Mama bye bye? Mama bye bye?

Apparently my lovely wife has heard Danny repeat this question about a zillion times since I left DC on Sunday morning to go to a conference.

I'm still away and when I return Wednesday, there is a slight chance that I will no longer be the apple of his eye. Seems he's been getting grumpier and grumpier with his questioning over time.

I don't travel much for work, but when I do I miss Su and Danny terribly. You'd think I'd be taking full advantage of this opportunity to sleep soundly at the lovely hotel where I'm staying, but I haven't. The first night I woke up twice thinking I heard Danny cry a bit, and this morning I'm up well before the crack of dawn because fluffy pillows are no substitute for the warmth and comfort of my beautiful wife.

All this being said I can't wait for tomorrow. For hugs and kisses and, I'm hoping, Danny's joyful shriek of "Mamo" (which sounds suspiciously similar to "Melmo" (yes his favorite Sesame Street friend). Heck I'd settle for his latest variation on my name, the very clever "Mamaca".

Whatever. Just so he is thrilled to see me. We haven't taught him yet how to hold a grudge, so I'm very hopeful!

See you soon loves! -Monica

Doggonit!

Do you remember Max the dog in How the Grinch Stole Christmas? How excited he was to sit on top of that sleigh?

See, this is our problem with Danny. When he acts up, we put him in timeout on the living room steps--just like "the books" recommend.

And for his part, he sits there with a happy grin beaming at us.

It's rather hard to continue to be sore at him. What a boy! -Monica

Dream a Dream indeed!

If you haven't had a chance to see this clip yet, I highly recommend you do. It's from a show called Britian's Got Talent (much like American Idol as I understand it) and shy, rather awkward woman named Susan Boyle stunned the judges (including Simon Cowell) with her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables.

Maybe it's just my love of the underdog that has made me simply adore this. Watch the judges and the audience. It's awesome! -Monica

I think I can, I think I can...

So I’m not saying my job is totally boring because it’s not. But yesterday the most exciting 5 seconds of my day—those precious moments where I felt most alive and engaged—were when I was waiting to see if I’d guessed the right password on a web app I don’t use often.

Like most, I have way too many passwords, and try as I might, I sometimes lose track of them. That’s when I resort to guessing.

This was to get into a travel system we use in my agency. I only had three chances—three strikes—and I’d be out. Then I'd have to contact the site to get a whole new password which is an annoying hassle. Ugh.

So I made my first guess. WRONG!

Okay. Let’s try guess number two. WRONG!

My adrenaline surged. I leaned forward in my seat and oh so carefully tried my final answer.

The screen went into that waiting pattern. The little world spun round and round in the corner of my screen.

Then this.

WELCOME TO THE XYZ TRAVEL MONICA!

I’m embarrassed to say I actually threw both fists into the air in a little victory “dance” and whispered “yes!”

Maybe today I’ll try and figure out how I can put someone on hold and bring another caller on the line. It seems so easy when someone else does it. ;-)

A very happy Easter it was!

Psych!

I haven't had a chance to write this week about how really excited Susanne and I are about the exciting news coming out of Iowa, Vermont and our home town the District of Columbia in regard to legislation to either allow for gay marriage, or in the case of DC, to allow people who are legally married elsewhere to have their marriages recognized here. To learn more about some of the details of these issues read here.

One thing you'll note if you take a look at the link above is that another measure was approved the same day. It was introduced by DC Councilmember Phil Mendelson's and deals with determining parentage for domestic partners in DC.

This is a big deal. In a nutshell, if we were to have another child, by virtue of our Domestic Partnership Agreement, I would be listed immediately on our child's birth certificate. We could give the baby either of our last names, so we could immediately give him or her mine. With Danny, he had to carry Susanne's last name until I could legally adopt him at 6 months. In fact since we took him on a visit to Germany as a younger infant he needed to get a Social Security card in order to get a passport--both of which had to be done with Su's last name that was later changed. What a hassle to redo all of that stuff!

It's hard to explain how frustrating it is to have to prove that you are a worthy parent with home studies by social workers, court dates etc...all the while having virtually no legal standing to care for your little baby until a judge says "yes" (and that's not a guarentee!). Sadly in the eyes of the law, you are a complete stranger to that child.

If this new legislation passes, our second child, should we be so blessed, would be our child LEGALLY from its very first breath. How exciting. Not to mention saving thousands of dollars on adoption costs. But since the cost of the adoption basically gets reimbursed as a credit at tax time, I am less concerned with the cost than I am by the prinicple of the matter.

So, we'll have to see how this all plays out since legislation passed by the DC Council is subject to review by the U.S. Congress due to DC Home Rule (don't get me started.) We are just so excited that little by little change is coming. Yes! -Monica

Oh Snap!

For Christmas this year Susanne got her wish--enrollment in a digital photography class. She's always been a very good photographer, but she wanted to learn a bit more about F-Stops and lighting and composition and stuff like that. As you can see from the photo here she did very well. Of course it helps to have the most adorable model in the world I always say!

Congratulations honey! Great job! -Monica

Tough call...

I work in an organization in a federal government agency that focuses on a couple of different things, including a section of the Rehabilitation Act that deals with IT accessibility.

So even though most of the questions I deal with come from other federal colleagues, because it is in the broad area of disability, sometimes I get questions from the general public, and I do my best to try and point them in the right direction.

This morning a call was transferred to me from our front office, and it was a gentleman who had been disabled by a stroke but was recovering. He was clearly looking for help. As I started to listen to his story, I could tell right away that this man was in deep despair. I knew that I could offer him no assistance in terms of our program, but that was beside the point as he continued.

