Happy First Communion to our Irish Girl

Last month Danny's best friend Callaghan made her first communion, and as the boys got dressed to go the the Mass (none to fancy as you can see) Benji came up with the idea of creating an Irish flag with her since the boys were in green and orange.

Before taking the shot we even asked their Irish auntie if we had them standing in the right order. She assured us that yes, we were okay, but alas, we ended up reversed. Through the magic of being able to rotate a photo, I present the actual Irish Flag in the proper order. Congratulations to our beloved Callagh!

This boy is EIGHT YEARS OLD!

Happy birthday to our number one son Daniel! Today he started the day opening presents at the breakfast table (as is our tradition). He was pretty happy as you can see. (And yes that is a Minecraft piñata behind him that Susanne is crafting for his pool party on Saturday.)

Once we got to school he hung out with his buddies then the whole student body sang happy birthday to him in English, Spanish and American Sign language. It was actually really awesome. Then it was off to his field trip.

  

They happened to be going on a field trip to the Smithsonian's Native American Indian Museum and I tagged along (at Danny's strong urging) as a parent volunteer. These kids have been together for almost 5 years now and it's almost as fun to watch them grow as it is to watch Danny grow!

The field trip was great fun and more singing ensued. The day is only half over as of yet though. After school he will have rehearsal for his upcoming musical, The Wiz, and then the whole family will be going on a fishing outing with his cub scout troop. It will be a memorable birthday to say the least. 

Party time happened a few days later at our local pool.

 

And to think it all started with a little tiny swaddled baby who stole our hearts eight years ago today and has refused to return them. ;-)

Happy Birthday to our dear Daniel! Love, Mommy and Mama

BFFs (like seriously, forever)

We are so lucky to have neighbors that we adore. Their family has two girls around the same ages as our boys and the kids all go to the same school. Let me explain. These are the best kind of friends--the carpooly, cheese platey, movie nighty, never ending play daty, go on vacation togethery kinds of friends. Which I highly recommend to everyone in the world.

With our oldest and their youngest both turning eight very shortly, I just wanted to post these two pictures showing Danny and Callagh when they were just a few months old and again the other day. There is something about these two that just makes me smile (when it doesn't make me yell.) ;-)

Danny was born in late May and when Callagh was born about 2 months later, I remember we went over to our neighbor's house to wait for the family to come home with their new bundle of joy. Danny was of course only two months old and so the girls' grandmother invited me to lay him down in the new Moses basket they had gotten for the newborn. He promptly "christened it" if you know what I mean. ;-)

After a diaper change and some quick clean up, little Callagh arrived home, and so on the first day of her little life, she and Danny met. And these two second graders haven't stopped playing yet. I think that might make them official BF Forever, at least so far. Here's to the next 8 years and all the many more to follow! Love, Mommy

Spring is in the Air!

There is something about springtime. Rebirth, renewal..you can just feel a change in the air.

For us, life just keeps on rolling along. School, work, friends and activities. This month we took in a Nats game with our friend Elisa and her family who were visiting from California and had visits from the boys' Uncle Paul and their Pop Pop. Our big news is that we are gearing up to go on a trip in June to Germany. We go every two years as Susanne's family is mostly there and it is my fervent wish that each time we travel with the kids, it gets a little bit easier. Their new passports arrived today which made me very happy because it is just one less thing to worry about.

We are of course very interested in tomorrow's (Tuesday's) arguments at the Supreme Court regarding marriage equality. It's amazing that people have been camped out to get a spot in the courtroom since last Friday night. I know that the decision will not be announced until July, but it still feels like tomorrow is going to be a historic day in the fight for equality. Of course there is more than that topic in the news. Yesterday a terrible earthquake and aftershocks devastated Nepal and our thoughts and prayers are with all the people there. And the protests following the killing of unarmed black men by police officers are powerful and I hope causing a shift in race relations in our country.

Figured I'd add a few pictures of our two (and friends). Our Danny will turn 8 next month which is amazing to me. But looking at him at this picture riding his bike, I guess I can almost picture him at 16. Almost. ;-) Until next time! -Monica

Danny followed by his little brother circle our cul-de-sac with great enthusiasm!

What? What?

The boys and their BFFs walking on sunshine all the way up to school .the other day

Benji just monkeying around. He loves those monkey bars at our local park!

We were proud of Danny's first ever science fair. He was thrilled that a judge told him that this make him want to go home and make some paper airplanes!

Yes. We bought him some peanuts and Cracker Jacks!

March just marched on by!

We've had a busy month here for sure. We finally had a new kitchen floor and back door installed, and then decided to add some new counter tops and a back splash while we were at it. We are really happy about everything (including a new breakfast counter where we can put stools) but having construction like this done just seems to throw everything off kilter.

