Never discuss politics or religion

Ooh, the questions keep on coming and we love them!

A. asked: “Have you encountered any situations where Strawberry has been given a hard time because she’s not the birth mom?”

Thankfully, no. The nice thing is that we all share the same last name, so that helps. Our pediatrician’s office has always been cool with it and either of us can sign any forms for Curly. We recently travelled via airline with him and had no problems going through security either (with Strawberry carrying Curly through the metal detector and onto the plane). Hopefully this will continue to be the case, but we always have a set of original adoption papers in the diaper bag if there’s ever a problem.

Poppycat asked:

1. What is the one sweet treat each of you cannot live without?

After thinking long and hard (and separately), we both decided that we just can’t live without ice cream. For Nutella, her favorite flavor is Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip. Being the Gemini that I am, meaning I can never decide, my favorites are coffee chip, chocolate with cherries, or chocolate peanut butter. Anything chocolate.

2. Who is your favorite celebrity/famous crush on?

Nutella says Alicia Witt, because well…just google images of this woman. And I say Padma Lakshmi because well….just google images of this woman. Plus she’s so much fun on Top Chef.

3. Describe your favorite pair of shoes and tell us why you love them. Nutella’s favorite pair of shoes are her black leather knee-high platform boots by John Fluevog. She got them for free from a crazy, middle-aged art student/trophy wife at the college she used to work at. They make her feel sexy and powerful (insert tiger growl here).
I, on the other hand, am a boring, stereotypical lesbian when it comes to shoes. I like Clark’s which are fashionable enough yet comfy, and sometimes reminiscent of cool shoes you can find in England. I have such a pair of black flats with exterior stitching that I love.

4. OK, maybe just one Curly related question. I know you are from different faith backgrounds, how do you plan to address/celebrate the faith issue as you raise Curly?

You picked a really tough question as this is something we are still trying to figure out. For those that don’t know, while we were both raised as reform Jews, I am agnostic and very anti-religion in general and Nutella still practices and would like to raise Curly as part of the Jewish community. I am relieved that at least, if there is to be religion in our household, that it is reform Judaism. It is a very liberal and welcoming faith. But I don’t find any meaning in the rituals, so it’s difficult for me to imagine Curly being indoctrinated so. Nutella finds real value in the theology and the ritual, and cherishes the community that she was raised in. In fact, although it is an inconvenient distance from our home, she still travels to the synogogue in which she was raised to observe high holy days. I’m actually giving in to this a bit tomorrow when I accompany her and Curly to a Yom Kippur service (that’s mostly music 🙂
So…only time will tell what happens. Both of us agree that religion and observance are personal choices to be respected. We hope that Curly finds the path that’s right for him, whatever it is, when he’s older, and we’ll both be sharing our viewpoints with him.