Sticking with the low key theme that has been our theme for the last 18 months, Dave welcomed 42 with a small family birthday celebration. And, we didn’t even celebrate on this actual birthday as he had to be in Atlanta, so we had dinner, cake and presents on the Friday after. While his travel hasn’t started up fully yet, it’s begun in earnest with a few trips so far.
A week after his birthday, he ran in the Philly Distance Run, which is an annual 1/2 marathon through Center City and Fairmount. And he got a PR! This man makes 42 look good!
I mentioned in the previous post that at the 4th of July BBQ at The Sharps, Petunia ran right into the side of my knee. After having several sets of x-rays I found out my tibial plateau was fractured and required surgery to repair it.
On July 12th, I had that surgery at Penn. The surgeon begin arthroscopically, but ended up needing to make an incision to tamp the bone back into place, and then two screws were placed beneath it to hold everything together. Unless there’s an issue down the road, those screws will remain in my knee indefinitely.
The surgery was outpatient and took about 2 hours and I was home by the afternoon.
Pre-surgery
Car ride back home after surgery
Below are x-rays from before and after. In the before x-ray you can see that the bone looks a little crushed down on the right (which is actually the left side of my left leg), which was then pushed back into place and held up with screws.
The first week after surgery I stayed downstairs exclusively and barely moved from the sleeper couch in our living room. Once the nerve block wore off I was in a lot of pain until I got the right combo of pain pills going. After about four days I started feeling better, and after a week I didn’t need to take pain pills anymore.
My view the first week home
I have another set of x-rays scheduled for next week and will have a better idea of my recovery plan, but for now I know I’m on crutches for at least six weeks, with little to no pressure on my left leg while the bone heals. It’s been both mentally and physically very challenging, but Dave and the girls have been my hands and legs. And my mom even flew in for five days to help out when Dave had to travel to Chicago (his first travel since the pandemic!).
My 42nd birthday also landed three days after surgery, when I was still pretty immobile on the sleeper couch. So we did a birthday dinner in the living room. As is my birthday tradition, I always have a hamburger, so Dave made a delicious one bedside!
We’re leaving for vacation on Dave/Pop pop’s actual birthday, so we celebrated a week early with a nice dinner and wine pairing down in Rock Hall. If it was non-COVID times we probably would have thrown a big party, but this was the second best option. Dave cooked the whole dinner and I made a cake. It was another beautiful early spring weekend, so we got to spend a lot of time outside.
The birthday boy!
The menu
On Sunday morning we walked to the beach where the Bay was like glass. Petunia loves to run around on the beach and will dip into the water, but won’t go in past her chest.
It was a really great, relaxing and celebratory weekend. It made me very excited for this coming summer and warm weather! This has been a long, cold winter and these glimpses of spring have been wonderful.
My family came up for a late birthday visit in the middle of March. No one has been vaccinated yet, but they all should still have antibodies from being sick at the end of 2020. It was another low key weekend, where we hung out at the house. They brought Penny for the first time, so the dogs had a blast playing in the backyard (and all over the house). Fortunately the weather was nice all weekend, so we got a lot of outside time for eating and playing. The swing that Lauren got for Christmas continues to be a hit with all the kids, which has been great.
We just hit the one year mark of the pandemic, which means Sophie is one year older! The very last “regular” get together we had with people was for her 10th birthday sleepover. What a year it’s been.
This year she celebrated on Saturday with two friends, Ruby and Sarah, who came over for a few hours for some crafts, pretzel making, pizza, cake and a movie. Fortunately it wasn’t a freezing day, so the kids could take their masks off and eat outside.
When the girls first arrived they made some bath bombs that were able to set by the time they left.
The girls making bath bombs
Dave then gave some pretzel making lessons and they made some Philly style pretzels to take home to their families.
pretzel folding lessons from Dave
pretzels pre-bake
the final product!
Birthday cake with her friends
On her actual birthday, which was a Tuesday, she did a scavenger hunt for her birthday presents (a new tradition started with Lauren’s last birthday). And that night the Sharp’s came over for dinner – homemade pizzas and chocolate mousse cups.
Sophie and Lauren in very disturbing anonymous masks that she had asked for.
On the morning of her birthday she did a scavenger hunt to find all 11 (!) of her birthday presents. The final present was monkey bars that Dave had made to attach to the swing set that we have in the backyard. She also got a hoverboard, which she rode on for most of the day (thank goodness we had good weather).
And for dinner we had (of course) pizza from Tony Roni’s. The Sharps came over for pizza and cake and a movie.
The big 8 year old!
on her new hoverboard
new monkey bars!
She picked out the cake and I made it – a three layered chocolate malted cake with toasted marshmallow “icing.”
This amazing, hilarious, active girls has brought so much joy to our lives over the last 8 years!
At the beginning of October we celebrated Kathy’s birthday with a small celebration at our house. Gotta love the low key COVID birthdays. The weather was beautiful so we ate outside and I made chocolate peanut butter brownies. I was a lovely family evening.
The first day of school was also Dave’s 41st birthday. As a result, it was a pretty low key celebration. We had a family dinner and the girls and I made him a Peppermint Pattie cake (his request). I have to say, it turned out pretty well – very decadent.
The Peppermint Pattie cake – we melted and baked patties into it, and then the girls decorated the top with more patties. It was pretty amazing.
My birthday was very low key this year – partially because of the coronavirus and partially because I turned 41. Who cares about 41 really? We spent the day at the house and my big present was a bench for the backyard, which I love.
Here are a few shots from the lovely evening in the backyard. We enjoyed some champagne, takeout from the Guardhouse in Gladwyne, and some good snuggles on my new bench 🙂
The girls made him some homemade treats, which he gobbled up. He’s slow these days, but still likes to go out for a walk most days, even if he can only make it a few houses before we need to turn back. He had his annual check up recently and the vet said that his heart still sounds good. His front legs give him some trouble, and lately he’s been losing his balance a bit, but overall, he’s a happy old man who has lived a good, long life 🙂
The girls made him homemade dog treats in the shape of hearts.
