- While Andrew’s parents were in Europe they sent daily updates with photos and short YouTube videos that we shared with the kids. One thing I learned from them is that almost all diamonds sold in the world pass through Antwerp, Belgium.
2. The Vermont Teddy Bear factory has a very informative 30-minute tour. I was interested to learn that the teddy bear pieces are cut with a die that goes through twenty pieces of fur. There’s also a machine that turns the arms and legs right side out in the blink of an eye.
3. I’ve never been particularly interested in ebooks, but I borrowed an old Kindle recently and it certainly made it much easier to read while nursing the baby.
4. I thought we would have to carry around our two-year-old for three or four weeks when his left leg was in a cast, but before long he was walking and even running in it! I didn’t know this was possible.
5. Richard Osman’s fourth Thursday Murder Club book just came out and he has something new in the works: “But next year’s book will be something different: the start of a new series featuring a globetrotting young woman and her stay-at-home father-in-law, both of whom are drafted into solving international crimes.”
6. In the early twentieth century premature babies in incubators were on display at Coney Island! I learned this on a podcast, then came across this touching picture book that I hope to write more about someday.
7. Our first folk song this school year was “The Ash Grove.” I’ve sung both a hymn (“Let All Things Now Living”) and a Psalm (104) to the tune, but I didn’t know it was originally a Welsh folk song about love and loss.