My September Books

Once again I'm going to tell you all of these books are good.  Because when it comes down to it, if I get through a book then I generally liked it.  If I don't like it I just can't make myself keep reading it.  But also, if a book is only sub par and you get to the end, usually the ending makes it worth it.

One True Loves by Taylor Jenkins Reid

This is my second Taylor Jenkins Reid book, and once again I really liked it.  The new genre of chick lit seems to have the requirement that your husband died.  I've read about four books now where this happens...so weird.  

Emma married her high school sweetheart, Jesse.  Then on their first anniversary Jesse dies in a helicopter crash.  It goes through her 2 year grief process very briefly until she finally decides she is ready to move on.  She reconnects with a high school friend, Sam and they get engaged.  Then she finds out that Jesse is actually alive.  

The book is kind of heartbreaking, because you feel for Emma in that she loves them both.  When your husband dies, you don't stop loving him.  But she has fallen in love with Sam as well.  

Despite the fact that husbands keep dying in my books, I really like this type of Chick Lit that has a bit more depth, not quite so Hallmark movie, but still an easy read.

The Silent Sister by Diane Chamberlain

Riley believes that her older sister committed suicide as a teenager.  When Riley's father dies and she is cleaning out his house, she finds that not all she believed is quite true.  This book goes through the discoveries that Riley makes about her family.

Although there is a murder in this book, the entire mystery aspect of the book isn't about a murder, which is a bit refreshing!  I wouldn't say it's the best book that I've read, but it kept me interested and I did enjoy it.

The Break Down by B.A. Paris

So this is the second B.A. Paris book that I've read, the first being Behind Closed Doors.  I had similar feelings about this book.  I did enjoy it, but I felt that not everything made sense and there were some plot holes.

Cass drives a short cut through the woods during a storm and sees a car sitting there.  She thinks about helping, but feels it would be unsafe for her.  The next day she finds out a woman has been murdered in the woods.  From then on she starts to get strange phone calls where nobody is there and starts forgetting everything and is sure she has early onset dementia like her mother did.

The thing that annoyed me the most is that this short cut through the woods was perceived as so dangerous, when it was 5 minutes from her nice house.  I couldn't think of a single road where I lived that my husband would tell me not to drive down because it's unsafe, so I thought that was strange.

The book is a bit repetitive with Cass freaking out about the murder and the phone calls and thinking she's going crazy.  But like all mystery books it comes together in the end.  

Good As Gone by Amy Gentry

Julie is kidnapped when she is 13.  8 years later she shows up on her parents front door.  It's a miracle, but suddenly her mom is questioning things.  Certain aspects don't add up.  Is this really her daughter?

This was a good suspense novel.  I liked that the family, although they had their issues which resulted from the kidnapping, was relatively normal.  I find that often in books like this, the family is completely insane and unrelatable. (Like every Gillian Flynn novel.)  This book kept me guessing, although I kind of started to figure everything out about 3/4 of the way through.  It wasn't brilliant, but it was good.

On Second Thought by Kristan Higgins

I'm definitely a Kristan Higgans fan.  I loved this book.  It's about two sisters, one who is recently a widow and one whose boyfriend of 11 years just broke up with her.  Both of them are dealing with very different losses.  They haven't always been the closest, but this brings them together.  It's intertwined with aspects of love stories, but a lot of it is about their connection and friendship as well, which is definitely refreshing.  I found the characters super likeable and enjoyable to read about.  This is my favourite book of the month!

I'm on a bit of a reading downturn right now.  I just haven't been able to get into anything new since I finished Good as Gone last week.  But I guess I've been reading pretty heavily for the past few months, so maybe that's ok!  Hopefully it picks up again soon, because I'm actually really enjoying reading so many great stories this year!

Wear and Tear

 I have been using my cloth diapers for over two and a half years, and for ten months I have been using them on two kiddos.  So this is 3 years of constant use, washing every few days, lots of pee and poop touching the diapers.  And although I love cloth diapers, all this use is hard on them.  If you had a shirt that you wore once every 3 days, and washed every time you wore it, it probably wouldn't stand up for 3 years.

So then why do I get so sad when my diapers start to wear out?  Plus, I can't forget that half of them were bought used.  When I think about all this it's actually amazing that they haven't completely fallen apart.

The diapers that I bought used, which the above two were part of, had the elastics replaced when I bought them.  Well those elastics have stretched out a bit over time.  They really needed replaced awhile ago again, but although it's not a difficult process, it's a time consuming one.  And ain't nobody got time for that.  Well now I'm trying to find the time.  The diaper on the left is before I changed the elastics and the diaper on the right is afterwards.  Look at the difference!  It makes me so happy when the legs are tight again and poor little Parker's pee won't run down his leg anymore!  (Cooper doesn't have this problem cause he has thunder thighs.)

So the process is just starting but I'm really hoping that over time I can get all of these elastics replaced.  The photo below (although blurry) is an elastic that I pulled out of the diaper, and a new elastic that I cut to the right size to put into the diaper.  What a difference!

So here's hoping that this prolongs the life of my diapers! 

August Books

I technically finished 5 books this month, but since a couple of them were read on our holidays, I included them in last months book list.  

