I Made a Survey

I finally did a survey. I have other questions I want to eventually ask so I did a tester survey here. Please feel free to answer the nine questions, really short survey and these results will be posted next week on my blog. It's anonymous, you don't even put a name on it so parents of hearing impaired kiddos, click below to visit the survey.
Click Here to take survey

Gone Fishin'

So we went fishing yesterday at Uncle Hassell and Aunt Christie's pond. The kids had fun, but it was too hot for fishing really...not even a bite. The kids enjoyed it non-the-less and Brook even heard a fish jump and splash in the water. We could call across the pond to Gage and he heard and responded to us (yea!). But this week will be interesting, both kids need mapping. I can tell! They are arguing over everything and most of it boils down to misunderstandings. Brook just said "I know you had the remote, don't take it!" and Gage's repsonse "I didn't type it." We have an appointment for them both on June 9, we will survive **grin**
Here are some pictures...




Now go over to Bama Ears Blog and read the latest story. I apologize for not getting these videos captioned so they can appear on Deaf Village but I haven't had time to do it myself and some people don't want their videos on You Tube anyway but it's a great story and cute little girl also. We are currently looking for hearing aid stories over there so if you live in Alabama and have a story please submit it, even if you are a teacher working with these kids you can email Bama Ears, all info over there: Click to view.

My Children are Nuts, and I love It !!

First of all, if you want your eight year old to read a book, tell him there's cussing in it! Yesterday, while I'm trying to read my book "The Shack", I was continuously interrupted by a bored kid...I suggested "go read a book." I got the standard no way look, and I told him that Rally Caps had a little bit of cussin' in it. His face lit up and he ran and got it off the shelf and he read thru the table of contents and gave me his smile of approval. (oh boy) But he did sit down and read the first couple of pages before ADHD kicked in again but he'll likely pick it back up since he knows I wasn't kidding. And remember, his mind is able to bleep these curse words out (click to read that story!) so we're good.

Next on my catch-up list...just after the reading, he decided to go swim with Brook...which means? neither of my kids could hear since they take their processors off in the pool. So I'm sitting their really into this book, (please read this book if you haven't) and the earth began to shake. Luckily I could hear so I knew it was all the heavy equipment tearing the pavement up in front of my house. Yes, I'm living on a nice dirt road for like....the next year! I felt uncomfortable running outside to take a picture of grown men working on my road, they may think I'm a little weird (or worse) so I waited til they finished and parked the equipment you see here. Anyway, the kids look at me when they feel this equipment wondering what is going on.....I get them out of the pool since they were like prunes anyway, get them dressed and ears back on...and they were surprised to hear all that heavy machinery and loud trucks. Of course they wanted to watch but I explained that I did not want them outside alone when the men were working. I deliberately scare my kids when it comes to these things (a shame we have to do that but we do) and I stay out with them while the workers are in front of the house, keeping them in the back and non-visible. When they finished directly in front of the house the kids went to sit in the back of "Old Yeller" the black truck we have (used to be yellow) and they hid out, playing like they were spying and didn't want to be seen. I kept watch from my window as I did laundry (again, if you've read The Shack you know how hard this was for me!) but I knew I could stare from the window and still let them play outside, I mean the workers were away from the house at this point but I scared the kids so, I had them looking in all directions for people who might want to steal them. Anytime one of the vehicles became visible, two little people came running back to the house. Little did I know, that I should have been watching what THEY were doing to the truck. At some point (I did not see it) after a week of coming home from work and painting that truck, someone (or two) put two tiny Xs in the paint! But that's not even the story here....if my husband were writing it would be, but my story is this...

After all equipment had been parked for the weekend, I finally let Brook play outside by herself. She was right close to the back door since I was still a little uneasy that some people may be lurking around but I could hear her talking. She was talking in a different voice and was pushing a truck. I look outside and see this (above photo) she had on a wig and sunglasses and was pushing a truck. I say "Brook what are you doing? I thought you wanted to play with your babies." She looks at me with her five year old smile, her five year old big blue eyes, and her five year old freckles and tells me "Shh, I'm pretending to be a boy right now. If those men come back they'll think I'm a boy and I'll beat them up with my muscles if they try to steal me." And she was so serious, oh I'm rubbing off on my kids, I'm driving them nuts, when they aren't driving me nuts!! love it.

