I knew this would happen

I knew starting a blog would result in infrequent, sporadic activity. This being an accepted part of my life, I'm just saying that I knew it would happen, and not that I feel bad about it.

So, things have happened over the past 1+ month. Graham had tubes put in his ears, a first birthday party, Christmas, New Year's, the passing of my grandfather and RSV.

So, we'll go in that order. The minor surgery took less than 15 minutes and cost $4,622. What the heck. The surgicenter sent the bill (to insurance) divided as if each ear cost $2,311. This is not rational billing in my mind. Yes, each ear had a tube placed in it, but there was only 1 anesthetic, 1 set of surgical tools, 1 surgical room, and 1 recovery room/nurse (who was an idiot, by the way). Insurance is covering 1 1/2 ears. G had a ridiculous time coming out of anesthesia. There was no comforting him AT ALL. Then 1 hour later, he was completely fine. I hope my child chooses to never do drugs because he will go crazy. We took the camera into the recovery room to document, but felt like cruel parents if we were to memorialize the mayhem.

The night before the surgery, we had his 1 year birthday party. Having a Christmas baby sounds cute when you're pregnant and makes for great pictures under the tree and in stockings, but logistically is not a good time to have a birthday. I pined over this all year and couldn't decide whether to have a party for him. This and maybe next year would be the only years I could get away with not doing a party for he will start associating the two soon after. We were going to already be in Colorado for his actual birthday, both sets of grandparents couldn't be there, he didn't need more toys, and everyone is really busy with holiday parties and already out of town. I finally decided that it's all about the cake. We had some friends over and it turned out great. I had a craft project in mind for the kids, but all they wanted to do was chase Digby and climb on the slide. The cake was a angel food roll (http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Cherry-Angel-Cake-Roll/Detail.aspx) since I didn't want a sugary cake or frosting for his first sugar high.

He's very excited about his new piano!


Playing on the slide from Grandma and Grandpa!


Sometimes you just have to get on top to tear the paper.


Dane helps me open a present.


There are tons of cake pictures. He ate 2 pieces.


On to Christmas and New Years. We spent the holidays up in Woodland Park with my parents. I stayed for an extra week while Eric came back for work. It was a relaxing time spent with my parents, brother, aunt and uncle, cousins and my grandparents. I made my obligatory contribution to Cripple Creek, Graham got more toys, we missed the Lubbock blizzard, and I got a new camera, of which hasn't been put to great use yet. We went to the annual Casey Christmas party and G sat on Santa's lap. Of course he didn't like it. And most importantly, we got to spend time with my grandpa, who wasn't doing well since his stroke in November. What a blessing to have those memories.

My late grandpa and Graham


My legs aren't long enough!


Ahhhhhhh!


I'm going to cut this post short, which is ironic since this post is very long. I'll attempt a post tomorrow to finish up.

BNK