Like father, like son?

Mateo and Apa had a big adventure today. They have special boy outings periodically and today they went to a waterfall out in the Gorge. Apa reported that Mateo hiked up to the very top, which was about a mile!

All of the kids' time with Apa lately has made me grateful, for the thousandth time, for our unique family situation. Apa was our one and only choice for a donor, and, while we would have gone happily along to the sperm bank if he hadn't been in our lives, we couldn't be happier with the arrangement we have with him. As things have evolved, and as he has lived here for awhile now and sees us and the kids a couple of times a week, we've become more and more comfortable using the word "Dad" to describe his relationship with the kids. This would have sent us running for the hills when we first started this whole process, but now it feels right.

I was reading Mateo the book Molly's Family the other day, which is all about a girl with a mama and a mommy, and had a moment of gratitude that, unlike Molly in the book, Mateo and Natalia (#1) know families of all kinds, including those with gay and straight parents, and (#2) that they know their dad. For us to be able to have this situation, in which we are legally (and in every other way) secure as their parents, and in which we all also get to have a wonderful and mutually satisfying relationship with their dad... well, it's just worked out really well, and I know that's not common, and I'm very grateful on many levels.

So, before Mateo and Apa's boy outing, we went to this pancake breakfast fundraiser thing for our local farmer's market. When we got home, stuffed to the gills, we found some cut flowers on our porch! They must have been left there by a neighborhood friend, or maybe just a nice person? Either way, Mateo was very excited about the flowers and the first thing he wanted to do when we got inside was to arrange them in a little cup.

This was cute in and of itself, but it was especially cute because floral arranging and event design is one of the things Apa does professionally. Apa has an amazing touch with design and with flowers especially and always knocks our socks off with the various events and shindigs he puts together. It was fun to see Mateo trying it out in his own way, and to wonder if genetics might have played a role.

Here's our intrepid, naked little florist showing off his first bouquet: