tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-22469128875711413532011-10-21T02:01:00.044-07:00The adventures of the Mallinson family - parents Mike and Cherylle, 8 year old Evan and 4 year old Caitlin. Caitlin has achondroplasia, which is the most common form of dwarfism.Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.comBlogger351100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-56188148396328805862011-05-12T12:52:00.000-07:002011-05-13T13:45:17.132-07:00

One 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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-35909083074933328852010-12-28T11:21:00.001-08:002010-12-28T11:21:53.092-08:00

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 trained

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-61571942419161159152010-11-09T12:29:00.001-08:002010-11-09T12:29:55.751-08:00

A 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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-8219084053862007672010-08-27T23:13:00.000-07:002010-08-27T23:13:46.940-07:00

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 her as

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-68989483691484575872010-08-26T23:08:00.000-07:002010-08-26T23:13:45.197-07:00

It'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 attention

Chehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09908779090574502263noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-87110466793181807062010-08-13T07:04:00.000-07:002010-08-13T07:09:06.186-07:00

OMG! 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-30610742383605311192010-08-10T21:47:00.000-07:002010-08-10T22:34:38.119-07:00

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-33633650955573938802010-07-28T11:59:00.000-07:002010-07-28T11:59:44.234-07:00

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-25119380108758040492010-07-28T00:15:00.000-07:002010-07-28T12:01:14.590-07:00

So, 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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-36052286575978895002009-07-02T00:50:00.001-07:002009-07-02T01:25:17.767-07:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-15778966972016668362009-05-06T00:38:00.000-07:002009-05-06T02:00:03.622-07:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-51633858654025017032009-04-19T23:23:00.000-07:002009-04-19T23:31:19.212-07:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-67008547076627060412009-03-29T23:21:00.000-07:002009-03-30T08:27:00.626-07:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-12640744608214931082009-03-04T19:32:00.000-08:002009-03-04T22:50:34.729-08:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com15tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-55443116414515618752009-01-27T00:14:00.000-08:002009-01-27T00:52:13.210-08:00

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 Kaiser

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-56218214187576472412009-01-24T18:23:00.000-08:002009-01-24T18:31:10.625-08:00

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,

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-76565242217445961082009-01-22T12:45:00.000-08:002009-01-22T13:06:04.933-08:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-6345575736747445592009-01-18T00:02:00.001-08:002009-01-18T00:24:07.551-08:00

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 a

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-76337944378749008972009-01-06T11:05:00.000-08:002009-01-06T12:03:31.216-08:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-21996310454935719262008-12-12T21:55:00.000-08:002008-12-13T00:08:55.474-08:00

So 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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-31285712575829253982008-12-02T23:26:00.000-08:002008-12-03T01:25:52.085-08:00

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

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-35275340873946295752008-11-03T21:11:00.000-08:002008-11-03T22:44:45.231-08:00

So I have been seriously laggard in getting this post up - primarily because (as those of you who know me already know) I'm way too obsessed with politics, particularly with certain issues this election season, and have been intentionally overwhelming myself with discussions about them, occasionally to my detriment (and to that of certain loved ones - sorry, RJ). Not to mention the fact that I

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-34901675696337007862008-10-25T03:24:00.000-07:002008-10-25T03:27:06.615-07:00

Well, I've been tagged twice so I suppose I'd better do one of these. Yes, y'all know how MUCH I love surveys! LOL10 YEARS AGO, I WAS…1. A year out from marriage 2. Planning our wedding 3. Going to school for theater (and even showing up for class, occasionally) 4. Working at Buck Owen's Crystal Palace - which takes guts when you can't stand most country music! 5. Spending way too much time

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-81031673661578244152008-10-04T22:49:00.000-07:002008-10-04T23:04:33.162-07:00

I'm heading to bed and way too lazy to type much, but I've got some pics finally! We hit two events this Saturday, with varying levels of success. First, we drove a few hours east to an apple orchard in the hills called "Riley's Farm" where the Orange County chapter was supposed to meet and pick apples. We got there late, of course, and while we saw a few we recognized who were picking in the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-16112565229945367192008-10-03T18:08:00.000-07:002008-10-03T18:20:19.023-07:00

So two things came out of our appointment with Dr. Tiller today. The first is that he believes Caitlin is still doing well - her Kyphosis appears to be receding, her muscle tone looks good, and her height (25.5 inches) and weight (18lbs 6oz) are very appropriate for her age. The second is that he is VERY resistant to our requests for baseline testing that according to the "Health Supervision

