I Want You to Hear

Sensorineural. Conductive. Audiogram. Milestones. What are all these new vocabulary words being thrown at me and my new baby? This became our reality years ago when my first child failed his newborn hearing screening. His tiny little ears were soon adorned with rather large super-powered hearing aids. The best of the best on the market and even those floppy devices couldn’t bring enough sound to those tiny ears, to hear my voice.

Having no history of hearing loss on either side of the family, we didn’t even know what questions to ask at that point. Months passed by, then years. We introduced him to his new little sister with what little signs and gestures we had developed as our communication methods. We were introduced into the Cochlear family by our doctor as our next step toward living in a hearing world full of possible speech, language, music, and voices.

While little sister was developing her babble, her various toddler words, we were shocked to find out she too had hearing loss. She soon progressed to severe levels as we prepared to our son to undergo his first cochlear implant surgery. Our hopes were high and expectations low as our now almost four year old would either soon begin to hear the world that had been so quiet, or he would remain in silence.

Not only would he receive the gift of hearing, but his sister would soon follow in his footsteps. We had therapy as a family to learn how to learn how to hear and how to develop appropriate speech and language. It was hard work for everyone on our team but both children are in public school, playing sports, playing instruments, enjoying their friends’ laughter and not enjoying their mother’s singing.

Now Cochlear introduces their new website as a resource for parents finding themselves facing a similar situation as we did years ago. A place to answer the daunting questions that linger can be accessed from almost anywhere. Find out more about the advanced implantable hearing solutions by Cochlear by visiting   www.Iwantyoutohear.com

This is a sponsored post from Cochlear written only by me. My opinions are my own.

Speech Therapy Bags

I was recently reminded of portable Speech Therapy bags. The ones we mom of hearing impaired children have in our homes, in our cars, at grandma's, practically everywhere we go. We know kids need toys to help occupy them at those long grueling appointments and they love to play, so why not combine playing and learning? Going through AVT (Auditory Verbal Therapy) and Speech Therapy with both of my children helped me be prepared for opportunity teachings.

I have a list I have put together for some of the top 5 items I used to carry. I'm curious as to what parents carry in their therapy bags these days! You can view my list here on Influenster (click here).

We would change our items every couple of weeks or so (basically when mommy got tired of the Legos or tired of reading the same book). One thing to remember about these bags, your local thrift store can be a gold mine! Just wash the toys really well and your child will be learning for pennies! You can find great "odds and ends" and at my thrift store they bag up miscellaneous items like small figures, small doll house items, random cars, etc. which was PERFECT for us! I'd pay $0.59 for big bag of WORDS! Don't let great opportunities pass you by because you think an item is too girly for you boy or right the opposite. My daughter and I would use big brother's hot wheels to drive to all of her doll's houses! It's all about how you approach it!

I miss those days!

If you would like more information on how to be an Influenster, make your own lists, write reviews, and try free samples, CLICK HERE.

I am thankful they are deaf

If you had asked me eleven years ago if I was glad my first born lived in silence, I would have said no. The experts told me he would learn to speak though it would be limited and at a much slower pace, and that I needed to narrate everything I do. When I woke in the mornings we put his prosthetic "ears" on knowing he would only hear certain parts of my words but we were to spend our day talking...about everything. If I walked to the kitchen I sang, "walk, walk, walk," with every single step in hopes that one day, he would learn that everything, even motions, had names, sounds, labels. By the end of the day, I rarely even answered the phone and had to force myself to speak to a tired husband when he came home from work, because my words had been given to my child.

There were days I thought would never end and when he finally got his cochlear implant, we had to start over again. Sister came along, and we were blessed to start it once more for her so words became part of our life. I learned to describe feelings and emotions, we stopped at every tree, we smelled every flower, we listened to every bird. Eleven years have passed now and I can honestly say that I'm thankful my children are deaf.

My busy world slowed down for years as they began to grow and learn. Each day, I'd step outside my door and wonder if there was anything else left that I could give my children and something new would appear. Their little face would light up with excitement and tears would run down my cheeks as The Blessings poured in day after day.

