Saturday, April 23, 2011

Funny Girl

Scout, almost 6


This morning (early, like 7), I am lying in bed, woken up by Scout playing pretty loudly in her room. This is what I hear:

(shaky sheep/goat voice): "Earthquake!!!!!"

then in some other more regular voices:
"earthquake!"
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
"oh no!"
"But I paid my taxes!"

Rob and I started giggling at the goat voice (until then didn't know the other was awake), but when we heard the tax line we about died laughing. We think got that line from "the boy who cried wolf" done by the Muppets on a video the girls watched all week, two weeks ago. It was just quite random to hear. We love listening to her when she doesn't know she has an audience.



Then later today:

Scout was trying to put a videotape* into our tv in the livingroom (it's tricky, there was a tape already in there and it doesn't eject properly).

"mom! It's not working!"
(trying to shove a tape in, in the wrong direction)

"Well, you have to take the other one out first"
(ejecting tape for her)

(Scout, trying to put the tape in -still turned around-)

"you need to turn it around"

(turning tape around and trying to shove it in again, but at a slight angle, so it still doesn't work) "See! It doesn't work!"

"You need to put it in straight"
(me, demonstrating the correct way and the tape slides right in)

"How come you know everything?"

(deciding to accept that) "because I am smart and I'm old"

"You don't know
everything- how many muscles are in an elephant's trunk?"

"I don't know, how many?"

"4,000 muscles"

(put in my place) "Wow, I didn't know that"











*
Yes, I know "Videotapes", but we have one built into our living room tv and we discovered that our library has a much bigger collection of kid's movies on videocassette then they do on DVD.
(especially Muppet movies which they both are totally into right now). LAY OFF!

























Friday, April 22, 2011

Elinor Shenanigans II

Elle's has starting trying to scoot a little bit while sitting (let me emphasize "a little bit"), she was scooting while sitting on the couch and I moved her back a few times, but while in the other room a few minutes later I get the shout from Scout that Elle fell off the couch and that I better hurry. I didn't hear any crying I expected to hear, and walked into this scene. She caught herself and then just continued watching tv, calm as can be. SO Elles.
(Yes, she had just had her diaper changed and was waiting for mom to get her some clothes and out of her dunglees if you were wondering).

2 Cute church stories:

A few weeks ago, Rob had her on his lap and she was looking through a sesame street board book. Rob leaned over to me and told me that she was kissing all the pictures of cookie monster. I watched her for a while and sure enough! When she'd turn the page she would zero in on cookie and give him kisses. It was so sweet, she loves her Cookie so much.
(Kisses are a consistent thing we have been able to get Elle to do on demand and also unsolicited. When she has a stuffed animal, you can frequently see her leaning over and giving it kisses over and over.)

Last week, Elle didn't get a nap in before church (we go at 1). She was super tired (started rubbing her eyes at 9 that morning!) It came time for nursery and we debated whether to take her or not and we ended up deciding to just try it. We told the leaders she was super tired and if she got fussy to just bring her in to us. I was filling in teaching a primary class and Rob was just doing his normal thing and when re joined up at the end of church, I saw that Rob had a sleeping Elle in his arms. I asked when they brought her to him and he said they didn't and that at some point they looked at her, thought she looked so tired and just laid her on the floor w
ith her blanket and she conked right out. I just laughed at the thought of Elles just sleeping right on the floor in the midst of the mayhem that is nursery. Only our girl!


Here is the new thing her physical therapist is having us do:

I love her little left hand in this pic. It's the classic left hand pose she holds when it doesn't want to participate in what the right hand is doing)



It's helping her balance (she tends to spread her legs out really wide when she sits and they want her to be able to balance without that maneuver so we have to turn her into a little mermaid for a while each day. She is so amazing. This would probably make most kids so annoyed and mad. Not our Elles. It doesn't even phase her. She just does her best to balance, topples over now and then, and continues to play or watch tv or do her little Elinor things.
(Sorry for the quality, these were taken with my phone, I couldn't find the camera.)




Here is a little sample of Elle watching Sesame Street.
This show makes her so happy! Yesterday she was on the couch and it was four minutes into one o'clock and I knew it was on, but didn't know if the tv was on the right channel. I walked i
nto the room to make sure and the first thing I see is Elle with a giant grin on her face and I knew then that it must be on the right channel (it was turned down really low, and I couldn't hear it). I looked and sure enough, there was Elmo on the screen.


















Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Arcade Fire Concert Report

It is about time I did an official report on the Arcade Fire concert we attended. Of all people, our cousin Dan tipped us off early that Arcade Fire was coming to Orem in April (shout out to Dan, thanks dude) and we were very surprised they were coming at all, let alone to Orem instead of Salt Lake (but that's neither here nor there). Well, this was a definite NO MISS, so my sister Cat, my bro Matt and his wife B, and Rob and I all got tickets.

It turned out that Elinor's big appointment was the next morning (early! At nine and a little over an hour away). This distressed me at first, it seemed like really bad timing. It turned out to be awesome timing for a few reasons: 1. Matt and B would be around (staying at our house) and could watch Scout that morning so we could leave her home and she could go to school -then it turned out to be spring break- 2. There wasn't a better place for me to spend the night before the appointment then burning off steam with some of my favorite people in the world, watching one of my favorite bands in the world. That environment was much better then what I would have done- worried and stressed all night about what the next morning would bring.

(By the way, thanks to Grandpa and then Sarah for taking care of our kidlets)


We met at my house and left for dinner, had a quick sandwich and then headed for the venue (UVU). We had general admission, so were on the floor (we'd have it no other way). The concert was AWESOME! The playlist was so so good and the band was fantastic. Rob was very nervous about enjoying himself. He has grown into quite a fan, in fact The Suburbs is his favorite song at the moment, but he thought they would be awkward and full of themselves. He has seen them perform on SNL and Letterman and stuff and they have come off a little awkward there. I wasn't worried for me or him, I've seen videos of their regular concert gigs and they were energetic and fun. Turns, out they were even better then expected. Win was so cool and totally didn't take himself seriously at all. He also forgot the words to one of the songs (something from The Suburbs, I can't remember which (ready to start maybe or we used to wait). He was funny about it. Rob and I laughed when he took off a buttoned up shirt, only to have another buttoned up shirt (buttoned to the top) on underneath (he wasn't trying to be funny, but it was to us). Rob mentioned that he has "Adolf Hitler hair" on the way to the concert and we all laughed, but he had the last laugh when they came on stage and we all had to agree that his hair indeed, looks Hitler-ish. My favorite person to watch though was Win's brother Will on percussion. He was so all over the place and banging on anything he could, conducting if needed (or not needed, but doing it anyway). He was just really entertaining.Shot during Rococo



I had to get a picture of this creepy video they played during No Cars Go it was a loop of these women in water and it was really unsettling and made us giggle a bit.


Last song.
I think that is Matt in the glasses.
And possibly B's arm.

I did a special dance just for Rob during Sprawl "Mountains Beyond Mountains" (he was a few rows of people behind me at that point). I knew he'd see it and appreciate it. I went all out.

Anyway, it was a GREAT time and I am so glad we had the opportunity to go. Also, I can't mention Arcade Fire and Rob's reservations without mentioning this: since the beginning, when he hears "Wake up" he has thought of this video and song:

Don't ask me how he ever saw this video or why but maybe his reluctance and dislike for Wake Up makes some sense.


Here are some selections of songs from the concert (it has wake up on it if you are curious now)- I made the playlist this week on my family blog cause I won the movie trivia and I did this one (it includes a Thom Yorke song as a clue to the next movie so, that song was certainly not at the concert but you can't ever get enough Yorke):


Get a playlist! Standalone player Get Ringtones


One more funny thing as long as we are talking about Arcade Fire:

They surprisingly won Album of the Year at the Grammys and many people are unfamiliar with them and someone started a blog called "who is Arcade Fire?" which features really mad tweets (mostly) from people that had never heard of them and were upset that they won the award over such people as Katy Perry, Justin Beiber, and Eminem. It is funny but I must warn you that these people aren't the sharpest tools in the shed and besides the spelling atrocities they frequently use bad language in their gripes. Here is the site if you are interested.

Some highlights include:

1. "the fact that Arcade Fire is winning over people that have actually made an impact on the music industry is *beep*ing annoying."

