Book Love: Lemonade in Winter

TJ was out of town all week for orientation for his *new job*.  (More on that later.)  So I got lots of quality time with my Big Girl T.

We've been reading one of her newer books a lot lately and both of us love it, so I thought I'd rave about it here.  It's Lemonade in Winter: A Book About Two Kids Counting Money by Emily Jenkins and G. Brian Karas.

I first saw it on my hunt for decent wrapping paper for Christmas after being frustrated while wrapping my Book Advent packages.  When I realized that ordering nice wrapping paper online was going to cost me as much in shipping as for the paper itself, I decided to shop locally.

We have a store in Redmond called Packaging Specialties.  It's tucked away in a strip mall, and sells, as you might imagine, boxes and bags and stuff.  It's not a cute boutiquey store - it looks very utilitarian from the outside, and for years I never had a reason to go there.

I needed some food-safe favor bags for T's 2nd birthday party and someone suggested this shop, so I went in, and was amazed at their selection. A lot of their business is targeted towards weddings and food packaging, but they also have gorgeous paper, gift wrap and ribbon.  They also have a small selection of cute hip gift items like those Kikkerland shaped paper clips, craft books, and boxed cards.

Around Christmas they had a display with a few winter and holiday themed kids' books, and since I was looking to add to my collection for Book Advent, my interest was piqued.  I fell in love with Lemonade in Winter as soon as I saw it.

First, as you may have noticed, the little kids in the picture have brown skin and black hair.  Like me!  It's actually harder to find than I expected in picture books for preschoolers.  The baby board books mostly didn't have people in them, or they had photos of all kinds of babies, so we were covered there.

Even better, it tackled a subject I haven't seen in picture books yet - counting money.  T has a piggy bank, and we give her quarters occasionally for doing her "chores", like putting away the silverware or her laundry.  But she doesn't really "get" the money system, or what the different coins mean.  Which is fine, since she's only 3.  I love that we now have a way to start introducing it, especially now that she can count up to 30 or so reliably.

It's really nicely written, with a good rhythm for reading aloud.  There are a couple of cute songs and chants in it, and some poetic wording about the cold and wind.  Pauline and John-John are a brother and sister who decide to host an urban lemonade stand in the dead of winter.  The cast of characters (ie their customers) is varied - a single guy walking his dogs, a young (mixed race!) couple, a mama with twins and 5 manicurists from the nail salon across the street.

It also introduces very simple concepts for running a business - advertising, sales, entertainment, and eventually the concept of profit vs loss.  Some of those concepts may be better for the older kids in the age range, which is supposed to be 3-7 years old.  But T is already picking up on some of them, as we talked about what it means to be "on sale".

Not to mention, she has picked up the phrase "easy peasy lemon squeezy" to use conversationally.  I love that so much more than the things she picks up from watching Cars or Dora, that's for sure.

Like Owl Babies, it's one of those really interesting, well-written, unique picture books that I don't mind reading over and over again, which is just the way my preschooler likes it.  This one will be perfect for our Book Advent next year!

Book of Mormon in Seattle: A Review (ish)

Apparently I had been living under a rock because until sometime last year, I had no idea that the creators of South Park had also written a musical. About Mormon missionaries. In Africa.

Take in those three facts for a minute, and you can pretty much imagine what it's like.  It reminded me a lot of their South Park movie from 1999.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. I had no idea that Book of Mormon was coming to Seattle or that it was sold out. I'm pretty much stuck in a haze of parenting, with the occasional coffee or lunch date with friends. Keeping up on pop culture is pretty far down the list.

So when my friend Ric offered me a ticket about a week before, I was EXCITED. I love musicals. I love South Park. I love the idea of having dinner and going out with a bunch of grownups to see something delightfully kid-inappropriate.

And then I found out it was a "thing". Had been sold out for weeks. Tickets being scalped for obscene prices. I am *so* lucky - this really was one of those "unexpected blessings from the universe" woo-woo things. Woot!

The show was at the lovely Paramount theater. The last show I saw there was Queensryche in 2007. (Sidebar: we need to get out more!) We had great seats.

