Rollin' with my homies

Big D and his friend Aiden. Aiden is D's Homie, compadre, partner in crime, and cousin. No, he's not really his biological cousin but D refers to all of his friends as his cousins. You know someone is really accepted into D's fold when he says, "I like him, uh huh, he's my cousin" If he doesn't like you, he will call you a Jackass. Even the four month baby at daycare is a Jackass. D does not discriminate. Honestly, we did not teach him to say Jackass -he learned that in daycare. Speaking of daycare, he recently started a new preschool which we are much happier with. I will get to that later on in the post.
Here is a pic of D and Aiden cruising in Aiden's Cadillac Escalade on his (Aidens) third birthday.




The two of them were so funny cruising around in that thing. They took their driving privledge very serious and D was a great co pilot, working the CB radio and tuning in the FM radio. Their ride had to be taken from them after a while as they grew more confidant and started ramming into the house and running over the adults.

Later on in the day, a pinata was brought out. In my day, the kids busted the pinata with real baseball bats or sticks, all the while blindfolded so that when the candy fell out and all the kids dove in there was always the potential for injury as the holder of the destruction device sometimes continued to swing. That's the way it was and we liked it!
Now look at what the safety police have done to this beloved pasttime:


The bats have been replaced with safety strings! Now, instead of swinging sticks and bats, the kids line up and one at a time go up to the pinata and pull a string. One of the strings will be the key string that opens up the candy trap door. I really think the kids were deprived of the thrill and danger involved with heavy bats and blindfolds. Here is the mad scramble for the candy:

I suppose you could still use a bat to do the job, but it's the whole change thing that bugs me...
Moving on....
Here is D with some other good friends of his, T and L. These boy's grandparents live right accross the creek from us and his mom and dad grew up with Jason. We just happened to run into them at McDonalds one weekend and coiincidentally, D and T were sporting matching scabs on their foreheads.



T. got his roughhousing with his brother, seen there on the left, but D got his after being wrestled by an 8 year old at daycare. This was the second time D had been injured at daycare because the provider was not paying attention. (there are only 3 kids there) Long story short, D started a new daycare last week and we are so happy with the way things are going. We are looking forward to fewer trips to the ER and less TV time for him.
Anyways, see the lady in the lavender outfit in the background? Her name is Anne and she is T and L's great grandmother. Anne is a very interesting lady. She has lived in the area forever and used to own and operate a coffee shop in town. Anne is a new-age guru who does Tai chi and has been known to bury crystals in parts of the world that she senses are spiritual locations. I only know this because she approached the elementary school that my mom worked at and asked if she could bury one of her crystals there. Anne also is known to have the ability to determine the sex of unborn babies by using the pendant she wears around her neck. I think it may be in the picture there, but can not say for sure. Anne used this tecnnique on me when I was pregnant but she was not correct. I am not sure if she remembered this and I did not have the heart to tell her she was wrong.
Ok, signing off.