Yay, I'm 129 weeks old today!
Masinja had a pretty uneventful week. Since we don't have much of anything to report we figured we'd just share some pics that we took of him this week. Enjoy :o)
Dirt Bike Pic
Bird is the Word Elmo Pic 1
Bird is the Word Elmo Pic 2
Bird is the Word Elmo Pic 3
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Monday, June 29, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
Weekly Update - 15 - 21 June 2009
Yay, I'm 128 weeks old today!
Masinja went to the ER this week. He wasn't doing better after the weekend stomach bug and started to refuse to drink anything, so we took him in at 0-dark-30 Monday morning. They gave him some pedialyte and some meds to help nausea. It took a little while, but he started drinking again and doing fine.
Masinja also had a neurology appointment this week. It's been almost 2 years since he's had a seizure, so we asked about taking him off the phenobarb. The doc suggested waiting another 6 months, so we'll go again in December and see what happens.
Last, Masinja had his 18th ECI session this week. It was with his regular teacher again. She was actually helpful and gave T.M.M. lots of suggestions for activities to help Masinja get to be a smarter boy than he already is.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.
Masinja went to the ER this week. He wasn't doing better after the weekend stomach bug and started to refuse to drink anything, so we took him in at 0-dark-30 Monday morning. They gave him some pedialyte and some meds to help nausea. It took a little while, but he started drinking again and doing fine.
Masinja also had a neurology appointment this week. It's been almost 2 years since he's had a seizure, so we asked about taking him off the phenobarb. The doc suggested waiting another 6 months, so we'll go again in December and see what happens.
Last, Masinja had his 18th ECI session this week. It was with his regular teacher again. She was actually helpful and gave T.M.M. lots of suggestions for activities to help Masinja get to be a smarter boy than he already is.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.
Weekly Update - 8 - 14 June 2009
Yay, I'm 127 weeks old today.
Masinja had his 17th ECI session this week. His regular teacher is still on vacation, so the speech therapist that is assigned to his team came instead.
The services coordinator came as well. We spent a great deal of time discussing Masinja's language development as well as the possibility that he has Central Auditory Processining Disorder (CAPD). Ironically, all three of us had researched the disorder prior to the session and we all agreed that Masinja does exhibit some of the characteristics. I told both the speech therapist and the services coordinator that we are just waiting for the referral to be approved and then we are going to have Masinja evaluated. The remainder of the session was spent discussing strategies to teach Masinja the concept of a conversation. The speech therapist suggested doing activities that require taking turns, as this will help Masinja understand that a conversation involves taking turns. Overall, it was a very eventful session. The remainder of the ECI sessions this summer will be with Masinja's regular teacher, so it should be interesting!
As I mentioned in last week's post, Masinja and I had plans to get together with some neighbors for a play date this week. We met up with them and went to the Early Childhood Center on Wednesday. The boys had a great time and I have to admit the Mommies did too :O) That evening we met up with them again and went for a long walk. Afterwards we spent a little while at their house.
I don't know for sure if he picked it up at the Early Childhood Center or if he got it at their house, but Masinja got his first official stomach bug this week. It started Friday night and my poor little man had diarrhea so bad that I had to go and buy more diapers!! While I was on my way to the store, I saw our neighbors out for a walk and I found out that the little boy had had a stomach bug the previous week :O( Poor Masinja has been sick all weekend long. His little tush is extremely raw also. We have tried every diaper rash cream on the market and nothing has helped. It is heartbreaking every time we have to change his diaper, because it hurts so much that he screams and cries. We went and picked up a different brand of diaper rash cream this afternoon and it seems to be helping a little bit. Hopefully this will only last a few more days. At any rate, we plan on taking him to the doctor tomorrow just to be on the safe side and to see if we can get something else for this diaper rash. I know children are supposed to get sick but it is just so hard to watch our little man suffer!!
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja had his 17th ECI session this week. His regular teacher is still on vacation, so the speech therapist that is assigned to his team came instead.
