Arbitrary Thoughts and Miscellaneous Moments

• This is my new trick to get Nicco to practice writing his name:
  

It's that game you play where you make dots on a page then take turns connecting the dots to make squares...whoever completes a square marks it with their initials. He started out making me hold his hand to write his "N" but after we played several games, he filled in his squares with the consecutive letters in his name. He had no idea he was practicing writing! HA!

• Nicco asks his daddy if he "brought [me] a surprise today" when he comes home from work probably 3 days a week. Once in a while, the answer is yes. The other day, the surprise was this crown from the Renaissance Festival. He wore it most of the following day and got mad at me if I called him King Nicco, promptly informing me that he is not a king, "this is for my birthday!" Now he thinks his birthday is just around the corner.
  
  
• Nicco got his hands on the camera again. This Penguins DVD was his surprise/reward from his daddy for being such a good big boy at the doctor. I think I like the Penguins of Madagascar better than he does. With lines like "Private! You know how I feel about the metric system; we go with feet, and inches!" and "Kowalski, intelligence..." "...Significantly above average, but I don't like to brag." and "You'll find sarcasm is more effective when you don't giggle it out like a naughtly little school girl." and with lobster warriors who have New England accents, can you blame me?
• I love the Olympics. I get nostalgic and almost weepy listening to the music. I get emotional and weepy when I see parents in the stand. I know I will most likely not (but possibly...who knows?) be the mother of an Olympian, but I just think how proud and nervous and excited those mamas and papas must be! I get sick to my stomach sometimes thinking about how much I love my little boy.
• I think Canadians are jerks. It's Diana's fault. She told me that they are being stingy with ice time (and she knows, because she and her family have interacted with the Olympic team and coordinators at the Salt Lake Oval) and I have heard 2 different broadcasts that mention other teams complaining about not getting enough practice time. Could that poor sportsmanship have contibuted to the death of the Georgian luger? Hmm? Maybe. Big jerks. So I was glad to see Jenn "The Real Deal" Heil lose dramatically to our own charming and delightful Hannah Kearney in the women's moguls.
• I HATE sports where winners are judged. I thought it was pretty crappy that the French guy got 6th place in the men's moguls when he was soooo fast. I realize that he didn't perfectly execute his second jump, but 6th? Really? I think it was a conspiracy to let the Canadian win. Big jerks.
• I also hate cocky athletes. I much prefer humble athletes and non-attention seeking athletes, like the Canadian-turned-Australian guy whom everyone in the media thinks is a big jerk because he doesn't do press conferences. I think he's a super cool dude for defecting to a country that lets HIM decide for himself whether he can be a successful businessman and world class athlete. Again, demonstrating Canada's big jerkiness. Oh, and by the way, Apolo Anton Ohno, you did.not.win. You got second place. And you were lucky the two skaters in front of you screwed up big time so you could get a medal by default. So, good for you, Mr. Ohno, but save the champion of the world celebration for an undisputed singular gold medal winning effort, when you are actually champion of the world. Blech.
• Back to the weepy-mom syndrome I suffer from, did anyone else cry at the Tide commercial Lucy's friend was in? You know, the one that says "To their moms, they'll always be kids." Win for whoever came up with that one!
• Our Relief Society Birthday Dinner is tomorrow night. Don't these women know it is LOST night?
• I saw picture of a guy wearing a jacket over an Obama t-shirt that presumably said "progress" but his jacket cut off the "pr" and the "ss" on either end, so it looked like it said "ogre." HA!