Terms of Endearment

Last night when we snuggled for sleep, Nicco said "You are a heart. I called you a heart because you are my love."

Earlier today he said "You are my cookie, because you are so sweet."

Tonight when we snuggled for sleep Nicco told me I'm his best mom because "(you) take such good care of me."

I think I'm his best mom because, you know, I'm his only mom. But I'll take the compliment!

Joyeux Anniversaire

Our boy turned 5 today. As the cliche goes, I can hardly believe how fast the time has flown. Last night he said "I can't wait to wake up in the morning, it's going to be....BIRTHDAY TIME!!!"  He's been counting the days for a while, and he was the calendar helper in school on Thursday so he got to count down days to his birthday with the whole class.

Nicco loves balloons. Recently, we went to Cici's pizza on a celebration day and all the kids got a free balloon. When we got home, we warned him to hold on to it so it wouldn't get sucked up and tangled in the fan. Wouldn't you know, not 5 minutes later, we heard the thwap-thwap-thwap of the balloon spinning in the blades of the fan, followed by the inevitable pop. He was devastated. So, for his birthday surprise, I bought a helium tank with 30 balloons (there were some casualties, so we only ended up with 25). I lined them up in a path leading from his bedroom to his stack of presents. He woke up bleary-eyed yet excited and came pitter-pattering down the hallway and gave me a big hug and kiss and said "Thanks for the balloons, Mommy! This is the best day ever!"

 He sorted his balloons by color and shared them with us, but it wasn't long before they were tangled up in one giant bouquet. He dragged those balloons all over the house all day long, like a little puppy. He brought them in the kitchen with him while he helped me bake his cake, he brought them into the office while we talked to Papi and Mamie. He brought them down the hall to the bathroom...you get the idea. The balloons were a big hit.

 We sang the birthday song and Nicco blew out his candles, ate his cake, had a champagne toast, and opened his presents via web-cam with Papi and Mamie.

After lunch, we went to swim class (he was very excited to tell Mr. Eric that it was his birthday) and afterwards, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's, per the Birthday Boy's request. He rode the silly little rides and played a bunch of games. He got a splinter in the falling apart air hockey table, grrr. He decided he wanted to climb and play in the tower that leads to tunnels that wind all around above the arcade. It was hard to keep track of him, but at one point, I heard him crying "Mama!" I couldn't see him and his cries were getting progressively more frantic. We finally located him and tried to lead him to the exit, but he was scared, disoriented, and panicky, so I went up and got him out. My poor baby. His panic rubbed off on me, and before I realized he was beyond being led out, I got the adrenaline rush that comes with the danger/panic and I'm still trying to come down. It was dark when we left Chuck E. Cheese and Nicco said "I was having so much fun, I forgot to look at the mountains." I'm glad he was able to focus on the fun, not the nightmare of being stuck and lost in the tunnel maze!

We arrived back home to the balloons already starting to lose their air. The boy and his daddy are building with his new legos and another birthday is in the books.

VOTE

I sent our ballots in. Did you get yours? You might want to check. Election deadlines "mysteriously" come and go without notice in some places, especially overwhelmingly conservative places. Keep this in mind (from biggovernment.com):

Illinois Soldiers Wait for Ballots, Prisoners Get Hand Delivery
Over 35 counties in Illinois missed the deadline to mail military ballots to our soldiers defending America. But in Chicago, county election officials have taken special steps to ensure that no inmates at the Cook County Jail are unable to cast a ballot.
The Chicago Board of Elections hand delivers ballots to the jail. They don’t even wait for the inmates to apply – they bring the applications with the ballots! Over 2,600 inmates have cast ballots so far – strikingly similiar to the 2,600 soldiers who will likely not recieve a ballot for the Nov 2 election.

Disgraceful does not begin to describe the Illinois Election system.

Fantastic, right?
Vote, my fellow patriots, then tune in to CNN to watch the head 'splosions.