I had no idea that The Lord was crafting me all this time. HE was teaching me how to see HIM, how to feel HIM, and how to teach my kids about HIM. HE was teaching me to write with the same words I taught my children only they became more than just words over time. HE taught me to notice everything and then translate what my eyes and heart could see. Today, I am thankful HE lets me feel. If my world had not slowed down a few years ago to absorb HIM, I would not have the relationship with Christ that I do today. He took something very close and special to me, my children, and had them teach me how to hear HIM.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving everyone!

VBS

The Cochlear Kids are having a wonderful time at Vacation Bible School at our church. They are learning verses (and repeating them on cue) and songs (with a little more difficulty but they are doing awesome)...just like the other kids. Church has been the BEST thing for my kids, despite my initial concerns that they couldn't hear well, or sit still (or any other excuse I gave for not taking them regularly). They actually have learned so much, including how to sit still and behave in church!!

Here they are playing water balloon volleyball and yes, Gage's leg is soaked right here...guess he fell a little short at catching those balloons with the sheet but it was all about team work. That night the story was about Gideon and his army of 300 God picked. They made a homemade trumpet with that one and last night after hearing about David and Goliath, they made sling shots. They can't wait to go back tonight and see what they learn.

The Wrong Thing

Due to the fact that I've received multiple private messages on Facebook about this one single blog post from my other blog...(click here)...I've decided to cross post it here and tell a quick little story that I was reminded of, when a friend read that post.

For my family, it has never been wrong for other children to ask questions. I have always taught my kids that when other kids ask them "what's wrong with their ears" or something similar, the best thing to do is answer them. If they don't feel comfortable doing that, they can come get me and I'll do it for them but I prefer my kids answer questions themselves...this builds confidence and they need to use the voice that The Lord gave them...I am just their back-up plan.

Here is The Wrong Thing to do...

On several occasions (when my kids were tiny), I've watched small children stare at my children's ears. Sometimes the pure fascination in their eyes would bring a smile to my face. My small child would stare back with no answers to give yet and only a few clear words that nothing to do with cochlear implants. Just as I am about to give the child the answers he/she deserves, Mom comes over...looks at my child and in a gasp, shew her kid away. We were never even given a chance. I wanted to tell the child, the mother that my children's ears didn't work, at all, but God decided that He had some things for them to hear, so we were given devices that make their ears hear sometimes...

But instead, an embarrassed mother that had no answers and apparently would kill over if her kid asked a question, ran away from a really great family. She'll never know how funny my kids are. She'll never know what a gift we were given. She'll never know that it's okay to ask honest questions. Some of our biggest Blessings have come from brave people who have stood in line with us, talked to us until we hated to say goodbye, laughed with us, learned with us, discovered with us...and made it okay for us. Our confidence was given by those brave people who didn't run away. My heart has sank low lots of times in the beginning, when my kids were smaller. But I have to say in hindsight that the confidence also came from those who ran...and I guess I should thank them as well...because I knew that soon, I wouldn't let anyone run. I'd politely tell them that it's okay, it's fine and I'd show them that special needs kids are approachable...which is exactly what happened.

So if you're still stuck in that rut, of letting people stare, not answering questions you know they have...if you don't speak up, your kids never will either. Most of the time, my oldest (who isn't shy) will answer all the questions himself. Sister is a little shy but that doesn't mean we can't take questions. Once people know they are listening and talking to a deaf person, amazement sets in. I have to explain to most hearing people that these devices don't magically make their little brains understand what sounds are...it takes an incredible amount of therapy...an incredible amount of family dedication, an incredible amount of hard work from the child and everyone around the child, but it's all worth it.

This is an old video for those who have never seen my kids without their "ears"



Sometimes the captioned version doesn't work well but here it is on youtube also--he was trying to let her FEEL him talk--she's not a very good speech reader--unlike him.

It chose me

A friend of mine from church publicly thanked his wife the other day for being such a great stay-at-home wife/mother. She was sick and he had to take his little boys to the pool, washed dishes, folded lots of laundry, entertained the boys some more, etc. etc. while she lied in bed...sick. It's a draining profession I know, but we Mommies (or stay at home Daddies) get used it.

