Today was Gavin's first ever funeral. Or part one of a funeral, I guess. My grandpa's actual funeral is tomorrow. Today was the viewing. Gavin was a very good boy. I think the informal nature of a viewing helped a lot since we could let him crawl around a little bit -- not near the casket or anything, of course. But in the basement of the funeral home there is a little lounge area where we played ball with him and hung out with my sisters. The picture of Gavin and Grandpa that I took last month was blown up to an 8x10 and put among the other photos of Grandpa. I am glad there were so many pictures of him there because the body in the casket didn't look like him at all. I realize that once I'm dead I don't have any control over the situation, but I really, really, really do not want to have a viewing. I do not want to be embalmed, slathered in face-putty, and put on display. So Gavin, if you're reading this years down the line, please take note.
The fact that I have a baby is a little weird to some of my extended family, I think. The gay thing is not their favorite either, though, so this just compounds that. But no one was rude or hostile or anything. Gavin is really cute no matter what you think of his two-mommy family so he's a pretty good ambassador for the homosexual lifestyle. Ha. I kid. But seriously, he is an ambassador of good will that crosses ideological lines. Having him there was a good tension breaker, too, because he's just so full of life and so happy. It helped my mom and my Aunt Bunny to get some Gavin hugs. And my sisters, too. He was ooohed and ahhhed over by a lot of old ladies, as well. At one point my mom was holding him and one woman asked how old he was. I said, "Ten months," and she said, "Are you the mother?" and I pointed at Stacy who was standing on the other side of my mom and said, "We both are." She said, "Oh, okay," in a that-is-slightly-surprising-but-not-at-all-shocking-I'm-totally-hip-to-these-things-it-is-the-90's-after-all kind of way.
There are insane monkey sounds coming from Gavin's playpen right now. Mind you, Gavin is asleep in his room and his playpen is out here in the living room. He has this zoo animals sound puzzle that is, I do believe, possessed. When you take a piece out and put it back in you hear the sound of the animal. The elephant makes an elephant sound, the lion roars, etc. The monkey makes the most insane screeching sound I have ever heard, as does the zebra for that matter. The problem with the puzzle is that you don't have to put the pieces back in place for it to emit animal sounds. If the pieces are left out of the puzzle, which they often are since Gavin's not really great about cleaning up after himself unlike most 10-month-olds, the sounds fire randomly seemingly triggered by nothing. I've noticed that sometimes I'll hear a crazy zebra hoot when I turn off the lights, for example, or parrot sounds when I walk by the puzzle on the floor. At times you don't have to do anything at all. Like right now, all I'm doing is sitting here. But that doesn't stop the animals from randomly yammering. Definitely not a toy you want to keep in your kid's room at night.
Tomorrow is the funeral, at a church then the cemetary. I am not looking forward to it. Hopefully Gavin will make everything more bearable once again.
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