Just finished most of the upgrades and updates to the NEW Fragile X Association of Michigan website. Check it out.
www.fxam.org
(still working on getting our home computer fixed - hopefully in the next week or two)
God Bless
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Computer Crash
Hello all - I know it's been a while for updates...and it might be a little longer. Our computer has crashed and we are trying to save it AND all our pictures. So it might still be a little while longer for an update.
Hope you all are doing well - and have a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend.
Be safe & God Bless
Hope you all are doing well - and have a wonderful 4th of July holiday weekend.
Be safe & God Bless
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Tie A Yellow Ribbon
On May 11th a very good friend of mine - and my brother in spirit - left and went to defend our countries freedom and help those who have been liberated.
I have never experienced saying goodbye to someone like that. To go off and do that is a bravery and a courage I don't know if I will ever know. I'm a truly humbled.
So please - so a prayer for my brother and for all of our troops who are out there for us.
God Bless
May 2009 Update
Bad, bad blogger. No update for over a month. It has been a crazy couple months with lots of business travel and busy weekends. But there is a lot to catch up on....so here goes.
We have been making tons of progress in the speech and language areas. His letter recognition gets better and better, and he knows all his numbers and most of his colors. Words (and attempts at words) are coming more and more frequent. He will help us say the ABC's...if we say "A" he says "B" then we say "C" and he says "D"...and so on. Maybe not perfect everytime - but we are just making huge gains.
He's also pretty good with the number 3. If we ever have to tell him something more than twice - like let go of the dogs tail - we tell him once, and then say "ok, Hayden...1, 2, ....." and he will pipe in with "3". How do you discipline when it's so cute. He also gets so excited whenever he does something right as far as letters and numbers go - and when we say "good job" he just gets the biggest smile and starts clapping. What an awesome feeling.
Just this week we also had another amazing thing happen. Hayden's OT at school sent us a note home that said he wrote the first letter of his name - an "H" (duh, right?). She wrote it down - and he took a pencil and did it himself. I read the note and got a tear in my eye. How awesome is that.
Soccer started again. Hayden is playing in his second season. First day wasn't all that great - we maybe had a good 15 minutes of actual playing time....he was just so exhausted by the time soccer started. He seems to like getting up no later than 6:30am everyday.
We missed the second day, but on the third day we got a helper that I think is really going to be good for Hayden. The whole soccer program is for children with special needs, and the get kids from the community to volunteer and help out.
Well on this day we got a volunteer who spent the entire hour with Hayden. When he didn't want to actually kick the ball or learn to dribble - his helper would just sit on the sidelines and talk and play with him, tickle him, do just about whatever Hayden wanted. This kid had such patience and just seemed to enjoy hanging out with Hayden. It was great because I actually got to sit back and watch while he played. It was really great having that feeling of watching your kid play sports - even if it was just sitting on the sideline watching the other kids play. We will for sure ask for this helper each weekend.
As mentioned in a previous post we had some worries when it came to the ECDD program in our school district. How such great things can be accomplished when the public pulls together. For over a month weekly emails, phone calls, and meetings with school board members and school administrators resulted in a victory. The district eventually realized they couldn't get rid of special ed programs - but they had also wanted to get rid of the special ed director. Well at the April meeting, the board did not even make a motion to discuss the possible termination of the special ed director. With so much concern from the public - the board acted in our interest and I think for the betterment of the district. We still have some financial issues in our district - but I think they can be worked out.
That's all the updates on Hayden for now. I do want to say a little note for my Buppa (grandpa) who we lost on May 2nd. He had been sick for sometime and had been back and forth between a hospital and nursing home for the better part of the last 4 months. I miss you and love you Buppa...say hi to Nana for me.
God Bless
We have been making tons of progress in the speech and language areas. His letter recognition gets better and better, and he knows all his numbers and most of his colors. Words (and attempts at words) are coming more and more frequent. He will help us say the ABC's...if we say "A" he says "B" then we say "C" and he says "D"...and so on. Maybe not perfect everytime - but we are just making huge gains.He's also pretty good with the number 3. If we ever have to tell him something more than twice - like let go of the dogs tail - we tell him once, and then say "ok, Hayden...1, 2, ....." and he will pipe in with "3". How do you discipline when it's so cute. He also gets so excited whenever he does something right as far as letters and numbers go - and when we say "good job" he just gets the biggest smile and starts clapping. What an awesome feeling.
Just this week we also had another amazing thing happen. Hayden's OT at school sent us a note home that said he wrote the first letter of his name - an "H" (duh, right?). She wrote it down - and he took a pencil and did it himself. I read the note and got a tear in my eye. How awesome is that.
