tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22469128875711413532024-03-12T20:28:48.752-07:00The Mallinson AdventuresThe adventures of the Mallinson family - parents Mike and Cherylle, 10 year old Evan and 6 year old Caitlin. Caitlin has achondroplasia, which is the most common form of dwarfism.Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.comBlogger39125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-90539002000841597622013-12-01T00:56:00.001-08:002013-12-01T00:56:24.253-08:00ELL and the POLP on Facebook group
As most of you know, I tend to be very libertarian when it comes to discussion. I tried for a long time to run this group that way - I played the role of gatekeeper when it came to admitting members, but stayed very hands-off when it came to posts and comments. I had to change that recently in order to clamp down on a few discussions where emotions were starting to get out of hand, but I still Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-22086126900946236762012-12-25T21:03:00.001-08:002012-12-25T21:07:37.249-08:00Our 2012 Family Christmas Newsletter
The Mallinson Family Christmas Newsletter:
Because what better time is there to work on Christmas cards than on Christmas Eve??
This year we’re actually slightly ahead of schedule - the last several years we’ve had to aim for New Years cards since we’ve been too late for Christmas! Of course the Mayans had us convinced we weren’t going to need to do cards this year. Stupid apocalypse.2012 hasMike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-26480520391574065132012-02-23T23:37:00.000-08:002012-12-26T22:16:52.917-08:00The BMN-111 post
Looking back at my stats, I just realized that I only posted ONCE in ALL of 2011. Holy cow, that's neglect. What can I say - 2011 was a busy year. Those of you who are friends on Facebook may have noticed the number of countries I've been to in the last 6 months. It's fun, but contributes to the "super serious blog slacking" :-)
Anyway, I've been getting more intensely involved in LPA affairs Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-66412330938814552492012-02-12T13:39:00.000-08:002012-02-12T13:39:34.899-08:00District Director Candidate Statement
My name is Michael Mallinson, and I would like to be the next District Director for LPA’s District 12.
As a family, we owe so much to the LPA. Not only have we received immeasurable support for my daughter Caitlin, both medical and social, but we have gained an amazing family that we might never have known. Some of our closest friends, including Caitlin’s godparents, have been made Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-56188148396328805862011-05-12T12:52:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:45:17.132-07:00Rude words, political correctness, midgets and douchebagsOne thing that always drives me insane is when you tell someone that a certain word is hurtful or offensive, and they tell you that you're just being "sensitive", that they're just having "fun" and that they don't believe in being "politically correct" and you should just "have a sense of humor" about it. Funny - I'd like most of those guys to try walking through Inglewood or Compton calling Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-35909083074933328852010-12-28T11:21:00.001-08:002010-12-28T11:21:53.092-08:00Caitlin's first, long awaited haircut!Somehow Caitlin managed to get to be three and a half before we finally felt it necessary to get her hair cut.I'm sure it's at least partly just an attempt to deny that she's growing up, but it's even more a result of the fact that she looked so darned cute with her hair hanging down to her butt. Sucked for daddy trying to get her ready in the mornings tho, since I'm not really adequately trainedMike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-61571942419161159152010-11-09T12:29:00.001-08:002010-11-09T12:29:55.751-08:00In Memory of Erin ThomasA wonderful person died this morning, and I am still in shock. Erin Thomas was a dwarf with Achondroplasia, the same diagnosis as Caitlin. I met her three years ago on Facebook via mutual friends and we've become good friends over the years, bantering about football and politics, both of which we disagreed on, and trading notes/insights on raising kids with dwarfism where we had much more in Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-8219084053862007672010-08-27T23:13:00.000-07:002010-08-27T23:13:46.940-07:00Eleven years ago I married my best friend
After a long night in Biloxi