Let Me Know If You Need Anything...

My boys are snuggling. The Daddy is on the couch in his comfy shorts, The Boo is in his jammie bottoms, on top of the pile o'stuff on top of The Daddy. They're watching NASCAR. Nicco said to The Daddy,"Just let me know if you need anything, and I'll tell Mommy."

Harvest!

Here's the inside of my cactus fruit. I looked it up, and it seems to be called either pitaya or dragon fruit. It looks just like the inside of the dragon fruit, but it doesn't have the characteristic "prominent scales" on the outside that give it the name. Apparently, people just eat it like any fruit. For some reason, that scares me a little. I don't know why I think my fruit is poison...

I went ahead and took a tiny little bite and it tastes like a mild and less juicy kiwi. The texture with the seeds is especially kiwi-esque.

Now I know.

Harvest?

This is what my cactus flower turned into. A fruit.

Are You Ready? (Updated with a link for easy sharing)

November 2 is coming soon. Did you get your ballot? If you are on the vote by mail list, make sure you get your ballot. You should have it now. Do you know how you're going to vote? I won't tell you what to do, I don't subscribe to the Black Panther Party tactics of billy clubs and violence to either convince people how to vote or to prevent them from voting against my philosophy, but I will provide a handy dandy little reminder of what Dear Leader and his regime of Czars and Czarinas have done (for? to?) us over the past couple of years: (Thanks to the bloggers at Commentarama for the compilation...here's the web address if you want to pass it along in short form. http://commentarama.blogspot.com/2010/10/election-reminder.html)

Democratic Hate

• Demonizing the Tea Party as racists and Nazis, and lying to manufacture “evidence.”
• Demonizing a cop as racist for arresting a Grade A jackass who happened to be black.
• Demonizing insurance companies to pass ObamaCare.
• Demonizing drug companies to pass ObamaCare.
• Demonizing employers to pass ObamaCare.
• Demonizing doctors to pass ObamaCare.
• Demonizing Arizona on the immigration issue.
• Demonizing banks to pass Financial Reform.
• Demonizing oil companies to pass cap and trade.
• Demonizing Republicans because. . . well, because.
• Demonizing all Christians when a whacko shot an abortion doctor.
• Demonizing Mormons when California voted against gay marriage.
• Demonizing Israel to appease their anti-Semitism wing.
• Demonizing “right wingers” and Christians when a whacko shot up the Holocaust museum.
• Demonizing Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, Sarah Palin, George Bush, etc. etc.
• Demonizing John Boehner because they ran out of other people to hate.

ObamaCare

• Which relies on destroying Medicare for financing.
• Which forces people to buy insurance and will cause everyone to lose their current plan, despite Democratic lies to the contrary.
• Which will bankrupt the country.
• Which is a huge sop to insurers.
• Which does nothing to contain costs.
• Which does nothing to improve the quality of care.
• Which will lead to rationing.
• Excluding union plans and raising the limits on the Cadillac tax in union-friendly states.
• The abortion distortion in ObamaCare, which exposed “pro-life” Democrats as anything but. . . and now suing to stop their opponents from advertising this fact.
• Giving exemptions from ObamaCare to large, well-connected companies like McDonalds and 27 others.

