Stephen as Charlie Brown

I took Stephen around Sean's office this afternoon to show him off. We also went to dinner this evening at a local Mexican restaurant. He was getting a little fussy, so they had a open air part where Stephen LOVED to watch the cars on the road. He kept saying "ga". I think he really liked seeing all the trucks on the road. Everyone got that he was Charlie Brown and thought it was so funny. He was the hit of the office and the restaurant. No trick or treating this year....no sugar for this already crazy baby. Thanks to Grandma Eidson for his wonderful shirt. She actually made another one for him and I think she plans to make even more in bigger sizes for him as he grows. Stephen got in the mood the other night when "Its the Great Pumpkin, Charlie" was on T.V.

Stephen likes his book from Aunt Lilli

This evening, Stephen kept going to the end table and picked up his book from Aunt Lilli and kept reading it and reading it, for at least 15 minutes. :) Not only can he do collateralized debt obligations (one of the pages in the book), he can read at 1 year.

So Mad at Dish Network

I called Dish Network this evening to ask about a charge on my bill, and perhaps have it taken off if it didn't need to be there. According to them, they have changed their "internal security measures" to not allow the spouse to talk about the account without the spouse's verbal consent. They did not notify their customers of this change by mail, email, or phone, but it took into account on August 1st of this year, apparently because the number of divorces and custody battles or some crap like that. There's no bit of information that I can give to them that proves that I am Sean's spouse and am authorized on the account, they won't take it. I am so livid to the point where I said that I may cancel the account, but they said that the account holder would have to do that. It makes me so livid because there's nothing that has changed in Sean's and my status between now and then, but that I was an authorized person on the account, and now I'm not. Being that I'm the person responsible for calling and doing all of this in our relationship, I should have the account in my name, but this was all done years ago. What happened to treating spouses as if they were married and made decisions together? Has the divorce rate made this an untrue assumption that makes it harder for married people to speak on their spouse's behalf?

I wonder if the change in security measures has pissed off more people than it has been meant to "protect" and perhaps it wasn't a good business decision because of this. I threaten to leave at least once a year to get better deals and usually get at least $5-20 off my bill at some point, sometimes more. I used to call the cable company and get their deal and then call Dish and go back and forth with who could give me the better deal on the set up that what we wanted. I said that their level of security was equivalent to loans taken out in one spouse's name that the other spouse has to be authorized to speak for that spouse who is on the loan documents. Given that the satellite company is not a mortgage broker and the security level is not even close to that level, it is quite ridiculous.

Ok, enough spouting off. Must eat.

Skeletons

This picture was taken when Stephen was so tired. I had just finished putting on his really, really cute pj's that glow in the dark. He fell asleep about 5 minutes after. I went to my long awaited appointment with my hip replacement orthopedist yesterday. He said that I really did need a hip replacement, but he wanted me to fail more conservative treatment first (as per logical medical protocol). What that means is that I got a steroid injection into my hip yesterday to give me at least temporary relief. They numb the area before they put the shot in me, but they had to do about four or five numbing shots before they found the right spot. It really really hurt. I don't even like people or the dog touching me on my hip, it is the most tender spot on my body, and to have those shots really hurt. I looked afterwards and they finally shot me right where I have my scar from my surgery in 1980, no wonder why it hurt. Dr. Peters also got me on the calendar to have the hip replacement on February 25th of 2009, his first available time! I will have the surgery, which takes only about an hour(!), at the Carrell Clinic in Dallas, which is just north on 75 from Sean's office, only about 10 minutes from our house. I will stay in the hospital about 3-4 days and then be house-bound for 3 weeks, which is less than I thought. I guess that so many people have hip replacements, that they really have everything down...I have a phsyical therapist that will come to my house for 3-4 times/week post-op, a traveling nurse that will also house visit to make sure I don't get blood clots. Everything that I was trying to plan for just seems to be in the natural routine for them, which is very comforting actually.

I will say though that immediately after the shot yesterday, I did find some relief. For the first time in about a year, I didn't have to help my right leg into the car and I was able to sleep on my right side last night with no pain, which is excellent. I took a walk outside for the first time in about 2 months with Stephen and the dog this evening, and again, it felt really good. The shot is supposed to last about 6 weeks and will hopefully give me enough relief to return to some normal activity level: working out, taking care of Stephen, and just normal life.

