Kingmaker Series: A Promise of Fire (Amanda Bouchet)

Very late, but I loved this.

I miss epic fantasy. Every once in a while I want to channel the Sword of Truth or revist the Talent series (McCaffrey’s Rowan/Damia/Pegasus in Flight branching). There’s amazing things that happen and some romance and varying levels of based in some world that you recognize-ness. YA/NA seems to channel this from time to time (Bitterblue, Court of Thorns and Roses, Girl of Fire & Thorns). So when I got into this and we had magic and gods that walk through the world, I’m pretty much cleared my calendar and knocked through all three books in this trilogy.

This series takes some of the fun of Greek mythology characters and puts them into a world that is in the middle of a shift in status quo. The “elite” magic class in one country has just been defeated by a collection of non-magic people banding together to protect themselves from the abuse of the elite. The upper class, having ignored what was going on around them for ages in favor of their own power struggles has left the military & officials with less power to weild it over the lower classes. To completely bring about this revolution, we have our band of five (#TropesFTW) as a mix of fighters with unique skills and one magic user who has been subverting her skills to avoid being found.

Part journey of self discovery, part political drama we follow our troop as they figure out who they are and better understand how they need to tear down the world they have always known in order to improve the lives of everyone they love. This is the first book in the trilogy, but a very satisfying start that is complete in and of itself. That being said, I’m VERY happy I was able to read all three back to back.

Kvetching: #UX design

This morning, I went on a twitter long form kvetch due to a tech fail this weekend. I’m a mom, in addition to being a reader I’m raising one. The picture at left is my eldest, laying in her bed reading on her kindle with a booklight clipped to her pillow. Her brother is curled up in his bed, also with a Kindle — but this one is a Fire and he’s watching a movie. Like kids born this century, they took to electronics as a method of entertainment as naturally as the Legos scattered all over my living room floor and Transformers crashing into Hot Wheels while the Galactic Heroes stormtroopers fight off Voltron. They’ve learned letters with Endless Alphabet, watched videos, built robots, driven BB-8 around the living room, practiced writing and drawing without having to toss endless pieces of paper, learned about chemical elements and generally had fun.

Where we haven’t been raising Millennial kids is in terms of television. Until 2014, we had a CRT television, then we upgraded our component system with a new receiver, new BluRay player, new flat panel television and all run by our existing Logitech Harmony remote. Now, we’re thinking of cutting the cord. We figure, with both in school now is a great time to cut expenses. We’ve got Netflix, we’ve got Amazon Prime…we just need a few things until Disney comes out with their own streaming service to solve our need for occasional live television.

We watch mainly 6 channels: Disney, AMC, TNT, BBC America, and two local networks. Most providers for streaming offer the “local” channels without worry and almost everyone offers Disney. The rest (TNT, BBC America, AMC) are being debated based on what the show is and how much of a pain the network site is to get the show being missed.  For our first test, we try Hulu TV and YouTube TV.

Hulu we can stream via our BluRay, but not the live stuff. YouTubeTV is only available via Chromecast or newer televisions. The Chromecast is an easy $35 purchase to try out and I have no problem returning if this week fails miserably.

It fails. Mostly because I’m unwilling to use a tablet/smart phone as a remote. As you can see, we have no problem with technology in the house. That’s our charging station. It holds our Wii U controller and changing pad for the normal wii-motes, a spot to charge Android and Apple phones and watches, cords for the two Android tablets, the iPad mini, the Kindle Fire and the two reading Kindles as well as a drop zone for headphones, the BB-8 Sphero and Sphero Mini. Usually the problem is finding something that has a charge and the activity you want.

I thought that the Chromecast would look and feel like my BluRay or television menus — where I can use up/down left/right and select buttons to navigate between apps. From there, I’d be able to get to YouTube TV or Sling or Hulu or whatever — even Netflix if we’re so inclined. Nope. Not even a little bit.

I can turn Chromecast on via the Harmony remote. I get a gorgeous painting or picture from Getty Images to fill my television. That’s where I stop being able to use a physical remote. You want YouTubeTV? Great, get your phone, launch the YouTubeTV app and hit the cast button. You want to pause the show you’re watching? make sure you didn’t put it down on the charger since you’ll need it to pause / change channels / start a different show / rewind / fast forward over commercials. Not an actual remote, and not a different device. So if my husband was to turn on Disney channel with the YouTubeTV app on his phone after dinner while I’m doing dishes (he cooks, I clean), and then went to work, well…tough.

