TEA: Taxed Enough Already!

All of us at Clan Dillingham exercised our 1st Amendment guarantee to free speech by attending one of the more than 800 Tax Day Tea Parties that took place in cities all around the country on April 15. (Click the photo below to see all the pics from the event.)

Gabriel wonders, “What the heck has Mommy done to my cool hat?”

About 1,500 citizens from around our area gathered for the Greensboro Tea Party to oppose out of control spending at levels of government (with an emphasis on Congress’ TARP bail-out programs and the Obama administration’s multi-trillion dollar stimulus plan), as well as an increasingly intrusive federal government. 

The sign on the left reads, “Impotent: Can’t get the economy up. If my husband had a stimulus package like that, I’d divorce him.” 

Despite what the the lame-stream media has reported, these Tea Parties were true grassroots events, attended by people from all walks of life – everyday folks who are just fed up with pencil-pushing bureaucrats and career politicians confiscating our income and telling us how to live our lives. In fact, the keynote speaker at our rally is a registered Democrat. 

Houston ponders, “Why must this rally take place during nap time?”

Stephen, the boys and I went to the Tea Party with our neighbors (who are from Tax-achussets, as they call their old home state) and their three kids. We also met up with Uncle Greg and Auntie Merdy, and saw three of Stephen’s co-workers.

The Tea Party movement is making its way to Capitol Hill, with two such events already planned for this fall:  

Zeke mans Mommy’s beautiful homemade sign.

Lots of kids voiced their opposition to the “spendulus” plan.

Stephen and I are also hoping to motivate people to do the homegrown, community-based Tea Party thing again on July 4. But we have a few ideas (peaceful and legal, of course) to make these Independence Day rallies that much more symbolic, raising our voices even higher in support of limited, decentralized government; the U.S. Constitution; low taxation; liberty; and individual rights. We’ll keep you posted on what we come up with.

Pee Pee Progress

On 3/27, Houston finally pee peed in his potty! Sure, it was just a dribble, but it was quite a big deal nonetheless. Since then he has had a few full-fledge pees in his musical toilet, setting off the happy, congratulatory tune that starts when liquid hits the bottom of the bowl. To my surprise, the music didn’t impress him all that much; he was more concerned about getting to put a “stick-oorz” (read: sticker) on his “Houston is a big boy” reward poster, which is displayed proudly on our bathroom wall.

An enraptured Houston watches “Man” (read: Spider Man) w/ Daddy.

Another technique we’re using is to try to distract Houston from the seemingly overwhelming task at hand when he sits diaper-less on the potty; he and Daddy thumb through children’s catalogs, since Houston loves to look at the pictures of kids playing, balls, brightly colored toys and the like. This has helped Houston relax a little more and has resulted in some pretty good urinary activity. 

Houston’s new fave super hero is Spider Man. He even imitates “Man’s” web-making abilities by spinning around, holding out his hand and saying, “ssssssssss.” Another cute thing he likes to do is thump on the wall or window and say, “Mama, knock.” This is in regards to Mommy locking herself out of the house while taking out the trash at 1 in the morning and having to knock on the bedroom window to wake up Daddy and Houston (who happened to be sleeping in Mommy and Daddy’s big bed due to having a bad dream). He still talks about the incident, even though it happened almost a month ago.

After exerting himself to the hilt, Zeke passes out in his favorite toy.

And then Stanley brought in a lovely gift for us around 6 a.m. last Friday. It was a beautiful male cardinal and that crazy cat took the bird under our bird. We quickly locked Stan in the bathroom and soon realized the bird couldn’t (or wouldn’t) fly. I helped scoot the hopping bird into our living room, and then picked him up with a cloth and freed him outside — all while I was only wearing a bra and a pair of boxer shorts. Yep, I’m sure our neighbors definitely think Clan Dillingham is a zoo!

Big Brother loves to pick on Gabriel, who’s none the wiser to the torment.

The twins are doing just great. They are in size 3 diapers, probably weigh at least 15 pounds and are strong as the Hulk. (Stephen and I have been watching the classic late-70s show on Netflix, so I have Bruce Banner on the brain.) One of the first things people comment on — besides the boys’ good looks! — is the fact that Gabriel and Zeke are such happy babies. Hearing this certainly makes a Mama proud. They are both doing wonderful holding their heads up, having fun on their tummies, rolling belly-to-back and nearly rolling back-to-belly, cooing and grabbing anything dangled in front of their faces. I cannot believe Gabriel and Zeke will be 6 months old tomorrow. I thank God everyday for my three amazing boys! 

Click on Zeke in the jump-n-go to check out the final additions to the March gallery, and click on the above photo to see all the April pics. And stay tuned … Easter and Tea Party photos coming soon.