Happy 2nd Birthday, Lily!

My sweet baby girl turned two on Friday! I just love watching how much she grows and changes every day. She has such a BIG personality for such a little munchkin and she certainly knows how to light up a room. Our weekend didn't go quite as planned but we got everything in eventually. We didn't end up doing very much on Friday (her actual birthday). Eric had his firm party that night, so the kiddos spent the evening with Grandma and Grandpa Millner. She got cupcakes at school and I think there was cake at Grandma's house too. The original plan was for the party to be at our house Saturday evening, but Lily started throwing up Saturday afternoon. Poor thing was miserable and we didn't want to expose anyone else. Luckily it seemed to pass quickly and so far the rest of us are clear. We did manage a smaller gathering on Sunday when Lily had been vomit free for 24 hours and no one else had come down with it.

It's hard having Lily's birthday right on top of Christmas. Last year we felt like so many things got lost in the jumble of her birthday on top of the holiday. There were toys that never got played with just simply due to the mass influx of everything all at once. This year we decided to get Lily clothes (she is already a clothes horse) and a toddler bedding set. Our crib converts to a toddler bed and eventually out to a full size bed. Lily is just slightly obsessed with Minnie Mouse and I found a cute bedding set that will blend with the decor already in her room. Since we switched to a big girl bed, we also had to get rid of the pacifier. Both of my kids have taken one only for naps and bedtime and oral development dictates that they disappear at 2. So far she has done well with the transition. We've made such a big deal out of the BIG girl bed and how big girls don't sleep with pacifiers that she seems to be transitioning just fine. We'll see if that holds true as the week progresses!

By far the biggest hit of the birthday weekend was a princess play tent from Grandma and Grandpa Millner. She LOVES it and spends so much time crawling in and out. The cat has also taken quite a shine to the tent. It's his new hidey hole for pouncing anyone that dares walk past!


Big girl in her big girl bed. I think she needs more Minnie's!










Opening family presents on Saturday once she started feeling better.

I guess I'm an every other month poster...

Does anyone else feel like life is perpetually on fast forward? Every time I turn around and think about updating the blog I look at the date of my last post and it's been almost 2 months! I guess that's what happens when you have two kids and work 4 days a week. Add a t-ball schedule, Bible study schedule and family into all of that and life seems to fly by.

September started off with a bang in our house. Joshua's birthday (also shared with his cousin Mason) comes at the end of a very busy birthday filled August in our family. We haven't combined the boys parties since they were tiny as they go to different schools and have different friends. Their birthday weekend is always filled with parties with family and friends and is enough to wear anybody out! This year, we had the added stress of Eric having surgery the day before the party. He had a cyst come up in his neck right above his collarbone back in March. It showed up on the heals of a nasty bought of strep and a raging sinus infection so I thought it might have been a swollen node from all the drainage. I told him to keep an eye on it and let me know if it didn't go away in a couple of weeks. He never mentioned it again and I forgot about it for the most part. He brought it to my attention again in June when we got away for our trip. It was still there and looked larger to me. That coupled with some very rapid weight loss raised a lot of red flags and I nagged him until he finally took himself to the doctor to get it looked at. As a side note, what is it with men and going to the doctor? Anyway, a round of blood work and CT to rule out Hodgkins ensued since there is a family history. All of that came back ok but we still didn't know what it was. We went to an ENT for a needle biopsy and they drained 16 cc of fluid out of it. The biopsy came back clean but the cyst filled with fluid less than 12 hours after it was drained. So, the first available surgery date they had just happened to be the Friday before Joshua's already scheduled party. The next available date was 6 weeks later...so we took it. We didn't really discuss the surgery with Joshua until a few days before and didn't go into any detail until the night before. I just happened to overhear Eric describing what they were going to do to him and realized that he didn't realize what was really going to happen. He thought it would be IV sedation like his wisdom teeth. I had to explain (12 hours before surgery) that it was actually general anesthesia! I have never seen my poor husband look so much like a deer in the headlights. He hadn't thought to ask the questions during his pre-op visits and I figured he knew what going to a surgery center meant. I guess I take my medical knowledge for granted in theses situations. Anyway, Eric's surgery went very well. The cyst turned out to be a branchial cleft cyst in an unusual location and Eric is healing nicely. He even went to the party and the t-ball game the next day. The worst part of all of it was the no lifting for 2 weeks post surgery. Lily did NOT understand that situation at all and made her displeasure well known.