And by the way Brook has three kids now, Hunter has entered the picture. She tells us though that she can't handle anymore. She claims that she can only take one kid w/her shopping and to the doctor's offices and such, she just can't handle them all. ( I know how it is ) So you'll see Mary JanG, Emma and Brook holding Hunter.

Last Day of School

We decided to make this our last day of school. Officially Gage doesn't get out til tomorrow but no one was really left today when I went to pick him up, most students went home early. I didn't want to send him today, but he begged me to take him. I thought he would want to go to Brook's end of the year park party but NOOOO. He wanted to go sit and write notes to some little girl **wink**. He even had a Dr's excuse for today since he had a quick kidney ultrasound before school. These kiddos with syndromes think nothing of running by a hospital before school to have some sort of test or scan run. He's not having issues but his syndrome (Goldenhar) has a lot of possible kidney issues and his pediatrician wanted to take a peek to be sure everything was okay.

Brook had a ball at her party, I'll miss her preschool, and she's sad that she won't get to go there again next year. She knows that Gage will be in her school though so she'll be fine.

Gotta love those metal slides, she finally gave up her "ears" and played on the plastic ones too but the metal one was the largest and by far the most popular!

On another note, I had my wisdom teeth removed. All I can tell you is that I was extremely nervous, I asked for them to NOT give me details.....and when I woke up, I was in a different chair. How the heck that happened I have no idea but it took no more than 15 min. Two days later, I look like I have fat cheeks......I mean more so than usual but I'm good! Gotta run, these kids have me hoppin' !!!

Goodbye Special Ed Preschool.........(sniff,sniif)

I mean need I say more? Preschool.......we've been with these guys for the past five years (between both kids)! I cried, yes I did! You made my little girl go from saying "I pledge allegiance to the frog...." to announcing at graduation "Attention" getting all parents and kids to stand at attention where she and the other kids gave us the correct version. You taught my deaf child to not only sing the alphabet, but to also sing it backwards! (not kidding!) Thank you for being the best, love you guys!

Now go read about our cochlear implant surgeon on Bama Ears.

And get this, the school just called, we are down to our last four days (Gage's school) and no one is allowed to charge lunches. I packed his lunch knowing he had drained his lunch account and I figured he'd just take his lunch the last four days. Anyway, I get home from graduation and I have a message from the school claiming he needed lunch money. I call back and inform them he brought his lunch. They say "thank you Mrs. Blakely we'll go check on him." Five minutes later the councelor calls, "Val, Gage has a lunch plate but we told him, 'You brought your lunch'....he tells us that he's saving that for supper!" They all got a good laugh out of that. So I owe someone at school 1.50 (I'll repay tomorrow when I drop him off) but we all thought that was kinda funny. And the thing is, it wasn't a fabulous menu today, he had a lunchable in his box which he should have loved!!! ??? Kids!

It's Raining, It's Raining!!

(she's been taking pictures of herself)

Today it came a sudden thunderstorm (no surprise there!) and lightening ran in on one of our electrical outlets. Luckily nothing was plugged in there but in the panic of....is the house gonna catch on fire (it did the last time lightening ran in!)....Brook runs up to me, "Mama, mama, it's raining, it's raining!" I respond out of residual panic from the electricity "yea, yea, Brook I know, it's storming!" as I frantically unplug everything in the house-computer first, lol. "But, Mama..." I can see some excitement in her eyes and I say "What Brook? What is it?" and she smiles her beautiful smile and says "How can I hear that? The window is up and everything, but I can hear the rain!" And bless her heart she's so excited, I run to her room to listen, as if I were hearing it for the first time....love these moments!

Aided Audiogram After a Reimplant !!

Okay, lots going on here. First, my 8 yr old now weighs a whopping 48 lbs. He visited the pediatrician this week for his yearly checkup and he says that's fine for him. He's growing consistently, he's still on the chart so he's okay. We went to audiology today and had his post op booth testing. He's been activated for over six weeks now. His old ear (the one that went unaided for over 4 yrs) was almost as good as the reimplanted side. He did very well on both ears with

speech reception. His reimplanted side is still taking the lead but does better in all

areas when wearing both! So bilateral is working well for him. As far as the audiogram, he's pretty equal at around 20dbs with either ear...but when he has both on, he's around 10 dbs or even better on some frequencies. Yea!! Plus he behaved as did Brook today! When he was almost finished with testing though, the ADHD kicked in and he said, "Uh, I guess I'm finished, I need to go to school." (as if he was doing them a favor by being there) We took a short break and finished up the testing and you can see Emma (the doll) sat quietly in a high chair and played with magnetic letters.