I had a full time job in the Accounting Dept. of a very large beverage distributor in the big city when I had my first child. I couldn't wait to get back to work and I didn't even wait for my full 6 weeks post surgery recovery time to end. My husband's schedule required him to pull weekend doubles at the restaurant he managed at the time so this gave him a couple of sporadic off days during the week. His schedule, was really the only reason I was able to make it there one more year after my son was born...and the fact my family gave us any off days they had to help us out too.

At his birth, we knew he had "issues" that needed to be investigated, scanned, removed, etc., and we spent most of that first year, in and out of the hospital for all sorts of procedures/surgeries and lots of times, we had three appointments per week. Luckily my husband lots of times was able to pick our son up from daycare, drive him to me in the big city (an hour away) while the baby screamed the entire way, so he could pick me up from work and attend the necessary appointments, then drop me back off to finish my day. You see, deaf children are required just like all other children here in the U.S. to be turned around backwards in the car(until around age one), hence the word-rear facing car seat-but when they can no longer hear, or see their parents driving...they scream. Brook wasn't so bad because big brother was facing forward and could play with her as she rode backwards but Gage was all alone. But my point is, we were a team, my husband and I, and we were in survival mode.

After I realized my son stayed VERY sick with a weak immune system as his only defence for daycare and the fact what little speech he had was troubled, I decided to give in to what had been picking at me for the entire year, and I left work. It was my burden to bear and I was ready to bear it.

I had no idea how hard switching jobs would be. I remember sitting at my desk during lunch as I finished up the three/four week notice and I made a list. I would vacuum on Mondays, wash one load of clothes a day, change linens on Sundays, etc. Luckily I can laugh at it now, but it was never that easy. I did the normal things most stay-at-home moms do but I also focused on speech therapy, which before he could hear, was more like language therapy. He was learning to read lips but I talked to him all day, everyday, as if he could hear to expose him to as much as possible. But my biggest mistake ever...was removing the burden from my husband. I tried to do EVERYTHING myself and was digging myself a hole so deep, it took The Lord to get me out of it. I had no strength left in me, to do everything alone, anymore. My husband was more than willing to help but by that time, I had needed more than a physical rescue.

I've taken on jobs over the years, I still work in Accounting during tax season most of the time, helping out a former employer and I substitute teach. I've become the stay-at-home working mom that works while her children are at school, which allows me to have summers off with them! I love my job now and have for years. It was tough, but it got better. I am so thankful that He chose this job for me, because I would have never picked it for myself. We have only a half day of school left (Tuesday) and we're free to begin our summer...my most challenging and my most fun time of the year. I didn't choose to stay at home as my job, it chose me...and I'm very thankful.

Deuteronomy 28:1-3

1 “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God: “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country."

I saw their smiles when they discovered something new, I watched them in amazement as they learned to hear and speak, I learned how to be a better parent, a better wife, and a better Christian...just by being a stay-at-home mom. I would have never chosen this for myself, I really really wanted to work outside of the home. But for my family, my place was here. It took The Lord to move me into that office and quit a job that I loved, but the benefits have more than out-weighed the costs.

For no reason at all

I don't have a lot of patience with my children. In fact, if I want to see any of it, I must pray for it before I start my day. Yesterday, was horrible, which made me feel horrible when I went to bed. I said right then, I wasn't going to forget to pray for patience when I wake up, if I'm lucky enough to get another chance.

So I did just that. I had the best day ever. Sure, the kids were at school for the most part but afterwards, we went for a walk...like we used to do everyday. The kids are getting older so part of me thinks they'd rather be doing 'other stuff' than walking around with Mom. I couldn't be more wrong. They loved it.

I remember doing these walks for speech/vocabulary purposes...I hear a dog barking, where is the dog, let's find something that starts with a /t/ sound or let's find things that are living and things that are non-living...

So it's hard for me to remember to do things for no reason at all. Doing things just for fun, or because I want to see something pretty or because my kids missed me all day. Today was an awesome day, I am thankful !

We are looking forward to our Zoo trip Sunday where we'll see all of our HEAR Center families. We love events like this and look forward to it.

