Widget tales

Widget's been getting more and more entertaining lately. Her imagination is going wild, and her conversation skills are helping her to express it.

One of her new favorite "pretends" is that she's feeding the ants on our driveway. She puts rocks down, stirs them with a stick and leaves them there for the ants. If you ask her what she's feeding them, you geta litany of her current favorite foods, such as "green beans, yellow green beans, scallops, rice and lima beans". She's also started playing farmer. I havn't played this one with her yet, but she knows about feeding her animals, and about digging up carrots.

The other day, she climbed on top of her sandbox, held her hands in the air and started yelling "I'm queeeeeen of the world!" Apparently, Imagy taught her that one.

We've been trying to convince her that she shouldn't scream or yell too loudly in the house, but that she can yell all she wants at the playground. Now she runs around the playground yelling "AAAAHHHHHHH" at the top of her lungs, practically non-stop.

She's getting a lot better on her tricycle. She's figured out pedalling, but doesn't yet have the strength to pedal uphill. SHe's still a little fuzzy on how to steer.

She's learned the power of "I love...", and she's started saying it all the time. She says it to people - "I love you, Mama", about people - "Hannah loves Dada", and stuff - "I love my wagon. I love noodles". It's charming.

The other day I got her up from her nap. We'd been talking about how she could maybe go to the playground after she got up before she went to sleep. She announced, as clear as could be "I *decided* to go to the playground, Mama." She's done it a few times since then as well. Just plain and simple "I *decided* to do X Y or Z", complete with the emphasis on decided. It cracks me up.

50 Books - books 39-46

39. Shoeless Joe - W.P. Kinsella This is the book that the movie Field of Dreams was based on. I loved it. The movie was true to the feel of the book. It did differ in a couple of ways from the movie. Most notably, the author in the book is not "Terence Mann", but J.D. Salinger. Having the author be someone who was real, who's work I'd read, and who's story I knew gave the book a more personal feel. There were a few other changes, but I won't reveal them here.

40. Jester - James Patterson This was recommended to me by kaasirpent. New author to me, so I grabbed it from the library. In a nutshell, guy goes t fight in the Crusades, and comes home to find his wife missing and his son murdered. He journeys to try and find his wife, disguised as a Jester. Before long, he's made enemies of two prominent nobles, and doens't know WHO to trust anymore. I enjoyed the story, but sadly figured out half of the big mystery long before they got to it in the book. The surprise at the end I didn't predict.

41. The Fourth Wall - Barbara Paul My mom lent this to me, and on a quick look, it looks to be out of print. This is a pity, as this was one of the best mysteries I've read in a long time. A new play is opening on Broadway, and before long, it sems as if someone has it in for the cast and perhaps the play itself - actors are maimed, the set is destroyed, finally someone is murdered. The attacks keep happening, and the police have no leads. As well as being a well written mystery, it's also an interesting story, with well developed characters.

42. The Joy of Knitting - Lisa Meyers Half knitting instruction, half essays on knitting. Reasonably enjoyable, if you're interested in knitting.

43. The Sorcerer's Academy??? ???? I borrwed this one from my mom as well - It's a collection of loosly tied together story of first year students at an American based school for would-be sorcerers. I'm not sure I've got the title right, and each story was writtin by someone different. The stories were entertaining, if a bit uneven, since they were written by many different people.

44-46. The Quilter's Apprentice, Round Robin, and Cross Country Quilters - Jennifer Chiaverini These are all part of series, based around the quilting community in a small town in Pennsylvania. So far, I *really* enjoyed the first one, where we meet the characters and learn their history, and enjoyed the 2nd and 3rd ones less - they were less about personal story, history and quilting then they are "chick lit" that's loosely bound together by a vague quilting theme. I'm currenly reading the fourth in the series, and it's looking up - looks like it's getting back to my favorite character, and delving more into the history of her family. Its also discussing the role that quilts may or may not have played in the Underground Railroad, which is a topic of interest to me. So, there's hope for the series.