Book review: I Love You like Crazy Cakes

I had noticed "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes" in my local bookstore before Sandie began her adoption journey. The lovely, peaceful watercolor illustrations caught my eye every time I went past the display, so when I had the excuse of this blog, I jumped at the chance to purchase a copy.

I put it away for a while, intent on other projects. But this summer, when I saw some of Anna's watercolors, I felt they were vaguely reminiscent, and mentioned the book to her. My comment was met with astonishment and delight, for it was, in fact, one of the very books she had referenced.

So the book has been here waiting patiently for me to post about it for a couple of months. And now, flailing about trying to find something to say in the longest November on record, I turn gratefully to it once more.

"I Love You Like Crazy Cakes" follows the story of a woman who adopts a baby girl from China. It is based on the author's own adoption experience, and is written as if in response to a question from her young daughter about how they came to be together.

As you would imagine from this description, the mother simplifies a fair bit for her young listener, so the whole adoption goes off lightning fast and without a single hitch, and the baby takes to her immediately. (Ah, poetic license.) With its simple and direct language, the book works well as a story to read to a young child.

Now, I know that Sandie prefers that the adoption stories she purchases show a family situation as close to her own as possible, and this one does feature a single mother and no siblings. I thought about this when I chose to purchase it, as I'm fully expecting to pass all of these books over to her in time. And I concluded that, while the book focuses specifically on the relationship between the mother and the daughter, it doesn't necessarily exclude the possibility that there may be other members of the family. If one wanted, one could easily add more family members into the list of people who come meet the baby once she's off the plane. (I always felt free to add and change things in the picture books I read to my little brother when he was young. He never called me on it! Authors, please don't kill me for this!) However, Sandie, if you feel hesitant, I'd be happy to keep this one with me. It really is a very pretty book and I wouldn't at all mind having it for my collection.

Buy this book (or just read more about it):

Snowflakes

In celebration and recognition of our first snow of the season, I present a link to a site on snowflakes, run by the gentleman whose snowflake pictures appeared on the 39 cent snowflake stamps back in 2006. The site offers gorgeous close-up photos, snowflake facts and physics, and some ideas of snow-related activities for kids and adults.

If you become inspired here, you can seek out Paula Nadelstern's "Snowflakes & Quilts," to learn how to make amazing snowflake quilts. (The book is out of print, but I was able to find it last year at a quilt store for its original price. I include the link to Amazon so you can read a little about it; I'm not recommending that you purchase it at that inflated price!) Or just take the easier and more economical route and go goggle at the quilt gallery on her website!

Doctor Who

Lately I've been revisiting the newest Doctor Who series. These episodes, starting in 2005, are a far cry from the old time Doctor Who, with the low budget monsters and wobbly sets. Today the special effects are decent enough not to call attention to themselves.

I love that the characters travel in time, but we don't have to get all hung up on the details of the technology that allows them to do this. No super-hyper-mega-warp-schmarp-burp drive like they'd have on Star Trek. It's funnier than Trek, and more history-friendly too. (Stories include characters like Shakespeare and Dickens and Queen Victoria.)

Most of all, I love that the main character is a big old geek who takes a childlike sense of wonder and joy in life and adventure and all of the little things that make people (and other weird creatures) work. It's that joy that makes the character (and the series) so much more attractive to me than someone like Spock.

But don't tell my stepmother I said that. She's a huge Spock fan, and this would be tantamount to blasphemy.

Liam's recital

My brother-in-law is in town to interview for a potential job. (Who knows, they could actually be back here next year. I am keeping my fingers crossed!)

My sister took the opportunity to send along with him a CD of my 5 year old nephew's recital. Liam's performed with other kids before, but I believe this was his first solo recital. It covered all of the material found in the Suzuki violin book 1.

My sister started Suzuki group lessons when she was 3 years old. I don't know how old she was when she was playing the book 1 tunes, but I remember every one. (Not by name, but by melody. The human brain really seems to be wired to respond to and remember music and rhythm very well, which makes me wonder if maybe we shouldn't be integrating more music in the teaching of other subjects. Imagine the possibilities.)

I enjoyed revisiting all of the pieces, but my favorite moment was listening to my sister duet with Liam on three of the minuets. It gave me such a sense of continuity, the passing along of something important from one generation to the next.

Maybe in 25 or 30 years, it'll be Liam playing the harmony for his child in her/his first recital. And the rest of us, very old and gray by then, will be sitting in the audience, remembering...

Birds

I keep seeing a bird (sparrow?) motif in fabric and decor, like this Joel Dewberry print



When we were out and about the other day and wandered into various design shops, I thought for sure I'd see whole aviaries full of bird prints and other material... but I saw just one, in the very first shop.

Now I am wondering whether this is a trend whose time has come and gone, whether it's only just begun, or whether the whole thing was always only a flight of fancy to begin with.

Idle question, really, as I don't especially care for birds. It's just interesting and mysterious to me to see what floats in and out of style, and try to guess why.