Help Desk guy: most people have a cheap tablet that they leave with the television.

me: why would I want to do that? I have a cheap tablet but we’re busy using it as a tablet and I have a remote for this purpose.

Help Desk guy: well, you could just tell your Google Home device to pause the tv.

me: the Google Home device I don’t have?

Help Desk guy: you could get one.

me: so you want me to buy a voice activated thing to turn on my entire system in a multi-step process in order to be able to pause/play/change channels later with one action instead of developing something that works with a remote?

Help Desk guy: …huh.

Yeah, let’s think about that. I love technology, it has amazing uses. But part of what drives voice activation is ease of use. If I have developed a routine on a device that can be voice activated it should be easy…. like right now, my 4yo can say “Alexa, turn on tv” and the device accesses a skill for Logitech’s Harmony remote which runs the routine to: turn on my receiver and set to HDMI in 2 and out 1, the television on and the DVR on and then set to channel 289. We could change that to be a routine that turns on the receiver for HDMI in 4 (chromecast) and out 1, the television on and then he’d get a pretty picture with the time and temperature. There’s no way, that we’ve discovered, to then turn on YouTube TV or any of the other available chromecast apps and put on a specific channel. To do this, we’d need to acquire another home AI device, teach the kids a new trigger phrase, and then the appropriate new clue words “cast xxx app to Disney” — something we can do with one button or one normal sound command right now.

What triggered all this? My little man stumbled downstairs this morning, realized he was chilly and after saying good morning to me asked our Amazon Echo for the weather tomorrow. He hasn’t figured out yet that he needs to ask for now or today instead since we usually ask at night to pick out clothes for the next day. Our Alexa responded to his request with the weather in Mobile, Alabama. We’re in North Carolina.

People in #UX…I’m not asking you design a thing to make it so a 4yo can watch television without adult interaction. I’m wondering how you answer an adult with a speech problem…or my mother who wants to turn on the news while she’s here…or someone who just wants to leave her phone on a charger across the room and pause the television to get another cup of tea.

TBR&R: Victorian Rebels (series)

The latest offering of Kerrigan Byrne’s Victorian Rebels series dropped this week with The Scot Beds His Wife.

The Victorian Rebels series has had a hallmark of men built in the deepest, darkest parts of the Newgate prison and underworlds of London exacting revenge for the harms done to themselves and those they love. Their methods can be violent, brutal and they don’t take no for an answer. In the pursuit of righting the wrongs done by the powerful, they have become the power in the back alleys and the Highlands.

This is a series that began dark with the forging of an anti-hero in the accidental murder of a priest while protecting his sworn love. In trying to keep her safe, he is sent to the hell that is Newgate and left there to rot by his biological father. (The Highwayman) In this hell, he makes aligns himself with the deadliest assassin for hire (The Hunter) and these two later rule London with an iron grip. These men are strong enough to withstand the society that shapes them. Lucky for the reader, these men also meet their match in the women they are determined to protect.

These books are dark. They fit the times, and the darkness in these heroes. To give you an idea, here’s how it breaks down:

The Highwayman: murder an entire family except for the girl who will be your forced bride, child molestation by a priest and a complicit (?) nun

The Hunter: borrowing Herod’s approach to dealing with unwanted children by stealing all of the male children of a certain age after viciously killing the mothers

The Highlander: beating a bride and keeping her strictly for her dowry, committing a bride to an insane asylum where she is beaten and tortured daily before threatened with rape and has to hide away in the country to get away from her husband and his family, the genocide in India under the efforts of the East India Tea Company and Britain

The Duke: women being sold to cover their father’s debts, male chauvanistic disbelief that a woman might know a subject better than he does, a young woman might only marry an older man for money, sex workers and their offspring are worth less than other people

These are not pretty walks in the park and sweet nothings. We have kidnappings, rape, and mental illness being disguised as demonic possession. If you are looking for something light in contrast to hurricanes, deportations, earthquakes and genocide, this is not the series to pick up right now. However, if you are after some gritty realism with your romance, these are a well told tale. In reviewing the earlier books for this release, I was able to see how early on the references to characters in previous books or discover the next books heroine. Lovely Farah, who is a match for Blackwell in The Highwayman lived above a cafe that is a preferred luncheon spot for Millie in The Hunter. Millie in turn is protected by a secret told by the auburn-haired Mena. This causes her incarceration and subsequent rescue by the ladies and their men, who then send her off to hide under the watchful gaze of The Highlander. These ladies protect young Imogen from The Duke. The men are all interconnected as well, by blood instead of circumstances.

