Must be a "mergency!"

This weekend we traveled to Boston, and the highlight of our trip was a personal tour of the largest firehouse in the city by none other than a real life fire captain!  I guess it comes in handy being friends with one of Boston's finest (firefighters are finest too right?)

Benji had fun grabbing any ropes he could get his hands on, and Danny just grinned a lot and kept saying "wow!" In particular he loved the two fire poles that the firefighters slide down on from the living quarters above!

A special shout out to my friend Leah and Captain Mark and their son Mike for giving us the tour, but also for taking care of all of our photography needs as well as we forgot our camera (thanks Mike! Great job!)

 -Monica

P.S. Danny was pretty relieved that a real fire alarm didn't go off in the station while we were there. Now that would have been a real 'mergency. A three year old's heart coming to a complete stop and all!

Head scratcher...

So the other night while visiting with neighbors, Danny burst out into that old familiar chant "We will, we will, rock you!"  "We will, we will, rock you!"

As he started to sing I thought to myself "aw, he must have learned that in school. How adorable."

Then my "aw" turned to a bit of shock when I realized what he was actually singing sounded an awful lot like "We will, we will, judge you!" "We will, we will, judge you!"

All four adults in the room looked at each other quizzically and of course we asked him to sing it again. Again, it sure did sound like he was doing his best Myers-Briggs Judging thing.

He insisted he was singing "rock--just like rockstar mom!" But all of our ears beg to differ. 

What next? Sha na na na, sha na na na, hey, hey, hey eat pie!"? -M

To my Valentine

Dear Susanne,

Some days are harder than others. Clothes and dishes to wash, food to prepare, little boys to focus on--and then all of the other many errands to do and decisions to make. And for the most part we do these things on little sleep thanks to our two early risers.

But I just want you to know that underneath all the mundane and all of the weariness, I hold in my heart for you a love that never stops burning. Yes, I'm sure that sometimes it must seem like that fire is just the tiniest ember struggling to keep smoldering. But smolder it does Susanne.

And just when I least expect it, I'll catch your eye from across a room, or collapse next to you on the couch at the end of a long day, and I am transported back  to those early days of our life together. The giddiness and  joy and wonder of you.

I guess I'm saying, even though I don't always show you how much I love you, I need you to know how very much I do.

Love, Monica

Crying Uncle! (Or is it Laughing Uncle?)

A surprise visit from Uncle Paul sure makes Benji's day as you can see in this pic. Even though Paul lives in Minnesota and we live in DC, the perk of working for a major airline makes it possible for him to come here fairly frequently.

Both Danny and Benji are delighted to have Uncle around--although I will say that I felt a twinge of jealously that Paul seemed to put Danny to bed so easily last night.

But then I thought "hey, I'm not the one putting him to bed! Wahoo!"  Presto, no more jealously!

So thanks for coming Paul. We always love it when you come to see us! -M

File under the category of "Really?"

So I couldn't help but notice that our new box of Q-Tips (I mean cotton swabs that one can compare to Q-Tips), that the instructions on the box come with a big CAUTION!!!!!

Apparently you are not supposed to let the swab enter your ear canal--just gently swab around the outer surface of the ear.

Huh?

That seems a little nutty to me. I mean, don't jam it down to your ear drum, but for gosh sakes, really?

On the bright side the box does say that you can use them for makeup application and blending, touching up nail polish, cleaning electronics and delicate baby care. Also for arts, crafts and hobbies.

Looks like somebody got sued once and our litigious society stepped in to make sure that no new earwax was ever removed, with permission, by one of their swabs.

Shessshhh! Maybe one day someone will sue for deafness attributed to copious amounts of buildup? Don't laugh! ;-)

BALL!

The official first word? Well... he also says ba ba (bottle).

And They Call it, Pop Pop Love...

 P.S. They were just playing! No actual grandfathers were injured in the making of this blog post. Oh, and although it looks like Danny took a swing, he actually just tickled and ducked ;-)

If he could talk...

Yes, if Benji could talk I do believe he'd be saying "You want a piece of this, huh? Do ya?"

We keep telling Danny, bless his heart, that even though he's got 2 1/2 years on his baby brother, he's only got about 6 pounds on him.

But don't let these pics fool you. The love each other to pieces. Usually. ;-)

When we lose a piece, we lose the peace...

As an add on to yesterday's letter to my family, I now do have something that I can share that pertains to Susanne. You see, as I've mentioned before, she is very good about matching stuff up. Socks, mittens, baby bottles with the tops etc...

