crooked house

Trying to Come Up With a Christmas Card Photo

We couldn't figure out how the timer worked or how to position the camera, so our first problem is that we don't have a photo of the whole family together. Maybe we need to choose four and do a grid? Which ones would you choose? (Click to enlarge.)

Strange New Interest: Perfume

It's Day Way Too Many of the new exercise and diet program, an effort to get rid of the baby weight. Weirdly, over the past couple of days I have developed an intense interest in perfume, something I've never had much time for. I think it must have something to do with sensual deprivation -- food was my go-to for gratification before and now I need something else. (And please don't suggest sex. Clearly, sex can be very fattening -- it is responsible for this baby weight in the first place.)

I've been perusing Now Smell This, a top perfume blog; I've added both Perfumes: The A-Z Guide and The Emperor of Scent: A True Story of Perfume and Obsession to my Christmas list; and I've just ordered a bunch of samples from The Posh Peasant, a place that decants expensive and/or hard to find perfumes into smaller (and thus cheaper) bottles. I ordered samples of the  Top 10 according to Perfumes: The A-Z Guide, Top Cult Favorites from Style.com, the Maternal Magic set, and the Best for Winter set, as well as teensy tiny samples of Annick Goutal Songes, Diptyque Philosykos, and L'Artisan The Pour Un Ete, three perfumes I now feel compelled to smell, thanks to the descriptions at Now Smell This. I may have officially lost my mind. Now if only I could lose this weight, too.

A Gulliver Playground and a Terrific New Blog

Parque Gulliver in Valencia, Spain (inspired, of course, by Gulliver's Travels) is featured on a terrific blog about playground design, Playscapes. Via @andevers.

What We Found When We Went Looking for Wild Things

Chip Taylor and Carrie Rodriguez perform his hit song.

Luke and his dad saw the movie on Sunday. They loved it. We finished the book (wow, check out that price) last night. We loved it. Now we're in search of more, more, more. I'm really excited about the fact we were able to read a novel together at bedtime -- and open to suggestions for the next one we should try.

Luke has added a Wild Things stuffed animal to his Christmas list. He wants Alexander, the goat boy creature. Unfortunately, I don't think that there is such a thing. The child is very persistent in these matters, insisting that, if I would just agree to telephone Santa and ask nicely, surely he would direct his elves to make one.

Annie Leibovitz's Hansel and Gretel and Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Annie Leibovitz does a series of Hansel and Gretel photographs for Vogue. Lady Gaga is the witch. Via Marina Tatar's blog Breezes from Wonderland.

And, speaking of Wonderland, here are some amazing posters from Tim Burton's movie version of the classic. Alice has inspired so many beautiful images, I have half a mind to start collecting both the books and the films.

In a Very Good Mood

Yay! The Kindle is now available in Canada! I've been annoyed with Amazon ever since the e-reader came out because it wasn't available here. And now it is. Jeff Bezos may think he invented this thing but I thought it up in the late 90s. And on Christmas day I expect to finally hold it in my hot little hands. Come to me, my preciousssssss.

 

Also just in time for Christmas, a cardboard fireplace. Via swiss miss.

 

This poster (via BB-Blog) puts me right back in the family car with my mom and younger brother, all of us belting out John Denver songs. I do an especially dramatic rendition of the one that goes "I am the EAGLE, I live in high country... I am the HAWK and there's BLOOD on my feathers but time is still turning, they soon will be dry-y-y!" If you're lucky, maybe I'll do a video and post it. (And by "lucky" I mean "unfortunate.")

My Parents Were Awesome, a site featuring photos of people's parents when they were younger, looks like fun. I have some good pictures around here I could submit. Although my parents are still awesome. (Hi Mom!)

And the obligatory photo of one of my kids:

 

Sylvie likes to eat.

Our Wild Thing

Okay, so mostly I just wanted to post these pictures of Sylvie in this new hat. (It's a sickness, I tell you, this constant putting-of-things-on-one's-children's-heads as a form of entertainment.) But for the past couple of nights after Sylvie has fallen asleep, Luke and I have been cuddling up and reading The Wild Things. In the past he's often asked me to read aloud whatever book I happen to be engrossed in to help him drift off to sleep. This is the first time one of these "books without pictures" has kept him awake. Thinking it'd be too advanced for Luke, I'd purchased it to read myself, not expecting much -- I never do, when a writer tries to put his or her own spin on a classic -- but this is good, really good. Eggers has perfectly captured that kind of impulsive wildness that you often see in kids, particularly boys. And the conversations Max has with the monsters -- they're funny and very childlike in a realistically childlike way, not in that fake and sentimentally childlike way kids often converse in, in books. It's difficult to put your finger on the difference, but they say the kinds of things you'd hear kids say to one another if you followed some around for a little while and actually listened to them.* Max's thoughts ring similarly true.

Since I'm reading the book with the boy, his dad gets to take him to see the movie this weekend. I'm jealous. (One of us has to stay with Sylvie.)

*Disclaimer: I do not advise picking a group of children at random and then following them around to test this theory. You might get arrested.

Take A Look: Roman and London Are Burning, Horrible Histories, Enchanted Hunters, Bird Music, Phantom Towns and More.

Alas, these firescreens featuring Rome and London burning are only prototypes, not yet for sale. Via BB-blog.

