New Beginnings

Long time no blog! We are doing well and continuing to grow and learn as a family. Quinn is amazing, challenging, and frequently quirky and crazy. She moved to a new classroom this fall at her fabulous school. Apparently Q is like her Mommy and has trouble with transitions--it has been a little heartbreaking to go back to crying drop offs but I think she is starting to adjust.

It is interesting for us as she and her tiny friends have become so social and great at talking. Q has been talking about families a lot lately--she knows that many of her friends have a Mommy and a Daddy but is very clear that she does not have a Daddy she has a Zaza. We have found that in parenthood as with life in general the things that we have to be more vocal about are less to do with sexual orientation but more about gender and gender identity. Possibly because we live in Portland and have a very supportive school atmosphere (I really want to acknowledge the wonderfulness of our city) we have many people that go out of their way to point out to their kids or correct their kids around the fact that Quinn has "two mommies". They aren't doing this in a negative way and really I believe everyone is coming from a good heart and trying to be supportive...but Q doesn't have two mommies. She has a mommy and a zaza. So we are in a position of deciding how to let people know this in a way that doesn't create tension and still gets the point across. I think we have done well--most of the time we just say something like "actually Quinn has a mommy and a zaza--I'm her xxx, insert name here--nice to meet you". People have responded well although I don't think they really get it--even when we clarify with--well, Taylor doesn't identify as male or female so mommy and daddy don't really work but I think it is important to be clear and proud about who we are as a family for us and for Q. I can't wait to see what conversations we have as she gets older!