Four months old today!

Things I once believed

When I was 4 my brother Paul was born at a hospital in West St. Paul, MN that was right next to a huge blue water tower. For a really, really long time I thought that Paul had been born IN the water tower. How silly of me in retrospect right! ;-)

Also when I was a kid I was also convinced that the strips of bacon that mom would cook were actually a whole bunch of piglets little tails all smooshed together in the package. I believed that for a really long time. Nutty huh?

And another just wild and crazy belief I held onto for the longest time was that if I were gay I was a terrible sinner and most likely going to hell. And that if I were gay I could never really have a family--just a lonely, sad existence. How silly AND nutty of me! :-)

Did I forget to blog today?

I DID! I DID! I did forget to blog today! (Or did I????) -Monica

Works for me!

So remember how I have to legally adopt Danny? Well we went to a status hearing at the DC Courthouse last Friday, and I must admit I was a bit nervous. Even though we'd done all of the tedious forms and worked closely with our lawyer and the social worker assigned to our case, I guess deep down inside I was afraid something would go wrong. I mean those people have the title of "judge" because that's what they do. And that's kind of scary right? Well anyway, everything turned out just groovy. Here's our story...

In DC a child can't be legally adopted until he is 6 months old. That would mean November 28th at the earliest in our case. The judge seemed to have no concerns about our case and very sweetly invited us to attend a big annual event called DC Adoption Day. Our original intent had been to skip any ceremony and just get the signed papers in the mail, but truly, the judge was so sincere in her invitation (and smitten with our beautiful little boy) that we just had to say yes.

The judge excitedly explained that there will be a fun breakfast, clowns, balloons etc... Hundreds of people who've particpated in adoptions this year are invited and she'd be delighted if our family could participate too.

Susanne, my ever quick witted Susanne, asked the judge what day the ceremony was scheduled for.

"November 17th"

Well there I was, clapping Danny's little hands together, dreaming of balloons and clowns, when Susanne asked the judge:

"So, if we can't adopt him legally until November 28th, then we really can't particiapte this year can we?"

Oh, what a moment of crestfallen faces. (Mostly mine in retrospect.) But the judge, after a brief moment of deep thought, smiled brightly and she said that she could issue an Interlocutory Decree.

"Huh?" I thought.

Long story short, our lawyer will now draw up papers that the judge will sign prior to November 17th making him my legal son about 10 days earlier than we thought he would be. Then the final decree will be signed once he turns 6 months. It's sort of like a "pre-approval" but it is in full force as of the date she signs it.

Since it's still hard to stomach the fact that I have to ask the govenment's permission to have legal standing in regard to Danny, I guess a part of me thinks that this is no big deal. But another part of me thinks that I "get him" 10 days early. Interlocutory, interlocutory, interlocutory--say it 3 times really fast if you can! -Monica

P.S. We've now posted some cute pictures from Danny's baptism. Check them out.

The Nationals Win Again with Danny's Special Powers!

The Washington Nationals played their final game at RFK Stadium yesterday and beat the Phillies! This means that of the six games Danny attended since his birth 3 short months ago, the Nationals won all six!

We are of course proud of our little guy and hope that his luck holds out when the Nationals start playing in their brand new stadium next spring.

The game was almost a sell out because of its historic nature, so it was fun to be in a full house. As you can see from the picture here, Danny was having a wonderful time (especially when Auntie Em was tickling him.)

Overall it was a very fun game (first time tailgating for Danny and Susanne) and we are already looking forward to next year's games with Rebecca, Lance, Amy, Hannah, Emily and Zach. And of course our mystical, magical, lucky little charm! -Monica

So pictures do speak a thousand words!

Presenting month three in the life of our precious boy. Here's a little teaser for you...

Danny and mommy at the Baltimore Aquarium!

Ma Bell...Ma Hell!

What to blog about today? How about the call I made to Verizon this morning to ask them to discontinue two services that we no longer want. (One of them was call forwarding which we are pretty sure we’d never signed up for anyway.)

“No problem” I was assured.

A half hour later Su called to let me know that we’d just gotten e-mails informing us that we’d signed up for two new features. What the Heckle and Jeckle????? This made me very irate to say the least.

After being on hold (again) for what seemed like forever I was assured that these were now taken off of our account. Unbelievable huh?

The best part was when the customer service representative asked me,

“Could someone else in the family, like a child, have called up this morning to request the order I see on your account for Verizon Games on Demand Family Place”?

“Well our three month old is going to be SO GROUNDED if he called you.”

(That would be a “no” I translated for the representative. Sigh...)

I’m now assured once again that all is well. We later got some e-mails confirming the “cancellation” of these new service. Looking forward to seeing next month’s bill.

Tune in tomorrow for more adventures of the mundane! -Monica

Now that's relaxed!

Regular followers of this blog know that Susanne and I have a tradition of visiting our favorite B&B twice a year--once in the fall and once in the spring. It's only about a 2 hour drive away, but in many ways it's more like a million miles away from our every day stresses. It's a place where you are the only guests and stay in a sweet little cottage surrounded by birds and flowers on the north fork of the Shenandoah.

Apparently this special place has the same magical effect on our son. I had to post this photo from our latest trip to show that as he nursed and drowsed off, he actually left an imprint of his little ear on mama's arm. Now that's one relaxed baby huh. Dreamy I'd say ;-)

In a more recent development he's now developed the ability to laugh-really laugh! For a while he was doing these short little bursts that sounded more like a single cough while smiling, but now Susanne has him laughing and laughing and laughing. Which of course makes us all laugh and laugh and laugh. Alrighty then, have a great day everybody! -Monica

Daniel's Baptism

September 9, 2007--A wonderful day!

And in this corner...

So the other night we had dinner with some friends who were in our Birthworks class and it was a hoot!

We all had boys, and even though Danny is the oldest, he's the littlest guy. In this picture we see Danny sandwiched by little Aidan and Oscar. It kind of looks like they are trying to silence our little guy huh? They are all just beautiful, beautiful boys don't you think?

When we tried to get them all smiling to snap this picture, Aidan's mom made the cutest little "raspberry" sound that not only didn't really make Aidan smile like he usually does, it scared the bjeezus out of Danny and he began bawling his little eyes out. We'll remember not to make that sound. ;-)


Also, since Oscar's mom and dad who hosted our lovely dinner (thanks guys!) have a baby scale we all trooped upstairs to weigh our little ones. Even though Aidan is only 2 months old he weighed in at a whopping 13.45 lbs or something like that, and the best part was that as we all started cheering, he thrust his little arm up as in victory! Priceless! Danny weighed 12.55 lbs I think and Oscar who is two weeks younger than Danny and two weeks older than Aidan took the weight title. Just can't remember how much he weighed. Regardless, it's just wonderful to have such healthy, happy little babies!

I can't help but imagine that before too long we'll be hearing "and now, starting at forward, 6'2" sophomore (insert name here)...." Yes, time is already starting to fly. Have a great day everybody! -Monica

Well, my head does hurt a little...

Catbo

Danny can now sit up pretty well in his little "Bumbo" but doesn't really look very comfortable in it yet.

CJ on the other hand...........

Wave hi to the nice people CJ! ;-)

-Monica

Little Lamb of Ours

Danny's great-grandmother's brother Erwin was the first baby to wear this Christening gown in Germany in 1910. At the bottom you'll notice little names embroidered along the hem. Susanne's name is there, her mom's--so many aunts and uncles and cousins. Yesterday our little Daniel was baptised and his name will now be added. It was a beautiful ceremony. My sister Mary sang a gorgeous song by Sandi Patty that has the refrain:

"You are a masterpiece, a new creation he has formed
And you're as soft and fresh as a snowy winter morn
And I'm so glad that God has given you to me
Little Lamb of God, you are a masterpiece"

It was simply lovely. And to look around the church and see so many familiar faces, what fun! We had a brunch after the ceremony and overall, it was just a very special day.

This picture was taken a few weeks ago. For Danny's ceremony we changed the ribbon from pink (little cousin Leah wore it last) to the other option used throughout the generations--blue. Does that mean we caved to societal pressure? Nah...I don't think so. Apparently as I held Danny up in the front of the church next to our pastor he had his head sort of cocked to his left and it looked like he was reading from Pastor Robin's script. He is very bright, so who knows? ;-)

I just have to figure out the whole "maternal" side thing now. This came from Danny's maternal great-grandmother's family. His "other" maternal grandmother. Or is my side the "other"? I'm sure there are more complex things in the world to worry about eh?

Happy Baptism day little one. You are our little lamb from God. Love always, your moms

Happy weekend everyone

Susi and Danny, thanks so much for the lovely birthday "card" you posted yesterday. Danny, has anyone ever told you that you are a beautiful, beautiful boy? Yes you are, yes you are!

This Sunday our little love will be baptized and it's going to be a lovely ceremony where we'll be surrounded by family and friends. What a very special community that is to us.

I have always been a very faith-filled person, and for me the sacraments are very powerful. I hope that Danny will come to know that he not just our child, but a child of God. And so very loved.

So, have a great weekend everyone. We sure plan to. Blessings and blissings to all of you, and especially to our darling boy. -Monica

Happy Birthday Mommy!!!

We love you SOOOOO much!!

-- Susanne & Danny

It's not easy being green...

Stop the music!

“I don’t want to work. I just want to bang on my drum all day.”

Does anyone else remember this song by Todd Rungren? Does anyone else have an "earworm" now?

We had a lovely weekend at our favorite B&B but it ended all too soon. We also caught a Nats game yesterday and I’d like to report that our son’s winning streak remains intact. He’s been to 4 games and the Nationals have won all four. We’ll go again tomorrow and see if the streak continues.

What was that? Ah yes…

“I don’t want to work. I just want to bang on my drum all day”. -Monica