Laughing Baby

Baby tickle fight. Daddy - 1, Miller - 0.

2000 - 2009: A Decade in Review

On my way into work this morning, my favorite radio station was talking about the "decade in review" and what the big events were. With 2010 just around the corner, it got me to thinking about my own decade in review. A lot has happened since Lindsay, Will and I stood in downtown Austin as the ball dropped in 2000!

Here's a brief, somewhat chronological, in no way comprehensive list of the big events that came to mind first when I thought about the last decade.

2000

• I turned 21 (awesome).


• I started working at the Writing Center at UT.
  

2001

• I took RHE325M, the writing workshop that made me realize that I wanted to write professionally.


• I interviewed at Saturday Night Live (as an assistant), and sat in Lorne Michael's office.


• I graduated from UT with a BA in English.


• I left Austin and moved back to Dallas.


• I started working at good ol' THO and met Jen, Lisa, JP, Julie, Barbie, Elizabeth, and Adam - all of whom have definitely made the last decade more fun.


• Jana moves back to Texas.
  

2002

• Adopted Thor & Pumpkin.


• Moved in with my sweet angel, Jen.
  

2003

• Jen, Julie, Barbie, Kris, Cory and Cindy took a ski trip to Red River.


• Lisa and JP got married.


• Jen and I moved to Addison.


• Mom moves back to Texas.
  
• THO softball rules!
  

2004 (Busy year!)

• Jamie and Will got married.


• Met Mike - and all the amazing friends that came with him.


• Took my first trip to Mexico with Mike.


• Came back from Mexico, to find out THO was no longer in operation.


• Got my job at True, met Megan and Emily.


• Claire and Bryan got married.


• Mike bought our house.


• Stinky Sargent came with the house.


• Laid off from True.


• Started my job at Children's.


• Meri and Adam got married.
  

2005

• Took trip to Cozumel with Mike, celebrating our first anniversary.


• Moved in with Mike.


• Trip to New Orleans with Mike (a week before Hurricane Katrina).


• Started grad school and got engaged (same day).


• Took trip to Vegas for Julie's 30th with Jules, Jen, Barbie, and Elizabeth.

2006

• Watched the Longhorns win National Championship (GREATNESS).


• Got married in Cozumel; honeymooned in Playa Del Carmen.


• Adopted Vince Young Brant.


• Kristi and Joe got married in Playa Del Carmen.


• Left Children's and started job at Alliance Data.


• Took trip to San Francisco for Jen's 30th with Jen, Julie, Lisa, Barbie, Elizabeth, and Megan.

2007

• Adopted Sadie.


• Jackson Carter Linscomb born (my favorite baby boy in the world until March 2009 :P).


• Finished my MS in Organizational Strategy at UTD.


• Took trip to Cozumel with Mike to celebrate.
  

2008

• Finley Grace Lester born.


• Took trip to Fredricksburg for Lisa's b-day with Lisa & JP, Julie & CJ, Barbie & Larry, Jen & Tom, Raj and Mike.


• Found out I was pregnant.


• Mike and I visit Mark, Angie, Maddie and Garner in Florida.


• Found out baby Brant was a girl (ha!).


• Left Alliance Data, started job at JCPenney.

2009

• Oops, found out baby Brant was actually a boy.


• Miller Allen Brant born. World rocked.


• Mom and Chuck get married.


• Turned 30.


• Took 30th b-day trip to Puerta Vallarta with Julie, Barbie, Elizabeth, Jen, and Lisa.


• Longhorns go undefeated in the regular season.

Can't wait to see what the next 10 years will hold!

Two Peas In A Pod

Miller just loves his daddy. Not only do they look exactly alike, but they definitely share a sense of humor as well. Nobody makes Miller laugh like Mike does.

And they share a love for beer. Not sure if Miller really knows what's in there, but whenever daddy has a bottle, he has to fight Miller for it.

Nine Months Old

As of last week, little guy is now nine months old. I should probably call him big guy, because he is now 75% in both height and weight for his age. He is more than 22 lbs!

His big accomplishment this month is that he has really started to crawl. It's still kind of a dragging crawl, but he is really close to just getting up on his knees and taking off. He is a little slow, but when he sees something he wants, he drags himself to it with some serious determination.

We are so excited about his first Christmas. Especially since he will get to meet his cousins Maddie and Garner for the first time - and Aunt Angie and Uncle Mark too. Of course, Miller has no idea what is going on, but he does think the lights on the tree are pretty cool.

My favorite face

My friend Adam Linscomb took some great pictures of Miller last weekend, and these are some of my favorites. I love these because he's sitting in the same position in the same chair and making all of his different funny faces.

This is his, "I'm about to say something" face.

Happy squeal face.


Am I happy, or am I fussy?

