Language Explosion and Imagination

We had a great appointment (as usual) with our SLP yesterday. We missed last week's appointment due to a stomach bug (although I do believe I had food poisoning~ that's a whole nother story)...Ms. Lindsay was amazed at how Thomas is doing. She confirmed that he is going through another language explosion. It's great to hear a professional say that...even though I really thought that he was talking alot and family and friends have been making comments it has been "officially" confirmed!
Thomas is like a little boy now...it may sound funny but he no longer talks like a baby. I can carry a conversation with him ~ and I LOVE it!!!! We talk about everything ~ I never thought 2yrs ago that this day would come when my deaf little boy would be sitting next to me and we would be discussing the weather, a tv show (his favorite~ Handy Manny) or pretty much anything.
Yesterday I was making dinner and Thomas walked in with his bat under his armpit. I asked him if he wanted to play guitar here (he will pretend that his guitar is his guitar) and he said "no, I'm hurt....AAhhh Mom...me hurt" I said "You're hurt...oh my goodness...what happened?"
Thomas ~ "I hurt my leg....these my crutches" (as he wobbled away with a bat under his arm)
I stood by my sink peeling potatoes and I teared up. It was so great to hear him not only use his imagination but to use the word crutches. That one really threw me for a loop....he must have been watching some cartoon and someone got hurt and had to use crutches ~ no one in our family or any of our friends have used crutches so a cartoon is my only guess. If he does it again I will try to get it on video ~ or atleast a picture ..its pretty cute.
On another note ~ we have a bunch of snow...AGAIN!!! Jonathan is off of school so we are heading over to my Mom's to celebrate her Birthday. Her school was called off today as well and both of my brothers are off work so we will have a nice family celebration. I'll make sure I bring their snowsuits ~ hopefully my brothers will take them both outside and get rid of some of this energy that both Thomas and Jonathan have ~ and I wish I had a bit of!!!

Swimming

On our way out ~ waiting for Jim to pull the truck up. It was -15 out...it was nice to jump into a warm vehicle!!


Thomas enjoying the music ~I forgot his tennis shoes..it was either crocs or boots


Jonathan trying to get Thomas down the baby slide. There was a line forming behind him


Thomas with his swim cap on ~ loving the sounds of water and swimming


My boys going down one of the slides. Jonathan and Thomas thought it was funny that Daddy was on the tiny slide!!

We did end up going swimming last week. Thursday we did the swimming cap set up and Friday he went without sound. I think the swimming cap pushed the processor too hard on his head ~ i will have to come up with something to make it softer. I was amazed at how well he heard ~ it was VERY noisy inside the waterpark, the processor was sealed and there was a swimming cap covering everything ~ he still heard us.
We received many comments on how cute he was with his little swimming cap ~ no one seemed to notice bulging right side of his ear. The lifegaurds were talking to him and he was answering ~ we were talking to him and he would answer. It made for a much calmer Mom!
Friday was a bit frustrating. For some reason the coil wouldnt stay in place so after 3 attempts I asked Thomas if he wanted to go in with no ears~ he said YES...took the cap off and ran into the water. UGH...it felt like I was chasing him all over the place. He would climb up the steps to the waterslide and I was gesturing to him to slide down (on Thursday I would say "ok Thomas, slide down ~and he would)and he would just sit there ~ with a line of kids forming behind him. Some of them would start yelling to him to go and he just sat there ~ almost spaced out just looking around. At one point a kid (who was telling Thomas to slide down) said to his friend "what's wrong with this kid...why is he just sitting there". I tried my best to hold it in but I couldnt ~ I started crying, right there in the middle of the toddler pool! Other parents may have thought I was nuts but I thought tears were better than grabbing their children and telling them that my child was deaf and couldnt hear them yelling at him.
Most of the time Jonathan went with Thomas on the slides ~ so they would go on side by side slides and go down together. I knew it wasnt fair for Jonathan to be stuck in the toddler pool so he would go in the wave pool or the hot tub (I should say luke warm tub) with Dad from time to time. There were a couple other little one's in the pool and Thomas was playing with them. The two little girls would start talking and Thomas would chime in (he would see their mouths moving and he knew they were talking) so he would start talking and moving his hands around and the one little girl looked over at him and said "what are you saying? I don't know what you are saying. Get away from us" Jonathan looked over at me and seeing the look on my face steps in and tells the 3 yr old "leave my brother alone ~ you are not being very nice". The little girl didnt care much but I was proud of Jonathan for standing up for his little brother.
All in a all we had a good time. By the time we got home we unpacked, ate dinner and we all went to bed early. Castaway Bay was OK...I'm going to stick with Kalahari from now on though!
Today Thomas and I have our first Toddler storytime at the library. He enjoys reading books and having books read to him so I know he will really like storytime. Afterwards we will grab some lunch and than I am going to the salon for a haircut!