The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

Lucy Lang comes from a long line of widows.  She lost her husband at the age of 24 after 8 months of marriage.  6 years later, she thinks that she's ready to move on.  She wants to get remarried and have kids.  She wants someone that she can basically tolerate, no passionate love, because it hurts too much when you lose that.  But is that enough?  

This book was great.  It's a good chick lit book and was easy to read, but entertaining.  I really enjoyed the characters and could understand the hesitation that Lucy had about certain relationships.  I've heard good things about Kristan Higgans and look forward to reading more of her books.

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

A boy is killed by a hit and run driver.  Jenna's world has changed.  She runs away and is clearly hiding from everything.  She starts her life over again, but can she really start over when she's hiding her past?

I didn't know where this book was going for the first half of it, but it still held my interest.  There were a couple of parts in it where I was shocked.  This is one of those books where I can't say much more because I don't want to give anything away!  It was really good though and I would definitely recommend it!  I wouldn't say it's a heavy mystery where the who done it is all consuming, that's more just a small part of it.

All By Myself, Alone by Mary Higgins Clark

Maybe I have just read a lot of good books lately, but Mary Higgins Clark isn't thrilling me like she used to.  Or maybe it's that I've read like 30 of her books an they start to get to be the same.  Or maybe it's that she's like 85 and slightly losing her touch.

I definitely didn't hate this book.  It's kind of like The Woman in Cabin 10.  A bunch of people are on a high end cruise.  The main character is working on the cruise as a lecturer (much like in The Woman in Cabin 10 where she was a journalist).  Somebody dies.  Who did it?  It was good.  I read it in like 2 days.  Typical Mary Higgins Clark!  If you like her, then of course you are going to read this, and you will enjoy it.  But it will quickly leave your mind when you start your next book.

Lions and Tigers and Bears

On Labour Day weekend, we went to the Brantford Zoo as a family.  It was something I had been meaning to do all summer and never ended up finding a day that worked for me and somebody to go with me.  Then all of a sudden I realized that Ryan could go with us on a weekend!  I get so used to doing activities during the week that Ryan doesn't always get to go places like this with us.

The Brantford Zoo is pretty small, so it really only took us a couple hours.  But it was great for a kid Parker's age.  Much more doable than the Toronto Zoo and closer for us too.

We packed a picnic lunch and ate it while watching the animal show.  We saw lions, baboons, monkeys, kangaroos, zebras, deer, tigers and more!  

Preschool - Here We Come!

Parker started preschool this week!  It's a big deal and it's not I guess.  I guess it's a big deal because it's larger class sizes than he would get in daycare and probably a bit more structured.  But he has been in daycare before and will be going back, so it's not like he's never left my side.

That being said, there was a little bit of a separation issue when I was dropping him off because for the past 10 months he has either been with me or family that he knows well.  So he seemed very confused that mommy and Cooper weren't staying with him.  He wanted me to play on the slide and with the diggers.  Then the teacher got out some trikes and he got on and he could care less about me.  

When I was talking to him about going to preschool the other night he would say "ride school bus".  I don't think anyone told him he was going to ride a school bus, so he put that together on his own.  Luckily he forgot about it and didn't seem too upset that we got him to school in the van.

When I picked him up (2.5 hours later...see it's not a huge deal!) he was sitting nicely in the circle and was excited to see me.  

I can't wait to see where this year takes him, the friends that he makes and the things that he learns!

Cooper at 10 Months

Oh my baby boy, how did we get here.  10 months is just so darn close to a year old.  You have learned so many new things this month and are really becoming a kid.  This month has been a blast for you as you become mobile, and a mess for mommy and daddy as you destroy everything in your path!

Teeth: 5 teeth now! Cooper cut 3 in the past week and a half.

Clothes: 6-12 months, although I think I'm stretching it and he could probably wear 12 months more comfortably.  How can he be wearing the clothes that Parker wore just a few months ago though?  I haven't even taken those clothes out of Parker's closet yet!

Diapers: Size 4

Sleeping: Good thing mama can some how run on very little and interrupted sleep.  He had a 5 day stretch where he only got up once, that was great.  Other than that he's been the typical 3-4 times a night.  Once again I will say that I really need to get him sleep trained...but I hate listening to him cry...

Eating: We've made huge progress in the eating department!  I was so worried that he would never eat solids and then he just started doing it.  He wants to eat everything he sees!  2-3 small meals a day.  If you can call them meals.  I usually just give him a little bit of what we are eating, or grapes, bananas, fries.  Still just getting him used to different food.  He likes yogurt as well.  

His nursing is all over the place now that he's eating more.  I would stay he more snacks and has short little nursing sessions throughout the day.  

Milestones:

He crawls!  He was very close when we were at the cottage a couple weeks ago and I said he would be doing it within the week, and sure enough a few days later he was crawling across the house.  It's a whole new world for him and as scary as it is having to make sure that he's safe and not getting into trouble, it's really fun to watch him discover everything.

He can sit himself up.  I think that's new this month...haha.  We've had a few nights where he sits up in bed and just cries, I don't think he knows enough to lay back down.  But it's really nice to generally not have to sit him up when he falls.  

He pulled himself from sitting to standing on a table once and hasn't done it again since.

Likes:

-making noises with his mouth

-Parker

-the bath

-food

-when Parker sits on him - what a weirdo

Dislikes:

-putting himself to sleep

-mom leaving the room