November 25, 2007

We had an interesting week!! Monday we had our first appointment with dr. Balkany, an ENT. He was very nice. They want to do an MRI to check his cochlea and do some testing to see if he is a candidate for a CI (cochlear implant). Michael was sent to a verbal auditory therapist the same day and she will evaluate him after a few sessions to see if he will be a candidate. I am glad we got an appointment so fast with the therapist as both dr. Balkany and us felt like we had wasted precious time with Michael.
The therapy was awesome!! The therapist is teaching us how to handle the hearing aids and how to interact better with Michael. She has a lot of experience with babies and children with hearing loss (both with CI's and Hearing Aids) and I think she will be a great help!!

Wednesday Natalia and I were ready to go to PT/OT/ST when we got to the car and noticed something was wrong. The car had been parked in the street since the parking lot was being painted. As I had mentioned before, the car is new (about 6 weeks old) and this was the first time I ever parked since I moved here in 2004!!! Guess what?! Someone hit the car (HARD!!) and left!!! The car was hit all along the side and the front wheel was blocked by the front part of the car. We couldn't drive it anymore. It will probably take a few weeks to be assessed by the insurance company and fixed up. Also, since we don't know who did it, this is going to cost us. Later on we found out that the neighbor's motor cycle was parked in front of our car and was also hit and mangled!!! Luckily Natalia was able to drive us to therapy!!!
Wednesday night we went out to dinner with Cynthia. She got to meet Michael for the first time. We had not seen her since the baby shower in June, so it was very nice to catch up with her. She is doing great!!!

Thursday we went to David and Lesley for thanksgiving. They prepared a great meal and everyone loved spending time with Michael. Here are some pictures....

Michael in his 'Bikkemberg' shirt that he got from Aunt Anne from Holland... I just love this picture :)


Josh hanging out with Michael
Jessie and her uncle Robbie

Anna, Michael and I...

Anna and Michael (Anna was holding him like a 'natural' :) )

After the thanksgiving meal we drove to Mimi and Poppy and spent the night. This was a last minute decision. We needed to pick up a car so that I can take Michael to doctor's appointments and therapy. Luckily we are able to use Mimi's car for a while!!!! Mimi and Poppy LOVED spending time with Michael. They set up a crib in the guest bedroom, so that also made it easier for us. On Friday morning I woke up at 6.50 and the first thing that came to my mind was Natalia!!! I had totally forgotten to tell her we were out of town!!! She was already on her way to our house. I felt so bad!!! Later that day we went to Tom's place for BBQ (always good!!!) and we decided to stay another night. In the meantime Robert went to work for a few hours.

Saturday I figured it wasn't that busy anymore to go shopping after the crazy 'Black Friday' shopping day, so I took Robert's car and 5 minutes after I left, I was in a car accident. I hit another person from behind!!! I thought he was going to go through the yellow light and I didn't have enough room to stop anymore. The brakes locked and I was just sliding and had nowhere to go!!!! Luckily it was a very nice guyand we were able to work something out.

So... no more shopping for me. This was a very expensive week!!! Thankfully no one was hurt and luckily Michael wasn't with me!!!! So, thanksgiving week was a week for me to be thankful for many things!! But mostly that we are ALL doing well!!!!!

Nathali