Happy Halloween (and a nod to South Africa)

Well, another halloween, and this one even more exciting than the last; as Jeremy comes to understand each holiday better, so increases his enjoyment of it.  Jeremy dressed as "the dark Spiderman" (aka Venom, for those in the know).   Like his friend Jacob, who was Darth Vader, Jeremy certainly has an interest in the dark side these days.  After viewing Hansel and Gretel with a particularly scary witch last night, Jeremy announced that he was a king, and the witch was his queen.  It seems clear that this is his strategy for dealing with fear- although I don't know what I think about it, I am glad it works at least.

As you can see, his interest in theatrical play hasn't waned.  He's a boy whose favorite way to play is to "make things talk"; for example, the race cars are a family.  I have to come up with a dialogue between one car, who is named Brandon Bernstein (a real race-car driver- search for his name on our blog for photos), and the car's dad, Kenny (Brandon's father's real name).  The theatrical play nearly always involves a family of some sort, and it is interesting to note that they come in all varieties.  Today, when we were raking leaves, the inflatable dinosaurs were first his babysitter's family (I was Brooke, and the two dinosaurs were my mother and father), which then morphed into our family pretending to be three fathers to one kid.  Sometimes there is a mommy and a mama, like our family, but just as often there is some other permutation.   Although at first glance, three fathers may seem odd, but even in heterosexual families, divorce and other events have created all sorts of numbers of parents of different genders.

On another note, as most know by now Fran and I had a wonderful two week vacation in South Africa recently, where we frolicked with the cheetah, petted ostrich,  and connected with some really amazing people.  Jeremy had a great time with his grandparents, meanwhile.  There is simply too much to put here, but I'll include the link to our 6 min video here:

Alaska!

Who knew?  Our cruise to Alaska surpassed all expectations.  We have created both a book and a slideshow of the week-long excursion - click on 'full screen' at the bottom (make sure you are at the Oursimonfamily website to get features): 

We set sail from Seattle after a short but highly enjoyable visit with Cousins Eric and Alice (who live there in a beautiful house with a large and delicious garden).  Our ship was a Golden Princess, with 2,000 passengers and 1,500 crew... not a small vessel, with 17 decks, several pools, even more hot tubs, three different stages for performances, and dining rooms galore.  The food was certainly a highlight; Executive Chef Jeremy (yes, that was his name) did not disappoint, including such comfort items as matzo ball soup along with fancier dishes (including lobster) and amazing desserts (e.g. puff pastry swans for lunch).

The caption for the above photo is, "'A pastry for you?' Reply: 'Yes, just put the tray here.'" Highlights, other than the food, were the live shows (Jeremy liked the juggler best), seeing whales (lots and lots), glacier-watching from our balcony, and our hike on the Juneau Ice Field.

Of course, we can't forget the White Pass Rail Road to the Yukon, swimming in the heated pools, and Jeremy's 'performances' in Grandma and Grandpa's room... and much much more.  You'll just have to watch the slide shows (the book above, or the link below to have photos set to music) to even get the slightest inkling of how great it was.  Here's the 15 min full version:  click HERE or HERE.

Jeremy is 4

How can it be possible?  Our "baby boy" is now fully potty-trained and weaned, and there isn't a trace of infant left in him.   There seem to be even flickers of a little man inside, the way he said, "Are you nervous, Grandma and Grandpa?  Don't worry, I'm tough" when he overheard them asking Fran questions about how to care for him this October.  We'll be going to Africa for two weeks on a vacation we bought through a silent auction to benefit his school; Papa will also be helping.

But I digress.  Jeremy had a spectacular double-birthday, first celebrating with Papa and Grannie (who has a birthday later this month), his God-parents, and other friends in California, and then in a huge party in Denver.  We hadn't planned on the second party initially, but he has been invited to so many parties, and was so excited to have his friends come to his party, that we felt compelled to do it.  26 children came (plus their parents) to My Gym for what was a rollicking good time.  Jeremy agreed to having folks give donations to Life is Better (the rescue that found Bella) in lieu of gifts, even though we ended up having to give her back due to Jeremy's allergies.

The first party was mellow fun at Lake Temescal, 5 min from his grandparents house with a few local friends.  Jeremy especially had fun playing with Maxwell, a 5 yr old son of our friends Angee and Marta, who had brought a Spider Man costume for him to run around in.

In honor of LGBT bloggers Day: Our 2 mom family

Just a quick post welcoming any new folks to our site.  This is a photo taken of our family on a hike last Sunday.  I never thought I'd have the happiness that is my everyday life now- so many blessings!  The greatest of these, of course, is my wonderful spouse and our beautiful son.  We are in a sweet spot- our son is getting easier (finally potty trained!), our parents are alive, and everyone is in good health.  We know this will not always be true, so we treasure every day.  Not to mention all of our amazing friends and neighbors who enrich our lives and provide the 'village' that raises our son.  L'chaim!

Bella and human friends

For those who are not subscribed to Facebook, here is a very short video of Jeremy playing catch with Bella: http://www.archive.org/details/ASimonJeremyandBella/  - clearly our first assessment of her not being a 'ball dog' were wrong; she can be quite playful, although in a very mellow way.  She reminds me how a baby elephant might play.

Speaking of play, I thought I'd share some other photos of Jeremy with his friends. You can see from the previous post how fond he is of Lola; he also has special connections with Jacob (pictured above on the rock during our hike last Saturday), Luca (a photo from his playdate yesterday, below) and other friends from school.   Not to mention our grown-up friends; Sunday night Jeremy went to Casa Bonita for the first time with friends Ryan and Brian. We are so blessed with good friends!

Lola and Bella

So much has happened since my last post, including a trip to NJ to visit family and friends and for Fran's speech at the dedication of her HS softball field in memory of her former coach. Other tragic news was that a child in Jeremy's class was killed by a car; Jeremy's school performed a song in her memory at the annual spring concert. A couple weeks later, Jeremy and his dear classmate friend Lola were having a play date and decided to compose their own song for her. See a movie about that HERE: http://www.archive.org/details/ASimonJeremy_Lola2011/ Jeremy also took Lola to a local theater performance (the photo above was from this first date).

Jeremy has now had his last day of school, and his first summer vacation experience begins. Our house was the 'go to' for after school fun, given our proximity to it, and we celebrated the last day with a feast of Indian food, prepared by the father of a schoolmate who was born there. It was quite fun- 11 kids in all, including the triplets (Mia, Piper, and Jack).

And now for Bella... Okay, so I know we need another commitment like we need a hole in the head, and the timing is terrible, but we just never thought that we’d find a dog who was 1) a Rottie (with the sweet big heart they usually have), 2) rescued, 3) fully trained, 4) who doesn’t lick, and 5) who is great with kids... but there she was. To my extreme surprise, I found myself literally in tears over the prospect of her being ours. Her name is Bella, she’s 4, 100 lbs, very healthy, and we met her at a shelter’s tent at the fair. We have not been looking for a dog, far from it, and know we will need to get help when we travel, but it feels very right.

Jeremy's pleased.  When I told him that she didn't have a family, he said, "We can be her family".  When we first asked him what he thought about getting a dog, he replied that he wanted a puppy.  When we told him that a puppy would surely chew his toys and lick him, he relented and said that an adult dog would be fine.  He's been checking on her every few minutes, wants to show her stuff.  She hasn't licked him once, but some drool got on his arm- no hives.  Keeping my fingers crossed.  

A bit more about her:  The rescue told us this about Bella- Animal control found her on the street with pneumonia and a serious eye condition in both eyes caused by eyelashes growing into them.  It's very painful and renders the dog blind.  Their guess is that her previous owner was male and a drinker (she's frightened of drunk men) and that she was very neglected.  The vet thought she was 4 yrs old, and the rescue thinks she was blind for most of her life.  The rescue (called "There's a Better Life Rescue") found her hours before she was going to be euthanized at a shelter.   They paid to have the surgery done ($400), spayed her, gave her all her shots, and nursed her back to health.  Her face had to be shaved for the surgery, so even after she was starting to feel better, she didn't look so good and so no one was interested in adopting her.  Meanwhile the rescue team was really falling in love with her, and her foster parent, a single guy, would have taken her but had a life change (job, I think) that made it too difficult.   She's trained, house-broken, and super, super gentle.  Generally good with other dogs except if they come at her- she's a bit stupid about visual social cues, probably because she was blind for so long.  She gets scared and doesn't know if they are playing or fighting.

The only thing now is waiting to watch Jeremy's allergies.  We do not want a repeat of the cat experience, to say the least.  Keep us in your prayers!

Photo Book

Below is a very tiny slideshow of a book we just created for our 2010 photos. Below the big box is a link to the Shutterfly site; at that site, there is a link in the upper right corner to view "full screen"- click on that to be able to see it well.

Click here to view this photo book larger