Happy Birthday to you!

Saturday was my Grandpa Pete's birthday, and we all showed up at the nursing home in the cafeteria area to celebrate with him. I worried that with all six great-grandkids things would get a little chaotic, but it went very smoothly! My Grandpa had a stroke about two (three?) years ago and hasn't been able to do very much talking, but he has recently regained some of his ability, and he was singing Happy Birthday right along with us. The kids thought it was great, and I appreciated it myself!! Connor, the one I least expected to be friendly and outgoing (he's a chatty little guy when HE wants to be...), was chattering away about all sorts of stuff to Grandpa Pete, and was happily hugging and kissing on his arm. It was very, very sweet!

I will admit I haven't been in very often to see my grandpa. Nursing homes intimidate me, and my grandpa's lack of understandable speech makes me nervous (not knowing how to respond to what he says, and not being able to come up with my own string of conversation to take up the slack...), and it's awkward showing up with kids in tow, while hanging out in his small, shared bedroom with nowhere to sit, etc. But the group of us meeting up in the cafeteria where there was plenty of room to sit, plenty of people to come up with conversation, and room for the kids to move around worked out really well! I hope we do it more often.

Here is a picture I took of the great-grandkids and my grandpa before we all headed out: