Friday Report

Squiddle's taking an early nap today. I should be on the bike right now, but I just can't. I've been being very good about doing it five days a week, but I'm also suspecting that's what's causing the persistent ache in my left calf, and until I can stretch that away, I'm giving myself some slack.

The Santa Ana winds are blowing today. Joy. I should've suspected it when I looked at the weather forecast and saw it was going up into the 80s this weekend. Luckily, I did a spot of gardening yesterday which included watering everything. And also putting bean and parsnip seeds into the ground. I apparently had three packets of parsnip seeds. I used up the oldest, spreading the seeds liberally down the rows, and will see what sprouts in the next month or so. Of the seeds I have going in flats, right now the zinnias, alyssum, cucumbers, and the second round of corn are sprouting. Oh, and one jalepeno. :/ But the radishes in my radish-and-carrot rows are also poking their heads up, and if I can clear the space in the bed this weekend, the first round of corn is ready to go in the ground.

For dinner, I've put a pork shoulder in the slow cooker along with some homemade applesauce-based barbeque sauce. Hopefully it will turn out well and we shall have pulled pork for dinner. First time trying the recipe, and I had to make a couple of substitutions. And ran shy on paprika, alas.

Time to go make a sandwich for lunch, and then either convince myself to bicycle, or work on Field of Stars.

ETA: Wrote ten pages during the Squiddle's nap. 2239 words. Booyah!

ETA 2: The pulled pork recipe shines. This one's going in the keeper pile.

Reading Aloud

Squiddle has a nice little collection of books. Some of them were gifts; most came from thrift stores. I continue further into the lack of comprehension of how people can afford children going the retail store route. I boggled when I realized the clean-as-new volume of The Cat In The Hat I got for $.99 costs $8.99 elsewhere....

(Dr. Seuss count: six books so far. Forty left to find! ^_^)

Wonderful Husband and I read his books to Squiddle. At first he had a lack of comprehension going (Mummy and Daddy are showing me this thing and, hey, page turning is fun, but why are they making mouth-sounds at the same time?), but these days he picks out the book he wants and shoves it at us. Four or more times a day! At least he's branching out into different books now. Mouse Paint was getting very tiresome for a while....

Until I read this article on being read aloud to, though, it never occurred to me that listening to a book being read is a skill just as much as being the one doing the reading.

As I am a reader of anything, and Wonderful Husband a reader of online stuff, I think we're doing right by our child, and succeeding in our plan of molding him into a lover of books as well.