California McMillans

Lately, the kids have ended up in our bed.  Tyler's been having nightmares but he comes in quietly.  Maybe I don't notice him because he climbs in from Heidi's side.   Kira always approaches my side.  This time, the three kids climbed in, forcing me and Heidi into Kira's bed.  Check out Tyler; he has his bear.   I woke up at six this morning in order to wash the van.  I spent about an hour on it, and I was surprised to see that everyone was still asleep when I finished.  Then I worked on my finale files and Kira strolled in a little after eight.  The rest of the clan was up by nine and we had breakfast. Tyler made a very bad decision by throwing a book at Kira, which gave her a bloody nose.  He has anger management issues and I was very upset and had to practice a lot of restraint in talking to him.  Poor Kira.  Sometimes, I want to teach her to fight back so Tyler will learn his lesson of not messing with her.  But I don't want Kira to turn hard like tha

The kids like to imitate my hamstring stretches.  Tyler is quite flexible.  Blakey is just using me as a couch. Scott and I went on a date to Panera after soccer practice.  He ate all of his cookie and chips, and about three bites of his sandwich.  I wouldn't have gotten the cookie but we had a gift card.  We took all the leftovers home. Scott likes one-on-ones with the motorcycle. Heidi had her copper IUD removed and it made a dramatic difference in her mood, for the better.  No, we are not trying for more kids, I just thought she would feel better with it out.  I don't know why physicians try to deceive or lie to us about how there are no hormones in those, and that it's "impossible" to have the kinds of side effects Heidi was having.  Well, doctors should know to not use always, never, or impossible in their conversations.  Nothing is impossible in medicine.  Just ask Jesus.  What explanation do you offer when he healed the leper?  Or how he ma

Made bacon and eggs for breakfast this morning.  The kids loved the bacon; my eggs, not so much.  But whatev.  Then Scott had his soccer game and we went on the VFR to Oakley.  Heidi and the rest of the kids showed up just before half time and it was a good game because Scott scored two goals and his team won.  Then we went to the gymmer to swim.   Kira's a little young for a ride on the motorcycle, but at least she's excited about wearing her helmet. Then we went to Walnut Creek to Heidi's parents.  Blakey figured out how to make Pop's jeep go.  He still doesn't understand the steering, so I let him go back and forth in a straight line.   On the way home, Scott kept asking about cars.  He said, "If anyone gave you a free car, what would you get?" "Lexus." "What if you didn't get a Lexus, what would be the next car you'd get for free?" "Toyota Supra."   Scott:  "I'd get a Corve

Just had to photograph Kira in her church dress.  Since I get her ready, I can dress her how I want and do her hair how I want.  She likes the pony tail, and I talked her into this cute dress.  I don't know where we got it--maybe Kat.  Or some craigslist bin.  Tyler has been into watching youtube videos and he wants to make a "fail compilation," so he asked me to film him falling off the bean bag.  Kira wanted in, too. Don't know what Scott's doing here, but check out the motorcycle on his shirt.  That looks an awful like a 76 Honda CB750.  Does it say Harley?  Can't tell, but that is no Harley.   Heidi doesn't like that I share my opinions about good vs. crappy vehicles.  Scott is convinced that Toyota and Lexus make the finest cars and that Ford are the worst.  And he believes that Honda bikes are good and Harley are not.  Good boy.  All you Ford people out there:  I have done my time with Ford:  Boy's Bronco and Heidi's Exploder.  No

Saturday was the Barnum & Bailey circus.  I had left for work at 6:00 on the VFR, saw patients until about 2:30, and then Heidi, her parents and the kids picked me up at the office to go to Oakland.  I was hoping to see the motorcycles in the globe, but this year's performance was still good.  My favorites: Unicycle basketball  The woman getting fired out of the cannon, 3 step sequence shots And the trampoline show.  We had one of these in college and Dan-o and I would do fancy flips off them into the foam pit.  We made a video called "Oh, Flip" and it was us doing flips everywhere.  Well, the pool, Mexico, BYU and Layton.  I'll just upload it. I think the kids had a good time, especially with the cotton candy that came with this hat.

