Little Dragon Fruit: Hey, Shorty! It's Your Birthday!

Movies I've Seen Lately

Let the Right One In
The Lives of Others
Venus
Milk
4 Christmases
Slumdog Millionaire
Bolt
Quantum of Solace
Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist
Yours Truly, Miss Chinatown
Hot Fuzz
Young@Heart
Breach
Then She Found Me
Vicky Christina Barcelona
Sherrybaby
Hamlet 2
Tropic Thunder
Tell No One
The Illusionist
Mamma Mia!
The Savages
The King of Kong
Hancock
Get Smart
The Notebook
Reprise
Lars and the Real Girl
Sex and the City
Iron Man
Mysterious Skin
The Visitor
Forgetting Sarah Marshall
Feast of Love
Walk Hard
Death at a Funeral
Run Fat Boy Run
Hollywoodland
Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day
Married Life
49 Up
The Bank Job
The Other Boleyn Girl
Rocket Science
In the Land of Women
Gone Baby Gone
Jesus Camp
Across the Universe
Definitely, Maybe
I Could Never Be Your Woman
A Good Year
Infamous
Persepolis
Fast Food Nation
Short Bus
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Juno
The TV Set
Half Nelson

Books I've Read Lately

Guts
I've Got Your Number
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
A Room With A View
Pauline Kael: A Life in the Dark
Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?
The Marriage Plot
Bel Canto
A Visit From The Goon Squad
The Great Gatsby
Stories I Only Tell My Friends
The Friendship Fix
Bossypants
1,000 White Women: The Journals of May Dodd
Mockingjay
Catching Fire
The Hunger Games
Room
The Lonely Polygamist
The Three Weissmans of Westport
Mamalita: An Adoption Memoir
At Home: A Short History of Private Life
Mini Shopaholic
Orange Is The New Black
The Last Time I Saw You
The Pull of the Moon
Insignificant Others
Love Walked In
Twenties Girl
The Irresistible Henry House
A Reliable Wife
Marry Him
Lit
The Help
Emma
I Shudder
Sense and Sensibility
Pride and Prejudice
The Pretend Wife
Dead Until Dark
Undress Me in the Temple of Heaven
In n' Out Burger
Happens Every Day: An All-Too-True Story
I See You Everywhere
Breaking Dawn
Eclipse
New Moon
Twilight
A Perfect Replica of a Figment of My Imagination
The Reader
The Almost Moon
American Lion
The Ridiculous Race
When You Are Engulfed In Flames
My Lobotomy
I Was Told There'd Be Cake
My Russian
Middlesex
The Whore's Child
Little Children
The Knitting Circle
One Perfect Day: The Selling of the American Wedding
Julia Child (biography by Laura Shapiro)
I Love You, Beth Cooper
Life of Pi
The Post-Birthday World
China Boy
Fifth Chinese Daughter
Foreign Babes in Beijing
The Amateur Marriage
Away
Devil in the White City
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

Dear Jarrah,

I can't believe you are five today. It seems like a minute ago you were the baby with the big cheeks who said "Em!" all the time. Now you are tall and skinny and say a whole lot more.

I am usually full of words myself. But today, I just want to say that I am very proud to be your mama.

Happy Birthday, beautiful girl. I love you.

Mommy