This bring us to Gavin St. James. In an effort to declare his independence from his half-brother and laird, he wants the land that he once roamed freely to be his in right. He tries to buy it first, and when that fails bids that it is forfeit and can be his by right of tending and asking nicely. Instead, he gets Sam. Sam is on the run from her past in America and granted sanctuary on the lands Gavin hopes to possess…as long as she poses as the rightful owner of the land, with the option of eventually being the owner in truth.

With these two we have an interesting dichotomy — Samantha is posing as Alison Ross and a legitimate land owner and cattle owner trying to make a name for herself, while Gavin St. James is the legitimate second son of the previous, unlamented Mackenzie laird who wants to make a name for himself separate from his legacy. Over and over I wanted to lock these two into a room and smack their heads together. He makes no qualms about the fact that he wants the land, but he stops short of explaining why he wants the land repeatedly when it would solve problems Sam has with him. Conversely, if Sam would explain who she really is to anyone it would help avoid the troubles that have come hunting her from the Wild West. And let’s not discuss how many times if they’d just actually admitted their feelings to themselves they’d be able to start to trust each other with these secrets….

What happens is that these two would have to be locked in a room to get a declaration from either, because they’ve been hurt so many times by everyone that it makes it hard for them to trust anyone. The back story for both is very well developed and layered, which makes your heart ache as the two work their way through the pitfalls of falling in love.

Looking to learn more or buy for yourself?

The Highwayman

The Hunter

The Highlander

The Duke

The Scot Beds His Wife

TBR&R: Baring it All by Megan Frampton

What happens when you have a polite English lady stalking her intended? One that happens to be a very focused, academic mind and thinks marrying the female child of the family friend? A quick (48pgs) novella where sometimes academic pursuits can get a bit risqué.

Lady Violet knows Lord Christian Jepstow is interested in women. The problem is, he hasn’t seemed to realize that Violet is a living, breathing woman—a woman with needs. Which is a huge problem, considering the fact that Violet and Christian are betrothed. Violet has no intention of saying her vows without knowing if her husband has the capacity to love her properly, so she does what anyone would do in her situation—she steps into his study and offers to take off her clothes. What happens next could be an utter disaster . . . or it could be surprising, seductive, and sizzlingly sexy.

 

Lady Violet wants to have a marriage full of passion, and has been in love with her betrothed for a while. However, his academic pursuits have him hoping that this marriage to a family friend will be a polite affair that will not distract him. Lucky for her, her friend has left Christian with a task that requires a bit of help – writing about ladies foundations and the importance of these pieces to appropriate attire for the well to do lady. The academic gentleman agrees to a bit of research in the area by way of demonstration from his betrothed.

The plot is adorable and fun. I enjoyed the heroine being the forward one and seducing her disinterested husband. If you are unfamiliar with Frampton’s writing, this is a lovely, quick introduction to her style and her characterization. Keep in mind that this is not much past a short story, so the characterization is not very deep and there isn’t a significant amount of complexity to the plot. What is there shows well, finishes with satisfaction and doesn’t leave you frustrated at the abruptness usually found in a short or novella. Link to Amazon if you’re tempted.

Distraction via YA: Mask of Shadows

Mask of Shadows (book 1), from Linsey Milller, out Aug 29, 2017
I Needed to Win.
They Needed to Die.

Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class—and the nobles who destroyed their home.

When Sal steals a flyer for an audition to become a member of The Left Hand—the Queen’s personal assassins, named after the rings she wears—Sal jumps at the chance to infiltrate the court and get revenge.

But the audition is a fight to the death filled with clever circus acrobats, lethal apothecaries, and vicious ex-soldiers. A childhood as a common criminal hardly prepared Sal for the trials. And as Sal succeeds in the competition, and wins the heart of Elise, an intriguing scribe at court, they start to dream of a new life and a different future, but one that Sal can have only if they survive.