He’d lost his job and was going to lose his home to foreclosure in two weeks. He felt like he’d been tricked by a shady lawyer and so ashamed that he'd let his whole family down. He began to cry as he told me that he didn’t think he could go on anymore.

We talked (I mostly listened) for about 15 minutes and during that time I looked up the number for the toll free suicide prevention hotline, and also an organization in the city where he lived that offered free counseling for people nearing foreclosure.

I found that I was all choked up as I spoke with him. I like to think that he felt that I was empathizing with his pain and I was.

I told him that I was going to give him two numbers to call and asked him if he had something to write them down with. I remember from my years as a first aid instructor reminding students that when people are very distressed they need very concrete direction.

I asked him if he would do me a favor and promise me that the second we got off the phone he would dial the 800 number to talk to a counselor about how he was feeling like he couldn’t go on. I asked him to promise me, because a promise is a very concrete and powerful thing.

He promised me he would. After he’d talked to them , I said, then call the local number for the foreclosure counseling. I also told him that the first place he was going to call was probably going to have some even better ideas that I didn’t know about.

As we were about to hang I up I told him “God Bless”. And I meant it more than anything I’ve ever said before.

I’m so grateful that there are toll free numbers for suicide hotlines, poison control centers and rape crisis centers. I don’t think I could ever do that kind of work, but I’m grateful to all you folks out there who do.

This whole experience also just makes me livid at those who have caused the economic mess that we are in today. I'd like to see all these AIG and other Wall Street bigshots have to listen to the calls that the suicide prevention line gets all day. Maybe then they'd see what they have done. -Monica

The eyes have it!

So I think that all people who examine other human beings for a living should be taught the dangers of saying “hmmmmhhh?” as they examine their patients.

This morning during a routine eye exam (okay I hadn’t had one in years) my optometrist after looking in one eye and then the other and then back to the first eye again, opined “hmmmmhhh?”

Turns out that it’s no big deal. So what if one optic nerve (actually bundle of nerves) looks a lot different from the other? I have no other risk factors for glaucoma (including perfect pressure) and he emphatically told me “I don’t think you have glaucoma”, but still, did he need to do the “hmmmmhhh?" We'll check again in 9 months to see if everything is still looking okay. Unsymetrical, but okay.

You know, it wouldn’t have been so bad if he’d been uncommunicative during the whole exam, but he was one of those peppy “you’re doing great!” kind of guys.

So, anyway, after my anxiety raged for a moment or two I was fine. Turns out my right eye is near sighted and my left eye is far sighted. That explains a lot about my recent vision strain. Looks like I’ll be getting what are called progressive lenses (sort of bifocally with no line.)

Ah, another day, another $200. -Monica

So baby pandas think this bamboo stuff is yummy?

Gentle Danny, gentle...

I honestly don't know which is more impressive. The fact that Su captured this shot of Danny discovering a butterfly on a flower, or the fact that the butterfly was still there when he got this close.

Another billionth of a second and it would have just been a picture of wings lifting off! -Monica

Perceptive eh?

When you look at this logo what do you see? (Okay, scroll down a bit now.)













While driving past our local Goodwill story recently we learned that Susanne sees the letter "g", while I see half of a smiling face.

What does it mean??? Inquiring minds want to know! -Monica

Aw mom... Not the camera again!

Meme! Otherwise known as look at me, me!

Oh boy! Jenni over at Oscarelli tagged me for this six random things meme. I’ve never been tagged before. Great! That will be my first random thing about me!

The RULES:
1. Link to the person who tagged you.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write six random things about yourself.
4. Tag six people at the end of your post and link to them.
5. Let each person know they’ve been tagged and leave a comment on their blog.
6. Let the tagger know when your entry is up.

Six Random Things About Me.

1. I’ve never been tagged before! (Well I guess technically I have now.)

2. From 1994 -1996 I lived in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. I was a civilian with the Justice Department and was helping the thousands of rafters who had fled Cuba, and were intercepted at sea. One funny story is that I would sometimes accompany people on flights to Florida once they’d been granted parole. When the flight attendant would start the safety speech in Spanish and mentioned the personal flotation devices, you know, “in case of a water landing”, just about everybody on the plane (seriously) would start looking under their seat to try and check out it out. Made sense if you think about the fact they’d fled on rafts, but it was very comical to see happen.

3. When I delete words when I’m typing I prefer to go to the beginning of the word I don’t want and hit the delete key, rather then going to the end of the word and hitting backspace.

4. In second grade I got a mix of A’s, A+’s and A-’s on my report card. I told everyone I got “crooked A’s”!

5. When I was about six I wrote a letter to The Quaker Oats Company asking if my brother and I could be cereal tasters at their company. I assured them that my dad could drop us off an pick us up every day (apparently I thought it would be a short commute between the Twin Cities and Chigago). Anyway, someone wrote back and told me that I could apply for a job when I was 18 and they sent us coupons for free boxes of Quisp and Quake Cereal. I was in heaven! Come to think of it, I don’t know why I didn’t write more letters like that!

6. Here's something random. I never realized til now how hard it is to come up with these random things about myself. Thank goodness I only needed to do six of them (as opposed to that Facebook "25 things about me" AND found a way to make my numbers 1 and 6 here basically about nothing. Cheers!


