These great gettin-up mornin's

I've been a chocoholic since the day I stopped believing I was allergic to it, sometime around age 5. Since then, I've steadily shifted from a milk chocolate preference to a dark chocolate preference. This may be due to my discovery that 1, dark chocolate has higher levels of antioxidants; 2, it's satisfying in much smaller amounts; and 3, Europeans think milk chocolate is kinda gross anyway. (Doing anything like the Europeans do just ups your level of cool and for those of us who are lacking in that department, we have to pay attention to these things.) I mention this because, despite my addiction, I have never enjoyed "the World's Finest Chocolate" fundraising bars. Yet I recently was gifted a dark chocolate bar (and I ate it because I never turn down chocolate even if I don't like it...with the exception of Butterfingers and Milky Ways...) and I thought it was fabulous! So, all that to say, if you don't like World's Finest milk chocolate, don't run from their dark chocolate on account of it.

I eat chocolate the way most people drink coffee. And as Cubans need extra coffee to be extra Cuban, I need extra chocolate to achieve the same effect. I am not a morning person. I can be cheerful at all hours of the day because I usually love my life. Call me up at 11 pm and I will talk your ear off, dance a marathon, do 100 push ups, whatever. But wake me up before 9 am and, well, I wont. There have been days where I will sit on the couch in semi-consciousness, where Dominic can do everything short of stick a fork in an electrical outlet before I snap out of my coma. And the second 10 am hits, I'm up and in action. I'm just a night owl! I can't help it! Who signed me up for 1st period math all those years? For shame! No wonder I had to repeat Algebra! And Analysis of Functions! (I got through Algebra 2 with a D because my teacher felt pity on me, no doubt. I don't know a quadratic equation from a Gucci handbag, to say nothing of a logarithm). So God blessed me with a handsome, wonderful, little boy who is in every way shape and form, a morning lark.

Danny leaves for work sometime before the sun comes up. I am so dead asleep, I just assume he's telling the truth that he kisses me on the way out every morning and that I sometimes tell him niceties like "Have a great day" or "I love you." (If I do, I'm not aware of it but I think this shows that I'm a genuinely nice person on a subconscious level at least. ) And at 7 am, every morning that Danny goes to work, I wake up to Dominic, like a siren, wailing his heart out that Danny has gone and left him forever. "Donde esta Papi?!" he cries as he jumps out of our bed (when did he get there?), and runs desperately around the house searching for his missing Papi. The answer is always the same, "Dominic, Papi is at work." And he cries and he wails, and he cries and then, all of a sudden it's quiet. (I usually wait a few seconds then I poke my blind head up to see if I see movement). And seeing Dominic standing in the doorway, I plop back down. Because it's 7:06 and no one needs to be awake at 7:06.

A few seconds later I feel breathing on my face. Dominic has crawled into my bed again and now, not an inch away from my face asks me in all seriousness, "Camión? O Bulldozer?" And he continues quickly. "Beep. Beep. Estoy titilando así" (he is twinkling, he says, and makes twinkling hand motions). "Que numero es hoy?" (by which he means, 'what's today's date?') "Quiero comer. Te gustas ir a Miami? aunque... UN MOMENTICOOOOO! Dije que yo tengo hambre! ....RAWR!... mami, te asusté? No te quería asustar. Yo solo quería comer. Como un leon. " (You'll notice here that Dominic wakes up very hungry. He had 2 waffles, a banana, and a bowl of cereal for breakfast this morning). And this is how I wake up every morning that Danny goes to work. Dominic sounds the alarm that Danny is gone, and after the mourning passes, he is alert, conversant, cheerful, and very much in my face. For an hour. Because that's how long it takes me to drag myself out of bed most of the time. Hence, the chocolate. And Noemie? She woke up chirping at 8:30. I took her out of bed and she laid on my belly with one arm wrapped around her teddy and the other around her blanket, with her fingers stuck firmly in her mouth. And so we laid there on the sofa peacefully for another 20 minutes, while she eased into consciousness. That's my girl!

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Dominic clasped his hands and jumped the gun on saying our dinner time prayers the other night so Danny, Noemie, and I obediently and quickly followed suit with our heads bowed as Dominic blessed the meal. Dominic's first prayer:

Señor, Gracias que la comida esta lista. Te pedimos que los niños lo comen. Y el arbolito. Amen.