By the time Eric was back to full strength, September was gone and we were off and running with October. I love October. We have a pumpkin farm across the street from our church so it's become a family tradition to visit the pumpkin patch, go through the corn maze, eat fresh made kettle corn and buy a pumpkin or two for carving later in the month. I also had the challenge of hunting down TWO costumes for Joshua this year. Joshua informed me in June that he wanted to be an astronaut for Halloween. I thought that sounded like a pretty go idea since he wants to be an astronaut. I started looking at costumes and realized we had a problem, most of them were heavy, thick AND expensive! We ended up compromising on the orange flight suit and it's a good thing we did since it was still 75 degrees out while we were trick or treating. Joshua's school does Reformation Day instead of Halloween and they could dress as a character from the Bible or a animal created by God. I was quickly informed that Joshua wanted to be an alligator. It is almost impossible to find an alligator costume for an older child. I could find them for infants just about anywhere. I finally found a good costume for a decent price online and it all turned out well. Miss Lily was Minnie Mouse and LOVED the whole trick or treating experience. After every house she would look at me and say "Mommy, I got candy!!!". Too cute! We also went to the Dallas Arboretum for the first time in the fall. We usually hit the bloom festival in the spring so we decided to see how it looked in the fall. They also had a really neat Cinderella pumpkin village this year and the kids loved it.







Joshua played t-ball for his third season. His team from the spring stayed together for the most part and moved up to the 6 and under league. It's still t-ball but they can get thrown out and they start to keep score. Joshua still loves the game and his coach is amazing. He has tons of patients with the boys and really teaches the to play for the love of the game which can be hard to find these days. Joshua will play again in the spring and is already looking forward to it. I don't know what I'll do when Lily gets old enough to join in on the fun. It's hard enough doing practice twice a week and a game every Saturday with just one.

Joshua is also about to have another first experience and I'm not sure I'm ready! His school is out for the entire week of Thanksgiving. Lily's is open and Eric and I obviously have to work most of the week. So, my parents are headed into town for the weekend and will take Joshua home with them. It's our year to be in Midland for Thanksgiving, so we'll join them Wednesday evening. I'm not sure who's more excited, Joshua or my Mom. She has a trip to the planetarium and the Confederate Air Force Museum planned as well as baking and all sorts of other activities. It's going to be so strange to just have Lily in the house for a couple nights before we join everyone else for the holiday. It'll be great for Joshua. He's been feeling very much the older brother plagued by a little sister lately. I think he's craving some alone time and special attention! I think it'll be the first step to many Midland visits for summer vacations and so on.

Happy 5th Birthday!

My sweet boy turned 5 today. How can this be? It feels like I brought him home from the hospital yesterday. Time seems to be passing far too quickly. Joshua is a funny, caring, inquisitive, goofy boy. He asks more questions than anyone else I know and I am often at a loss to explain things to him in a way that he can understand. I know I'm not the only one that he stymies..grandparents, teachers... This kid has a never ending thirst for knowledge and asks about things that I'm sure most other kids his age never think about. He LOVES baseball, enjoys vacuuming the house for me and is very interested in helping me cook. He can crack eggs with the best of them!

One recent big change is a new school. Joshua was admitted to Covenant Christian Academy this year and he loves it! The transformation I've seen in him this last month has been wonderful. He's so much more confident and truly loves going to school each day. I can't wait to see what else this year holds for him. The have language classes twice a week (right now it's German), art class, music class, PE and library time in addition to all the regular stuff they do in the classroom with the main teacher. His teacher is amazing and such a blessing. I think we are in for an exciting year!






Joshua's main request for his birthday this year was a lizard. I'm not even sure where he came up with the idea, but he's been hounding us for months! Every trip to the library results in lizard care books and stories that involve reptiles in some way. Eric and I discussed it at some length and decided that he was indeed old enough to take care of something "on his own." We picked a Green Anole lizard to start with, mostly because they are inexpensive, easy to find and relatively easy to care for. Also, green is Joshua's favorite color as he will tell anyone that will listen. So we are proud to introduce Verde to the menagerie...