I'm tagging:

1. Beth at Beth and Eric Down Under

2. Amy at Bugaloobrenny

3. Strawberry and Nutella at 1 in Vermillion

4. Stimey at Stimeyland

5. Casey at Half as Good as You

6. Sarah at Journey of a Co-Mom

What we have here is a failure to communicate...

This is catfood.

This is a floor without catfood strewn all over it.

Can someone out there help us explain to Danny why cat food is for cats and not for strewing? (And yes that is a real word--I checked.)

He knows that it is a no no and in fact now repeats back to us "no, no" while waggling his finger as if to show us that he gets it.

But still he strews. Twice now in the last 12 hours.

Parenting 101. Remove the temptation from the child's reach. Divert the child's attention.

Parenting 201. You can't remove everything from the child's reach at all times. You can't divert a child's attention at all times.

I think we’d better stop auditing these imaginary classes and figure out what to do here.

-Monica

I April Fooled myself today!

Yes, I'm that silly.

I sat down to log into my computer at work like I do every day. User ID. Password. Just like I do every day.

But it didn't work.

I tried it again. Thoughts of the dreaded April Fools Day C*nficker virus filled me with a sudden and terrifying sense of doom.

One more time slowly, checking to make sure my CAPS LOCK was not on.

It was all over. I was absolutely convinced that every cent of money in every account gone. Every password to every thing I'd ever logged into in my life was surely now in the hands of some terrifying enemy.

Then my brian recognized something so small. So tiny.

Apparently my 10 letter last name that is incorporated into this combination of IDs was a little short today. I SPELLED MY OWN LAST NAME WRONG! I forgot an entire letter to be exact.

Geez! It's not like I haven't typed it approximately 7,223,999,876 times since the dawn of the computer age.

But oh the relief when I got into my system.

So April Fools Day to you. To all of us!

-Monica

In your dreams...

The second Danny wakes up in the morning he asks "choo choo?" So I'm guessing it's pretty easy to figure out what he's dreaming about. I also suspect that our cats constantly dream about squirrels and birds.

But what about the dreams we adults have? What a crazy blend of images and thoughts. Just think of the hundreds (maybe thousands) of images and sounds we are exposed to all the time. Television, radio, books, the internet....the list goes on and on. Last week we watched a show on TV where a guy purposely trapped people into a movie theater and set it on fire. Guess what I dreamed about?

Imagine what it must have been like to have lived in the past where you maybe just lived your whole life in one place and maybe never traveled more than 20 miles from your home. No books, no movies, nothing. What did people dream of? Apple trees? Babbling brooks?

I guess there were scary things that could enter into their thoughts and dreams. Wild animals? Accidents they saw? There's always hellfire and damnation right?

I guess I'm just saying that I think it's pretty amazing that we get any sleep at all today with the pictures that are filed away in our heads.

Just my (sleep deprived) thought for the day. -Monica

Sticker Shock

This is a photo of a 1974 Chevy Nova. Yes, the two door, three on the tree (which I hope means something to someone out there) was my pride and joy. I was finishing up college and working at the local Target when I bought it and proudly took out my first ever car loan. A whopping $900 which I paid in installments for a heck of a long time. I remember it so well. Not so much the car, but the whopping amount of money it cost me back in 1982.

Fast forward to a fine March morning in 2009. I'd just dropped both cats off for a teeth cleaning that "might" include an extraction or two last Friday. I was given an estimate, and asked to provide a number where I could be reached if they found more problems once the cleaning began.

The call came about two hours after I'd dropped them. Harley was in surgery (general anesthsia--cats don't sit still for teeth cleaning.) The doctor let me know that the cat had some pretty major teeth problems. "Down to the nerve", "not much tooth left in some places", "jaw might need some hardening solution once they extracted the bad ones".

"Looks like 8 teeth will have to come out. The Oral Resporptive Lesions are pretty bad."

What was I supposed to say? Oooohhh...that's getting pretty expensive doc. Just take a few and leave the rest? I could hear the "beep, beep, beep" of the little monitor in the background.

"Go ahead, do what you need to do."

So Harley ended up with 9 teeth removed. I got a call about CJ in the afternoon. She needed 5 teeth out.

So, where was I? Oh yes, both cats came home with pain medication, Harley with antibiotics and they are now on soft foods for two weeks. Ironically, the diet we've been feeding them is exactly right. Some cats just get these lesions we are told.

It's hard to reconcile wanting to be good and responsible pet owners with this kind of money. We would not want them to suffer unnecessarily (and we suspected Harley was from how he was scratching his face of late.) Do you get a second opinion? I've never heard of that with veterinary care either.

The fact of the matter is that this ended up being a huge and frankly unexpected expenditure. Heck, we could have been the proud owners of two and 1/2 circa 1974 Chevy Novas for what we ended up having to pay for this "teeth cleaning".

Anyway, now I've just got to figure out a way for these two toothless (well not really since they each have 30 teeth) felines can be put to work to earn their keep. Maybe we'll get a generator to charge our cells that the cats will have too run on a treadmill to provide the power. Because they are so obedient.

Oh, in re-reading this I realized that I sort of forgot to communicate how worried we were about both kitties, and how glad we were that they seemed to recover fairly quickly from some very invasive surgery. Here they are--our portly gentleman Harley with the grey coat and his littler sidekick CJ. We love our little kitties. What? No smiles for the camera? ;-)


-Monica

Some sage advice...

Have you ever seen this kind of note in the paper when your favorite advice columnist is out of town?