After that, I took him to school (he was there by 10) and Brook and I kept driving. We went to the location given to me on my paperwork for subbing, and had my fingerprints taken. It was kinda like a pawn shop inside?? Of course Brook vocally noted "this place is kinda stinky!" I don't think anyone heard her so I quietly "shhh" her and we make our way to the back. There is a real baby back there and that occupies Brook while I have my prints made. The young lady (mom to the baby) does a double take at Brook and says "Is that a BAHA on her?" Shocked and surprised she knew that word, I smiled and answered, "No, she's deaf in both ears, those are cochlear implants but how do you know what a BAHA is?" She tells me her niece has one who is fifteen now and only had it for two years. She was amazed at Brook's speech and in fact kept getting Brook to talk, because she loved her accent. She stated that she'd never heard such a southern accent on a little girl before (she was quite country as well though, and admittedly so). So we got that out of the way, now all I need for my final piece of the substitute teaching puzzle, is my 1993 high school diploma! After I round that up, (I think I know exactly where it is) I can drop those off after my 'surgery' next week. Hopefully since I'm not a criminal and my background check should come out fine, I'll be on the list to begin substituting at the special ed preschool and at Gage/Brook's school. I'll still have plenty of time to do my volunteer work (that's very important to me) but even if I worked as much as three or four days a month, I'll actually be a financial contributor again. Yea!

Update

Just haven't had time to update (that's an excuse). The fact is, not much going on, we are spending time in our vegetable garden. Here you'll see Brook hoeing (I've got it made!) although I did finish the entire garden when she figured out it wasn't as fun as it looked. She's such a good "mama" narrating the daily activities for Mary JanG and Emma. Emma is starting to talk more and more these days but Brook's concerned she's getting her m's and n's mixed up. Could be a mapping issue so when we go to audiology on Friday we'll see if they can fix that (you know I'll get a picture of that if it happens! lol) Today was movie day at school and I told Gage that it wouldn't have captions since it wasn't a video they would be tested on, it was just for fun, but he wanted to go like everyone else and sit near the front, taking his chances on hearing and following along with the film. There were several grades watching all at once but I told the teacher he had to sit near the tv and he could be excused if he lost interest. He says he couldn't really understand much of it but he watched it just the same. Just a few more days of school! I'm going in the morning to turn in my papers for substitute teaching next year now that I have all of my letters of recommendation. Thank you to those teachers who did this for me, they were very nice and you didn't have to be so kind (but glad you did!)

A Dark Cloud

Sometimes, this scene from my back door yesterday, is similar to how we parents feel this time of year with all the IEP meetings.....like a dark cloud just lurks over our shoulders. Luckily, for me, after doing this for several years and having such fantastic cooperation from our school system, preparing the school for our upcoming year, is easy. In fact, I went into Brook's IEP and was more concerned about my dental appointment later that afternoon than I was her meeting, I knew without hesitation that I'd leave that meeting happy that her needs would be met. Really the only thing I had them change from a tentative IEP that had already been prepared (we usually talk beforehand about what I'm looking for at the meeting and my concerns) was the fact that I didn't feel she needed a pull-out everyday. At this point she doesn't need breaks like Gage does so we just deleted that and I left happy just as I did with Gage's IEP. His IEP may change depending on how he progresses over the summer with his listening skills. We did throw in a listening goal to let them help in that area as well.

Here they are yesterday jammin' out to the electronic drum set Gage asked for from Santa, unfortunately his ci was removed a few days later and he's just now getting to enjoy that again. Oh, and I found out at my dentist appt. that I will need my two top molars removed. I'm such a nervous wreck, I can only imagine how my kids feel/felt just before an upcoming surgery. But I will say that the more people tell me it's not a huge deal, the less of a baby I'm becoming.