And me? Not so good, nor very importantly, does it bother me.

But my dear wife, she doesn't like missing things. And this has been a pretty manageable state of affairs until this whole matching thing also began to apply to the toys. Yes, you heard me, THE TOYS.

The puzzles, and games, and blocks and matchbox cars and Lincoln Logs and sorting shapes cookie jars and what have you.

My philosophy is squarely on the side of "Don't sweat it. Those mysteriously disappearing pieces will turn up someday! Everything is somewhere after all."

And Susanne's philosophy is much more along the lines of "It's not logical. These toys and games have a finite number of parts/pieces. It makes no sense that any be missing."

Which makes good sense except when you factor in the young age and creative playing of our children.

So in a nutshell, when we lose a piece, we lose some of our peace.

But just to make sure to turn these lemons into lemon jello, I will add that FINDING a piece, is a cause for great rejoicing.

Gotta go. Find something. -Monica

Dear family,

Benjamin, honey, if you keep pursing your mouth like that every time we offer you food that does not meet your high expectations for flavor and texture, we are going to have to start calling you Percy. Not kidding baby boy.

Daniel, sweetheart, if you keep saying "you're not my friend anymore" you're going to have to hear us keep saying "That's right. I'm not your friend--I'm your mother!"

And last but not least my dearest Susanne...wait...I got nothing. Apparently you alone do not have any annoying habits that I can poke fun at. At least that I know about yet ;-)

Love, you know who

Benji's Big Reveal

Things are looking up for Benji. We are keeping our fingers crossed that he has just turned the corner on all that ailed him the past week or so.

On the bright side, he was well enough Saturday afternoon to take him to his very first haircut. Now without further ado, our little lamb. Our delightfully shorn little lamb!

Before and After

I know right? Cute no matter what! -M

Guess whose get up and go just got up and went?

Our little Benjamin has had a bit of a rough week. Vomiting, fever, really uncomfortable constipation* and today, the runniest nose ever.  

He's actually felt okay sometimes, but this series of pics from this morning pretty much tells the story. Here's to hoping that whatever is ailing him is on its way out now. -M

*Rice cereal, while good for keeping food down, is not his friend.

 

Making it look easy...

Welcome back reader or two. Thanks for hanging in there.

We were at a gathering of my favorite group of Peace Corps friends the other night when I had a revelation. You see, out of our group of a dozen or so, several had their children long before we did and so their "babies" are now in high school and college. The "kids" are very sweet and actually don't mind hanging out with us old folks once in a while because they get to see each other, and as they were all very well raised, they are just very sweet.

So my revelation as Susanne and I juggled (with lots of help of course from the adoring crowd) Danny and Benji and feeding them and keeping an eye on things etc...it dawned on me that it was really hard to just relax and have a grown up conversation with anyone for any period of time. My glass of wine spent the better part of the evening perched high on a shelf while I played the role of  "all star baby wrestling referee mom".

Oh, Su and I got to eavesdrop on a conversation or two, and chime in on a little bit more than just "little boy" minutia, but for the most part we were not really able to fully engage.

Most stunning for me was to realize that 10 or 15 years ago when the same crowd got together, I never realized how much work it was for my friends with young kids. Either they make it look easy, or more likely, I had no awareness whatsoever how hard they were working then. After all, I was flitting around, not a care in the world, never realizing that taking care of kids was quite so...so...all encompassing.

So kudos to Becky and Jeff and Steve and Kurula and Kate and Alvina and Hans. You have raised wonderful kids and I only hope that we can do 1/2 as good a job. And my respect for you all just grew a little greater the other night.  -Monica (and Susanne)

P.S. And thanks to you and your kids for all your help with our two whirling dervishes! AND..Dave and Gustavo, everything was delish!

Lights, Camera, Action!

Somebody had to be this Monkey's Uncles...

My brothers Neil and Paul enjoyed seeing Danny last month even on the sad occasion of attending our mom's funeral. I'll always smile when I remember how much she loved these silly, silly boys. -M

The Eyes of the Beholder

We've never been thrilled to live within a stones throw from a city warehouse. We shouldn't complain though. It's fairly quiet and doesn't have any noxious smells or anything.

