KNIFE!!!!

Ladies and Gentleman...we have the /F/ Sound!!!!

We've been waiting. We've been working. And yesterday, out of the blue, we had this exchange:

Christian: Mommy, cut my cheese stick please?
Mommy: Buddy, you can just bit it, it's ok.
Christian: Mommy, you use a kniFe to cut it. Please!
Mommy: Seriously, Christian you don't need....OH MY GOSH! OH MY GOSH! SAY IT AGAIN! SAY KNIFE! YOU DID IT! SAY IT AGAIN!

His initial /f/ is still a bit weak...but we're getting there!

GO CHRISTIAN GO!

SHHHHHHHH!

No, I'm not telling a secret. I want to scream this from the top of my lungs!


WE'VE GOT the /SH/ SOUND!

Christian has been detecting /sh/ for quite some time, but hasn't been producing it. Finally, today at dinner, while I was pretending to water the plants (using /sh/ for the water sound), I prompted and said "Ok, Christian, your turn".

And wouldn't you know, my little guy did it!

My game plan is to still hold a party when we get /s/. In the meantime, we'll be having /sh/ cupcakes at the Halloween party we're hosting on Friday.

YEAH!

DA Beach...Round 2

So, I know I'm lucky. We're on our 2nd beach vacation of the summer, this time in North Carolina. We're with Chuck's family in this great big house right on the water. We had a rough couple of days getting Christian used to his new surroundings, but now he's sleeping like a champ and back to his silly self. In fact, I have a new word to report:

-occer (Soccer)


Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones, or maybe I just still haven't finished the grieving process, but I had a couple of hard times these past few days. Most notably was yesterday, watching my son with his hearing cousins, splash in the waves. I had this rolling wave of my own emotion come over me, with flashes of him growing up as a teenager, boogie boarding in the waves, but not being able to hear them crash around him with his processor off. I started feeling a bit sad, thinking that while he could hear our voices yesterday on the beach, could he hear the waves? The pelicans? The wind? I think I am having a really hard time not knowing what exactly he is hearing, and how he is hearing it. I'm hoping that some of my favorite adult CI users could give me some insight on this :)

Other than a couple misty eye moments, we're having a nice time once again as a family. Christian is enjoying his time with his grandparents and cousins, and I'm enjoying these last few days of summer before my baby starts school next week.

3 Months Full of Miracles

I just looked up at our little ticker, and I realized how fast these past 3 months have gone since Christian was activated with his CI. I wanted to a recap of his progress, but I figured it's pretty easy to see if you just look at our list on the right of his words and phrases.

I've never worked harder these past 3 months on ANYTHING. In addition to all of the therapy appointments that Christian has during a week (we usually have 3-4 a week), I am constantly teaching him. I've learned to take every single moment of our day to be a language opportunity. If we're not listening, we're repeating. I'm tired. I'm drained. And it's not because of my pregnancy. Yet, I go to bed each and every night completely ecstatic and ready for the next day. My heart skips a beat when he speaks, and when he says a new word, I still cry. We celebrate his words with cookies and hugs. His signs still are rewarded with many little kisses from me.

I truly believe that while he has amazing therapists and parents who are beyond committed to helping their little boy listen and speak, that there IS something else here helping Christian. I can't help but think that Christian really does have an angel guiding him. It's almost as if this angel has brought the sound to Christian, and helps him figure out what to do with it. Chuck and I have had one continuous prayer since the day we found out that he had a hearing loss: Please God, let him hear and speak. Our prayers are being answered, and Christian is being watched over every day. And everyday, we get to witness little miracles being made.

Mommy's Little Parrot

I am just AMAZED to hear everything that Christian is picking up on. We are working SO hard with his listening and speaking. I feel like everyday it's something new. Here are just a few of the words that he has picked up THIS WEEK ALONE:

-Peach (Peek)
-Open (Opeh)
-Chicken (icken)
-Happy (app-ee)
-Jump (UMP)

Christian also managed to pick up on Biz's Beat of the Day on Yo Gabba Gabba. He looked at me, and did his only little beat box show after seeing Biz do it. I just about laughed so hard I cried when he did it.

If Your Happy And You Know It...

Jump up and down and give your little boy a HIGH FIVE!

Yeah, that's what I did today. Our fabulous nanny who helps me two days a week while I work from home was here today. She was singing "If Your Happy And You Know It" to the monkey. I was in my room, getting ready to shower (at 4pm...ah, the life of a Mom), and all of the sudden, I heard:

"AP-EE! AP-EE! AP-EE"

I LOVE IT! It seems like everyday he's picking up new words. I've noticed since his implant that he is also ALOT more responsive to music and songs. He likes to sing-along and bop up and down and dance.

I feel so blessed being able to witness these small miracles everyday.

25dbs BABY!

Today we had Christian's 4th mapping at Hopkins and we were SO thrilled when he had consistent repeatable responses at 25db-ACROSS ALL FREQUENCIES. Check out the Speech Banana so you can get an idea of where he is hearing now. Even though his aids amplified him up to 45db, he never had access to sounds higher than 750hz. With his implant, Christian now has access to almost all of the SPEECH SOUNDS. This technology truly is a miracle.