“Marilyn Sax is on vacation. The following are excerpts from summer 2004 live discussions on www.yourfavoritenewspaper.com”

Oh my Gosh! If only I had a job where when I was away, I could just recycle old stuff.

Just imagine…

“Monica is on vacation. The following budget numbers and reports are from the previous Fiscal Year, but enjoy anyway!”

You see, I can’t get away with that because the nature of the problems change. And the numbers change. And the reporting requirements change.

But human nature? I’m not sure that the nature of the problems change much. So the answers don’t either right?

I so want to be an advice columnist now. Oh. I guess that would require me to be wise. Sigh. There is always a catch right?

-Monica

Howdy Sherriff!

Fun times at the mall. Shouldn't all shopping malls have children's play areas? Danny had great fun last week when we had to head out to suburban Maryland for an errand, and we wanted to post this photo as a special shout out to Danny's Nana's best friends Peggy and Mike. Mike spent his career as a Law Enforcement Officer in Howard County (yes, they are called LEOs--get it?) and anyway, we thought they'd appreciate this. Have a great day everybody! -M

P.S. Good thing it's an ambulance. Look what Danny is doing to that poor froggy driver's eye!

Rats! Ants! Rant!

So if you made what you thought was a delicious pan of lasagne but ants completely ignored the chunks on the floor by your son's high chair would you be offended?

Me niether.

I think.

-Monica

P.S. The exterminator came yesterday by the way. That will be all ants. That will be all.

Lighting the Corners of my Mind...

We’re going to our friend Meredith’s wedding shower this weekend and I was just reflecting back on all the weddings I’ve attended. A couple dozen I’d guess over the years. Some are more memorable than others and so I just decided to think of which memory really, really stands out.

Or course our wedding stands out to me most of all. Hands down the winner.

But could never forget watching the train of my friend Mindy’s dress catch fire when she bumped a paper bag with a candle that was lining the outdoor reception area (her husband and about a dozen guests who were far closer than I was put the flames out in an instant.) That was memorable indeed.

But the winner in my memory would have to be this story. I was attending the wedding of a friend named Lori up on the Boston area back in 1993 or 1994. She and her new husband Diego took the floor for their first dance and it was one of those songs that was all over the radio at the time that from some children’s movie. Suddenly I realized it was the music from “Beauty and the Beast”.

Beauty and the Beast? What?

True, I did think she was more attractive than her new husband, but come on! How in the heck could they have picked that? I secretly looked around to see if anyone else seemed aghast. Hmmm…no reaction at all. Hmmm… Maybe they all thought he was a beastly looking guy I thought.

And then I realized my error. It was actually the song “Somewhere Out There” from an American Tail.

I’ll never forget that wedding. And I'm an idiot sometimes. What’s your favorite wedding memory?

-Monica

For Real

When we read children’s stories to Danny that have a mommy and a daddy in them, we always change the words to say mommy and mama instead. We read this idea in a book on gay parenting (sorry I can’t remember which) and think it makes great sense.

It is possible to find stories that talk about families having two moms or two dads, but they are pretty rare. Todd Parr’s “The Family Book” is a great example, but it’s the exception not the rule.

You see, we want Danny to know that that even though our family is not the same as a lot of other kids’ families, it’s valid. It’s is true.

Truth. You may ask, “If you value truth, why would you lie to Danny by making it seem like there are two moms when there are not? Isn’t he going to realize that you’ve been lying to him when he can read on his own?”

Well, let’s take a look at this concept of truth in our world. Remember the Brady Bunch? What a fun show! And imagine how all those kids out there who had step moms and step dads loved that the Brady’s were all step siblings. Yeah! But let’s peel our onion back a little further shall we. Robert Reed played Mike Brady. The quintessential wonderful father. So handsome, so wise. Admit it. You loved him. He was a great dad.

But Robert Reed in real life was gay. And closeted. He was not free to live a truthful life, much less portray a character that was true to himself on that show. Can you imagine if they’d done a show about two dads coming together to “form a family—that’s the way they all became the Brady Bunch”? Forget about Mike and Carol! Go Mike and Herold! No, that was not an option then. Sadly, not even now I don’t think.

And what about Maurice Sendak? He wrote a children’s story that is generally regarded as a classic of American illustrated children's literature, “Where the Wild Things Are”. Mr. Sendak came out of the closet when his partner of many years died in 2007. He didn’t think he would have been a successful author, particularly of children’s stories, if people knew he were gay. So you know that our star of “Where the Wild Things Are” little Max, did not have two same sex parents. Because even if Mr. Sendak would have loved to have written a story where he and his beloved partner were the parents in that tale he could not have.

So where was I going with this?

Oh. Truth and reality. Being the son of two moms will make Danny in the minority for the most part—part of a subordinate group in our culture. Dominant groups in our society often get described with positive adjectives and subordinate groups often get described with negative adjectives. Using men and women as an example, men are often described as strong, fearless and decisive while women are often described as being weak, scattered, catty etc…

When you are a part of a subordinate group, and you internalize that crap too long it injures you. And that is wrong.

I remember once many years ago getting on an airplane and hearing voice over the PA saying something like “my name is Sarah Parker and I’ll be your pilot today”. I was momentarily stunned. In my world view pilots were tall, confident men and she was definitely not that. Was I afraid she wouldn’t be able to really fly that plane? I’m ashamed to admit on some level yes. I was afraid. But what did that say about me? Was I not able to “fly my own plane” in life? This was shocking to me.

