June 2009 Pictures

Another month has come and gone and as always it's just pictures that help us remember. As such, there are a ton of June 2009 pictures here. Also, some video here.

Highlights:
- Baby Ella turned 6 months old. She's got her military crawl down and is on the rice cereal now.
- This is the first month of Coen's life when he has been tumor and cast free! And, this week he fell asleep by himself every single night without Dad or Mom in the bedroom. Life changing. :)
- The family had some fun nights out to places like the Big Top Candy Shop and Homeslice Pizza in South Austin and everyone's favorite the new Berry Cool frozen yogurt place right here in Cedar Park. Check them all out. Highly recommended.
- Coen and Jayd both buzz-cut (1/2") their hair for the summertime.

- Finally, we are preparing for our annual summer trip somewhere. This year it's going to be "West Coast Tour 2009" as we'll be driving from Austin TX to Orange County CA to stay with Jayd's family. From there, we'll also be headed to Utah and to a week in Las Vegas (thank you recession for a killer deal on a week at a resort). The "home office" job makes it all possible but also kills Jayd at the same time as he juggles it all. :)

Happy 1/2 Birthday Ella !!!

Yesterday was Ella's 1st 1/2 Birthday. She's already six months old. It's amazing. Happy Birthday baby girl. :)

Every guy has to learn the skills...

Coen loves his friend Gabby (or, as he says, "Abby").

Here's Coen trying to learn important life skills at a very early age.
Every red-blooded male alive knows this routine...

Step One: The Couch

Step Two: Whisper something sweet into her ear.

Step three: "There's no time like the present!". Go for it...

Little man, I hope that's the last rejection you ever have to face. :)

May 2009 Wrap-Up

Well, like most months these days, May 2009 seemed to fly by. That's bad news for Tauni because May is the month of our Wedding Anniversary, Mother's Day, and her Birthday (yeah, can you say expensive month?). Now I don't have to do anything nice for her until Christmas!

May brought Coen losing his cast, walking again, and generally feeling a ton better. It's been amazing. Ella continues to grow, is sleeping better, and is a proficient little military crawler now. Gone are the days of her immobility. For such a small little thing, she a strong, independent soul. And while she's still a sleep-time BFF with her dad, it's mom that gets all of her 'grab the chin and land a sweet kiss' moments. Yeah, dad is jealous.

Ella showing how she spends the bulk of her days:

Ella dolled up before Church:

Handsome Man Coen before Church:

Dad's favorite guy:

Through all of Coen's health struggles, he has co-slept with us.
This here is fairly typical of the sleeping arrangements at our house.

Mama's Day 2009. Our favorite meal: Steak & Spinach Salad.

Mama Tauni with her two babies.

Coen going for a "sneak peek". Kid worships icing.

Happy lad with some white frosting. The actual chocolate cake is entirely ignored.

Coen's First Steps 2.0

Yesterday, Coen walked on his own ("Walk by self, dada") for the first time since before his first surgery back in late January. Coen had walked for about two months before the surgeries to remove his tumor, but with severe pain that he would sadly pay for later (muscle spasms at night). Yesterday he walked and kept saying "no pain". Then he had a good night's sleep without the crazy spasms that we loathe so much. This is yet another step in the miracle process. It's amazing and needless to say, he loves it. We knew he'd start taking steps again soon, but figured it'd be about 3-4 weeks out. This means that he'll be ready to roll with his cousins in California this summer, which is definitely what we've been hoping for.

Coen's left-side hip and leg muscles are still really stiff and severely contracted. The physical therapist said that it will likely take about 1-2 years to work the muscles out. Coen is in PT every week and we do stretches at home with him everyday (which he hated at first and is now better about). It's going to be amazing to see his limp slowly work itself out. Nobody can perfectly predict the ultimate prognosis right now, but great progress continues to be made, so we're thrilled.

(Side note: Tauni says I sound like an uncaring deadbeat dad in this video, but the reality is that I was holding Ella while she slept and I likewise perhaps fell asleep as well. So, I'm not an uncaring deadbeat dad here, I'm just 3/4 asleep.)

Coen's Cast Is Off!!!

After ten weeks and two casts, Coen's little (and even smaller now) legs are liberated!

Today we had a morning appointment for Coen to have his cast removed by our awesome orthopedist Dr. Yandow. Coen wasn't thrilled when they brought in the "CastVac", but he honestly managed really well, going from scared to curious during the 15+ minutes that it took to remove his grisly cast.

Once the cast came off, an impressive stench came over the room. His legs looked like he'd been living in a foxhole for a few months. I felt bad when we found a leaf from one of the trees in our backyard in there (he loves to help me water the trees, lying on his belly to do it). The other lovely prize was a strand of mom's black hair. It's no wonder this kid was constantly grab our hands and having us scratch inside his cast. It's just a good thing he got that cast off before the summer heat crept in.

Within about 15 minutes of having his cast off, he wanted to try standing. Needless to say, his legs are really weak right now, but I imagine that he'll be standing against things in the next few days and then we'll see after that. He's a little trooper, so I know he will go for it. I just hope his body can keep up with his mind.

It's such a relief to have this phase of his recovery behind us. There is a lot of aggressive physical therapy in store for him (likely a couple of years), but we're making progress. Lots of things still need to heal (femoral head needs to stabilize and 'marry into' the hip socket, the pelvic bone needs to finish healing, etc.), but it's happening one step at a time and we're immensely grateful for that.

Thank you very much to everybody (coast to coast and across the oceans) that has sent their love and most importantly their prayers. They are working and we're humbled by that. We'll be eternally grateful to you.

Lots of photos here: Cast coming off / Still in his cast.
Videos here.

Tauni & The Two Tons

Thanks to some recent cleaning efforts, this old picture surfaced of Tauni and I from the summer of 2004 (what could rightfully be called the "summer of new love").

Perhaps even more embarrassing, we found a CD of the song we recorded together. At the time, I was still finishing my band's last CD (here) and Tauni would sometimes come to the painfully tedious mixing sessions that lasted two nights a week for about a year (after a year of recording). During this time, I was approached to record a song for a Janice Kapp Perry tribute CD that was to be released by Halestorm Entertainment (here). I hit Tauni up to sing on it and we sorted out one of the few Janice Kapp Perry songs that we knew.

When it came time to record, I enlisted the help of my friend Steve Brown (who recorded the final Arrogants CD referenced above). Tauni sang, I played guitar, bass, and sang a bit, and Steve played drums; thus was born "Tauni & The Two Tons". Here's the song (posted for posterity's sake, if nothing else).

Tauni & The Two Tons - "Song of Testimony" (Janice Kapp Perry cover).