November 11, 2013 (and Beyond)

Working on "The Farm"

Nicco doesn't need anything, but we love him and wanted to surprise him with awesomeness at Christmas. We decided to do a room makeover in his bedroom. In order to pull it off, we had to come up with a cover story and we had to kick him out of his room for about 6 weeks.

Once upon a time, my boys were telling secrets to each other and I asked them what they were whispering about. "Uh, nothing! We're just talking about...watermelons!" one of them said. Since then, "watermelon" has become our secret code word for something that's a secret. So our cover story was that we wanted to have a special surprise for Santa's Reindeer on Christmas Eve. We told the kid we would be building and planting a watermelon farm in his room. But we wanted it to be a surprise for him too...so he could help a little, but he wouldn't be able to see it all. Our child is either a great pretender and just went with our totally lame story, or he is the most gullible, trusting child on the planet.

We moved him out of his room into the guest room to live in clutter and chaos for over a month:

 

We did want Nicco to have some pride and ownership in the project, so the Daddy let him build the "planter boxes" and measure the closet for the new shelves.


 We let Nicco in the room to see the first of the "planter boxes" in its place. After that, he was pretty much banned from his room. He rolled with it, poor kid.

 I went to the Home Depot to choose some paint that matched the new bedding. We weren't sold on the colors at first, but once all the walls were done, we decided they were perfect for our boy who loves blue.

 The loft bed was the biggest surprise. We needed a friend's truck to pick it up. Mr. Chad and one of his daughters were sworn to secrecy when they dropped it off. I dusted it and helped with the install, Frankie supervised and evaluated the work when we were done.

 It was quite a pickle our fuzzy buddy found herself in. She liked being tall but the footing was a little unsure. And she did not like getting help down.

 The daddy added some splashes of complimentary colors,

And the finished cozy nook. Done until Christmas day.

November 1, 2013

While we were gone, our dear friends checked on our pesky little pet to make sure she didn't die of starvation, dehydration, or neglect.

She (the cat) does not approve of us leaving her behind. To demonstrate her disapproval, she does things like this:

Then she lectures us for hours. Days, even.
Silly cat.

November 6, 2013

Quote of the Day


On the way to swim my small boy said, "Can you believe I'll be a teenager in just five years?" No, I cannot believe it. I asked if he was excited to be a teenager in just five years. He said, "Not really. I like being a kid. It's fun. You get more attention."

I laughed, then wondered to myself why my only child thinks he will get less attention when he's a teenager, or ever. He's my only child.

November 6, 2013

A joke.




"Hey Mama, what do you call a fish with no eyes?"
"I don't know. What do you call a fish with no eyes?
"A fsh!"

Ugh.

Basically, I decided to make myself a separate photo book with all my pictures and stories from France and Spain instead of trying to catch up here. It's just too much and I'm too far behind, so I'm going to skip ahead in my game of catch-up to November, when we returned.

The Birthday Continues

It was hard to top the early half of the birth day, but the day was only just begun. There were more gifts, food, gifts and food.

Our aspiring artist got some more tools for his trade,

a pendant with his initial,



The Daddy brought this fancy shmancy singing and spinning candle all the way across the ocean for the boy,

He also got a very nice watch, which he leaves on France time,



hugs and kisses all around...



Earlier this year Mamie requested a recent snapshot of Nicco. One that really showed his cute little face. I had to send about 100 pictures to get one that met the proper requirements and they settled on one of my favorites from a couple or three years ago...an artist friend of my in-laws drew his portrait in pencil. Looks just like him!



For Nicco's future wine cellar...

And the dear crème caramel. Mamie sacrificed and suffered much for this dessert, having burned her poor little hand in the boiling caramel. 

Now all three of us have celebrated recent birthdays in France! I think we should make it a tradition to celebrate a birthday on foreign soil. In just a few years, we might even catch up with my dad!

Someone Had a Birthday (Part One)

It was kind of a big deal, the birthday. The first one he celebrated in France. The first one he celebrated with his French relations. Plus, it was the day he would receive the much anticipated D.S.

The night before the birthday, the Daddy and I stayed up past bedtime to make clues for the traditional birthday treasure hunt. This one was a Super Mario Galaxy Quest treasure hunt.

When the boy woke up, the first thing he said was, "Can I open my presents now?" We made him eat some breakfast then gave him one present to ease the anxiety and satisfy the present craving.

It was a Doctor Who shirt! Hip-hip hooray! We found  channel that showed Doctor Who and we introduced Mamie to the time travelling Son of Gallifrey. He was happy with his shirt, ate his breakfast, then like the good boy he is, he settled into a game while we waited for Papi to get back from the boulangerie to start the treasure hunt. A couple of boys lost patience, so the hunt was underway.

One task was to take a picture of something red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Once he did, he earned his invincible power-up.

 Here he is with the Daddy, discussing another task.

 He had to climb up into the attic to find another power-up,

 He had to collect 100 small objects,

He had to run around the little house to get his speedy power-up,

He was pretty dirty by the time he collected all his power ups so the last task was to wash his hands. He washed them in the bird bath.

He put all his cards in an envelope to mail to the Mario Bros and the Mario Bros sent him something in return.