Also, you won't see it advertised on Deaf Village but there is a new story up on Bama Ears! (uncaptioned videos included) so go read about one of the cutest little girls EVER!!

Organized Chaos

Oh the memories from Field Day! At Gage's school it's all for fun, the kids race in different events and it doesn't really matter who comes in first. They just have fun. Here you see the teacher had asked who wants to run this event, Gage and several others raised their hands, and apparently Mr. Gage forgot to drop his hand! Luckily his buddy there helped him out and put it down for him.

We left right before the water events where the kids get soaked. I would have let Gage stay, he would have likely removed his processors but he decided he was hot and wanted to come home with me to swim. He didn't seem near as lost as he was last year with only one ci. I could tell though he relied on whoever was closest to him to give him directions. Even I had trouble hearing in all that noise. I'm not sure who will sleep better tonight, the kids or the teachers.

Individual Ears

How well can a child learn to (or relearn) to listen after a reimplant? How much can a child actually benefit from a ci in an ear that has been unaided for over four years......apparently much more that I ever thought! For some reason I couldn't embed it into the post, they must be having technical issues at overstream but you can click the link to view the captioned video.



http://www.overstream.net/view.php?oid=senal4rblaef

Never Said they were Angels!

No I never said they were Angels so if these pictures have fooled you, I'm sorry. But, for the most part, they are really good for what all they have to put up with. Sometimes that means waking at five in the morning to drive a couple of hours for audiology BEFORE school. Today, they had school first, then we traveled that long road to the HEAR Center but not for audiology, it was his make up session of AVT. Last week was to be possibly his last therapy visit but the therapist decided to go find out the sex of her baby instead. So we postponed it until this week which worked out well due his technical difficulties last week (which have been resolved by his audiologist). So all went well, considering they'd already had a full day by the time we got there. As I spoke to the AVT Brook took my hand (she's such a hand holder, love it) and lovingly folded all of my fingers but the middle one and she then called for our attention on the matter, interrupting our conversation about how well Gage is doing. Totally inappropriate. We quickly distract and get more listening in when we break for a quick word again on the progress he's made. Then a fight breaks out, someone was pinched and someone was bitten, I hope our AVT wasn't injured in combat but overall it was a good session. And our final one, she told us to leave and not come back! Really! I just love graduations.

Bama Ears

So there's a new blog on the block. Anyone can read it but it was created specifically to help the parents who have children with hearing loss here in Alabama. I think it'll be a good resource for parents and it's titled Bama Ears.

If you live here in the state, feel free to email your stories to the email address listed on the blog. We look forward to hearing your stories and "meeting" your kids. And a big thank you to Tiffani who was more than happy to help with the administrative duties of the blog. And she has such great ideas on future stories as well. Go visit now, it's still under construction but fully functional now.

Pulling the wool over my eyes, or trying to!

First, it must be nice to sit down to and polish off a cake! He needs to gain weight so he's allowed these little bonuses in life. We're back to the icecream/peanut butter/chocolate milkshakes at night too...hoping that'll help.

Now on a different note, this child just tried to convince me that when he hears or sees inappropriate words(still using closed captioning) that his mind actually beeps them out. I wasn't too pleased with a not-so-eight year old word I heard on a movie he was watching and he says "It's okay Mama, my mind goes 'beep' when those words come up." He needs to be lawyer, he's very convincing!

What Just Happened?

Eight years ago today I was lying in a hospital bed asking myself this same question...."what just happened?" My memories of my very first Mother's Day are little different than most. I had concerned glances thrown in my direction every time a nurse walked in to check my iv or my level of pain. I was recovering from a C section and I could barely care for the new baby I held in my arms. He was noted as "the special baby". They took his newborn photos just like all the other new babies and I had him dressed to impress. When I got the photos back his tiny little hands were held high beside each of his cheeks almost pointing to his ears but still blocking the view of the nickle size structures.

Eight years later I'm looking at this child and asking "what just happened?" Has he really been through ALL OF THAT in just eight short years? He doesn't hide his ears anymore, in fact he's so proud he boldly displays his processors so everyone knows, HE CAN HEAR! I remind myself each time he interrupts me, talks over me, or very impatiently waits his turn to speak his mind, that I dreamed of this day eight years ago. They knew what they were talking about when they noted him as "a special baby" from birth........he is just that.

