May 17, 2014

Spring Piano Recital
All the things are wrapping up...end of school, end of sports, end of music. Nicco had been practicing his recital songs diligently for a month or so and was ready to proudly perform for his parents and the other guests at the recital. The trouble with Nicco's dad is that he works on Saturdays, so I asked his teacher if Nicco could be first so that in case Patrice didn't have a big window in the morning, he could come, watch his kid, and sneak out. She accommodated my wish. At 10:00 sharp, I got a call from the Daddy saying he didn't see any cars at the church building. I told him we were parked in the back. He had driven all the way around the building and saw no one. Then I realized he went to the wrong building. He was a good 15 minutes away. He hurried and was sure that he would miss Nicco's performance, but the event was nice and casual and we weren't the only ones with schedules to work around. Mrs. Marcy shifted the performances around so that everyone was able to see their child perform. Hooray!

He did a great job, as expected.

Nicco gave Mrs. Marcy a bouquet of startingly bright and colorful flowers that he chose himself. She said, "It's hard to believe colors like this occur in nature!" I said, "I'm not sure they do!"

 

The show went on for about an hour. It was definitely an hour well spent. I love watching my kid do good things. 

May 11, 2014

Mother's Day
I was banished to my room behind closed doors to talk to my Mommy while my two boys prepared a top secret Mother's Day surprise for me. When I was allowed out, the Jeep was loaded, but I couldn't tell with what because of the blanket there, hiding the goods.

My child relegated me to the back seat because he's the boss of music. He chose special songs, just for me. Big Gun and Back in Black...Ah, just what a mother wants to hear on her special day. AC/DC. (?) I thought we had a Beethoven channel...

See that view there? What you see is dust. From all the wind. It's hiding the mountains. Which is where we were going. We went anyway, 'cause we're hard core.

The boys kept their eyes peeled for a decent spot to set up...somewhere private and protected from the wind as much as possible, but not too far. We had to get down the hill in time for the afternoon concert! (Beethoven, by the way).

We had a lovely picnic. My guys are just the best. Nicco said we should do this at least once a month.
After lunch he climbed on the rocks until it was time to pack it up and head back down.

He kicked up his feet in the back seat for the return trip.

I tried to take a picture of the off road near nose dive...I really should have hopped out to get the full effect. You just can't tell how steep the rock is from my picture. It's steep.

We got back to the house with just enough time to wash up, change clothes and head out to the Beethoven's 9th symphony concert. It was really great. An amazing performance. I cried, because that's what I do when I hear Ode to Joy. Nicco fell asleep in the middle number. At intermission I teased him a bit for his nap and he said, "I wasn't really sleeping. Just resting my eyes. You don't need your sense of sight to listen to music." True, but the snoring gave him away. (wink)

I could not have asked for a better day, or better boys to have made me eligible to be celebrated on Mother's Day. They're my favorites.

May 9, 2014

Quail Babies


Every spring I eagerly anticipate the hatching of the quails. There is always at least one family in my neighborhood and there is almost nothing on the Earth as cute as a line of fuzzy chirpy balls of quail following their Papa around. We've only had one successful family hatch in our actual yard. The other years, we've ended up scaring the nesting mamas away, frightening them into abandoning their nests.


So imagine my giddiness when the Frankie girl was running back and forth between our two patio doors in a frenzy and I heard the cheep cheep cheep of a dozen (A DOZEN!!!) quail babies in my own back yard.

There's a baby, following a daddy!

Some more babies, under the wood box.

all those babies! by the tree

so many babies exploring.



These three little puffballs ventured away from the family and into the grill area and close up by where Frankie was watching them. So stinkin' cute!

Poor Frankie. She was desperate to get at them.

They made my day, those little fuzzy babies. It's too bad Nicco missed them...they have not returned. Yet.

May 4, 2014

OV Swim Races






We have this world class, Olympic quality aquatic center practically right in our back yard and I'm thrilled whenever Nicco has swim races there. This particular meet was a long course meet, meaning the lanes ran the 50 meter length of the pool, rather than the 25 meter width. Nicco is mostly accustomed to swimming 25s. He was nervous about the 50s because he doesn't like doing flip turns...too much pressure. Especially in the backstroke. He hasn't quite mastered his stroke count coming into the wall on his back to time the turn just right. He was happy when I told him there would be no flip turns, but somehow, there seemed to be an invisible wall at the 25 meter mark. The kids all slowed down at about that point. Long course, it turns out, is long.




We skipped the 8:00 warm-ups, since Nicco would only be swimming three races, starting at 11:00. I wanted him to get his little body wet and ready to jump in, so I took him to the splash pad. Then I had to remind him he was here for races.

He got some pre-race pointers and a pat on the noggin from his coach

Then dove on in for his first long course breaststroke race.

"That was hard-core!" he said. I believed him.

(It was a bright, beautiful day!)

I love the water in this picture as he pushed in to the wall.

His cap pulls his hair. That's one reason why I made him get wet in the splash pad.

Wet hair doesn't stick and pull as much.

My boy isn't the fastest racer, that competitive drive has not quite kicked into a higher gear, but he has great form these days. I think that's good for him, to develop his stroke technique, then when he decides he can swim fast, he'll be efficient at it.

I'm always proud of my little fish. He works hard, even when he'd really rather just play video games.

May 2-3, 2014

Miscellany

• My new favorite thing is belting out Bohemian Rhapsody in the car with my small buddy, in the excellent style of Wayne and Garth. Party on.

• Yesterday when I picked Nicco up from school he told me, "I had a tough break. Literally. I fell flat, FLAT, on my stomach. My digestive system stopped working and I couldn't breathe because my esophagus didn't want to open. And it happened at break."
  
  I was really proud of him for using "literally" correctly.

• My child is being stubborn about the school project he put off until the last day. (I know. Wha? Stubborn? Procrastinating???) I told him he can't have lunch or any electronics until the writing part is done. "Do you want me to DIE???" he asked.
  
  No, child of mine, I want you to do your work. Survival is just a motivational tool, darling heart...

• I am reading Just So Stories to my Best Beloved and tonight we read about how the leopard got his spots. It mentioned the zebra in the stripy shadows turning from gray to black and white. Nicco said to me, "Like real animals see. Real animals don't really see color, just black and white. Like zebras. And T.V. before 1984."

May 1, 2014

The Garage Project, Continued


Patrice is industrious, ambitious, hard working, and in all ways amazing. To me. He hardly ever rests, even on his days off. He usually only rests if he's on a Caribbean beach, so he hardly ever rests. Anyway, his latest home improvement project was to build locking storage cabinets in the garage. He had a friend help him out one day, then spend a few hours after work every day for the next week or so with help from his small buddy. Nicco loved the project. He called it his clubhouse. With two stories and a basement. And a kitchen (?). He planned to sleep out there.

They finished all that hard work, my boys, and the Daddy is very pleased with the result, as he should be. The kid is not quite so pleased. The locking doors make his high rise apartment less accessible. Not to mention the fact that all our storage items are --get this-- back in storage. No more room for playing clubhouse. If only he had a tree house or something...

It's a nice improvement. When I think about it, I'll probably take a picture of it all finished.