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-70770736284982170542008-09-30T14:16:00.000-07:002008-09-30T16:42:12.210-07:00

So Tonya posted a blog today talking about the "Knoah Phenomenon", which is something quite familiar to most of us with dwarf children. You know, you walk around anywhere on the planet where you can encounter people you don't know, and everyone - I mean EVERYONE - does a double take, and stops to stare. Now typically, in our experience, it's not meant as a negative thing. Most often, the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-22468035342581296952008-09-15T19:14:00.000-07:002008-09-30T23:01:57.178-07:00

I found the links to the videos for the show I lit over Labor Day weekend for Supreme Master TV! If you're interested, here is how I spent my holiday :-) If it looks pretty, I probably did it. If it looks like crap, I'll be glad to blame somebody else! Hehehe...Part 1:Part 2:Part 3:Enjoy at your own risk! If you end up vegetarian, don't tell your spouse I was responsible - I didn't drink the

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-74339973892321325212008-09-14T00:25:00.000-07:002008-09-14T01:04:03.898-07:00

First, the news. Caitlin took her first steps with a walker today! She's been pulling up and cruising on furniture, toys, your legs, etc. for quite a while now, and occasionally we've been able to get her to take a few steps while holding her up by her hands, but today for the first time she pulled herself up on a walker and took about 2 steps before sitting back down on her butt! Cherylle saw

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-32048150306638550562008-09-11T09:53:00.000-07:002008-09-11T10:03:12.577-07:00

I got a phone call from my brother-in-law at 7am the morning of September 11, 2001, telling me to turn on the television, that we were under attack. From then on, I was glued to the screen, in complete disbelief at what was happening. That shock turned to grief as I watched the towers collapse, one after another, while people in the streets fled in terror. I find it immensely saddening that our

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-6499001461030081972008-09-01T22:31:00.000-07:002008-09-01T23:26:00.992-07:00

I worked way too much this weekend, so I missed most of the fun. My wife's entire family came over for the long weekend! It was absolutely a packed house for those three days, though. We've got a 1300 square foot condo with three bedrooms, the master for us and one for each of the kids. Cherylle's parents slept in the spare bed in Caitlin's room, her youngest brother and his family all packed

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-79784358070269144202008-08-20T13:13:00.000-07:002008-08-28T00:44:30.623-07:00

For those of you who don't know yet, Cherylle is a Regional VP for Easter Seals Southern California, a disability services provider funded largely by the regional centers of California, which in turn are private non-profits that contract with the California Department of Developmental Services to provide and coordinate services for people with developmental disabilities. She also used to work

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-66884234821344552822008-08-19T20:27:00.000-07:002008-08-19T20:31:36.470-07:00

Since I still haven't managed to get my backside in gear to finish the blog about Caitlin's experiences over the last few weeks with assesments from Early Start, I thought I'd repost for y'all the blog I posted to MySpace a week after Caitlin's diagnosis, long before I knew any of you all. I swear I'll have the other one up soon! Yes, Jaime, I know you beat me... it'll be there soon! LOL------

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-90328047882854574842008-08-11T01:03:00.000-07:002008-08-11T01:35:53.594-07:00

Well, this weekend was amusing, but kinda sad at the same time. I've been enjoying the amount of time I've been able to spend at home with Cherylle and the kids over these last few weeks of freelancing, especially after coming back from the 5 days in Palm Springs, but this weekend I ended up in Orange County working while she took the kids up to Bakersfield to visit her parents. It's always fun

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-89255979675904409342008-08-05T20:13:00.000-07:002008-08-05T21:48:35.561-07:00

So Cherylle found several home daycare sites to investigate this afternoon through CCRCLA, which is the Child Care Resource Center of Los Angeles. She called ahead and got two appointments for tours, both in our area, one for $125 a week and the other for $185 a week. Yep, that's anywhere from $300 to $500 less a month! I was running late trying to make it for the first one, so she went inside

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2246912887571141353.post-43981613158800695092008-08-05T13:27:00.000-07:002008-08-05T14:23:27.552-07:00

Okay, after posting a 5 paragraph response to Kim's blog last night that actually ended up being about what was going on in our household, I finally decided to get off my lazy backside and start an actual blog myself. Cherylle's probably actually better at telling these stories than I am (God knows she has a better memory!) but she's usually too busy playing Word Twist and Blocky on Facebook to

Mikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05668477634350769490noreply@blogger.com4