Speaking of Rome burning, I ordered a bunch of Horrible Histories, ostensibly for Luke and Sylvie for Christmas. Really, until they're old enough, they're for me. I was inspired by When We Were Romans, one of the library books I picked up a few days ago. I can't recommend When We Were Romans enough -- written from the point of view of a nine-year-old boy, it belongs on my list of the best books that evoke childhood for adults.

Maria Tatar's Enchanted Hunters: The Power of Stories in Childhood sounds excellent. Can't wait to get my hands on a copy. And look! She has a blog. Now if only Harvard would follow Yale's example and offer her children's literature course online. (Must remember to tell David about this new Yale offering: Craig White's Listening to Music.)

I have my eye on Mike Sacks's And Here's the Kicker: Conversations with 21 Top Humor Writers on their Craft, too. It's reviewed favourably here.

Also via BB-blog, check this out:

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

Jarbas Agnelli saw a newspaper photograph of birds on wires and decided to compose music based on the birds' position. Lovely and haunting. I also enjoy Agnelli's short films about his baby daughter, The Mini Adventures of Nina 1, 2, and 3.

This is neat: apparently phantom places, mostly streets but in this case a whole town, sometimes appear on maps. The town of Argleton in Lancashire appears only on Google maps. I can relate to the guy who felt compelled to walk to where it's supposed to be. That's exactly what I'd do:

"I started to weave this amazing fantasy about the place, an alternative universe, a Narnia-like world. I was really fascinated by the appearance of a non-existent place that the internet had the power to make real and give a semi-existence."

When Mr Bayfield reached Argleton – which appears on Google Maps between Aughton and Aughton Park – he found just acres of green, empty fields.

Via Gwenda on twitter.

Also on the topic of maps, take a look at these amazing map cut-outs of New York and Paris.

So You Want to Raise a Doctor

So although I did my best with Luke, he just informed me that he intends to be a video game designer/tv show writer when he grows up. In the above video, taken when Luke was maybe two, I see now that instead of inspiring him, I was torturing the child with the profession I'd prefer he choose.

Some mothers might think twice. But not I. No, instead I got pregnant twice. Sylvie is the perfect opportunity to try again.

See how I'm already making better progress. She doesn't mind the hat at all. (Please ignore the hideous wallpaper in the background. I haven't torn it down yet as I'm holding out for a full kitchen reno. The ugly wallpaper in the video is now gone, gone, gone.)

Plus, although this might sound sexist,  nowadays it seems as if  doctoring (as the old folks around here call it) is a profession often better suited to women anyway, especially if bedside manner matters to you. All of our doctors (our family doctor, Luke's pediatrician, his gastroenterologist, all the fertility specialists we saw, and the ob-gyns who delivered both children) are women. Our family doctor is a plump, white-haired woman in her sixties. When Luke was just starting to talk, every time he saw a grandmotherly-looking woman he said, "Look, a doct-ah!" Which I just loved. (Do you remember that old riddle about the boy who was injured in a car accident with his father, who was also severely injured? The surgeon enters the operating room and exclaims, "I can't operate on this boy! He's my son!" and you're supposed to figure out how that's possible. We were told that one in grade three -- and I remember being stumped.)

 

(Note: In a later post I shall discuss my strange penchant for photographing my children with hats, wigs, and a variety of household objects on their heads. For now I will say only this: I blame my mother.)

Happily, Sylvie is still too little to tell me what she wants for Christmas. Therefore this year I have free rein to purchase mainly medical-themed toys for my potential neurosurgeon:

A giant plush neuron is actually something she could cuddle up with now. The red blood cell also looks kind of cuddly. I'll probably get Luke the giant dust mite --he's put stuffed animals on his list against the recommendation of his allergist. (Two others that interest me personally are the bookworm and the swine flu.) Sylvie will also be able to wear these tiny scrubs right away. And this plastic doctor set will have to do for now -- she's liable to bash herself in the head with real metal pieces. And while a trip to the ER would certainly be educational, I don't want to risk the loss of any brain cells.

Perhaps I should use this brain gelatin mold on her rice cereal. It's never too early for shape recognition. And instead of a bib, she can wear this vinyl anatomy apron. This 5-layer wooden puzzle of a girl's body is something she could conceivably begin to chew on during the next few months. And it's never too soon to start scribbling in a Gray's Anatomy coloring book. 

I like these 3-D anatomical puzzles so much I'd happily display them in my living room: this human muscle and skeleton model, this Bio Signs brain & skull and this frog -- they're a lot more visually appealing than a pile of Fisher-Price and Hot Wheels crap.

I already have  the art version of this book and it is full of fun, age-appropriate activities: Science Play!: Beginning Discoveries for 2-To 6-Year-Olds.

And last but not least, Operation. (While I was browsing the board games, I found a new one called Infection -- it doesn't look all that snazzy but the concept is great. And timely.)

Update! Sara O'Leary has pointed me to this treasure: the Playmobil operating room.

 

So what if it's not intended for children under three. The way Sylvie wears that shower cap --  clearly, she's very advanced.

Two New Books About Paper Art

I've got my eye on two new-ish books featuring paper artists. Here are some  photographs of the incredible work found in the pages of Papercraft: Design and Art With Paper. The book comes with a DVD of some of the best stop-motion animation and some printable templates for making your own paper toys. You can view a video about the book here.

Some of the work in Paper: Tear, Fold, Rip, Crease, Cut is featured here.

And here's an interesting article about the survival of paper as a medium for expression in an increasingly paperless world.