But I'm pretty sure in the minds of our two little boys, having a warehouse with trucks and pallets and forklifts and stuff RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW must be what heaven is like. ;-)

Here is Benjamin a few minutes ago, soaking in the love. -M

P.S. Lest I forget, the choo choo trains run right behind the warehouse so when the trees are bare like now, every 15 minutes or so, he has just another reason to squeal with delight!

Out of the mouths of babes...

The other night at dinner we were chattering away about nothing in particular. Maybe pre-school or getting a pet fish or Benji's most recent habit of showing us "see food" in his mouth every night.

But suddenly out of the blue, our three year old stopped his chattering. He pointed first to Susanne and then to me, and with the most serious face ever said...

"Mama. Mommy. Anything you want, I get it for you."

You can say it. We sure did. "Awwwwwwwwwwwwww".

Smurfect. Just Smurfect!

So I always knew that Susanne had a collection of Smurfs she'd had ever since she was a kid. They were somewhere packed in the basement, and as she recalled, her Opa in Germany used to get her new Smurf characters quite often. She hoped that one day her own children would enjoy them.

Fast forward a bunch of years and her little one year old Benji one day noticed a lone Smurf perched on our kitchen shelf. He was instantly entranced. Enamored. In love.

Yes, this little Smurf could not be ignored. Any time he'd set eyes on it, Benji had to have it! Why here's his a pic of his favorite Smurf.

Well just the other day we had friends over and long story short, while Benji was already asleep, she brought out her collection. Wow. She has dozens and dozens of the little blue guys. Who knew?

I've been a little nervous to let Benji actually see the Smurf collection--afraid his little heart might just burst or something.

But this evening he's a little under the weather and we decided it was time. I brought him down from upstairs to our dining room where Danny was already having fun with all those Smurfs.

You should have seen Benji's eyes! He was so excited. And as a matter of fact, while I type this, he's still downstairs with Susanne playing with his new friends. I think it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship!

Oh Toodles!

Thank you Stimey for your comment that I shouldn't leave you hanging with my Toodles story. It's not really much of a story, but when Danny was really little we went to Florida and he fell in love with Micky Mouse. (Not that we paid to go to Disney or anything...we went to the Kennedy Space Center and Sea World I believe). 

But to this day he loves to watch Mickey. And whenever I hear "Oh Toodles", I can picture him giving his first high 5. At the airport in Florida. Where saying hi to Mickey is free! -M

I'm blogging! I'm blogging!

I've got absolutely nothing to say, but at least I'm blogging again. Ummm...well would you look at the time? 5:29 pm. Time to head home to my funny little family. Toodles!

Which reminds me of a funny thing from Mickey Mouse, but that will be for another day. Bye now. -M

From Little Drummer Boy to Little Runner Boy...

Our little sweetheart took his first steps yesterday while at Jenni's. Can't believe it. Benji? Benji? Where are you baby?

Good grief...

Grief. I don't like it. And there really is not much very good about it at all so I'm not sure why Charlie Brown was so fond of saying it.

I once read that people who are on that path of being with a loved one as they are nearing death needs to take care of themselves as well as a marathoner training to run 26.2. The only difference is that you don't know whether the end will come in hours or days. And in case you have never been on this road before, what happens is that you don't feel much like eating. You don't realize how thirsty you are until you take a drink of water. And sleeping? You can sort of forget about sleeping with any peace in those final moments/days/weeks. Taking care of yourself is just about the last thing on your mind.

When our dad died in 2002 I was in Minnesota. I was there with my siblings and our mom during that vigil for him. This time with mom's death last week, I was not there. I'd visited her in the days prior to her dying but was home in Washington, DC when she breathed her last. One of my brothers tried to comfort me as he drove me to the airport after I'd hugged and kissed her goodbye for what I knew was the last time. "It's easier to be far away" he said. "When you are here every moment that you are not with her you feel awful".

I know what he was saying. And reflecting back on those last few days when the hospice nurses had told us the end could come any time, it was easier for me to go about doing the things already in the works. It was Christmas Eve after all. Took Danny with neighbors to a movie. My hand never left my blackberry waiting for the vibration I'd feel when the call came that she was gone. But the call didn't come then.

Into the night I waited. Slept fitfully, waiting for that call. So sad for all my brothers and sisters who'd been sitting with her for hours on end. So sad to imagine her laboring to breathe. Grateful for the pain management I knew she was receiving.

Mom didn't die that night, nor the next morning. Like my father, my mother had a strong heart. After all the other systems had failed her heart continued to beat. At 7 pm on Christmas night my sister Alice called and said "she's gone". I can still hear her words echoing in my brain. I will be able to tell you til my dying day everything about that moment. It's seared in my memory forever.