He received everything he wanted for his birthday and even got a card in the mail from South Georgia. Brayden who also wears ci's sent him a Transformers card and his eyes lit up when I handed him the red envelope addressed to him! He read every single word and hopes to meet Brayden one day. Thank you all for the kind Bday wishes from facebook also, my little guy enjoyed them.

My Mother's Day Gifts

I always adore my Mommy gifts that they bring home from school. Yesterday I received a flower and a beautiful card Brook worked very hard on and it had her gorgeous face inside....big hugs to that girl, I loved it! Today we had an audiologist appt. first so I was afraid Gage would miss out on the "Mother's Day store" they had at school. We got there just in time, I handed him a couple of bucks he went and retrieved a stuffed kitty......for himself! haha but that's okay, his teacher had me covered with a flower and a new "My Special Mother" list. He gave me one of these lists back when he was in preschool and my how the answers have changed. It's a list of sentences and they fill in the blanks. In preschool I was 47 lbs and was 16 inches tall (haha) but now I'm only four lbs. lighter than my actual weight but he did make me one inch taller! Oh well, we can't fool 'em forever. In preschool he noted my favorite activity was doing the dishes and here he says my favorite activity was getting a new car (I wish!) He says I look silly in a Ghilly suit (never have nor will put one of those on!) But he also gave me a card that had a wonderful I Love You message w/the prettiest rocket ship and sun on it you've ever seen.

On a different note went to the audiologist today and had then had his IEP meeting at school. Got those out of the way and Brook's meeting is Tuesday. He's having an issue w/two electrodes, we'll watch those and the audiologist will work her magic to keep him hearing well. Before mapping he tried to tell me that I did not sound good when singing "Rock n Roll Ain't Noise Pollution" (AC/DC). I told the audiologist to make me sound better and you know she must have. AFTER the appt. I sang it again and he grimaced only slightly (trying not to hurt my feelings) and said I sounded maybe a little better. Thanks Mandy, I can rock on til next mapping...maybe!

I Don't Believe My Ears! featured in newsletter

If you are signed up for DRF's free e-news letter, you'll see that they put a short right up about the charity book in there. If you haven't signed up yet, please do so HERE. Look in the right hand column near the bottom and sign up today. Remember all proceeds for this book go directly to DRF. Mothers and grandmothers love books for Mother's Day by the way! If your kids are featured in this book, please remember to send out the link so your family and friends can order their copies. CLICK HERE to visit the bookstore.

I'm All Ears and Early Intervention

I'm All Ears will be presenting at the Alabama's Early Intervention Conferences this year on June 23 (two sessions in Tuscaloosa, AL) and again in November (details and location to come at a later date). Stay tuned for conference times and exact locations.

I love getting out and meeting the people who work with our children of special needs and also meeting the special parents as well. They are who we wrote this book for!

Also check out our new book prices to celebrate May's Better Speech and Hearing Month! click here.

New Additions

Let's talk new additions. This year we are adding batteries to our IEP for the children. They need disposable batteries for their processors to work with the microphones the teachers wear and guess what? we use rechargeable batteries...so this will be a new addition. (Thank you cicircle!)
We will also be adding ADHD this year to Gage's IEP even though it sort of meshed well with his hearing needs this year. With only one ci he needed listening breaks, and some one on one time to get away from all the noise everyday (just ten minutes or so). However, being Bilateral Boy this next year, not so sure he'll need the breaks. But with adding his ADHD to the "list" he'll still get his very desired breaks.

Now, Breaking News..........

Brook has a new addition. She informed me this morning that she had a baby in her belly for one minute and then arrived Emma's sister. Emma is in pink here with custom made pants (I'm not kidding!!) from Nanny and Mary JanG (not a misspell) is in white. I want to be clear that the name is as quoted from Brook "Mary Jang with a G on the end" just so I was clear NOT to get her mixed up with the little girl in her preschool class who is Mary JanE. Okay, my dear, you've made it clear, her name is Mary Jang with a g on the end.

