Static Problem?

Are you tired of being electrocuted every time you get out of the car? Are you getting weird looks from people? You wonder if you have something on your face, in your teeth, your nose, only to find once you check the mirror, that your hair is standing straight up. Here's a cheap simple solution. Fabric Softener sheets. Brook took some to school with her and she often grabs her one from the pack at home to give her blond locks a quick rub down when the pesky static is irritating her. (Yes, that's a do rag on her head, the Harley riders gave both kids a do rag when they visited Gage and the other children in the hosp. around Christmas). One thing I've noticed is that since Gage has no ci anymore and is completely "in tune" with his sense of touch...he HATES static. It never was a big deal before but now he won't even open his own car door, he crawls out my door to avoid a shock. I'm putting some in the car right now so we can cut down on this a bit. It really does help.

The Meter Reader

And just after my "Biggest Fear" post....
Today while the TOD (teacher of the deaf) was here seeing Gage, Brook wanted to go out on the front porch to pet the cat. I tell her, "Yea, yea, that's fine" as I was finishing up something on the computer. Less than a minute had passed and I hear a vehicle in the drive way. I go to the front porch in time to witness the meter reader leaving his truck to get our meter count. I do not see Brook. Having witnessed him get out of his truck, and knowing it had only been about 30 seconds since she walked outside, I know she's right here close. I proceeded to call her name....nothing. He asked if I was calling a kid and responded with "yes, my little girl just walked out here." He turned his head to look around and then read my meter. Neither of us spotted her, but I assured him, she's probably walked in the other door by now. I go back into the house and he leaves. I do not see her or hear her so I proceeded to the back door assuming she's on the patio. When I get to the back door, the man has completely pulled out of the driveway, and the cutest little blond haired girl pops out of the dog house. I laughed immediately knowing why she was in there. Her concerned glances thru the driveway confirmed my suspicion. "Who was that?" she asked.
I said "Who did you see?" She claimed to have seen no one but heard someone pull up in the driveway. She also said she heard someone go "whoo, whoo, whoo" which was not the case, she may have heard me saying her name from afar and only picked up on the "oo" part of Brook...or she could have received some sort of interference thru her microlink FM receiver she had still in one of her processors from school today. Times like these, I'm glad she's terrified of strangers!

Thank You Second Graders

Gage loved his new cards you all made for him! He took them each, one by one, hanging on every word as he read them, picturing your little faces as he eyes fell on your names. It makes him feel really good that you guys have not forgotten him. He said he would send you all an email after his surgery is over for Mrs. J to read to you. I want all fingers crossed for him on March 23. We want a safe surgery most of all! Maybe he'll have his new black processors to show off to you guys when he comes back. Thanks again 2nd Grade!!

My Biggest Fear as a Hearing Parent

If you look closely at the photo you'll see the tiny little speck out in the back field, that's Gage "hunting". He basically takes his BB gun and rolls around in the grass and (if you ask him)he "shoots" all kinds of wild coyotes, panthers, bobcats, etc. which translates to shoots his cardboard targets. However, one of my fears is letting my unaided child go out and play alone, here in the middle of nowhere, in the country and a real coyote, bobcat or worse creep up. During the summer I worry about the two feet copperheads just as I do the six feet rattlesnakes, and all the other country creatures that roam. Today however, I'm assuming this could happen anywhere, but no sooner than he had walked into the house from his morning "hunt", my puppy began to bark.
I look outside and see these. A large pack of dogs that are all bigger than he and in fact almost as big as me! Horrified that he could have been out there when they crept up, I tell him that he is not allowed out there alone for the rest of the day. But what about tomorrow?...or the next day or the next. One of my biggest sighs of relief was when he received his cochlear implant and could hear dangers as they approached. Now I'm horrified to let him play outside alone (which at almost 8 yrs old, he prefers!)

Baby Speech Therapy

Always working with those babies, here is Brook as a Speech Therapist !
Notice the extra /s/ on the end of the word still, and yes-still working on those R's.

What's the first thing you want to hear?

A simple question with an unexpected answer. I thought he might say "Mama's voice". Um, no.....he says "a truck motor."
"Okay" still fishing for that "mama's voice" answer I wanted to hear. "What's the next thing you want to hear?"
He says "Mandy's voice, and Daddy's voice." Nothing about me...lol. Mandy is the audiologist! I finally ask, "what about me?"
He says he still remembers my voice, and he then mocked me. Next on his list? Our new puppy Marley...he has never heard him bark. He don't know how lucky he really is sometimes 'cause that puppy barks........alot.

