Birthday Girl

We celebrated a Happy Birthday with Danielle yesterday. 18 years. Oh the stories I could tell. Let me just say she is a wonderful girl and it's a joy to be her mother.

Little Things

It's the little things that I enjoy. This is the google doodle today. Vivaldi Google. Celebrating the 332nd birthday of Antonia Vivaldi the Italian composer. This doodle honors "The Four Seasons," his most famous composition. And now for your viewing and listening pleasure.

Happy Birthday Dr. Seuss

Dr. Seuss was the very man who inflicted great torture on me as a young child. Ok, so he didn't actually come to my house and torture me, it just felt like it. As a youngster learning to read I guess Green Eggs and Ham and The Cat In The Hat must have been the only two books in my house. Every night my Dad would sit with me and I would have to read one of these books. I was struggling with reading. I hated these books. I wanted to scream at Sam I Am, "just answer the damn question so this book can be over with" (Did I just swear?). I wanted to take that Cat and beat the living daylights out of him and tell him to, "GET OUT". I would slowly plug along trying to get through those books each night. I remember crying about it and yelling I hate reading.

I want all of you that are wondering if I am still an illiterate to know that reading finally clicked in my head and then I was off and never stopped reading but it was no thanks to Dr. Seuss. I think it was actually spelling tests. I was very competitive when it came to spelling tests in the 2nd grade and also I wanted to be in the top reading group.


I have forgiven Dr. Seuss. Although, those two books are still my least favorite. It was years before I bought any Dr. Seuss books for my own kids and I was a collector of children's books. Those did not make the cut as necessary reading in our home library. I do remember the first time that the kids heard those stories they liked them and I was silently annoyed that they didn't hate them.

I will give a shout out to the following Seuss books - Are You My Mother? (Loved it). My all time favorite, Go Dog Go. Loved the dogs and the cars, the huge bed with a zillion dogs sleeping in it, and the question, "do you like my hat?".
So Happy Birthday Dr Seuss and please people--do not torture your kids with these books if they are a struggling reader. It just ain't nice!

PS. Oh Look, after posting the pictures I see that the books I liked weren't even Dr. Seuss books. So, thank you PD Eastman for saving me.