Good-bye Annie

We just found out that Kevin's beloved audiologist is leaving for another job. Tomorrow will be Kevin's last mapping appt. with her. I am soooo sad about this! I have felt this enormous safety net under Kevin for the past 2.5 years because of his awesome team of surgeon, audi, and speech teacher. I am just a little shaken about how this will affect Kevin and how long it will take to regain the trust of a new audiologist. I guess I will have to start the interviewing process of a new audi now. At least we have 6 months until his next mapping. Good-bye Annie... you will be missed deeply! Good luck with your new endeavor!

Kevin continues to do awesome with both his hearing and talking. He is in a mixed age class (3 -5 year olds) in both his mainstream and auditory-oral preschools. It is crazy how well he is doing! My little jokester has also settled down and pays attention really well. He talks about everything he is learning and sings new songs all of the time. It is really fun to see how much he is blossoming!

Have I mentioned that Kevin is a fish? He swims so well that is blows my mind! He is only 3.5 years old and he is already taking side-breath strokes. Wouldn't it be ironic if my deaf child chooses a sport where he isn't supposed to wear his CI? Of course, I used the Aloksak bag and it works great, but still it would be ironic. I can't wait for the new Cochlear processor to test exactly how waterproof it is! :)

I also want to mention something that happened to us the other night. This was a first for me and it made me kind of sad. We were at a fun pizza place having dinner and happened to sit at a table next to 4 deaf adults. As soon as Kevin walked in, they made awful faces and started signing really fast to each other showing their disapproval of his CIs. Now, I don't know sign, so I don't know exactly what they were saying, but I can read facial and body language and they were not pleased in the slightest and not afraid to show it. They went on about his CI for about a 1/2 hour. I thought how sad that we totally ruined their dinner. I also realized that one day Kevin wouldn't be oblivious to this kind of hatred and I wonder how he will handle it. This was really the first time that I have encountered this first-hand. I wish I could have had a conversation with this about this, but I don't know sign language... I guess that is their point. Interesting dilemma...

Mainstream Preschool

Well, Kevin has adjusted well to his mainstream preschool this week. He loves it and is doing so great! This is the same school as his brother went to, so I expected him to like it, but he really LOVES it! He is so proud that he gets to go to his own school now. I guess he doesn't consider his auditory-oral school a big boy school. I think he understands that this is different because he is the only CI kid here. There are only 12 kids there and so far, he is hearing and understanding what is being said. He came home singing a new song that they learned today. I was very impressed because that tells me that he is really hearing and understanding what is being said.

I gave a little presentation today to the class about cochlear implants and gave out some coloring books to the kids on CIs. They enjoyed holding a CI and trying to put it on their head. Kevin all of a sudden said, 'See, when I pull my ears off (and took his coils off) I can't hear you. (then he put them back on again) And now I can!'. It was really cute!

I am just so proud of him and how much he has accomplished. My other son started Kindergarten this week and I am already taking notes about things that will be difficult for Kevin in a large school. At least we have 2 more years to work even more on his hearing!

I think I decided to take the Summer off of blogging since Kevin took the Summer off of his therapy schedule. So much to report since it has been 3 months...

IEP update: Well, the IEP process ended up being a very positive experience once we got the right people involved. Kevin will be attending the local auditory-oral school for preschool and speech twice a week and will also go to mainstream preschool twice a week. While I don't like the idea of him going to school 4 days a week at 3 years old, I am thrilled that this is what his schedule will be. My son will be mainstreaming next week! I always knew he would have the opportunity to do it, I just didn't know when it would be. 3 years old and he is already talking better than most 3 year olds. I think he will do fine in his class. We'll see next week!

He attended an art class this Summer for 1.5 hours a week and did great. I always asked the teacher if he seemed to hear him or just follow along with what the other kids were doing. The room is noisy and there are a bunch of kids in there all working on art. He told me that Kevin definitely does hear him, but doesn't always listen to him. Yes... that is the Kevin I know. He is very 3 and only 'listens' when he wants to, but he definitely hears me! I'm glad his teacher thought so as well!!!

Kevin talks in full paragraphs and processes information very well. An example of his understanding is I read him Green Eggs and Ham about 2 months ago. A couple of weeks ago, he didn't want to try some food, but I was trying to get him to try it. He finally did and said, 'Hey, I like it!' And then he said, 'Sam I am'. I almost split my seam!!! Yes, Kevin gets it just fine.

He and his brother are best friends right now. I wish I could freeze frame this point in our life. The two boys get along great, play all the time and talk to each other all the time. Sometimes I stop and think about how different our life would be if Kevin didn't wear cochlear implants. These devices have allowed our family to continue living in the hearing world and allow the boys to play together like all the other siblings I know. I would do everything again in a heartbeat!

I hope I can update more regularly!!!

Kevin talking

I just thought I would share a video of Kevin talking. This is actually taken this evening of both boys just playing around the yard. One point to mention is that Kevin is just running and playing throughout the video and doesn't ever look at us. He has grown up relying on his implants as his ears and not using his eyes to lip read.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-hzwIdbj70

So much to post

Wow, life has been pretty busy this past month. I have so much to post! Every time I thought about posting, it seemed like a daunting task, but alas I have some time tonight, so here it goes.