Grief takes its time. It tricks you. You start feeling a bit better. You remember all the happy times and how relieved you are that your loved one is now free from pain. Then grief gets you. Good.

Maybe that's where Good Grief comes from -M

Happy New Year everyone

Hi there friends and family. I know it's been a while since I've blogged, but with my mom doing so poorly and then passing away on Christmas, it's been a tough time. The wake and the funeral were both very lovely. I like to think that I'm doing pretty well with everything--she is in a better place I know, but at the most random times I think of something and I'm moved to tears. I miss her.

Susanne and the boys traveled to Minnesota too and that was really special. Our dear friend Amy and her family were kind enough to let us stay with them and that was wonderful medicine for the soul. The boys had other kids to play with and I got to see some friends I had not seen in ages too. Danny and Benji also loved playing with their cousins which was really nice.

I think that at the wake the part that kept choking me up was looking at her hands. Those hands that had wiped away so many tears and held me in her arms. I used to have terrible earaches as a kid and mom could always comfort me like no other.  Everyone had such touching and funny stories to tell. She was laid to rest in a grave between her father and her husband (our dad) and somehow that seems so right to me.

So we are now back home and life goes on. We've had unseasonably warm weather in DC so on the night of January 1st I put the boys to bed in their flannel one piece PJs and covered them both with a comforter for Danny and a sleep sack for Benji. At around 10 pm Danny woke up sweating and complaining that he was hot and thirsty. It was 60 degrees out! I had no idea. I kept thinking "honey, I've melted the kids!"

Fortunately they did not really melt but they slept that night just fine with no covers. Of course now two days later it was 28 degrees at night so all is back to normal. I just have to remember what normal is.

Alrighty then. Back to life. Sigh... -M

Merry Christmas in heaven mom

Mom passed away at around 7 pm Minnesota time last night on Christmas. So happy that she is at peace and reunited with so many she loved so much. Love you Mama. -Monica

Love you sweetie pie

Sorry to be such a bad blogger, but it's been a pretty tough time of late. My dear mom who had been trying to come back from a second hip break in one year took a very bad turn for the worse in recent days.

I traveled from Washington, DC to Minnesota to be with her and it's been so sad to see her leaving us. We love her so much. The reason I titled this post "love you sweetie pie" is that after many days of not being able to speak, she finally did again when her favorite priest came and said "Mary, I'm so glad to see you!" She responded "I'm glad to see you too." I think she needed the spriritual nourishment he came to bring. I'd already returned to DC so I wasn't there in person to witness this, but by all accounts it was awe inspiring.

She has continued to speak a bit now, so I was overjoyed when my sister put the phone up to her ear she said "hi Monica" and "love you sweetie pie". I'll never hear words so sweet again. -M

P.S. Here is a pic of me and mom with Danny from 2009.

Here it is - Benji's 12th Month

Click here for the slide show

Happy Birthday Benji!!!!

We love you! (Yes, we know it was yesterday.)  Your 12-month slide show is coming soon, we promise! - Mommy & Mama

Caption this!

Our budding gardener...

Benji in Nana's back yard in South Carolina a few weeks ago. This boy is interested in everything!

Jeez! I feel like freaking Job!

Enough! Although my broken toe is healing and I can now wear tennis shoes, my limp is pretty darn dramatic as I try my best to not put pressure on that darn appendage. To add insult to my injury, I had a sunspot on my face blasted with liquid nitrogen this week, so now my cheek is transforming from a slightly red spot to a blistering and soon-to be scabby bump. Lovely. The things I do for health.

And today I did a blood donation at the Red Cross called apheresis. They take blood out of one arm, remove the good stuff like platelets and return your plasma and red blood cells into the other arm (along with some saline solution). It's a continious process that lasts about 2 hours. The platelets are used by those who are undergoing cancer treatments and I like to do this because it seems like a pretty simple way to help people in need. But unfortunately I ended up with some sort of saline leak into the area around the return needle site. Lovely. Tingly, hard and swollen.

Job I tell you.

But. I will not get down about this temporary state of affairs. I will walk normally again in about three weeks. My sunspot will be gone by then too. And this arm with some heat and elevation it should be cleared by tonight.

Lots of people have it way worse than I do. And I have to say, that being forced to just relax and watch a movie for two straight hours isn't all bad. "A Mighty Wind" is still hilarious! -M

Can you believe that the holidays are upon us???