The services coordinator came as well. We spent a great deal of time discussing Masinja's language development as well as the possibility that he has Central Auditory Processining Disorder (CAPD). Ironically, all three of us had researched the disorder prior to the session and we all agreed that Masinja does exhibit some of the characteristics. I told both the speech therapist and the services coordinator that we are just waiting for the referral to be approved and then we are going to have Masinja evaluated. The remainder of the session was spent discussing strategies to teach Masinja the concept of a conversation. The speech therapist suggested doing activities that require taking turns, as this will help Masinja understand that a conversation involves taking turns. Overall, it was a very eventful session. The remainder of the ECI sessions this summer will be with Masinja's regular teacher, so it should be interesting!
As I mentioned in last week's post, Masinja and I had plans to get together with some neighbors for a play date this week. We met up with them and went to the Early Childhood Center on Wednesday. The boys had a great time and I have to admit the Mommies did too :O) That evening we met up with them again and went for a long walk. Afterwards we spent a little while at their house.
I don't know for sure if he picked it up at the Early Childhood Center or if he got it at their house, but Masinja got his first official stomach bug this week. It started Friday night and my poor little man had diarrhea so bad that I had to go and buy more diapers!! While I was on my way to the store, I saw our neighbors out for a walk and I found out that the little boy had had a stomach bug the previous week :O( Poor Masinja has been sick all weekend long. His little tush is extremely raw also. We have tried every diaper rash cream on the market and nothing has helped. It is heartbreaking every time we have to change his diaper, because it hurts so much that he screams and cries. We went and picked up a different brand of diaper rash cream this afternoon and it seems to be helping a little bit. Hopefully this will only last a few more days. At any rate, we plan on taking him to the doctor tomorrow just to be on the safe side and to see if we can get something else for this diaper rash. I know children are supposed to get sick but it is just so hard to watch our little man suffer!!
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Weekly Update -- 1 - 7 June 2009
Yay, I'm 126 weeks old today!
Masinja had a pretty eventful week this week. He had his 16th ECI session and his regular teacher didn't come, because she is on vacation. The occupational therapist that is on his team came instead. It was a very eventful session. She is very knowledgeable and observant. Masinja enjoyed playing with her.
We discussed his gravitational insecurity and she gave me some additional things to try to help Masinja get over that hurdle. She gave me some very good ideas as far as Masinja's feeding issues are concerned as well. In addition to broadening the spectrum of foods that he eats, we are also trying to get him to feed himself using utensils. She gave me some tips on how to accomplish that. All in all, it was a very good session and if we do decide to request a different teacher, I think we will ask for the occupational therapist.
T.M., Masinja and I made some new friends this week. T.M. and I took Masinja for a walk Thursday night and we met some neighbors, a woman and her son. The little boy is about Masinja's age and he has bright red hair. The boys seemed to get along pretty well and we are planning on getting together for some play dates next week.
The best part of the whole week was this weekend. T.M. and I took Masinja to the playground and he proceeded to climb up the stairs and then turn around and scoot back down on his butt! He must have done it about half a dozen times. He is definitely overcoming his gravitational insecurity. He still isn't very fond of the swings, but I'm sure that will change in a few weeks. He absolutely loves going down the slides though. T.M. and took turns catching him and then we all went down the really big slide a few times. We all had a great time and T.M. and I are so proud of our little man!
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update - 25 - 31 May 2009
Yay, I'm 125 weeks old today!
Masinja had a pretty uneventful week this week. About the only thing to report is the meeting that T.M. and I had with the services coordinator for ECI.
We wanted to discuss Masinja's teacher's attitude during his last ECI session, as well as our options. The services coordinator was shocked when I told her what Masinja's teacher said a few weeks ago concerning medically based therapies. She understood our position and agreed that we should use all the resources that are available to us. I was honest with her and told her that we had considered pulling Masinja out of the program but after careful consideration had decided not to. I also told her that we feel that ECI is beneficial to him ,but that at the present time we don't feel his needs are being met. We further discussed our concerns regarding language development and our plans to seek a medically based speech evaluation. I dropped several subtle hints about the possibility of replacing Masinja's teacher, but apparently I should have been more blunt about it. T.M. and I have decided to give it a few more months and if things remain the same then we are going to request a different teacher.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja had a pretty uneventful week this week. About the only thing to report is the meeting that T.M. and I had with the services coordinator for ECI.
We wanted to discuss Masinja's teacher's attitude during his last ECI session, as well as our options. The services coordinator was shocked when I told her what Masinja's teacher said a few weeks ago concerning medically based therapies. She understood our position and agreed that we should use all the resources that are available to us. I was honest with her and told her that we had considered pulling Masinja out of the program but after careful consideration had decided not to. I also told her that we feel that ECI is beneficial to him ,but that at the present time we don't feel his needs are being met. We further discussed our concerns regarding language development and our plans to seek a medically based speech evaluation. I dropped several subtle hints about the possibility of replacing Masinja's teacher, but apparently I should have been more blunt about it. T.M. and I have decided to give it a few more months and if things remain the same then we are going to request a different teacher.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update -- 18 - 24 May 2009
Yay, I'm 124 weeks old today!
This week we found some videos that we forgot we had. Enjoy.
Cow Bum (Cheese Bread)
Sleepy Time in the high chair
That's all the excitement. It was actually a really boring week.
Peace,
T.M.
This week we found some videos that we forgot we had. Enjoy.
Cow Bum (Cheese Bread)
Sleepy Time in the high chair
That's all the excitement. It was actually a really boring week.
Peace,
T.M.
Weekly Update -- 11 - 17 May 2009
Yay, I'm 123 weeks old today!
Masinja went to the dentist this week. He had to have his front bottom teeth cleaned because they had tartar build-up. He doesn't cooperate when T.M. and I brush his teeth so I wasn't surprised in the least. He didn't particularly like the cleaning though so maybe now he will starte cooperating! Other than that he got a clean bill of dental health. The denist also said that it is looking more and more possible that when his permanent teeth come in they will be white instead of yellow. Hurray!!
Masinja had his 15th ECI session today. He and I met his teacher at the Early Childhood Center. He had a great time in the gross motor room playing in the ball pit and playing with the matchbox cars. His teacher tried to get him to play on the little gym setup, but he really didn't want anything to do with it. She did manage to get him to walk down the stairs a few times though. We tried taking him into the reading room, but he didn't do very well in that environment. It was right in the middle of song time and he I think it was too loud and busy.
Based on a conversation that I had with Masinja's teacher while we were at the Early Childhood Center, T.M. and I are considering pulling Masinja out of ECI. I told her about Masinja's followup PT appointment last Friday and how his physical therapist was concerned about his speech and asked one of the speech therapists to sit in and listen to him. I explained to his teacher that the speech therapist doesn't feel that Masinja has an articulation problem but rather a phonics problem. I told her that he was on the waiting list to recieve therapy. She got really annoyed and said, "I hate the medically based therapies! They always do things so differently." This really surprised T.M. and I, because she has been telling us for weeks now that we are more than welcome to seek therapy outside of ECI and that in fact most families do. We haven't decided for sure yet what we are going to do, but we will let you know when we do.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja went to the dentist this week. He had to have his front bottom teeth cleaned because they had tartar build-up. He doesn't cooperate when T.M. and I brush his teeth so I wasn't surprised in the least. He didn't particularly like the cleaning though so maybe now he will starte cooperating! Other than that he got a clean bill of dental health. The denist also said that it is looking more and more possible that when his permanent teeth come in they will be white instead of yellow. Hurray!!
Masinja had his 15th ECI session today. He and I met his teacher at the Early Childhood Center. He had a great time in the gross motor room playing in the ball pit and playing with the matchbox cars. His teacher tried to get him to play on the little gym setup, but he really didn't want anything to do with it. She did manage to get him to walk down the stairs a few times though. We tried taking him into the reading room, but he didn't do very well in that environment. It was right in the middle of song time and he I think it was too loud and busy.
Based on a conversation that I had with Masinja's teacher while we were at the Early Childhood Center, T.M. and I are considering pulling Masinja out of ECI. I told her about Masinja's followup PT appointment last Friday and how his physical therapist was concerned about his speech and asked one of the speech therapists to sit in and listen to him. I explained to his teacher that the speech therapist doesn't feel that Masinja has an articulation problem but rather a phonics problem. I told her that he was on the waiting list to recieve therapy. She got really annoyed and said, "I hate the medically based therapies! They always do things so differently." This really surprised T.M. and I, because she has been telling us for weeks now that we are more than welcome to seek therapy outside of ECI and that in fact most families do. We haven't decided for sure yet what we are going to do, but we will let you know when we do.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update -- 4 - 10 May 2009
Yay, I'm 122 weeks old today!