Cochlear Celebration: We went to the Cochlear Celebration at Disneyland in March. Wow! What an experience!!! I was on such a high from that trip for weeks! It was wonderful for all of us to see so many CI users, both kids and adults. Kevin and Ethan really enjoyed it too. It was the first time that I really saw that both boys realized wearing a CI was something special. The staff at Cochlear Corp are amazing. I can't say enough wonderful things about everyone we met. We had the opportunity to talk to both the CEOs of Cochear Worldwide and Cochlear Americas. A very special experience was meeting Jim Patrick, Cochlear's chief scientist. He was the first employee Graham Clark hired and he built the first CI. It brought tears to my eyes to meet him. To make it more emotional, he was very teary eyed at seeing everyone wearing a CI, especially all of the children. To see the difference he has made in so many people's life really was special to him. The parties at the hotel and Disneyland were a blast for the kids. They felt like they were treated like royalty throughout the entire experience. I am so glad we attended the event!

Kevin's 3rd birthday: Kevin turned 3 in early April. Yes, my little baby is now 3. Where did the last 3 years go? In some ways, it flew by, but in others, wow... what a journey it was. Not that it was long, but he has been through so much in 3 short years. We had a great Bolt celebration for the day with 20 of his 'closest' friends. Yes, he is a social kid!!! Ok, some of them were Ethan's friends (siblings), but it was a lot of fun!

Ethan's 5th birthday: Ethan turned 5 in mid-April. Yes, April was busy because Easter fell right between their birthdays! Ethan had a Star Wars birthday. He is a wonderful son and an incredible Big Brother for Kevin! Not only does he play with him all the time, but he is an incredible language model for Kevin. He is a very special boy.

IEP: Well, the downside to turning 3 is that it is time for an IEP. We were sad to say good-bye to our early intervention person who we have seen weekly for 2. 5 years. We miss you, Miss Amanda! For Kevin's IEP, we think the most appropriate placement for Kevin is to continue him at his Auditory-Oral school twice a week and then start mainstream preschool twice a week. We thought it wouldn't be a problem with the district. The district thought otherwise and wants to put Kevin in a County TC school, so now we have another meeting next Wed. to discuss this. I won't talk much about this now until all is signed. I will post the results from the meeting on Wednesday.

Kevin's speech: Wow!!! I can't even begin to tell you how much Kevin's speech and language has exploded!!! He now doesn't have any problems with his 's', 'f', 'h', 'k', 'g', ... really any sound! Seriously, he says it all! He talks just as good (and for many hearing kids, better) than any other hearing child. I know I might sound like I am bragging, but he is just amazing us and I am sooooo proud of my little boy. His articulation is so good too. He has great tongue control now, which really helps. What is so surprising is his language skill set. He processes information so well and carries on full conversations all the time. He comes up with his own discussion points. He says complex words like ridiculous, disaster, and actually. ('Actually, Mommy, I don't want to wear this today'). I can't help but crack up at hearing my deaf 3 year old say a sentence like that. Suffice it to say, I am blown away at the CI technology and what early implantation can do for children.

They brings me up to date for the most part. I have a lot to say on the IEP front, but that post will have to wait until next week.

Beyond any expectations!

Kevin had his latest mappings yesterday and today. We still split the mappings in 2 day, one for each ear. It is so much less stressful on everyone and we seem to get better sound booth results when Kevin isn't at his wits end from sitting and testing for 3+ hours. This was his first mapping in which was 6 months from his last one. Before that, they were every 3 months. I'm very excited that neither of his maps changed very much. That means that his hearing is stabilizing and he shouldn't have very many fluctuations in the future. His audiogram was fantastic! He is hearing bascially 10-20db across the board with one frequency at 25db. Our audi warned us that they usually don't like CI kids to hear at 10db with his low frequency because it means that all sounds might be too loud for him. For instance, the hum of a computer might sound the same as someone talking. Kevin has never seemed to have a problem with this, but she turned his map 'down' to account for this. After changing his map, he still tested at 10db. I guess he just is really in tune with these sounds! The funny thing is that he tested to 10db on both sides!

Now for the really exciting news! Because Kevin is a pretty mature child and has great language skills, she decided to test his listening skills in the booth where she gives him random sentences and he needs to repeat them. She said that they usually don't think about giving this test until a child is at least 4. Kevin isn't even 3 yet. Kevin is very helpful with all testing, so she thought she would give it a try. I forget the name of this test, but the audi reads a random sentence while covering her mouth so Kevin can't lip read and Kevin needs to repeat the sentence back. With his right ear, he did this with 92% accuracy and his left ear had 98% accuracy!!! Wow!!!! What this signifies is that Kevin's auditory memory skills are incredible and that he is really listening, hearing, and confidently accepting what he thinks he hears. These sentences were completely out of context and used a pretty high vocabulary. The test used words that we don't use everyday like 'dishcloth', 'soaking', etc. Needless to say, I am pretty ecstatic right now at how well Kevin is doing. How can 2 years make such a difference in our lives? If anyone is reading this that is just starting their CI journey, please keep your faith. Your child will be fine and in a few years, I bet you won't be able to keep your kid quiet either!!!

Changing the rules?

I think we are doomed... Kevin is already starting to manipulate things to go his way through conversation at the tender age of 2 years and 10 months. This is how our conversation at dinner went tonight...
Kevin: Trying to get down from the chair without eating anything... after about 40 minutes at the table. A normal night for us.
Mom: 'Kevin, you know how it goes. You can't get down until you eat a bite of chicken. That's the rule.
Kevin: 'No, I get down now. That's my rule.
Mom and Dad: trying hard not to laugh and admiring that our deaf son is telling us his own rules.
He continued to banter back and forth with Dad... ultimately we won. It was really a funny conversation, though! Maybe he'll be a lawyer...