Showers of blessing on Lucas' 2nd birthday

Tarbes made the national news today when a huge thunderstorm hit the town yesterday at 5 pm. We were picking up Lucas at the creche (where Lucas brought mama's chocolate cupcakes with blue buttercream frosting and sprinkles for his caregivers) when the storm hit. Fred had run in before the rain became torrential and I was waiting in the car. The storm started without warning (actually, the clouds were so dark by 430 pm, it was as if it was past 8 pm already so I guess that should have been warning enough ...) and pebbles of ice started pounding at the car. Winds were really strong, the car was swaying left and right! I was really scared and contemplated running into the creche, but through the glass door, Fred told me to stay put. Later he explained that I was perfectly safe in the car as I was protected at all sides by the building.
After the storm receded, we drove back home via the center of town, which was a mistake as the roads were all flooded and there was a massive traffic jam. It felt like I was back in KL. It took us an hour to get home!

Today Lucas & I went into town and many shops were not open as the staff were cleaning up after the storm - since the shops got flooded! Even Fred's working place was flooded, according to his colleague. She said water gushed in really quick, up to her calf.

As we drove past the pizza place near our house last night Fred asked Lucas if he would like pizza for his dinner and Lucas said "yes". He also started chanting "pizza" over and over. When Fred came back into the car with the 2 boxes Lucas wanted pizza immediately in the car! We made him wait til we got home as he needed to take his antibiotics first.
For the first time, Lucas ate a couple of big slices by himself! I was surprised, he didn't pick off all the ingredients as he usually will only take the crust and cheese. This time he ate the mushrooms, tomato, red peppers and he even tried the chorizo (but I think it was too spicy for him and he spit it out).
After the pizza, Lucas blew candles on his cupcake.
Fred & I made the cupcakes the night before - but I put too much into each mould and while in the oven the cake overflowed. But it was still delicious and moist though I had to cut the cake and it didn't look as nice as I'd like. My buttercream frosting was a huge hit with Lucas and his friends at creche.

Tonight there is a huge carnival at Tarbes. We will bring Lucas there after an early dinner to look at the rides. Tomorrow is my civic training day - sigh. I have to report in at 9 am and will be stuck there the whole day til 6 pm. My MIL who was supposed to help babysit Lucas the whole day came up with another excuse again, so Roger will come and help us out in the morning. Fred will be home at noon, and then my MIL will arrive after lunch. I am disappointed that she is totally unreliable, especially when she knows I cannot miss this civic day and we have already told her about this more than a month in advance. She knows that Fred cannot take any time off work but still she makes us stress out over this.
I have already told Fred that I would prefer to move away from Tarbes if he finds a job elsewhere. We can't rely on the one person we came here to be near to, and she doesn't take advantage of the proximity to be near her grandson, so its her loss. She hasn't seen us in weeks and doesn't even ask if we are doing OK. She just sent me an sms about tomorrow and Fred had to call her. Roger, on the other hand volunteered to babysit Lucas! I bumped into him today in town and he said he is happy to do it and spend time with Lucas. My only worry is that Lucas will tire Roger out - he is after all >70 years old and is a cancer patient. Fred says that it should be fine as Roger will arrive at 830 am to stay with Lucas til noon and Fred's office is 5 minutes away if Roger needs him.