Gage hasn't been hearing his best this week so far, he has MAPping/audiology next week so they'll fix that hopefully. His ADHD appointment is in the morning so we'll see if he's gained any weight at all...

Brook's behavior has improved so far this week. We are thankful for the good days for sure! Our high school has Homecoming this week so lots of exciting events lined up this week at school.

We look forward to what tomorrow will bring the Blakelys!

What's Going On

We've went right back into full swing since Gage has healed from his surgery. I'm subbing (a lot, yay!) and I'm trying to keep my articles up (see page heading Val's Articles). He has his next mapping appointment (ear tune up) on Friday and his Daddy gets to take him since I have a sub job booked.

Brook is doing great. She's been busy with her photography.

And I am finally taking a moment to post a learning activity I did with Brooklyn. I'm still amazed that she's only six. I don't get to brag on her like I should. I wasn't working a few years ago so you heard regular updates and Mama brags on Gage all the time. She is just as smart, I must say.

She had her Magnadoodles out and I asked her to write a noun on the first one (I reminded her what a noun was-yes they do this in first grade a little), a verb on the second one and a sentence on the last one using both the noun and verb she chose.
Her noun for this one-Wal Mart, verb-bought, sentence-I bought a baby doll at Wal Mart....Good stuff B!
Now, here is a prayer my two kids were rehearsing yesterday. At the bottom I think B tried to write that she was missing her birdie...that our cat murdered right in front of her eyes played with 'til it didn't wake up. Now, off to catch some ZZZZZZs so we can go to school and head straight out to G's new Dentist as soon as the bell rings.

Incidentals from Dora...

Age six, in Kindergarten, public school, hearing deaf child, she makes it look easy! Nothing is impossible! Go girl, go!

translation...
1 Uno 
2 Dos
3 Tres
4 Cuatro
5 Cinco
6 Seis
7 Siete
8 Ocho
9 Nueve
10 Diez
11 Once
12 Doce
13 Trece  
she says catorco and mom corrects with
14 Catorce
15 Quince
that's all I can do....mom says, "okay good! now can you count by 2's?"
"2,4,6,8,10,11, uh, 10,12" mom says, "that's good" and she then says, "14"
Mom says, "very good" and she says, "that's all I can do, and I know how to do twos to a hundred"

she just picked this up from watching Dora

Aunt Christie, Southern Living

If you follow me on Facebook (see badge on sidebar if you don't) then you know how interesting my car line is at school as I await for the demons my precious babies to be released...
Well today, I'm admiring the hydrangeas on the cover of Southern Living magazine (I want some soooo bad!!) and texting my sis in law (who is all knowing of flower information) and she advises me where to go and when to plant...
I open the magazine finally and as I flip thru pages, I see HER IN THE MAGAZINE!! No kidding! They came last year to take photos making no promises she would ever even be in the book so she was surprised when I texted her back and told her!!

She happens to be the photographer of my book cover and has her own blog also (Click Here). You can see the excitement on the kids faces (lol)! Actually they were tickled to see their Aunt Christie in a magazine, so was I! Talk about a language opportunity! And, Gage read the whole article to his Daddy (Christie's brother)...so awesome.

In other news, we have our IEPs scheduled now for April 29, all I can think of for 4th grade right now is no tests on uncaptioned films, or audio.....but will be thinking on this some more!

Captioning Videos

Hi guys, I've been trying to upload and caption some videos and haven't had any luck, I use Overstream ordinarily...here is what I found if you too use Overstream...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apparently, Youtube has finally gone and closed off the video access to third parties like overstream.net. (We are not the only ones affected - e.g., youtube video downloading sites like http://clipnabber.com and http://keepvid.com also either don't work or don't work the same way as before.)



It seems like there is nothing that can be done on our end to fix this right now. Feel free to write to youtube/google asking to make an exception for overstream to work somehow within this new restricted framework. Unless either this new restriction is lifted, or an exception is made for overstream, overstream won't work with youtube in the foreseeable future. There is possibly another option of implementing the system that would make it work, but this would require some development.



