Monday, July 30, 2007

Fitness Orb

This video comes to you from Chris's comment on my previous post.

The New Rocking Chair

We went out and bought a new gliding rocking chair to make ourselves and Ali comfortable. We were so pleased with this purchase that I was about to post an article on my blog about this fantastic acquisition. I assembled the rocker using instructions poorly translated from Japanese,
and Ali refused to be rocked in it. A serious case of buyers remorse set in so I decided not to discuss my purchase gone bad. Thankfully, we found something in my sister's spare room that redeemed us.

An exercise ball is perfect for bouncing our baby to sleep. We kill two birds with one stone. We get a work out as Ali is bounced into the Twilight Zone.

Does anybody else have any good, cheap ideas for making babies comfortable?

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Don't Get Defensive


Marines in Iraq gave a big "OOHRAH!" shout out to desk jockeys back in DC when they cracked open their crate of ThighMasters. I saw this piece on Fox News this morning while bouncing Ali on my knee. Fox hadn't yet updated their website so I was hard pressed to corroborate the story, but the New York Post was on it. Check it out here.

So there's your tax dollars hard at work. I'll give the Pentagon the benefit of the doubt. I'm sure some second lieutenant fresh from the academy thought the ThighMaster was some kind of protective body armor, manufactured by Kevlar not Suzanne Somers, for protection of the upper leg.

As an ex-marine I'm sure I speak for my brothers-in-arms when I say keep the ThighMasters; send over Chrissy from Three's Company.

Saturday, July 28, 2007

Vanishing Point

I think the proper definition of Vanishing Point is something like "the point on the horizon where n object disappears from view", but once again, I'm winging it. Lately, in my life, the definition of Vanishing Point is the place where the charming and beautiful Susan is so uncomfortable with pain inflicted on little Ali by a doctor or medical staff at a medical facility. When we arrive there, Susan vanishes.

I witnessed this many times in our parenting lives with our kids and now with Ali. Susan pulled her vanishing act the other day when a nurse brought in several vaccine filled syringes to bring Ali's shot record up to date. All of a sudden, I was left alone with Ali and a nurse armed with needles.

First, the nurse poked Ali's little toe and squeezed out a few drops of blood to check Ali's iron. Then she plunged two syringes into Ali's right leg and then her left. Ali screamed and turned several shades of red, each one gradually looking more like purple. I asked the nurse how she slept at night.

I took a purple sucker on my way out for my trouble.

And the charming and beautiful Susan suddenly appeared with hugs and kisses for Ali.

Thursday, July 26, 2007

Home Program for Visual Activities

Ali's therapist met us today with another hand out in hand. Rena is queen of handouts and homework. Rena is an occupational therapist that focuses on movement and motor skills. It's evident that Ali is working through Cortical Visual Impairment. That has been the case ever since Ali emerged from a coma in May. But she has gradually improved ever since. In fact, her improvement from week to week is measurable. Monday, Rena said that that was the best day yet. But then she said the same thing again today. But it was the truth. Ali is more cooperative and teachable with each visit to the therapist.

Here are the exercises Rena gave us as homework:

  1. Use face to face interaction and facial expression (smile, open and close mouth, raise eyebrows)
  2. Provide support for trunk and head when working on visual activities
  3. Use real objects that are familiar, desirable and use them one at a time (cup, bottle, spoon, bowl, etc.)
  4. Hold toys/objects 8-10" in front of a child's face/in periphery/slowly move in different directions.
  5. Use brightly colored/shiny toys (lime green, bright red/orange, etc.) against a black, non-patterned background for high contrast
  6. Use voice to help the child find your face and sounds to help them find toys and objects (musical toys, bang toys together, etc.)
  7. Offer toys in bright lighted area
  8. Offer toys to child's hand while identifying it and consistently use the same name every time ("ball"..., "bear"..., etc.)
  9. Decrease noises when working on seeing
  10. Help your child identify sounds with simple words, "That's the vacuum," or "Do you hear the phone?

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Where We Want To Go

I've been given the opportunity on several occasions during the past few days to think about the things Ali can and can't do as a little one year old girl. Yesterday at physical therapy, Ali's therapist handed me this very informative article about Cortical Visual Impairment, also known as Cortical Blindness. Several times a week, I discuss how well Ali has progressed and how thankful I am that I have a group of people that pray for Ali and me and the charming and beautiful Susan. I hold to the firm conviction that the credit for her progress is the Lord's as He has intervened in this tragic event by providing and equipping medical people with skills and compassion along with everything else we've received to help us care for this precious little one.

Life is and will continue to be very different than we thought it would be. But I guess we all can say that about our lives. We never expected that we would have the chance to care for and watch a little girl grow up in our home. We never thought that we'd be making that home in California. We never thought that we'd be helping our granddaughter grow through and recover from the effects of Shaken Baby Syndrome.

While Ali was still in a coma in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, I ran a slideshow for the nurses so they could see the Ali I remembered and help us get back there. Below, you'll see slides of Ali crawling, holding her bottle, sitting up in a high chair, trying to stand, rolling over, holding spoons, grabbing bowls away from the charming and beautiful Susan, hugging a teddy bear, and putting her fingers in her mouth all by herself. These are all the things we hope that Ali will one day do again as she continues to progress.


Sunday, July 22, 2007

It's Weird

After twenty years of living away from my home town, it' crazy that I'm back. The charming and beautiful Susan and I drive around town with our granddaughter and think we're in the twilight zone. Or in somebody else's life. It's surreal.

Pastor Glen Mustian of Calvary Chapel Eureka, USN (ret), spoke about Jesus calming storms. He gave a lesson in seamanship. The sailor learns that the surface of the ocean is never the same. Sometimes the sea is clear and sometimes murky. One day rough, the next calm. The sea can be blue. It can be green. It can be black.

This analogy connects perfectly with my life or your life. One day, where I'm going in life is clear, the next day, murky. Sometimes my relationship with my wife is calm and the next day we're screaming at each other. Some days, my skies are blue; the next black and stormy. Forbidding. It looks like a storm big enough to wash me away is bearing down on me.

In the Bible story, Pastor Glen reminds us that the disciples had no doubt Who to cry out to. When things looked hopeless, they all immediately cried out to Christ. That's definitely a lesson that needs to sink deep into my brain. When I'm frustrated with the way things are going around the house, I lash out at my wife. I blame her. I need to cry out to the Lord. When I'm frustrated with not knowing where my life is going, I'm tempted to jump ship rather than stay in the boat and ride out the storm with the Lord. Who know what kind of miracle He's going to perform? Know one knows what kind of opportunity will greet me once I land on shore. But I might have to weather the storm of my life before my feet are back on solid ground.

It's weird that I had to travel from warm tropical shores to the shores of the Redwood Coast to learn lessons I thought I already knew. What's next?

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Pie Hole

I wonder at what point in a little lady's life talking so freely about her bodily functions will make her blush.

"Did she poop today?"

"Yes, she did," is usually (hopefully) the answer. "Twice. And her little poops are more solid - not as runny as it used to be."

Could you imagine me having this conversation about my wife? Or my twenty year old daughter? Poop conversation never stops with boys, but at what point in a little girl's life do you quit this kind of talk?

Since you're probably wondering, Ali has produced two very nice turds today.

Ali has been familiar with the bottom end of the digestion process for quite some time. Now she is learning about the front end of the process: eating through the mouth. For the past several days, Ali has been getting all nourishment and medicines through the mouth. We haven't used the Mic-key button for two days. All of Ali's meds are sweet. One is grape flavored. She's not too crazy about it. We mix it with a little formula to try to trick her into taking it, but she's wise to that ploy. So we just shoot it into her little cheek a few drops at a time with a syringe (relax... there's no needle on it).

