Supports our decision!

It always make me feel great to find research to support the decisions we have made for Evan! He was 11 months at activation and this article is encouraging! He is making sooooo much progress! He has associated a consistent sound with bye-bye...it's more like " ah-ah-ah-ah" but does it every time he waves bye bye! His babble has expanded a ton during play time and is now making the buh, buh sound and ma-ma(not for me, just exploring sounds) and has just started to really respond to music more this week! He has started to dance with music and making more consistent sounds with his toys! I will post some video soon!

I had the opportunity to talk to our local Rotary group and hope I helped educate them more on CI's! We have had a lot of people in the community with questions and many who thought maybe he was wearing head phones :) So I jumped at the opportunity to share the amazing facts of CI's and our journey. 20 minutes isn't much time to squeeze it all into, but I think it went very well!

Our visit to Santa!

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We have a tradition of visiting Santa at Heritage Farms in Hudson, IA.

Although it's nearly a two hour drive for us, the kids have found a lot of magic in it every year! This year my Mom was able to go with us and we really had a great time! Valarie is always the most excited to see the horses, Santa is exciting too, but the horses are her thing! There is a barn with a little pin set up in the middle for the kids to climb in and pet various animals. This year there were piglets, bunnies, sheep, a pony, and kittens. They also had a few different dogs in the barn that were very friendly. Evan was intrigued by the cage with the chickens! He was very vocal about them! We also had the opportunity to ride horses, as I said Valarie's FAVORITE thing! She wanted to ride the Clydesdale, but I encouraged her to ride the much smaller one! It is always a challenge to persuade her to get down! Riding in the sleigh is always so fun for the kids! They have beautiful horses pulling the sleighs through the field and through the trees to the cabin to see Santa! On the way back this year Valarie was brave and rode on a sled pulled behind the sleigh! She was so very proud of herself! Evan was very observant the entire time, a little unsure of the entire thing, but he took it all in! The visit with Santa was scary for Evan! He is at the age that strangers are not so great and one with a red suit and beard is way off the stranger danger metor! So of course he cried and we took a tearful picture and then he was fine. Grandma Wendy took him by Santa later and he did actually touch his beard and check him out as long as Grandma was holding him. Then it was out to check out the snow! He was not a snow lover either! He tolerated it long enough for a quick picture yet again and then back into mommy's arms! The girls loved every minute of everything! The sleds on the snow hills were a blast and having Grandma with was a treat! The kids also loved playing on the swings in the hay loft! As we finished up the trip we were surprised to find presents in each car seat for the kids when we returned! Each one of the girls got a new movie and Evan got a new little tractor. How did Santa know what movies they wanted and that the tractor have to be red at our house they asked...well Santa just knows these things! So the tractor brought the first smile out of Evan for the trip and we headed home. There were a lot of opportunities for listening and learning! Animals sounds, sleigh bells, and of course Santa's "HO, HO, HO!" Christmas is so much fun!

We are not alone...Today show showcases a CI Family

This is a great story that showcases a great example of the miracle of cochlear implants. This mom of these three beautiful children is a member of a fb group I am a member of. It's so exciting to see that these wonderful people I have reached out to and read posts to and about are actual people that I can learn so much from. Our journey has just begun and it's so reassuring to know that we are not alone, there are so many families going through the same thing that we are on a daily basis! The CI kiddos this showcases have a genetic loss, Evan's cause is undermined and probably will remain that way. Occasionally hearing loss just happens, but it's such a small part of who he is and who he will become that I can't imagine him any other way! Take the time to check out this wonderful story!

Mapping went great...now working on more speech!

So our last mapping appointment went wonderfully! Evan was a trooper as normal and responded well to sound as they set each processor. For most of the session he played and hummed along with the beeps, but by the end, he had had ENOUGH! It was nap time and so the last few minutes he really could have cared less what we were doing! For a 1 yr old I am amazed at how well he really does do! It actually worked out great, because eletrophisiology was next, perfect nap time~ he slept through the entire appt. and then we were done! Unfortunantely his speech appointment was cancelled at the last minute, so hopefully it will get rescheduled for next time!

After some research and deliberation, we decided to get Evan referred for some additional speech services. For you parents who have been through this already, you know how hard this can be!

We are not located near a school for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, but we do have great Area Education Resources and distance learning courses available through various schools. So I have signed up for the John Tracy School Distance Learning program and also have started our path towards additional support services through our local outpatient hospital services. Evan's TOD is amazing and will continue to work with him weekly...His AEA speech pathologist is also good with him and has been able to commit to twice a month! We will take as much as we can get, but after some digging and suggestions from his CI team, we had his evaluation for weekly speech as outpatient service in Mason City as well. Although it's a jaunt, it's so worth it! His speech therapist there is Wendy and seemed very excited to work with him. She supported the importance of early intervention and early speech development! I am excited to work with her and to watch Evan as he continues to progress!

I know as parents, Rich and I are his primary educators, but I am not trained to do his therapy! I will do all of our homework, play, and be the best advocate I can be! I vow to be the best mommy I can and seek out as many resources that I can to benefit him! I am really eager to continue this journey, and watch my Deaf baby learn to listen and eventually Speak!

We do the best we can...

So it's been a tough week, not for Evan, but for Rich & I. We lost a long time friend and classmate at the hand of her husband. Terese was a strong, smart, and beautiful woman. She was motivated by the love for her young son to protect him and this cost her life. She will be remembered for many things, but to me she was a dear friend. I hope that someday this tragic event will help someone somewhere...I know Levi, her son, is safe as is his momma. She is safe in the arms of Jesus and he in the love of family. Her memories will live on through him.

We do the best we can as parents and I pray my children will be as wonderful of a person as she was. I have included a short video from a local news station, please disable to music to the rt. before watching! More news on Evan's progress is coming! We had a great mapping session yesterday and i will post later with details!

Not so quiet anymore!

The weather had been beautiful for the last few days so the kids and I have been trying to spend a lot of time enjoying it! We love to go for walks and I think Evan is enjoying all of the sounds that go along with these walks now too. We watched an old building in our community, Memorial Building, being torn down and the trucks make a lot of great sounds. He was mesmorized by them. It so great to actually see his little eyes in amazement to new sounds!

So super mom thought it would be a good idea to swing through the library as we went by to check out some new books too. We are working on the mmm sounds and the ahhh sounds this week so we went hunting for some books to help. Well my quiet little boy isn't so quiet anymore. The librarians thought it was so great to hear him babbling, but seriously why right now! Earlier in the day working with his TOD he was seriously SILENT for most of the hour and now he won't shhhh! So we found our books, checked out, and went on our way! It's great to hear all sounds and truely a blessing, but there are times that I wonder really why right this second do you decide to talk! So when we are focusing on making sound at supper time, I really hope to hear him say, mmmmm, because I know he can!

Silence to Sound!

Evan has been in two local papers and the local News this past week. Here are the links to each.

Be sure to disable the music on the ipod on the right hand side of the blog before watching the video!

Globe Gazzette article, also in the Britt paper too! Coming of age, Hearing age!

KIMT video click play in the rt. corner on the screen to watch the Silence to Sound and article!

Evan's continued progress has been very encouraging! He likes to make his trucks say BRRRRR...it comes out more as a hummmmm, but it counts! Today working with his Teacher for the Deaf/Hard of Hearing, Shandra, he made some VERY GOOD SOUNDS! One activities they did together today...she had a box full of film canisters, each one had something different in it, making a different sound when you shake it. After a couple of ques from Shandra he would shake them and make the "shake, shake, shake," sound. When he vocalizes shake, shake, shake he does stop and pause in between each vocalization! This means he is hearing each word and that is GREAT! One of the canisters had a tiny bus in it, he really liked this! Shandra had it make a Bbbbrrrrrrr sound and then a beep, beep! He mimicked it! Yes he did! He made a mmmmmmmmm, and then a mm, mm, this is really very good! One more thing they did today...he despised his socks this morning for some reason and constantly took them off. She made it into a listening game, of course she did, she is so great! She pulled, and tugged and made a moaning or tugging sound whatever you want to call it and guess what! Evan made the sound trying to take them off too! I know some of you know how encouraging this really is and for those of you who done....IT'S AWESOME! Now you know! This is just today, we see exciting things EVERY DAY! I can't tell you how exciting it is to watch my Deaf baby hear sounds and actually verbalize in resposnse to them! CI's are so amazing!