Sarah's Key

I officially am not very good at doing a monthly post about my bookclub reads. In my defense having a baby made my priorities a little different and I found it hard to have the extra time or desire to sit down and keep up with these posts but its about time I do.

Last night we met and discussed our March book. But I will first give reviews on the other books we've read.

In September we read Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson. I originally didn't get this post done right after book club because I still had 2 or so chapters to read. Then I finished it, and 2 days later baby boy arrived. But this book was interesting. It was an odd story that didn't really go anywhere and wasn't exactly a page turner or anything, but you became invested in the characters and wanted to see where the story went. However I felt the ending was a bit rushed and awkward.
Rating 8/10

October our book was Bossypants by Tina Fey. Being that I had a newborn during this one, I listened to most of it. This was actually a fun book to listen to because it was narrated by Tina Fey herself and it was fun to hear the reflections in her voice and stuff. I honestly didn't love this book. It was my first biography and for me it was a jumbled mess. I liked the overall story of her life, but I felt like she jumped in time a lot, like would talk about teenage years, then snl, then back to early twenties, then talk about 30 rock but then come back to SNL stuff. It was as though she had all these thoughts and just couldn't organize them. However it was very funny at the same time!
Rating 6/10

November was The Persian Pickle Club by Sandra Dallas. I first have to say that I LOVED this book. It's a murder mystery book that takes place in the middle of nowhere in Kansas. This book was very well written and really captivates you and you really begin to love each of the characters and become invested in the story. Once I finally got around to actually reading it, it was a fast and easy read. I really recommend this one!
Rating 8/10

December/January was It Ain't all about the Cooking by Paula Deen. I've been a huge fan of Paula for years! I have all her magazines, and I actually bought her biography years ago, but had just not taken the time to actually sit down and read it. What I loved most about the book was how honest she was, to the point of telling us that she would let her bird just defecate all over her apartment, and then her apartment became infested with cockroaches, and they were even in her bed! EEK! This woman has risen above a lot of obstacles in her life to become such a success! I love her even more. In fact Adam  and I tried to get into her restaurant when we were in savannah last year but we didn't want to sand in line for hours. Hopefully we will get to when we go back next month!! My only complaints about the book was the last 2 chapters, they took forever to get through and I wasn't much a fan of all the stupid details she added. I know why she added them, because I'm sure she was asked the same questions over and over, but it just made for a painful end of the book. So because of the ending my overall satisfaction with the book went down.
Rating 8/10

For February we read The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. For me this was a very interesting story but was also extremely frustrating when it came to the characters. This story is about a couple who in the 60's ended up having twins. The father is a doctor who delivers the twins and while his wife is under anesthesia he tells his nurse to take the daughter to a shelter because she was born with downs syndrome. The nurse tells him at first that she will do that, but then has second thoughts and takes the daughter and moves to another city and raises her as her own. The father tells the mother that the daughter died, and the mother suffers from alcoholism and depression for most of her life because of it. Both of these characters are extremely frustrating in how they handle things and it was almost at times annoying to read. You wanted to just reach in the book and strangle them! But at the same time it kept your interest and kept you wanting to know what was going to happen and if the mom was ever going to find out the truth about her daughter.
Rating 7/10

In March we read Sarah's Key by Tatiana De Rosnay. I absolutely LOVED this book. Not in the way that I loved the story but in the way that you just loved each main character and it kept your interest. Every time you thought you knew where the story would end, it would take another turn. It was extremely well written and a beautiful tale of the the WWII in France and the Vel D Hiv. The roundup of French Jews in WWII. It was heartbreaking, made you want to cry but also made you love many of the characters for their spirit and love. The story is told from the perspective of a child who was part of the round up during 1942 but then also about a woman who discovers the child's story in 2002. Just overall a great book! Highly recommend!!
Rating 9/10!

I am going to try and get better about these book reviews, but it seems like every time I try something gets in the way! Oh well. Enjoy reading!

5 Months Old

Last week my sweet angel baby turned 5 months old! Time is just flying and I fall more and more in love with little man every day if that is at all possible.

This last month has been the best ever. He is so much fun!! He wakes up every morning with a huge smile on his face and laughs and just melts my heart each day. I truly feel fortunate that I am able to be there everyday when he wakes up since I'm usually coming home from work about the time that he will wake up. It's the best part of my day.

He is at such a fun stage right now, really interacting with us and becoming more and more social. The best part is how smiley he is. If someone would have told me I would have such a happy baby after he was first born I would have told them they were crazy! I'm so glad we are past the colic!!! Having him be such a happy baby now, makes all those stressed out, worrisome evenings worth it.