2. A video of Kathy Lee and her co host on The Today Show going over the winner of Album of the Year. So funny, here's a link.

3. "I can't believe that unknown artists will earn a world-renowned artists like Justin and Lady Gaga for that reason cease to believe in the legality of prizes." (man, that girl was REALLY trying to sound smart. I love it.)

4. "It's a weird world we live in when someone called Arcade Fire can win a grammy n Justin Beiber doesn't!"

5. my personal favorite: "What the *beep* are The Arcade Fries?"


























"So can you understand? Why I want a daughter while I'm still young. I want to hold her hand and show her some beauty before this damage is done. But if it's too much to ask, if it's too much to ask-- send me a son."

-The Suburbs

Friday, April 15, 2011

Another clue??

I've been doing some research on Angelmans (shocker, I know) this week and put something together that I found interesting. One symptom that can go along with this syndrome is "sensitivity to heat" and my brain dismissed that immediately as a sensitivity to hot water for whatever reason and I thought, "nope, Elle doesn't have that one", if anything, she seems to be more tolerant to hot water then most kids. She seems less sensitive to all pain to be honest and always has.

Yesterday she took a late nap and it was a kind of chilly day and after she was sleeping I bundled her up real good with her big soft blanket cause it just seemed like a cozy thing to do. About 45 minutes later she woke up crying really, really hard and was really upset. I went up there and her little body felt very warm and she was inconsolable. I turned on Sesame Street and held her in my lap. After about 3-5 minutes she calmed down and was fine. My wheels started turning and I started thinking about other times in the past when this has happened and I had actually thought to myself, "she really does not like to be hot" and it wakes her up sometimes, and she is really upset and I have put it together in my mind a few times that the reason for her fussing is that she was too hot. I didn't know why or think much about the fact that it upset her so much.

So, when I remembered reading about sensitivity to heat, that's when I realized it didn't say anything about water, just heat. So I further googled and found out some interesting things. Some kids with Angelman's have a sensitivity to being hot and from research they have done, they have discovered that it doesn't have anything to do with core temperature or mess with it, they sweat properly, so they can cool their own bodies down like any other person, it seems to be connected with the nerve endings of the skin. Angelman's has many symptoms relating to neurological problems, so they think that this is related, and it is just a weird sensation thing to the skin surface.

Upon further contemplation, I wonder if this is why she has never cared for blankets on her legs, wasn't that enthused about being swaddled back in the day, it may explain some of the middle of the night wake ups when she wakes up very upset and I don't know why (this really isn't often, but out of character to her mild ways). I am a little nervous as to what this may mean for summer time and park/zoo visits and the like, but I didn't notice anything out of doors last year, so that's encouraging. It may not be a huge problem. I wonder if even being hot outside, natural cooling works fine, as opposed to being wrapped up in blankets and not being able to break free. Who knows, but this is definitely something to watch and keep in mind for the present and future, especially because I am relatively sure it actually causes her pain. One of the many adventures that await us, I'm sure!
Elles cooling her heels about 3 days old.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

In Limbo

Well, here we are on the other side of the big appointment and I'm feeling pretty good about things. It started with a visit with an intern and some lady from Italy joined her (she didn't talk much and I never fully grasped her role). We talked to the intern about Elle and my history with pregnancies, Elle's history, and mine and Rob's family history, including how many in our family, how many kids our siblings have, lots of stuff. Then they left and had a little meeting with the doctor. After their meeting, they all came in and the doctor introduced himself to us and we got started. Because of all I'd filled out and mailed in, and his meeting with the intern, he already had wheels turning about what Elle's symptoms might mean. It turns out that his initial 1st best guess was changed after spending some time with her. He came into the room thinking she most likely had Rett which is what my OT had suggested (and scared the crap out of me).