Just Like Me

Brook is getting more and more like me everyday...bless her heart. She's watched me wash Gage's hair at the sink after his surgery so I wouldn't get his incision wet, now she's imitating me using her baby's head...she even sighs like me. Oh, and I will talk to her about leaving children unattended and dangling off the side of counter tops.

Val-n-tines

"I'm nervous, and excited, and scared! I'm not going in there yet, you go in first and tell everybody that I can't hear and if they want to tell me something, ask them to please write it down." This is what could be heard coming from Gage this afternoon as we paid a visit to his elementary second grade class to join them in the Valentine's Day Party. Everyone misses him there and he misses them. They even had valentines for Brooklyn too, knowing she'd be coming with us. He did receive some "love notes" from some of the girls and his face turned red as his all time favorite girl who is at least a foot and a half taller than he, came over and hugged him. On the way home he said "I got shy when 'J' came over to hug me, we have a big friendship now," he stated.
His teacher had hoped that he may be able to attend field day also but we'll just have to see, that's a couple of months away and his surgery is still five weeks from now. As we left he took one last look back and waved at everyone and said, "I'll send Mrs. J and email after my surgery for her to read to you all." It really made him feel good that he is being missed, and not forgotten.

AVT baby part 2

So what are we accomplishing here? Many things. Number one letting Brook teach her baby AVT skills, is actually continuing education for her, but she doesn't know it. You may have read about this in The Laundry Basket in I'm All Ears. When I knew she would refuse to put up her clean laundry this morning, I said "Brook, when you were little and learning new words, I would give you a shirt or socks, or some other clothes and tell you where to put it, like middle drawer, top drawer, pink hanger, closet....maybe you need to teach your baby some new words." It actually worked, she took the clothes and gave them to her baby, who then walked the clothes to her room where she was instructed to put it on top of the shelf in her closet. Also, I need some "quiet time" sometimes to monitor blogs for Deaf Village, or maybe five minutes of peace so if I can get Miss Never Stops Talking to focus on her teaching her "kids" a few minutes a day, we're multi-tasking.

the AVT baby

You'll be happy to know that Brook's babies are getting all the therapy they need. Despite their hearing losses Mommy Brook is modeling good language and speech to help them along. I saw her today holding a toy four wheeler up to her mouth saying the word, then holding it up to the baby's mouth so that it would imitate, good job B! She should be an excellent helper when/if Gage gets his ci(s) which is scheduled for March 23. Should be about a six hour surgery (longer than the average bilateral surgery) and then he has to wait a good 3 weeks before his is activated as per the doc. She can sort of repay a favor since he was such a big help with her when she got her ci's. Oh, and look at her poor little eye. She's claiming "personal day" and skipped school (yes, I know her teacher's read the blog) but hey, we all need personal days every now and then. Amy calls them Mental Health Days, lol.

Rough Day?

Well, she has a cold first of all. She is still recovering from a terrible bee sting that occurred last night on the top of her foot. Her foot is still red and puffy from that so she had to take benadryl last night and this morning. Then, today she goes up the field on her four wheeler instead of the trail...the field is very bumpy! Even though she was wearing her pretty pink helmet as always, that wasn't enough to prevent the bump to the eye which cut her lid slightly. You know it had to be at the worse spot possible where every single salty tear would sting! Between the benadryl this morning, and the painful excitement with the hurt eye, she passed out in my arms this afternoon and took a short nap, cutting off all circulation to my right arm but that's okay, right moms? Let's hope tomorrow is a better day. We may have to skip school tomorrow and recover from the cold, the sting, and self inflicting bodily injury. Oh, and how did she actually bump her eye? If you aren't familiar w/four wheelers, you need to go slow over bumpy terrain or you may bump up and hit your head on the handle bars...she happen to hit her eye on Gage's gun rack which is mounted on the front. She was in a hurry to bring me this flower......bless her! This is why we mom's don't mind losing all feeling in our appendages when holding our children.

And It's Out !!