From that day forward I decided that I was going to take charge of my world view. Be more aware of the power of words and the messages they send. So when Danny’s old enough I’ll explain to him why we changed “daddy” to “mommy”. Because we will not be party to our son’s oppression. We’ve got a lot of work to do in the world to change the way things are. And in our little sphere of influence, this is one small way we are working to do just that.

-Monica

Top 'O the Morning to You!

Or as my funny brother Paul taught me to say each time St. Patty's Day rolls around--

"Top 'O the Morning To You and the Rest 'O the Day to Me!!!"

Have a great day everybody! -Monica (and the rest of the clan ;-)

While working from home today I took a break during lunch to prune our herb garden in the front yard. I think I did okay but I have a problem. Two really.

The first problem is that honest to God I cannot tell the difference between most herbs and weeds. To be even more honest I usually can’t tell the different herbs apart which is embarrassing. For example, when we use herbs in recipes and Su asks me to go outside and get a snip of sage or basil or whatever I usually struggle. Then she’ll tell me again what it looks like and kindly remind me that we have little signs next to each one that say what they are. See, this is why I love her. (One exception is that I know rosemary. It's my only certainty in garden life.)

Susanne is a gardener. She is, I think, most at peace and happy when she is outside working in the rich earth. She loves it and can make anything grow. If the weather hadn’t been so miserable this weekend she would have pruned, but instead I thought I’d volunteer to get out there today so we can focus next weekend on the cool raised beds we are going to create to expand our vegetable garden in the back.

So I mentioned I have two problems with the whole pruning thing. Yes, it’s scary to guess which things are weeds and what should go and which are actually good plants that should stay. But my second problem goes back to a story that’s minor folklore in my family.

Apparently when I was around 8 or my dad was going to replace a broken part of a bedroom wall. It needed a new sheet of sheetrock and he’d set to work pounding out the broken bits of plaster to begin the repair. Now dad wasn’t much into these home repair kinds of things so soon enough he stopped to take a nap. Eight year old me thought that pounding out the broken plaster was great fun, and I thought I’d help while he was napping. I pounded and pounded and remember being so excited to see how happy dad would be when he’d seen what I’d done. (Dad could sleep though anything so he had no idea what I was up to.)

Anyway as it turned out the other three walls in the room were perfectly fine. “Were” is the operative word here. They all now had dozens of hammer holes in them.

Needless to say it was not a good day for me (or my dad apparently). My soaring confidence was crushed and I think from that day forward I’ve always been a little afraid of accidentally taking out more than I should.

So I pruned today, but I couldn’t cut everything out even though I think I maybe should have. Funny how things that happened so long ago can still affect you so much. I definitely got punished for wrecking all the walls, but the punishment isn’t what has stayed with me. It’s the fear that whenever I think I’ve done a good job on something it's is almost always tempered by that little tiny voice that says “that’s what you think Monica”.

So, I hope that the pruning was okay. I know that Susanne won’t be mad if she needs to trim a bit more. It’s a lot easier to trim a bit more than to make herbs magically grow again if they’ve been inadvertently destroyed. Just my thought for a grey and cold afternoon. -Monica

Dysfunction Junction what's your function?

Let's see. My laptop seems to have a problem. The screen should be able to stay in a locked and upright position, but after getting progressively worse over time, it is now kaput.

The computer works fine, but the screen must be propped up by a pillow or other object at all times. And if I'm not careful it smashes down on the keys and basically shuts the computer completely off. I then lose whatever I was working on. Not fun I tell you. There also appears to be no way to tighten any screws or anything to fix it.

So I guess that in a manner of speaking my laptop is suffering from erectile dysfunction (hmmm that looks more innuenoey in writing than it does when I say it out loud).

-Monica

Not forgotten

This morning Danny was wide awake at around 5 am, (ugh!) and after taking him downstairs and giving him some milk he fell asleep in my arms on the couch for the next two hours. Just like we did in this picture taken the week he was born.

He’s a bit longer now that he’s 21 months old—stretches all the way past my knees now, but it seems to me he fits just as perfectly now as he did then.

As I held him I reflected on something that’s been on my mind of late. If the baby that we lost to a miscarriage last summer had survived, he or she would have been due right about now. This week.

This makes me (and Susanne of course) sad. I can still remember exactly the song that was playing on our CD player when she called down to me from upstairs that something was wrong. I can't listen to it anymore. I just can't.

Life does of course go on, but you're changed by this experience. You forget in one sense, but you never really forget.

But I am also reminded of one of my favorite sayings by Hafiz.

"This place where you are right now God circled on a map for you."

As I held Danny in my arms this morning, I knew with great certainty that this was true. And that we are blessed. -Monica

Dreamy...

Last night around midnight I awoke to the sweetest sound. Down the hallway, Danny was talking. Gently and quietly he was just chatting along. He doesn’t talk much yet, and in fact his two word “sentences” are pretty much limited to “mama, nana, choo choo, caca (helicopter) and thank you” (which sounds a little like “tattoo”). But last night even though I was too far away to hear if he was saying actual words, I could tell that he was communicating with a cadence like regular speaking. Then he drifted back to sleep. It was so sweet. Both because it’s fun to watch him grow up, but also because usually when he wakes up at night he starts crying.

In the morning I asked Su if she’d heard it too or if I’d just imagined it. She had! I guess we were too sleepy to talk about it when we heard it—either that or on some level we were afraid if he heard us talking he’d start wailing.

