Hanging out with Sarah P.

It's like we are having our own "mini" sibling summit over here. First we got to have a wonderful playdate with Loula in Tilden park and today we had a playdate with Sarah P. while mom Lisa had a grownups baby shower in the hood. We did some art, ate some snacks and took our new favorite mini-hike out to our view point cul-de-sac.


The boy showed her the lay of the land - and she enjoyed the snacks (as you can see) - her mom doesn't give out the same kind of junk that we like to provide which made our snacks pretty tempting.

We also managed to get her covered in both dirt and paint which I think are the signs of a pretty successful visit.

Above is another shot of our view - nice!!

Tilden Park - Little Farm

Today we met Loula and her moms at the little farm in Tilden Park - the boy didn't love it quite as much as Drumlin but he was excited to meet Loula again and also to run into one of his classmates as we were feeding the animals at the park.

After feeding celery to the goats and cows we headed down to the nature center and then to the playground nearby. The boy really picked up then and he and Loula spent the next hour or so running around like little crazy nuts - climbing, jumping, running, climbing... it was a lot of fun to watch and Em and I really liked hanging with her moms. Then we all headed over to the carousel....

all this and chocolate ice cream too.

Glow Stick Dance Party

Here is Lisa's video of the kids enjoying their first rave.

Toddler Dance Party

Following are some shots as his new career as a Rave DJ


Getting the tunes ready for the dance party...


and Making sure that all the other ravers are having a good time....


even the moms got in on the action



You may notice that all the other party people have their pants on, but not our boy -

Thanks to the good tunes & the glow sticks a fun time was had by all.

Summit

It is taking me awhile to write down my thoughts on the 2009 Russian River "Sibling Summit". Part of the reason is that all the other mom's have expressed the tone of the gathering so well via our "Facebook" connections.

The Kids
H. (NYC), E. (Seattle), L. (Oakland) Z. & M (Sebastapol), OUR BOY (MA via SF), and S. (SF)


This weekend was proposed some number of months ago by the East Bay moms to the group of us who have all virtually connected via the Donor Sibling Registry. Em & I had to push the dates into late Oct for us to even have a chance of making it & everyone was super great about making this happen. So Susan found a house at the Russian River that sleeps a ton & we all split renting it for 3 nights.

Em & I flew in from Boston, another family came from New York and a Third came from Seattle and the remaining 3 families (4 kids since there are twins) came from the Bay Area. I had met everyone but the East Bay Folks, but the NY & Seattle families hadn't met anyone BUT me before this.

So we all arrived with bags of toys & treats from our various locals - NY Bagels, Seattle Coffee (YEAH) and it pretty much felt comfortable & warm instantly. The kids were lovely with each other & with the other parents, and the Moms were just a crazed bunch of camera wielding mama's.

We ate, played, hiked, swam, soaked, danced & did it all again. I don't know if the kids felt any kind of "special" connection to one another - other than all being so close in age ... but I think that all of us moms, mommy's, ima's, baba's, etc did feel a nice familia type bonding amongst each other - which is funny since the bond is really just that we randomly went to the same sperm bank and were attracted to the same donor.

We are from different geographys, religions, age groups and backgrounds but we all just LOVE our kids & I think because of that have a deep attraction to each of these other kids who share some of the same glimmer ....

Heathers Photos of the Sibling Summit

October 2009 - Sibling Reunion

Click on the photo to go see some wonderful photos from our weekend!!!