James made me laugh when he talked about Venus, the Goddess of Love & Beauty. He’s a literal child. Here’s a perfect example….
A book that I recently gave Sydney & James had a picture of Renaissance Italian artist Botticelli’s famous 1489 painting ‘The Birth of Venus,’ the mythological Roman Goddess of Love & Beauty.
I told The Kids that the painting depicts the Goddess Venus ARRIVING AT THE SHORE AFTER HER BIRTH when she emerged from the sea as an ADULT.
James has thought about childbirth this year. His Mommy Skyler had spent a lot of time in the hospital because his Baby Brother Sammy was born 2 months early.
Once James heard that Venus was BORN FULLY GROWN he announced: “Gosh, that must have really hurt her Mommy!”
Observant Syd added: “James, and she was BORN ON A SEA SHELL” to which James quickly replied: “That must have REALLY, REALLY hurt her Mommy!”
The three of us had a good laugh!
I’ve included pictures of us having dinner with Mommy Skyler, Daddy Jimmy, Syd, James and Baby Sammy at our favorite restaurant, Abel’s On The Lake. There was a New Dish on the Menu: It’s called Baby Sammy! Mommy Skyler thought he was delicious!
Syd, James, Jack and Benny love each other and still have lots of fun playing together.
Syd acts like the Big Sister to all of The Boys! James is very protective of Jack and Benny too.
The Kids love whipped cream. Joe Bill and I gave them strawberries and cream the other day when they took a break from swimming at our house. Benny calls it: “cweem!” He used to ask for strawberries and ‘cweem.' Now he just wants ‘cweem!’
During the Spring, Coach Gwen taught 2 year old Benny how to swim. She’s done the same for Syd, James and Jack when they were 2. Syd and James were trying to get Benny to ‘swim to their fingers.’ When Benny would swim to his Big Brother, Jack would grab him and lovingly brush back his beautiful blonde hair. We always think that it’s adorable when Benny announces: “Benny did good!” I’ve posted two Videos to show you how good The Kids are doing.
I’ve included some cute pictures of Joel, JB, Jack and Benny in our pool on Father’s Day! I have a beautiful shot of Mommy Gigi with Jack at our house.
The Fourth of July is always a special day for us. JB and I went to the fun Aspen Parade with Peggy Oxford, Mary Ralph Lowe & Charlie Flanders. The handsome 'Young Men of Aspen' who roller skate in their underwear weren’t part of the Parade this year. They were replaced by girls in bikinis who had gold paint all over them! They were certainly Golden Girls!
I usually don’t include a political comment about what’s happening in our country but I feel compelled to say how terrible Joe Bill and I feel about President Trump’s despicable decision to separate thousands of desperate immigrant parents from their innocent children.
Putting children and adults in metal cages is reprehensible. Sending immigrant children legally seeking asylum, as young as 9 MONTHS OLD, to a shelter in New York City is disgusting. American immigration lawyers along the Texas Border have said it would be like getting a minor traffic ticket and having your children taken away.
Sadly, hundreds of these children will never be reunited with their loving families. It’s a heartbreaking situation that didn’t have to happen in the first place.
Right now 460 immigrant parents were deported without their children.
I think about how terrible it would be if this had happened to Syd, James, Baby Sammy, Jack or Benny.
Also, I think that it’s awful that during the Helsinki Summit that President Trump had a 2 hour private meeting with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and at a News Conference afterwards The President of the United States sided with our adversary Putin’s denial of Russian ‘intrusions’ in our 2016 Election instead of agreeing with our own Intelligence officials who said that Russia did meddle with our Election.
When a Reuters Reporter asked Putin if he wanted Trump to win and did he direct any of his officials to help him do it, Putin replied: “Yes, I did. Yes, I did."
Also, President Trump said that it was “an incredible idea” that Putin wanted to interrogate in Russia 11 AMERICANS, who have criticized Trump and Putin, including Michael McFaul, the Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia. "Washington Post” columnist E.J. Dionne wrote: "widespread revulsion required Trump to back off” 4 days later.
“The New York Times” had a bombshell report that on January 6, 2017 at Trump Tower 2 weeks before his Inauguration, American Intelligence Officials showed President Elect Donald Trump “highly classified intelligence indicating that President Vladimir Putin of Russia personally ordered complex cyber attacks to sway the 2016 American election." The high level meeting included: C.I.A. Director John Brennan, the Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, the Director of the National Security Agency & the U.S. Cyber Command Admiral Michael Rogers plus F.B.I. Director James Comey.
President Trump is now considering the shocking action of revoking security clearances for many of these former Intel Chiefs.
Former Republican Strategist Steve Schmidt described this as an abuse of power and said that it’s dangerous to have an autocrat as President of the United States.
Senator Bob Corker (R) Tennessee, who is Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Affairs Committee, said that striping security clearances of critics is a ‘banana republic kind of thing."
“USA Today” writes: “Donald Trump has always expressed love for authoritarian leaders.”
Despite all these revelations, Trump has invited dictator Putin to come to The White House this Fall.
As a Broadcast Journalist and a U.S. citizen I’m outraged that Trump continues to call the News Media the enemy of the American People. Our free press is not the enemy of the American People. At his rallies President Trump always points out the press area calling them liars and the worst people. I fear that one day a reporter will be killed. Trump constantly labels negative but truthful news stories about him Fake News.
Things are getting worse with the press. The White House banned from an afternoon Rose Garden Event CNN Reporter Kaitlan Collins, who was serving as a Network Pool Reporter, because earlier in the day she asked President Trump about Vladimir Putin and Michael Cohen. The White House told her that her questions were inappropriate.
I’m keeping my Blog postings for Syd, James, Baby Sammy, Jack and Benny to have when they get older. I want them to know how I’ve felt about these critical decisions by President Trump.
Love, D2
Comments