After observing her for himself he thinks this is not the most likely scenario. In person, she presents symptoms more congruous to "Angelman's syndrome". After questions, a pretty informal exam of a few body parts (mouth/teeth, belly, back and legs), he feels fairly good about this being what she may have. Rett is still in the running, but after a lot of explanations on how genetic mutations work, he explained that if she has Rett, it would be a variation of it and not classic Rett. If she has Angelman's, she could indeed have straight up, classic Angelmans, or she could have a variation of it. (If you think at this point in my knowledge I am going to be able to explain cohesively the difference between classic and variations, you are mistaken. I can tell you that symptoms vary in severity with these syndromes, even when you have the same strain. If you start talking about different strains or variations, they vary even more.) He explained that there is a simple blood test that can prove she has it (it detects 80% of the strains or cases, I'm not sure which), so that is the path we are taking first. If it comes back negative, he will test for Rett. If that comes back negative, then he wants to do another test that tests the chromosomes on a more molecular level (don't worry, all of this goes over my head) and with this test he would for sure be able to find the abnormality and diagnose the Little Little (it would pick up the other 20% of cases of Angelmans for sure). So, as long as insurance doesn't battle us, we will do the blood test as soon as we get the "all clear".

Rob and I feel good about Angelmans. It seems to fit her, and even though there are things about it we necessarily don't want to hear (severe speech impediments, severe cognitive disabilities, etc.), we can't ignore that fact that it feels right and most of all, that Elinor feels like she is exactly who she is supposed to be, so we can't argue with what we know and feel. I linked Wiki's page on Angelmans with this post, so you can read up a little about it. The doctor was optomistic that she won't be battling the seizures since they haven't manifested yet. He said they manifest before two and since Elle is closer to two then one, he felt like this probably won't be a factor. Wiki says under 3, so I don't know. I am nervous about seizures. They seem to go hand in hand with the kids that have difficulty sleeping longer then 5 hours at a time, which Elle also has no trouble with (she is and has always been a fantastic sleeper), so either all that is in our future, or we are incredibly blessed, I don't know, but I feel hopeful.

There is A LOT I want to say about how I feel about this diagnosis, but I didn't name this post In Limbo just because it is a Radiohead song. I named it that because I feel that's where we are riding right now, waiting for a diagnosis, and talking too much about my feelings of Elinor having this syndrome is a little premature. (Translated: If the doctor is wrong, I would feel like an idiot). I did ask the doctor if he thinks there is any way we are NOT dealing with a genetic problem and he came back almost positive that this is the place we need to be. I am quite surprised with the amount of peace I feel knowing this. I explained a bit about how a genetic problem, while scary, feels easier to accept and know that Elinor was predisposed to be who she is and nothing I did or didn't do would change that. I was probably more worried I did something wrong somewhere in bringing Elle into this world then I admitted. I even entertained the possibility that she had gotten hurt sometime falling or something that had traumatic consequences and I didn't realize it (hey! I'm a mom, I worry). So basically, this is where we are at, we will keep you informed cause there is definitely more to come. The doctor is optimistic that we can have the test done and the results back in about two weeks.

Elle taking a comfort/bottle break with daddy while at the hospital.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Elinor Shenanigans I

These pictures are back:
(Yes I know I already posted these, but astute readers will have figured out that I removed them and replaced
them with others.)
(Why? Cause they didn't fit the post and these pics need to fit the post.)



These were taken in Wyoming when Elle had her hair up in a pony tail, had it removed, took and nap and woke up thusly.

Total Kodak moment.


Elle went to the eye doctor to rule out eye problems (or get them fixed, so they would not be a problem).
Turns out, doctor's words: her eyes are perfect.
(But part of the process of finding that out was getting them dilated, which landed her a pair of sunglasses to wear that afternoon. We mostly just kept the house dark and she was just fine, but the glasses were pretty cute.)



Story:
Scout and Elle spent a little time hanging out in the polar bear tent one afternoon. Scout with a lantern, book and an oreo cookie. Elle with nothing except feeling the tent sides and hearing the zip zip zip sound (a wonderful past time for Elles).
After a while though, Scout kind of forgot about her cookie and Elle saw an opportunity:




Look at how far she had to stretch to get that cookie!
(You can see where the pieces are that she hadn't stolen yet.)
Her therapists would be so proud.

She was pretty proud of her cookie thievery at least.


Does this look familiar?
It happened within like 2 days of the last incident.
This time though I was well aware of how tired she was, but knew she'd have a much better nap with some lunch in her belly.
She got much ravioli down before she succumbed.

FACT:
one or two bites of sandwich is MUCH easier to clean off of a sleeping baby then ravioli all over the face and up to the elbows and squished gloriously through the fingers.
Good thing daddy was home for this one, clean up was a two person job.
She kept opening up an eye or two and giving Rob a look li
ke, "just let a girl sleep!"


