Kendra's Favorite Things!

OMG! It's almost as exciting as Oprah's list, save for the free Volkswagons and cruises and giveaways of any kind. And the commercial fanfare and approval from Stedman Graham. But this list has still been thoughtfully compiled. Maybe someday it will have its own claymation special! With a soundtrack! With ill-advised duets with, like, Mariah Carey and Kenny Loggins to boot! 1.) Peppermint Hot Choco at Ula Cafe Yes those are candy cane bits on top of frothy creamy chocolatey yum tasty goodness. By jove, it's like they made it JUST FOR ME!

2.) Fancypants duct tape.  I bought this from Tarjay and I cover everything with it. Gifts. Signage. Preschoolers' hands that need to be made waterproof.

3.) Darling prints from my mate Helen's Etsy Shop o' Prints that she done photographed herself.  I think she is so talented!

4.) The Gingerbread Pops kit. We testdrove the house kit a few years ago with my in-laws and it was wicked fun, but the pops are the perfect activity if you are hosting a party of a motley crew.

5.) Chillin' in my holiday menagerie

6.) Little Man's Cheeks Each sold separately

7.) The Throwback Little Tykes Dollhouse I have had such fun tracing various pieces of it through e-bay.

8. A tour of the Louisa May Alcott House in Concord, MA All decked out for Christmas!

9. Don't tell my Mary Kay posse but I really like this lip tint from Fresh.  It's long-lasting and has some lemon oil in it that is really yummy.

10.) The Flour Cookbook.  Flour and I go way back.  Both of my children gestated on Flour bakery goods.  I bought this for my stepmother for Christmas.  I hope she likes it, but more importantly, I hope she makes me the Chunky Lola cookies.  Which may or may not be found on page 97.  Please and thank you.

Summer Reading

I think I am the only girl in the history of high school that took seriously the summer reading.  And by that I mean that I not only was STRESSIN' that I hadn't completed a novel (probably some pastoral romance like Julie because you know those nuns would have been finding The Thornbirds wayyy tooooo racy) by the 4th of July, but I was taking copious notes, chewing my pen as I considered whether Mr. Darcy was really a protagonist or villain, and slapping those post-it notes between chapter pages -- Again. Reason 32934802582 why I got my first kiss at the painfully late of 17.  And I kid!

I was 18!

When late August came and we pleated skirt-rocking bun-haired lasses found ourselves stuffing books into a different locker in some hall that totally felt promoted from the dank corner of the unlit hall we were formerly occupying in locker land, there was much buzz about how little of the summer reading everyone had done.

Girls are good at this, aren't they?  "Ohmygawsh, I am going to fail this!  I didn't study at all!"  This means, "I will probably nail this."

Why do women do this? Fake like everything is very hard, fake like we are very fat, fake like we are broke, when none of those things we know to be true.

Anyway. Summer reading. I remember it, and I remember what a chore it was. What was the best assigned book you read once upon a summer? I think Dead Man Walking by Sr Helen Prejean was one of my favorites. Definitely gave me a new set of lenses for the death penalty.

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My girl lovin' her some story hour at the BPL with her mate....

Our good pals Maddy, Claire and their mama school our Madi in Berensteins....

Review: BABIES

While I was biding my time, waiting for my child, Godot, to arrive, I went and saw "BABIES" the documentary.  I hadn't read anything about it, only that it was advertised as a "If you loved 'March of the Penguins' you'll love..." type parallel.  And who doesn't love penguins and babies and penguin babies and matinees? Exactly.

Well here is the rub.  WARNING:  Spoilers galore.  The beauty of "Penguins" for me was the raw and bright scenery of Antarctica, the honest portrayal of the life stages of the penguins, the struggle, the unique co-parenting and sacrifices made by the parent penguins, and then the sweet advent of the wee little pengies.

BABIES, however, has an agenda.  And I sort of hate documentaries that make up our minds for us ::cough Michael Moore cough::.  The contrast between First World Overparenting and Third World Primitive Parenting in BABIES is stark. The First Worlders just look like idiots with their parenting guides and music for munchkin classes, and the Third Worlders are portrayed as very "authentic" hard-working people who may not be able to swat every fly away or shoo every chicken from entering their tents, but they do seem to have an engaged clue about parenting.  I didn't buy it.  Parenting is not that cookie cutter, and every day presents its own struggles and opportunities to learn to be a better parent no matter where or how you live.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in the film, like where are the fathers in Namibia, and how long does the camera crew wait to intervene when one of the neglected kids is about to get hurt, and why is the US mother buck naked in her whirlpool???  There are also a lot of beautiful parts, too, but it is hard to appreciate the singular moments in each baby's life because the next scene will inevitably critique the previous scene, which is not quite fair and teeters on the simplistic.

I think it would have been more worthwhile to let the parents speak about certain decisions they had made or were making as parents and how responsive or unresponsive they were finding their children to these decisions, rather than offering slices of life - tantrums, breastfeeding, sleeping, crawling, etc. - that were quite narrowly open to interpretation.

But dang if those babies all edible.  I can't wait to nibble on Godot!