Scuba Steve

I know my kids both love school. And sometimes I wonder what they do while they are there. I'm pretty sure they don't have tantrums while at school.

They save their personality abnormalities for Mommy and Daddy, thank goodness. Honestly we wouldn't have it any other way.

The other day, Gio's teacher showed me this picture of Gio on her phone. She refers to him as Scuba Steve. I love it! And I love knowing my kids have awesome, creative, brilliant, fun, amazing teachers who care about them.

What more could a parent ask for? My husband is a teacher, and every now and then a parent of one of his students comes up to me and says, "My son loves your husband. He's the best teacher ever."

I'm happy to say I know exactly what they're talking about.

Here's to all the great teachers! Next time you see a teacher thank him or her. Besides, imagine what life would be like without school to give us parents a break.

"Cuckoo, cuckoo!"

One Sick Daddy

I'm so mad. Here's my husband and he's sick. But from looking at this picture I can't tell, can you? If anyone even so much as thought of putting a sick picture of me on the Internet I would cry, in fact, I'm crying now.

"Wah, boo, hooo!"

Seriously, though, I know my husband is amazing, and if I ever did forget my Mom would be there to remind me, "be nice to him, he's such a good husband. Way better than your Father......."

"Yeah Mom, I know thanks, now mind your own business, please," I say. But my words fall on deaf, meddling ears.

When I came home from work around 7ish on Wednesday, he'd fed the kids and they were jammied up. All the dishes were on still on the table, so I got to work cleaning up the mess.

"Where's Daddy?" I ask the boys.

"He's sleeping," says Gio.

"What?" I question. "Where?"

"On the couch," answers Gio.

I walked out of the kitchen and there he was passed out on the couch. Turns out he wasn't feeling well, but he still got up Thursday morning and went to work.

"Honey didn't you read the district wide Swine Flu Policy memo?" I ask. "It says, 'if you're sick stay home.'"

Around 9:30 am my cell rings.

"Hey sicko," I say.

"I'm coming home," says Stefan. "Did you just call me Sicko?"

Anyways, my point is even though I know my husband, aka Saint Stefan and Jesus, does a lot. When he's sick, I get to see exactly how much he does. And it's always way more than I am consciously aware of.

I love you honey. Get well, soon. Please for me, for you, for everyone. Pray, people, pray!

Birds That Read

The other day Gio and I had lunch with one of our favorite friends. Gio was entertaining himself by reading his lunch.

"Mmmm iiiii llllll Kkkkk," says Gio. "Milk!"

"He's sounding out words!" she says in surprise.

"Yeah," I say unenthusiastically.

I'm not so much surprised by his beginning reading skills, as I am expectant of them, because we work on that sort of thing. He's been sounding out words for a while, now. And I look forward to the day when he can read his own books over and over and over again, on his own.

I wonder what my friend would think of this Gull's sign reading skills? I know I'm impressed. But this bird probably decended from a long line of readers, just like my boys have.


Birds can read.

Lovers

Fog caressing the hillside.

I took this photo while driving back from seeing NOT Sugarland, but Wicked, in San Francisco.

"The fog is so cool," says Stefan, driving. "Take a picture of that!"

"Ok, I'll try, but we're going kind of fast," I say. "It might not turn out.

I have taken so many pictures from moving vehicles, and they're always a blur. I wouldn't have even bothered pulling out my camera, if he hadn't ordered me to. Yeah, I have a few issues with being told what to do. Glad I got over my issues, and listened to him, this time.

Same Parents 2 Different Fish

Vinny looking in, Gio gazing out.

I love this picture, though I really wanted to crop out those annoying plastic flowers. Hold please, I'm taking a deep breath. Phew. I'm better now.


Let's start again. I love this picture because it demonstrates, the personalities of both of my kids. Who are very different from each other, yet ironically, contain bits and pieces of both my husband and I.

Vinny, staring out into space, is more of an introverted self reflecting type. Gio looking out the window, seeing what's going on in the world, is definitely more of an extrovert.


Vinny is happiest inside with a good book and a good burger. Gio, on the other hand, never has to be talked into going outside to enjoy the great outdoors, and only ever wants to eat desert.

Vinny almost never wants to leave where ever he is. And Gio is usually up for frequent environmental changes.

One thing they both love, though, is a party. With food. And desert.

My job as their parent is to guide them into becoming more of who they really are on a soul level. Sometimes I think the best way to teach my kids to be themselves, is for me, to be myself.

Though at times this concept backfires on me, because it ain't always pretty being me. Especially when I make a mess and have to go back and clean it up.

But I am the only person on the planet, who can BE Me, so I fumble on. Unless, of course, someday they make a movie based on my life story. Then someone else will have to play me. I sure hope she can surf, in freezer water.