Feel like Italian anyone?

I was surfing the tube and stopped on the Discovery Channel...I couldn't look away... people eating and actually enjoying this cheese that was filled with maggots!
Maggot Cheese (Cazu Marzu)
It was just wrong. Perhaps if it was drenched in smooth, creamy milk chocolate, I'd be curious enough to try it...then again, I don't think I'd be able to eat something that is still moving.
But you know what, it makes me all the more curious to visit Italy...before it was for sentimental reasons... Buon giorno, oggi e mercoledi...(Good morning today is Wednesday) or was it e oggi mercoledi...never mind that was about all I could remember.

At this moment I will pay a tribute to my 5th Grade elementary teacher at Pines Lake Elementary School...Mrs. Emberger. It was her desire to teach some 9 year olds about her home country and how to play bingo in Italian. She taught us how to count in itallian and before I left she was moving on to everyday objects. Imagine learning a foreign language wasn't even in the curriculum... or was it, I shall never know...too bad I only got to spend one term there, hence my limited...correction...non existing knowledge of the language.

All the more curious, I recall her asking the class what do we order when we go to an Italian restaurant and of course Spaghetti and pizza were just about the only thing anyone said, so she relayed to us that there was a lot more to enjoy and we shouldn't limit ourselves to the norm, something about the shrimps still having their head on...ech, she also told us about this place, a cliff where I think a rail road crosses over the top and at the bottom is where they sell gold jewelry, curious... I really liked her, hmmm I wonder whatever happened to her.

Here's to you Mrs. Emberger and to all the teachers that go the extra mile to try and broaden young and curious minds. She was definitely a special lady....Photo coming soon(I know I have one somewhere)...

On another note...as the memories come crashing forward, she was teaching us Italian while a couple of naughty kids were busy learning French under the our portable...kids, go figure.

Terrible Twos?

Well my little darling, Rashidah, "turned two" on July 15th so we threw her a little party on Saturday the 14th with the theme as My Little Pony. She just loves horses, so her daddy arranged for her to have one at the party. That's him holding the horse. He said she didn't want to get down...go figure.

I really hope that her third year of life isn't as you know... terrible as people have led us to believe, and if it is destined to be terrible, I will say it now, that I hope her teen years won't be as bad as this coming one.

As it is, there is no mistaking that she has a mind of her own...she's determined, focused for the most part, not easily fooled, very polite, kind, funny, smart, basically an overall good little girl. She loves books, so as you can imagine, I'm really happy about that (at least she got something from me.) On the downside, she has a bit of a greed in her, too. She has this appetite for money... I mean scary, she will cry if you don't give her money...and if you ask her what she wants the money for, she will tell you "buy coke" or "buy chips" she use to say "bank" meaning she wants to put it in her piggy bank but I believe she now knows that money is used for purchasing stuff...a lesson learned too early. I wonder, what age do they say is a good one to start teaching children how to manage their money?

Back to her birthday party. I decided to make her cake, and thank the good Lord it didn't come out that bad, and far better than last year's...I got the idea off the net, to have a cake with a rainbow leading down to another one which was a lifesaver because I wasn't sure what to do. Of course I added my ideas to it...The cake on the decorated Kilm can, represented the ponies in a magical land in the sky...and the rainbow represented the transportation device that brings them to our world, so at the bottom of the rainbow I placed a small "my little pony, facing two small horses on a hill..The reason why the cakes were divided like land and water...I don't know...but it looked like a good idea.

She blew out her own candles,I don't recall if she was able to do it last year...I did whisper to her to make a wish.. should I be selfish and hope that Rashidah wished that Mommy's cake decorating skills would magically get better? LOL no, I'll have to remember to teach her about Solomon so that when she makes a wish, hopefully she'll ask for wisdom.

Funny thing, now that she knows how to blow candles out I realized that we have to be careful when invited to birthday parties.
She went to Geovaughn's party on the 29th (who by the way was the first to arrive at her party=>)
when it was time for the Birthday song and cake they placed her next to the birthday boy and placed the cake in front of them...when they did that my heart skipped a beat...the funny thing is she looked right at me with this expression of uncertainty, so I told her no pumpkin don't touch...and she put her head down and tapped the table with her little fingers, as they lit the candle and placed one in front of her and the other in front of Geovaughn I was like OMG so I got up and told her don't blow it out remember it's Geovaughn's birthday cake, I could hear her reply in her tiny voice, "jovan burtday cake, happy burtday to jovan" And I told her yes darling we're gonna sing happy birthday to Geovaughn.

I'm telling you, she has a mind boggling level of understanding, she really surprises me. Maybe if I have another baby, I'll know if it's normal... then again I'll probably need two more to really tell...but when you really think about it, if I have more kids just to try to find out what's normal, I'll be judging them...so never mind, I'll just be happy that she's progressing well. (Smile)

By the way, Lucy, Geovahn's mom, ended up telling Rashidah to help blow out the candles, the birthday boy was a little scared and didn't want to do it.

Looking back now, saying that they grow fast, is really an understatement. I want to make her get small again...to think that Roy wants her to start school next year is frightening. Growing up has its perks though, it was nice having having little hands around to help me with the preparation, I wonder if she will want to help again next year...

I do have one regret:not getting to spend time with her at her party, even the adults for that matter...perhaps next year, I'll let Roy be in charge of the children...hmmm... then again maybe not. At least I have a little hope that even though I didn't actually get to spend time with her, that she understood that this was all for her...

that this was "happy burtday to shi-dah."

As for the my question...is the year leading up to the third birthday as bad as they say... I guess that has yet to be determined...