The Park with Allison

Last week the weather here was so nice that the boys and I decided to meet some dear friends at the park. Kristin and Allison met us there for a lovely morning of play and food. My boys both adore Allison. Drew has always loved her, he called her "baby Allison" for the longest time. Once Cooper was born, Allison was torn between the Milliorn boys. I am afraid Cooper may win the affections of sweet Allison in the end, purely because of the age difference. Allison is only 7 months older than Cooper, but Drew is nearly 3 years older than Allison. We will worry about that heart break later, right now it is just sweet to see them playing together, and it gives Kristin and I time chance to talk.

Cooper is trying to share a pretzel with Allison.

Drew helping Allison down the slide.

Drew, just walking.

Cooper loved swinging.

Memory Lane

In December of 1990, I had surgery at the Texas Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas to treat scoliosis (curvature of the spine). It was 2 weeks before my 17th birthday, and I was a junior in high school. I remember my 5 days in the hospital very well (except the part when I was still pretty drugged up.) So imagine my surprise when I was asked to take part in a medical research study, following up on patents who have had scoliosis surgery 20-30 years ago. Really... was it really 19 years ago? Yep, I am that old. In talking to the surgeon who called to ask me to participate, I found out that 4 of the 5 doctors who treated me are still on staff at TSRH. How cool is that? So at the end of December I dropped the boys off at my parents house and drove to Dallas to have some Xrays taken, and have an exam done as part of the study. I didn't realize what a trip down memory lane it would be, how excited I would be about going back, or how little things had changed in the years since I had been there. While I was there they tried to get my main doctor to come down to say hello, but he was in a meeting so they couldn't get in touch with him. I really wish I could have seen him... he was the one I remembered.

I saw that sign every time we drove there for appointments... about 4 years total.

This hangs in the lobby. It is the same one that was there when I was a patient. They also have always had popcorn in the lobby. That smell brought back all the memories of being there 19 years ago.

All the sections of exam rooms have a theme. These have not changed a bit.

I spent a lot of time napping in rooms just this when I was a teenager, waiting to see the doctor. I remember the appointment when they decided I needed surgery was the longest we ever waited.

Even though at 17 I hated having surgery, and all that went with it, I always new that TSRH was a great place for kids, and I actually remember my time there fondly. I was one of the lucky ones that was only there for a few days and was able to see my family everyday. There were girls in my recovery room who had been there for months, who hadn't seen their families in weeks. There was something going on everyday to get these kids out of the rooms and allow them to have some fun. Instead of sterile white walls, everything is brightly colored and geared for kids.

Hopefully I don't ever need the services of TSRH for Drew or Cooper, but if I do, I know they will be in great hands.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year 2010!

I hope each of you have a new year full of love and laughter. Thank you for being apart of my life, and my families life. I am so blessed to have such a great family, wonderful friends, the most amazing husband and the sweetest little boys I have ever met. God has truly blessed my life beyond measure. Happy 2010!

Christmas Day

It has been so long since I posted anything to this blog that I decided to just start with now, and not try to catch up. Here are just a few pictures from Christmas Day. We spent the morning at home opening gifts, and waited until after lunch to head to the ranch. We had to wait, we were actually waiting for the ice to melt off the roads.

Cooper with his new puppy dog and chair from Santa.

Drew trying to get Cooper to open his gift. A stuffed Yoda.

The boys in their chairs. We got Drew's chair on his 1st birthday.

Drew in his new Star Wars shirt. He loves all things SW right now.

This is actually all I have from Christmas day. I never even took my camera out of the car at the ranch. But I will try to do better in 2010. Happy New Year everyone.

Look What I Can Do

Early this week while I was surfing the net, I mean working in my office, Drew came in and said "Mommy, you have to come see what Cooper is doing." So being the good mother that I am, so course I rushed right in. This is what I found.

Up until this point Cooper had never even attempted to get up the stairs. Which, to be honest, while a little troubling, has also pretty nice. Most babies head straight for the stairs, but we made it 13.5 months without even an attempt. Now he is climbing the stairs. He got this far today without me even hearing him. The other night, with all of us cheering him on he climbed all the way to the top. Gone are the days for not worrying about what he is doing.

He is always so proud of himself.

Drew has been a great coach for the stair climbing. He is such a sweet big brother.

Not only is he climbing stairs now, but he is pulling up to his knees to play with stuff. I found him like this today. He loves playing with the doors to the DVD cabinet. Now he can actually pull upon the drawer and use it to pull up to play with what is inside.

Maybe I should put some of his toys in there instead of DVDs

I just love the look on his face.

So our little one is making progress. ECI was here yesterday and they were very happy with his new skills. He still has a ways to go to catch up to his peers, but he is getting there. I never thought I would be so happy to have to keep a kid off the stairs, but this time I am so happy about it.

Carving the Pumpkin

So the after we went to the pumpkin patch, we of course had to carve the pumpkin. We had such a busy week last week that even though we bought it on Tuesday, the pumpkin remained uncarved until Friday night. Drew wanted so badly to help, so we let him to some of the yucky clean out part, but what he really wanted to do was the actual carving. No, we didn't let our 41 year old play with the knife, so he just had to sit and watch for most of it. But he loved the finished product. Of course he had to have it carved like Darth Vader! So you can see the final version of our Darth Pumpkin below.

The Pumpkin Patch

Last week the weather finally got nice enough to take Drew and Cooper to a pumpkin patch. Drew really just wanted to pick the pumpkin we were going to carve, and Cooper could have cared less, but they did humor me for a few pictures.