—

This time of year is generally a slog of doom in the day job for me. It’s the end of season and everything is due, which means there’s usually a significant amount of insanity as people try to get things in before deadlines, miss deadlines and beg, try to set things up for the next season and get it right this time, lick wounds and plan for the travel season that usually accompanies Sept/Oct/Nov before the holidays smack us all into a food coma. That means usually I grab the lighter bites in my TBR pile and try to carefully manage my commitments.

I had forgotten about this book until the pre-press materials started showing up in my email box. I went digging through my kindle to happily discover the galley and dove right in, causing a few late nights and late to camp drop offs as I read over breakfast. This slow start for me introduced a world of haves and have-nots, where individuals scrape to get by and figure out how to get their safe bed and food without destroying their personal ethics. It’s these personal ethics that lead Sal to an encounter with a noblewoman and changes their fate.

Heads up: this is told in the first person, which allows for an interesting bit of storytelling that Sal is gender-fluid. In the audition, they tell Ruby:

“And you can call me ‘she’ when I dress like this. I dress how I am.”
“And if you dress like neither?” Emerald asked.
“They,” I said. ….”I’m not always ‘they,’ though.”

This fluidity in gender probably served quite well in Sal’s personal history throughout early life and provided interesting color as different needs in the book created different costumes required for tasks throughout the Auditions.

The Auditions are how the Queen chooses her personal assassins. You have to be willing to do what the Queen (or her Left Hand) commands, without question, to the good of the kingdom. The Queen is working very hard, through careful assassination and politics, to knit together two kingdoms that have come out of magical-laden war worse for wear. Her commands are in effort to clean up the individuals she cannot neutralize via politics or are individuals who would have been tried for war crimes, if the evidence existed. To get there though, the would-be assassins have to out last each other, learn to blend in with courtiers and servants while putting aside their personal feelings.

The last proves to be the hardest for Sal. In trying to honor the deceased and in remembrance of personal heritage, Sal takes a personal mission. This ripples into not having an alibi, a few chess pieces moving in to play that had been dormant and a significant challenge for the final Audition to determine whether or not personal feelings could be put aside at the Queen’s command. Through careful work, Sal manages to keep the letter of the command while sliding in personal goals in an artistic fashion.

The book does end on a bit of a cliffhanger, making it a series beginning and not something that can stand alone. While things are mostly settled, there are many outstanding questions. It also makes you immediately go back and re-read, to see the underlying plot and the clues that were laced throughout that you missed on your first quick read. The layers are fairly amazing.

Depending on your personality, you may want to wait until the next book(s?) are out so you can read straight through. I can see rereading this when the next comes out so I can refresh all the layers before diving back in to see where winter leads us.

The Bad Luck Bride (5/2 release)

All were shocked at the announcement of the “cursed” Lady Claire Cavensham to Lord Alexander Hallworth, the Marquess of Pembrooke, especially since she is already engaged to another unfortunate Lord. Perhaps she will make it to the altar this time with one of these fine gentlemen! —Midnight Cryer

No one is left breathless at the imperious pronouncement of her engagement to Lord Pembrooke more than Claire. She hardly knows the dangerously outrageous man! But after three engagements gone awry and a fourth going up in glorious flames, she isn’t in a position to refuse…

Alexander requires the hand of his enemy’s fiancée in marriage in order to complete his plans for revenge. It’s his good fortune that the “cursed” woman is desperate. However, what begins as a sham turns into something scandalously deeper…

We’re kicking off a new series and a debut for Janna MacGregor. Cavensham Brides begins with two gentlemen ready to battle.  Alex, Marquess of Pembrooke, faces off with his once-friend Lord Paul. It is easy to instantly dislike Lord Paul, as he evades every question and seems to show no remorse. The problem is that Alex does not seem to be much better a speciman of humanity, as he holds himself accountable for his sister’s actions and take the blame for them out on another. Luckily both are saved by the timely arrival of our third gentleman, one Lord Somerton. Somerton seems to be the voice of reason and common sense and I’m hopeful we’ll see more of him soon.

Alex has claimed for himself, as justice for his sister, everything that was once Lord Paul’s – which includes his rather wealthy fiancee. Lady Claire is on the verge of finally having something go her way as the letter is delivered, breaking the news of her engagement. What I enjoy most about this scene is not the meeting between Alex & Claire but the contrast between their experience of what a marriage between peers should be. Alex tells Somerton

Neither of us witnessed sterling examples of happy marriages growing up…My father was miserable after my birth when my mother died, and he never remarried.

