Space Odyssey 2009

Well, maybe our Kennedy Space Center Odyssey earlier this month. Hey, why do I look thinner in a cut out of a 200 pound space suit than I do in real life? Sigh.

At least Su and Danny look adorable!

Have a great weekend everybody! -Monica (and Su and Danny)

Guess Danny let go that Lego...

First of all, a million congratulations to our friends Mikki and Kelly on the birth of their son Connor! We are very much looking forward to meeting this cutie petutie this weekend! Welcome Connor!

So? Let's see? What else was I going to post about? Oh yes. My wonderful parenting skills. You see the other day I'd gotten Danny into his little footie PJs right after supper and for some reason he was giving us his little Mr. Crabbypants grimace and rubbing his ankle.

I thought it was kind of odd but figured he might have hurt it while tooling around, (also known as flinging himself around all of the objects he's thrown around the room--he's becoming a real tosser that Danny is).

Anyway, so I sat him down on the couch, just to see what was wrong and kiss his owie or something, when I noticed the oddest thing. He had a hard, rectangular shaped protuberance coming out of his ankle.

"Honey, you've got to see this!"

It was a LEGO! Specifically it was a blue lego. I'm still not sure how it got in there while I was changing him, but there it was. As I removed it I silently cursed myself for being such a clueless mom

Until I read a post today by one of my favorite bloggers Mom 101! She has two little girls and her youngest was born right around the time Danny was (I think that's why I came upon her blog because our babies were due around the same time.)

You see, Mom 1o1 wrote the funniest dang thing ever on her post where she discovered that her unhappy little camper trying to sleep in her crib actually had a shoe (this is an actual picture of it) inside of her sleeper right around her butt in the back.

I'm still laughing!

And I know it's all relative, but I just don't feel like such a bad mom anymore. Thanks Mom 101. You're the best. At making me feel like better about myself! -Monica

Just a thought

I was just thinking about those cardboard cutouts that people love to stand next to so that they can pretend they met the "real" famous person. Like this pic of the President and the man who is not the President. (I don't know who those tourists are--just found them on the internet)

Anyway, you see, here's my clever plan. When we stayed in a hotel on our recent vacation, when Danny would wake up in the morning, he'd pop his head out of his "pack and play" and spot us dozing. Then he'd sink back down and play quietly by himself for a while. It was very cute and we don't think he ever noticed we could see him through our barely opened eyes.

But at home, when he wakes up in his own room he doesn't see us and feels compelled to start squawking "mom"? "mom"? After a little while of this he generally starts crying. That is no fun for any of us.

So I'm thinking if he woke up and "saw" us (or two cardboard cutouts of us) he'd contentedly play for hours.

I think.

Actually, now that I'm thinking about this, Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden should get cutouts of themselves for the next time they have to sit behind the President for an hour like in last night's speech. That must be so much pressure to look engaged and interested at all times. At least with this administation, they are. Did you see how happy House Speaker Pelosi looked last night compared to when she had to sit though our former President's State of the Union Address?

But now that I'm thinking about it, do they make cardboard cutouts that jump up and clap? Hmmmm....back to the drawing board! -Monica

Cacacopa

Yes, this is a "cacacopa". At least to Danny it is. Maybe when he's a little older we'll explain some different definitions for "caca" (particulary in Spanish) .

So far all planes, trains and automobiles are a big thumbs up (this includes helicpoters and trucks too.) Whatever will be next? -Monica

Day and other light

About 10 years ago my friend Sue M. made me this beautiful stained glass that hangs in the front window of our home. The reason I've always loved it so much is that she told me that the white space on the right was actually vacant because with stained glass it's really good karma to leave a place for God to shine through when you need him/her most.

I found out years later that Sue M. has the gift of blarney. It was vacant, she confided to me, because she sort of messed up when she was making it and the peice fell out.

Funny thing is, I still believe in my heart it is indeed that space for God to shine through. Maybe because I've felt it so many times? Like God would really need an opening right?

Anyway, my Su (Susanne) took a picture of it last week and I thought it would look pretty here. Have a wonderful day everybody. And if you've got something that isn't perfect, think about the possibilities! -Monica

Hello? Weekend?

Are you here yet?

Now would be good. -Monica

Training

Love is a funny thing. Why do we fall in love with the people we do? Why do we love to do certain hobbies in our spare time? And why do children, very early in life, express such interest in certain things?

We live about 1/4 mile away from a very buy set of train tracks. There are DC area Metro trains that go by about every 5 minutes, large CSX locomotives that lumber by many times a day and of course the speedy Amtrak Acela Exress trains. Even though we've lived here for more than 5 years I never much noticed these trains. Well I do now.

You see, Danny LOVES the choo choos! The front bedroom of the house is the best viewing area and if he stands up on a little step stool he can be perfectly entertained for long periods of time. Every time one comes by he yells "Choo choo!" It's very cute.

And the drive over to Jenni's is the best. We have to cross a set of tracks and when those arms go down, those lights are flashing and that big train chugs by, the boy is seriously fascinated.

We just saw on TV that the fares on Amtrak to NY are very low right now, so we may travel up to see friends. I just wonder if it will be as fascinating to be ON the train as it is to SEE the train. Oh well, if we're lucky we'll get to see other trains passing us anyway. Yeah!!!!

Have a great day everybody! -Monica

Through the ears of a child

Danny doesn't watch too much TV--just a few favorite fairly new shows like Thomas the Train and High Five which he really loves.

