September 6, 2008

I can't believe I haven't updated the blog in so long!!! I have so much to update, don't even know where to start...

Michael is an absolute crawling machine. He crawls so fast now!! He can pull himself up and walk assisted. He is amazing.

I taped a video of him on August 28, 2008 at Mimi and Poppy's house. He already crawls much better now than he did during that day. Michael's favorite thing to do is chase Shiva, try to sit on top of her and pull her hair. Luckily she has been really good with him. Even though she doesn't like it very much when he chases her :) Here is the video:

Michael crawling August 28 - 9/4/08

Last week on Friday I said to Michael as a joke: "Give Mommy a kiss" and he turned around and put his open mouth on my cheek!! I couldn't believe it. He did it a few more times and then stopped doing it for some reason. On Saturday our friend Claudia from Orlando come over and stayed with us through Monday. She was our first guest in our new home. We had so much fun. We went on walks and bike rides and she got to know our community really well. She went shopping with Robert while I unpacked boxes and looked after Michael. We went out to dinner and I gave Michael another French Fry since he did so well with it last time. Not so good this time. He started gagging and when I wanted to help him and lift him up out of his high chair, he vomited all over me. I was drenched!!! It was embarrassing to leave a restaurant covered in vomit. Luckily there was a clean shirt in the car and I wiped myself with Michael's baby wipes :)
I told Claudia about Michael's kiss and she asked for a kiss and he kept kissing her!!! She loved it!! Michael refused to kiss Robert and I. Robert figured out that he get's distracted from the glasses. When you take your glasses off, he will kiss you again. He is so funny!!!

Claudia was here for Michael's first time in his new forward-facing car seat!! I can't believe what a big boy he is already!!

On Labor Day we all went to David and Lesley's for lunch. It was Jessie's 18th birthday. We had a fun time.

Tuesday Michael had his OT evaluation at the Dan Marino Center and Friday he had his PT evaluation. He did well for both. He needs some help for his fine motor skills and his trunk or tone movement. And for PT he was really showing off his crawling skills, his sitting and he was pulling himself up. PT thought he was very strong and he needs some help in being able to start walking by himself.
He had his ST evaluation 2 weeks ago and he obviously needs a lot of help there. He will need ST twice a week. We need him to stop gagging with everything that goes into his mouth and we need to get him to eat more solids and less formula. We also saw the GI this week and we cut his Prevacid in half. He is still in an upward growing curve, so the GI thinks we are doing very well with him.

Thursday, Dan and Heidi came to visit with their boys Justin and Landon who are both extremely cute!! Justin is a little bit younger than Michael. It's good for Michael to see other children, kind of as a role model. I am looking into some Mommy and Me classes. Heidi is a Speech Therapist and fed him. She said that he was doing pretty good, but that he definitely needs some therapy to improve his feedings.
Oh, and at the Dan Marino Center two weeks ago, we were told that Michael needs a helmet to re-shape his head and that this would help his feeding issues. They say that he has Temporomandibular Joint Syndrome (TMJ). I have consulted 3 different doctors about this and none of them seem to agree with this. They don't think a helmet will cure TMJ. Michael would have to wear the helmet 23 hours a day. I don't want this for him. He has been through enough. Maybe I'll bring him to the Upledger Institute for CranioSacral Therapy. I heard about very good results for TMJ.

Also on Thursday, we finally closed on our condo in South Beach. We are happy this is done before Hurricane Ike hits next week. The only thing we will miss from our South Beach condo, is Maria and Alberto. They were always a tremendous help for us. She would take care of Michael when I was sick or if I had to leave just a minute. And Alberto always loved to walk Shiva. They were like grand parents to Michael. We will really miss them!!!

Maria, Michael and Alberto.

On my way home from the closing I left Robert's office in my car. I had to take a left turn. There were two cars in the right lane and I took the left into the left lane, not bothering anyone. The Pick Up truck (a huge one!) that was in the right lane all of a sudden wanted to be in front of me and totally cut me off, almost ran me off the road. When I got to the traffic light I was behind him and honked at him. He didn't like me honking at him, so he backed up into my car, damaged the grill and then took off!! It happened so fast that I couldn't even get his license plate number!! I was shaking. Robert was right behind me in his car to go to lunch and missed the whole thing!! He thought I honked at the guy because the light was green. I am still so angry now. That guy jeopardized Michael’s life by almost running us off the road and then I end up with damage!!!
I guess I'll have to bite my tongue next time, because in South Florida, people are so crazy that you can get shot over something stupid like this!! It's about time that local government does something about road rage, and not just talks about it!!!