Temporarily identical

 

Well, -ish. As close as I could get, anyway.

Linus is staying brown (well, -ish. As close as I could get, anyway. There’s still a greenish blue tinge that isn’t not kind of neat.) But Oliver wanted his purple back.

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And then Miles wanted me to figure out this specific hairdo. (Did I mention I also cut his hair? Go me!)

Who said you need little girls to have fun with your kids’ hair? (I mean, hopefully no one actually said that.)

 

Pam Kocke

House of barf

The boys were not barfers as babies. They didn’t spit up much (unless you jiggled them too much after a bottle) and they didn’t get many stomach viruses when they were younger. Sure, Miles yakked on me on a plane once about four years ago, but for the most part, we’ve done pretty well on that front. (Oh, well, there was that other time when I could see Miles was about to barf so I stuck his face down the front of my shirt to a) contain the vomit and b) prevent a chain reaction of cookie-tossing. It worked, and I am still waiting for my medal on that act of selfless bravery.)

Anyway, things have changed a lot in the past month.

First there was the barf on the flight to London. (Miles)

Then on the last day of our trip, lots more vomit. (Miles)

There was a fun incident not long after that resulted in cleaning vomit out of the top bunk. (Linus.)

Then I got a call from school the other day, someone had a tummy ache which ultimately resulted in puke all over a coffee shop bathroom. (I left a big tip.) (Miles.)

Last night, another bedroom incident, but fortunately not in any of the beds. (Linus.)

At 3:30 am, simultaneous barfing. (Linus and Oliver – see, they are identical!)

Today, just a lot more Ollie yakking.

I’m super ready for this to be over with, thank you very much.

Now, to make up for all the gross sick talk, here are some cute pictures of the boys lately.

 

Baby Linus and big Linus
Both Linuses (Linii?) have crazy hair.
Zig! So cute.
Milesy
Ann Frances loving on Ollie.

Pam Kocke6 Comments

Ninety books in 2016

I’ve never kept track of the books I’ve read, but last year I decided to, just because I was curious just how many books I read in a typical year. Well, that kind of backfired because by keeping a list, I made myself read more.

I assumed it was around 100 books a year, and I wasn’t too far off. By New Year’s Eve, I’d finished 90. I’ll bet my actual yearly average is closer to 75.

 

What were some standouts? In order of when I read them, though I should warn you that I don’t remember the ones from the beginning of the year so much. So don’t ask why I liked the first third of the list.

Also, I was going to link to all of these on Amazon, but man, I’m kind of lazy. I really need to use GoodReads instead this year.

  1. Kitchens of the Great Midwest – I don’t remember why I liked it, I just remember that I did.
  2. A Homemade Life – I love food memoirs. This one by Molly Wizenberg is great, in the manner of Ruth Reichl’s Tender at the Bone, which I could read over and over again. Also you need to start listening to her podcast, Spilled Milk.
  3. Delancey – see above
  4. The Improbability of Love – I also can’t remember exactly why I loved this one, but I do remember looking at the author’s other books afterwards, so I must’ve liked it a lot.
  5. The Lake House – I really enjoyed the twist at the end of this one. You may notice I read several books by Kate Morton after this. I basically plowed through her catalog, but with diminishing returns. Some of them were kind of heavy, and they all seemed to have some kind of twist. And a twist isn’t really a twist if you’re looking for it.
  6. Eleanor and Park – A reread. I absolutely adore this book. I wasn’t sure if I could count rereads, but Elizabeth assured me it’s okay.
  7. Orphan Train – You know, just a good read. (In other words, I don’t remember it very much.)
  8. The Shift – A really interesting nonfiction book about one single shift in the life of a nurse. Neat to read. Also exhausting. Nurses FTW!
  9. Ready Player One – A cool sci-fi book about Virtual Reality.
  10. I’ll Give You the Sun – This is a YA book that Megan recommended. It was kind of weird, but I totally fell in love with it.
  11. The Nest – I enjoyed this. It was the hot book earlier this year.
  12. Eligible – Loved this retelling of Pride and Prejudice by Curtis Sittenfeld. I read a bunch of her books this year.
  13. The Very Picture of You – I have a thing about popular British fiction (I’m avoiding saying chick lit.) It’s very comforting and appeals to the Anglophile in me. I know it’s not great literature. And I’m not going to apologize for it. But you can tell I’m feeling defensive, eh? I need to get over it.
  14. The One You Really Want – See #13.
  15. Wild Designs – See #13
  16. Lab Girl – A lovely memoir about a female scientist. You’ll learn a lot about trees.
  17. The City of Mirrors – The third book in The Passage trilogy and by far my favorite.
  18. Pillow Talk – See #13
  19. American Wife – I was in love with this book, and then about 75% into it, I realized it was a loosely fictionalized version of Laura Bush. I felt kind of foolish, but I still liked it a lot.
  20. A Place for Us – See #13
  21. The Nightingale – I’m not a big history buff, but this was a really interesting story that took place during WWII. I learned a lot about what happened in France. And I sobbed like a damn baby at the end.
  22. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child – Well of course.
  23. Truly Madly Guilty – Another reliably good Liane Moriarty book.
  24. Sushi for Beginners – See #13 (another re-read. I love Marian Keyes.)
  25. The Girl with the Lower Back Tattoo – Actually an audio book. Does that count? Well, I’m convinced it was 1000x more enjoyable to hear Amy Schumer read it to me anyway. Plus, my library only had the audiobook. Annoying.
  26. Who Do You Love – I got into a Jennifer Weiner kick after re-reading some of her older stuff. I liked this one.
  27. The Light Between Oceans – I was told I was going to sob at this one, but I didn’t. Which is good because I thought the ending was going to be devastatingly sad, but it was okay. Whew. I tried to watch the movie on the plane but I just couldn’t get into it, though. Also I didn’t really want to watch this story.
  28. Brooklyn – Now I want to watch the movie.
  29. Hungry Heart – Essays by Jennifer Weiner. I like her.
  30. Paris for One – Short stories by Jojo Moyes. A quick read. I love her books.
  31. Before the Fall – I read this before we flew home from England. It’s about a plane crash. But, you know, a small plane crash, so that’s okay.

