo! I also have out:
Positive Discipline (Revised), by Jane Ed.D. Nelsen & Playful Parenting, by Lawrence J. Cohen.

While I'm on a roll, I might as well list everything else we're interested in, or reading about. Tyler expressed an interested in the beginnings of humans probably a year or so ago. Since then we've enjoyed many books and websites about prehistory, prehistoric beasts, and we were introduced to the BBC series of "Walking With..." We've seen Walking with Dinosaurs and we've got Walking with Cavemen on hold at the library. Kind of in the same line of thinking, I have had an interest in Jane Goodall since college, when in my History class the professor had us reading TONS of information about the relationship of humans to primates. Yes, he was tenured, LOL. So, just to get my mind on things besides parenting, I am reading In the Shadow of Man, by Jane Goodall.
And now I have "wasted" much of my morning and must go do chores and prepare food. Enjoy the links and enjoy the books and enjoy your day!