Small Birthday party for Stephen and Kaitlyn

Yesterday, we had a small birthday party for Stephen and Aunt Kaitlyn, who turned 19 yesterday. We just had Sean's family and a few friends over. I felt like we had to do some traditional cake introducing! We cooked brisket and ribs and had homemade angel food cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries, which was excellent. Homemade angel food cake is really quite good. Stephen mostly just ate the whipped cream, but he had a good time, and then a bath. He really didn't like the hat on him, so Kaitlyn held it in place for a couple of pictures. :)

Year Update

Stephen received the cutest book for his birthday from his aunt Lilli. It is a children's book including the favorite pictures from this blog and follows the year including major things that happen in the world. He likes it very much. I just took Stephen to his one year well appointment yesterday and he is 20 pounds 10 ounces (20th percentile), 40th percentile in head circumference, and a whooping 92 percentile (31.5 inches) in height. He is long and lean and perfect. We both got flu shots and I'm feeling the side effects still, although they are better than last night when it just hit me like a freight train.

Stephen walks better than his mom

We went to one of Sean's co-workers kid's first birthday party on Saturday. I thought there was going to be a bouncey house, but fortunately there wasn't. Stephen did find that he liked to push the birthday boy in his little car there, although he didn't like to go in the car himself. I was surprised at how fast he went. In other news, my hip is really hurting a lot these days. In the last week, it has gotten to the point where just taking care of Stephen while Sean went golfing on Sunday was so exhausting that I took a 1/2 hour nap after. Fortunately, I revived enough to go to another one of Sean's coworkers for dinner and pool, where Stephen had SO MUCH FUN with their seven year old twins. Sean's gone to Florida the rest of this week for business, so I'm single parenting and hopefully Stephen won't run me ragged. It is just hard getting up and down and making sure that everything is child proofed and he is safe. I did install child locks on some of the cabinets so that I don't have to continually tell him that that cabinet is not for babies. While I'm positive that some of my hurting is psychological, our dr. friend Brent also says that once the joint is bone on bone rubbing against each other, the degeneration and pain can increase really quickly.

Politics, Prose, and Blogging

A recent comment on the Palin posting on this blog has gotten me to think about the appropriateness of a response and the purpose of this blog. While this blog does feature pictures, videos, songs, and stories of my child, husband, and myself, they are not the only things going on...from time to time, not very often, I will post political comments, comments about world events, and other random things. What happens in the world as well as how I feel about it is all a part of constructing a life worth living. I don't expect everyone to agree with me and I expect readers to know that I don't intend to offend anyone.

Stephen's Slide Show

Well, I was able to view it on YouTube, so I'll include it here unless and until YouTube takes it down....

Birthday and Brunch

I'm trying to upload Stephen's slideshow from 7 months to a year, but one of the songs that I used, Guns N' Roses, Sweet Child of Mine, caused Youtube to ask about using copyrighted material. I wikipedied copyright issues and youtube and I found a case that is very similar to mine and I am in the process of challenging Youtube via an online form. I think I'm within the fair use guidelines of the copyright law, since I own the cd from which the song comes, I am not using it for commercial purposes, and I'm creating a slideshow, but we'll see. In the meantime, here's two pictures of Stephen. The first on his birthday during his photo shoot, and the second one this morning during an outing to a restaurant for brunch. He really liked the orange slice we gave him. Sean and I had a good time last night going to dinner and seeing the Stars hockey game, which they unfortunately lost in overtime.

A letter to Stephen on the eve of his first birthday

Stephen,

This week has been tough for you...you had a stomach bug that made you throw up over me and then when you got over that, you seem to have had trouble with the four teeth that you are getting all at the same time. You are a little bothered by this, but you have seemed to still sleep through the night, except for that bad Friday night when you wouldn't sleep except with your parents, which you haven't done since you were a newborn and wow, you just constantly move in your sleep and wake us up. We know you are just dealing with all the changes that are happening---becoming bipedal takes work and energy and babbling and expressing yourself is difficult when you don't know the words or how to tell us you want something. We are impressed with your obvious love of things: swinging, swimming, and a new one: the vacuum. You are your parents, both good and bad, in a mini-sized package. We look forward to your second year and how you will change...I know you will be running around soon and transitioning to eating by yourself. Your daddy is looking forward to sharing this Christmas with you...we know that you will love the boxes and unwrapping, but that you won't like that there are boxes there for you under the tree you will not be able to have yet. Soon you will not need mommy except when you are tired, bored, sick, need a new diaper, hurt...ok, so you will need mommy a lot. You are very demanding, but most times, I love to be needed. You have made our lives more...more complicated, more busy, more tired, more debt (house project mainly), more beautiful, more enriching, and more amazing. We love you,

Mommy and Daddy