It's possible that youtube feels that due to their recent improvements to accessibility (which are indeed pretty impressive!), there is no real need for overstream any longer. It's possible that they have a point...


I found this on the Overstream forum from the Overstream administrator.
So for now, if you go to my video page, you'll have to click on the youtube channel to see my uncaptioned videos...and here's our latest w/a transcript.

transcript:
Brook "I Spy"
Mom "Oooh I know, let's play I spy..."
Brook "No, no, you do that thing, I spy something blue
or something like that..."
Mom " A color? Okay, I spy something....that's the color
you get when you mix blue and yellow. So what color
would that be?"
Brook "Walls, green!"
Mom "Very good, okay I spy something that is the color..."
Brook "Don't tell me color just say I spy something green
or red.."
Mom "You want it simple? I was gonna make it harder for you"
Brook "yea"
Mom " umm, what if we play I spy something with a /p/ sound
at the end of the word"
Brook "yea, yea, yea"
Mom "okay, alright I spy something with a /p/ at the end of it"
Brook "Lamp"
Mom "Very good, alright I spy something that's got a /d/ sound
in the middle of the word."
Brook, "Um, which area?"
Mom "There's 3 of them in here, it's got a D in the middle of
the word"
Brook "Chair?"
Mom "Sound it out, does it have a D in the middle?"
Brook "No, um DVD"
Mom "Hmm, no it has it at the beginning and the end"
Brook "ok, ok,
Mom "You're looking in the right direction"
Brook "magazine?"
mom "Does it have a /d/ sound?"
Brook shakes her head no and yes, "uh huh, oh wait let me try again."

sorry I had four kids here while I quickly typed it out, pardon any errors!!!
she eventually gets WINDOWS correct!...because we play hard, we don't like easy! Just a little AVT for ya, I was about 7 feet from her w/camera in front of my mouth....
love her tattoos and outfit? lol, and she is wearing shorts under her skirt!

Real Estate

.....or homeless shelter as she called it...that's what we played this weekend...a lot! It was so pretty (70s) up until we wake w/it pouring SNOW this morning so a good chunk of our day was spent outdoors...just the way we like it! Brook wanted to play homeless shelter among other fun filled imaginary type games. This is a good one for all you AVT moms (auditory verbal therapy) or even you homeschoolers. She and I took turns selling each other plows, I mean "houses" so we would walk around each house (aka plow) and describe what was inside so each buyer could decide which one was just right for us. Can you believe she tried to sell me a house w/3 kitchens! I passed on it, I took the one she said had 2 computers, 1 kitchen, and a balcony (I'm shocked she knew the word balcony). I asked the price and she said 150,000.00 (which was a lucky guess on her part) so I took it. I in turn sold her the one that had an upstairs and came complete w/2 bedrooms and 2 baths.

Another game we played was Chef Brook. I gave her an old pan to keep in her restaurant (bricks w/a grate on top) and she "cooked" my food to order and even repeated it back, "here's your hamburger w/ketchup and lettuce and diet coke" (which was outrageously priced).

Our other house favorite is spelling out sentences. Brook is now able to do this as seen in the video of Gage at age six at the bottom of my blog (scroll down). Her sentences are a little less complex since she's just starting out w/sentences like, "I  l-o-v-e  y-o-u  v-e-r-y  m-u-c-h" and she'll answer me back...kinda works against you though if the adults in the house want to spell out secrets (or curse words, lol).

We have mapping for Gage on Thurs. along with his first orthodontist appt. We'll likely leave w/plans for future surgeries (like most first time appointments!) My mother noticed Gage speech reading as she spoke to him while she was attempting to remove my stitches this weekend. We were in her bathroom which has an automatic fan, aka background noise to a hearing impaired kid, very impressed w/mother's skills! I did inform her we already had an appt. scheduled with the audiologist. We had an extremely rough day yesterday when I let him go w/out his ADHD medication. And I say WE because it really affects EVERYONE and if your child has EXTREME ADHD you know what I mean. It's like his body is in overdrive (hyper) and his brain has no idea how to release the energy other that quick impulsive behaviors but on his medication, his brain has time to think of better alternatives, like making a new truck. His brain has time to think things through and he has more creative outlets! But yesterday he was literally about to jump out of his own skin! We were sure to take our meds today! School starts back tomorrow after our spring break, woohoo!

