Sunday Salon: Three Months!

While it seems as though every week brings a major milestone for the nomadbaby, most of them sound silly to someone without babies. Example: he's now eating 6 ounces at a time, which means he's into the big bottles! It's not that thrilling sounding. Here it is decoded: the more he eats at a time, the longer he should be able to go in between meals. This development matters most at night, which we hope he will soon sleep through.

But I think even people without babies appreciate the timeline milestones and seeing babies grow. Hawthorne turned three months old this week! The last three months of my pregnancy felt like they took a year, but the first three months of his life have flown by (in mostly good ways.) He is still a shrimp (that's the same outfit he wore in his two month photo), but he is clearly in the midst of a growth spurt. And his hair is growing to the point I have no idea what to do with it. I still try to give him the fauxhawk because it's adorable, but it's getting a little long. And as he spends all of his waking and sleeping time on his back or in a chair, the back of his hair is always a mess. And he could use a trim around his ears and a trip in back to get rid of the mullet he was born with. But who cuts a baby's hair at this age? (Serious question--do people do it?)

Reading Life
With age comes the ability to entertain himself for longer periods. And I'm getting better at actually reading the book in my hands while he amuses himself on his playmat. Hawthorne is only in day care twice a week, and he's an only child, so I try not to make him the center of my attention all the time. One of his favorite things to do is sit in his chair in the kitchen and watch me cook and do wishes. Thank goodness, as I really like to cook and eat.

When he's self-entertaining, I try to read print books in front of him. He enjoys books (just not right before bedtime), and I hope he'll gradually understand that his parents read books too. I want to model reading for him, and I doubt he'll understand that a Kindle is reading as early as he'll understand books are reading. To help with my desire to read print books, I finally took advantage of getting more library cards. Unlike other places I've lived, the libraries in my county don't share collections. But they do allow any Iowa resident the opportunity to get a library card. As our metro area, which is quite small, includes over ten cities, I am slowly accumulating all of their library cards. It's fascinating to me (a nerdy librarian) how different their collections are. Some books I'm looking for are only owned my one library. Others may have long reserve lines at one library but are sitting on the shelf at other libraries.

I am also on a serious memoir kick. I'm typically a mystery and literary fiction reader who occasionally dabbles in memoirs, but I've just read two in a row, and I'm having better luck with my nonfiction picks than my fiction picks lately. Typically, I listen to more nonfiction than fiction, but I have been on a fiction kick with my audio picks.

Bucket list
I've started working on my 2014 book bucket list. I always make a list of the books I want to read before the end of the year, and my list is currently impossibly long, even though I've read more books this year than in any other year. I plan to post the list the week of Thanksgiving to help hold myself accountable through the end of the year. I will likely have two lists: the must reads and the "would really like to read." I'm thinking of keeping this list going seasonally (monthly seems too often).

Now tell me: what books are on your 2014 bucket list?