The charming an beautiful Susan tried something new with Ali today. She dabbed a little sweet potato baby food on Ali's pacifier and fed it to Ali. Ali loved it. She couldn't get enough of it. A little dab didn't do her. Then introduced a spoon. Ali got this look on her face like "what the heck did you just put in my mouth?" But once she discovered that this was a brilliant new mechanism for delivering increased quantities of sweet potato, she was very into it.

Deb the Magician, Ali's speech therapist, didn't exactly give us the green light for spoon feeding, but she never said we couldn't.

I won't say anything if you won't.

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Banana Slug

Watch out for that gooey yellow and black thing. It's a banana slug. Living in Florida for twenty years, I forgot about these things. The average banana slug is about seven or eight inches long. When I was in middle school, I would arm myself with them and fling them into my sister's hair.


I see these things every time I run on the trail through the redwoods at Sequoia Park. The day after it rains, these things are all over the place.

Another cool thing to do to slugs if you're bored is to salt them. I won't tell you how it works out. I don't want to spoil the surprise.



Tuesday, July 17, 2007

From Susan

The charming and beautiful Susan is the inspiration behind this post. Tonight, she made Ali giggle-yes! GIGGLE!!!- and she wanted to let you all know. Ali has been doing great. Yesterday was her best day in physical therapy yet. I think I may have already told you that she had her best day yet last time, but this time topped that time and we're looking forward to the next time. We went to physical therapy, we went to Target, we hung out in Starbuck's again, we chatted in Starbuck's with the worship leader's wife from Calvary Chapel Eureka, we put Ali back in the car, and went home. Later, we put Ali back in the car to go to see Dr. Jeff with the hip hyphenated last name, and than back home. We put Ali in her car seat a total of five times and she may have squawked for maybe a nano second the whole day. And then she went to bed and slept from about 8:30pm until 6:00am this morning. That's unheard of. Ali was unheard from.

And tonight, the giggling. We're giddy. The charming and beautiful Susan is on the verge of tears.

The charming and beautiful Susan said that every time we put out a request for specific prayer, we see this kind of phenomenal progress. So we want to put out to you all the things Ali needs prayer for in her rehabilitation.

  1. Head movements/strength...Ali has recovered quite a bit of head mobility, but she has a long way to go and progressing further depends more on strength in her muscles rather than making the neural connection. She turns her head in response to sounds and voices, but her movements are not very deliberate.
  2. Focusing her vision... Ali looks into our faces as we're holding her or feeding her or kissing her little lips. But she doesn't track with objects as they move across her field of vision. Within the last week, she has, for the first time, shown the potential for developing this ability in spite of her neurologist's grim predictions. By the way, Ali's neurologist saw her during our trip to San Francisco and was very impressed with Ali's progress. He gives us the credit, it's you all knock, knock, knocking on Heaven's door for us.
  3. Arm movements/strength... Now that the g-tube has been pulled, more of Ali's rehab will revolve around working with her on her stomach. But she hasn't developed full range of motion with her arms. And she also needs to develop the instinct put her arms out protectively in case she tips over or falls.
  4. Crawling... Crawling seems familiar to her and she is very motivated to do it, but, again, she lacks the strength. And she lacks the coordination. So these are the areas she needs to develop this. And, of course, after you crawl, walking follows.
  5. Pull the plug... Today Ali drank over eighteen ounces of formula. And we loaded a pacifier with her meds so that she can take those orally as well. So, we want to see this become a way of life so we can close up artificial access to her digestive system. I can't even begin to tell you how much Ali has calmed since she started bottle feeding. This is the way she needs to be to learn.

These are the things the charming and beautiful Susan would like you to know.

