The Irish Homecoming - Native New Yorker Colum celebrates his second birthday in his new home

April Drew reflects on son Colum's first two years

You thought the roast beef was your birthday cake. We got a good laugh from it.

Today (Monday) you are home from day care with an ear and throat infection. Your sister has pink eye so it’s like a small hospital in the Mooney household, yet it doesn’t feel very gloomy. 

Despite tugging at your ear every now and then (and constantly telling me you’re sick and you need more medicine – you are addicted to Calpol) you’ve spent over two hours helping me clean the house. You washed windows, you dusted skirting boards and your favorite activity of all -- you vacuumed, several times in fact. You even went as far as spilling all your raisins on the floor so you could vacuum them up. 

Sadie was feeling a little under the weather and not herself either, so now and then you would run to her and plant a smacker of a kiss on her forehead and say “no sick Sadie, you better soon.” It’s very cute. 

Although minutes later I would find you on top of her in a wrestling position or trying to vacuum her up with the Hoover. I also caught you attempting to brush her hair with the sweeping brush, and although I was slightly mad because she was upset I had to laugh at your little antics. 

So two years on. It was important to us to celebrate our son’s entrance into his second year of life. 

Initially I was going to throw him a big birthday bash at the house with all his cousins and friends, but after reading an article that said the second birthday isn’t a big deal for the child and having a party isn’t really the best way to celebrate for someone so young we decided to pack four small bags and head to Ireland’s capital city, Dublin, for the weekend. 

We still had john’s family over for cake during the week and my family will come from Kerry at the weekend for another small celebration.  

We stayed in the Citywest Hotel on the Limerick side of Dublin for two nights. It is one of Europe’s biggest hotels so we enjoyed being swallowed up by it. It kind of reminded us of the big hotels in Las Vegas, although lacking the jazz and glitz of Sin City hotels. 

It was perfect for us and Colum was overjoyed with his little adventure. When we arrived there was a candle burning on a table near the reception desk. Colum assumed it was lit especially for his birthday so he went over and blew it out while singing Happy Birthday to himself. We didn’t correct him but did apologize to the staff. 

The hotel was overrun by little girls in wigs, make up and costumes. There was a big Irish dancing competition on there so it was fun to see the buzz about the place. 

On Saturday morning we went to visit John’s Uncle Noel Mooney who turned 80. We got to spend a few hours with the Dublin Mooneys before meeting my friend Niamh and her children for pizza in the Dundrum Shopping Center – think Palisades Mall. 

The highlight of the weekend was a trip to the Imaginosity Museum in Sandyford. It’s an interactive children’s museum that was both entertaining and educational. I enjoyed it as much as Colum I think. 

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