Imagination at Work

I love his imagination. Now at 4.5 years old, everything has a story for Christian. He creates such awesome plans for all of his "guys". I often find entire Imaginext scenes built in his room, but with cute Christian takes on them (like the Imaginext Whale with a Star Wars guy in his mouth because "His Star Cruiser crash landed in the ocean and the pirates couldn't save him"). 

I'm so glad I caught this little exchange. This is such a wonderful example of how GREAT Christian is doing with both his expressive and receptive language. And I hope is just another example of how truly amazing the miracle of the Cochlear Implant is.

Day 2 Activation Update!

We had the second part of Christian's activation today, and it went really well. Our audiologist increased the volume on all of his programs. Yesterday, we gradually stepped up to each program every several hours. Now that his volumes are increased, we'll be gradually stepping up to each program over the course of the next week. The actual appointment went fantastic. We're going to officially start working on our "Ling Sounds". The Ling Sounds are "Ahhh", "Oooh", "Mmmm", "Ssss", and "Shhh". These sounds represent the sounds that you need access to to be able to hear speech. Christian actually did respond to our audi's voice, using one of the Ling sounds (You can see that in the second video below). The first video was taken during the volume adjustment.

*Be sure to stop the music on the right before playing the videos*






He's been a bit cranky, and a bit tired these past two days, but all in all he's doing great. We're working on keeping the ear piece on--it seems to fall off when he rubs his head against his carseat or his highchair. I went to the beauty supply store and got some Topstick toupee tape, so we'll see if that works :)

Beautiful

I couldn't wait to share this here on the blog. I think it has an amazing message, regardless if you are Deaf or hearing. D-PAN is doing some wonderful things. I can't wait to share this with Christian when he is a bit older. It makes me so PROUD.

Be Careful...You Might Catch The Giggles too...

A certain 13.5 month old little boy has been quite silly these days. I was working this afternoon, and our amazing, wonderful, and sweet nanny was playing with Christian. I usually keep to myself and my work when she is here, but after about 5 minutes of Christian laughing hysterically, I had to take a peak.

Check out the video (and be sure to disable the sound below):

Scary, but true!

A friend of mine just sent me this video, and I HAD TO SHARE IT! My girlfriends and I joke about how much our lives have changed over the past 10 years. Gone are the days of weekly happy hours, Saturday dance nights, and weeknight trips to our favorite Dive Bars. Married or not, you're going to LOVE THIS!

**don't forget to disable the music at the bottom before watching!***