Saturday, July 14, 2007

Latest Trip to San Francisco

We thought our trip to San Francisco was going to be harrowing. Getting our little princess to cooperate and ride peacefully in the car seat is a tall order. As Ali has become more alert, she has learned to use the ancient child-parent communication tool known as the temper tantrum. She threw two on the way to San Francisco and two on the back north to Eureka. The first one on the way home lasted from Van Ness Blvd. in downtown San Francisco, across the Golden Gate Bridge, through Marin County all the way up into Santa Rosa. That's quite a bit of beautiful Northern California countryside for a loving married couple to experience with a baby shrieking in their ears.

But the worst baby crying I've ever seen is when Ali had her g-tube (see below) snatched out by the Doc.That was quite an undertaking. Ali started crying as soon as the Doc started probing around the g-tube point of insertion in her belly. The charming and beautiful Susan performed a disappearing act at that point. She's not a big fan of baby pain or the sight of baby blood.

In that little doctor's office room were Ali on the the table, the Doc, Nurse Vance, and me being completely useless and in the way. But they say I had to stay (something was muttered about a parental present and hospital liability). Nurse Vance held held Ali's legs, I held her hands and talked soothingly to her. With all those hands holding and probing and me with the gentle voice, Ali got wise to the fact that something really painful was about to happen so she freaked. The Doc cut the tube spraying the contents of Ali's stomach all over the room, wrapped part of the tube around his fingers and clenched his hand into a fist, waited for the hyper-ventilating and screaming Ali to take a breath, and yanked. I'm pretty sure Ali's face turned purple at that point. I don't do well with the sight of baby blood either, but what are ya' gonna do?

The Doc and Nurse Vance were a blur as they worked to insert Ali's new feeding valve, the Mic-key. They were done in about thirty seconds and Ali was in my arms in forty. We went down to radiology from there to make sure the Mic-key was installed in her stomach properly. That's when the charming and beautiful Susan, like a magician's assistance, re-appeared and gave Ali the hugs and comfort she was looking for.

The x-rays showed that everything was working properly and we were on to our next appointment.

That Mic-key tube has changed the way we handle Ali. For two months, Ali has had a catheter hanging out of her abdomen. Now she has this flat little button. It's so cool. It doesn't get in the way and Ali is not nearly as agitated by this thing as she was by the g-tube. She can be placed on her belly, she can wear different clothes, we can put her in one of those baby carrying pouches, and, best of all, she can be placed on her belly to work on crawling in physical therapy.

Now that Ali is drinking a bottle, she will only be fed directly to her g.i. tract at night, when we give her medicine, and in case of an emergency.

It's nice to see things start to get normal and un-harrowing with her.

Chillin' like Bob Dillon

At the time of this posting, Ali has been laying BY HERSELF (woo-hoo!!!) in the porta-crib by herself for at least half an hour. This just hasn't been done yet around here. Susan and I are both getting OTHER things done right now. I've been working on my computer, answering emails, doing my credit card statement and the charming and beautiful Susan has been doing a little online shopping.

Bottle feeding this kid has made all the difference in the world. Not only is she physically satisfied, but she also has a ton of emotional needs met, too. This is when "eating for comfort" is a good thing...

Friday, July 13, 2007

on the road...

I've been getting calls chastising me for not posting to my blog. We're still in San Francisco. I don't have my computer with me. Ali had her g-tube removed. I'm posting this from my phone. This ain't no iPhone. Pictures later...

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

One oh-zee

Deb the magician gave us some homework to do with Ali. Deb the magician is Ali's speech therapist. Her mission in life right now is to get Ali off the feeding machine. Our homework is to continue to provide Ali with stimulation to re-train her to eat. This morning, I did the routine that includes dipping a pacifier in formula and giving to Ali, then give her a few swallows of formula from a bottle and chase it down with some pacifier.

Repeat.

Ali and I did this to the tune of one ounce of formula from a bottle. Yeeeee-HAW!

That's great considering a normal feeding from the machine gives Ali about three ounces of formula in an hour. Ali does this all quite naturally.

Good job, Girlie.

Tuesday, July 10, 2007

More Progress

Our little Ali had a very productive day. Today's highlight was the visit from Ali's speech therapist Deb. Deb is like... magic.