Democratic Corruption

• It seems that every member of the Congressional Black Caucus is up on ethics charges, from taking dirty money (Charlie Goodtime Rangel) to sending stimulus money to relative’s banks (Maxine Waters) to awarding scholarships to ineligible family members (Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson and Rep. Sanford Bishop).
• Chris Dodd’s sweetheart deal with Countrywide.
• Stimulus money paid in non-existent districts for fake jobs.
• Stimulus money used to pay Hillary Clinton’s campaign debt.
• Stimulus money that went to dead people.
• Stimulus money that went to people in jail.
• No one in the Obama administration paying their taxes.
• Pelosi’s private plane.
• Pelosi’s drinks bill.
• Michelle Obama’s high class vacation-a-rama.
• The Louisiana Purchase.
• The Cornhusker Compromise.
• Medicare money for certain districts in Florida.
• A hospital for Chris Dodd’s vote on ObamaCare.
• Special treatment for Kaiser Permanente, the biggest provider in Pelosi’s district.
• Sestak Jobgate and a whiff of Clinton.
• Romanoff Jobgate.
• Climategate, and Obama’s affirmation of the falsified data.
• Algore Rapegate.
• Democrats Jim Moran (Va), Peter Visclosky (Ind.), and John Murtha (Hell) directing $137 million in defense contracts to clients of a lobbyist who funneled more than $380,000 in illegal campaign contributions to them.

Electoral Manipulation

• ACORN voter fraud.
• Manipulating Massachusetts electoral laws to keep Ted Kennedy’s seat Democratic and help pass ObamaCare.
• Running fake Tea Party candidates to hurt Republican chances in November. . . now proven in Michigan, New Jersey and Nevada (more to come).
• Trying to manipulate the electoral systems in several states to tilt the playing field toward Democrats.

Twisted Nominees

• Marxist and racist Van Jones.
• Maoist White House Communications Director Anita Dunn.
• Pedophile Safe Schools Czar Kevin Jennings.
• Unqualified Supreme Court nominee the Latina Red Sonia Sotomayor.
• Unqualified Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

Raping the Treasury

• The trillion dollar union/Democratic-interest-group giveaway known as the Stimulus bill and its dozen sequels.
• The trillion dollar Big Bank giveaway know as the TARP, the TALP and so on.
• Approving and then lying about $1.2 billion in bonuses to AIG.
• Authorizing massive salaries to the officers of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both of which escaped regulation.
• The consumer and small bank screw job known as Financial Reform, a sop to huge banks and other Democratic donors.
• Effectively handing the Treasury to Goldman Sachs.
• “Saved or created” fake jobs.
• The attempt to tax “carbon,” i.e. everything on the planet.
• Not going a week without a taxpayer funded vacation or round of golf.

Economic Record

• Permanent 9% official unemployment, 17% real unemployment.
• Spending so much that our deficits have become a national security issue.
• Entertaining Stephen Colbert rather than voting to extend the Bush tax cuts, i.e. raising taxes on all of us.
• 269 bank failures so far, with 829 more on the worry list.
• Record foreclosures.

Weak on Terror

• “Man made disasters.”
• Refusal to recognize the "Islam" in Islamic terrorism.
• Losing the war in Afghanistan and sending troops for a fruitless last push before surrendering.
• Putting Navy SEALS on a show trial.
• Trying to move terrorism trials to New York City. . . so terrorists can be near their new mosque.

Racism

• Inexplicably (lol!) dropping slam dunk lawsuits against racist Black Panthers who tried to intimidate voters.
• Constant whining about racism. . . everything is racism.

Anti-Americanism/Pro-Muslimism

• Apologizing to Arabs and blaming the United States for their hatred of us.
• Feigning ignorance of what could have motivated a Muslim to attack US soldiers at Fort Hood, and warning Americans not to hold this against Muslims.
• NASA’s new role as center for Muslim outreach.
• Democratic support of the Nazi memorial in the heart of Jerusalem. . . wait, I mean the triumphal mosque at Ground Zero.

Pro-Illegal Immigration

• Suing Arizona to stop it from enforcing a law the Federal Government is obligated to enforce.
• Trying to boycott Arizona.
• Reporting Arizona’s law to the United Nations as a human rights violation.
• Refusing to protect the border and instead putting up signs warning Americans to avoid nearby national parks.