Picking tiles and the backs splash turned out to be very stressful experiences for both me and Susanne and I'm glad we should not have to do that again for the next 50 year. Or at least that is my hope!

Our refrigerator was in the dining room and we had no access to our stove or dishwasher for a few weeks. It was definitely cathartic to get thing all put back in their places again! But again, we are so pleased with all the changes!

Just a glimpse of the overall wonderful changes to our kitchen.

This month we also took a wonderful weekend trip with our best friends to New Germany State Park in Maryland. The cabins we rented were remodeled and had wood burning fireplaces and it was, as always a ton of fun.The kids even performed an Easter skit they made up that, as always, cracked us all up.

Josie, Callagh, Danny and Benji enjoy lunch with Nana Jo and Papa!

Soccer has started up again, Danny's rehearsing for his school musical, Cub Scout rocks on, Benji has learned how to ride his bike, and it seems like there is never a dull moment here.

Sometimes I do wish for a dull moment. ;-)

Anyway, have a great day everyone! -Monica

Best time to go to the dentist? 2:30 (Tooth Hurty)

Well this didn't really require a trip to the dentist, but last week one of Danny's loose top front teeth finally came out. It had been loose forever so we were very excited.

We were all on the couch watching America's Funniest Home Videos (which we normally do on Sunday nights), and he was, of course, jumping around. He smacked his mouth on the back of my wrist and jumped right up yelling "my tooth!" Sure enough it was gone. A mad scramble ensued to find the missing tooth on the couch and he was so happy, mostly because it didn't really hurt nor bleed very much.

Now if we can just get that other front tooth out. It's been loose for a REALLY long time! -Monica

P.S. Our tooth fairy brings silver half dollars. Fun to look at and put in piggy banks.

Be Still My Heart

Last night Susanne had an odd sound in her voice when she asked me to come downstairs for a call. Our good friend Becky was calling to say that our amazing friend David had suffered a heart attack.

It has been an emotional 24 hours. Dave and I met on our first day of Peace Corps a long time ago and have a special bond. He is a single gay dad with two beautiful children--twins just 2 years old.

He is now conscious and speaking,  and we are all praying for his complete recovery.

I would say "be still my heart" but as David,  an amazing teacher would say, "rephrase!"

Here is a pic of him with his kids celebrating their first birthday.  And here is a link to a short and very fun slide show from his big Five Oh this summer.

Prayers for his full recovery! -Monica

UPDATE: 1/23/15 - He is improving and hopefully will move out of the ICU tomorrow! Words cannot express how happy I am!!!!!

Happy 2015! Oh Yeah!

Danny enjoying some New Year's Disco Madness!

I can hardly believe that it is 2015. We are chugging along here. Benji is finally (cross all fingers and toes) healthy again. He did end up with an infection in a tooth that then needed to be pulled on the last day of the year--just icing on the cake in terms of his overall health the past two months. So far in 2015, he's healthy as can be though, and let's just hope it stays that way!

We had a fun evening on New Year's with our friends Rachel and Jeff and even pulled out our cool "disco ball" bulb that spins and makes funky colors everywhere and danced to the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack. We did the same thing with them last year and I like to think that we have a new tradition! Both families have two little boys and they definitely enjoyed playing together. In case you didn't know, other kid's toys are basically SHINY NEW TOYS, so again, it was fun.

Taking a little break with Mommy.

We had a good Christmas too. This pic was taken at the Willard Hotel at the very start of the holiday season when we spent the day after Thanksgiving with one of my former students, Amelia, and her family when they came to DC. First we went to see A Christmas Carol at Ford's Theater which was great fun and then strolled around town before dinner. We landed here at The Willard Hotel and then later went to dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill. A wonderful way to start the Christmas season!

At the Willard Hotel. One of us is not happy. ;-)

One of Susanne's gifts this year was tickets for all of us, including her mom, to go and see Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Kennedy Center. It was a wonderful performance. We all know the songs as we've watched the DVD many times and, well, it was a pleasure to see. We've got to do stuff like that more often.

Susanne on the right with her mom and the boys right before we saw the show.

And for the final event of our holiday season, we hosted our favorite "Peace Corps buddies" for our annual White Elephant Party. Look what Benji got. Rut Roh!

Life sized Candy Cane. Stop the madness!

That's it for now. Happy New Year everyone. Onward and upward!!! -Monica

Happy 5th Birthday to Our Handsome Young Son

Our birthday tradition is to open presents in the morning upon awakening. Here Benji gets his first present, a treasured (and powerful) Pokemon card from Danny. It was a little dogeared, but very sweet and Benji loved it!

