Something y'all might not have known:
Daniel was really supposed to be named Cuauhtémoc. That's right, people. Cuauhtémoc.
That was the name I wanted. Unique, strong, proud, and distinctly Mexican.

My husband only half-jokingly threatened to leave me if I named our son that.
So....we named him Jesús, like his father and about 40% of the rest of Latin America (ok, maybe an exaggeration, but only a slight one.)
And Daniel, which is the same in about a dozen languages.
Aren't you all glad?

Daniel has a twisted mother

Ok, so tonight as Daniel was going to bed, he insisted on sleeping with his 'new' stick pony. It's not really new, more like rediscovered, as he's had it since he was about 10 months old (thanks Marilyn!). Anyway, so just today he rediscovered the thing and has dragged it all over the house today including into the bed.

As I'm getting up from the bed after I tucked him in, all I could think of was that scene from The Godfather. My mind is a scary place.

The stick pony's name, by the way, is Eunice.
Whiskey Tango Hotel??

Sweet guitar

This song is by Maná, my favorite Latin American band. They have been around for something like 30 years but I have just discovered them recently. I think the lead singer Fher (think that is his 'artistic' rendition of Fernando, his real name) is beautiful. And, they sing a lot of of songs that actually mean something. I can't stand most of the drivel put out by most bands. This song is about Chico Mendes, an environmentalist in Brazil who was murdered whilst doing his work trying to protect the Amazon rainforest. Anyway, enjoy the song, but I really like the guitar & flute. And Fher.

Song is titled When the Angels Cry/Cuando los Angeles Lloran

Just a quick question

Does anyone actually read this blog?

Some more evidence...

....that the fence along the US-Mexico border is not the best idea.

Not only is it not going to stop people from coming here, it is messing up wildlife and private property. I am glad some folks down there are protesting it, because up here most of what we hear about here is how it needs to be built.

Full story

Future Tolkien

Bono & Luciano Pavarotti

I can't remember if I've already posted this or not, and frankly I don't feel like scrolling back through three years of posts to look! But I found this on YouTube a while back and thought it was so cool. Not your conventional duo but very pretty all the same.

Daniel funny

Whilst picking up his toys, Daniel informed me just now that "I need an assistant. I have too many toys to pick up all by myself."

Luau

Zoo Pics

On the chimp statue....
And we learned what an ostrich looks like.
The rhino statue...unfortunately the real rhinos were too far away for us to see.
The zebra - "Mom, he looks kinda like a horse."
So happy we got good pics of the elephants... (see the story at the end of the pictures)

And "When I was a baby, I looked like the baby elephant." Right.
Also think the giraffes are really cool. I just cannot imagine giving birth standing straight up.
The grizzly!!
"Look Mommy, we're two guys the same sitting on the lion!"
"Mommy, is the alligator a stinky guy?"

In the polar bear cave
With Daddy & the bison statue
Watching the alligators
The highlight of our day was the elephants. Why, you ask? Because they are enormous, beautiful, intelligent creatures that happened to be pretty close to where we were standing? Because we got to see them spray themselves with water and with sand? Nope.

Because we got to see the elephant pooping. A three-year-old boy lives at this house, and to him, the elephant pooping was way more exciting than anything else imaginable. You can imagine that all the other parents with small kids there breathed a huge sigh of relief when it was my child and not theirs that yelled "LOOK MOMMY! THAT ELEPHANT IS STINKYING! AND HIS STINKIES ARE REALLY REALLY BIG!"

Too bad we didn't catch THAT on camera.

I went to Haiti in the middle of a bad drought there. One day we finally got some rain (the first in like a month and a half or something...) and little Charissa (who is now big Charissa) ran around yelling, "Mési Jezu pou la plis!" (Thank you Jesus for the rain!!) I kind of feel like doing the same thing right now. It has been raining here for about 6 hours now, and we so desperately need it.

Sometimes I think God gives us droughts to remind us humans down here who's really in control.

We went to the zoo Wednesday....as soon as I get pics dumped onto the 'puter, I shall upload them.