This face speaks for itself.

Miller's First Thanksgiving

Miller had a lot of fun over at Grandma and Grandpa Brant's house for Thanksgiving. He wore his special bib that his Mimi gave him for the big day. So cute.

He got to try his first taste of my Meemaw's famous sweet potatoes, made by mommy. I think Mike looks way more excited about it here than Miller does.

Here he is with Grandma Brant post-sweet potatoes. Clearly, he loved them. He's wearing the Thanksgiving bib that I bought him. Does a baby really need two first Thanksgiving bibs? Probably not.

Here he is crashed out with daddy after the big day. He was just totally wiped by the time we finished dinner. He did love seeing the Cowboys win, though!

Miller The Mailman

This is what I found when I picked Miller up from daycare yesterday. They were playing dress up, and he was the mail man.

I thought it was especially sweet, because my great-grandpa (Miller's great-great grandpa) was a mail carrier. He met my great-grandmother because she was working in a doctor's office, and he delivered the mail to her every day. Isn't that romantic?

Mike's response to this picture was, "Hello, Captain. Where's Tenille?"

8 Months Old!

As of last week, Miller is now 8 months old! As I always say, it's hard to believe how big he's getting. His big accomplishment this month was learning how to sit on his own. He's been flirting with it for a the last couple of months, but now he can sit there for as long as he feels like it.

His bottom right tooth is VERY close to coming in, and he is drooling like crazy and chewing on anything (or anyone) he can get his hands on. The teething has made him a little fussy from time to time, but as you can see from these pictures, he's still his usual happy self most of the time. He really is the sweetest boy in the world.

Jump, jump, jump!

Here's Miller at about six months (which you'll also hear in Mike's classic dad voice over), smiling at daddy and jumping like crazy in his jumperoo.

Miller's First Bottle

So, I'm a bad mommy because it took me so long, but I finally downloaded all the videos from our camera.

This one about made me cry. I can't believe how much he has grown! Here's me giving Miller his first bottle while he was in the NICU. I think he's about 8 days old here.

A Monkey and His Banana

Happy Halloween! Here's Miller at the JCPenney pumpkin parade with me, his friend Jackson, and Jackson's mom Becca. We'll try to get some better pictures of Miller tomorrow, but I thought this was pretty cute!

30 X 3: Trip to Puerto Vallarta

Last week I got back from a girl's trip to Puerto Vallarta. Me, Barbie, and Elizabeth all turned 30 w/in a few months of each other, so we decided that we needed to celebrate. We did San Francisco for Jen's b-day, Vegas for Julie's and Fredricksburg for Lisa's so we decided that this time we needed to go international!

We stayed at the Riu Palace, which was an upgrade from the hotel we had originally booked. It was a beautiful hotel, although the food definitely was not the greatest. However - that did not stop us from having a great time!

The hotel was kind of over-the-top when it came to the lobby and pool areas, in terms of the decor, but we did get an awesome picture of Elizabeth's head on this statue's body.

We spent most of our time at the pool area (okay, pretty much all of our time), and it was great. The first couple of days (Saturday and Sunday) were pretty busy, because there were a lot of locals hanging out at the hotel, but Monday and Tuesday were much more laid-back.

To pass the time at the pool we developed a game we could play in the pool with dice. "Drinking Farkle" is a great way to spend an afternoon, and although I kind of sucked at it, it was still fun. Although, I'm still not sure how accurate Jen and Julie's scoring system really was...

We did go in to town one night for dinner, and I'm glad we did. We ate at Cafe des Artistes, which had been recommended to us by multiple people who had been to the area before. The food was wonderful, and it was nice to get away from the hotel for a bit. The restaurant was absolutely gorgeous as well.

For dessert, they brought us a special b-day display, which was wonderful. They did sing, but I have to say that I didn't find it as humiliating as I normally do.

It was really a great trip, and I can't wait for our next one!

Miller Works It

We took Miller to JCPenney to get some six-month photos, and as you can see, he really enjoyed his time in the spotlight. He gave the lady taking his pics lots of big smiles, especially when he was naked.

This has to be my favorite. Is there anything cuter than a naked baby butt and a big smile?

In honor of the opening of the Death Star (the Cowboys' new stadium), we decided to get some of his pics in his Cowboys' gear.

He just clearly loves the Cowboys.

This one is a little more serious, like he's maybe a little concerned about how Tony Romo will hold up against the Giants' defense.

We took one family picture. You can't really see it here, but Miller proceeded to spit up on me right before we took it. Not very glamorous.

6 Months Old

Well, as of last week, our little man is now 6 months old! At his checkup, he was 17 lbs. 4 oz. and 26 1/2 inches. That's 50th percentile for both height and weight.

