World of Julie

Annoying thing that toddlers and preschoolers do:

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

“We are playing house,” says Zuzu. I won’t even get into what this means for how they think I do my housekeeping.

May 16th, 2012 | Tags: books, bookshelves, mess, organizing, ramona, Zuzu | Category: Ramona, Zuzu, housekeeping |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (4)

Jonah Lehrer and I are on Brain Burps About Books today! Ok, ok, so we’re not on at the same time: Katie is interviewing Jonah Lehrer (author of Imagine: How Creativity Works), and (separately) I do a review of Nursery Rhyme Comics. I do think it’s perfect that Katie picked this review out of the ones of mine she has (did you know this about me? I love doing picture book reviews so much I send her bunches of them at a time, instead of just my required one-a-month), because Nursery Rhyme Comics is the most creative bit of creative creativeness that I’ve seen in forever. It’s brilliant.

You can see more information about this podcast episode here, or listen directly by clicking here.

May 15th, 2012 | Tags: books, brain burps about books, chris duffy, imagine, jonah lehrer, nursery rhyme comics, podcast, reviews | Category: books |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

I am so completely riveted by my cousin Christina’s blog right now. She’s in China right this minute, meeting her new daughter, Lia. The photos of China are amazing, and I can’t tear myself away from today’s post, where they meet Lia (finally!) and bring her back to the hotel, even though it makes me cry every time.

And I also can’t stop cracking up about all of the Chinese tourists who keep taking pictures of Christina’s older (very blond) daughter, Nora.

Welcome to the family, Lia! We can’t wait to meet you!

May 14th, 2012 | Tags: adoption, china, chinese adoption, christina, lia, nora, thousand year day | Category: Parenting |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

So it was just about a year ago that I said, “Henry, I really want you to decide on an instrument you like so you can start taking lessons” and he said, “Oh, I already know what I want to play! The harp!” At which point I tried really hard not to burst out laughing, and also tried hard to erase the mental image of Henry trapped under a harp, since he weighs as much as a sparrow.

But luckily he had a second choice: the flute. And even better, we found an awesome teacher, Carl Dimow. Last night was Henry’s first recital. He was very first on the program, and it was so fun to sit back and watch all the other people Carl teaches and get Henry inspired for all the different kinds of flute music he can play.

“Are you nervous, Henry?” I asked a few minutes before it started. “No!” he said with surprise. “I’m so excited!”

Here it is:

May 7th, 2012 | Tags: carl dimow, flute, Henry, lessons, music, recital | Category: Henry |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (2)

Check out the Brain Burps About Books podcast today to hear my review of Same, Same but Different by Jenny Sue Kostecki-Shaw. I so, so love this story of pen pals, one in the U.S., and one in India. They compare and contrast their lives and cultures, and realize that they’re not all that different, even when they are. The illustrations are phenomenal. If, like me, you grew up on Big Blue Marble, you’ll totally get this book.

You can see all the info on the episode here, or you can listen directly (including Katie’s zippy new jingle) by clicking here. Enjoy!

May 2nd, 2012 | Tags: books, brain burps about books, jenny sue kostecki-shaw, katie davis, same same but different | Category: books |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Leave a comment

First of all, I have a new review of Barbara Joosse’s Dog Parade on Katie Davis‘s Brain Burps About Books podcast today. It’s a great book, with the best illustrations by Eugene Yelchin. Ramona, in all her dog-loving-ness, went crazy for this one. You can check out the details of the episode here, or you can listen to it directly by clicking here.

SECOND: The episode features Katie interviewing Jane Wattenberg. She wrote and illustrated the amazing and hilarious Henny Penny, and was kind enough to contact me when her new book, Mrs. Mustard’s Beastly Babies, came out in February. I’m sure she heard me screaming, “YES! PLEASE! SEND IT TO US!” all the way across the country, because she gave us a little extra giftie of a new copy of Mrs. Mustard’s Baby Faces. Which we desperately needed.

Here is Ramona, holding what was left of our old copy of Baby Faces:

Can you tell that it’s in pieces? It’s been loved to bits.

Let me tell you a little about these books. They are large, bright, accordion-fold board books, with baby heads floating against fun and wild backgrounds. Baby Faces has happy babies on one side and sad babies on the other (all adults immediately say, “Awww!” when they see the crying baby with the snot bubble…which is cuter than it sounds). Beastly Babies shows babies next to animals — a cow, a monkey, a cat — to which they bear a striking resemblance. The brilliance of the accordion fold is that kids can lay it out long on their lap, flap it around, use it as a wall to build a little fort, and many other things that make them feel like they are masters of enormous yet portable books.