Assaults on Freedom of Speech

• Joining Muslim countries to work toward a UN resolution proclaiming blasphemous speech a human rights crime.
• Remaining silent when South Park creators were threatened by Muslims.
• Attempting to take away free speech of corporations.
• Attempting to regulate talk radio through the Fairness Doctrine, dressed up as local content laws.
• Attempting to regulate the internet through Net Neutrality regulations.
• Pelosi’s McCarthy-esque calls for investigations of Democratic opponents.
• Telling Molly Norris she should go into hiding rather than going after the people threatening her.

Faux ”Environmentalism” Exposed

• Ridiculous Copenhagen non-agreement.
• Wiping out central California’s farmland.
• The total mishandling of the BP disaster.
• Suppressing BP data to hide what really happened.
• Proving that leftist groups care about electing Democrats, not the causes they are using as Trojan horses.

Embarrassing Us

• Regifting in Britain.
• Abandoning our foreign allies.
• Bowing to foreign leaders.
• Sending Geithner to beg the Chinese to keep buying our bonds.
• Teleprompter in Chief.
• Scaring the hell out of New Yorkers with Air Force One joy ride.
• The arrogance of accepting the Nobel Prize for anticipatory good deeds.
• Joe Biden

And just in case you like to pretend to be a liberal at the office and you want to discourage your kooky liberal friends from voting, here are some of the most popular (albeit stupid) complaints about the Democrats from the left:

• The Democrats were too interested in bipartisanship for the sake of bipartisanship than in passing the best possible legislation.
• ObamaCare didn’t go far enough because the Democrats sold out to the health insurance lobby and the Republicans.
• The Democrats didn’t do anything to help the environment. They didn’t pass cap and trade, and Copenhagen was a disaster because the U.S. refused to push for a world treaty against polluters like India, China and Brazil.
• Harry Reid used the threat of filibuster (a false threat when he had 60 votes) to stop or slow everything the Democrats should have done.
• Obama never gave benefits to gays in the Federal government, which he could have done by Executive Order, he failed to stand up for gay marriage, and the Democrats didn’t even try to end "don't ask, don't tell."
• The Democrats did nothing to reform the immigration system.
• The Democrats got into bed with Wall Street, taking their money and selling out consumers to banks.
• The Democrats did nothing to stop the mortgage crisis.
• The Democrats didn’t bail out states like Michigan and California with federal money.
• Obama’s reliance on teleprompters chafes at their delusions about his brilliance.
• He’s not cool, he’s an elitist.
• He didn’t save the economy.
• He did nothing to punish BP, all he did was go on vacation.
• He didn’t get us out of Afghanistan.

There you have it. Pass it along to your friends, and make sure everyone votes!!!

Severe Weather (Updated)

The weather report on the news last night warned us to be prepared for a severe storm today. They said that even though it will look and feel nice in the morning, don't be fooled, and send the kiddos to school with rain gear. By the time they are coming home, they'll be glad for an umbrella. Although I have to say an umbrella would have been useless once the storm finally hit! In my experience, umbrellas don't protect you from horizontal rain. Rush Limbaugh was interrupted with an emergency broadcast about the severe weather warning while I was on my way to pick Nicco up from school.

We watched and waited all day as the clouds built up slowly. Around 4:30, they stopped building and started rolling. I love that. I've had my windows open all day letting the breeze and fresh air in--it's the first time I've been able to open my windows since about May. When the storm hit, I forgot about my open bedroom window and now I have a soaked floor and wet wall. I also have a puddle in my breakfast nook.

Here are my roof waterfalls and street waves. I'm disappointed that the camera didn't quite capture the waves rolling across the street. Now that the thunder and lightning have stopped, I kind of want to take Nicco out to splash in the puddles!

UPDATE:

After the thunder and lightning stopped, we had two brilliant rainbows, "one in the mountain and one coming right out of the top!" After the second rainbow faded with the setting sun, the clouds rolled back in and the thunder cracked, and the skies emptied again. I never took Nicco outside to play in the puddles, so he played in the house puddle instead. The bad thing about the storm is that the pool temperature dropped to 74 degrees. {{Brrrrrr}}

Pictures from The Big Ride

Over the Hill, a.k.a. Happy Birthday, Daddy!

