Special Day for my Special Boy

Last week was a total whirlwind for our family, and I've been wanting to post a recap of Christian's 1st Hearing Birthday but I have hardly had time to breathe. We left for a quick beach trip to NC to visit our family on Thursday, and I'm JUST getting back to reality.

We started off the day with an appointment at Hopkins. Of course, with the insanity of the day ahead, I realized I forgot his back-up processor (we bring it with us to all our mapping appointments to also get programmed) half-way around the Beltway. Thank goodness our audi at Hopkins is able to send the MAPs to our audi at school. Otherwise, we would've had to go all the way back up there for a repeat trip. We had a good appointment, and thanks to some speech perception testing, we had some of our questions answered about what lies ahead regarding Christian's other ear. I'll post more on that later.

Christian's Gram came up with us and watched Liliana while we were with our audiologist, and after the appointment we decided to take a trip the Aquarium, just as we did one year ago when he was first activated. Despite a bit of crankiness due to his mapping, Christian had an awesome time. I had several emotional moments hearing my little boy say "Look Daddy, a Shark!" and telling us "All those Sting Rays!". To think that he just had his ears turned on a year ago. How far he has come...

That afternoon, we had Christian's 1st Hearing Birthday. The families and friends that have cheered us on every step of our journey this past year came, and my dear friends Buffy and John, and their bandmate Pete, played some music for Christian's special day. While not a children's band, they were able to modify their covers of Jane's Addiction, Blondie, and even Rick Springfield to be VERY kid appropriate :) As I watched my little guy play with all his friends, telling them to "Go get the black truck, Jack" or hearing him laugh and say "Come over here Justin! I play with you!", I couldn't help but cry. To think I worried about him being able to communicate with typically hearing kids and to be able to play with the boys in the neighborhood! Seeing all the gals that have become my support network in my yard with their kids was just so moving. I've been BEYOND lucky to have all them in my life, and was so happy to share some beers with them to celebrate. Check out this video of PB&J from the party:


Once our guests left, our very close family friends stayed and enjoyed a special bottle of wine with us while the kids winded down in our basement watching Noggin. I can honestly say that after we toasted Christian's success, it was the first time in over a year that I had a sense of peace and relief. It could've been the wine, but I'm almost positive it was from knowing where we're heading and knowing finally, that Christian really is going to be ok.