Well look at that. I must love you after all. I added links to Amazon. And I don’t even get referral fees for that. So you are very welcome.

Some more notes:

  • Back in July, I wrote this post about books I’d enjoyed over the course of the first half of the year. There are more books listed there.
  • I don’t think I bought any of these books. Maybe one or two. Yay for our library having ebook lending!

What were your favorite books that you read in 2016? Obviously, lots of my books were written before 2016, so feel free to recommend older stuff.

 

Pam Kocke5 Comments

Happy birthday to me!

It’s my birfday! Woo! 42! You can read all of my thoughts on it here.

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Last night I hosted a LuLaRoe party at my house, and my friends bought a bunch of clothes which meant I got some free stuff! Very exciting. I love free stuff.

I went out of my comfort zone with patterned leggings!

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And there was yummy food including this UNICORN CHEESECAKE that Stephanie made. Isn’t it dreamy?

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Anyway, the rest of the day will consist of work and lunch with Tee and hopefully Chinese delivery for dinner and then a festive adult beverage with my friends later. Yay!

Pam Kocke7 Comments

UK2016 Part 3b: London

Catch up on my blog posts about our trip here!

So, where were we? Thursday morning, I suppose. It was our last day in London all together, as George had plans to go to Canterbury on Friday and meet up with a friend. Linus wanted to go to a castle, so we toyed with the idea of going to Windsor Castle, but getting there and back would have taken up too much of the day, so we decided to hit Hampton Court Palace instead.

On the tube
On the train

It was only about half an hour by train, so not bad.

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Ta-da!

Continue reading “UK2016 Part 3b: London” →

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UK2016: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two)

I’m taking a break from the straight recap posts to write about the Harry Potter play. Since it took place over the course of two nights, I’d have to break up the recap, and I’d rather not. Read the rest of my posts about our trip here.

As I mentioned before, the boys and I went to the theater box office to pick up my tickets on Wednesday afternoon.

The doors opened at 6:30 with the show starting an hour later, but I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get from our flat on Holloway Rd to the theater. It only ended up taking about 20 minutes, so I was just a tad early. But I got in the line that was forming outside the theater anyway and just played Two Dots for a while. Continue reading “UK2016: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Parts One and Two)” →

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UK2016 Part 2a: Cambridge

Read about our time in Wales here.

Wednesday morning, the boys and I caught the train to Cambridge. I was nervous about the journey because I had three boys and two suitcases to deal with and we had to not just switch trains in London, but switch stations by way of the Underground. But not to leave you in too much suspense…it was fine. (George’s journey the next day, by contrast, did not go so swimmingly, but that’s not my story to tell.)

Rachel (Gareth’s sister) picked us up at the train station and we headed to a shopping center to meet up with her boys (Dan, 13, and Ethan, 9) and Pat, their grandmother. The boys were so excited to see Dan and Ethan, and it was really cute when they saw each other and were all shy for about 12 seconds. (You might remember, they visited New Orleans back in May and the boys became fast friends.)

A real British mall! Looks….just like an America mall.
The streets of Cambridge all decked out for the holidays
Pretty!
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The boys at the cricket/dragon/cockroach clock

We were going to be experiencing something extremely British that evening – a panto! Before showtime, we wandered a bit around Cambridge, getting a snack and seeing some of the sights.

Continue reading “UK2016 Part 2a: Cambridge” →

Pam Kocke1 Comment