My dad always used to call my brothers his "handsome young sons", and I find myself saying the same kind of thing sometimes - "Benjamin my son, my handsome young son." Of course nowadays you're not really supposed to give praise based on beauty, rather on capabilities or character. I do agree that as a culture we tend to praise boys and girls differently, often commenting on how "pretty" and "adorable" girls are while using words like "tough" or "active" for boys, so I do try to be aware of the kind of language I use, but for today, in honor of my dad and my newly minted 5 year old, I think I'll just stick with "Benjamin my son, my handsome young son!"

For those who still visit this blog, you may recall that last month was a pretty tough one for Benji. He was sick from Nov. 12th - 26th which is a really long time. He's been a lot better since then (not including yesterday's nausea and fever) so we are just about back to normal.

He turned 5 just yesterday so last weekend we threw a Teenage Mutant Teenage Turtle Movie Matinee party at our house. We borrowed a projector and played the movie across a whole wall in the basement and it was great fun!

Then yesterday he got open his presents from us, his favorite being a DS that his Nana got for him. It's the same kind Danny got a few years ago and he is delighted.

When I pulled out the Happy Birthday banner that I'd gotten at Value Village (a local thrift store) I was pretty surprised to see that it was actually a Happy Boss's Day banner. Decided to leave it up as Benji can be quite bossy sometimes. ;-)  Here are a few pics from the past few days. Time now to get ready for Christmas! Have a great day everyone!

My "Happy Birthday" oops banner.

Oh yeah! A Nintendo DS!

Parallel play with their Nintendo DS players. It's nice when they can get along. ;-)

And what's not to like about a clock that doesn't need batteries--just fruits or vegetables for power!

When a "rough day" turns into a rough two weeks...

Being sick for going on two weeks landed Benji in hot water. Actually water with dextrose and saline. He had some tests to rule out some really scary possibilities which is a huge relief. Getting IV fluids for a few hours really helped him feel a lot better--at least for now. Hoping that the worst is now past and he's on the road to wellness. -Monica

UPDATE: I am such an optimist. This illness will go down in history in our family. We traveled to SC to the boys' grandmother's house and he got even sicker. Benji ended up in the ER there because of bad stomach pain to go along with his long term illness. Turns out he also has an ear infection. Thanksgiving Day itself resulted in yet another call to the advice nurse. Glad that November has now come and gone. 

"I'm having a rough day" (which resulted in a rough night)

Actually sleeping at home while the sun is still up? Definitely sick.

So last night before going to bed Benji seemed particularly sluggish and in fact begged off eating supper and went to the couch while the rest of us ate. I was pretty shocked when he fell asleep, but that was my first clue that he was indeed, in his own words "having a rough day".

We carried him up and after using the bathroom he quietly crawled into bed. Clue number two.

My prediction that he might really be sick came true at about 1:00 am when he at least had time to yell out "I think I'm going to gawk!" (A favorite word for barf around here.) And gawk he did, poor, poor guy. But at least he make it to the toilet to do so.

I made a little makeshift bed for him on our floor and laid down with him. He was very good about using the bowl when he needed to but it was pretty hard for me to get much rest after this trying to be alert to the coughing that would precede the next round.

And of course all this commotion woke up Danny so that was also a bit complicated trying to get him to settle back down to sleep in his own bed.

We kept Benji home from school today and the good news was that the "gawking" stopped in the morning (I am pretty sure that's the end of it but who knows?). The bad news was though that then he started having some trouble on his other end. I will spare you the details, but let's just say, there is a load of clothes in the washer right now with super hot water and super strong disinfectants.

We figure it's just a stomach bug and will pass, but it's so odd seeing Benji with so little energy. This is the kid who has not napped at home here since 2012 or something like that. All day today he was pretty lethargic, but wouldn't dream of napping until about 10 minutes ago. He was talking to me about something and I looked over and he was out for the count.

Hopefully he will be feeling much better after having some supper in a few hours and a full night's sleep. Finger's crossed! -Monica

P.S. Laying bets on who will be next. I'm betting his brother. Oh joy.

UPDATE: So, how silly of me to think that this was a 24 hour bug. Benji proceeded to gawk in the night on Wed., Sat., Mon. and Tues. And continued with the diarrhea. After speaking with the doc, we did get him in to see her just to rule out other possibilities like a head injury or even a central nervous system prob, but after examining him, her thought is that the poor guy had more than one viral infection at the same time. Danny also got sick one night in the middle of all of this which was actually reassuring to the doc as that pointed to a viral bug. As Benji's nose seemed to run a lot after his episodes, she also thought he might be having some post nasal drip causing him to gag so last night we propped his pillow more than usual and ran a moist air humidifier. He slept beautiful all night. Halleluia! One thing I'll say for Benji though, after that first day of being wiped out, the rest of this illness he has had a lot of energy. Now I'm recovering from all he energy spent with him during his illness. Yawn. But so grateful he is okay!!!!

