Movie Reviews

Zombieland - a new household favorite. I can not tell you how many times we have watched this movie and it just has not gotten old! We each have favorite scenes that we specifically like to catch (pull the trigger or hitch a ride?), but the entire movie is really cute. This is a must-own movies and we can't wait to get it on DVD (without Dutch subtitles).

The Haunting in Connecticut - was pretty good. It was a little predictable, but most movies seem to be these days. I thought the ending was predictably American, but then it is based on a true story (so who can you blame?).

I Love You, Man - we loved this movie! It was terribly amusing and there is something endearing about seeing someone else trying too hard... obviously. Come on, you know you've been there.

Book Reviews - Board Books

Touch and Feel: Playtime (from Dorling Kindersley) - I always enjoy these, but worry about germs (especially when getting them from the library). Sasha isn't ready for them yet, but I read this one to her and put her foot on the textures as well as her hand.




Baby! Talk! - This was a really fun book to talk about to Sasha. It has a few words in it, but mostly lots of pictures of babies to match the word on the page. It was a lot of fun and I think she'll enjoy it more as she gets bigger.




Kid Tea - is a very cute rhyming story, but a little too long to maintain the attention of a 3-month-old. The colors are nice, but not quite enough contrast for her, either. However, when Veronica read it to Sasha tonight, she listened intently to the entire book.




Who am I? - This is one of those silly fun books with which you get very physical. It has handles on the sides (when open) and peep holes so that you hold the book up like a mask. "Moo. Moo. Who am I?" This will be a great quizzy book to play with Sasha later. For now, Veronica had great fun reading it to the baby.

Signing

This is something mentioned to me when Veronica was little. She was already communicating and I didn't think I had the attention span (or excitement) to make use of it anyway. Well this time around, I picked up a book from the library almost as soon as we brought Sasha home! You can read my recent review of Baby Sign Language: For Hearing Babies from Penguin on Hobo Mama. It is a great resource.

Only then I read Hobo Mama's review of Baby Signing Time DVDs. I requested Signing Time, Volume 1 from my library. I watched it with Veronica tonight. I like that it is ASL. I figure I could still take the approach and other things I learned from the book above and apply them to real ASL signs. Perhaps I could teach Sasha ASL as a second language. I don't know if I want to do that or not and the convenience of making up signs on the fly as necessary (suggested in the book above) is certainly appealing. After watching the DVD, I had Veronica pose for pics of the signs we learned. I've requested the Baby Signing Time, Volume 1 DVD from my library, but am disappointed to find they only have the first 2 (of 4) volumes. I really liked the one we watched tonight. It presents like any other show for little kids, but the actual information they're learning is presented so clearly. They show pictures of the thing they're signing and video of several small children signing the word as well as an adult signing it. It was pretty cool. And the closing song was touching. We learned a few extra signs from that.

I don't plan on sitting my infant in front of the tele, I take issue with that idea, but there is certainly worse programming out there!