Masinja went for a followup PT appointment on Friday. When he was discharged in October, his therapist said she wanted to follow up with him in 6-8 months just to make sure he was still on track. She was pretty pleased with his progress and even amazed at his cognitive development. During the evalution she had him kneel and while he was doing so she asked him to tell her some letters. Masinja proceeded to start naming letters. She turned to me and said, "Do you know how great that is? That is a completely abstract idea and for him to be able to grasp it is great!"
I told her that he knows all, but a few of the letters of the alphabet and that he knows most of the numbers 0-9, as well as the colors blue and green. She was pretty impressed! We then took Masinja out to the playground setup that they have in the clinic so she could see if he had improved as far as climbing stairs. He did a pretty good job going up, but he wouldn't go down unassisted and in fact he was shaking and grabing her shirt when he was on the edge of a step. She said he has gravitational insecurity. Basically, he's not comfortable when he doesn't feel supported. It explains why he doesn't like swinging for very long too. She gave me some ideas on how to work with him to help him overcome it. Other than the gravitational insecurity, he is right on track as far as PT is concerned, speech however is a different matter all together.
During his PT evaluation Masinja's therapist was concerned about his speech. She knew that he was in the ECI program and she asked how that was going. I admitted to her that T.M. and I still had concerns about his speech. I told her that there seemed to be some miscommunication as far as the ECI program was concerned and that we didn't feel like our concerns were being taken seriously. His therapist asked my permission to have one of the speech therapists sit in on his evaluation for a few minutes to listen to him talk. I agreed of course. The speech therapist sat in for about 10-15 minutes. I explained to her that he was in ECI and that we had been told that he has an articulation problem and not to worry about it because due to his age it is normal. She said she thought he had a phonetic problem and not an articulation problem. She said that it seems to her that he isn't hearing the sounds correctly and therefore isn't processing them correctly which is why he can't pronounce them correctly. She put him on the waiting list so we could take him for a full evaluation and hopefully start speech therapy. We will keep you posted on what happens.
We went to the zoo again today. We stayed for about 3 - 4 hours and saw a bunch more exhibits. We still haven't seen everything yet though! I think Masinja's favorite animals this time were the bears. Once agian it took a lot of pointing to get him to actually pay attention to the animals. He was more into people watching. We didn't actually go into the Dairy World exhibit but T.M. insisted that I take their picture next to the sign. It's kind of a personal joke with Masinja's Godfather Tom :O)
Dairy World Pic
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja went for a followup PT appointment on Friday. When he was discharged in October, his therapist said she wanted to follow up with him in 6-8 months just to make sure he was still on track. She was pretty pleased with his progress and even amazed at his cognitive development. During the evalution she had him kneel and while he was doing so she asked him to tell her some letters. Masinja proceeded to start naming letters. She turned to me and said, "Do you know how great that is? That is a completely abstract idea and for him to be able to grasp it is great!"
I told her that he knows all, but a few of the letters of the alphabet and that he knows most of the numbers 0-9, as well as the colors blue and green. She was pretty impressed! We then took Masinja out to the playground setup that they have in the clinic so she could see if he had improved as far as climbing stairs. He did a pretty good job going up, but he wouldn't go down unassisted and in fact he was shaking and grabing her shirt when he was on the edge of a step. She said he has gravitational insecurity. Basically, he's not comfortable when he doesn't feel supported. It explains why he doesn't like swinging for very long too. She gave me some ideas on how to work with him to help him overcome it. Other than the gravitational insecurity, he is right on track as far as PT is concerned, speech however is a different matter all together.
During his PT evaluation Masinja's therapist was concerned about his speech. She knew that he was in the ECI program and she asked how that was going. I admitted to her that T.M. and I still had concerns about his speech. I told her that there seemed to be some miscommunication as far as the ECI program was concerned and that we didn't feel like our concerns were being taken seriously. His therapist asked my permission to have one of the speech therapists sit in on his evaluation for a few minutes to listen to him talk. I agreed of course. The speech therapist sat in for about 10-15 minutes. I explained to her that he was in ECI and that we had been told that he has an articulation problem and not to worry about it because due to his age it is normal. She said she thought he had a phonetic problem and not an articulation problem. She said that it seems to her that he isn't hearing the sounds correctly and therefore isn't processing them correctly which is why he can't pronounce them correctly. She put him on the waiting list so we could take him for a full evaluation and hopefully start speech therapy. We will keep you posted on what happens.
