Random Pictures

My Sweet B

This picture is pretty old, but I still heart it.

I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Ladies and gentlemen, we have our first imaginary friend. So far, all I know about her is that her name is Miss Pam Pam, she lives far away, and she likes to swim. And, in my mind, she's British.

Update: While we were swimming, Beckett called sunscreen "studscreen." Precious.

If It's Not One Thing It's the Other.

Well, exercise has turned out to be much easier than I thought. Well, at least wanting to exercise has been. However, it is SO hard for me to want to change my diet. Every couple of months I tell myself I am going to try and be healthier, and I will. For about 3 days. Which is exactly what is going on now. I have been doing cardio and weights and all that jazz for at least an hour everyday for the last 2 weeks. But I cannot seem to want to put down the Mexican Pizza (damn you, Taco Bell...).

B is going back to Memorial today. He will go twice a week (Tuesday & Thursday) this summer. He is so excited. I was always worried that he would be that weird kid that had no friends, but the opposite is true. He has made a lot of friends and he talks about them constantly! He is so ready to see Nate and Tate and Isabelle and Bella this summer!

And it turns out he is much more symapthetic and nicer than me (something's going right, lol). We were at Shakespeare yesterday and we were feeding the ducks and turtles and fish. I threw a piece to a teeny tiny baby turtle. Beckett asked me why I did that. I told him it was because he was smaller than the other turtles and ducks and they were hogging all the bread and I wanted the baby to get food, too. Well, no sooner had they words come out of my mouth than a fish came up and took the baby turtle's piece of bread. I pointed that out to Beckett and he said, "Well, that's not right. I'll give him another piece." It was really sweet.

I Can Say These Things Because I'm the Mama

I have to brag about my sweet B for a second. He is 3 and some change (his birthday was March 14th) and he continues to AMAZE us. He knows normal things like ABC's, colors, can count to about 25, and loves music and reading. Also, he knows tons of opposites. My Mom, who teaches K5, says some of her students don't even understand opposites. So far, he knows these:

Full/Empty

Front/Behind

Up/Down

Correct/Wrong

Right/Left

Under/Over

Night/"Nornin" (Morning)

Dark/Light

Hot/Cold

Tall/Short

Big/Little

Many/Few

Stop/Go

Fast/Slow

Clean/Dirty

We are trying to teach him fast, faster, fastest and the like. Here is our conversation the other day:

Me: Beckett, what comes next: big, bigger...

Beckett: My Buddy

Me: No, biggest. How about this: tall, taller....

Beckett: Uncle T

Me: Ok, let's try one more. Fast, faster...

Beckett: ME!

Also, he's got an incredile memory. He is really good at the game Memory and you can tell him something once and he will NOT forget. And, he can do simple addition and subtraction. He knows that 2 + 1=3; 2+3=5; 2-1=1, etc. So, his capacity to do math has surpassed his mother's. I don't mean to be one of "those" Moms, but I never knew how amazing it was going to be to be able to watch as someone learns those things we take for granted that we know. It is astounding and humbling that I get to be a part of it!

The Second Verse, Same as the First...

For the 45,378,274th time, I am starting a whole diet/exercise kick. I figure if I write about it on the blog, then maybe I'll actually stick with it :). Well, that's the plan at least. I'm not going to say how much I weigh right now, or what my measurements are, but I will post updates. So, now you have to help keep me in line.

On the reading front, I have started three books. I always do this and it ends up taking much longer than it should to finish one because I'm trying to read 3 or more at once. Here's what they are:

(1) Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I hated, I mean hated, The Great Gatsby, but I loved The Beautiful and the Damned, I thought I'd give Fitz another go. So far, this is my favorite Fitzgerald so far.

(2) Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why by Bart D. Ehrman. This book is very interesting and really makes you think. I would recommend it to EVERYONE.

(3) Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt. Anyone who knows me knows how much I adore Shakespeare and how my idea of a party trick is reciting Richard's opening monologue from Richard III (one of my favorites). Since not much is actually known about Shakespeare's life, this book relies on a lot of speculation (educated speculation, but speculation nonetheless). But what Greenblatt presents is wonderful.

June 3, 2009: Part Two

Part One dealt with reading and exercise, while this post deals with law school. I got the shock of a lifetime today -- I got best paper in Criminal Law! I am so proud of myself, especially since I didn't think it had gone that well at all. Okay, I had intended for this to be longer, but that's really all I had to say!

Oh, books on my current reading list:

(1) Sybil by Flora Rheta Schreier

(2) The Origin of Species and The Descent of Man by Charles Darwin

(3) Scientology: The Fundamentals of Thought by L. Ron Hubbard

(4) The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill

(5) The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

(6) Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare by Stephen Greenblatt     

(7) The World of Rome by Micheal Grant

(8) A Doll's House and Other Plays by Henrik Ibsen

(9) Sons and Lovers by D.H. Lawrence

(10) Goodbye, Columbus by Philip Roth   

June 3, 2009: Part One

One day, two blogs -- only because they are about vastly different things. This one is going to be about reading & exercise.

Reading: Right now I am reading Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Here are some of my favorite quotes from it so far:

He gets the title from Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats:

" Already with thee! tender is the night...

...But here there is no light,

Save what from heaven is with the breezes blown

Through vendurous glooms and winding mossy ways."

"He seemed kind and charming -- his voice promised that he would take care of her, and that a little later he would open up whole new worlds for her, unroll an endless succession of magnificent possibilities."

"Maybe we'll have more fun this summer but this particular fun is over. I want it to die violently instead of fading out sentimentally -- that's why I gave this party."

"When you're older you'll know what people who love suffer. The agony. It's better to be cold and young than to love. It's happened to me before, but never like this -- so accidental -- just when everything was going well."

"Later she remembered all the hours of the afternoon as happy -- one of those uneventful times that seem at the moment only a link between past and future pleasure, but turn out to have been the pleasure itself."

"So many people are going to love you and it might be nice to meet your first love all intact, emotionally, too. That's an old-fashioned idea, isn't it?"

"Tell a secret over the radio, publish it in a tabloid, but never tell it to a man that drinks more than three or four a day."

Exercise: I have been so proud of myself this week. I can always justify not exercising, but I have been very good this week! I have walked with Beckett for at least an hour every day and I have also been riding my bicycle at night. More updates later!