That's Our Boy!

Family legend holds that once upon a time my cousin, Thalia, and I were given a gallon jar of pickles and were told we could have some. When our moms came back in the room, between us we had eaten the whole jar!

I have since tried to instill the love of pickles into my children. Thus far only one, Annika, loves them. She will eat as many pickles as you will give her. While eating them the other day we decided to give Johnny a taste and see what he would do. We expected the cute, funny face that babies give when they try new foods, instead he proceeded to suck and eat at it for quite a while. He loved it, he must be my boy!

His first taste.

Arching forward to get more of it.

As the title says, That's Our Boy, I had to show a mini James in here as well.

He has a true daddy shirt on, and boy does he look adorable. And since it has been so long since I have updated here are a few of his recent milestones:

• He is 7 1/2 months old
• Johnny is sitting up well on his own, although he does still sometimes forget that he is sitting and will throw himself forward and face-plant.
• He loves to eat!  He will eat anything that I am, but he will not eat baby veggies unless I add fruit as well. 
• Johnny is a true daddy's boy, he loves his dad more than anyone else, even mom!  Mom is great and he loves to play with me, but as soon as dad walks in the door he wants his dad.  In fact if dad dares to take off his hat and coat before picking Johnny up, he will cry and yell until his dad gets him.
• Along with being a daddy's boy, his first "word" is dada.  He hasn't really associated it yet, but he will babble dada all day long.
• Also he is still the toothless wonder.  In the next picture you can see that great gummy grin.  I don't mind the lack of teeth, but I hope he teethes well.

This next picture reflects his dad more though.  "Woman, why are you using that flashy thing at me again, I am not going to smile."

It's GREAT to be 8

We had a wonderful past couple of days. Yesterday was MacKayla's eighth birthday. She has been looking forward to this day for a VERY long time. Her grandparents and aunt came up and were able to be here for this special weekend. Today was her baptism day and it was a wonderful experience.

As part of her baptism program MacKayla was able to sing a solo. She sang the song "When I am Baptized." Here is a video of her singing it a Capella this morning. She hit all of the notes great while at the baptism, and said the only part that scared her was when she looked out at the audience and saw how many people were there, at that point she looked down at her music, but still did wonderfully.

 Her birthday cake, she wanted delicious dirt (brownies, pudding, Oreo's, and gummy worms.)

 She received a scripture bag, and some other baptism gifts from her grandparents.

 She received a pillow pet and other things from us.

 All three girls ready for the baptism, and yes I did buy all new dresses for the second time.

 My beautiful MacKayla, all ready to be baptized.

 The beautiful Annika, unfortunately her eyes were partially closed in all of her photos.

 Cutie Bella.

 My handsome men, aren't they the cutest guys in the world.

 "As white as snow"

 Male bonding.

 All ready for the baptism.

Aren't they so cute!  It was so wonderful!

 Our family all together.  Poor Johnny was really tired though.

 Happy Wammack Family!

 That's my girl!

We have also told the girls that when they were baptized they would be given the choice if they wanted to have their ears pierced. MacKayla choose to do that today and she did great with that as well. She sat there and smiled the whole time and looks beautiful with her new earrings.

February Books Read

So while I had a great time reading books this month, I have had a problem with several of them, why do authors feel the need to use such obscene language in books.  I understand that most of these books are for the young adult audience and that many of those in the target audience use language like that, but can't the author rise above that?  I would love to see more authors try to improve the language of the reader, rather than encourage such baseness in youth today.

The Replacement
Brenna Yovanoff
352
I have a hard time saying how this books was.  I enjoyed the story but I felt at times like the author was toying with the reader.  The protagonist knows more of the story than the reader does and it takes a long time for the reader to figure out what is going on.  The story is about a boy who is different than everyone else.  He is a replacement, or in other words a changling.


Will Grayson, Will Grayson
John Green and David Levithan
304
This was an interesting story, but I will not recommend it for most audiences.  The characters go the gamut from the severely depressed,  over-sexed, gay, and everything in between.  The end of the book was nice, but getting there was a challenge.  I was actually really disappointed as Amazon had recommended this one and the premise was great.

When I Was Joe
Keren Green
384
I liked this story, this was about a boy who witnessed a murder and has been placed in the witness protection program.  The author and the story are both British, so the language and the slang can be distracting at times, but it was still enjoyable.

Flygirl
Sherri L. Smith

288
This was definitely the best book that I read recently.  The story is of a black girl during WWII.  She and her father were pilots and she really wanted to join in the military in order to help.  She has light skin and actually uses that to pass as white and to join the WASP and was able to fly missions.   The story is fiction, but is based on the experiences of actual WASP pilots.

Bruiser
Neal Shusterman

336
This book was another gem in the month.  This is the story of a boy misunderstood, but who has a gift.  The story becomes the typical diamond in the rough type story, but the getting there was a lot of fun.





The Girl Who Could Fly
Victoria Forester

352
The cover of this book has author Stephanie Meyer review is saying that it is "the sweetest/oddest mix of Little House on the Prairie and X-Men" and I couldn't agree more.  The girl in the story is from the deep south, has great morals, and speaks like a southerner, while learning to fly and use her powers.  We also meet other kids with powers and get to see them grow together.

The Other Side of the Island
Allegra Goodman

272
This was a fun, quick read of another distopian world.  The characters are in a world where only a few islands have survived the melting polar caps and the horrible weather that ensued.  Earth Mother has come in a saved the people, but at what cost!?!  If you have ever seen Futurama, Earth Mother reminded me a lot of Mom, the creator of the robots.

Total Pages for February: 2016
Total for 2011: 5480

Books that I read but did not finish yet/ever this month.

The Peacegiver
This was our book club book for the month, but I had a hard time getting into it.  We'll see if it gets reshelved, or if I get around to finishing it.

Beheamoth
Still going on this one...

Going Bovine
I am emjoying this one, the story is intereseting, but I am having a hard time getting past the foul language.