And finally, we are still scheduled to stop by Thurs and do a quick segment on the local morning news about this charity event which will benefit our HEAR Center where my kids receive audiology. Can you photoshop live tv? haha.

Give me 2 minutes...

...and I'll give you AVT (auditory-verbal therapy, aka listening/speech therapy).

She allowed me to watch American Idol last night as long as I played w/her during the commercial breaks. She was so proud of the little people she had made so I did some AVT w/her. She had her back to me and I said things like, "Which one has red arms and blue elbows?" and she would point to the middle one..."Which one has red and yellow legs?" and she would point to the one seen above on the left...or "Which 2 have matching ankles?" She did great and loved the impromptu lesson!

Christmas in the air

Here is the stocking cloud the kids found one morning on the way to school and I reminded them that we couldn't be buying anymore toys til after Christmas, and this was Santa's little reminder.

We put our tree up this morning and love the language/speech opportunities. So far today we've corrected the word 'ormamets' to the correct term ornaments while changing last years 'hookers' (lol) to ornament hooks. So many seasonal words we'll work into our vocab and language opportunities we'll take advantage of again this year such as mistletoe, reindeer names, fun little Christmas songs, and the list goes on and on and on. It's funny how this year Gage's list is so detailed as opposed to Lego's he's named exactly in detail what he wants. Guess what else is on his list (at the top of the list as a matter of fact)...several thrift store toys that he can take apart and use as parts for his customized creations. Only my kid would want thrift store toys for Christmas, lol. He also made Brook's list out and she named things like house shoes, and I also heard her say at one point, "okay that should be enough Gage" and there were only like five things listed, wow aren't we lucky?

**update: I just viewed those lists, we are not lucky, Gage has also a TV and a mini-fridge on his list?? lol...but it's mostly stuff like silly string, frisbees, door knob for his bedroom (he removed his) and also when I questioned the "screwless kitchen" on Brook's list he replied, "well, I wouldn't take it apart if it didn't have screws"

University of Montevallo

For those students at the University of Montevallo, here he is (no matter what he said about his little sister tonight) blowing her toes after he's just painted them (this pic is only a couple of months old)...

I'm very proud of little man, tonight he gave his first "presentation" to the up and coming Deaf ed and speech pathology majors at a college here in Alabama. And I BARELY GOT  A WORD IN EDGEWISE at certain times...his story telling has come a long way over the years, these days his stories never end sometimes (lol). You may have noticed me trying to 'butt in' on occasion and change the subject when he spoke for more than five minutes but there's good reason. I was nervous. You mamas can feel me on this one...when your kids get to telling stories about home events, home life and then out pops something so random and unexpected that your embarrassed to death...that was my fear. I've been so enthralled with a child's story before only to be blindsided with  a "you remember that mama, when you said you didn't like the neighbor's kids" or something like that (which may or may not have been true, depends on if the neighbor ever reads this, lol) But you get the idea, I was so afraid he'd get carried away on the subject and throw in a random, "like when I saw you in your bra" type thing so I was only trying to stop that before it happened! Luckily, he's maturing and no such story was exploited. Had a great visit with the college students, thank you for letting me come by and visit. I appreciate your questions and Gage is hoping to come back next year to speak with the next year's students! Topics Gage discussed, speech reading, school, self advocacy...topics I discussed, language opportunities, IEPs, audiology, siblings with cochlear implants/deafness, resources, parenting, history, Goldenhar syndrome, and much more I'm sure.
p.s. he loves the Legos thanks for offering a reward, he was expecting nothing though, he talks for free! lol, it's a hobby of his

Videos for Parents of the Newly Diagnosed

Unfortunately not all of these are captioned...I apologize as they may be from long ago. I thought they may help some parents of newly diagnosed children with hearing loss. I'm not reposting the video I have at the bottom of my blog but it's probably the most inspriational where Gage was spelling answers, totally auditory. Anyway, here are some more speech samples, therapy ideas, etc.

