Bloggogriff

So, as you may know if you’ve been following my status updates, I recently read Stephanie Meyer’s megahit novel Twilight . I did so despite multiple warnings from friends who had trodden the path before me. And I made it to the end. Below you will find my thoughts on the experience, should you care to read them. I have attempted to avoid major spoilers in case anyone reading this actually decides to pick up the book and experience the awfulness for herself. Why did I read Twilight ? Mainly because, as a high school teacher, I’ve been listening to my students gush about it for years now. Not that that means I expected it to be any good; I have also endured similar gushing about direct-to-video Olsen twin films and the various iterations of High School Musical. But hey, it’s a pop culture phenomenon, and plenty of people put down J.K. Rowling too. I will say this much: It was not the worst book I have ever read in my life. The V.C. Andrews novels my friends and I passed from hand to hand...

It's been a big week for motor skills. Owen can catch a ball now. We discovered that he can go up and down stairs, at least shallow ones, without holding on to anything. Yesterday he climbed up onto one of the counter stools and seated himself. And he's been practicing somersaults all week.

This won't seem like a big deal to some people, but I've never baked a real cake from scratch before. It's got two layers and everything. I do hope it tastes good!

In the last two weeks or so, Owen has suddenly shifted from speaking a few words, interspersed amongst a sea of "Unh! Unh!" noises, to using mostly words to communicate. The recent addition of "help" was a big factor in the transition. Tonight I tried to write down his complete lexicon: Proper names: Mama, Dada, Elmo, J.J., Chachi, Daisy (his day care teacher's dog) General usefulness: yes, no, please, night-night, hello, bye-bye, help, (pick me) up, (take me) out(side), stop, go, more, uh-oh, done Food and other important things: Cheese, butter, bar (granola), kiss, hot (can refer to any extreme quality, such as "bright" or "loud"), pooh (can refer to Winnie but more often means "video", since for some months that was the only DVD he watched), ball, (basketball) hoop, moon, stick, teeth, ice, eye, pacifier, cookie/cracker, chocolate, banana, boots, bag Noises that signify animals or vehicles: woof woof, meow, moo, oink, bawk bawk, ...