Baptism anniversary

Today marks the 1 year anniversary of Kevin's baptism. This is going to be a hard month because it is the month that Kevin was diagnosed as being profoundly deaf last year. While I can't believe the progress that he has made with the cochlear implants, it is hard to think back to the time when he was first diagnosed. Those seem like such dark days in my life. I never thought life would natural and happy again, but here we are today and things are just about as normal as normal could be. And.... we are all happy! :) For some reason, though, I find myself emotional when I think about everything that has happend this last year. I haven't cried over Kevin's deafness in a long time, but the last week, there have been many occasions where tears have been shed. I guess while I am soooooo elated at the progress that he has made and couldn't be happier for Kevin with how he is doing, I still mourn the loss of his hearing. The sadness isn't nearly as great as it was a year ago, but I guess it will always be there, to some extent.

The significance of the anniversary of Kevin's baptism is great because for me, it marked the day that I realized and actually believed he could be deaf. At this point in time, the official diagnosis was still that he had normal hearing, but John and I were having serious doubts about it and were preparing ourselves for the 6-month follow-up behavior test on October 26. During the baptism, there was a guest pastor and the woman who spoke told of her life story as a disbled woman. She was born with birth defects and had to overcome adversity and is now living a normal and happy life as a pastor. She is married, has a family, and despite her challenges in life, she has succeeded in what she has set out to do. Her Mom then spoke and told her story that she had a 2 year old and was expecting their second child and everything was supposed to be 'normal'. When her child was born with birth defects, it took them by such complete surprise and they didn't think their life would ever be the same again. While it wasn't the same, it was still a wonderful life and they were a very happy famiily.

The story had such similarities as ours. Our older son was 2 when Kevin was born and when Kevin failed his newborn screening, it took us by complete surprise. When we thought of our child as being deaf, I just couldn't even bear the thought of it. Because of the mis-diagnosis when Kevin was 1 month, there was this uncertainty about his hearing and we were constantly testing him at home. I just kept praying for 'a sign from God' to put us as ease about it. If this ever was one....! I came home from the baptism with complete certainty that Kevin was deaf, but also at peace that everything would be ok. And, here we are today, he is deaf and it IS ok!

I ran into the Mom of the guest pastor yesterday, Lois Scott, by coincidence, and finally was able to thank her for sharing her story and told her how much it meant to me to have her daughter speak at Kevin's baptism. God definitely hand-picked that sermon for Kevin that day.

boat

Kevin said a word today that I didn't even know he knew! I gave him a sippy cup and there was a picure of a boat on it. He turned it around and pointed at it and said 'bt'. This is just the beginning of him starting to say things that he is learning immplicitly (not being taught by me). Let the fun times begin....!!! :)

I realized after I reread my last post that I forgot to mention other words he has 'mastered' (meaning he says with the same clarity as my 3.5 year old):
Ow
Owl
ball
Bye
Daddy
Doggy
juice
no

Pretty fun! Not bad considering his IFSP listed a goal as being able to say 3 words by November. Note, he has many other words, just not with complete clarity.

ADRO working great!

It has been a few weeks since we turned on ADRO and Kevin seems to be liking it. I think I notice a difference in his talking. Maybe I am just looking too hard, but he does seem to be talking more and better. He still doesn't say too many real words yet (bun for bunny, mnnn for moon, etc), but his intonation is great and he has 'baby talk' for a lot of words. He receptive language is great!!! The other day, I was talking to a neighbor about us going to see firetrucks for a field trip and all of a sudden Kevin started doing a siren sound. He heard the word firetruck and picked it out of the conversation I was having. It is truly remarkable!

Kevin contines to love his music class. I can't believe how well he does in it! He is so vocal and loves to dance to the music. I am excited for when his articulate language comes, but at least he is communicating really well right now!!! I have to remember, he is only 17 months old! :)

His two favorite words continue to be Daddy and Doggy. He has perfected both of those! 'Mommy' has been all over the map. Anything from 'bobby' to 'pr-ty'. I'll be celebrating the day he actually says 'mommy'!!! :) The audi says it is normal for his language to develop like this, but you would think he would have perfected mommy before daddy!!! :) hahahaha! Just my competitive side coming out....

ADRO

I turned on ADRO today for Kevin. He didn't seem to mind having it on, which is a relief considering he was so upset with the last map change. He only wore ADRO for about 5 hours today because I changed it after his nap, but his talking did seem to change a bit. Maybe I am just looking for something, but he did seem to speak the words less breathy. We'll see how it goes...

He loves his music class! We went to the 2nd one today. It is ironic, but he is one of the most vocal kids in the class! He 'sings' the entire time. It almost makes me cry to witness it because I am just so happy that he can experience the music and seems to really enjoy it. I definitely want to keep up the class for while. I think it is helping with his babble and lets him explore more tones when he talks.

full comprehension

Today I was amazed at what Kevin comprehended. I was leaving a store and told him that we were going home to see Daddy. He got excited about that. When we got home, the garage door was closed and Daddy wasn't outside like he was when we left. Kevin held up his hands like he does when he doesn't know something. I said, 'Maybe Daddy is inside.'. Kevin got all excited and wanted out immediately and then ran to the door to go inside. Once inside I said 'where is Daddy' and Kevin said 'Daaaaddddyyyy!'. He understood the whole sequence of the conversation from leaving the store until Daddy was found. Amazing....!

It was a cold...

Kevin has a cold today. He caught it from Ethan, his brother, so I am not surprised by this, but I think he was so cranky yesterday not JUST from the mapping, but also from coming down with a cold. I don't know if he would have reacted to adversly to the program if he felt great, but I do think it is right to stop using that old program. He seems to be hearing so much better with his old one. He is back to hearing the quietest of sounds like my husband's cell phone notifying him of an email and house fans.

He can now also say 'bun' for bunny, which is his special stuft animal. Being able to communite with words makes my life sooo much easier. We are still in the guessing game phase, but I think in another 6 months, he will be talking quite a bit!!!

1st bad mapping

We went in last Wednesday (5 days ago) to get re-mapped. Annie (the audi) tried to bring up some of the lower frequencies based on what I was telling her Kevin was doing. She thought he might be getting too much high frequency, so she went against his neural test results a bit. She said it would either be very positive or very negative for him. The last few days have he has been fussy and this evening he refused to wear his processors for the first time EVER! Needless to say, I was very worried about this, but as soon as I put on the old map, he was very happy and wanted to wear them again. What a relief! I was so worried that he wouldn't want to wear them at all!!! It was quite a stressful night for me. I just want things to go smoothly and never want him to be in pain, which I guess he was in. Events like this make me sad that he just can't hear like the rest of us, but I am sooooo grateful for the technology that we have been given to allow him to hear as good as he does.
This is a big reminder that there will be ups and downs with this process. Not that this was a big 'down', but there will be challenges along the way. The whole process is very trial and error, especially until they can tell you if it sounds better or worse. I just have to have faith that they are working at their top potential and that he will continue to do great. So far, so good! In a few weeks, I will turn on ADRO, a special program designed to make speech clearer. Let's see if he likes that program!