back to birthdays

I was happy to hear Kyle recognize that his was the first birthday of the year in our family of eleven, especially since I planned it that way. Kyle is good at being grateful for little things.

I used to think of Kyle as my, not technically, but practically spring baby. Rob was two months from graduating law school at the University of Utah when Kyle was born. He was supposed to be induced, so we woke up at five a.m. and called the hospital every hour until sometime in the mid-morning when they told us we could go in. In the waiting time, I took a walk around the path that surrounded the University Village, the married student housing where we lived. Sometimes we saw deer, or heard owls there, that morning I saw buds on trees. No buds here. In Beijing Kyle is our winter baby. At least the weather was bright and sunny, if cold.

Here are a few scenes from Kyle's big day.

That hamster that Bethany is holding was not a birthday gift. That's Rhino, Kyle's class pet that he got to care for this weekend. It was fun to have Rhino's company for the birthday weekend, especially since he made it back to class alive Monday morning.
Hunter and the Sevys came for dinner. We made our own chicken tikka on the barbecue (finally used a mix I bought at the Indian grocery store) and ordered naan, samosas, and a few other things from Victor's. I could swear I ordered mixed vegetables in cashew sauce, not maraschino cherries in a strange cheese concoction, but that's what came. Cool to see Kyle enjoying the eggplant curry though. As for this picture, I wish I could say that it was just a bad hair day. This has been going on for weeks.

After dinner we had two cakes, a homemade chocolate cake, the recipe on the back of the Hershey's chocolate box, and the box kind for those less in love with rich things. Hunter ate a big piece of the homemade cake and I heard him say "I'm gonna die," as he left the kitchen.

Along with Rhino, we borrowed a copy of The Blind Side from Kyle's teacher. It revived my secret love for Tim McGraw and my secret interest in moving the whole family to Tennessee. I tried to get Sam on my move-to Tennessee side but he said "No way, too many Republicans."

That was all about Kathy Bates' line "There's something you should know about me...I'm a democrat."

Kind of reminded me of dating at BYU.