20 Months!

My sweet and sassy little Lily turned 20 months old today. How is it possible that we are a mere 4 months away from 2? I am astounded at how much she has changed in the past few months. Since we had her ears tubed in February, Lily's vocabulary has exploded. She went from a simple mama, dada, bubba to several word sentences over night. She loves to order the dogs, cat and her brother around. In the mornings when I tell everyone to head downstairs to get their stuff, I am soon parroted by a sing song toddler voice saying "Lily Josua go downstairs. Josua get bapack. Want milk car mommy." Fragmented sentences but she knows exactly what to do and where to go and what she wants! She is also following 2-3 step directions, knows some colors, likes to sing part of the ABC song, Row Row Row your boat and can count to 10 more or less. Sometimes she skips a few numbers but I've heard the entire 1-10 before. She is finally starting to get some more hair and it is gloriously curly and a beautiful shade of red. She LOVES to have her hair done and likes to have "pretties" put in it. She also likes to have her toe nails painted pink and sits pretty still while I do it. I definitely have a girly girl. She loves to look at shoes if we are out shopping and also has a thing for jewelry. She has a plethora of plastic play bracelets and even a small necklace or two that she asks to wear regularly.

She got a couple of small dolls for her birthday and Christmas and she is starting to play with them, talk to them and push them around in her shopping cart and stroller. Granted, the doll is usually under the shopping cart or upside down but it's the thought that counts right?!? The most shocking thing she's done so far is ask to go on the potty and actually use it, unprompted. We are still a ways away from being potty trained but I think she will be much easier than Joshua. He wasn't really aware of much in that department at this age.

Some of the early tantrums and power struggles seem to be calming down a little as well. It seemed like she hit the terrible twos at 13 months and was throwing tantrums daily for a little while. I don't know if her ears had anything to do with it or not but I'm SO glad that it seems to be subsiding. She still tests her boundaries and gives me "attitude" here and there but it's nothing like it was a few months ago. I'm hoping maybe we've passed that for a little while...well, a girl can dream anyway!



Lily loves to wear mommy's shoes and usually has them on the correct feet!


Playing computer games with Grandma and Joshua


So many curls!

New Orleans

Preservation Hall on Bourbon Street



Bourbon Street just coming to life



Gator!



Laura, a Creole Plantation



Oak Alley, a French style plantation

Tomorrow marks our 7th Anniversary. I can hardly believe that it's been that long! Time seems to be on fast forward these days. To celebrate this year we decided to go away. Eric and I haven't been away on vacation with just the two of us since Joshua was 21 months old. Needless to say, it was time! We are very fortunate to have Eric's parents here in town and willing to take on our two kids, two dogs and crazy cat. Eric had a possible trial coming up on the 20th so we weren't able to make plans until we knew if the case was going to settle ahead of time or not. About 6 weeks ago it settled and our great search for a get away commenced. We looked into air fare and immediately decided it had to be somewhere in driving distance. It's become so expensive and such a hassle to fly these days! We finally decided on New Orleans. I had never been there and Eric hadn't been in about 20 years.

We had a great time and it was WONDERFUL to be kid free for a few days. New Orleans was certainly different. I've decided it's somewhere to visit once and say you did it but probably not a repeat destination. For starters, the city is dirty. We saw more nasty things lying in the street or on the sidewalk than I care to think about. We walked down Bourbon Street just to check it off the list and I realized what a sheltered life I have led! It was such a random assortment of businesses all mixed together without making any sense. There were very nice looking restaurants next door to strip clubs or adult content stores. The people working in the clubs didn't stay in the club either! We saw more eye opening things than I have ever seen walking down a street and police officers were everywhere! The open containers were also a little shocking. Everywhere in the city you could walk up to the bar and walk around with your drink. Definitely not something we see here. We stayed on the edge of the French Quarter to be close to everything and our hotel was pretty nice but we discovered that southern hospitality does not extend to that area. Everyone seemed perpetually pissed off or maybe they were just hung over? It was like we were in New York!

We did the usual touristy things in the Quarter. Cafe Du Monde was mouth watering with their fresh beignets and Cafe Au Lait. We walked along the Mississippi River, went to the Audobon aquarium, went to the WW II museum, the Louisiana State history museum and Preservation Hall. We also ate a a couple of restaurants owned by Chef John Besh and they were fabulous! In fact all the food was wonderful. So much yummy seafood to be had!