On a Saturday eleven years ago, a much different day than today, my best friend became my wife. I'd been fascinated by her from the moment we met - so beautiful, so confident, so strong willed - and yet completely confused by how different she was than me. I figured the best way to try to understand this woman who caught my attention was to stick with Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-68989483691484575872010-08-26T23:08:00.000-07:002010-08-26T23:13:45.197-07:00Motherhood - you win some, you lose some: Moments at the annual physicalIt's that time again to do the kids annual physical. My genius self figured that having the kids' physicals done at the same time would save time. I didn't account for the stress I would be under and/or the feelings that the boy would have about it. It seemed simple enough - get to the doctor; get them seen & then head back to work. Yeah, not so much. The girl complained each time my Chehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09908779090574502263noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-87110466793181807062010-08-13T07:04:00.000-07:002010-08-13T07:09:06.186-07:00First day of school X2OMG! I dreaded this moment! Not because of the event but the work, the stress level and the "what ifs" moments. So yeah, first day of school.. the plan was to first drop off the boy then the girl. The boy starts at 815 and the girl at 840. Seems doable, but with cross town traffic? Yikes! I can do this. I have done this..no, wait! This is X2! More pep talk with my self and constant grunting Chehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09908779090574502263noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-30610742383605311192010-08-10T21:47:00.000-07:002013-09-22T21:15:44.929-07:00(First Cherylle Post!) Car Safety Seat versus Me!I tried not to be too upset, but really? I do remember the days when I was the service coordinator advocating for a parent’s rights under the law/regulations, and I thought I understood the parent’s frustration then with the system. However, today, I was that parent. Today, I was not just frustrated but angry and downright pissed off!I really didn’t know who to be pissed off because everyone Chehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09908779090574502263noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-33633650955573938802010-07-28T11:59:00.000-07:002010-07-28T11:59:44.234-07:00Wordless WednesdayMike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-25119380108758040492010-07-28T00:15:00.000-07:002010-07-28T12:01:14.590-07:00So, last weekend was Caitlin's third birthday party! Yes, I know, a lot has happened since my last post, but if I get into all that here I'll never get this post done, and I'll never get back into the habit of blogging again. A bit extreme? Perhaps, but probably true anyway :-)
Anyway, our little Caitlin pulled herself right past her third birthday - she's even replaced her cute little habit Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-36052286575978895002009-07-02T00:50:00.001-07:002009-07-02T01:25:17.767-07:00Caitlin's MRI Followup (Finally, a post!)Yesterday we made the trek back into LA to go visit everybody's favorite Neurologist, Dr. Moise Danielpour with Cedars Sinai. It was kind of a long drive since we forgot to put the DVD player back in the car for Caitlin, but thanks to grandma in the back seat (who tagged along to help) we managed to survive the trip. West LA traffic sucked as always, of course, so we were barely pulling into Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-15778966972016668362009-05-06T00:38:00.000-07:002009-05-06T02:00:03.622-07:00Cedars Sinai!So Caitlin had her first appointment with Cedars Sinai! It took a while to get my insurance straightened out, and then to get the referral to Cedars since the local pediatrician I chose doesn't usually refer to Cedars for genetics cases. Fortunately Dr. Arora took it on herself to hand-hold the referral through their referral company and made sure we got authorized to see Dr. Rimoin who is the Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-51633858654025017032009-04-19T23:23:00.000-07:002009-04-19T23:31:19.212-07:00Our first event as Parent Coordinators!This past weekend was the first event we organized as parent coordinators for the LA Chapter of the LPA - a parent BBQ potluck at the Dino residence in Arcadia. We had around 30 people in attendance, including the kids! Everybody had a really great time. The weather was absolutely perfect - nice and sunny, plenty warm, but with a cool breeze and plenty of shade to hang out in. There were more Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-67008547076627060412009-03-29T23:21:00.000-07:002009-03-30T08:27:00.626-07:00Caitlin's walking!!Those of you on Facebook already know this, but Caitlin's finally taken that big leap into walking! She worked her way into it slowly, taking a few steps at a time at parent group