I am thinking maybe he was a little scrunched when they measured his length, though, because he sure seems tall to me! He is wearing 9-12 month shirts/onesies, depending on the brand, because he needs the extra length. In pants he's still good with 6 months, though.

He is now rolling over front to back and back to front, and he is *this close* to sitting up on his own. He can do it for a little bit, but then he just flops over. He is babbling and squealing, which is completely adorable, and he loves blowing raspberries at us.

He LOVES to eat, and has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, sweet potatoes, squash, carrots, peas, apples, pears and bananas. He loves all the fruits, but I still think sweet potatoes might be his favorite. He liked peas at first, but now that he's tried the sweeter stuff, he's not so interested! Our doctor gave us the OK for him to try to feed himself a couple of cheerios, so we're going to try that over the weekend and see how it goes. Should be pretty funny.

Still no sign of teeth, but he is chewing his hands and anything he can get his little hands on. He loves any toy he can put in his mouth! He also is crazy about jumping all the time, whether you're holding him in your lap or he's just bouncing in his Jumperoo, which has quickly become his favorite toy.

He is just such a happy boy, and we think he gets cuter every day. He has big smiles for everyone, and has never met a stranger. We're so lucky, and we have fun every minute we spend with him, even when he gets a little fussy.

Go Cowboys!

Clearly, this baby loves watching Cowboys football already.

Although he may enjoy taking a football nap* with daddy even more than the game itself.

*Please note that this picture was not taken during the Cowboys game. Mike would never nap when the Cowboys are playing.

Miller's First Longhorn Game

Because Mike was in Russia for the first Longhorn game of the season, Miller and I skipped last week's Longhorn game so that Miller could share his first game with his daddy. As you can see, he was extremely excited.

We are a Longhorn family. Hopefully Miller won't grow up to be a Sooner fan, because he won't have anything to wear!

Here he is with Grandma and Granpa Brant. He had so much fun watching the game with them, and gave them lots of big smiles. He also showed them his new talent for jumping up and down while standing in your lap. So cute.

Here he is with his Uncle Joe. Joe was a little freaked out by how little Miller was for his first couple of months, but now they are getting along great!

Is this the happiest boy in the world, or what?

Weekend w/ Grandma and Grandpa Brant

As you can see, Miller had a great time spending the night with Grandma and Grandpa Brant on Saturday night. Here he is giving them one of his big smiles (along with a big trail of drool).

Miller loves playing in his chair, especially when he has an audience.

Miller is really getting good at holding his head up. He also loves looking in the little mirror toy that you can kind of see in the picture.

Mike and I got to get out for a nice date on Saturday. We had dinner with Lisa and JP at the Dallas Fish Market (thank you, Restaurant Week), and then we went to Sean's b-day party at Sean and Wynne's new place out in Addison. It was great to spend some time together and with friends. Of course, we missed Miller, and we were very happy to see his smiling little face this morning when we picked him up.

Miller Tries Carrots

Okay, I promise that I am not going to do a post every time Miller tries a new food, but this picture cracked me up too much not to share.

If we shaved Mike's head and smeared carrots all over his face, are we pretty sure this is exactly what he would look like too?

Playdates with Anabelle and Graham

Miller has been making the rounds over the last couple of weeks, visiting some of his new little friends. First, he finally met Anabelle, my friend Lauren's sweet little girl. Although Anabelle pretty much slept through the whole date, Miller still had lots of fun over at her house. He really liked playing in her bouncy seat and smiling at Ms. Lauren. Here's a cute pic of Miller and Anabelle hanging out on the floor. As you can see, Miller is having a ball, and Anabelle is out cold.

Miller also had a playdate with Graham Beckman, my friend Dana's little boy, last weekend. Of course, since I am the worst about taking pictures, I forgot to bring my camera. Graham also slept through most of their playdate (Miller must have that affect on other babies), but Miller had sooooo much fun playing with Graham's toys. He expecially liked his cool baby gym with the light-up butterfly.

Miller Hearts Cereal

Because he is such a hungry boy, a few weeks ago our pediatrician gave us the okay to start Miller on cereal. Soon he'll be ready for carrots and sweet potatoes, but first you have to start them on plain ol' rice cereal mixed with formula. Sounds yucky (and smells yucky) to me.

Here's Mike (no, my hands are not that hairy) giving him his first bite. Doesn't he look cute sitting in his little highchair?

Miller's face says, "I don't think I like this, but I'm willing to give it another try."

Wait a minute - I like it!

4 Months Old!

It's hard to believe, but Miller turned four months old last week! He is getting so big! At his doctor's appointment today he was 14 pounds 6 ounces and 25.5 inches long. That means he's in the 50th percentile for weight and 75th percentile for height. For his first couple of months he was in the bottom 25th percentile of both, so that's a pretty big achievement.