I'm definitely having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that there are only a few short weeks left until Christmas. This year we once again put 24 little gifts in bags for the boys (okay Danny) to open one each morning. This sort of living Advent Calendar has been a huge hit this year. As a 3 year old Danny is much more into trying to figure out what is in each bag than he was at two.

Of course all this counting only makes more real the fact that time is flying! We've got a little one year old birthday to celebrate, decorations to get out this weekend and of course there is always "tree time"!

Figuring out presents is usually a bit of a challenge. We've not yet really done any shopping yet so I guess we have a clean slate. Twenty two days left to go. Wow.

We'll be hosting two events at our house this holiday season. A party for Su's work team and of course Benji's first birthday. All the rest of our activities are at other people's houses which I really like. Much less cleaning up to do at the end ;-)

Have a great day everybody. If you have any good ideas for gifts for Susanne e-mail me at my work address if you know me okay? Thanks! -M

Yes you! Nice and slow now. Hand over the turkey and nobody gets hurt!

We had a wonderful Thankgiving visiting Nana in South Carolina. The boys had lots of fun playing, particularly with these golfing toys, which happen to also make excellent sword and axes! Thanks Nana.

My favorite Butterball!

The nine lives of Benji...

Last Friday morning Benji was playing in our upstairs hallway with the gate securely latched while Su was a few steps away in a bedroom. She heard a "boom, boom, boom" and running out to the hallway, for a moment couldn't figure out where he was as most of the other doors were closed.

Then she heard him crying and COULD NOT BELIEVE IT when she saw him at the landing at the foot of the stairs. Thank all the stars in heaven, he was absolutely fine. Scared, and crying but fine. (She checked him for injuries and carefully monitored his pupils before and after he went down for his nap.)

She remembers racing down to him and assumed he'd managed to unlatch the white baby gate and somehow squeezed through. 

Later that night though, we decided to do a controlled experiment with him and were shocked to see that what most likely really happened is that he stepped through the permanent black railing and dropped more than a foot before tumbling down down our wood steps.

You see we have some plants on a shelf on that staircase that he loves to grab for when we carry him up or down. Apparently he REALLY likes this plant. In our little reenactment, he eagerly (seriously, he was delighted to do this) demonstrated how he could reach through, step over the small bar at his feet and, well, reach until he couldn't reach any farther (but this time we were there to catch him.)

Needless to say, a large barrier has now been affixed to that railing.

We are still thanking our lucky stars that our sweet boy did not get hurt. Word to the wise? Check out your railings if you have little ones folks. If you don't, they will. -M

Candle surgery

This fall I picked up some really cheap Halloween candles which Danny thought were awesome. When one broke, he assisted Mama in performing surgery to repair it.

He does say he wants to be a doctor (and about 1000 other things) every day. ;-)

Happy Eleven months Benji

Well, I wasn't sure we could do this, but Su set up our computer that was holding all our pics hostage, so we are able to post this little slide show. Whew. Just under the wire--one hour til midnight. Can't wait for your birthday party on December 17th!

Love, your moms

P.S. Here's a little teaser from the show.

Eleven months old today!

Good morning Benji! I know that today is the day that we are supposed to post an adorable slide show of your eleventh month but, oh no!, we have a problem!
You see with the office renovation our home computer, (you know, the one with all of your pictures on it) is not set up. So we are sadly pictureless. I promise the moment that it is up an running again, we'll make you a slide show.

In the meanwhile, this cell phone photo taken this morning will have to do. Clearly, bibs have no place any more in your life! Love you baby! -Mommy

Apparently I am not a Super Hero...

Have you ever heard of a Super Hero getting hurt while saving the world? Me neither. That's how I know I am not one.

Well, come to think of it I was not actully saving the world. But I was doing the next best thing--rushing to the aid of my little boy.

This time it was baby Benjamin getting in a jam. He got his fingers caught in a grate that is part of a small door that houses the controls to our gas fireplace. There was no danger of him being able to actually operate any of the controls, so when I'd seen him playing with the door, I wasn't too concerned. We were all down the basement on Saturday night enjoying our first ever Movie Night (it was so much fun!). Our Disney flick was just about over when Benji started to shriek.

