Something smells delicious!

"What is that wonderful smell?" I called out to Susanne last night as I arrived home a bit late after some delays on the metro.

As I scooped up Danny and came into the kitchen I realized I was starving, and visions of the many wonderful meals we've shared over the years danced in my head.

My bubble was slightly burst when her reply was "well, I'm pre-heating the oven. That wonderful smell is our dirty oven heating up."

"Oh."

The quiche we had later was delicious by the way. But I think there is a new task on our never ending "to do" list.

-Monica

P.S. When a bubble is slightly burst it is still burst ;-)

Just wondering...

Is "insomnia" the same thing as "wakeupbeforethecrackofdawnfordaysonendia"?

Just wondering. -Monica

Danny's Final answer for favorite baby name is...

Of course "Bob" is Danny's final answer for many questions ;-)

-Monica

Quicken - It's not just for accounting anymore

Main Entry:
quick·en

Intransitive verb
Inflected Form(s): quick·ened; quick·en·ing

1: to come to life ; especially : to enter into a phase of active growth and development
2: to reach the stage of gestation at which fetal motion is felt
3: to shine more brightly
4: to become more rapid

So...Su is now feeling the baby moving, and we heard its heartbeat racing along at 140 bpm on Friday. I guess this means that the baby is quickening. (definition #2)

Wow! Everything is just quickening! (definition #3) Is that MY heart I feel quickening? (definition #5)

Go Crumpet, go Crumpet! - Love, Mommy

P.S. Baby love. There's just no accounting for it!

Gibberishish

Danny likes to tell stories. Huge, interesting and wild stories that have him gesticulating wildly and incorporating sounds of fire trucks and hoses spraying and helicopters. We usually follow along attentively, even though it’s mostly gibberish. He just laughs and laughs!

But his days of gibberish are starting to fade away. Slowly but surely more words are sticking. For example we were in a store the other day and saw a little baby swing. He pointed to it and yelled “Oh! Miles!” For those who don’t know, that’s Jenni’s 8 month old who Danny sees quite a lot of. It was very cute.

Then when I came home yesterday he was very interested in my “wet shoes.” Of course he makes “b” sounds for “w”s often, so he was calling them my “bet shoes”. And in all reality it sounded like he was going on an all about my “butt shoes, butt shoes.” Again, very cute.

Except when it’s not cute. Like the other day when someone made a noise related to digestion (not gonna say who, or from where this noise emanated) and Danny responded by yelling “gas!”

Okay, that actually was cute.

But not as cute as when you are carrying him and he takes your face in both of his hands, smiles so hard that his eyes crinkle almost shut as he gazes into yours, and leans in to give you a sweet kiss. There are no words for that ;-)

Have a great day everybody.

Who's your mommy!

Greetings fellow bloggers. Sorry for being gone for so long, but I just finished my service as a juror--a trial that went from July 6-July 22, so believe me, I'm ready to be done. Maybe some day I'll tell that story, but I actually have something else today that is very exciting to share! A law just went into effect on Saturday that will allow me to be our child's legal parent on the day he or she is born! With now two year old Danny, I had to wait until he was 6 months old to adopt him and although I'm grateful that I was able to adopt, (this is not allowed in all states) I'm even more grateful for this new law here in the District of Columbia.

We’d decided long ago that we wanted our kids to have my last name, but the way the law was before, since there was no “father” listed on Danny’s birth certificate he had to carry the last name of his birth mom. Since we took him overseas to visit relatives when he was just a few months old we had to get him a passport in that name. Which required him to get a social security card in that name. When his name was legally changed when the adoption was final, we had to redo everything. What a hassle! (Don’t even get me started on the problems we had getting his new birth certificate after in the eyes of the law he had two parents—both of us are on his reissued certificate now.)

Also, it made no sense to us that the DC government had to have a social worker visit us three times to do a home study. It wasn’t like he wasn’t going to live there with us even if through some fluke I was not allowed to adopt him right? I think those social services resources can be much better utilized helping families who really need help, and now they can!

