Jack Jack's Birthday Bash

Or bashes, I should say. Lucky for him, we were in Utah where most of his extended families live. Unlucky for him, because of "Prime's" surgery, none of his immediate family got to see him on his birthday. Lucky for him, we made up for it big time. The first party was with Rich's family: Grandma Coralie, Grandpa Bill, Kayla, Tony, Joe, Julia and his cousins Jeffery, Aspen, Gabe, and Miri.


Aunt Julia made him a tie-dye colored cake. He sauntered towards it, timidly at first. Next came the tiny probing fingers and finally, a face plant into the cake. Well done Jack Riley.





Party #2 took place last Sunday night at Grandma Kathi's house with Great Grandparents Karen, Evva Jean and Tom, Aunt Karen and Uncle Wayne and my cousins Jared, Ashley, Kyle, Celeste, Sharli and Mariah. What a party! Rocky was there for both, but the second one seemed louder to him with his new super hearing. Jack, now an experienced birthday boy knew how to perform. Stripped down to the diaper, he toddled his way to his giant portion of chocolate cake and ice cream, veering at the last second and reaching for Aunt Karen, who proudly exclaimed, "I'm better than cake!" No one disagreed. Jack was also quite taken with my mom and has been since we arrived. Jack relished in all the attention and gifts, but he threw us a skeptical look when we sang Happy Birthday. I guess it would seem odd witnessing it for the first time. It was as if he was wondering what all the fuss was about. So happy birthday Jack! One year and two parties. Yea for family! Congrats my tough and cuddly one! Say goodbye to the baby days and hello to independence, which Jack is already vigorously working towards.

Happy Father's Day Rich!

Rich, check out the Spiderman David drew all by himself. He said that Spiderman (aka: him today) loves you. (click on it to see larger version)

As an aside, David asked if the word "father" was "dad" in spanish.

Rocky road to recovery

Our Rocky is finally on the mend after MONTHS of infection-infested illness. Where can you find a competent doc? Not Chico, CA apparently. Fed up with Dr.******* , the worst pediatrician ever (more details on that to come), and after 4 hours on the phone trying to find a new one, we journeyed all the way to Utah, where in two days and one visit to an ear, nose and throat specialist revealed that I am (direct quote from Dr. Bennion) "not a crazy mom." What a relief. Apparently there was a reason Rocky was suffering so. His tonsils were ginormous and infected, almost blocking his airway, his adenoids were ridiculously enflamed and his left ear has been filled with infectious junk for so long that a hearing test resulted in no tympanic vibration whatsoever. So for Jack's 1st birthday, June 11, we commemorated the occasion by returning to a hospital for surgery and shipping Jack down to SLC to spend the day with his step-grandpa Bill. Rocky was a trooper, sporting his new Transformer shoes from Grandma C, he marched into the hospital in a robotic fashion announcing to all that he was to be called "Prime," then requesting the Transformer mask that would slip him into blissful sedation and transform him into a healthy boy. We forgot to mention the recovery to him though and it has been rough. Grandma K was there for moral support and then took the reigns on his care and medication administration as five consecutive sleepless nights had rendered me useless. In 20 minutes, Dr. Bennion expertly removed Rocky's tonsils, adenoids and put tubes in both ears. Now that he no longer needs Loritab, the semi-psychotic episodes have ceased and we are seeing a remarkable difference in his confidence and activity level. For the first time ever, he is walking stairs by himself and jumping on the trampoline. Today, in the middle of a conversation with him, he suddenly announced, "Hey, I can hear!" It brought tears to my eyes and much anger towards our inept pediatrician, who is really going to get it from me when I get home. Rich better hold me back! Rich is home, missing us almost as much as we miss him. Today Jack was wandering around Grandma's house yelling, "Da da!" I asked Rocky if he missed Dad and he said, "Of course I do! I love my daddy!" Hang in there Rich. We will be here monitoring Rocky's recovery and returning to the only doc we trust right now for a follow-up appt. and will return home in a few weeks. That's enough for today. I'll share the T****** tales at a later time, maybe while I'm compiling the law suit.