Notice that little gizmo strapped to Ali's neck. What Deb the magician is doing with that apparatus is listening to Ali swallow. That thing is plugged into a little speaker pack so we ca all hear what's happening in Ali's little throat. Bet your iPhone can't do that.


So Ali did great! She did well enough that Deb the magician was confident that Ali could take several sips from a bottle with a regular nipple.


Ali LOVED drinking from that bottle. I wonder if it seems familiar to her.


We started out the day this morning playing with some of Ali's new toys. This ball makes sounds, flashes, sings, and rolls around in funky patterns. Ali laughs at it. I help her slap it to keep flashing, rolling, and singing.





I can think of no sounds on earth more heavenly than Ali laughing.

It's fake, people.

The first time I watched pro wrestling on TV, I was twelve. I knew it was fake. I know, you're probably thinking, "this guy was a genius even as a kid." But, personally, I thought everyone knew it. You can start a fist fight by telling someone that wrestling is fixed. Fans don't believe in Santa, but they do believe in Stone Cold Steve Austin.

I started a fist fight in the fifth grade when I told my buddy Dean that Santa was made up. Or maybe he told me Santa was fake. I don't remember exactly, but I drew first blood. Or I bled first. I don't remember exactly.

I really want to rant but I'm not really launching into this the way I had envisioned.

I've been spending more time than I'm usual watching cable news channels and this is one story that I wish would go away. In fact, with each passing day, Chris Benoit looks more like a hero than a double murderer that took the easy way out. What put me over the edge was watching the Larry King re-run of Monday night's show. A bunch of no-neck WWE celebrities were lined up across the table from Larry King dressed up in open collared shirts and sport coats like wrestlers with pedigrees. These modern day gladiators tried to make Benoit look like my favorite movie hero, the victorious general Maximus Decimus Meridias, keeper of Rome. In the movie Gladiator, Maximus' wife and son were victims, brutally murdered, too. But not at the hands of anyone made out to be a hero. In the movie, it's clear who the good guy is and who the bad guy is. For some reason, if we apply enough spin, blame-shift, and celebrity glam, we can confuse a whole nation and make them think that Benoit was a victim instead of someone that strangles his wife one day, smothers his little boy the next, and then kills himself.

Here's a question: where are the family members who've buried a daughter and a grandson? Why haven't they been paraded in front of TV cameras chained to talking heads? Who's calling the shots? The press or World Wrestling Entertainment?

I love that there's this strategy to blame steroids and doctors. Just think: if the guy didn't commit suicide and then tried to say 'roids turned him from Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde, we'd be laughing at our TV sets from coast to coast instead of feeling sorry for Benoit. If Benoit had survived this, the WWE would throw him under the bus so quickly talking heads would spin.

OJ should have tried the "Steroid" defense.

Monday, July 09, 2007

Four Weeks in Eureka and Respite

We've been in Eureka four weeks, today. We are definitely settling into a routine. Ali goes to physical therapy on Mondays and Thursdays. Several times a week, a speech therapist comes to the house and works with Ali. Ali is taking a pacifier dipped in food or ice water and is swallowing well. Twice a week, our main nurse comes and weighs Ali, gets her temperature, and spends time evaluating Ali's time between her visits and helps us to provide the best care possible.


Recently, we've started to have respite care visits from nurses. Three nurses will spend forty hours a month here at the house to help us and to provide relief for us or time to just get out of the house. Once we get the respite care nurses up and running with Ali's routine, the idea is to sneak away for a couple of hours or so. Today Susan and I got out of the house for about two hours leaving Ali in the care of Millie the Wonder Nurse. We went to Starbuck's, drove around Eureka, and then rode out to the beach. We had some serious respite goin' on.