Here is just a cute moment the girls had last Sunday morning.
By the way, "Peaches" is a baby wooly mammoth from Ice Age 3, so that comment wasn't quite as random as it sounds.


For the record: Elle was NOT stinky.


Momma's got your back baby girl.

















Friday, April 8, 2011

Honestly

Honestly, the last few days, I have felt like an emotional wreck about to happen. This doesn't mean that I am one. It's more like there is an emotional wreck in there that wants to take over. I am not letting it.

I am pinpointing it on a few things. 1.) Elle hadn't had an appointment for weeks until Wednesday (except for Aly, that was a few days ago). With her ear infection and cold, we had to cancel them all. We also didn't do her work outs and stuff for at least a week. So the last two days she has had two appointments and it was kind of back to reality. I enjoyed just cuddling and comforting my baby and not worrying about if she can do container play or even worry if she wanted to do container play. 2.) her big appointment is coming on Tuesday morning. I am excited for it, excited to get a diagnosis, but I am scared. It's very conflicting. 3.) Elle is making a red mark on her left thumb from doing some sort of repeated movement with her finger. The OT noticed it and asked about it. I said it is new and we just realized it is from her doing it to herself. He wanted to know when she does it and how often, cause it could be "a clue". I didn't ask him a clue to what. I don't know if it was my imagination or not that he didn't look overjoyed about what kind of clue it pointed to. It could be nothing.

There are many things that prevent me from being the emotional wreck that part of me wants to be. 1.) My absolute knowledge that Elinor is the little girl she is supposed to be and I don't know why, but that doesn't matter right now, I just know. It feels right. 2.) I have a wonderful husband and family. 3.)I have Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ in my life that have promised me that I won't be sent something I can't deal with. So far, so good. (They are keeping the promise by giving me that strength). 4.) Elinor is just so dang wonderful and beautiful and sweet and funny and upbeat. She is a total joy to have around. 5.) She got fussy this morning and I asked if she wanted a baa baa and she kept going ba ba ba ba ba ba until I produced it and she took it happily.

Right now, I don't know if this is some sort of doomsday feeling I have because of the impending appointment, but I just can't shake the feeling that something is really wrong with her. What I mean by that is something that isn't going to magically go away or let up almost completely with a few years of therapy. Whether this feeling is preparing me for the worst, or prepping me to have an extra light feeling when I find out that she is going to be great and live a normal happy life someday- I don't know right now. It is however making me reflect on the woman and the mother I am right now. I know so many of you out there have all the faith in the world in us as parents, you have told us that Elle is lucky cause she is in good hands. I appreciate all your kind words, they are amazing, but right now, I know I am not in the place I need to be. I feel I have a lot of growth ahead of me to get me to resemble the mother she is going to need. And Scout is going to need. I have a lot of work to do to get me there. I absolutely have to be up to the task. I have no choice, I'm her mother and she needs me to push her just the right amount, coddle her the right amount, cheer for her the right amount.

Alright, that felt therapeutic to write. I needed to get that out. I want to be all uplifting and upbeat and have all the answers, but above all, I have to be honest. I'm not always going to be uplifting and wonderful. There are times where I am going to just be scared. Right now I think someone has finished her waffles and is anxious to take her nap. Above all, I need to be there for my Little Little, so ciao.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Elinor's Everest

Elinor has been graduated to a smaller hole for her container play. While throwing little people into a big bowl made some sort of sense to her, this little square is somewhat perplexing. Right now we are all a little perplexed at Elinor. When she has a snack in front of her, her hand mouth coordination is really quite good. When she is supposed to pick up a little toy and put it in a specific place, it is quite another story. Her developmental specialist is having us try to mingle a few snacks around her toys to see if it triggers the same coordination that eating does. I've only tried it once and so far and it only managed to make her weave around the otherwise ignored toys to get the snacks.
We just got done meeting with her Occupational Therapist and without knowing what Aly and I talked about (snacks vs. toys) he just mentioned that kids learn how to do things when they recognize a need. I asked if that is why Elle is quite good at eating but pretty rubbish at container play and he said "exactly". The need could be eating or the need could be exploration and play (which kids need almost as much as the need for food). Elle doesn't quite get the need for exploration and play as other kids do, so we are struggling. Anyway, interesting stuff.
I thought I would make a video journal of Elle's progress in some areas, and so here is a pretty typical few minutes of a session of container play, with Elinor at 18 months.


