Trick or Treat

Trick or treat this year was a real treat for Dominic. Nothing in the world makes this kid happier than CANDY. So, when you tell him he gets to go knock on everyone's doors and ask for free CANDY, well it just doesn't get much better than that. I let Brian take the kids around while I passed out the candy at home. I feared Brian might return after only hitting a few houses, but they were actually gone for quite some time. When they finally returned home, Dominic's Spider-Man bucket was completely filled to the top. Aurora couldn't quite keep up with Dominic's feverish pace, so her's was only about 1/3 of the way full. Any way you slice it = too much candy in my house. Add that to the enormous amounts of candy I was left with. I couldn't believe it. Last year I almost ran out. So, this year I stocked up and wouldn't you know, I got stuck with a lot of candy. Don't worry, it didn't last long. It is no longer in the house. Well, I guess actually it is because it's current residence is inside my large overgrown arse. And then I have the nerve to deny my kids requests for candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner! If they only knew my ulterior motives;)

Before trick or treat our street gets together for some Halloween fun of our own and this is the group photo this year. You see The Scream? Aurora was petrified of this costume! She called him the "bleeding ghost" because he had the pump that squirted the red liquid through his mask. She was, however, not phased at all by the creepy ghoul next to the "bleeding ghost". She knew her buddy/boyfriend, Will, was behind the outfit, so she would go up and kiss him right on the mask. Yes, I have trouble brewing with this little flirt;)

Dominic's Halloween Party at School

This is Dominic's 3 year old preschool class at the same school. Yes, Dominic did just turn 4, but his birthday falls after the cut off, so he will always be one of the oldest kids in his class. And as it so happens, my 20 months apart children will only be one grade apart in school. Both of Dominic's teachers are fantastic. I LOVE them! They are both super sweet, very personable and great teachers. In just a few short weeks Dominic was counting to 20, singing the alphabet and a whole slew of other songs and telling me his colors in Spanish.

This was Dominic's class party. He dressed in his reversible Spider-Man costume. He has never worn the friendly side though, always the black. Anywho, we all had lots o fun. Father Terry pulled them around with a tractor for a hayride. And that is Dominic's teacher, Miss Janet he is snuggled up next to. Isn't that the sweetest thing? The scary Power Ranger (which I still refuse to let Dominic watch...more so because it is so lame than anything else) is his good bud, Will. And the angel he is walking with is, no not his mother, his other teacher Miss Karen. He calls her the one with the crazy hair, since there are 2 Miss Karens, the other being the director of the preschool.
I had fun because I was one of the room mom's who helped throw the party. I brought the pb and j shaped bats, spider cheese and apple and marshmellow mouths. I thought it was cute anyway...

Aurora's Halloween Party at School

Welcome to Aurora's 2 year old preschool class at St. Catherine's Catholic Church. Her teacher, pictured here terrorizing my poor daughter, is Miss Robin. I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her. She is exactly what Aurora needs ...super sweet, very hands on and loving, but firm. Aurora however, takes more to Miss Kim, who I have pictures of, they are just portrait shots. Aurora can hold Miss Kim's hand all day long sometimes. And it is Miss Kim, and only Miss Kim, who is allowed to change Aurora's diaper.

This is Aurora's Halloween Party and she wanted to come dressed as Cinderella. She was absolutely the most beautiful Cinderella I ever did see. And the most uncivilized one...again something she learned from her brother, don't actually eat any of the cupcake it might kill you, instead make sure you have licked every last trace of icing off.

Show stealers

So a couple of weekends ago, Brian and the kids were in his buddy Dave's wedding. The kids looked so darned cute, I just had to share. I have so many more pictures to share, but for reasons I have yet to understand, I cannot post portrait pictures, only landscape ones. Once I get past that hurdle I will be much happier;)

Pumpkin Patchin' It

One of our Halloween traditions is to hit the Pumpkin Patch. We so loved the one we visited last year, we went there again this year. Only this year we wised up. I'll elaborate more on that later. The reason I like this pumpkin patch is because it has a little playground for the kids, a few caged animals to visit, an awesome antique tractor for picture taking and, of course, a hayride to the pumpkin patch. The kids had a blast filling my bag with baby pumkins and gourds. And I had a blast discreetly tossing them out when they weren't looking. We told the kids we were only going to get one pumpkin and they were cool with that, thankfully. When Dominic found it we all jumped back on the hayride to go back and pay for it. The reason we only wanted to get one pumpkin here was 1.) because they rob you blind for them, 2.) because they were hideous looking (lot of rotten and misshapen ones) and 3.) we were headed straight to our neighborhood Wal-Mart to stock up on them at the fantastic roll back price of $3.99. And they were gorgeous pumpkins. As it turned out, I was able to distract the kids while Brian dropped the pumpkin, so we were able to get out of there without having to buy any pumpkins. See all of our beautiful pumpkins on display? I had to do a Spider-Man one for Dominic. I never got around to finishing the black one.