Ali's biggest challenge--our biggest challenge--is napping and getting her to bed. She's tired, but she fights it until she works herself into a full-blown, red-in-the-face-snot-flingin' tantrum. So naps during the day are rare and short, and getting her to sleep at night is an intense hour to two hour event. Some day I'll be able to do seminars on putting baby night-night. All three of us (Ali, the charming and beautiful Susan, and me) are quite frazzled and exhausted by the time she goes down. The up-side of this is that Ali sleeps most of the night through. She wakes when she loses her pacifier (she can't move and put it back in her mouth herself), but once the Binky is popped back in, she goes right back to sleep picking up her dreams right where she left off.


I will say that Millie the Wonder Nurse is able to get Ali to relax. While the charming and beautiful Susan and I were out on our respite, she got Ali down for forty-five minutes.

On the custody front: Ali's case in California Child Protective Services has been kicked upstairs to the department that handles adoptions. That's a good thing, but does present us with a challenge or two: as non-residents of the state of California taking the baby across state lines, this process can take over a year--maybe two. If we're residents, then the case will be expedited but will still take a minimum of six months. We get our first visit from our new case worker at the end of the month.

So, if you're praying for us, could you please pray:

  1. for Ali's physical therapy and speech therapy
  2. that she'll surrender to sleep earlier
  3. that Susan I will get the down time we need
  4. for the adoption process
  5. for wisdom
  6. for peace
  7. for joy

Friday, July 06, 2007

Stuff You Can't Get Here

There's a couple of things you just can't get here in Eureka: hot weather and Crystals Louisiana Hot Sauce. As I type this at 1:30pm, while Boise is 108 and Vegas pushes 110, it's 61 degrees here in Eureka. We have a word for that back home in Florida: winter.

And if I wanted the charming and beautiful Susan to whip me up a big platter of her awesome buffalo wings, it couldn't happen before today. But now, Crystal's is in the cupboard and the universe is right again. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU Lyndsey and Andrew. Obviously your package was not x-rayed because it would have never arrived had anyone truly did their job and discovered the contents of the package. Way to go camouflaging the package's contents with the Winnie the Pooh blanket and diapers. That was brilliant.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Quiet Time

This is a first. Ali is laying in her crib by herself and just laughing. For the past half hour, Ali's been just laying there staring up at the mobile a friend sent (thanks, Cheryl).

Ali had a great morning at physical therapy. Gerrie, one of Ali's nurses is here with us today. She's a great sister in the Lord and we appreciate the loving tenderness she shows our little Ali.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

First Forgiveness Post

As I said a few posts back, I was going do a personal Bible study on forgiveness. I dug right into mining verses out of the Bible that discuss forgiveness. What I've discovered is that God forgives so naturally. I really don't get why because He knows everything. He knows our thoughts and motivations in every situation and He still aggressively pursues a relationship with us unhindered by the heavy baggage of our sins. He can only do that by forgiving us. But He doesn't forgive us because He gets something out of it; He forgives because we benefit. Forgiveness is like Teflon. It keeps bitterness and hatred and cynicism and vengeance and murder from sticking to us. Forgiveness frees me to live the abundant life Jesus promises.

My study is organized around a simple outline broken into four sections:
  1. Divine Forgiveness Promised
  2. Human Forgiveness Prescribed
  3. Examples of Human Forgiveness
  4. Example of Divine Forgiveness

I found Bible verses that show forgiveness as it flows from God and instances of transactions of forgiveness between men. It's no surprise that God's stack of Divine Forgiveness Bible verses is a mountain next to the molehill of human forgiveness.

After sorting the verses into different categories, I began to read them. For the past week I haven't been able to quit thinking about the first verse I read.

Exodus 34:7 says:
"I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations."
God lavishes love on us. He forgives sin, but He doesn't typically deliver us out of it. The consequences of my sins today map out a course of consequences that my offspring will have to walk through. I have this information about the effects of my sin and God still chooses to forgive.