…you need to come to terms with this betrayal, or your grief will never heal. You’ll continue to live in isolation. That doesn’t bode well for a happy life or a contented wife.

Here, he’s the voice of reason. He doesn’t like what Alex has done to exact his revenge, but believes firmly that Alex can be redeemed. Alex makes a great start at this by sheltering and protecting Claire from the brief storm that introduces them to each other. He then protects her again from the impending scandal of yet another broken engagement.

There is much in the middle as Alex slowly wins over his wife’s affection and her love, but not enough for her to trust him completely with her heart. This causes further complications as Alex fails in trusting her. To be fair, I wanted repeatedly to smack both of them upside the back of the head, tie them to chairs in the sitting room and tell them to talk to each other. He failed to tell her why he initially married her, he failed to tell her he fell in love with her and he failed to explain why he was so driven. Conversely, Claire failed to open up about her superstious reasoning she was to blame for everything bad her life, failed to tell him when she was starting to trust him and failed to properly warn her cousin of her concerns about Lord Paul.

On the grovelling index, I’m not even sure where I’d put Alex at a single puppy level — not the adorable dogs gifted in Hardly a Husband nor the puppy cannon of Suffragette Scandal. He himself might qualify as a lovesick puppy with the way he shadows Claire. He does manage to be in the right place in the right time, and does confess his sins most admirably.  It just takes him a while to get there.

I’m looking forward to the next book, given my guess at who is going to be our pair.

Buy it?

Amazon – B&N – Google Play – iBooks – Indiebound – Kobo

Overdue speed reviews!

Good Earl Gone Bad (Manda Collins)

Horses. It’s all about the horses.

We have a headstrong woman with a father who just does not know what to do with her. Instead of letting her go be herself and do all the things she wants, he undermines her and then gives her away when she becomes to be too much trouble. At least the man he loses her hand in cards to is a mostly moral individual who knows this isn’t going to be easy for her. Unlike her dad, he understands what is important to her and makes sure that her horses come home. And, on the way, they fall in a bit of love.

The Unforgettable Hero (Valerie Bowman)

Swoon.

Have you ever wanted to live inside a book? This is the one written for that little piece inside of all of us who really wanted to be the heroine to the point where we cast our friends in the delusion. The fun of this is that it casts a gentlemen as a duke who has no such aspirations, a heroine who’s determined to save herself from a fate worse than death (a terrible marriage), conniving guardians and glimpses of some of our favorite Playful Brides.

The Hunter (Kerrigan Byrne)

In my former life, I worked in theater. Having a book that takes place in/around/near theater is fun. Some of the things that happen at the theater were bothersome to my modern theatrical sensibilities. Not to mention that this has all the feelings of a Beauty and the Beast/Stockholm love story at points. If I boxed the theater part of my brain, I enjoyed the way our hero was willing to put the darkness in him aside for this woman. But. I would have liked a better build up on the villain.

Wedding Night with the Earl (Amelia Grey)

I don’t think this could have been telegraphed harder. I don’t want to give anything away, but we’ve got a hero brooding and shut himself away after his beloved wife dies in childbed. Like many women, she blamed him for the big baby that eventually killed her and the child in labor. Like many men, he took it seriously and was prepared to never do this again. Except, he’s somehow an heir, with an earldom to manage and an orphan from a branch of the family to raise as heir. Finding his way back to society requires serious effort, and a guiding hand from a young lady. It was quite fun, even though I desperately wanted to beat the husband over the head with a frying pan after a bit for insisting he couldn’t possibly risk losing another woman he loved.

Review: The Irresistible Rogue by Valerie Bowman

When I was pitched this book, I was offered a Regency version of Philadelphia Story with a spy twist. Not having seen the Grant/Hepburn vehicle, I had to google the reference. Secret marriage to protect the girl and now she wants out for her “real” marriage that would be appropriate for society? Sold.

I started reading the book and it begins right in the thick of it all. If you have read the previous entries in the Playful Brides series by Valerie Bowman, you’ve met Lady Daphne Swift as she first disappears for two weeks, then is caught trying to sneak out of a ball and finally as a co-conspirator. Getting to read her story is like icing on the cake after reading the previous entries. We had glimpses of her brother, his friends and the couple she helped bring together while not being overwhelmed by their happy lives. It was good to see that Lucy was still causing trouble, Jane was after all the teacakes and Cass was the calming influence on them all.

If you haven’t read the previous entries, this book does work like a bottle episode. While we get glimpses of the couples from the previous novels, none of the actors or their interconnected lives has major roles to play with the unfolding spy work being done by Lady Daphne and her Captain Rafe Cavendish. Lady Daphne is the younger sister of Julian (hero of Accidental Countess) and he served with Captain Cavendish. To be honest, there were times where my first read through were more enjoyable than the second time through after re-reading the previous books in the series. Lady Daphne seems to have gotten significantly more timid and proper at the start of the novel than we saw her in the previous novels. I’d love to know what happened between her trying to sneak out a window (to see the injured Rafe) and the start of this novel to make her want to be so perfectly prim.

What I loved about this book was that we jumped right in. Everyone wants what is best for Daphne, but the only one who is willing to contradict her and point out that what she thinks is best is not what she really wants is Rafe until after the fact. Daphne is sure that she is making the right decision and has a list with rankings to back her up on her selection of a husband, even if he is dull and a social climber that none of her family or friends would willingly seek out for friendship. Everything breaks after a few glasses of champagne and we are tossed into the spy portion of the book.

I will say that this is where it gets a little muddy for me. I understand a slip of a girl in her mid-teens being able to pose as a cabin-boy, but from the descriptions of Daphne, other than her opposite of tall status she has the figure of a girl which might be a little harder to hide when she’s in her breeches role. But assume the role she does and works hard to earn her place with the other men onboard, even convincing Rafe to teach her to throw knives (Chekhov’s skill, anyone?). Rafe keeps her out of the way, using her when the mission calls for her Russian language skills, but otherwise avoiding her to keep his hands off of her. As required in a story like this, the girl he’s sworn to protect has to get in danger at some point – and despite her proving that she can defend herself, Rafe gets her out of harms way as fast as possible. This is where the Daphne we know returns, and convinces Rafe that he needs people and more specifically he needs her.

The push-pull in this book was an interesting one. We have the Big Misunderstanding — Daphne saw a blonde doxy in Rafe’s bed on their previous outing together and firmly believes that she was there for him, despite what he says. We have the heroine masquerading as a boy to have the freedom and adventure she wanted as a girl. We have the non-titled hero who thinks that all the titled folks are worthless snobs unless they served in the war or came at their title from some other way. We have spies to hunt down in France and revenge for a lost brother/associate. We have the hero thinking he can’t have the girl because of guilt and her being too good for him — despite him believing someone who (on paper) is good enough for her is wrong for her. All these elements blend together quite nicely and allow for a lovely story that wraps up quite well, right up into the epilogue, but that’s another’s tale.

#100DaysOfRA! 5/9&10 D31&32

Happy Anniversary to me and my Bald One. In getting ready to say something mushy (on Facebook – sigh) about the fact that we’ve married for nine years I realized that in that nine years we have been through quite a bit. I’ve been unemployed, he’s been unemployed twice, we bought a house, had two kids, changed our entire lives around because of said tiny people who now rule everything. We’ve lost a cat and we’ve seen family die – both expected and unfortunate. But we’ve been there together through it all.

We celebrated by being off together for forty-eight hours (woohoo!) and running errands. One of those errands involved getting our cake slice from the restaurant we had our post-wedding dinner. As usual, it was a delicious sugar rush that went very quickly due to two tiny people helping us eat.

Next year we might do something splendid, since it will be a nice solid ten years of married life.

#100DaysofRA! – Kindergarten Prep

Yesterday, I couldn’t talk about it since I was totally distracted by the fantastic-ness of food trucks. Plus, part of me was in Denial (no longer a river in Egypt!). That Denial is related to the fact that Gummi Bear starts Kindergarten.

It must be true, as the Bald One took her to her Kindergarten Orientation. Not that she remembers it five minutes after it happened, but she went. And she’s looking forward to the insanity, because they have a blue slide for her to play on. No other reason, although I have a feeling that she doesn’t know about the Lego play room that they use for the STEM portion of the curriculum.

I’m looking forward to her taking this next step. She needs a bigger challenge than just seeing how she can out-smart her brother. I’m also looking forward to her getting up and getting ready even though it means that my world is about to go crazy since my morning routine (where I barely can get myself organized and out the door) is about to go through a fundamental shift. To that end, she’s starting to get up and have breakfast with me. So far (on day two), she’s doing well. We’ll see how she holds out.