Another thing. It cost thousands of dollars for the adoption (most of which we got back as a credit at tax time), but again, I’m Su’s partner. We made every decision together regarding how we would have a family. I’ve been Danny’s mom since before his cells began dividing, and I’m so glad this law is now making this reality for future. Our new baby who is due in December will have two parents on his or her birth certificate from Day One! And the last name that we choose. (Um, that’s mine.)

Anyway, I hope you enjoy what you read below as much as we did when it was in the Washington Post this morning! Have a wonderful day! -Monica

DC Extends Parental Rights for Gays

"Lesbians in the District no longer will need the written consent of their partners to adopt children born to their partners through artificial insemination, under a new law that took effect Saturday.
The name of a consenting spouse or unmarried partner will appear on the child's birth certificate as the legal parent, a status that previously had to be obtained by same-sex parents through a complicated adoption process.

The Domestic Partnership Judicial Determination Parentage Act of 2009 puts the city out front when it comes to children born of same-sex parents, according to the National Center for Lesbian Rights (NCLR), the Gay and Lesbian Activists Alliance of Washington (GLAA) and American University law professor Nancy Polikoff.

"With the enactment of this measure, the District has become the first jurisdiction in the country to enact a statute specifically providing children born through artificial insemination with two legal parents from the beginning even when those parents are a same-sex or different-sex unmarried couple. A similar law goes into effect January 1, 2010, in New Mexico," according to a news release the groups issued today.

"A mother should not have to adopt her own child," said Polikoff, who helped draft the legislation that was shepherded by D.C. Council member Phil Mendelson (D-At Large). "When a heterosexual married couple uses artificial insemination to have a child, the husband does not have to adopt the child born to his wife. He is the child's legal parent automatically. Now the child of a lesbian couple will have the same economic and emotional security accorded the children of heterosexual married couples who use artificial insemination."

Oh Happy Day! -M

Sigh...

Monday will mark day 14 of the "jury duty hostage crisis." Sigh.-Monica

And then the baby...

While at the Children's Museum in Richmond recently, we thought we'd teach Danny a thing or two about where babies come from. Hmmmm... do you think we may have confused him even more than he probably already is? :-)

Aw I'm just kidding. Everyone knows that babies come from storks. Right? -M

Note to self

Next time a summons to go to jury duty comes Monica, and you get one chance to reschedule it any time within 90 days, take a VERY CLOSE look at your calendar before picking a date.

Believe that you WILL be picked to be on a jury.

You see, I was not a believer. I'd been called to report for jury duty a few times in the past and was always sent home the first day. So when this summons came I was pretty certain that history would repeat itself.

Since Su and Danny and I were going to be out of town on the day I was told to report, I rescheduled. I could have picked a date in July or August or September. So I just picked the next Monday. Trial as it turns out can go on for days, even weeks.

Excuse me while I stop typing now. I've got to get back to the courthouse for Day 6 of my unexpected adventures in being a juror. This all being said, I am happy to do my civic duty. I just made it more inconvenient than it had to be. Have a great day everybody. -M

P.S. Did I mention that I'm running two fairly large events with lots of moving pieces in August? Why didn't I pick September!!!!

Two cute

My two cuties last month in Chicago's Millennium Park. This sculpture is called "The Bean".

Riddle time...

What's smiley and peppy and looking to play?
A boy at 2 a.m. who napped most of the day.

In his defense, he'd had a fever for a few days which made him pretty crabby. So when he napped for nearly 5 hours on Friday and woke up feeling better, we were really happy.

Friday night was a bit of a shock though when he awoke around 2:00 a.m. wanting to be rocked, then wanting to see mama, then not wanting to see mama, then wanting "yum, yum", then wanting to dump out all of his Thomas the Tank Engine tracks, than wanting to play choo choo, then wanting to watch "Bob" (yes the Builder). All in the middle of the night. All as awake as a boy can be.