Miller doesn't know it yet, but he is getting ready to make the transition to sleeping in his big boy crib full time. He has pretty much totally grown out of his bassinet, but I haven't been able to let him sleep in his own room just yet. He does take naps in there, though, and he does great. Now that he can roll over, his favorite thing is getting on his tummy and sleeping with his butt straight up in the air. Hilarious.

His other new favorite thing is his jumperoo. He loves all the little toys on the front, and he likes to make it light up and make music.

Does he look like Mike, or what?

My Skin Cancer Lesson

I've been meaning to post something about this all summer, but after reading this article today, I was definitely inspired.

As most of you already know, I had to have a cancerous mole removed last August. I had a strange spot on my left arm, which just looked like dry skin, that I had become concerned about after it didn't go away after a couple of months. I went to my dermatologist, Dr. Chapman, and she said that she thought it was just an irregular sweat gland. Just in case, she sent it and a couple of other small moles I had to be biopsied.

Needless to say, I was pretty shocked to get a message from her a couple of days later that I needed to return her call as soon as possible. Of course, I got this message at 5 o'clock, and by the time I called her office, she was gone. I did get her nurse, however, who told me that Dr. Chapman had given her the OK to give me her cell phone number if I called after she left. At this point, I pretty much knew something was seriously wrong.

When I called Dr. Chapman, she gave me the news - the biopsy had showed the spot on my arm to be cancerous, although she wasn't sure at that time which kind of skin cancer it was. Apparently it was pretty unusual, so she was having to send it to M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to be looked at.

Honestly, even though I write for a living, I don't think it would be possible for me to describe exactly how freaked out I was to get this news. I thought about all the time I had spent during my teenage years and my early twenties in the sun - and even worse, in the tanning bed - and immediately was filled with regret. It's not like I didn't know when I did these things that skin cancer existed - apparently I just thought that being even a little tan (let's be honest, it's not like I was ever able to get a really good tan) was worth the risk.

Of course, I immediately went home and started googling the bejesus out of "skin cancer". All I knew was that I didn't want it to be melanoma - the really dangerous one. The one that actually kills people.

When she called me a few days later, I got some good news and some bad news. The bad news was that it was melanoma. The good news is that she thought it was melanoma in situ, which means that it was only on the surface layer of the skin and hadn't yet spread any deeper. She referred me to a Mohs surgeon (a special skin cancer surgeon) to have it removed immediately.


The week of my surgery was the craziest week of my entire life. First of all, the week before, I had resigned from my job at Alliance Data to accept a position at JCPenney. But right after my diagnosis, I still had to go on a three-day business trip.

While I was gone, our dog, Sadie, got loose and ran away. Our dogs are our babies, so we were just beside ourselves. By the time I got home, she had been missing for two days. We spent all of our free time searching day and night in the neighborhoods around where she had been, putting up posters, visiting shelters and basically going crazy. After a few days of this, I just lost it. I couldn't stop crying, and I got so emotional that it completely freaked Mike out.

That was the moment I knew I was pregnant. I took a test that evening to confirm it, but I knew already before I got the positive. So amid all the sadness over Sadie, we had the best news of our lives.

Did I mention that I also had to take all of my final exams for my summer semester this same week? Because I did...

So, during all this craziness, I had my surgery. I'm not going to lie - it was pretty painful. They took out a piece of my arm about 2 1/2 inches long and a half inch deep. I then had to go sit in the waiting room while they tested the skin to make sure they had gotten all the cancer. Fortunately, they had, and they confirmed the diagnosis that it was in fact, melanoma in situ. Great news!

Just a couple of days later, thank goodness, Mike and I got a call around 7:30 AM one morning that a woman had been out walking her puppy and Sadie had come wandering up to her. She let the woman put her on a leash and take her home. She found our number on Sadie's collar and called us immediately. We went to her house asap and were so happy to be reunited with our baby girl. She was a little dirty and scratched up, but otherwise no worse for the wear after her little nine-day vacation.

Fast-forward almost a year (!), and I am also no worse for the wear. What I am left with is a very unattractive scar on my arm and a quarterly appointment with my dermatologist to "map and measure" my moles. Fun times. The appointments are a constant reminder about what could happen if the cancer were to come back, because next time I might not be so lucky with my diagnosis.

Be sure that you have your doctor or OB/GYN check your skin during your annual physical, or even better, visit a dermatologist once a year to check things out. If it's caught early, skin cancer is highly treatable. If it isn't caught, the outlook isn't nearly so bright.

The lesson here is simple - a tan is not worth dying for. It's not worth the worry I will have to live with for the rest of my life. It's not even worth the stupid scar on my arm. There's nothing I can do to change my past, but I plan on blabbing about what happened to me to anyone who will listen to hope that it might change someone else's future.