A Hard Summer, Toddler Portraits, and an 80th Birthday

It has been a trying summer with lots of up and downs for my family.  I keep thinking that if we can just make it out of the season and into fall, we'll be OK; however, things keep coming up.  In the process, other troubling events smooth out, which I am thankful for.  We've all endured a lot of emotion, loss, pain, and some redemption this summer, so no matter how stressed or on edge I feel, I keep in mind that I'm not in this alone.  Instead, the rest of my family is having the same experiences; at different points, we each have been closer to the issue at hand, so we all just need to learn to support and lean on each other.

When I was in high school, my heart would go into a panic whenever the house phone rang.  Our family endured a lot of death in a short period of time, and I was always expecting the worst.  And it kept coming and always on holidays.  I feel like we've gotten wrapped up in a similar pattern that I hope stops soon.

I haven't written about everything that has happened.  While I am generally reasonably transparent on here, not all of the "events" are mine in full to disclose.  I recently learned more troubling news that has gotten me down.  However, I will say that my grandmother was successfully moved to a great assisted living community, one that she surprisingly seems to really love even though she before had out-right refused to even consider one.  Through some medication adjustments, the doctors were able to help her reach some form of stability amidst her delusions (thinking that people were trying to kill her, she had been in a desert for five years, she just got out of jail, she was the Queen of England, and so on).  At one point, we all worried that she was going to end up institutionalized for the rest of her life, but she was stable and grounded in reality (and not violent) enough to make the move.  Plus, her boyfriend is at the same assisted living place.  And he has made a great recovery with brain cancer!  See, I told you a lot has been going on with our family since the beginning of the summer!

I'm not saying the summer has been all bad.  We've had a lot of good times as a result of the hard, like our vacation to Myrtle Beach, lots of family time with both sides, and visiting friends.

This week, we spent a lot of time with the other side of the family--Christopher's.  His mom has been in town helping his sister get settled into her new apartment.  His mom had fun playing with Eliot at the park and also watched Eliot so Chris and I could see the new Batman movie.  Maybe I'll write about that later.

Eliot is really blessed to have two sets of grandparents that think the world of him.

Today, I took Eliot's 18-month portraits.  A little late, but two days before he turns 19 months, so still in time!  It is hard to catch shots of Eliot smiling.  He just doesn't smile for the camera; instead, he does this model face thing.  We tried something a little different today, though.  We let Eliot look at the iPad.  Instant smiles.

Just because I am always measuring time in photos, I looked back at Eliot's one year portraits.  Man, I didn't even notice how much he was changing.  Six months makes such a difference and goes so fast!

Can you believe that difference?  Good thing the kid finally grew some hair.

And for extra fun, here he is a year ago at six months.

 

For dinner, the whole Robinson family (us, his parents and sister, his aunt and uncle, and his cousins) headed over to Chris's grandma's assisted living place for her 80th birthday.  We got to eat out on their patio, so Eliot had plenty of room to run and play.  I got an instagram shot of all of the grandkids (and great-grandkid) with Glenna.  Although her Alzheimer's is progressing, I think she is doing great physically--I mean, the lady broke her hip and had it replaced just six weeks ago or so (did I mention this summer has been crazy?).  Chris's dad has been very dedicated to helping the best he can.  He has been coming to Lynchburg almost every weekend since then, taking her to doctor's appointments, and just sitting with her.  We hope to get some more answers about what we can do to further help her mind soon.

Things aren't always easy.  You take the bad with the good and try your best to make the bad better.  One thing is for sure:  we aren't alone in any of this and have family on all sides loving and caring for each other.