Don't Give Up on Us Baby...

Seriously. Don't give up on our blog! I fully intend to keep it going. Time just has a way of making mince meat out of my plans. The last time I posted was after our really fun summer reunion which was way back in July. Since then, we enjoyed the last of summer and jumped right into the school year. Danny is in second grade now where reading and math dominate his world right now--in both Spanish and English.

Benji at age 4 is still in Pre-K and doesn't have homework, so we have him work in an age appropriate workbook while Danny gets his nightly work done, both to keep him busy, and so he won't distract his brother.

In the meanwhile, we've been keeping busy with cub scouts and ball games and other random stuff. I'll write more later, but for now, here are a few photos from the last few months. Ciao! -Monica

The joy of victory and the agony of defeat at the PG County fair.

2nd grade, here he comes!

Pre-K again?

The Nationals last home game. A no hit shutout that was amazing to witness!

Equal opportunity sports fans. With friends at a DC United game where they clinched the playoffs.

At Jane's Island on the Maryland's eastern shore we took a canoe to a sandbar.

Guess who?

Danny and his classmate and fellow Cub Scout had a great time camping this weekend!

Reunion Fun in the Sun!

Our trip to the Outer Banks last month to meet up with 30+ relatives was great fun! If a picture paints 1000 words, then here's a little slide show (about 4 minutes long) that should say it all.

Just click on the photo below and then the slide show. Kudos to my amazing wife Susanne who took most of these pictures. Extra bonus--when the music ends there are a few classic family photos too.

We've got a pretty great family if I do say so myself! Enjoy! -Monica

Shaugnessy Strong -  A good assortment of the Mills, Terry and Houlihan descendants

In the top row in the center is Mary Shaughnessy (my mom called her Nana Shaky--(rhymes with Rocky). She is surrounded by her 5 daughters. Her oldest was Ella (bottom left), second oldest was Madeline (lupper left). Next was Mary Burnadette (lower right). The two youngest were Sarah (Sally) lower middle, and Jane (Jennie) upper right. So clockwise starting with Nana Shaky (center) are Jennie, Mary B., Sally, Ella and Madeline. 

This weekend the descendants of these lovely women on my mom's side of the family will descend upon the Outer Banks for a reunion. It has been a long time since our family has gotten together and actually the last time an event (in the 1990s) was planned the cousin who was going to host it unexpectedly died a few days before everyone's arrival. So instead of a reunion, they got a funeral.

I fully expect that this year's reunion will be better! More pics to come from the festivities. Have a great day! -Monica

It Really Was a Happy 4th of July!

Hello! We just had a awesome weekend with some fun visitors, a parade, lots of pool time and a visit to watch our Washington Nationals win! And the cherry on top of it all was a chance to see the DC fireworks from the rooftop of my office building downtown.

As beautiful as it was though, it was extremely loud and that really threw Danny for a loop. (The pic below captures his feelings on the whole thing very well.)

He was very brave though, and after we stepped inside for a few minutes after the booming began, he acquiesced to being led outside again to enjoy the amazing view. Benjamin had sympathy pains and cried along with him although I suspect he wasn't much bothered by the noise.

It was like a 3 D movie the way that the fireworks exploded so near to us. You felt like you could almost reach out and touch them! If you click on this picture you can see a fun 30 second long slide show of some of the other highlights of our 4th of July! Bye now.

Sweet 7!!!

We are still a bit in shock that our little Danny is now a 7 year old, but it's true. He had a great week of fun, starting with a visit from his grandfather and family, then a Treasure Hunt Adventure party at our house. The hunt ended at at the splash park across the street, and all in all, it was a very fun birthday!

As a picture (or several) speak a thousand words, without further ado here are some fun pics to help us all remember the day! -Monica

Getting the highly coveted Razor Scooter from Nana was the beginning of a fabulous birthday!

PopPop enjoyed lunch outside with the kids --Birthday boy Danny has a "table for one" off to the side.

Mindy joined in some Stomp Rocket Fun while visiting with her dad.

Time for a little brownie treat.

The weekend birthday party began with an agenda. It actually worked out very well.

The kids got ready for the airplane competition. Nice job!

Even some of the "big kids" joined in the fun!

Then it was time to start following Danny's treasure map to find clues to the buried treasure!

One clue led to a pirate's costume which added to the intrigue.

The treasure was spotted at long last! Gold candies and coins for everyone!

The treasure chest before the pillaging began.

Time to play on the playground and water park!

Our favorite Irish dads assume identical poses to keep an eye on the mayhem.

There was running!

And lots of splashing!

Finally cake time!

And on the morning of his birthday he awoke to gifts and breakfast and fun. That's what we like to see. A happy 7 year old!