Anyway, I remember as I was falling back to sleep, reflecting on how after two years of speaking Spanish in Guatemala (during Peace Corps), I was astonished to learn that I had begun to dream in the language. I wonder if this is similar to what’s happening in Danny’s brain now that almost two years has gone by for him? Of course in my dreams I was much more fluent than I was in real life. (Maybe Danny too? ;-)

Anyway, thought I’d share this happy little tale. Oh and on a related sleepy note, his grandma will definitely smile to hear that when I went in to cover him up much earlier in the evening, he woke up for a brief moment from a sound sleep and immediately called out “Nana???” This boy loves his Nana!

-Monica

Ah...my fair weathered friend!

This weekend we took a quick trip to our favorite B&B in the Shenandoah and enjoyed some time hiking and exploring. The best part was that Danny got to know his new best friend, AKA his shadow. Shadow was a wonderful playmate. Whatever Danny did, his shadow did too! No questions asked!

Ah to be young and delighted by such simple pleasures. Of course Shadow wasn't so playful come sunset, but Danny is a patient guy. There's always tomorrow!

Have a great day everybody! -Monica

Note to self

I have met the enemy, and the enemy is Crayola Crayons.

I don't recommend that there be any crayons in the pockets of little clothes when you do the laundry. Especially when you wash like 90% of everything your toddler owns in one big load.

More next time on my "Adventures in Laundering".

-Monica

P.S. On the bright side there are lots of good solutions to be found on the Internet!

Update! This solution as a matter of fact just totally saved the day. His once purple streaked clothes are now cleaner and brighter then they have ever been and not a bit of crayon to be seen!

Maybe? Maybe NOT!

Well yesterday was great fun as many friends came by to share cake for Su’s birthday. We had about 5 toddlers at the house until around 8 pm so you can just imagine them all slowly but surely simultaneously winding down while still going and going. It was very cute. Maybe it was the carrot cake? What goes up must come down right? (I’m talking blood sugar levels here.)

So anyway, the title of my post. I was thinking about how my life has a lot fewer maybes in it since Danny was born. Not that this is a bad thing. It’s just a thing.

For example. Last Friday I was running an afternoon forum for work and hadn’t had lunch. Sometime later in the afternoon I suddenly started absent-mindedly daydreaming about the fact that there was a MacDonald’s at the metro station across the street. Maybe when the event ended I could go grab a burger and fries before heading home? Or maybe that sandwich shop??? Until I suddenly remembered OH MY GOSH! I’VE GOT TO GET HOME AS FAST AS I CAN TO GET THE CAR AND DRIVE OVER TO GET DANNY BEFORE 6:00!

It’s like all my options are different now and there are fewer of them.

Like remember when a weekend would roll around and you had something sort of planned, but then you just decided to just stay in bed in all day and read the entire Sunday paper? Or maybe stroll over to a local coffee shop? Or maybe just, I don’t know? Sleep?

Well, the thing with kids is that they have needs that must be filled. Sippy cups of milk, diaper changes, baths once in a while, food on a regular basis (and healthy foods at that which is not as easy as feeding them cake regularly ;-) They absolutely need your love and affection too. You can negotiate who does what in terms of tasks if you have a partner, but it is non-negotiable that all of these need must be met for the little ones. So there are many fewer “maybes” built into life with a child.

And even though I’d be lying if I said that I never missed the “good old days”, I do have to say that responsibilities and all with Danny, I really do feel like these are the “great new days”. And I don’t mean maybe. -Monica

Happy Birthday Love!

I snagged this photo from Susanne's baby book to let the world know that she is, (in my humble opinion) the most beautiful baby ever born. Until of course a tie was declared when she gave birth to Danny 33 years later ;-)

I promise I won't get all sappy or anything honey, but you are the most beautiful woman I know, and I love you with all my heart. Ditto for the little guy! Happy birthday my love. -Monica and Daniel

Never let 'em see you sweat

But when you're only one year old you can just say "never let 'em see you drool!" -Danny!

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!

My two favorite people in the world!

Oh Snap!

Over the past few months while our regular "day mother" Jenni has been taking time off due to the birth of baby number two, we've been fortunate to have found a nearby daycare center where a woman named Ms. K. has taken great care of Danny along with 4 or 5 other little ones.

I thought I'd note an observation I've made over time. You see, Ms. K., when she changes a diaper and snaps the onsie back up never snaps all 3 snaps. She only does the two outer ones. At first I thought that maybe she just forgot to do the center one but over time the pattern is clear. She always does the two out of three.

So what do I think of this? I think she's freaking brilliant! Do the math. 6 childen, at least 3 diaper changes a day, 5 days a week. That's a lot of snaps! Maybe I'm also appreciative of her brilliance because even though I do all 3 snaps, I often screw it up and start snapping the wrong ones together and have to start over again from scratch. Can you spell a-n-n-o-y-i-n-g!

Anyway today he's got a onsie, a turtleneck shirt that also has 3 snaps on the bottom, and a pair of overalls with 6 snaps on the legs. That's 12 snaps! Should be interesting to see what mathematical formula will apply today! -Monica

Double Doh!

So I was holding Danny at our local Dollar Store this weekend while a woman filled up several helium balloons for the baby shower we were hosting.

“Is he your grandson” asked the woman?

Hmmm...., once again my graying red hair and clearly mature demeanor led someone to believe that Danny was my grandson.

“Oh, actually he’s my son” I replied and we chatted amiably for a few minutes while she finished with the balloons.

You see I try not to get defensive about this—I just figure I can educate people on the fact that there are all kinds of families. (But come on! I don't look that old!)

Then a few minutes later when I went to the counter to pay, another woman working there asked me,

“so, is he your son?”