As you can see, this isn't easy for her. But she seems to maintain a determination. (I love the stare down that the people get when she focuses on one.)
We are working everyday at this with the hope that with a lot of work, Elinor's Everest will one day be, well- Everest.




















What Emily's Been Watching, March Edition

Kind of a weird mix of movies this month. Or maybe not. Perhaps this list is exactly the kind of list you might expect from me.

CATFISH (2010) [PG-13] Documentary. There is a saying that goes, "The first rule of Catfish is- you don't talk about Catfish". This is an important rule! So I am going to stay pretty tight lipped about this one. All you need to know is that it is about this photographer that lives in NYC, and his brother and his friend decide to make a movie documenting his relationship with a fan of his he met on facebook that made a painting of one of his photographs. This fan is an 8 year old little girl, "wunderkind" painter of sorts. Rob and I watched this one night and got interrupted by Scout and shut it off and had to finish another night. All I will say is that it was at the EXACT WORST place to stop this movie you could ever imagine and that sucked royally. (If you've seen this, you can probably imagine the spot. If you haven't and you do see it, imagine while you're watching it the spot that you would hate to turn the movie off and commiserate for us.) I have to say, it probably wasn't the same for us had we been able to carry on and go straight through. But, we didn't hold it against the movie of course and I HIGHLY recommend it- great ride. Rob enjoyed it too. Emily recommends this movie if you like the crazy new spin on documentaries that erupted this year, if you like a good mystery, like meeting people on facebook, etc. Don't worry, you actually do find out why it's called "Catfish" the last 3 minutes of the movie........ --Also it is PG-13 only for one scene where Nev is reading some text messages that were sent back and forth that got a little steamy. But it is only a little steamy and a whole lot funny. (hoping I'm not giving too much away....).

I just found this trailer and it's a good trailer I think to watch. I am going to leave up the original trailer and my thoughts on it that I posted last night too.

I had a major battle with myself on whether to post this trailer or not. It spoils a little more of the plot then I would like, but in the end I figured you are all adults and it definitely adds an air of mystery that I didn't dare get into. So, use your discretion on whether or not you want to watch this. It doesn't spoil anything major, but it IS a lot of fun going into this movie knowing nothing. YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

AMADEUS (Director's cut) (1984) [R] Biography/Drama. This was another movie that was featured on The Kid's Were All Wright as a WTB post, then I happened to see it at the library, so I thought- eh, might as well. I hadn't seen it in a very long time, so I was due. It is an entertaining movie and the director's cut added about 20 minutes of a side story that was totally cut out. It added a different dimension to some character's character and motivations, so that was cool. Oh if you live under a rock, this is a loose adaptation of the life of Mozart- particularly the Austria years. I watched the commentary and it was with the director and the screenwriter, who also wrote the play that this movie was based on. I got a lot of insight on what is totally factual, and what was dramatized and more was factual then I had thought actually. Everything was based on a seed of truth. Anyway, interesting and I recommend the commentary too it is better then average and after spending over 4 hours with the movie over a span of a couple days, I spent the next couple of days with Mozart's music absolutely pounding in my brain at all times. Mad genius that man. Emily recommends this movie, especially if you've never seen it. My dad was correct, the director's cut made the movie R for one brief shot of (as he so eloquently put it)- "boobs".