My baby was so excited to open his present. I don't think he really expected to get the D.S. he wanted so badly, so the surprise was a real surprise. He was so happy, he cried. And cried and cried some more. Happy tears. We became, for a moment at least, the Greatest Parents in the History of Earth. All thanks to the hand-me-down D.S. from Aunt Di.

So happy, the boy. Of course, watching him cry his happy tears of happiness made my little eyes overflow too. It was a sappy and cry-y birthday!

Save the Day

Geeks around the world have been counting down the days, hours even, until the Day of the Doctor. The 50th anniversary special of Doctor Who actually aired on Saturday, but we were in Mesa and we had tickets to Monday's theater special event, so we waited with the rest of the nerds.

We kept the special event a secret from Nicco. As we planned our day, the Daddy asked me what time "that thing" was. I said 7:30, but we need to be there by 7:00 at. the. latest. I was kind of hustling my boys out the door to go to dinner, but Nicco mostly wanted to stay home and watch The Doctor. I told him we have no food for dinner and Daddy wants to take us out and get your shoes on and let's GO!

We walked into the Chinese restaurant and encountered some dads with their boys, dressed in bow-ties, trench coats, and fezzes. One had a sonic screwdriver. Nicco said, "I guess they're thinking about The Doctor too." He watched with envy as the man in the trench coat played with his sonic screwdriver. "I want to ask him where he got that," he said. I told him to go ahead. He did and came back wide-eyed and breathless..."Barnes and Noble! Is there one nearby? Can I go tomorrow after swim? I have my own money, but if you want, you can spend Dad's money on it," he said to me. When and where and how to acquire a sonic screwdriver and whether he should get a green or blue one was the table talk that night.

We finished our dinner by 6:45 and the Daddy lamented the fact that we had so much time to wait. I said that depends on the geek population of OV. Patrice thought that we met the geek population of OV when we entered the restaurant. I was not so sure. He said we could walk by the theater and if it's not crowded, we could go to Cost Plus or something until time. We walked by and with the line about 4 deep and nearly out the door, we took our place.

Nicco counted the nerds. There was a dalek hat, at least a dozen Doctors in bow-ties (bow ties are cool), many many versions of the TARDIS, and dozens of DW shirts. We even spotted one Impossible Girl. Nicco guessed that EVERYONE was thinking about the Doctor, still thinking we were there to see Free Birds.

The crowd was getting restless and finally a theater worker had to announce to those who were there to see Doctor Who that they would be seated soon. Nicco's eyes got big again, "Doctor Who? In theaters? I didn't know it was in theaters!" He also told me he was the number one fan. Based on our company, that claim was questionable.

Prior to the opening of the film I was reminded why I avoid going to cult movies with the cult.  I can barely tolerate the squealing fangirls. But, anything for the number one fan. The film itself was fun and exciting and emotional. Heartbreaking and heartwarming. At the end Nicco asked me, "Are you crying?" Uh, no. Nooooo...not me!

On our way out a friendly nerd let us borrow her sonic screwdriver to pose with in front of the theater poster with the tenth and eleventh Doctors.

He's sonicking the Daddy.

Good times, my babies. Good times.

Every Journey Starts With a Single Step

That's a saying, right? My journey is the long road to catching up on the ol' neglected blog. This post is my single step. It's a camera dump from back in October.

One day I heard the noise of a bazillion birds. Feathers ruffling, wings flapping, and the incessant cooing and sometimes squawking of the bazillion birds. I looked out on the patio and they were lined up along both sides of the wall and the rocks in the hot tub and pool. I felt a little like I was living in Bodega Bay.

It's just a good thing they were mourning doves and not crows. A freak-out would have undoubtedly followed.

 

Our cactus doesn't bloom and produce fruit often. Every two years, I guess. It bloomed and fruited this fall.

I did a little research and learned that this fruit is called the Peruvian Apple. Not poisonous. Desert Tortoises love them, but can become intoxicated so you can only feed them a little. They are sweet and sort of like a kiwi fruit in texture. I only had a little. Not because I feared the intoxication, but because it's just kind of weird to look at and sometimes weird to look at things are difficult to eat.

Frankie is not the lovingest cat. She likes to give and get attention on her terms. She's a lot like a cat in that respect. For whatever reason, she likes to groom Nicco. If he puts his dead down in front of her, she will (almost without fail) lick his fur. She sometimes gets a little aggressive or insistent and holds his head in place with her claws.

 But sometimes she gives him loving little kitty kisses on his nose.

Prior to our Big Trip, we took a small trip to our favorite gelato joint. It was a beautiful day so we hopped in the Jeep and went for a ride. Nicco's favorite flavor is dark chocolate.

 He really loves it. A lot.

A beautiful day...see? I told ya.

 My child, doing his puppy impression...

We wandered over to the market to find some gifts to bring to our family. Nicco tried some things on for size and softness.

He also pulled out a cane and hunched his back, made a gummy face, and said in his best old-guy voice, "Get outta my way, sonny!" He makes me giggle, that one.

It is a lot of work to prepare for a big trip and it is always so nice to come home to a nice clean house. Patrice hired a couple ladies to come and do a nice deep cleaning a few days before our departure. Nicco helped.