Here are the highlights from the last month:

• He smiles CONSTANTLY! you look at him, say his name, say hi, or just make faces at him he will smile his big toothless grin. It's just precious!
• He also is still a very laughy baby. he laughs at you for no reason sometimes too!
• He loves to stand. He always looks so proud of himself when he does it too! (obviously it's with help from us!) He almost prefers to stand than anything else!
• He's rolled over a few times, though he's really not too interested in it. He likes being on his side. He will roll to his side and just lay there. Several times I've gone to check on him and hes just sleeping on his side!
• He now is able to be placed on your hip and pretty much is content just staying there!
• He LOVES the outside. We've been blessed with several 70+ degree days in February/March (who would have thought) and he just loves it out there! I've taken him on several walks and he is so content!!!
• He LOVES his jumperoo. He gets all excited and it's so fun to watch his little feet move so that he can just jump away. 
• He is still singing. Its music to my ears!
• He's still not a huge fan of tummy time, and I know I need to get better at it, so he's not so good on his tummy. He doesn't really hold himself up yet with his arms while on his belly, but maybe with some practice he will be able to. I just have a hard time putting him on his tummy when I know it makes him so mad! 
• He reaches for things when you put them in front of him. 
• He doesn't really like his pacifier unless he is super tired. but he will reach for it and put it in his mouth. Although its usually just to chew on it. 
• When given a toy of some sort he will immediately bring it to his mouth
• He sometimes will mimic or try to mimic you. 
• Hes liking bath time more and more, and will kick his legs when in the water
• He will sleep about 12 hours a night, sometimes waking up once bc he  needs his pacifier or to just be held for a moment
• He had his first trip to the doctor other than a well visit or for vaccines. He had an infection in his eyes that we had to treat with eye drops...let me tell you how much fun that was...and he had this weird rash on his head, looked almost like ringworm, but turns out it was like eczema that we put a cream on a couple times a day and now its gone!
• He is also VERY congested! We have to use the saline and sucker thing several times a day to get all his snot out! We've actually gone back to him sleeping in the rock n play because he can sleep at a 45˚ angle which allows for better sleeping and less congestion in the morning!
• He is now feeding about every 4 hours, sometimes it's still 2.5-3 but I think thats more based on how much milk I have. My supply can really vary, and I think that it can affect how much he is able to get during a feeding. 
• He now only eats once though after I leave for work and bed time! which is really nice!
• He has started to put himself to bed around 8-9 instead of 11, I'm sure my mom and dad are pleased with this!!!
• He is starting to outgrow his 6 month clothes! Looks like mom is going to have to go shopping soon!!! (its the only kind of shopping I enjoy!)

Lincoln is such a blessing to us. He has shown Adam and I what unconditional love truly is. Best of all he has taught Adam patience. We both feel so very blessed to be his parents. Sometimes it brings me to tears when I think of how God has chosen us to be his parents, like how did we get so lucky?

Yesterday I took him to the doctor for another one of his shots the PVC, I have chosen to split up the vaccines because like i've said before, while I think it's imperative that children are vaccinated, I just think that they are given too many at once. He did really well with this vaccine although I did give him a little tylenol before and twice afterwards. His fever only got up to 99.8 this time and he seemed to handle that a lot better!

I was also able to get his 5 month photo shoot in. Now this was a challenge this month because I worked both the day before and after his 5 month "birthday" and Adam was out of town so he was staying at my mom's house. But no worries crazy mama was in full swing and I got him up at my mom's, fed him, and then drove back to my house to get the pictures, then drove back to mom's house put him down for a nap, and then went to lay down myself. 

I don't know why I am so neurotic about this pictures, but I want them to all be in the same places so we can truly get a good Idea of how much he changes each month. I get made fun of a lot for this but I honestly don't care! I think years down the road I will be happy I did it!

So here are those precious photos!

I love this little man so much!!! Happy 5 months baby!!

End of an Era :(

Now I have to admit, I'm not the biggest sports fan ever, I enjoy going to games, I enjoy watching football on sundays and all that, but I'm no die hard by any favor.

Before getting into my last semester of school and being pregnant and all that fun stuff, I used to live for Sundays during the fall because Adam and I would get up and got to church, then usually lay around and watch football all day. Sometimes we would go to friends houses for the Colts games and it was always so much fun.

Well this year, I was a little preoccupied with a screaming infant to really care about football, and afterall the colts were without our beloved #18 so who really cared? the few games I caught were painful, especially seeing my lovely purdue grad pretty much suck. but oh well there was always next year right?

Well today (yesterday, by the time I finish writing this post) marks a sad in Indianapolis. Our beloved Peyton Manning was released from the colts, and I'm pretty sure Jim Irsay became one of the most hated men in Indy.

I understand why they chose to let him go, because it was such a huge liablity but it's really sad, even for those who aren't die hard fans. I wasn't a big pro football lover until I met Adam and so ever since then the face of the colts has always been Peyton.

It truly feels like an end of an era, and I'm nervous to see what the next few years will bring to our colts. They have made so many changes over the last few month, it makes me feel like this fall will be just as bad. Plus if/when Peyton gets picked up by another team it will be really hard to see him playing for another team.

Peyton you will be missed!!!