On a side note, did you know that pumpkins were the oldest vegetable in the US? Little pumpkin trivia for ya. Don't say you never learned anything here!

My little excavators

Uncle Michael always gets the kids the greatest gifts. This year Dominic got a dinosaur bone excavation kit and he couldn't wait to throw those goggles on and get started. His monkey see, monkey do of a sister, couldn't either. Many fights ensued, but finally after many hours of chiseling, Mommy extracted all of the bones!

Now that's a Spider-Man Party;)

This weekend we celebrated Dominic's birthday yet again with a bunch of his friends for a real party. The theme - Spider- Man. For those of you that missed this grand party, I'll walk you through it play by play.

As the kids arrived they entertained themselves in the playroom which is the first thing you see upon entering our home, so i really couldn't have planned it any other way. Once everyone was accounted for I called all the kids into the kitchen to take a look at Dominic's cool Spider-Man cake. Everyone ooohhh'd and aaaahhhh'd and tried to stick their fingers in the icing. I then directed everyone into the dining room where we were going to make our spider crafts with tootsie pops, black felt, pipe cleaners and googly eyes. It was cute and would have made Grammy K proud, but held their attention for all of 5 seconds and most were up and back in the playroom again. When those that did participate in the craft (myself and a few other mothers) were finished, I asked the kids if they wanted to check out the cake again. They all got up and ran to the kitchen.
When we got there, the cake was GONE! And in it's place was a note from, none other than, Venom. Duh-duh-duh-DUH. It said he had taken Dominic's cake and we'd never find it. Not even Spider-Man could find it! Oh no, what were we to do???

I am pretty quick on my feet, so I suggested calling Spider-Man on Dominic's Spider-Man phone. He grabbed the phone from me and sighed angrily, "Mom, this is just a play phone," and brought it back into the playroom. One of the other mother's suggested calling from a real phone, so I grabbed that and Dominic's buddy was all too eager to call him and tell him what had happened to Dominic's cake. When he hung up, we went out in search of the cake, but it was no where to be found. As we were about to give up, Spider-Man peaked his head into the room and asked if he could help us! The kids went nuts! And 2 were scared right out of their ever living minds. Spider-Man said he would be more than happy to help us retrieve Dominic's cake, but first they would all need to be Superhero trained. So, out back we went.

Their first task was building scaling. And once again Uncle Michael's birthday gift to Dominic last year, while utterly outrageous and constituted us adding a 3rd car garage to house it, came in quite handy. Next, he brought them over to the rope swing so they could practice web swinging. Then on to the swinging horizonal bar where they practiced their Spider-Man hang. And lastly and definitely the most fun, was web slinging with silly string. During the web slinging training, we heard a ruckus in the basement. Spider-Man said he would check it out alone since they had not completed their training yet. In he went. There was shouting, banging, loud thumping noises, but next thing we saw was Spider-Man emerge unscathed with cake in hand. Venom, he said, had gotten away.

The kids finished silly stringing and received signed Certificates of Completion for Superhero Training from Spider-Man. We took a ton of photos with him and then Spider-Man said he had to leave to go after Venom. We all waved a sad farewell, but were excited to have our cake back and knew Spider-Man had more capers to solve.

We moved the party upstairs onto the deck for pizza and cake when in walked a Kennesaw Police Officer. Apparently, Spider-Man had called him for back up. We told him Venom got away, but that Spider-Man went after him, so he hung out for a bit, talked with the kids and showed them his car. So much for the pizza. When he left we went straight to cake, ice cream and presents. Dominic got more Spider-Man things than i even knew existed. And some of it was pretty cool too, like a talking Spidey room guard with motion sensor and Spidey and Sandman walkie talkies. Too cool. At the end of the party the kids went up into Dominic and Aurora's rooms where Spider-Man had left all the treat bags jumbled up in a giant web. The kids had to follow their web through the room to get to their treat bags. It was cute.

