Words, Wine, and Dreams

Woke up, worked out, and got on with the simple things in life. We decided to stay home and rest today. The kids were expecting their new video from Netflix and we eagerly checked the mail at 2:30pm, 3:30pm and then had P-Daddy check on his way home. The mail is always here by 3:00pm so it would figure the one day the kids were excited about something coming in the mail, they would have to wait. S has been very resistant to learning his alphabet visually - he has known all the letters since he was very small, but for some reason had a mental block about what each letter looked like. I was getting extremely frustrated, and on the recommendation of some other moms looked up and rented Leap Frog's Letter Factory DVD. It is AWESOME!! Within two views something clicked with S and he now recognizes all his letter and their sounds. He is suddenly also really into doing handwriting practice so I have found a colouring/alphabet tracing dinosaur book online and print some off for him every day. He has surprisingly good penmanship for someone his age and is an exacting colorist who uses subtle shading and colour pairings. Well, today was the day that Leap Frog Talking Word Factory was coming and they were excited about learning how to put words together. X already knew most of his letters but was very sensitive to S's refusal to visually learn them so pretended he didn't. Now he is free to spot all the letters he wants. After one viewing of the Word Factory DVD tonight, S is already spelling short 3-letter words like PIG and LET. Looks like I may have to start reading and handwriting programs sooner than I thought.

The kids weren't the only ones excited about a movie coming - P-Daddy and I settled down with the movie Bottle Shock last night - story of the 1976 taste testing in which California wines beat out French wines and brought the Napa Valley wines to the worldwine arena. I grew up in a wine culture so love anything to do with it. I even turned P-Daddy into a wine snob. One of the part-time opportunities I am considering is becoming a direct wine marketer. Might be fun.

I had the strangest dream last night. I have no idea what it means or represents, but hey, here it is. I am on the phone with C who tells me she is bringing her new love home for Thanksgiving. But, the catch is he is a Rasta. So, I am being all cool on the phone and telling her we are down with it, and just to let me know what he would like to eat. But, the whole time I am freaking out wondering what the hell I am going to serve because now on top of serving X's Indian/Jain g-friend vegan food, I need to come up with raw foods for a Rasta. However, subconsciously I am screaming out that this has to be a dream because no way would I be this cool with my baby becoming a Rasta, because let's face it, there is nothing more posseur than a blond-haired, blue-eyed white chick with dreads subscribing to a religion with roots in a history based in Africa and on the politics of slavery. And the last thing I need is to be imaging my C-girl as a ganja queen.

Maybe I am way more screwed up than even I think.

And yes, I am one of those white people who loves Bob Marley, not because of the herbs but because of his politics and impact. P-Daddy says I need to link to Stuff White People Like (see #125) or this reference might come off as weird. Hey, the authour is a fellow McGill alumn so I have to give him his due.