I've never really given thought to he part about God I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren. For some reason--I don't know what that reason is--I've always thought that doesn't apply to me. I live in the New Testament. But the bottom line is my sin affects people both nearby and far away. And I may not always know how or to what extent, but my sin is destructive and out of control the way a lit fuse on a stick of dynamite will unleash an explosion I can't stop once I complete the detonation sequence.

"But I do not excuse the guilty." God forgives, but excuses are unacceptable. The guilty are inexcusable. I need to get out of the habit of making excuses for my sin. I need to react to guilt the way I react to pain: loathe it. I shouldn't try to get used to it. That will destroy me. Guilt is the indicator my conscience needs to initiate repentance and cause me to run to God like a child runs to his daddy when he hurts himself. I need guilt much more than the short lived thrill of sin. Guilt can prevent the destructive consequence of sin if I act soon enough.

God is not mocked. When He sets something in motion, it's in motion. Cause and effect are not interrupted.

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

A Huge Thank You

Ali had a great first birthday. So many of you guys sent gifts. Thanks Thom & Jody, Ray & Nancy, Kathy & Clay (and pups), Miss Marie, Loraine & Family, Grandpa, Mallory, Aunt Mary & Aunt Barbara & Uncle George, Cheryl & Dan, Grandma Ruth, Aunt Camille & Aunt Blanche, Tracy, Kristin, Great Grandma Susan, Great Grandma & Grandpa Valerio, Aunt Mary & Uncle Larry, Art & Catherine, David & Lyette, Anne & Art, and Bob & Candy.

Too numerous to mention by name are all the people who've sent encouraging emails and left comments on this blog and who have loved, supported and prayed for us. Thanks go out to you all, as well.

Ali piled up new clothes and educational toys so she can play her way through rehabilitation in style.


New Blogger

Über Christ Follower Jeff Jackson is now blogging. Jeff Jackson is director of Shepherd Staff Mission Facilitators and one of my mentors. He's a great communicator, teacher and story teller so check out his blog. There's no doubt you'll learn something new everytime you read it.

Monday, July 02, 2007

Mommy and Daughter

This morning started out kind of rough for little Miss Ali. We had a nine o'clock appointment at physical therapy. I pinched Ali's chubby little leg in the car seat's buckle. I hate when I do that. So does Ali. She let me know about it. I think she cussed.

Ali punished me for the car seat episode by not cooperating during physical therapy. But they did some work with her on her belly and Ali did great. She was trying to crawl! She just doesn't have all the strength and coordination she needs to pull it off, yet.

Afterward, when we put her back in the car seat, I had both grandmas watching me like a hawk to make sure I didn't injure their poor little baby.

We drove through Sequoia Park and saw a deer. Then Ali started to throw a fit while strapped in her car seat, which is stressful. I can't get home fast enough when that happens. When we did get home, she went right down for a nap in her crib. She's doing better and better by herself both on the floor and in her crib.

After a short nap, Deb the speech therapist came over. She worked with Ali's back and neck muscles, hands, and fingers. She also dipped Ali's pacifier in ice water to increase the sensation Ali gets when she has it in her mouth.

Charity continued the cold pacifier technique after Deb the nurse went to take care of her next patient.

Ali and Charity had a great chance to enjoy each other's company.

Monday Morning Update

Ali had a great weekend. Grandma Ruth is visiting from Florida. Charity was also able to visit this weekend. It was busy, but Ali did great. Grandma Ruth's available arms gave opportunity to the charming and beautiful Susan and I to sneak off to Starbuck's for an hour to sip coffee together. What a treat.
I also took the opportunity to look up a couple of old friends in town. Ron is was buddy I connected with. I met Ron when I was thirteen at the school bus stop. I said something that agitated him and earned myself a bloody nose. We've been good friends ever since. We lose touch when I'm not in town, but we seem to pick up right where we left off. Ron has been walking with the Lord for the same amount of time I have. He was a partner in crime and now a brother in the Lord. Weird, huh? Most of our close friends have either been killed or are serving the Lord.