All in all it was a GREAT party. Dominic was so into it when Spider-Man was here. He kept telling Spider-Man he was going to help him catch Venom because he was tough and he would kick, hit and bite Venom if he saw him. Yup, that's my boy;) And when Spider-Man came out of the basement with the cake stating that Venom had escaped up the basement stairs, Dominic kept trying to get him to go the deck stairs with him into the house to get him. And when Spider-Man finally had to go, Dominic was beside himself because he so wanted to go with him to help catch Venom. And he keeps telling me that when he was climbing up his rock climbing wall Spider-Man told him "Good job, Dominic!" That is soooo dang cute! He remembers Spider-Man's kudos. My dilemma now...what to do for birthday #5???

October 2, 2007

Today is Dominic's 4th birthday! He's a big boy now. It's official. He said so. First we celebrated with his class in school with some Spider-man cupcakes. They were a hit! Then after dinner we celebrated again with leftover cupcakes and opened some presents from Nana and Grandma and Grandpa. We tried to wait for Grammy, Pop-Pop, G-Grammy and Wienie dog, but Grammy was driving so we really didn't expect them til sun up. They surprised us when they pulled in at 9pm.

Lovin' Lasik

OMG! Why did I not do this any sooner? This "surgery" is life-changing. I have been dependent on corrective lenses since the 4th grade. I went from big to bigger to biggest glasses (even sported a pair of Sally Jessy's, except that mine were a little more classy in burgundy) before I was allowed to graduate to contacts. Then the kids come and things start drying up...i'm talking about my eyes, you perverts. So, I go back to the glasses. Over the course of 3 years Dominic has broken 2 pairs with perfectly executed body slams. And invariably at least 17 times a day I get clocked in the face with some flailing limb and the bridge of my glasses is crushed into the bridge of my nose making me want to crush my children, but lucky for them I am in too much pain to move. So, I finally said enough is enough and I started my research and before you know it I am setting up my consultation and surgery.

All I have ever heard about the surgery is that it only takes a couple of minutes per eye and is completely painless. Piece of cake. But in my mind's eye, all i can think of is the movie, Fire in the Sky, where the guy is abducted by aliens, sucked up into the mothership and strapped to a gurney upon which they begin to perform a barrage of experiments. My most vivid memory of this whole movie is the scene where they proceed to put these clamps under the lids of both eyes forcing him to watch as these giant needles descend from the ceiling until they pierce his eyeballs straight through the iris. In reality, Lasik is a lot like what i just described only minus the aliens and big needles.

If you refer to the diagram I constructed and posted below, I will try to walk you through the surgery. Remember it's only 2 minutes in each eye! So, first they numb your eyes up with a gazillion drops that within seconds you can taste in the back of your mouth. Disgusting right off the bat. Then they cover one eye with a sheet while they clamp open the other eye. The clamps feel somewhat forgiving when you try to blink even though your eyelids probably barely move, but within a matter of seconds you don't even try anymore. Something is placed smack on top of your open eye and the DR says "suction". Something else is immediately placed on top of that which I can only presume is precisely sizing up your cornea because the next thing you hear is the sound of a high powered drill. At this point I felt a quick burst of pain and while subtle, was still pain. This pain lasted only a few seconds and was the actual cutting of my cornea because the next thing i SAW (yes, SAW) was my cornea being flipped back. Then they tell me how good I'm doing and I say, "SHUT THE F$#& UP and GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE WITH MY EYEBALLS INTACT" and I remember this is only my first eye.

Enter the Wave Front Laser. So, now they are telling ME to SHUT UP and look at the green and red flashing light and you hear this zapping sound like when you microwave aluminum foil and both the lights and the zapping keep getting closer and closer. And the smell. It smells like the laser is burning the flesh right off my eyeball. It isn't, but that is what I imagine it would smell like. After about 45-60 seconds of looking at this laser it is done, your cornea is flapped back down, the clamps are removed from your eye and they tell you to keep your eye closed while they fix the other one. OH GOD, NOT THE OTHER ONE! At this point I realize I probably have 3 seconds at best to decide if I want to live the rest of my life with perfect vision in just one eye. Too late, they have already clamped my other eye and I hear the DR say "suction"!

