The past several days Bob, Grant, and I have been in Lake Placid. Bob had a conference to attend, and with Grant fresh off surgery we didn’t want to leave him at home. Since I’m on sabbatical it was an easy choice for me and Grant to come along. Besides getting to be in one of our favorite places (and the first time we’ve taken one of the kids), today is Bob’s birthday and I’m always thrilled to spend his birthday with him. It was especially nice to be in Placid with him, since it means so much.

Below, the first picture is on the steps of St Agnes, where we were married. It was locked so we couldn’t go inside. The next photo was our first dinner in Lake Placid, where Grant was clearly pleased as punch to be at dinner with just us (though he has been asking about Henry and Eleanor). The next photo is outside the Olympic hockey rinks. Not pictured is a truly bad photo of Bob holding Grant inside the 1980 rink. Finally, story time one night.

It’s been a great year with my best guy, and I’m looking forward to many more.

A grey day in Lake Placid is still pretty great. The hotel has a lovely view of Mirror Lake!

Reading at Old Forge Hardware.

Lots of ups and downs. Grant certainly lives in the moment – like all toddlers and a distressing amount of law-makers – which means he is laughing and sassing one minute, and wheezing these dry little sobs the next. When his pain meds begin to wear off, he wants to go upstairs and lay down on me, so that’s typically my signal to give him his next dose. He started out by fighting every dose with all the power in his little body (“wow, he is weirdly strong,” the nurse said), but now he mostly just looks at me with sad eyes and hiccups through taking them. He dozes while waiting for them to kick in, then rises like a phoenix from the ashes to demand we take a walk in the rain, or play trains, or read a story.

I’m so relieved he is fighting the medication less, because besides the fact he needs it to both feel and get better, he’s on an every-6-hour schedule with the Motrin and an every-12-hour schedule with the antibiotics and ear drops. I am not quite hitting the 12 hour marks very well, but he’s getting his medicine when he wakes up and before bed, and I don’t have the heart for anything else.

Very unrelatedly, the ear drops are more than $200 after insurance 😱 thank goodness for our amazing insurance – I dread to think what they would be without it!

In the light of the room, a little boy lay on a table.

The sun shined down warmly and pop! Out came his tonsils. That day was a Monday.

That day he ate his way through 45 french fries and 5 cups of apple juice. And he was still hungry.

The next day, he ate one cup of applesauce, one banana, two pancakes, one breakfast sandwich, one donut, one yogurt, another banana, another yogurt, 3 mini perogies, and two pieces of candy. And he was still hungry!