Brook almost 4- All I want for Christmas

Gage age 7- Listening

Teaching a deaf child- Brook age 4

deaf children swimming-no processors

...for new parents of hearing impaired kids

I'm getting ready in a few weeks to do another presentation for Alabama's Early Intervention. I decided to go back through my blog and read some older posts for inspiration. I pulled out several and have broke them down into categories, videos, new parents, funny stories, etc. Today I'm gonna post the ones for new parents. These stories may or may not help you new parents, with the emotions we go thru when our child is diagnosed with hearing loss. Hopefully they'll help and I'll put up more later. Some of these may have symbolism and if you don't get it now, you will later when you've climbed your first mountain!


The Black Out-Freak Out Dec. '08-When Brook woke up to blackness, no hearing, no vision!

The Carwash- Nov '08-When I learned what it must be like to be a deaf child going thru a car wash

The Sparrow-Nov '08- A fictional short story w/symbolism...when someone finally listens to what you've been saying

Tasting the Clouds-Nov'08-written a few days after The Sparrow w/related content

The 1 1/2 hr conversation-July '09 tells of fire safety w/deaf children

The Thrift Store-Aug '09tells of the non stop talking of my deaf child and the listening abilities of my other deaf child...also about good thrift store bargains for therapy

Advocating for Themselves- Sept '09- means just what the title says

Three Wishes-Oct '09 recent story of how a deaf child views himself

the weekend

In case you wonder what the Cochlear Kids do when it rains........

My mother calls me a terrible blogger. Apparently I'm not blogging as much as I used to so I'm trying to be less neglectful. It's just that the kids are in school and with me less, so I have less inspiration with them not around. Today, we walked up to the cabin to clean out the fire pit so the fellas could gather around it tonight for their weekly "camp out"(the adult fellas). This field is what separates out house and the cabin so yes, we are very "Little House on the Prairie" here. Brook is my little writer, she never goes anywhere without her pens and paper. I bet you she has written at least three hours today alone!

This week is the Southern Women's Show and I'll be at the Cochlear booth on Thurs. and Fri. Brook takes her first field trip on Thurs. and I hate it I can't go but they are basically just taking a tour (walking) around our one horse town. I know they will take excellent care of her and they know she can't hear as good as everyone else so I'm confident she'll keep with group. (There's not even a red light in this town so traffic is of little concern) They will be taking full advantage of all the language opportunities the town has to offer. The teacher tells me they will get locked in a jail cell, I asked her if we could pay extra for them to keep her (only kidding!) They will get to hold a thousand dollars at the bank and eat at a small diner before heading back to school.

The kids told me today that I needed my mapping done, simply because I didn't follow ALL of their orders. Have a great week!

VIPs

Here we are, part of the Deaf Village crew. Almost a year ago we were invited to the Chaikof's house (some VIPs in the hearing loss world). Last minute, we had to decline the invitation because Gage's infection kept getting worse, and the symptoms were unusual so we had no idea what we were dealing with at the time and I didn't feel comfortable leaving him behind to go on a road trip several hours away. When we heard that Elizabeth B. was flying in to spend a few days there, we took the opportunity to drive out of state and meet everyone.

I have to say, Elizabeth is so adorable and funny and smart. She has very ambitious goals, she's about to be back in school, she has her career well thought out and I'm sure she'll reach at least 9/10 of her goals (wink). She's really a funny gal and so polite and she and Rachel seemed like they've always been friends. You can almost picture their little sleep overs when they were younger, only they never knew each other til recently.

I took mom along for the long drive to help navigate and control behavior. She suggested we stop at a rest area mid way to walk the kids. So we did. That helped...some.