2 minutes later they tell me I am done and help me sit up. I look at the clock and can kind of make out the numbers but they are really blurry. Previous to the surgery, I would have been able to see this round thing on the wall and known it was probably a clock, but would never have been able to make out the time. I think the surgery was successful. They tell me the blurring is normal. I ask if it is because my eyeballs are bleeding? They reassure me my eyeballs are not bleeding and I schedule my post-op for the next morning. I leave with my little kit of goodies: antibiotic and steriod drops, rewetting drops, cheap looking Terminator sunglasses and snow boarding goggles to sleep in so I don't rub my eyes in my sleep. They say the flap takes 2 full days to permanently heal. With my kids, I wore my snow boarding goggles for 2 full days.

The next day at my post op...20/20 people!!! AMAZING!!! Despite my graphic play by play of the surgery, I would do it again in a heartbeat and recommend it to everyone considering it. Prior to surgery I was a -4.5 in one eye and -5 in the other. They said anything under -6 is ideal for surgery and 20/20 is the result in about 80% of cases, with the resulting 20% at 20/30 or so. I still wake up really blurry in the morning and reach for my glasses, but then i realize I don't need them anymore I just need to give my eyes a minute to totally wake up.

Johnny Nash was not only the writer and producer of this oldy but goody, he was apparently clairvoyant too:
I can see clearly now that part of my cornea is gone;
I can see all obstacles in my way...

Australia - Part I

This summer I had the opportunity of a lifetime to accompany my husband to Sydney. This is one of the perks of being married to an internat'l pimp recruiter. Sometimes I get a taste of the good life too;) We flyin' first class up in the sky... you tell 'em Fergie.

Since I only had a week, we did all the touristy things... took the Harbour Cruise, bus tours of the city and beaches (which is where we are headed in this picture), walked through the Rocks, hit the Wharf and ate like it was going out of style. Anyone that knows me, knows this is not really out of the ordinary for me, but on this trip I really stepped it up a notch. Concierge level at the Marriott basically means free food 24/7. I ate 20/6 and only because I had to leave the hotel in order to get my fill of Sushi train. Sushi on demand! Not that you have to wait very long for sushi to be prepared, but when it sails around ripe for the pickin' on a conveyor belt , well it doesn't get much better than that in my book. It is really amazing I saw any of Sydney at all. I can eat nonstop and as you can clearly see, it shows in the photos (that is if i dare to load any). And I don't. All you get is a head shot of us on the bus and another shot of the opera house from our room. Stay tuned for Part II.

The Stay-c Report (on my addictions)

Just to recap for you:

In = http://parlottoposse.blogspot.com/
5 minutes ago = http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=
user.viewprofile&friendid=81394769
Out = http://www.parlotto.org

And MySpace was literally 5 minutes ago when I was ripping off all of Alli's newly added photos and adding them to my site. Thanks for helping me keep my content current;).

There's a new sherriff in town

The kids love to tour our local fire and police stations and the moms love the uniformed eye-candy, so here we are on our most recent trip. We get to see where the firemen hang out, sleep and eat and the best part of all...their rides. Dominic loves his trucks, so he is always the first in line to jump inside the big fire trucks.

Then we mosey on over to the police station and get a quick tour of jail! I appreciated that part of the tour the most. Threatening them with JAIL works a lot better when they have a visual to refer to.

We play "cops" alot at home because unlike his sister and her never ending collection of princess dress up costumes, Dominic only has a few to choose from...the cops being his favorite because it comes with handcuffs and he LOVES to "under arrest" anyone who will let him cuff 'em. Here he caught Snow White naked and "under arrested" her for indecent exposure!

American Adventures

This is another of our FAVORITE places to go in the summer time. American Adven- tures! This is a total toddler park complete with 12 shade covered rides, foam factory, miniature golf and my personal favorite - dippin' dots! As you can see they have something for everyone... teacups, the train, the swings and so much more. Thankfully, on this trip I did not have to brave the swings. (And you know we fought like cats and dogs over who was going to have to ride them because Brian can't stand spinning rides either. You would think the mere fact that I have to go on them every other time I take the kids without him would be my Ace in the hole, but no...a fight must ensue before he gives in.) Ever since giving birth, my body just cannot tolerate good old amusement park rides. At least that is the excuse i am using. Could be just another side effect of old age? Everything from the Pirate Ship, to the kiddie roller coaster, to the hot air balloon ride, straight down to the Crazy Bus, which isn't all that crazy, makes me wanna hurl. But not these kids. Dominic could ride the rickety rocket of a roller coaster open to close and still want more. Me and my arse just thank God for the dippin dots!

Doug E Fresh

Yes ladies, another single and LOOKING man in my life. *All those interested pls leave your name, number and cup size in the comments below.

