Just about the Girl .........

For all you new parents out there w/newly diagnosed children who have hearing loss or deafness, here's a little story for ya. I usually have stories that involve Gage because he's the one that keeps me on my toes for sure, but let's not forget that my five year old daughter is also deaf and wears cochlear implants since she was around age 3. Today we were sitting outside, catching some rays from the morning sun after we had finished our chores of sweeping, mopping, laundry, the usual. We sat down, got comfy in the Adirondack chairs, and out of the blue Brook says "Mama, when does Santa Claus land on the roof and come look in our bedrooms?" I had already seen what shape her room was in so I had a feeling she was trying to get out of her final chore for the day. "Oh, he could come peek in anytime he wants." Just to let the girl know, ya might want pick up in there a little bit! She went on to ask what he might bring "Emma" (her baby) and like many mothers she never asked for anything for herself, just her baby. "He might come anytime to look?" she questioned. "Yes, he can come anytime." Then she gets up to go inside because she tells me she might have heard him coming. I'm very confused by this, and I give her my best puzzled look......and she stops dead in her tracks ands says "See, I hear him!" and she looks up to the roof.
The whole time she was questioning this, there was a slight breeze. Around the corner, not visible, her pink metal license plate that is attached to the front of her bicycle was blowing in the wind and bumping back and forth on her handlebars. We have a tin roof so I can totally see where she would think it was coming from the roof. So she was hearing something that sounded just like Santa's sleigh on the roof without even TRYING to hear it. I was very impressed at how natural the whole episode was.

She and I went out to eat last night and she chose Cracker Barrel. This is the same place where Gage had that great experience over a year ago. Click here to read that if you haven't already. Of course I took the opportunity to play some auditory I SPY and ask things like "find something that goes on a horse" and she searched for the saddle. That occupied her til they brought our food.Would you believe that she knew to cut up Emma's fries and even asked the waitress for a booster seat (all on her own) for her "child". It was quite cute, people would walk by and speak to her and Emma who had watched her give the baby drinks, wiping her mouth, you name it.(I had to take a picture from my mobile phone!) Brook is a great mama, you see Emma goes everywhere with us, she rides in shopping carts and goes to her cousin's birthday party too. Happy Birthday Kendall ! They jumped in the jumparoo (ci's off, just for the static concern) and all the kids screamed at about 115 dbs if I had to guess, it was painfully loud. But Brook didn't scream, she never heard a peep, and it's probably good too 'cause she's got some lungs!!But luckily she didn't see them scream or the adults would have left if there had been one more voice in that room!