The teenage brain

So when kids are little, you always read that you shouldn't get frustrated with them when they can't remember to do a chore or hang up their coat or whatever thing it is that's driving you bananas. They (the "experts") say it takes until the teen years for kids' brains to have the executive functioning that allows them to form habits and remember to do stuff.

Well I'm here to say that evidently that's true. Now this boy's brain isn't totally done baking, the center of the cookie is still a little doughy, but he's getting there. He's got some technological help, which I count as smart - setting a reminder on his phone for when it's time to feed the dog, for example. Hey, it works!

And Reed's always been an early riser, there haven't been all that many days when we'd need to wake him up for school. But this year he's finally using an alarm clock and getting up completely on his own. Plus he's showering in the morning - yahoo!

These kids might become responsible human beings one day after all! :)

"That was a great day!"

This was our third year having a "girls day" at the National Book Festival. This year there weren't any authors that either of us were really jazzed about seeing, but we decided to make a day of it anyway.

It's a little bit of an alternate universe to be in the big convention center for this festival. The world talks about how people don't read anymore...well, the 100-person deep line just to get in to the area to buy books (at FULL PRICE, I might add) tells a different story. We're among fellow readers there, and I think that's partly why we both wanted to go even though none of our favorites were going to be there.

Amy decided she'd like to go to the YA panel discussion with Melissa de la Cruz, Nicola Yoon and Sandhya Menon. I thought it was awesome to have such a diverse panel of women writers - such a great message. Amy enjoyed hearing them all talk about their writing processes, and then of course we went and bought all of their latest books.

Then we headed over to Busboys & Poets where we browsed more books while we waited for a table, and had a nice lunch. When we got home, Amy said "That was a great day!" and it made my heart smile.

Already can't wait for next year.

My lunch date ignoring me as we wait for our food.
Hard to resist the pull of a new book.