And it was a Spectacle with a capital-S.  Big musical numbers, flashing lights, fancy costumes and laughs. Lots and lots of laughs. Which is odd. I haven't seen many *funny* musicals. (Are there many?) But this one was, as expected, *so* offensive, and yet, *so* hilarious.  The humor is in line with South Park, so it's not the musical to take your grandma or your mom to (unless they'd watch South Park with you).

There were a few things I wasn't expecting to get out of this. (Take home lessons, if you will.) I loved the clever way the writers (composers? authors?) poked fun at the casual racism that comes from living in a homogeneous culture - my favorite was the way one of the characters could NEVER get the name of the African lead female character correct.

The other take home lesson?  Discomfort. I'm not religious, but it was a bit uncomfortable to sit through 2 (award-winning, society-sanctioned) hours of making fun of one particular religion.  I know South Park has always been about edgy humor, but one of the best things about it is that they make fun of *everyone* - it's equal opportunity offensiveness.  

This reaction actually surprised me a bit - I'm definitely not a fan of evangelical religions, having been an easy target of proselytizing in the past. I do believe people should be left alone to practice whatever religion they want, regardless of how "weird" it seems to outsiders. I guess this comes from growing up in a Hindu family in Pittsburgh, PA and having gotten my share of rude comments   about it.

I may be attributing more sophistication to Parker and Stone, but I do think this is part of their humor and what makes it insidiously clever while on the surface looking like fart and poop jokes. I think they *want* us to be uncomfortable, to face all the ugly sentiments lurking beneath our usually polite society.

After all, they did write an entire South Park episode mocking Islam (which I believe their network wouldn't air), and Christianity has also been the target of their jokes as well.

Also clever?  The ads in the program for the Mormon.org website, urging people to check out the "real Book of Mormon". I was pretty surprised to see them!

If you've seen it, I'd love to hear what you think.

Dove Visible Care Creme Body Wash Review, Coupon and Contest

I'm a leisurely shower kind of girl. In fact, I like the shower as a place to think and work out things that are bothering me. It's too bad I'm not one of those people who does that while running - I'd be a lot thinner, for sure...

T, me, and BabyX'

When T was a newborn, aside from the lack of sleep, it was the lack of time to take a leisurely shower that was a hard adjustment to new mama-hood. Invariably, Miss Baby would start wailing for a feeding 5 minutes after I stepped in the shower. Not to mention all the times in the shower I'd hear phantom baby crying, jump out in a hurry, only to find her fast asleep still. Hormones will do that to you, I guess.

Now that we're long past that stage, and haven't embarked on it just yet with Baby X', I jumped at the chance to review a new premium body wash by Dove. I'm not a mass-market bar soap kind of girl. I don't wear perfume, so I like my bath products to smell good, and they also need to keep my dry skin moisturized.

I used to have a *thing* about buying bath products and I still have trouble resisting cute packaging and yummy scents. So when the box from BlogHer showed up, revealing a full size bottle of Dove Visible Care Renewing Creme Body Wash, I was pretty stoked to try it out. (There's something cool about getting free stuff delivered to my door!)

After using it for a week, my skin feels good. I'm huge and pregnant and getting lotion on my swollen legs and feet isn't as easy as it used to be. I can actually skip it and do just fine with this Dove body wash only, so thumbs up for that. The scent is a nice floral that's not overpowering, and I'm super picky about scents. The feel of the body wash is nice and creamy without being weirdly greasy. It rinses off easily and doesn't leave any residue on my skin. There are no parabens listed in the ingredients. I'm a fan.

Thanks to the BlogHer review program, you can get $1 off your next purchase via the coupon below *and* also register to win a $500 SpaFinder gift certificate.

That would be one heck of a spa day, for sure. I'd use part of that to get the usual stuff: haircut, color and eyebrow waxing, but would also try to sneak in a massage and a mani/pedi as well. And maybe a facial.

What would you do with $500 of free spa goodness? Inquiring minds want to know.

Visit Dove^® VisibleCare^® to get a coupon for $1 off!

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