But did I actually hear her question? Apparently not.

You see, when she asked me if he were my son my response should have been something along the lines of “why yes he is”. What I instead did, was assume that she too, thought he was my grandson and before she even finished her question I blurted out

“No!!! He is not my son, he’s my grandson!”

Whoops. Which is completely wrong. I was so sure she was going to say the wrong thing I actually corrected her, but of course incorrectly.

“I mean, he is my son, not my grandson,” I very sheepishly tried to explain.

By now the two women were together at the front counter probably wondering whether I was related in any way to the little guy at all.

I have got to learn to listen. The first step they always say is to stop talking so much. Life is so hard sometimes.

-Monica

P.S. Happy Baby Shower A&I! We are so excited for you!

The Electric Slide!

The staticy electricy slide that is!

Touchdown!

The pilot knew that it was now or never. One tiny error and the landing could result in a disaster of epic proportions. Hours of practice combined with a whole lot of luck would determine the outcome.

The pilot knew to relax which would slow the heart rate. The final descent took place while a hushed crowd looked on in silent prayer. And touchdown! Oh the relief. Oh the sweetness.

The landing of flight 1549 last week into the Hudson River? Think again. This is what it’s like to try to lay down Danny when he wakes up crying in the night. The rocking, the take off, the landing. If those stuffed animals could talk, oh the tales they’d tell. –Monica

Oh Mama! Oh Mama!

Yes Danny chanted along with us and our neighbors yesterday as Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th President. What a happy day!

Since he doesn't talk much yet though, his chanting did sound suspiciously like "oh Mama!" But he got the cadence and spirit of "Obama" right.

I wonder if he thought that the throngs of people waving flags on TV were also chanting to his Mama? -Monica

The 8 year long terrible dream ends

Wars against countries that did not attack the U.S on 9/11. Torture. Wiretapping. The "Bring 'em On" approach to diplomacy.

Attempts to create a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage. The "myth" of Global Warming. Financial meltdown.

No Child Left Behind? More like No Child Left a Dime.

Did you say Compassionate Conservativism? Oh right. Passionate Conservativism.

January 20, 2009 ushers in a new day. Let the wonderful dreams begin! -Monica

Cleverness or Laziness?

This year I had to start wearing reading glasses if I wanted to, say, I don't know, see any puzzle clues, or know what dose of medicine I should actually be giving my child. I'll admit it was an adjustment.

I was forever forgetting where I'd left them and then I'd spend the next 10 minutes exploring the entire house to find them. So, I cleverly got myself three pair. One stays in our bedroom so I can read before going to sleep, one stays on our main level so I can always be "puzzle ready" (and read the newspaper) and the third pair stays in a case in my bag which is with me basically most of the time.

So this morning I got to thinking how I have the same problem with my books. I like to read before going to sleep AND on the Metro and during lunch. And I almost always forget to put my book in my bag. Naaaa...I shouldn't really entertain the thought of getting several copies of any book I'm reading right? That would be crazy right?

Kudos to stay at home parents

Yesterday as I was running around in the morning trying to get Danny wiped clean from breakfast, dressed, then in the car to drop him at daycare, I had a moment of clarity.

I was EXHAUSTED by his energy. He had managed to find a way to climb up on a folded up stool to get to the Dust Buster which sits in a charging holder on our kitchen wall. He later scaled his Tripp Trapp high chair and managed to pour a watering can meant for our house plants all over the floor. Then he did NOT want his shoes nor his coat to be attached to his body in any way shape or form, so he found this way to go all jellyfishy and flop around like he had no bones making it almost impossible to pick him up.

And this all took place between 7:50 and 8:05 am. That’s a 15 minute period people. I realized that as I dropped him off at his day care that any adults who take care of their own or other people’s children all day are Saints. Or Angels. Or something even better (although I don’t know what could be better.) I truly do not know how you do it.

Because especially at when they hit toddlerdom the children never let you rest. If you’re reading the paper, they want you to read them a story. If you decide to take them out to do something special it can require an entire project plan to a) remember to bring what you need, b) plan to ensure that they eat and sleep when they should, and c) keep them from climbing on top of your car. (He hasn’t figured that one out yet, but I see him tilting his head and doing calculations every time we go outside lately.)

Okay, you know from the 99.9% of the postings on this blog that Danny is the light of our lives.

It's just that he’s a very fast and opinionated light at this point.

So all praise and honor to Jenni and Diana and all the other parents out there in Bloglandia who know what I’m talking about here. You all deserve large, child-proofed medals! -Monica

The Mask

Maybe all toddlers get fixated on things. Things like this mask that our neighbors gave us as a gift after we'd kept an eye on things when they were on an extended work trip to Africa. They bought it in Nigeria although they are not sure if it originated there. We had it hanging on a wall in our basement but finally had to take it down and put it out of sight for a while because Danny was mesmerized by it. I personally think he looks cuter without it, but there's no reasoning with the boy! -Monica

"Dissed"lexia

Hmmm...whenever I dash off an e-mail when I'm ticked off I end up accidently signing off like this (which I always correct by the way)...

-Moniac

Seriously, I only misspell my name like this when I'm cranky. And it makes me look like a maniac. Ironic don't you think? Or shall I say "moronic".

-Monica

Stay Tuned!

Does anyone else ever feel the need to step back from all your work and just, what’s the word? Recalibrate?