Well, the day didn't go exactly as I planned. I planned to get my last few things done in time to have the cake fresh out of the oven when the Daddy walked in around noon. I was just getting my computer ready for work at 8:00 this morning when there was a knock on the patio door--The Guys were home! While we were happy to see them, it meant my list went out the window. Oh well. Patrice and Dan were pretty exhausted after a week of riding, not to mention getting up at 4:00 a.m. to beat the heat for their final ride, but there was no rest! They had to return the bikes and get a few other things done, and Patrice had to take care of some business at the working house. I wanted him to be able to rest, but I was glad to have the opportunity to "surprise" him with his cake when he got back. Nicco was a big help.

My cake got a little bit stuck in the pan this time. We tested some of the broken spots, and the July cake is still my best ever. I guess I didn't learn enough to repeat the outcome. Oh well, I think this one will do!

On Patrice's actual birthday, Nicco pulled out our stash of candles and asked me how old Daddy is so that he could count the candles. When I said forty, he replied "Forty, WHAT???!!!?? That's a lot of candles." He spent the next two days counting and sorting 40 candles. He counted by ones, twos, and tens. He figured out that there are four tens in forty, and there were four different colors in the candle box, so he sorted out ten of each color and lined them up in groups of ten.

Nicco was right, that's a lot of candles.

So, is forty still "over the hill," or is it the "new thirty?" Either way, it's a lot of candles.

Forty happy birthdays down, hopefully at least forty more to come!

That is So NOT What I Was Thinking...

At about 7:00 this morning, Nicco popped his little head up, tapped me on my head and asked, "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" My mind raced with all the things I was thinking...I need to take a shower before I go to work so that when I'm done, we can run to the Home Depot quickly to do the Kids' Workshop project and get home in time to get the birthday cake in the oven so the fresh baking smell will be wafting through the house when Daddy comes home, I have to finish cleaning up in the bedroom, bathroom, and office, I need to do some laundry, sweep the patio, water the citrus trees, bring the trash can in, get fresh ice going, skim the pool...so if that's what you're thinking, then yes. But somehow, I doubted Nicco had those things on his mind. I asked what he was thinking.

"Well, you know, since Daddy isn't home, you still have some time to practice Mario."

Man of the House

When Patrice left on The Big Ride earlier this week, he told Nicco to be good and take care of Mama. As I tucked him in on our first night without the Daddy, he told me I could sleep in his bed all night since Daddy isn't here. I told him I would be okay and he said, "Just to remind you, you can stay in my bed all night. There's room for two. Don't worry."

He fell asleep and I stayed up. When I was ready, I retired to my own bed. At about three in the morning, I heard the unmistakable shuffle of little feet, inevitably followed by a gentle tap-tapping on my head. When I awoke, Nicco, two inches from my face, said "Don't you remember what I told you about sleeping in my bed?" I told him just to sleep in my bed with me instead.

The next morning he reminded me again that I need to sleep all night with him since Daddy isn't here. I told him he could sleep in my bed until Daddy gets back, but he insisted it was his job to take care of me, so I had to sleep in his bed so he could watch over me. I did manage to convince him that he could protect me from my room, so each of the last few nights I've been sleeping with this:

It's a king sized bed. I've been clinging to inches of space in my king sized bed. Each night I set up his nest on Daddy's side, but by the time I get to bed, I only have inches. If I try sleeping on Daddy's side, he senses my presence and scootches over until he is on top of me, or until he has pushed me so that I only have inches.

On one checking in phone call, Patrice asked Nicco if he was watching out for Mama, and as I was only a few feet away, he confirmed "He's right here." (Nicco doesn't quite get gender of pronouns yet.) He's been taking his man-of-the-house role very seriously.