More news from Cottonwood Heights

Untitled from Catherine Just on Vimeo.

Here is another Physical Therapy session with Michael Workman
This time we met at Canyon Rim Park. I love that he introduces us to a new area of town and a new park every time we meet. He rearranged his schedule so that Jerry could join us. I cannot say enough good things about this guy! He is funny on top of it so I am laughing almost the entire session.

This session he introduced Max to a wagon. I have always been afraid to put him in a wagon - I just imagined him not being into it and jumping out. But - the opposite is true. He smiles the entire time or is so entranced with the car toy he is playing with he doesn't notice that he is working his abs to stay sitting up straight in the wagon. That Michael is sneaky how he gets Max to exercise without him knowing it.

All of us were impressed with Max's interest in climbing up a very steep hill - here he is in action:


Untitled from Catherine Just on Vimeo.

And he kept on going. I'd say this was the best Max has done in a session - as far as really being motivated to keep on going - and being focused on the task presented to him. GO MAX!

In other news - it's Summer break for the kids that live on the block. 2 doors down is a 12 year old named Brooke and she brought her 3 friends over 3 times in one day to see if Max was up from his nap. Luckily for Max he woke up in time to hang out with the ladies. They LOVE him and he isn't too bummed having all of this attention I must say!

here they all are in our kitchen hovering over Max while he tries to explain his lunch menu to them

Max appears to hate the attention! HA!

This is the grandson of Carol and Richard who live next door. He is the oldest of three kids that get dropped off to play with their grandparents during Summer break.

Here's Max snoozing in the back seat as I drove him back to the house after a morning of fun at Liberty Park.

We went out to an Art Fair on Saturday to visit our friend Deb who was selling her beautiful photography out there. We purchased one of her pieces for our new home and Max got to play with Deb for a while. They just LOVE spending time together - and it's a good thing since she is one of my favorite people in Salt Lake City! I'm now calling her Auntie Deb because she feels like family and she is so interested in knowing Max and meeting him where he is at - meaning - she learned the signs that he uses so that they can communicate. How cool is that? She plays ball with him and we went to her office one day and Max played with her cats and ran around the entire place for about an hour. I think we may be seeing those kitties as often as possible - but I think that's more for ME than for Max. I'm still missing my sweet "Pretty Girl".

This one I took a while back as I looked out the bedroom window one day You get an idea of how large that mountain is when you see the tiny houses at the bottom of it. However - those houses are actually BIG houses - so that mountain is GIGANTIC people. I mean enormous. I can't believe that is our view!

I took a walk down our street yesterday with my camera and took photos of things that made me happy. Here are just a few: - Above is the next door neighbors front yard. Zen. Love it.

This is a TREE! it smells incredible. (If Brandon is reading this - do you know what this tree is?)

There are quail all over. I love watching them walk around. This one was in the driveway one morning.

pinecone.

cute flower

I like these shapes

the fence at the end of our block. I live on a pretty street - this morning I woke up and listened to a dove cooing or purring or whatever it is they do. It was wonderful. We live in the country - but we are 1/2 a mile from super target and whole foods! It's amazing.

We've been writing down all the sign language that Max knows these days. Right now we are up to a count of 76 signs! Incredible.

We want to video tape him signing all of these but of course - he isn't a trained dog so it hasn't been working along our time frame! We'll keep trying to get all of this on video or on several shorter videos and post that shortly.

We are slowly but surely getting unpacked and settled in - this weekend we tackled our office and next weekend we will head into the garage and the giant pile of boxes in there. Feels great to get things organized - it's feeling more like OUR house and we look forward to having friends and family over regularly.

ok - off to bed!
xoxoxoxoxoxox
*c