Happy Birthday Travis!

I'm a Walking Man...

No news is...

Good news! We're just hanging out, trying to stay warm and avoid "the crud". So far, so good! Micah goes on house arrest after today for a few weeks. Better that than sick! Micah's currently enjoying free babysitting by grandma while I chill for awhile. No complaints! He's a walkin man now. He hasn't seen his PT in 3 weeks, boy will she be shocked! He can easily walk about 6 feet, and has walked as much as 15' once! The race is on....

One year and one surprise later...

As of tomorrow, we will be celebrating Micah's 1 year homecoming from the hospital. Can you believe it? Thinking back to his first birthday,. that's essentially how long he was in the hospital. It's amazing how long that seems, even though many families spend two, three, four times + as long.

So, as if that wasn't enough to be excited about...

He said MA!

That's right, Micah "In his own time" Hartman.. said Ma! 14 months, 2 weeks and a few odd days later, he finally said ma! This is his first real sound, like a baby would say "ma" or "da" or "ba".

The boy knows how to make his mama cry. And proud, very proud.

Micah's happenings...

Micah has taken his first steps! :) Go Micah! He's taken a few more, but he's just not a fan of the ideeym (that's Micah saying hi). idea... that he isn't hanging on to anyone. I think he'll catch on eventually. He's always going, so I think when he realizes he can go faster this way, he'll do it.

We're also starting him on a new diet. A lot of kids who vomit a lot on canned formulas (like pediasure) do better on this, but it took a few weeks to get the okay from the powers that be. So, this is what we mix together. It's a basic recipe, since all the foods are baby foods. Eventually you can switch to regular food with a very expensive blender.
Micah's Blenderized Diet
2.5 oz orange veggie
2.5 oz fruit
2.5 oz baby food meat
1/4 cup baby rice cereal
4 oz whole milk
1 tsp (eventually 1 tbsp) olive oil.

Needless to say it doesn't smell the best (baby beef=major hurling potential). But as you can imagine, the body should be able to digest real food better than pediasure, which uses a LOT of sugar to get the calorie density needed. So, you blend this all together and push it through his feeding tube. We'll do this for his day time feeding (12 oz), but the pediasure at night (15 oz). Let's hope this works out. A LOT of people really believe in this, and find their kids can take more of this at a time than of a commercial formula. As you can tell, he doesn't get a lot during the day. He's up to getting 4 oz of formula every 4 hours. Ridiculous, I know. It's taken probably 2 months to go from 3 .5 oz to 4. I'd like to get my hopes up on this, but I know better. Wish us luck!

If you read anything today, it should be this.

http://ainsleyrae.blogspot.com/2010/11/day-to-truly-celebrate.html

I couldn't have said it better myself. Please understand, we're not trying to be political (necessarily), but like everyone says... Vote for your values... Well, health care for my child has now come to the top of my values list. What's your annual limit on your insurance? What's your lifetime maximum? Many people don't even know, because it's not something they have to think about. Micah's first year came to over 3/4 of a million dollars... his first year! In my opinion, the overhaul of health care is a good start. It is not OKAY to be able to drop children from a policy! It's not okay to deny them coverage because they cost too much! It's ridiculous!

Oh, this was a long time coming. If you don't like the healthcare overhaul, pick and choose what you don't like.. Some of us literally can't afford to not have it.