and at home, but finally really exploded over last weekend. It was a perfect time to start, since last Saturday was a meeting for the LA Chapter of the LPA at Miceli's in Universal City, and she was able to show off Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-12640744608214931082009-03-04T19:32:00.000-08:002009-03-04T22:50:34.729-08:00It's about time!Yeah, I know - I was looking at Catie's blog today and I'm now officially 5 weeks out from my last blog post. Of course, if you read the last one, I warned you that it would be a while! Things have been crazy around our house for the last month or so, particularly with my job. Not in a bad way, thankfully - CalArts has no intent to lay anyone off at all. Their biggest concession to the bad Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-55443116414515618752009-01-27T00:14:00.000-08:002009-01-27T00:52:13.210-08:00No surgery - yay!!Enjoy this while you can - I make no guarantees as to how long I can continue updating the blog as frequently as I have been!Last Friday was our followup appointment with the ENT. We had two primary goals - to discuss the results of the sleep study, and to schedule Caitlin's ear tube surgery, depending on whether or not she'd need to have her tonsils and adenoids removed as well.We got to KaiserMike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-56218214187576472412009-01-24T18:23:00.000-08:002009-01-24T18:31:10.625-08:00Tag again? Why do I keep responding to these things? Positive feedback just means they'll continue!Hehehehehe.... Yeah, after getting tagged 7 times for that freakin' survey on Facebook I just wonder what I'm doing here!Here are the rules:1. Choose the 4th folder where you store your pictures on your computer. No cheating {cropping, editing, etc.}!2. Select the 4th picture in the folder.3. Explain the picture.4. Tag 4 people to do the same.Well, I'm not sure how this worked out so perfectly, Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-76565242217445961082009-01-22T12:45:00.000-08:002009-01-22T13:06:04.933-08:00In Other News...Two big things happened yesterday - Caitlin had her followup appointment with her pediatrician thanks to the bad case of pneumonia she had last week, and he gave her a clean bill of health! He told Cherylle that he hadn't gotten too dramatic about it when he'd first looked at her, but at the time the pneumonia was in both lungs and looked really bad - but she's a little fighter, and despite Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-6345575736747445592009-01-18T00:02:00.001-08:002009-01-18T00:24:07.551-08:00Announcements, announcements, announcements!Well, as much as I blow about updating the blog, I figured I'd do one of those little quick posts like normal people do to keep y'all in the loop. Cherylle and I are now the new parent coordinators for the LA Chapter! We've been wanting to get more involved with our local chapter for quite a while, and this really looks like the perfect opportunity to do so. In addition, I'm putting together aMike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-76337944378749008972009-01-06T11:05:00.000-08:002009-01-06T12:03:31.216-08:00Sleep study - way overdue!As they have been for most people, the holidays have been very overwhelming and I have barely been able to catch my breath, let alone update the blog! Still, quite a bit has happened since my last post, so I suppose there's no better time than now to get this thing updated...Caitlin finally went in for her sleep study on Dec. 20th! Cherylle and I had been preparing for the worst after all the Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-21996310454935719262008-12-12T21:55:00.000-08:002008-12-13T00:08:55.474-08:00Dr. Gross, ENT Part DeuxSo I know it may come as a shock to most of you that I'm posting again, since it hasn't yet been three weeks since my last one, but we had such a great experience today that I thought it deserved to get written up.So I've quite thoroughly documented our struggles with Dr. Tiller from Kaiser, the dwarfism specialist from the MAB who "doesn't believe in baselines". Thanks to Dr. Tiller, we're Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-31285712575829253982008-12-02T23:26:00.000-08:002008-12-03T01:25:52.085-08:00Slow to react!So I've got plenty to talk about, which is not too surprising since it's been like three years since my last post! Caitlin's been cruising like nobody's business, but she's added a few major steps to that - starting with climbing the stairs in our condo, top to bottom! She'd been trying off and on for a few months, but never had the strength to make it more than a stair or two - but about two Mike Mallinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com14