Su and I both jumped up, but I unfortunatley jumped up right into a very heavy coffee table with bare feet. You could say I stubbed my toe, but that would be a bit of an understatement. I hopped on my good foot to get him as I was closest to him and was relieved that he was okay. I handed him to Su and then realized that not only was my toe hurting, it didn't look so good either.

You see, I struck it so hard, I not only broke the bone in my big toe through and through, but I managed to sort of make the tissue round my toe nail sort of, well, explode. It's actually called an avulsion, and believe you me, it is VERY PAINFUL. Imagine throwing an orange against the wall as hard as you could. The skin would break and the flesh of the orange would pop out. Yeah, it was like that.

After seeing a doc in urgent care I've spent the past few days hobbling, resting, taking pain medication and now antibiotics. The podiatrist I saw yesterday predicts I'll be good as new by Christmas.

The antibiotics were just perscribed yesterday as this toe continues to bleed no matter how careful and ginger I think I'm being with it. On the bright side, today for the first time, my toe actually feels better. Or at least not horrible. One of those two.

But, looking on the bright side of life, Benji was absolutely fine. And movie night was fun. And next week is Thankgiving. Oh, and resting is not an entirely bad thing. ;-)

Onward and upward! -Monica

I am NOT a hypochondriac!

Really, I’m not a hypochondriac! Or am I?  Maybe it’s like the Kinsey Scale-- everyone is somewhere on a spectrum. Sigh. I don’t know, but I do know one thing. Several times a day I think that I am having a catastrophic breakdown of my central nervous system.

That is until I remember, yet again, that when I put my cell phone on vibrate and then carry it around in my back pocket, well, it will vibrate when I get a call.  And then I am absolutely convinced, for at least one second, that I’m dying.

Well, at least it’s not as bad as the 5 second ordeal I suffered once. I’d lugged our two cats in to see the vet, and as I sank down in a chair in the waiting room, a painfully warm and almost slimy sensation began in my right hip and quickly spread to my thigh! I was on fire!

I jumped up, terrified that I was having maybe an embolism/stroke/allergy/cancer/dermatological attack of some sort when I spied a huge stain spreading down said leg.

Apparently I’d put a travel mug of hot coffee in my shoulder bag that morning and forgotten all about it. It managed to stay upright and covered until that fateful moment when I sat down.

Oh, and I wasn’t really on fire. In fact, our "awesome" travel mug had rendered the coffee tepid by the time it attacked me.

Good thing I’m not melodramatic or anything! -M

Happy Halloween!

Curious George and The (Little) Man with the Yellow Hat wish you all a very happy Halloween!

Thoughts on being an older parent...

First and foremost, I think being an older parent means at times being mistaken for being a grandparent. This is my least favorite part of being an older mom.


I am definitely more financially secure now than I was when most of my peers were becoming parents, and that makes me feel good.


A friend who also became a new parent in his late 40s told me “no one ever told me it would be this hard”. He then followed that up by saying “and no one ever told me it would be this much fun”. Well said.


I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about this, but statistically, my chances of dying before the boys are grown is higher now than when I was younger. Me no like this thought. (Susanne doesn't either).


I am more tired now than I was when I was younger. I have memories of running around and playing with my nieces years ago—what fun it was I remember. Now I am happy that I have younger friends and relatives who love to run around with our boys. (Point of clarification: I do play a lot with the boys, but find myself eyeing my armchair way too longingly!)


On the bright side, being older means being being wiser (or so I’ve always been told.) Jury is still out on that one I must say.


Let’s see? For me being older means having to wear glasses. And we all know that snatching (and can I say crushing?) glasses is more fun than just about anything in the world to growing babies.


And last but not least, if one of the boys has kids when he’s only 20, I won’t be able to say “oh, no, I can’t be a grandmother yet! I’m only 67!) ;-) -Monica

Drumroll please...

Ten things I’m grateful for:

10. That Danny now asks “Is this a school day?” and if it is, he says “Yeah!” (Better than the September morning sob festivals).

9.  That my mom is improving, and even though these past 2+ months have been a real roller coaster in terms of her health, she’s upbeat and walking with a walker on that darn broken hip. Go mom!

8. That Benji (like his brother) is generally such a happy little guy.

7. That in two weeks I get to move to a new office building that is a 15 minute bike ride from home.

6. That we’ll be in that new building for at least five years (our current building is being renovated). Five years from now puts me at almost the age I could retire. Not that I probably will, but it’s nice to know I COULD. ;-)

5. That we are heading into the cool fall weather and the wonderful holidays that follow.  Benji’s second Christmas is going to be so much fun this year. Being a week old for the first one made it pretty unmemorable for him I'm guessing.