I have to tell you they were all wonderful people, I even got to meet Adam the middle hearing child. He hung with us for an hour and a half, before he retired to his room for his homework. Jessica is a doll! She along with big sis Rachel have bilateral cochlear implants just like my two children. Jessica was very patient with Brook and allowed her to play with her dolls and brush their hair. She kept the kids entertained the entire time. She was a BUSY girl. Just after the kids played for a while and got comfortable with each other, we all sat down to eat. Melissa is quite the hostess and provided not only a very nice lunch but dessert as well. And joining us for lunch was the famous Mary Ann who was THE AVT Rachel has written about and who has become a close friend to the family as well. Jessica told me all about her school which sounds fabulous and she's very excited to be in eighth grade now. I was pleased to get at least a decent first two hours out of the kids before it all hit the fan! When we got ready to leave I assured Jessica that I had the kids packed up and ready to stay with her for a while at Camp Jess. She's such a good little teacher, very patient (even though another child had their hands all over her stuff). I had hoped she would keep them for a few days and train them to be as quiet/calm/polite as she is. She said, "I'm in eighth grade, I have too much homework." So I had to take them back with me. I almost made it out before Elizabeth spoke and reminded me that I didn't have all of my children...

But just as we were ready to go, I think it was Elizabeth who suggested we ALL play a game of chase the Blakely kids. I wasn't really in the mood truth be known but we were guests and who are we to decline her ideas? I know it was the therapist in her that made her want to do some listening exercises while the child were in motion, increasing their distances from the speakers, and hiding in places no one could find them! Even Mary Ann the retired therapist couldn't escape the active game that seemed to never end. Here Rachel finally tackled one while Jessica got another only to escape again but after a 30 minute game of high speed chase that left everyone wearing sweat on their bodies and exhaustion on their faces, we wrangled both and got them in the car. I've never seen so many smiling faces as we pulled out of their drive way... they were happy we stayed to play that last game of chase with them. And yes guys, we had a great language expanding conversation on the way home. One child calmed down (the one w/severe ADHD at that) and one chose not to. She went straight to bed when we got home! **smile**

(possibly more later) I hated to leave you all hanging on who I got to meet up with, so I decided to spill the beans asap. I will say they are all very kind, laid back, very intelligent people and I'm so glad we had an opportunity to meet them. Rachel of course is ready to skip town again next weekend to begin her next adventure (she's so brave and ambitious as well).

Gage goes for mapping at the audiologist's office on Tuesday which he really needs and we'll get those FMs going in school. So far so good with school, had a great first week, let's hope it continues.

Thrift Store

Brook found a new baby (new to her) and a high chair (that was $0.59) and you see Gage already disassembling his finds only to reassemble in different ways to make the trucks better!

I started going to the thrift store years ago and if you've ever been to one of my presentations, you know I'm a huge believer in the good bargains you can find there. I used to find tons of bagged animals used for our at home therapy play (our AVT auditory verbal training)

for less than a dollar. One week I could get a bag of zoo animals, the next week maybe sea animals, pets, you name it they had it already in bags. The same goes for household toys for doll houses, instead of having to buy my SON a doll house I could buy a bag full of sofas, tables, chairs, etc. for cheap. All I had to do was come home and wash them (sterilize them!) and we could learn vocab/language and practice our AVT at home for weeks without HIM having to play with doll houses!

Now the kids are out of all that, and we still go, behavior permitting, several times a year and today we left with each child carrying a bag FULL of items and we spent $12.00! Gage got like 5 big trucks he's currently working on and Brook got lots of baby clothes for some of her kids, a car seat for one baby and high chair for another.

You know how some people get on these long drawn out stories and you sort of just half way listen, tune out the majority of it, hoping they won't find out you're not really listening? Well, one of my deaf children (G) can go on, and on, and on, sometimes and we do take that for granted at times and just tune out so our brains/ears can just rest for a minute. Today, on the way to the thrift store, he was telling some story that my husband and I thought had no ending, we tuned him out. He was in the front seat with my husband, I was in the back with Brook (we have to separate them, ADHD in the car can be dangerous, so he rides up front for safety reasons believe it or not!). He ended up getting distracted in his own conversation and then wanted to go back to what he was originally talking about...trouble is, not only did he not know what he was originally talking about, but my husband and I didn't either....we got caught not listening. But thanks to my other deaf child, bilateral Brook in the backseat, was able to tell us what Gage had originally began telling (which was amazing giving the time lapse and distractions!) so he was able to return to the never ending story....which eventually did end when we arrived at the thrift store!