Plus all babies like to look at other babies. Always. The new Mrs. Mustard books are already getting tons of daily reading in our house. Here are Ramona and Zuzu with the new books:

So, this is all to say that I’m very excited about Katie interviewing Jane Wattenberg, because she has been so incredibly gracious by sending us these awesome books, and also is clearly the nicest person ever. Besides that, I’m interested to hear her tale of self-publishing Beastly Babies. Go listen! And read!

April 11th, 2012 | Tags: barbara joosse, brain burps about books, dog parade, eugene yelchin, henny penny, jane wattenberg, katie davis, mrs. mustard, mrs. mustard's baby faces, mrs. mustard's beastly babies | Category: books |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (3)

First, I love that Portland changed the Time & Temperature building message for National Poetry Month.

Of course, because of space limitations, it sort of reads like Cookie Monster yelling at you, but still, it made me smile.

Second, the boys were so inspired by Alan Katz’s video on Katie Davis’s blog (though they have also been on kind of an Alan Katz kick lately anyway, but the video gave them a push). Here’s Henry’s Alan-Katzian poem:

He said he spelled Crash with a K because “it’s more sound effecty.” (If you can’t tell what’s going on in the poem/picture: the boy has sawn the house to bits, including, as Henry told me with a mite more enthusiasm than I was comfortable with: “Sawing off the banister and spindles and using that as a ladder!”)

Eli’s poem isn’t written down yet, but he’s repeated it 50 billion times, so I have memorized it and can tell you what it is:

My mom went bananas,
My dad blew his stack,
Because I threw my baseball
At his new Cadillac.

Happy Poetry Month!

April 3rd, 2012 | Tags: Alan Katz, katie davis, national poetry month, poem, poetry, time & temperature building | Category: Eli, Henry, books |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (11)

I’ve got a new review up on Brain Burps About Books today: Neville, by the amazing Norton Juster (of Phantom Tollbooth fame), with such great illustrations by G. Brian Karas (and I was lying in bed last night having a panic attack that I totally mispronounced Karas — sorry, Mr. Karas) (I love doing audio reviews, but proper pronunciation of author names is the one anxiety-producing element).

In this episode, Katie interviews R. Gregory Christie about Kickstarter. Check it out! More info about the episode is here, or you can download it directly by clicking here.

March 13th, 2012 | Tags: brain burps about books, g. brian karas, katie davis, kickstarter, neville, norton juster, podcast, r. gregory christie, review | Category: Children's Book of the Week, books |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (1)

You all know you’re supposed to plan your weekly menu, make your grocery list, and go shopping once a week. You spend less and don’t go nuts when you realize it’s 5:30 and you have nothing but rutabaga in the house.

But, as I’ve said before, I’ve come to hate making dinner. The kids are always hungry and hanging  on me and whiny. And often complaining about whatever it is I’m cooking.

So in a fit of brilliance I came up with this posted weekly menu. The dinner plan for the week is clearly posted, so the kids can check the wall rather than bug me. And I can plan the week much better.

First I made a sheet that had the days of the week on it (and I made it look a little like a diner menu to make my 50s-kitsch-self happy). Then I brainstormed all our dinners, because we don’t actually make that many different ones. There are kid favorites on there, like macaroni & cheese, but also more grownup dinners like Indian Feast or Mediterranean Platter. I tried to be a little more vague so that each item could mean several different meals (like “Pasta”). I also made one called Fancy Dinner, which means I get to make something that no one else will likely be excited about (tofu in mango sauce, or something like that) and everyone has to try it. If they eat it, they get dessert (Fancy Dinner is the only night we get dessert). Fancy Dinner also covers holidays and birthdays.

After I made up the big sheet and all the dinner ideas, I laminated everything and stuck Velcro squares* onto them. I keep all the meal ideas in the (sad, needing-to-be-replaced) envelope taped to the wall under the menu plan. Every week we eat almost the same exact plan, but I do change it a bit sometimes.

The kids still complain and get frantically whiny at 5:00, but it’s definitely calmer now that we all know ahead of time what we’re having for dinner.

P.S. Be sure to notice my gorgeous Stacey Cramp calendar next to our menu. It makes me so happy.

*I feel like half my life is organized in terms of laminated paper and Velcro squares these days.

March 1st, 2012 | Tags: calendar, dinner, Food, grocery, laminate, meal, meal plan, menu, plan, poster, stacey cramp | Category: Food |  Print This Post |  Email This Post | Comments (13)