He pulled it himself, good thing because I wasn't about to. That thing wiggling all day long was freaking me out. I can clearly see a tooth growing in behind where this one was so that's good news. After looking at himself he says "I think I'll grow a beard now, or maybe a mustache." hahaha

the Tooth Fairy

He finally has a loose tooth. Having Goldenhar Syndrome, not only does deafness, skin tags, malformed ears, play a part of this particular syndrome, but also many dental issues have and will come into play as he ages. Number one, his lower jaws are uneven causing a cross bite which has destroyed his lower front teeth. When he looses his lower front teeth, there is nothing under the gum to replace them so he'll need to wear a partial. When he approaches adolescence, he'll need to have a jaw distraction where they'll attempt to extend the lower jaw to make them even. But today he discovered his upper front tooth is loose, really loose...in fact it grosses me out to see him move it! Hopefully by day's end we'll have it removed and the Tooth Fairy will have to visit tonight. Anyone know what she pays these days?

the Prayer of a Child

Just when you think you've reached the end of your rope.....
Last night I heard my darling five year old in the bathroom, takin' care of some business (and multi-tasking as well) say these sweet words "Jesus, um am I goin' to have some babies?"
"He" answered back in a different higher pitched voice "Yes".
Brook: "oh, good! Okay is it some boys or girls?"
"Jesus": "boys"
Brook: "oh, well that's okay. Um, so is my belly going to get big?"
"Jesus": "yea"
Brook: "oh good, thank you!"
...and she exits the restroom never knowing I heard all of this. I couldn't help but smile at the child, knowing I wouldn't trade my two in for anything. I can also remember a time when I was told when Gage was a baby that it's harder to teach deaf kids things that they can't see, non tangible things like dreams, religion, etc. We didn't have this problem. All I ask of my dear Brook is...don't make me a grandmother before I'm 50!! I'll leave you with some beauties!

I'm So AC/DC

Today was Gage's visit to the ci surgeon, our surgery date is now March 23. We do not have to go back until the day of surgery unless something happens and he gets sick. We are crossing our fingers that the surgeon, who is willing to tough out the loooooong surgery and combine the two complicated ears, will manage to get both implanted but if not, we'll just reschedule the reimplant for a later date, that would be to replace the one just removed. The other ear will be tackled first. Last time he received a ci, it took around five hours. We'll see, the doctor feels like the first ear will take more like four hours and then the reimplant less than that. But it all will have to wait and just see how things go on the 23rd of March.
On the way home, AC/DC came on the radio. Now, I've quit telling him when they come on or when Beyonce or Leona Lewis is on, his favs...it seems like rubbing it in his face....I'm hearing them and you're not....so I quit. But today, he was watching me. He knew that it was a good song and I felt his blue eyes peering at me. He's been moved to the front seat while he can't hear due to the dangerous driving conditions of trying to communicate w/him in the rear seat. He saw me turn up the volume, and I felt his curiosity. So I looked at him, smiled, and noted "It's ACDC." He smiled and said "is it Back in Black?" I responded with "no it's You Shook Me". And I sang every word. And probably for the first time EVER, he let me. He smiled at me, not sure if he was smiling 'cause I actually felt like the next American Idol or if he was amazed and proud I knew every word...? But he did enjoy it. I told him that in a few short weeks, he could hopefully hear them again. He said, "I already hear them in my head. I remember." so I asked, "do you remember what I sound like?" He said he did, and he remembers Brook's voice, Daddy's voice, and PawPaw's voice. His speech still sounds very close to his normal, he's much louder and is having problems w/his volume control, but other than that, he sounds the same. Okay, I must go for now, I may need to practice up on some Leona and Beyonce..."If I Were a Boy...." just in case I get to sing again!

She's 5

No surprise there, she's been five for over a month now, but we finally got around to her five year old check up. Yes, this included shots. Gage's surgery was originally scheduled for this day and since he was going to earn Legos for his trip to the doctor, B was also going to earn her very own Pink Legos!! I already had talked my mother into taking her (I know she's glad she didn't have to!) But since Gage's surgery was rescheduled til March (I'll update that tomorrow after the ci surgeon visit) his have been removed from my house and await the big day. He has too many dr's visits to earn prizes for each one. I wouldn't have bought B any if they hadn't been scheduled for the same day at first, if she'd known he got Legos for his trip and she went thru two shots and earned nothing, we'd had major problems. My big girl is 51 lbs, and her big brother is 46 lbs. His syndrome makes it hard for him to gain, this is a major factor in not medicating his ADHD(all the meds stunts growth)...and we're hanging on by threads here. He's still irritated, aggressive, but we're making it.