Soccer started again. Hayden is playing in his second season. First day wasn't all that great - we maybe had a good 15 minutes of actual playing time....he was just so exhausted by the time soccer started. He seems to like getting up no later than 6:30am everyday. We missed the second day, but on the third day we got a helper that I think is really going to be good for Hayden. The whole soccer program is for children with special needs, and the get kids from the community to volunteer and help out.
Well on this day we got a volunteer who spent the entire hour with Hayden. When he didn't want to actually kick the ball or learn to dribble - his helper would just sit on the sidelines and talk and play with him, tickle him, do just about whatever Hayden wanted. This kid had such patience and just seemed to enjoy hanging out with Hayden. It was great because I actually got to sit back and watch while he played. It was really great having that feeling of watching your kid play sports - even if it was just sitting on the sideline watching the other kids play. We will for sure ask for this helper each weekend.
As mentioned in a previous post we had some worries when it came to the ECDD program in our school district. How such great things can be accomplished when the public pulls together. For over a month weekly emails, phone calls, and meetings with school board members and school administrators resulted in a victory. The district eventually realized they couldn't get rid of special ed programs - but they had also wanted to get rid of the special ed director. Well at the April meeting, the board did not even make a motion to discuss the possible termination of the special ed director. With so much concern from the public - the board acted in our interest and I think for the betterment of the district. We still have some financial issues in our district - but I think they can be worked out.
That's all the updates on Hayden for now. I do want to say a little note for my Buppa (grandpa) who we lost on May 2nd. He had been sick for sometime and had been back and forth between a hospital and nursing home for the better part of the last 4 months. I miss you and love you Buppa...say hi to Nana for me.
God Bless
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
The Outlaw Organic Farming Act
Family & Friends ~
I've recently heard about a bill in the House (HR875) and Senate (S425) called the Food Safety Modernization Act. As part of this bill, which is supported by the food chemical lobbyists, the use of fertilizers and pesticides will be required to "protect" all food - including organic food. Isn't that the reason many people choose organic food, because it doesn't have fertilizers and pesticides?
When we switched Hayden to organic food - we saw a change in him within weeks. We started getting more sounds and now he is starting to talk. Is it all because of organic - no - his teachers and the hard work Tina put's in is part as well - but we noticed a change in the beginning when we switched even before the intense therapy and we believe the organic food is helping the process further along.
So I urge you to contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to not support this bill. I fear that there is little opposition to this bill in Congress due to the current numbers, and is being led by the same party in power - and we've heard very little about this bill which they are trying to put through with little fanfare.
Thank you and God Bless
Mike
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://blog.alextiller.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=2729&PostID=58102
http://www.leavemyfoodalone.org/Default.aspx
I've recently heard about a bill in the House (HR875) and Senate (S425) called the Food Safety Modernization Act. As part of this bill, which is supported by the food chemical lobbyists, the use of fertilizers and pesticides will be required to "protect" all food - including organic food. Isn't that the reason many people choose organic food, because it doesn't have fertilizers and pesticides?
When we switched Hayden to organic food - we saw a change in him within weeks. We started getting more sounds and now he is starting to talk. Is it all because of organic - no - his teachers and the hard work Tina put's in is part as well - but we noticed a change in the beginning when we switched even before the intense therapy and we believe the organic food is helping the process further along.
So I urge you to contact your representatives in Congress and ask them to not support this bill. I fear that there is little opposition to this bill in Congress due to the current numbers, and is being led by the same party in power - and we've heard very little about this bill which they are trying to put through with little fanfare.
Thank you and God Bless
Mike
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-875
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm
http://blog.alextiller.com/BlogRetrieve.aspx?BlogID=2729&PostID=58102
http://www.leavemyfoodalone.org/Default.aspx
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Harper Woods School District Planning To Cut All Special Education Programs
As you may have read from a previous post - this was the first year Harper Woods had an ECDD class. Well - they seem to think that it is a good idea to cancel all Special Education services in the district - which included ECDD, Categorical Classrooms, staff, etc. I'm thinking the Business Manager, Interim Superintendent (which they are on like their 3rd or 4th), and Board of Education are a bunch of idiots and are discriminating against our kids who have special needs. I've not heard of any other programs they want to cut to save money in the district.
If anyone has any good ideas on how to fight this - feel free to email me - I'm lookin' for a good fight !!
If anyone has any good ideas on how to fight this - feel free to email me - I'm lookin' for a good fight !!
Happy Birthday
Little late on this post - but Hayden turned 4 years old on March 18th. Wow - 4 years old - the time is just flying.
We went to Pump It Up for his birt
hday party the weekend before.
Unfortunately he got sick on his actual birthday and has been fighting a cold ever since.
We went to Pump It Up for his birt
hday party the weekend before.
Unfortunately he got sick on his actual birthday and has been fighting a cold ever since.
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