Honouring Otis

Today we spent the day celebrating and grieving little Otis. We couldn't be at the memorial that was taking place today in Oakland, CA, so some of my friends decided that we'd have our own private memorials and then share them with Sarah and Erik. We decided that we;d head to some of our most favourite places - especially those spots that make one feel somewhat peaceful, and serene, even. So this morning we headed our for a bike ride to our favourite trail and passed some of our favourite ponds and rivers. After lunch we headed to Crescent Beach and made a little memorial for Otis and released some balloons... 3 balloons for Otis (one from me, Rich, and Raf) and one each for Sarah and Erik. We had such a beautiful, though somewhat melancholy, day.

Oh, Otis, you are so loved.

Little Otis

A website has been set up for my friend's son who passed away on Monday... There are some unbelievably beautiful yet heartbreaking photos. There is a memorial service in Oakland, CA for the little guy at 1pm today.

http://otisnidy.wordpress.com/

Today some of us who can't attend the service will be honouring Otis by releasing balloons, lighting a candle, being in our favourite places - and documenting these tributes so that we can share them with Otis' mama and papa. Please feel free to do the same.. I know it would mean a lot to our dear friends.

heavy hearts

I haven't written for a while. We had such a nice weekend but we're dealing with some really, really tragic news. A dear friend birthed a beautiful, beautiful big baby boy... and the unspeakable happened. He had trouble joining the world and his little shoulders got stuck and he was left without oxygen for a little while. They revived him but it was too much for his little body and a day after he joined us he passed away.

It's desperately sad,

Please send love and light.

Allergies

When Raf was around 8 or 9 months old he developed a rather nasty rash around his mouth. it was fairly intermittent at first and then, just before we headed to the UK, it became much worse. When in the UK we tried eliminating certain things from Raf's diet... and, drat, it seemed to be soy. We're vegan and soy is a major food group for us so it's been a bit of a pain. But taking soy out cleared up the rash, and, indeed, if Raf ever touches even a little bit of soy (some soybean lurking in pasta sauce, for instance) up comes the rash...

Over the past couple of weeks a rash has started to reappear, and it's been accompanied by some seeming tummy issues and a sore bottom. We're now wondering about other allergies/intolerances. We've not given anything new to Raf lately, and so I'm wondering if he's developing some sort of intolerance. I don't know too much about allergies and their development, but I am worried that he's becoming sensitive to tree nuts and/or coconut. Gah. We're off to see an allergist in November but don't want Raf to suffer with the discomfort... a rash is one thing, but I wonder what its doing to his insides.

I'm thinking of doing some form of elimination diet... does anyone have any experience with this sort of thing?

Final Days of Summer

To say that I am dreading the end of summer would be putting it mildly. Usually at this time of the year I am looking forward to returning to work after the long summer, but this year, well, I simply don't want to go back. We have had the most splendid summer in terms of weather, and this year of course I have had little Raf to entertain - as he entertains me. This past weekend we tried to make the most of these final warm weekends by visiting three state parks.

On Saturday we went up to Wolfe's Neck Park, which is a beautiful park on the coast. It's rocky and not really a place to play on the beach, but they do have a lovely green expanse. We spent a good deal of time there as Raf was loving walking up and down the grass.. back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.... He had so much fun! As did we watching him...

Totter totter tumble

Dancing Boy