But last week on our vacation we turned the set on in the morning a few times at the hotel and saw lots of the old cartoons on cable I remember from when I was growing up. You know, Huckleberry Hound, Donald Duck...stuff like that.

As I was laying there with my eyes closed it suddenly dawned on me that all of the voices of the cartoon characters sounded very familiar to me. It wasn't my memory of watching the rabbit ears black and white TV with my brothers and sisters years ago, it ws actually the memory of hanging out with some fun friends as an adult.

You see, as a gay couple we have lots of gay friends. And some of our gay guy friends are, how can I say this? Not very butch. In fact, they sound a lot like my favorite cartoon characters from years gone by.

For some reason this makes me smile. Thaaaat's all folks! -Monica

This pic says it all

Danny's grandma (aka Na Na) invited us to meet up with her in Florida for a few days to watch the space shuttle launch--something she'd always wanted to see. Turns out that the launch was delayed, but we all had a great time anyway. And she may try to go see it later this month since she's spending some time with friends for another week or so.

We went to wade in the ocean at Cocoa Beach, visited Sea World and saw Shamu the Killer Whale (who turns out to be very nice), went kayaking at a friend of grandma's, and also toured the Kennedy Space Center. For grandma's birthday we took her to a fun tiki bar/oyster place on the water that was favored by motorcyclists and one nice man let Danny sit on his big Harley. Danny was pretty darn impressed and kept yelling, "vrooom, vrooom!"


Here in this pic taken at the airport when we were leaving, Danny gave Mickey Mouse a big high five to thank him for the wonderful vacation. Grandma did even better though.She got hugs and big kisses. Over all on a scale of 1-10, Danny rated this vacation a 100!

-Monica

Terrified enchantment

We recently had friends over and had a great time going around doing a "white elephant" gift exchange. One of the gifts was what I thought was a cute little children's toy that had flashing red lights and shuffled around the room flapping its wings. It looked somewhat like the toy above.

Danny was FASCINATED! He was so interested in it, and yet so very afraid. We'd never seen him act like this before.

When he was out of the room I hid it in the closet by our front door and we think he was pretty convinced that once everybody left for the evening, this scary demon was gone too.

But when I carried him downstairs the next morning, it was clear that he was very warily looking to see if it was where we'd had it on the floor during the gift exchange. Warily as in craning his neck around the corner and clinging to me with all his little might.

I think it's gonna be a while before that bad boy Pokemon comes out of the closet. If ever! Have a great day everybody. -Monica

Aw mom. You can't be serious about these swim trunks!

We've started taking Danny to the local pool on Saturdays and he's loving it. This cute (albeit very large) pair of trunks were a present from his cousins in NY and they seemed to just crack him up. Then again, lately most every thing cracks this boy up. -Monica

The Return of Son of Susanica

Today is a happy day for us because it's Danny's first day back with his much adored Jenni! When I dropped him off this morning he was thrilled to be back with his little playmate Oscar and the feeling seemed mutual.

Jenni took care of Danny during the day for most of his young life and after taking time off to give birth to beautiful son #2 Miles, we are all thilled that it's time for Danny to get back to her.

On her blog you'll see that she refers to Danny as "Son of Susanica" on her sidebar list of "Who's Who". Always cracked me up ;-)

Hope you all have a fun day today! Hasta la vista baby! -Monica!

Acting up

I am humored this morning to learn that I am the Acting Director of a very large office in my fairly large federal agency today. I knew I'd be temporarily in charge of my small division because my director was going on an offsite and asked me if I wouldn't mind acting, but as it turns out just about all of the higher level managers I work with are there too.

So someone had the bright idea to name me as the acting director for the whole place although I really do think they should have asked me if I wanted to be. Oh well. This is perfect. When I was a kid I always heard stuff like "hey, who died and left you in charge?" Well it looks like my day has come.

Although this could be like when I first started teaching and coaching and suddenly I ended up with keys to practically every room at the school. I thought it meant I had power. I soon learned that all it meant was that everyone was constantly coming to me to ask me to let them into the auditorium or gym or whatever. Not powerful. Not even fun.

So in this next several hours what shall I do? There are so many things I could sign off on. Or I could send everyone home early just because I can. But, really what I'll do is pray that no e-mails or calls come from the highest level of the agency because if they want something, it's going to be on me to figure out how to get it to them.

Wow. Still not powerful. Still not fun. What was it that Woody Allen once said? "90% of life is just showing up?"

Have a great weekend everybody! I sure plan to if I can get through this day unscathed! -Monica

Ugh!

Day four of the Intestinal Hostage Crisis Situation for me. In other words, I've had a pretty bad stomach bug since Sunday. But thank goodness I could take time off from work and basically sleep. I haven't slept this many hours in a row in years, which has felt great except for the pain and frequent sprints to the bathroom.

I saw the doc yesterday and she's pretty convinced it's viral (guess there is a lot of that going around lately). I think she might be right as I am feeling better although this BRAT diet of bananas, rice, apple sauce and toast/tea is getting a bit old already. But on the bright side I have lost a bit of weight. I like to think there is always a bright side to everything.

Anyway, fortunately neither Danny nor Susanne got sick and I'm really praying they don't get this.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have about 3 days worth of e-mail to attack. Roar!

-Monica

P.S. Congrats to A&I on the birth of their lovely son Gregory on Monday!