Happy Birthday Paddy!

I am on a bit of a blog-roll at the moment so I'm just going with it. Today we were at our good friends Bridget and Daithí's apartment, celebrating their son, Paddy's birthday. He is now two and is just the cutest little fella. His full name is Pádraic but his shortened name Paddy just suits him to a tee. Actually the birthday cake that Bridget made (see above) in his image pretty much sums him up - blonde curls and a huge smile.

It was a lovely afternoon, with a gathering of Daithi and Bridget's family and friends and lots of food. Paddy seemed to enjoy the lighting, and blowing out, of the birthday cake.

And, he also seemed to enjoy the most important part of his birthday cake...the eating of it.

Myself and Eric have really enjoyed getting to know him over these last couple of years and hope to celebrate many more birthdays with him. This one is for you Paddy - Happy Birthday!

The Many Faces of Eric

Ah, the fun you can have with a camera, a razor, some card, a marker and a husband who's up for anything (having no television also helps)! Eric finally shaved the beard that he had been cultivating over the last month :) It's actually amazing how different he looks depending on what part of the beard is there, so we decided to chronicle this metamorphasis for your viewing pleasure.

Below is his militia-style handlebar moustache

And my favourite - Tom Selleck eat your heart out!

And last, is the clean-cut Eric that you all know and love. We call this the Baby-face, as it is the expression on practically every baby photo of Eric.

The Future of Eckamura?

Eric reckons this is a look into the future at what one of our kids might be like, what with my dominant genes and Eric's passion for the Beatles.

I'm really not into making kids perform (this is from first-hand experience of being forced into poetry and piano recitals - to this day The Owl and the Pussy-cat gives me the shivers). However, I have to say that I do think this is very cute. I particularly like the yell at the end.

And if this doesn't play for you here's the link: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqXYwNDrU8k

My Dental Nightmare

Warning: this blog is not for the faint-hearted.

As some of know already, this month has been a particularly painful month, with three visits to the dentist and another one to go. For some unknown it seems that some of my teeth have decided to pack it in and have generally been giving me a hard time.

For my American relatives, I know the concept of experiencing pain at the dentist is a completely alien notion. However, if you are Irish it is a pretty common experience. I am not sure whether it's because the drugs are stronger in America or whether our dentists are just sadists but I swear I could fill a book with all the dentist horror stories I have heard since my experience.

Anway, I have decided not to go into too much detail about the whole thing, other than to say, that on the pain scale my last filling was at the Interrogate-the-Terrorist end. Tortuous pretty much covers it, as the dentist ended up hitting the nerve while he was drilling down.

I think the reason Mother Nature or God or whoever decided to cover the tooth nerve with hard enamel was because it is not meant to be touched!!! It was as if someone hooked me up to an electric generator and threw the switch. Basically I jumped out the seat and the nurse screamed. It was all very dramatic and I was sick for about two weeks after. It has now way surpassed The Owl and the Pussycat as the Number One thing to make me shiver when I think about it.

So I have decided to be constructive and have used my experience to compile my top five dentist tips below. Please feel free to add any comments people.

1. Discuss with the dentist what they are going to do before they numb your whole mouth with novacaine.
2. Get them to walk through the procedure as they are doing it.
3. Never trust an Irish dentist when they say it isn't going to hurt.
4. Never trust an Irish dentist when they say it is only going to hurt a little bit.
5. When the dental nurse starts to scream, run.

2nd Anniversary!

Oh how time has flown by! I can't believe that myself and Eric have been two years married already. It seems just like yesterday when I fell head over heels and ruthlessly pursued the man of my dreams until he finally relented. It really was quite the whirlwind romance.

Now two years along I'm probably more excited than ever about the life myself and Eric are creating for ourselves. I have to say that marriage wasn't something that I ever had in mind for myself, so our relationship is something I am really proud of. And definitely something to be celebrated.

Which is why this year we decided to treat ourselves to a nice few days away in Wicklow. We stayed two nights at the lovely Druid's Glen hotel. Our stay consisted of eating, drinking, sleeping, roasting ourselves in the steam room, cooling off in the pool and generally having a grand old time.

The hotel decor was very modern Celtic. It is quite the popular golf resort and is aimed at the American market. We were happy to see that the groundskeeper kept with the Celtic theme on the outside (we thought that Steve would particularly like this photo).

Eric, inspired by Bridget, completely embraced the whole rest and relaxation atmosphere of the hotel...

All in all it was a tremendous success. And in between the lots of doing nothing and waiting for our skin to de-wrinkle from the pool, we also got to give a little cheers to our two years together.

Introducing...Peter

This photo is long overdue, apologies people.

For those of you who have not had the pleasure, I would like to introduce you to the newest member of the Mulrooney-Heffernan family, Peter.

Just to let you know that those cheeks are doubly kissable in real life.

Happy New Year

Apologies one and all for not posting sooner. Keeping better care of our blog is one of my New Year's resolutions, promise! Anyway, I just realised that the first month of the year is nearly over already so I just wanted to post a little New Year's greeting before it's too late. By the way, the photo above is courtesy of the Moeller brothers from their trip to Scotland. I could just look at it forever.

Anyway, below is a lovely poem from a Irish writer called John O'Donoghue. It's called 'Beannacht', which means 'Blessing'. This is for all our family and friends but particularly those who are going through a bit of a rough time at the moment.

Our love to you all.

BEANNACHT

On the day when
The weight deadens
On your shoulders
And you stumble,
May the clay dance
To balance you.

And when your eyes
Freeze behind
The grey window
And the ghost of loss
Gets into you,
May a flock of colours,
Indigo, red, green
And azure blue,
Come to awaken in you
A meadow of delight.

When the canvas frays
In the currach of thought
And a stain of ocean
Blackens beneath you,
May there come across the waters
A path of yellow moonlight
To bring you safely home.

May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
May the clarity of light be yours,
May the fluency of the ocean be yours,
May the protection of the ancestors be yours.
And so may a slow
Wind work these words
Of love around you,
An invisible cloak
To mind your life