Yesterday was school pictures.  They don't seem to do a classroom group photo anymore, so you pay this company way too much money for mediocre prints and then they do a composite print containing each individual's headshot.   I liked the group photos they took at East Layton Elementary because there was always someone who wasn't ready for the picture, so they looked surprised, or there was someone blinking.  Plus, the principal and our teachers were in the photos.   I took my own photos before school started.  Mr. Congeniality had no problems smiling for the camera.   Scott didn't want to show his teeth and ran inside.  Then Mommy bribed him with something and coaxed a teether out of him. This is how he wanted to smile.  I think he looks more natural in the toothy smile.  I don't like Kim Kardashian, but I think she has mastered the closed mouth smile.  Speaking of KK, Kanye was booed at a baseball game when they showed him on the jumbotron.   I don

 The boys like to remove these empty water containers and use them in their circus.  Then weren't so excited about putting them away, though. Are you done taking my picture?

Tyler got himself ready for church.  I let him play with the iPhone since I only asked him once.  Scott puts up quite a fight about the morning routine.  I told him that if he does his piano and gets ready, then he can play.  Instead, he plays first and then fights the rest of the time.  I was like, "What's 3+2+1?" Six. "What's 1+2+3?"  Also six.  I tried reasoning with him that he doesn't lose any time by doing his piano and chores first, but that wasn't working.  Then we tried the yelling approach.  Scott doesn't respond well to that.   Kira has lots of clothes, and she wants to wear her princess dress to church, but it ends up too poofy and uncomfortable.  She chose this one instead and wanted a ponytail, like Cinderella.  I gave her some layers last week but her fine hair lacks body. Her bangs are looking good, though. Off to church.

Scott had his county meet at Acalanes yesterday.  I was seeing patients in the morning and got a call from a panicked Heidi.  She couldn't find the van keys.  30 minutes later, she texted that Scott was riding White Lightning to the office with his his helmet in order to go with me to the meet on the VFR. We heard a knock on the window, and I was like, "I bet that's my son."  Sure enough, there was Scott, outside the operatory window.  I finished up my patients and Scott and I went to the meet.  Heidi made it sound like we were going to have to book in order to make it on time, but even with the Somersville coarctation slowing us down, we still made it with at least an hour to spare. Even before Scott was to swim, Heidi showed up.  Apparently, Kira or Blakey had hidden the keys in a pot.  Where's the spare set?  Good question.  I'm ready to buy a valet key or another clicker so this doesn't happen again. Scott did backstroke and his relay took 7th.

Picture of Tyler's usual morning behavior.  I usually do breakfast, and lately, Tyler has refused to eat anything but waffles and cereal.  Sometimes, I'm like, "You can eat these pancakes or go to your room."  Now that school has started, we are in more of a time crunch and if he chooses to not eat, he'll melt down in school.   This morning, I was going to prepare French toast.  Heidi was like, "I think it's silly to argue over what the kids eat for breakfast."  So, we have compromised by allowing Tyler to eat what he wants, where he wants.  Check out his bear on the right.  He sleeps with a bear that has an embroidered sternotomy repair, symbolizing heart surgery.  We named him Tony after Tyler's surgeon.    Blakey's pretty chill.  People have been commenting on how he looks like Scott, even people who don't know us well.  I agree.  Blakey likes to tinker in the garage with me and lately, he's been crawling up on my motor

Looks like I'm the primary author of this blog, now.  That's okay.  For a while I was hesitant to put up kid pictures and text because that's usually Heidi's job, and then for a while, I wasn't sure where to get back into blogging.  I'm not into facebook because it's too time consuming and there's no real power to archive.  Plus, why do I care that you've just gotten a latte?  With these blogs you can print them into books, which is what we did for Heidi's posts from 2007-09.  It's easy to keep my NBI blog  because no one reads it and I don't have to stress so much about including each of the kids in the posts or whatever.   So we did the annual Glen McMillan family vacay in Elk Ridge Estates, near Cedar City, Utah.  The elevation was about 10k and I felt it right when I got out of the car.  Then Tyler complained that his chest hurt, and we could see that he was really having to exert himself in order to get the air in.  The expansio