I think of this like tuning a guitar. Where ever your lowest note (or thickest string on top which is an E) is tuned, you can tune the rest of the guitar to that, but if your E is really out of tune you either end up in a terribly high key that stretches your string too tight (which can cause them to break), or the opposite, a chord so low that the strings easily loosen up and get really out of tune again fast.

Not good right? And even if you pleased with your crappy tuning job if you tried to play with someone else, it would sound really bad.

So. You want to tune using a standard E which you can usually get off of a piano (a well tuned one of course) or a pitch pipe.

And how you may ask does this apply to work? Well for me, I’ve always got several big projects going on at once. And even though I’ve heard the phrase “if everything is important, nothing is important” it doesn’t feel that way when everything has deadlines and dependencies.

So when Monday mornings roll around I often have a strong urge to recalibrate. Write down once again all the things that are looming, do a quick triage and then get started. And then the e-mails and the phone calls and the demands from my favorite muckety mucks can all fit into my well tuned plan.

I just wish I could end the week pretty close to still being in tune, but that hardly ever happens. Oh well, there’s always another Monday. Onward and upward everybody! -Monica

Looks like somebody is feeling better!

Have a great weekend everybody. We sure will. -Monica, Susanne and Danny (who is clearly on the mend.)

Our little wobbly weeble

I'd mentioned that Danny has been sick for a while now, and we got him into the doctor's yesterday and found out that he has an ear infection. Most likely bacterial (and yes I do get the irony about my most recent post.)

Poor guy. He's just been so miserable he's been waking himself up every night several times because he just can't get comfortable.

So this morning around 4:00 he would not settle back to sleep and we ended up sitting on the couch until he eventually basically slowly tipped over to fall asleep on me. It wasn't the most comfortable position in the world for me but darn if I was going to move an inch.

On the bright side he did start a course of antibiotics so we hope to see some improvement today. A good night's rest will do us all some good. -Monica

I guess it is possible to be too frugal...

So last night I was watching a TV commercial about how a local food store/pharmacy called Giant is offering free antibiotics to customers from now through March 31st. It's probably a pretty good marketing scheme. The drugs (specifically for bacterial infections) are the generics which are pretty low cost to the store and customers of course need a perscription to get them so it's not like they'll be giving mass amounts of product away for free.

The logic of course is that once they get those customer through the door they will of course do their grocery shopping while picking up their meds and better yet develop a sense of loyalty to Giant.

Which leads me to my embarrasing brilliant idea as I watched the commercial. Honest to God, I fleetingly thought to myself,

"Oh, I hope I get a bacterial infection before March 31st--free medication!"

I can't believe I thought that. And I'm not even the truly frugal one in the family as Su will confirm. Even she had to shake her head at that thought. Frugality or insanity. I'm leaning towards the lunacy side of the scale.

And I must also point out that I know that bacterial infections are no laughing matter. And I really don't want one. Lunacy. From the root word luna or moon. As in howling at the moon. Maybe they should make some of their other medications free too. -Monica

Tschüss!

I bet you're wondering what the title of this post means. Well wonder no more. It's pronounced like the word "choose" and in German it means "bye-bye".

And our little Danny now says it perfectly. It's adorable. Susanne always says Tschüss to her family on the phone when saying goodbye and I've always sort of chimed in. Now Danny does too!

He's really absorbing this German stuff. Like when he wants more of something he blurts "Mehr"! (Which pretty luckily means "more" in German.)

Won't be long before Danny and Mama are talking about me behind my back. How do you say Rut Roh in German??? -Monica

Best Frog Forever

Danny has never really had a "must have" toy. This has been a good thing for us no doubt. But sadly this came to an end this weekend when I encouraged him to play with some toys he hadn't played with in a while.

It was magic. Big green fluffy magic. Head over frog legs is how they fell for each other.

Froggy was a gift from some of my co-workers, and as an infant Danny didn't seem to pay it much mind. But now at 19 months, 1 week of age, Froggy is the end all be all.

As I type this, Danny is sleepily dozing on the couch clutching his new BFF like he'll never let go. Part of this may stem from the fact that he's been a bit sick and listless for the last few days, but something tells me that Froggy has taken up a permanent place in his heart. Only time will tell.

In this photo you can see Danny hanging out with a few of his furry friends about a month after he was born. Look at the grin on that green frog. It's like one day he just knew he'd be the one.

I just wish I could stop singing "And They Called it Froggy LoOOove". -Monica

Happy (Yawn) New Year!

Lesson learned. When going to a next door neighbor’s house for New Year’s Eve where our toddler son could have slept blissfully upstairs in pack and play and never awakened when carried home, we should never have gotten ourselves a babysitter. We should have taken the dude with us.

A wiser course of action would have been to get a babysitter for New Year’s Day, preferably between the hours of 5:00 am – 9:00 am (let’s make that 10:00 am.)

Because our evening enjoying fabulous conversation and home made cheese fondue while imbibing in bubbly and intoxicating beverages would have been lovely whether Danny were asleep upstairs or while home next door under the watchful eye of grandma.

But our “morning after” was not so lovely when our little fog horn/toddler woke up and started chanting “mama, mama, mama, mama” which crescendoed at 5:15 am. Guess he was just really excited about the New Year.

But overall it was a wonderful New Year’s Eve. Thanks Greg and Meral.

On a related note, I glanced over at the table the other night while making supper and Danny was slouching in a gangly way with his arm tossed over the back of his high chair just sort of nodding his head at me. For the first time ever I think I caught a glimpse of our little guy at age 13 or so. At least he didn’t look surly. Just sort of snarky. That’s better. Right? -Monica