We went to the zoo again today. We stayed for about 3 - 4 hours and saw a bunch more exhibits. We still haven't seen everything yet though! I think Masinja's favorite animals this time were the bears. Once agian it took a lot of pointing to get him to actually pay attention to the animals. He was more into people watching. We didn't actually go into the Dairy World exhibit but T.M. insisted that I take their picture next to the sign. It's kind of a personal joke with Masinja's Godfather Tom :O)
Dairy World Pic
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update -- 27 April - 3 May 2009
Yay, I'm 121 weeks old today!
Masinja had his 14th ECI session today. His teacher was pleased with his progress as far as vocabulary development. She gave me some suggestions concerning his feeding in order to try to get him to eat a wider variety of foods. She also wants us to continue to work on activities that will build his upper body strength.
Masinja went to the zoo for the second time this week! The weather was finally nice enough for us to go. We stayed for about 3 hours and only saw about a third of the zoo. Masinja didn't really pay attention to the animals. He was more interested in just walking around! T.M. and I had to point the animals out several times before he actually focused on them. Masinja's favorite animals were the penguins, the sea turtles and the giraffes.
Giraffe Pic
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja had his 14th ECI session today. His teacher was pleased with his progress as far as vocabulary development. She gave me some suggestions concerning his feeding in order to try to get him to eat a wider variety of foods. She also wants us to continue to work on activities that will build his upper body strength.
Masinja went to the zoo for the second time this week! The weather was finally nice enough for us to go. We stayed for about 3 hours and only saw about a third of the zoo. Masinja didn't really pay attention to the animals. He was more interested in just walking around! T.M. and I had to point the animals out several times before he actually focused on them. Masinja's favorite animals were the penguins, the sea turtles and the giraffes.
Giraffe Pic
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Weekly Update -- 20 - 26 April 2009
Yay, I'm 120 weeks old today!
Masinja had a great time this week. His Uncle Boop (Jeremy) came for a visit this weekend. We were going to go to the zoo yesterday, but it was cold and rainy, so we went to the Durham Museum instead. The museum is located in what used to be the train station. It's pretty neat, because they have a train that you can walk through. Masinja really enjoyed walking through the train and exploring things at the museum.
Masinja started saying a new word this week. We had Uncle Boop set up on some air mattresses in the living room, because we don't quite have a guest room yet. Masinja kept climbing up on the air mattresses and then he would lay down and say "heepy, heepy" and then proceed to suck his thumb and cuddle with his bunny. It was absolutely adorable. We tried to get it on video, but I'm not sure how clear it is. I guess you'll have to judge for yourselves. Enjoy :O)
Heepy, Heepy Video
We were going to participate in the March for Babies walk today, but the weather was even worse today than it was yesterday. There were severe thunderstorms and it was pretty chilly. We decided it would be better to keep Masinja home, so that he didn't get sick. We were pretty disappointed though, because the March for Babies walk is the perfect way to honor Madelinja's memory. It was been two years since she became Masinja's guardian angel.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
Masinja had a great time this week. His Uncle Boop (Jeremy) came for a visit this weekend. We were going to go to the zoo yesterday, but it was cold and rainy, so we went to the Durham Museum instead. The museum is located in what used to be the train station. It's pretty neat, because they have a train that you can walk through. Masinja really enjoyed walking through the train and exploring things at the museum.
Masinja started saying a new word this week. We had Uncle Boop set up on some air mattresses in the living room, because we don't quite have a guest room yet. Masinja kept climbing up on the air mattresses and then he would lay down and say "heepy, heepy" and then proceed to suck his thumb and cuddle with his bunny. It was absolutely adorable. We tried to get it on video, but I'm not sure how clear it is. I guess you'll have to judge for yourselves. Enjoy :O)
Heepy, Heepy Video
We were going to participate in the March for Babies walk today, but the weather was even worse today than it was yesterday. There were severe thunderstorms and it was pretty chilly. We decided it would be better to keep Masinja home, so that he didn't get sick. We were pretty disappointed though, because the March for Babies walk is the perfect way to honor Madelinja's memory. It was been two years since she became Masinja's guardian angel.
That's all for now.
Peace,
T.M.M.
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