Crikey!

We were enjoying a casual Labor Day visit to the Detroit Zoo today with Jon's parents and sister when we stumbled upon a correspondent and a cameraman from FOX2 News. The news that they delivered was quite the surprise: Steve Irwin, the famous Crocodile Hunter, had died in a freak accident with a stingray in Australia. The informant's delivery was a bit over the top; as we approached him he turned to his cameraman and asked "should we tell them?" Then he seemed to grapple with the decision over whether or not he should be the one to break our hearts. Ultimately he broke down and, deeply saddened by the weight of the secret he had been carrying, he apologized for being the bearer of bad news and told us that "the beloved Crocodile Hunter" had died. The delivery was so sappy, in fact, that we found ourselves asking "Is this a joke?" No, it was the real thing and they were collecting reactions from zoogoers for the evening news. So we were interviewed, Cortney trying to look sad while still laughing over the news man's tragicomic acting and Jon doing a much better job of expressing concern for the man's family. When our interviews were over we turned to go and, as we did so, overheard the newsman reading his card and practicing to record his opener "what's the man's name again? Steve. Steve Irwin. Irwin. Irwin. Right, let's do this." It was clear testimony to America's create-a-tragedy-if-you-have-to attitude about the news. At the same time, we can't really point fingers. Since The Crocodile Hunter, appealing mainly to the younger generations, didn't air until the second half of 1996 when we were already well into our teens, neither of us watched it and neither of us will miss him, making our own interview reactions a bit forced. That being said, we do feel sorry for his wife and his two children. 

The rest of the visit proved to be a relaxing and enjoyable way to spend the holiday - in the great out of doors with animals and family. Like his Friday visit, Calvin continued to spend more time awake than he did on his very first zoo trip. He even seemed to watch the otters play. And we could not have been more pleased to see the old friends Capybara and Pudu together again after a habitat refurbishment. Until next time, this is Jon and Cortney Ophoff, FOX2 News.

Comments appreciated

We have finally reached that pivotal point in our lives where we have overcome our personal fears of not being as interesting or funny as we'd like to think we are and have, thus, turned on the comments function on our site.  This of course means that anyone can let us know what they're thinking by simply clicking on the "post a comment" link at the bottom of any given journal entry.  It is quite likely that this new-found confidence is due in large part to our coming to terms with our new roles in life as Calvin's stewards.  We accept that the growing amount of daily traffic on this site is comprised mostly of Calvin's admirers and that any posted comments are likely to be mainly fan mail in response to his growing stardom.  We are not hurt by this.  The power will swing back around when we are in charge of his allowance.

A Saturday down on the farm...

The actually sleepless nights, the kind where we truly get NO sleep, don't come along very often, but last night was one of them.  We'd like to say that it was because we were out partying, but we'll have to blame it on the aftermath of the vaccines.  Calvin whimpered through a lot of the night and constantly wanted to nurse, mostly for comfort.  So much for his "big boy" status!
But this morning brought a bright, new, promising day - at 5:30.  Babies, probably children in general, have no respect for Saturdays as sleep in days.  So, with the weight of that realization upon us, we decided to take advantage of our early wakefulness by going...garage sale-ing.  Isn't  that what young parents do?  And Calvin got his 2 month old portraits taken before we headed home.  But it was the afternoon that was especially fun.  Earlier in the week we had passed a road side sign for U-pick blackberries and decided that would be a good activity, especially with this weekend's acceptably cool weather.  It reminded Cortney a little of picking raspberries when she was little on her Grammie's farm, and reminded Jon a little of looking for hay in a needle stack.  On the way home we stopped by the local farmer market and picked up Michigan grown dinner.  Michigan grown, yes, but dinner more closely resembled a southern farm meal - Barbecued pork, sweet corn, fried green tomatoes, and homemade blackberry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  Yum.  Once again, Calvin will have to enjoy it indirectly later.

To Calvin, who is two months old today

Your second month was equally as amazing as your first, if not more so. You have experienced many new things. In July you went on your first vacation when we took you to Harbor Springs and Petoskey, Michigan. Then in August we took you to Holland, Michigan, where you got your first feel of lake waves washing over your toes. Of course you also went to the Art Fair in Ann Arbor and enjoyed meeting lots of relatives on many occasions. These are just some of the things that we have been impatient to share with you since the day we knew about you, and there is so much more to come.
Your daily life continues to change, too. You've taught us a routine now: You start your mornings very early, playing with dad at the break of dawn; you spend your days with mom, eating, sleeping, and playing; in the evenings the three of us play together before we give you a bath and read you to sleep for the night. You always wake up at least once before morning, but usually go right back to sleep after eating. You continue to grow with a speed that awes us and you now weigh 12lbs, 10oz and are over 23 inches long. You are still a strong boy, able to push yourself forward and actually cover ground. We have to watch you every minute! Your mind is growing strong, too, and you have discovered many new things about yourself: You have begun to kick and swing at your toys in deliberate fashion; you will grab things that come into your path; perhaps the most amazing discovery to you is your voice, and the wonderful and loud new sounds it can make!
There is another side to growing, too, and though you are strong, healthy, and happy, you struggle with some discomforts that we are trying hard to name and fix. medicine has helped with the reflux disease that plagues you, and now we are trying to find the food in mom's diet that is causing you to be uncomfortable. Seeing you hurting and unhappy brings on terrible feelings of frustration and misery when we are unable to fix it, but we are trying so hard and, through it all, you are strong and brave and want to be a happy baby boy. You smile all the time and your giggling, gurgling, and cooing has an incredible way of making both your parents melt at any time, day or night. You are beautiful in every way.

Three years and a baby

Today we celebrate three wonderful years of marriage, and all the wonderful things that those three years of marriage have brought:  We celebrate three years worth of nightly sleep overs, weekend zoo trips, and summer vacations;  We celebrate our house, our jobs, and our years of school;  We celebrate the joining of our families, the love of our pets, the birth of our son.  As usual we celebrated our anniversary by going back to the dinner spot of our first date - Macaroni Grill (what will we do if they close?), only this year we made an extra stop in order to drop Calvin off with his gram and grandpa.  This was our first evening out since June 9, and everyone took it well.  Look, Calvin even gave us a tentative wave during our send off ;o)