THE SWITCH (2010) [PG-13] Romantic comedy. I know, I am shocked too. But just wait. So, Rob and I were in movie mode one night with just a Redbox at our disposal and I was in a total brain candy movie mood. Thus, we rented this. It actually was adequately enjoyable (oh I hope Matt isn't obsessed with this one too, cause I am going to hear about it for "adequately enjoyable".) It was alright for what it was. Jennifer Aniston is watchable. Jason Bateman is entertaining. The kid is pretty cute. The storyline is eh. Oh the "best friends" are Jeff Goldblum and Juliette Lewis-promising. BUT here is beef #1 I have with romantic comedies: 1. Why is the main girl always pretty level headed and ALWAYS ALWAYS has a cooky/crazy/outrageous best friend??? Come on romantic comedies-- LETS TRY SOMETHING ELSE FOR ONCE. Phew. Ok, here is the plot: Basically, Aniston is one of those biological tickers and decides it's time to have a baby with or without a man in her life. She finds a sperm donor, throws a party, and in a drunken/herbal pill induced fog, her best friend switches the sample with his own and doesn't remember doing it. They lose touch and like 6 years later she shows up back in NY with a tiny Jason Bateman. Go. Run with it. Hahaha, hilarity ensues, dot dot dot. Like I said, it was decent time filler when all you want to do is turn off brain and veg on your bed. (Rob was so riveted he fell asleep during the last 15 minutes and didn't bother to ask me how it ended.) But I did hear him laugh a time or two before snoozing, if that's worth anything (he is a Jeff Goldblum fan -who he referred to as "that guy"). Emily will recommend this movie if you are a romantic comedy fan. If you are, this one is probably pretty good for that crowd. I was sufficiently invested to care what happened at the end at least.


WUTHERING HEIGHTS (1992) [PG] Drama. I mentioned I think on facebook that I was going to have a Wuthering Heights marathon. Well, this is the only copy I was able to get this month. I was interested in watching this one and the 1930's one. Netflix doesn't have it! How lame is that? My library does. While I try to figure out which alternate universe I fell through, we will have to make do with only one review of Wuthering Heights. First off, I am interested in seeing a few of these because I am a big fan of this book and have never seen a movie version, so I decided it was time. This 1992 version was pretty dang good. Ralph Fiennes is Heathcliff and he did a fantastic job. Juliette Binoche is Catherine and Cathy and she was equally fantastic. It followed the book quite well I thought. My main problem was that there was some melodrama. For this book (and yeah well- let's face it, any movie or book), the mere presence of melodrama is too much. But with this story, crossing the line to melodrama just pulls the rug out from under it. Kind of why I avoided seeing a movie version of this. To be fair, they did well, it really tried not to. The spooky scenes though looked REALLY bad. I can't imagine they couldn't have done better creating a spooky effect in 1992, but perhaps they couldn't. It was laughable and that ain't good. So all in all, Emily recommends this movie to fans. Acting is really good, staying true to the book was well done, scenery was broody and moorish, execution of the movie beyond those three things- meh to bleh. Worth seeing, but the book is all I think one really needs. I will still consider seeing the Laurence Olivier one if I come across it in the library sometime and report back. You guys only get the movie poster because the theatrical trailer doesn't seem to exist and there is a fan trailer that takes melodrama to new levels and I didn't want to subject you all to that.




THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST (2002) [PG] Romantic Comedy. This is what you guys were waiting for- I saw another romantic comedy- that makes two in one month and three in two months. Wow. The deal is though, this one isn't exactly a Matthew McConaughey disaster. It's a well known Oscar Wilde play brought to the big screen with Oscar winning actors. Colin's Oscar status was not yet achieved for the making of this of course, but Judi Dench's one was. Wow, that's a lot of Oscars (I included Oscar Wilde in that observation). Yep, it's getting late. So, this was enjoyable. I have seen this play since I was pretty young several times and didn't know they had done a movie version until I saw it. Besides the fact that a play is confined to a stage (therefore, it all takes place in one room), and movies aren't confined to such rules, they did little to this to make it feel more like a movie and less like a play. This is not a bad thing, just an observation I have. Plays are fine, plays are fun. I need to not finish these posts in the wee hours of the night. ANYWAY, the male leads are Colin Firth and Rupert Everett (two fantastic male leads for such an endeavor). Reese Witherspoon was perfect in her role as was Frances O'Connor. Emily recommends this movie/play if you are a fan of the play or a fan of any of these actors, cause the casting was really stellar and come on, you will not get anywhere near that lucky seeing this play at the city center in the neighborhood production, or the local high school.



So that's pretty much that, except I obtained my very own copy of Jane Eyre
this month, so you know I watched that at least a few times. If you missed my review of it or missed the movie, you can read the review here and borrow my copy if you haven't seen it cause you must! (But you can't borrow it for too long)

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