Mommy had surgery on her wrist and has not been able to help me update everyone.  I went and had my botox on the 30 of September and it went very well. Dr. Tanaguchi let me lay on mommies tummy so I was pretty happy about that. Then they gave me laughing gas to help with the pain of the needles. They also put a numbing cream on my legs before the shots and then wrapped them in cling wrap for a half hour before the shots. I got to take my mask home that they used for the laughing gas. I like to play with that now.

After all of the excitement this morning daddy and I went swimming while mommy got us lunch. Then after lunch mommy came down to the pool with us. I liked to get back into the pool. Mommy can not take me because of surgery and then before that the pool was closed.

My neurology appointment was the next day and that went real well too. Dr. Burnstien was very impressed with everything that I am doing. He told mommy and daddy that he never thought that I would be able make such great strides. We go back in 6 months.

I did not like the car ride at all to the cities or back. Mommy and daddy hope that I get over the car issues, it is no fun for anyone.

I am getting my two year molars. They are kind if painful but after this I will have all of my teeth. YEAH!

I am doing a lot of walking and crawling around the house with help. I like to be moving around and grabbing things. On Friday I was helping mommy with her home work. The computer is pretty fun. I also went to Walmart with mommy, Cole and Crystal. We had fun shopping. Mommy pushed the cart with me and Cole in it. It was real fun zooming around the store.

Today I showed mommy how I can hug my bunny rabbit. She was so proud of me. I also showed off all of the body parts that I know... nose, ear, mouth, eyes, hand, and foot.

Jenny my original OT came back from maternity leave. It is nice to have her back. Mommy and Jenny did some scoring to find out where I am for my fine motor skills. Jenny says between 12-15 months.  That is real good!!!

Speech therapy tested me too and Melissa (ST) says that my cognitive skills are about 24 months and that is where I am suppose to be, my expressive language is about 12-15 months. So that means I know what is going on and I understand what is said to me I just can not speak back or say what I want all the time. I am working real hard though.

So all is very well here. Oh yeah, I am going to be a bat (bat girl) for Halloween.

We made it home in one piece. The drive home was pretty typical, Angela drove, I tried to sleep, and Christina cried.

The Botox injections went well. Christina did a wonderful job, considering she received eight injections. Four in each calf. Poor girl. She did very well with the mask also.

The appointment with Dr. Burnstein, Christina's neurologist, went well. He was pleased with her progress. We also spoke about Christina's sleeping. Or should I say, not sleeping.

Christina and I made good use of the pool and hot tub. The pool was on the cool side so we played as long as we could stay warm and then went into the hot tub. After a couple of minutes in the hot tub Christina relaxed and was kicking up a storm.

We made a couple different trips to the pool. It helped break up the day and allowed us time to adjust to the water temp.

Christina also enjoyed getting wrapped up in a towel to go back to the room.

We were all glad to get back home.

Well, we made it.

Christina was her usual self and unhappy with the car ride. She started crying before we even made it out of the drive. She stopped crying when we took her out of the car at the hotel.

Angela just slid her into bed. A bit of wind down for us and off to sleepy land.

Christina's appointment is at 0730. No food or drink from midnight until after the appointment.

I think if she is up to it, I will take her swimming in the pool. She should enjoy that. I will too.

More updates later.

Derek

Well, it is Monday night and we have everything packed for tomorrow. We will leave after I am done with work tomorrow night. Then Christina's appointment is in the AM. The poor thing can't have any food or drink before her appointment. I guess we can be in the room when they give her the injections. That should be an interesting experience.

That is where all the thoughts start flooding in. Christina gets Botox in her calves. It will be her first round. The thought of purposely injecting a toxin into the body seems odd. But, it makes sens logically. The toxin will make it easier for Christina to bend her legs when her foot is in the correct position.

Then Wednesday, Christina has her appointment with the neurologist. That should go well. I always get a bit uptight before hand though. And afterwards can be hard. Hearing info from the doc can be tough, even when it is the same 'ol stuff.

Time to load the car and go to bed. Long week.

Angela's surgery went well. It was a long day at the doctor, but went OK. Angela handled everything well, she was out for quite awhile, even in recovery. And of course, the first thing she asked for was coffee. I picked up some chocolate too.

Christina also handled it very well. Her and I played and sang while waiting for mommy. I brought the chair along and that worked well for lunch. Christina and I set up camp in a corner at the coffee shop and ate lunch.

Christina also handled her stretches in the waiting room. We are getting a handle on some of the sensory issues.

Angela is finding out how much she uses both hands to do things. Picking Christina up or setting her down is a bit tricky now. And the stretches are difficult.

Christina is already showing signs of revolt. The little squirt will purposely throw herself against Angela's sore arm. And while walking will suddenly drop to a sitting position. Not to mention the grabbing and typical hitting(not purposeful).

It will be a long week. Next week are Christina's appointments.

We have lots of appointments coming up so I figured I better post while I can.

Angela has surgery coming up this week. Christina's appointments are the end of the month into October. I think we have surgery, neurologist, eye, physiologist, and then the dentist. The dentist appointment will be her first cleaning.

Time to get ready for work.

Derek

Morning,

Christina, my little princess, has been up most of the night. I decided to try and be productive. Check email, weather, woot, blog.

Christina is so cute this time of the morning. Her eyes are big, we didn't turn on any big lights. She has a big yawn every three minutes or so. And, as we sit here, she is bracing one hand on the desk and grabbing the laptop with the other.

Christina's turn to type :

xz hmmmmmmmmmmm. ka jcvvbvvnnffjklkmghhhhhhhhhkjkhgdvcfvjjffhjfjfjjjh
fhteuryyriufhjudehhzxfeilllll;
plkhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

End quote.

Last night I army crawled to mommy twice. It was hard but I wiggled, pulled with my arms and pushed with my feet. Mommy and daddy were soo proud of me. I was pretty proud of my self too.

Mommy and I went swimming at the YMCA for the first time in two weeks. The pool was closed for cleaning. It is a good thing it opened because it is too cold to go swimming in the river now. I also walked from the locker room to the exit. I missed doing that.

Today I went to great grandma Marge's with mommy and had lunch. I even let her hold me. I ate a lot, she had real yummy peaches all cut up for me.

Grandma Patty came over for supper tonight and I showed her that I could crawl.  I had a busy day. My two year molars started to come. I am getting the bottom right one. So four more teeth and I should be all done.

Good night, its my bed time.

Here are pictures of me and my buddy Cole.

Christina is making progress getting her legs to do what she wants them to. She is making crawling motions and can get to her destination with a lot of effort and enough patience.

This weekend was fairly quiet. Grandpa and his friend came over today. Christina received a neat toy from Julie. She liked the paper, of course, and started playing with the toy after I got it out of the box. Darn tape and cable ties.

Keep checking out the link for the slideshow. Angela has been adding more photos.

Derek

I finally put something together for the pictures. I stuck a slideshow in to add to the page. Angela really liked it. Got lucky on that, I just needed filler. The photo albums are all done and uploaded through July, 2008. The form to pick which gallery to look at is done(the page I stuck the slideshow on).

The pictures are backed up through the middle of August and I will finish that tonight. And, the task of sorting through all the pics is almost done. I have all of Christina in her own folder. Everyone else is stuck in one folder. I will start breaking those out soon.

After that, I want to view the inventory in a quick and easy way I am not sure the best route to go. I am afraid the best way will be to go through each picture again and add meta data. Yuck! Last count was around 13000 of Christina.

Time to upload some photos and go to bed.

We took Christina to the park on Labor Day. We went swinging and walking in the water.