A Wizard of Earthsea

"...As a man's real power grows and his knowledge widens, ever the way he can follow grows narrower: until at last he chooses nothing, but does only and wholly what he must do..."

The above line is taken from the book "A Wizard of Earthsea" by Ursula K. Le Guin. I read this book for the first time after recently watching "The Jane Austen Book Club" movie, where one of the main characters tries (for most of the show) to convince one of the women to give the SciFi/Fantasy genre a chance, this author being the one he focused on, determined that she'd like it. I've never read anything by her, but I had at least heard of "A Wizard of Earthsea," and I already know that I love Fantasy books. I enjoyed the book, the older writing style, and the whole idea behind the story. I will definitely be looking for more of her books in the near future.

As for the quote, it really struck me when I read it. It seems to me that there's a lot of truth in that statement, even from a Gospel point of view: The more you gain in knowledge and true understanding, the more set your path in life is become, until at last there really is no choosing, only doing what you know you must do to live rightly.

Open eyes

Alex had quite the awake time last night. I finally had a good chance to take some pictures of him when he was both awake and content.

Poor, poor sad baby acne. :(

The Big Sister and Big Brother

On Wednesday, Melinda finally did something that comes naturally to most big sisters - she pretended a baby doll was actually a baby!

Jesse and I were trying to ask Melinda a question, and she was so deep in thought that she didn't respond at all. Finally Jesse realized she had her baby doll with her, and said, "Look Becky, she's nursing her baby."

When I got out the camera she looked and smiled, but before then she was just staring off into space while drinking at the table.

A few minutes later, and she was now burping her baby, too!

Melinda very excitedly and proudly told me that she was learning how to do all the baby things she's been watching me do with Alex. Later, after she had pretended to change her doll's diaper, I asked her what her baby's name was. Take a guess? It was Alexander, of course.

And Jacob has mastered drawing smiley faces since Grandma Newson was here to visit. It's very cute, because he always says "round and round, an eye, an eye, and smile!" while he draws it. And honestly, I had no clue he was so close to being able to draw something real instead of scribbles!! (Although Grandma Newson can testify how incredibly compelled this boy is to scribble on every non-paper surface he can think of.)