Max was our first dog. He was a present for Christmas 1999 from my parents’ coworker and friend (an amazing woman who passed away a few years ago). He was a sweet and playful boy, one of the best dogs ever. He passed away on Sunday from complications of Cushing’s.
Rest in peace Max, July 26th 1999 – May 13th 2012
Life
It’s not a vacation because I’ll be in Orlando from tomorrow morning until Saturday night for a business conference, but it’s kind of a vacation because part of the conference will be at Universal Studios, and I’m only stuck doing training and seminars until 4:30.
Now seriously people, I have some more work stuff to do so my workload is taken care of while I’m out of town and I still haven’t packed and I still have clothes that need to be washed. What the fuck have I been doing the last week? Not preparing for this trip, that’s what. But at least we’re flying business class so we won’t be wedged in between ten other people or something else awful. And we’re the row right behind first class so there will be plenty of leg room and the possibility of sneaking up to first class. Maybe? I’m probably going to get tasered by an Air Marshall. If you don’t hear from me in awhile assume the worst and know that I love you for bothering to read my blog.
Also, this.
Life
I’m back home after being gone since Wednesday night. The services were beautiful. I’m happy I was able to see friends I hadn’t seen in a year and a half and everyone got to meet Logan, I just wish it had been for a different reason. Rest in peace, Jim.
Logan is pretty much walking now. He can walk several feet and he walks more than he crawls. My twin sister left for Aghanistan on Saturday and I already miss her like the dickens.
Now I need a nap and a cry, I just feel drained.
Life
Logan had his audiological work-up today. This first test they did was an Otoacoustic Emissions test, where they put a little doo-hickey (technical jargon) in his ear that makes a noise, then measures his ear’s response to that noise. Logan’s left and right ears failed this test, so right away we knew there was hearing loss. However, we also know Logan has issues with fluid and congestion – which Andrew also had issues with, as did Andrew’s dad and grandfather, and it caused Andrew’s grandfather to go deaf around age 3 – so the audiologist took a look in Logan’s ear and hey, look at that, fluid and inflammation. Next they did a tympanometry, where they basically blow a puff of air at the ear drum and measure how much it moves. Logan’s moved very little, meaning there’s quite a bit of fluid and pressure in his middle ear. After that they did a conditioned play audiometry, a type of pure-tone testing where they play tones in different frequencies and the patient indicates when they can hear it and which ear they can hear it in. As Logan is a baby and don’t give no fucks about your pure-tone testing, they had us sit in a sound proof booth with speakers and TV monitors on each side. A tone would come from one speaker, and if Logan looked that way he was rewarded with the TV playing a quick cartoon. A guy came in the booth with us to help Logan figure out what to do and to keep Logan looking forward when there was no tone playing so they could determine if he was actually looking at a speaker/monitor as a reaction to a noise. This guy failed at this. Logan figured out the whole “look-at-the-direction-of-the-noise-oh-hey-it’s-a-bouncing-dragon” thing on his pretty much immediately, and those puppets were not at all interesting to look out. Nonetheless, they got some good information, and even decided to see if Logan would tolerate having a set of headphones on so they could test each ear. Logan did surprisingly well with the headphones, and after a few halfhearted attempts to take them off he settled in and wore them for the whole test.
Logan playing in the waiting room at the hearing center.
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Babies, Life
People, I am SO READY for summer. This winter has been stupid and mild (Logan had the cutest little bear snowsuit I wanted to take a gazillion pictures of him in and we didn’t see more than a few flakes of snow.) and this spring has been a complete tease. I’m done. No more beautiful days followed by cold rain. It’s official, I’m officiating this, I officially declare summer. I will print something out and laminate it if I have to.
Yesterday the kids and I spent the morning playing outside. Logan took his first steps! The first time he was trying to reach one of his toys, so he stood up and did some little shuffling side steps. Excitement! A few minutes later he was walking with me holding his hand, I let go and took a few steps back and he took three or four steps towards me. CAPSLOCK EXCITEMENT! It may seem silly to get all worked up about a 15-month-old just starting to take his first steps, but Logan’s doctors believe a build up of fluid in his ears is causing an issue with his hearing and balance (his audiological work-up is next week, and then he’ll be seeing an ENT about possibly having tubes placed to drain the fluid). His physical therapist described it as a fear of “open space”. He’s been pulling up to a stand since about 7-months, and he’s been cruising since 9-months, his pediatrician thought he’d be walking well before his first birthday. He does walk very well, even when he’s only holding one hand, and he doesn’t put any weight on the hand he’s holding. It doesn’t even seem like he really needs it for stabilization, he’s just not quite comfortable letting go. BUT HE DID IT AND I’M GOING TO MAKE HIM KEEP DOING IT.
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