4. That Susanne still puts up with my occasional messiness/forgetfulness/silliness/laziness and anxiousness.  More than just “put up” with these traits, she still seems to actually love AND like me!

3. That we have such a great mix of friends. Old friends, new friends, borrowed friend, blue friends… oh wait. I’ve messed that up again right?

2. That our little boys still think we are the “end all be all”. Spent some time with my wonderful 13 year old niece last weekend and was shocked to learn that not only am I not cool, I’m actually quite embarrassing! ;-)

1. And last but not least, that we have our health, our families, our beautiful boys, our jobs, and each other.  Yes, very grateful indeed.

It's the Most Pumpkinful Time of the Year ;-)

Memory of our trip to Germany this year - Danny and Tante Thea

It's okay?

Time: Yesterday afternoon.

Location: Unloading Danny and his favorite neighbors out of the car after school in front of the house.

Josie and Callagh's mom said, "Bye now. Say...we're going to make some chocolate chip cookies and we'll bring a plate over when they are done."

I said, "Oh don't go to any trouble. I know you've got a lot going on today, so no need to come by if life gets too busy."

Out of the blue, Danny suddenly blurts out "No, no! It's okay Mommy. It's okay. It's okay for Josie and Callagh and their Mama and Dada come to our house and bring cookies."

He was so earnest. We couldn't really tell if it were a question or a statement. (And yes, Melissa and I both burst out laughing).

An hour or so later, Danny answered the knock at the door he'd been waiting for! -Monica

P.S. We love our neighbors!

Again--shock and awe

So why the big shock? Well our little dude just turned 10 months old today. And yes, this tradition of growing older each month still manages to catch us off guard.

You know, for Danny we did one slide show a month until he hit one year and we promised ourselves when Benjamin was born that we would do the same for him. But of course when Danny was a baby he was our only child and the star of virtually every pic we took. With Benji, well, let's just say he doesn't get as much camera time what with Danny mugging for the camera at every opportunity. The reason I say this is that it seems much harder to come up with dozen or so slides for Benji than it ever was for his big brother.

That all being said, without further ado, we offer Benji's ten month slide show.

How very sweet he is! -Monica (and Susanne)

P.S. Sneak peak--

What a difference two years makes...

Danny and his favorite neighbor Callagh shown in 2008 and again in 2010. They are in Pre K together and and I can't help but hum the tune "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, a bit wistfully (yet oh so proudly) as I watch them grow. And yes, I do know that I shouldn't be humming that until they are teenagers or something, but gosh they grow so fast! -M

When Benji wouldn't keep his shoes on...

Yes, last week at the zoo we could not keep Benjamin's socks nor shoes on him and it was COLD in Minnesota. So we did the next best thing. Sort of looks like a double snouted elephant calf right! ;-)

Of Mice and, well, Apes...

Being the mom of two little ones, I will admit that I do watch some children's television each week, and if truth be told, I actually love snuggling with the boys as we tune in. We tend to watch public TV and free Video on Demand so I feel pretty contented in the fact that we avoid an overabundance of commercials (aka Satan's siren call).

This all being said, I do have a few questions and thoughts for my fellow children's TV watchers. First of all, why does Micky Mouse insist on asking kids to point to/choose items throughout the show? "Hey hey kids...can you see a clue that Donald is hiding somewhere nearby?" Which I have to say only encourages my very excitable three year old to jump up and point (very literally by touching the TV screen) at whatever Mickey wants--in this case a feather floating around on the screen. So Danny knows he's not supposed to touch the TV but Mickey keeps telling him to. And we all know who has more clout around here. (Darn mouse!)

My second observation of the day goes to the Curious George Show. Do you know that a person actually gets credit for being the voice of George? Seriously. For those unfamiliar, George's speech consists of "uh huh!", "uh uh" and "ooooohhhh". Man what I wouldn't give to get that gig! Do you think the actor gets a royalty with every show? Because they play the same episodes of CG over and over again on all the PBS stations. I totally missed my calling!

And last but not least, this might be a little picky, but if you haven't noticed, Curious George does not have a tail. I think this makes him technically an ape and not a monkey. Mickey on the other hand has quite a long tail, which for those of us who sort of have an aversion to mice, is a little disconcerting.

Just my two cents on some clearly very important subjects! Have a great day everybody! -Monica