Every effort I made to try and settle him down was met with "NO" and major squirming and running away from me. He has developed an excellent set of lungs when it comes to yelling "NO".

Su has a cold so she stayed in bed while I tried to figure out what to do. (Well that and she is gestating our second child so she definitely got a pass.) Anyway, I'd like to say that with my keenly honed parental skills I handled this situation with ease. But I'm not sure if begging really fits this category.

When all was said and done, he finally fell asleep in our bed about two hours later, somehow managing to stay perpendicular to us at all times. Amazing. And uncomfortable.

Last night was much better and we are going to now assume that this was a fluke brought on by his illness.

Cuz if this is the new "normal", this is the new "exhausted". -M

Sounds like "Furry Bootie"

Sorry for the lack of posting of late, but I'm in the middle of doing my civic duty this week--I was selected to be a juror for a trial here in DC, and although I can't talk about the case until it's over, I am finding the whole process fascinating. No idea how many days this will go on, but probably won't be posting much until it is. Toodles! -Monica

Happy Independence Day!

Danny in the Windy City

While I was at a conference in June for work, Su and Danny had a great time exploring Chicago. What a fun city! Especially since my niece and her husband and 9 month old live there and were wonderful hosts. We'll definitely be going back. Danny was mesmerized and so were we. -Monica

Getting to "glowy"

Since announcing the news that we are expecting our second child at Christmastime, I haven’t written much about it. Why? Well let’s see? Danny keeps us going 100 mph, we are both extremely busy at work and, maybe after going through the miscarriage last year we are both a bit nervous. I’ve heard this described at “one foot in, one foot out”. You want to be happy and celebrate and be all “glowy” but then a tiny part of your brain keeps telling you to watch out.

On the brighter side, Su is entering her 16th week and we’ll actually start to see more definitive proof soon that baby number two is really planning to join us. We do periodically look at books and other info regarding how the baby is developing as these weeks roll along and, just like when Su was pregnant with Danny, once in a while I’ll see something that really gets me excited. Like today I read that at 15 weeks even though a baby’s eyes are still fused shut they can react to light—if you shined a flashlight on Su’s belly the baby would most likely turn from the light. That seems pretty real right?

I know that little ear buds are already formed so I’m sure he or she is turning away quite often from Danny squawking and other fun sounds ;-) By the way, we’ve decided that while “en utero” to call this baby our Crumpet. It comes from the fact that babies are measured “Crown to Rump” at this stage which always cracks me up.

Don’t worry. I looked up Crumpet to make sure there wasn’t some awful other meaning (besides delicious pancake like treats) and in fact, in Britain it’s said that it’s a nickname for someone who is intelligent and good looking. Whew. The proverbial "smart cookie".

Yup. We are getting a little more excited each day. Today our Crumpet should be about 4 inches long. Here is a pic that shows the development of a baby at 15 weeks. Cool huh?

True story

So this morning at breakfast Danny was acting both cranky and devilish. At one point he was sitting at the table screaming at the top of his lungs for no reason whatsoever.

"AH!"

"AH!"

"AH!"

We tried ignoring him. but we do have a row house and thought it pretty unfair to the neighbors to keep ignoring, so we then tried cajoling and distracting him...you know, everything in the book.

Finally I looked at him and said (perhaps a bit crankily)

"Danny, are we going to have to start paying Jenni double what we pay her to put up with this kind of behavior????"

His face transformed into utter sadness and despair.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!" he sobbed and sobbed until I scooped him up and held him tight.

So Jenni, sorry to let you know that Danny seems to not favor this suggestion.

Or maybe he thinks we should pay you TEN TIMES what we pay you now.

God love him.

Sigh. I shouldn't be so hard on our little lamb. He was awakened in the night by loud thunder which really shakes him up. Unfortunately I haven't yet figured out how to stop the thunder. No wonder he woke up on the wrong side of the crib today. Any suggestions on how to help with this fear gentle readers? -Monica