Two of the days we were there we ventured out of the Quarter and out of the city a little. The first day we took a swamp tour and saw some alligators. I must say, I really enjoyed the swamp. It's not at all like I thought. Hollywood has certainly painted a grim picture of the swamp...giant bugs, nasty smells, ravenous gators. I never knew that true swamps had tides. The only bugs we saw were dragon flies and it smelled a heck of a lot better than the city! We saw quite a few gators but they stayed hidden until baited with marshmallows or hot dogs. Our guide said they have kept track of all the gator attacks in Louisiana since 1942 and there have only been 12, non of them fatal and all of them provoked by humans. Crocodiles are agressive but alligators are docile for the most part. I would definitely recommend a swamp tour and would do it again!

Our second outing was to two plantations. One was a typical Creole plantation and was still a working sugar cane plantation. The second was also a sugar plantation but was French. Both were fascinating and very pretty. The French plantation was more of what comes to mind when I hear the word plantation but we really liked both tours. They were so different and just a few miles apart. The Creole plantation, Laura, was also where the original stories for Brer Rabbit were told and recorded.

Our last night in town we drove an hour over to Gulf Port, Mississippi to see one of Eric's cousins for dinner. We kind of wished we had split our time a little differently so we could have seen more of Gulf Port. New Orleans was fun but we don't like to gamble and the bar scene has never held much appeal...and that's pretty much what New Orleans is all about. NOT a family friendly place by any means. IF we ever go back it will be a stop on the way to somewhere else and the kids will have to be MUCH older...like maybe college!

All in all it was a great trip. We were able to remember what it was like to be just us...no schedules, nap times, bed times or crankiness. The kids had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa Millner so a good time was had by all.

Where has my baby gone?

This morning marked a big milestone in Joshua's little life. He graduated from preschool! He will still attend the school for the next two months, but come August he is leaving Daisy Hill Academy and moving on to the next phase of his educational years. It's kind of bittersweet. We are really excited about the school he will begin attending next year but he's been at Daisy Hill since he was 3 months old! Several of the kids in his class have been there together since they were in the infant room and all of them are moving on to kindergarten or another year of Pre-K due to late birthdays. Joshua falls in the latter group. His birthday is 6 days past the cut off for Kindergarten but we opted to switch schools this year since most of his friends are moving schools and moving on as well. I almost broke down in tears this morning when he came and told me it would be weird to be at school next year without some friends that he's known his WHOLE life. It seems like I just went back to work from maternity leave with him just yesterday....yet here he stands a wonderfully funny, smart, handsome boy. All traces of his baby face are gone and he is going to be 5 come September...

Joshua and Aunt Laura (who was also his teacher this year)

Being serious

I think we'll stop celebrating birthdays....

Or at least stop making plans to celebrate birthdays. The first several this year haven't turned out so hot! This has absolutely nothing to do with age, in fact that's never really bothered me. It's more to do with illness...

This all started about a month ago when my parents came to town to celebrate my Dad's 70th birthday. We had a baby sitter all lined up and we were headed to enjoy a wonderful dinner at Lonesome Dove. Typhoid Lily struck and a nasty stomach virus and several days later we were all better. The NEXT weekend, we were supposed to go out with Eric's family to celebrate his birthday. That day, his mother tripped over a shrubbery while jogging, broke her wrist and had surgery to place 4 pins by 6:00pm. She is in external fixation for 6 weeks and a cast for at least a month after.

That brings us to my birthday last week. I love birthdays! If you've never read The 5 Love Languages by Gary Chapman, I highly recommend it. Anyway, my primary love language is gifts. This means I not only feel loved by receiving gifts but I get great satisfaction out of giving them as well. I digress... Monday when I picked Lily up from school they told me she had run a low grade (99) fever but when they checked again 45 minutes later she was back to normal. The fever cut off at her school is 100.4. I checked her several times that night and the next morning and she was normal. Tuesday afternoon they called my at 3:45 and said she was running 100.9. I scrambled to reschedule my last patient, arranged for Eric to be home with her the next day and picked her up. She was warm but not overly fussy, she ate a normal dinner and played so I figured she had a cold. The next afternoon it was up to 102 so I decided it was time to call the pediatrician since it was continuing to rise. My birthday was the next day and I got to spend it in the pediatricians office where Lily was diagnosed with strep. Can this really be happening again?!?!? Not only that, but instead of bouncing back after the first dose of antibiotics, Lily continued to run a fever of 102-103 until Sunday. GACK!! She has been one fussy, cranky, out of sorts baby. If she wasn't being held she was SCREAMING at deafening levels. I think my eardrums are still recovering. I feel like I've been to a rock concert without the benefit of enjoying an awesome band.