*disclaimer* her father and I are taking all the necessary precautions to ensure the child doesn't speak to, look at, smile at or in any other way shape or form, acknowledge the male gender until she is 28 **smile**

Now having noted our new additions, we also have a little thing called croup. Brook went to the doc this morning who informed us he has had three flu cases but won't know what type until he hears back from the state. Brook has no fever but is still kinda sick, though she's feeling much better already. We have therapy tomorrow (AVT) and hopefully Gage will behave and get his work done or his AVT won't let him graduate. She's one tough cookie but she knows just how to deal with him!

And on a side note let me brag on the cooperation from school. I love that I can email the teacher and ask for his spelling test (he usually does very well on those) but last week I noticed he only got one or two right. She emailed me back and is more than happy to send it home this week and understands that it could help with his mapping on Friday. When I asked him to spell HAUL, he gave me HOME so I know it's not a simple misspell, it's a hearing thing I want to be sure his audiologist is aware of so she might can try and fix it. Then I have to hurry home after that appt. on Friday because his IEP is for that same morning! Brook's IEP is next week, I'll cross that bridge when I can see it......right now, it's too far away.

p.s. I'm playing with my font colors as you can see....thanks Jodi, I told her it was not fair that she could change her fonts in her posts....I've been blogging longer than she has!!

the Zoo ???

We were so diappointed yesterday! Some of these babies were popping up everywhere around the state of Alabama (as usual) and we made the long trip into the Magic City but unfortunately had to turn around at the city limits. All the radio stations were blaring their alert alarms and the weather men from all the local news stations had taken over. Tiffani called my cell and stated that they too had made it very close but weren't willing to risk their lives to see some kangaroos so we followed her advice and turned around. The kids thought we should just hang out and wait for the storms to pass but unfortunately we could not do that. So I only have one shot to share with you.........(I don't know why he's threatening to put his coil on this opposite ear. I told him it wouldn't sound good and likely had been locked by the audiologist so it wouldn't even work but he just had to try, he was a little short on entertainment I think.)

And it's a good thing we turned around because I called our audiologist and she stated that they had been kept in the "basement" of the zoo with the PRIMATES and it sounds as if the aroma was a little offensive. But look she'll have a story to tell her four month old when she gets older, about her very first zoo trip! A lot of dissapointed hearing impaired kids around the state yesterday but hopefully we can all get together at some other time.

Brook's favorite blogs

Here she discusses the upcoming zoo trip for hearing impaired kids our HEAR Center provides annually. We always have a good time and she's looking forward to meeting some of our blog buddies. Of her three favs though, only one lives here in Bama. Lucas is her pride and joy, she has to have a little Lucas every week. She loves the videos. Riley is actually the one who lives in Alabama, we might see her. And this is her all time favorite Marielle from Speak Up, she stalks this little girl and is an avid video clip junkie, so Marielle keep those videos coming, they entertain my five year old.

And just look at how pretty this iris is!!!!

When It Wains, It Pours......

Although this could be the local weather report for today, it's not. It's about approaching the end of yet another era. This month, my five year old will complete her preschool years. Our therapist has always been there to help us work on Brook's speech and that too, I know, will soon come to an end. She will begin "big" school in August. I've impatiently awaited this time for years now, but now that it's so close I can practically touch it, I'm not so sure I'm mentally prepared for it. Gage will be 8 next weekend and that too both breaks my heart yet gives me comfort at the same time. There were times I wasn't so positive we'd ever make it this far in those 8 years.

Just today as I drove Brooklyn home from preschool in the pouring down rain, I heard from the back seat..."Man, Mama, it is rainin' rainin' rainin'!" I have to be honest, it made me cry...not because she finally is getting her initial R's correctly, but I had hoped I had a few more months of "Man Mama, it's wainin'!" It caught me off guard and I was consumed with the fact that she too is growing up fast.

With the IEPs coming up this month, I've already been found "nesting" so to speak. Although this type of nesting isn't preparing for a new arrival, it's preparing for departure of my baby into childhood. It won't be long til she'll be telling me what to wear just like her brother, (click here to read that.) Part of me thinks I won't have ENOUGH to do and part of me thinks I won't have time to do anything else, so I'm cautious before adding anything else to my volunteer plate. I'm going to hopefully be subbing part-time at their school so some days I'll be there in the building with them, while other days I can work on my stuff. It'll be bittersweet I know, I'm just not sure if I'm gonna be laughing or crying that first day of Kindergarten.......to be continued.