This young strapping stud is my other brother, Doug. Yes, the one with the giant tattoo of what appears to be a dragon on his arm. Is that for real? If so, when did you get all inked up? Do they allow such unrefined acts of rebellion at Burberry? Well, I'll be seeing you soon enough to know if it was just some henna.

And ladies, Chief is probably single too, so holla back if you like penta-lingual men! Peace out to you too!

A Cousin is Conceived!!!

So, yes Alli is prego, knocked up, got a bun in the oven, whatever you wanna call it. And we here at the Parlotto Pad couldn't be more excited! Our prayers for a little cousin have been answered in the form of a what??? That's right, a BOY!! See her little baby bump as she poses next to her latest baby purchase... her new magnum mom mobile. No need to P.I.M.P. that ride! Well, congrats to both you and Levent! We are so happy for the both of you, but mainly for us for we will now have a little cousin to grow up with. Keep the belly pictures coming! We love you guys!

My China Pimp of a Blogless Brother

My husband's work, as an internat'l pimp recruiter, has him traveling all over the world. In June, he went to Tokyo where he met up with my brother, Greg, who is currently living in Hangzhou, China. Greg, I must add, has been a great inspiration to me to start blogging. Now that I know how easy it is to get one of these things up and running (yes, I am retarded), I have to wonder why his last post was Dec of 2006? And in the less than the 24 hours I have had this site, how is it possible that i have posted more than he did in all of 2006? I know his posts are much longer, his pictures digitally enhanced and edited, his content more intellectually stimulating and occasionally profound, but come on...he's an English Major by trade! Me, a mere housewife. I know pimpin ain't easy, but when it starts to interfere with you communicating with the rest of your family half a world away, then it's time to get a real job. See for yourself: http://sinobling.sinosplice.com/

Virgin Festival - Baltimore

Who am i kidding? I am too old for this shit! This concert was a 2 day, all day, festival held at Pimlico stadium in Baltimore in July. Temp was roughly 115 in the shade and the only shade to be had was in the port-o- potties. So, let's just say we all had a grand time melting together to some very fine music.

The first 2 pictures are before and after pictures of Brian's super cool airport shades. Note to self: Don't stick your cheapo sunglasses in your back pocket and sit down. Also in the before picture if you look closely, you will see a giant Irishman with a very cool band tee on. That's our bud, also named, Brian. He is single and LOOKING ladies!! Do you see those arms??

The lineup seemed to change so much right up until the concert, I was so pissed to find the Killers were not playing. Maybe I got confused with last year's lineup, but anywho, we did see some good acts. We arrived late the first day and by the time we got there Amy Winehouse was playing on the mainstage. Then we saw Peter Bjorn and John, LCD Soundsystem, the Beastie Boys and finally The Police.

This is about the time I really start to feel my age. Did i mention the concert took place on the infield of a horse track? And that I wore my $2.50 Old Navy absolutely no support flip flops? Well, during the Beastie Boys we pushed our way as close up to the stage as we could. As soon as they finished we worked our way up even closer for the Police. At this point we are all sardined together. I am barely 5'1" in my ON flip flops. I AM the shortest person at this concert. All I can see when I spin 360 is armpits. All i can smell is armpits. Their is NO circulation down here. The air is stagnant, very hot and smelly. So, I decided to put my God given man calves to good use and stand on my tiptoes, so I am now at shoulder height, for the next 30 minutes until the Police take the stage. They are about halfway through Message in a Bottle, like the 6th song, and I have to give in. My legs and feet are absolutely killing me at this point and I turn to Brian and tell him i have to get the hell out of there. Weaving our way out of that crowd must have taken us a good 10 minutes. I headed straight for the re-charge tent where they housed the only chairs in the entire venue (excluding VIP naturally). I remained there for the rest of their set which included 2 encores. I couldn't even see the stage and didn't even care. I could hear them just fine. The lesson learned? I am a one concert kind of girl anymore. My days of festivals are either long gone or I need to seriously train before I ever fathom attending one again. My saving grace? Brian bought tickets to go see The Police when they come to Atlanta in November!

Angelina Jade

So, Auntie Marla finally had her beautiful and healthy baby girl! Angelina Jade (I know, sounds like a stripper name...we have already been through this...apparently her parents did not agree). Born on July 27, 2007 at a fighting weight of 7lbs 90z and 20 in long.

She couldn't be more precious. We are all so very happy for Marla and Perry and so glad to finally be welcoming them to "the club". You are both going to make wonderful parents! We love you guys!