We still celebrated and had dinner and it all turned out okay. However, we've decided that it's in everyone's best interest if we just happen to "bump" into each other with cake and presents in hand. I don't think we can take anymore celebrating...

To sedate or not to sedate...that is the question.

I'm not really sure how I managed to swing it this year, but I got to get away by myself again! I went once at the end of February to surprise my sweet friend, Debbie, for her birthday. We had a wonderful weekend in Seattle despite record COLD temperatures. This past weekend, I got to sneak away to San Antonio for a continuing ed class on enteral conscious sedation. My office closed down Thursday last week and we go back tomorrow (3/29). I left town mid-morning Thursday and hit the road by myself to San Antonio. I haven't been on a road trip solo since before Joshua was born. It was really kind of peaceful in the car! I went at my own pace, stopped to shop in San Marcos and didn't have to worry about snacks, naps, diapers or screaming fits. I got an added bonus of catching up with a couple of my classmates from dental school. I hadn't seen one in 5 years and it had been at least 3 since I had seen the other. We had a blast and it was just like old times minus the stress of school!

My class was very informative. I have been wanting to take the class for quite some time as something to broaden my practice of dentistry. I am longing to get into the world of implants and most people don't want to face a drill going into their jaw without some sort of pharmacological therapy. So, off to class I went. I figure this is a stepping stone to a distant goal. Funny thing about that first step... I quickly realized that I have so much to do to get my office ready for this sort of procedure. For the most part the equipment is there, it's staff training that I now have to conquer. Not to mention increase in professional liability insurance, ordering of drug log books, DEA documents. The list goes on and on. So, I do plan to sedate at some point, I'm just not sure when that will be.

The rest of my long weekend has been wonderful. I came back Saturday night after the class finished and we spent the day Sunday as a family at the Arboretum for the Dallas Bloom Festival. I took a ton of pictures but we got rained out and chilled to the bone before I got to my favorite part of the garden. Who would have thought?!?!? The temp when I left San Antonio on Saturday was 88 and I think we only made it to 50 yesterday. Today we took the kids to school for a short while so Eric and I could practice for our upcoming rifle tournament. Oh yes, I will be shooting in a rifle tournament in 2 weeks. I phrase I thought I would never say. Anyway, after a leisurely early lunch with actual uninterrupted conversation we picked up the kids and headed to the zoo. We had an absolutely perfect day. It was cool and sunny and all the animals except the lions were out and active. Going back to work tomorrow is going to be tough!



Bloom Festival


Checking out the Meerkats.


Cruising the zoo in style

Typhoid Lily

It's been an interesting week around the Millner household. Unfortunately, for the most part I don't mean interesting in a good way. We've all been struck by a nasty little bug courtesy of Miss Priss but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Last Tuesday was my Dad's 70th birthday! He decided that he wanted to come to town for his birthday and go out to eat at our (mine and Eric's) favorite fancy dinner place, Lonesome Dove. The food there is wonderful and we've gone for many an anniversary or special occasion over the years. Mom and Dad are often here when we go and spend the night spoiling their grandkids! So we made our reservation and Mom and Dad came in last Thursday. I got a call at work that afternoon, about the time they were set to arrive, informing me that Lily had thrown up all over the place and needed to go home. I finished with what was thankfully my last patient for the day and scuttled off to collect poor Lily. I came in expecting to find her pail and clammy but she looked like her normal happy self. The only evidence of her mishap was the soiled shirt in a plastic bag. I brought her home and sat down with her and she had no interest in resting. She played, babbled and giggled like usual. About an hour after we got home she demanded a snack, ate it all and then had a sizable dinner. I figured she must have gagged herself on something because she sure wasn't acting under the weather. She went back to school the next day with no problems what so ever. In fact, everyone went about their normal business on Friday. I ran errands and shopped with my Mom, Dad tagged along for a little while and Eric was at work. We had a nice dinner Friday night that I fixed at home and no one seemed any worse for wear.

I guess it was the calm before the storm. I got sick in the middle of the night that night and stayed in bed ALL day Saturday. I haven't been that sick in a VERY long time. I think I got the brunt of the bug. Saturday night both of my parents fell victim to the evil bug and Sunday caught Eric and Joshua. I think I have know bleached my house top to bottom 3 times this week. I have washed everything that I can think of....sheets, blankets, towels, cups, pacifiers. If it stood still long enough it was thoroughly cleansed! I was just thinking the other day how easy we've had it this winter. Aside from Lily's ear infections we have all been healthy. I think we made up for it in spades this past weekend! It may feel like spring here but it's still winter for another week or so. Needless to say, we did NOT get to go out for fancy birthday dinner. Maybe next time.... My parents usually head home on Monday when they come for the weekend. I was so thankful they were able to stay on an extra day to recover and be home with Joshua. This week has been spring break here and I am always slammed with patients and really can't miss work. I am still tired and worn out and I think it's from having to hop into a hectic schedule right after being so sick. We're all still a little off our game but things are definitely getting back to normal.

Thursday was Eric's birthday so we did a small birthday dinner with just us and were supposed to go out for the big family celebration tonight. You notice I said SUPPOSED to. We are all hale and hearty, thankfully, but my mother-in-law fell while running this morning and broke her arm and wrist in two places. She underwent surgery late this afternoon to have 4 pins placed and another birthday dinner went on the back burner. She is doing well and was even released to go home tonight. She has quite the contraption in her arm for the next month and a cast for a month after. I guess from now on we'll do birthday dinners on the spur of the moment, it's safer for all of us that way!

Typhoid Lily had her 15 month check up today. It's a couple weeks late since she had her ear tubes placed the morning of her original check up appointment. She has grown 3 inches since her 12 month check! She is now 33 inches tall and still only 22 pounds. She's a string bean just like her brother. Her ear tubes are working wonders. She has been babbling SO much more and has slept through the night every night since surgery! This is a MAJOR improvement. Before, she would wake us up in the middle of the night at least twice a week. She has added several new words to her little vocabulary. She says mama, dada, bubba, she-she (Hershey), Cocoa, kitty-cat, puppy, baby, bye bye, uh-oh, cracker, poopy, milk, cup, more, fish, done, down, grandma, grandpa, diaper, chair, shoe, eye, hi and the current favorite NO! She has also started telling me when she needs a new diaper. Her descriptive despite her status is always "poopy" but she will head to the gate on the stairs, point up and tell us poopy. When I ask if she needs a new diaper she'll nod yes and rattle the gate to get up. She has 15 teeth now and number 16 is just days from breaking through. She does NOT like to have her teeth brushed but she loves to have her hair (more like peach fuzz) done. I pretend to put mousse or gel on my hands and rub it on the back of her head. She is very much a girlie girl and loves bracelets, necklaces, purses and shoes. If we pass the shoe department in a store she will select a pair and desperately try to get them on her feet! I think I'm in trouble and I know Eric is! One bat of her big blue eyes and Eric turns to silly putty.

Do you hear what I hear?

Lily had surgery this morning to have tubes placed in both ears. I am praying that this will put an end to the non stop ear infections! She started getting ear infections at 4 months and has had 7 (that we know of) since! Even at well baby visits, our pediatrician always remarked that she had fluid on her ears. The last infection took two rounds of antibiotics to clear and she still had the ever present fluid. I also noticed this last go around that Lily didn't seem to be hearing very well. All of a sudden we could sneak up behind her and she would jump when she turned and realized we were there. We've also noticed that her speech patterns are behind in comparison to Joshua at this age. I realize that all kids develop at their own rate, but Joshua was starting to put two words together and was pretty clear. Lily is still on simple words and doesn't combine any words for early phrasing. The ENT assured me that her speech would take off once we got her head out of a barrel!

Lily did remarkably well for surgery. We had to be there at 6:00 this morning and she couldn't have her usual cup of milk and oatmeal. I figured she'd be a real bear but she giggled and laughed in the car all the way to the surgery center. She did NOT like having her blood pressure taken and she spent a good deal of her time trying to pry the pulse ox off her big toe. I am amazed how quickly is was all said and done. They took her back to the OR at 7:10 and the surgeon was out and talking to us at 7:14. We were home by 8:30. We had one round of vomiting in the car on the way home. I think the motion of the car was too much with all the drugs in her system. Since then she's eaten a normal lunch and has taken two lengthy naps. I've gotten a lot more done today around the house then I expected! I imagine she'll be back to normal tomorrow and will be able to hear all that we hear for once!

Fast and Furious Winter...

Since it's been over two months since my last post and I was woefully behind then, I'm not even going to try to catch up with pictures. I'll post some current shots but it seems to take me forever to get pictures to load into the blog post and then I have to move everything around. Maybe I'm doing it all wrong? Anyway, it seems like this winter is flying by. Actually it seems like everything went in fast forward as soon as Halloween was over! Thanksgiving, Lily's birthday, Christmas, New Year's, Valentine's Day all flew by at an alarming rate. Everything seems like it passed in one big blur of fun activities, family togetherness and travel! I can't believe that next weekend is the last weekend in February and March is looming in the not too distant future! So what all have we been up too? Well, here it goes....



I'll start with the youngest. Lily is a blossoming, sassy, independent 14 month old! She started walking at 11 months and is now running and trying to climb on everything. This leads to a veritable landscape of bruises on her forehead in varying shades of blue, purple and yellow. She is quite taken with the cat lately, much to Sylvester's dismay. He puts up with a lot but draws the line when she tries to ride him. This leads to a mix of scratch marks in amongst the bruises. I shudder to think what people might think from time to time. She gets into trouble so fast, that I simply can't get to her to stop the inevitable bump or scratch. Her next big adventure is to have tubes placed in both ears on March 4. Poor baby has had 7 (yes...7) ear infections since April. This last round required two rounds of antibiotics to clear up and she still has fluid on her ears. Even at well baby visits she has always had fluid on her ears. I am worried that it is starting to affect her speech. I know all kids develop at different rates, but Lily is much further behind verbally than Joshua was at this point. I have noticed that her hearing when she has an infection is affected and seems to be more affected with each infection. She still has a growing vocabulary but the words aren't very clear. We know what she is saying but I'm not sure anyone else does. So far she says mama, dada, bubba (for Joshua), puppy, ball, book, bye bye, uh-oh, down, gramma, grampa, banana and snack.




This past month and a half has been spent looking at school's for Joshua for next year. He is in pre-K now, but with his birthday falling a week past the cut off for kindergarten, he will be doing another year of pre-K. We have been happy with his daycare/preschool up to this point, but he has outgrown it and it's time to move on. We were informed on Friday that he has been accepted at Covenant Christian Academy for the fall and we are thrilled. They were are number 1 pick and I think Joshua will really blossom and flourish there. He seems to be a pretty bright little guy but gets bored if not challenged. I think we've been lacking on the challenge part of his education this year at his current school and I'm really excited to see what the new school will hold for him. Joshua is starting swim lessons next month and I'm hoping to undo some damage from a previous swim school. I started Joshua in water baby classes at 6 months and a local swim school that is very popular. He progressed and was doing fantastic until just before he turned 3. At that point he was starting to push off from the wall and actually swim out to me. The instructor wanted him to work on holding his breath longer and everything culminated with the instructor actually pushing Joshua back under water as he was reaching for me and holding him under! I have never been so furious in all my life! Joshua, of course, was traumatized and we spent all of last summer just trying to get him to put his face back in the water. I have found a different swim school that is closer to us, cheaper and comes highly recommended. They are aware of what happened and have assured me that NOTHING like that will happen with them. I wouldn't push the issue so much except both sets of grandparents have pools in their backyards so it's imperative that he learn to swim. We also started t-ball this past weekend. Eric opted to be assistant coach this go around and the head coach is awesome! Our first practice was a resounding success and Joshua is so excited about the season. He's on the Rangers so that helps too. He and Eric went to several games last season and watched the World Series. Since Joshua is a lefty, Eric is really hoping to cultivate a love a baseball.




Eric and I have been doing well. Seems like life is always going 90 miles an hour but we still make time to get out together. Both of us have taken up target shooting. In fact we each got a rifle for Christmas. We are doing our first tournament together in April! A couple of years ago I would have said you were nuts if you told me I would enjoy shooting, but I really do enjoy it. I could never hunt...but killing paper is fine by me! We are both looking forward to spring in general. I love all the tulips and daffodils that come out this time of year. The weather has been absolutely nuts this winter. 75 degree days in January followed by a 4 day freeze where the temperature didn't get above 20! NOT your normal Texas weather. I actually enjoyed the cold snap. I grew up in Colorado, so snow and ice don't really bother me. The rest of the city, however, flipped out! I don't remember the schools or businesses ever being closed for so many days in a row. My office even closed down for 4 out of the 5 snow/ice days!