His map was adjusted and turned up a bit more, and we have 4 new programs to try. Christian is constantly amazing us with how fabulous he is doing with his implant, and we can't wait to see what these new programs can do for him. We haven't started our official aural rehabilitation through Hopkins yet due to some scheduling conflicts there on their time (although we are going to speak with a SLP tomorrow about getting things scheduled), but we have been working around the clock with Christian on his listening and speaking skills. My Event Planning skills are definitely getting rusty, but I am sure that I can give some of the SLPs a run for their money these days! It seems like everyday he has a new word or sound. His new favorite words are Ketchup and Hot Dog. Such a boy.

Sometimes when you're crabby, all you need is crabs.

After the drama that ensued last week, I was so glad to get out of town and head down to our family's house on The Chesapeake Bay. With everything going on, we haven't been down there at all this summer. The moment we stepped on the crunchy grass, and heard the water splashing on the pier, I was relaxed. And I realized that this weekend was one HECK of a language opportunity for Christian!

It dawned on me that this weekend was probably the first time that Christian heard waves crashing on the shore, the boats and jet-skis zooming across the water, and kerplunking of the crab-pots back into the water. We talked about EVERYTHING this weekend with him, pointing to all these new and wonderful sounds that he was experiencing. A sea-plane flew overhead, and he looked straight up, signed plane, and went "Aaaaaaaaa". It was awesome. We showed him crabs that we caught (I must admit, for a non-native, I'm actually a pretty good crabber!) splashing in the tin bucket before we cooked them.

Despite some sketchy sleeping while we were there, I know he had a good time exploring and listening, and we had a good time escaping the city and having some family time.


*Christian showing off the fish he helped Daddy reel in*

Another little miracle...

Yesterday, like any good AVT Mommy (Val and Wendy, are you proud of me? LOL), we were using our PRIDDY BOOK, having some nice "Listening Time". It was storming outside, and I was videoing Christian, in hopes he would say PEEP or WHO for me. Instead, I caught a little miracle.

I realized that this was the first time my little boy heard thunder. Ever.

Starting today, I'm going to do my best to caption all videos placed on the site, not only to support of the DeafVillage, but to also give EVERYONE access to these videos, not just hearing folk.

*Please disable the music on the right before playing*

The Name Game

Sometimes I wonder if he would catch his name a bit easier if we named him something a bit more simple, like Ed, Bob, or Joe. How was I supposed to know I was going to have a profoundly deaf baby who, up until 2 weeks ago, didn't have access to 90 percent of the sounds in his name? What did his name sound like before his implant? Did he just hear the cadence of my voice? Was he only hearing the "N" sound?

CHRISTIAN.

CHRISTIAN.

CHRISTIAN.

These past two weeks, I've had an opportunity to really think about his name. I've listened to it my heart, bouncing all over, twisting and turning, jumping and flying. I close my eyes and remember the day that we decided that was the name we were going to call our baby boy. We chose the name even before we met him. We believed in the name. We knew in our hearts that our boy, would be CHRISTIAN.

CHRISTIAN.

CHRISTIAN.

CHRISTIAN.

Today he turned when I called his name. He was in his high chair, eating his dinner. And when he turned, I immediately remembered one of the many reasons that we chose that name. As my little boy turned, and focused his huge, beautiful, coffee brown eyes on his Mommy, I felt an amazing sense of Peace. Peace that reminds me that Christ is in everything we do, even when we least expect it.

2 Week Check-Up

It's been 2 weeks since Christian was activated. I'm not going to lie. Other than the weeks following our initial diagnosis (which happened the week of our wedding anniversary AND my baby brother's wedding), these past two weeks have been some of the hardest. They've been emotionally draining. They've been hard. At times I've wondered "Where did my little boy go?".

This past weekend, I feel like we hit a turning point. While he's not consistently responding to his name (as he did when he was aided), he is turning to it now every so often. He's been experimenting with sound, now calling his Daddy "Dah-m" (it sounds like DUMB, which REALLY irks Chuck). He babbles and chats in a voice a bit lower, but when his implant is off, his voice is much higher than usual. Yesterday, his back was turned to me, and I asked him to find his horse, and he walked right over to his barn, grabbed the horse, and signed for me. He did the same for many of his little animals. And when I ask him to find his Daddy, he always finds a picture and points right to it. I shook my keys behind his head while we were walking, and he turned. He was incredibly startled by a horn beeping while we were in the car one day. He even sat forward with a very concerned look on his face, when he heard a baby crying at the craft store.

So, things are coming together. We're really working on having some structured listening time everyday in his high chair, which for all you parents of toddlers know is a difficult task in itself!

We go back the first week of July for our next mapping session. In the meantime, I've been immersing myself in some really cool online classes on Audiology Online, mostly about AVT and Making the Most of Your Child's MAP.

Practice makes perfect.

Every morning, Christian and I take a really long walk on a beautiful trail right near our house. It's always one of my favorite times of the day, as it's just the two of us. We walk 3 or so miles together, and we watch all the birds, come across an occasional deer (which he always calls a horse with his signs and words), and sometimes stop at the side of the creek to watch the water.

Though serene, this trail is also packed with runners, commuters on bikes trying to make it to the METRO station, and other Moms walking with their munchkins. Today, I was practicing our Ling Sounds while we stopped to watch a beautiful heron fish in the creek.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE. Christian, LISTEN".

"Shhh Shhhh Shhh. Buddy, Listen".

This Mom (who I've never seen before, so I'm assuming she's either a working Mom, or not from our 'hood), was behind me. I turned around when I heard her toddler cough, and she had this look of pure wonder. Actually, it was a look of "What the Eff are you saying to your kid?"

So, there's definitely another person out there thinking I'm a complete nutjob.