Transitional meeting

Today was our meeting with our local school district...specifically the special ed. preschool.
I'm not sure why but I was a bit nervous before the meeting...once we arrived and checked in things went smoothly. I registered Thomas and met the secretary ~ the three of us sat in the lobby and Thomas played and watched the students go to the library/the gym/ walking around ~ he really wanted to go with them. I hope his eagerness to go to school is still there in September.
Our Help Me Grow coordinator was there with us and I am so glad that she was. She had asked a few important questions that completely slipped my mind~ whew! We met the director (she was very nice)and spoke about our goals for Thomas and at the end of the meeting we set the appoinemnt for Thomas' Evaluation ~ that will be March 9th.
On another note...the bitter cold has hit us. With wind chills the temp tonite will be between -5/-10. I am watching the news and they are already posting school closings. I am thinking that Jonathan won't have school tomorrow so I am going ahead with the plans for a visit to an indoor waterpark. I am not a person who likes change but I think we are going to try another waterpark ~ I really like the one we usually go to, Kalahari but we are going to go to Castaway Bay ~ I am crossing my fingers that we all enjoy ourselves.
I am again dreading that Thomas will not be able to hear us once he gets into the water. I am very tempted to bring our foodsaver and his swim cap and try out the waterproofing, I'll see how I feel tomorrow. If I feel daring than I may go for it. If he doesnt mind not hearing in the water than it really shouldnt bother me...it kind of makes me sad that he won't hear all the laughing, yelling and rushing water while he is playing. Oh well, I know that both boys will be ecstatic with the surprise outing. Thomas has been talking about swimming for the past of couple days...Jonathan will be excited that he has off (plus he is off Friday for a teacher in service and Monday for MLK) ~ I'll try to pack the car without them noticing and leave it a big surprise ~ we'll see if it works!

Winding down

Poor Thomas ~ he slid down the hill, landed on his back and couldnt back up without help


Thomas with Uncle Matt and Uncle Mike ~ Jonathan was in this picture until he had snow thrown on him ~ right after this picture was taken Thomas took a mittenful of snow and threw it at Uncle Matthew ~ nobody but Thomas is allowed to pick on Jonathan!


Uncle Matthew and Thomas



Someone forgot to put this swing back in the garage before winter..oh well, the boys had fun playing on it.


Thomas all suited up for fun in the snow!!!

It is Sunday evening...I think having two weeks off for Christmas spoiled me ~ the first week back at school went smooth but this weekend seemed to go by too quick. I can't believe its back to school tomorrow. Oh well~ Jonathan has this Friday and and next Monday off...I would like to plan a little outing somewhere. Thomas and I were watching the news today and they had a segment on "cheap vacations". Every time they showed a picture of a swimming pool or someone swimming Thomas would look at me and say "I go wimmin...lets go, u wanna go?" "Daddy wanna go? Jonchan wanna go?...ok let's go". Daddy came home from visiting a friend in the hospital and Thomas almost knocked him over ~ Daddy quickly understood that Thomas NEEDS to go swimming ~SOON!!!
I have to admit that I cheated a bit yesterday...Jim dropped us off at my Mom's and my brothers played with the boys in the snow. I was out there for awhile but I had my camera in the my hand the whole time...ensuring that I wouldn't get thrown in the snow by either of my loving brothers. My little one's weren't that lucky!
My brothers built a little mountain in the backyard and blew up one of the snow tubes ~ Thomas had so much fun getting pushed up one side of the mountain and sliding doooowwwwwnnn the other side. I am telling you ~ this little man is fearless!!! Jonathan had fun with his Uncle's by running from one side of the yard, jumping on top of the mountain with the tube and sliding down the other slide. Of course, there were also snow ball fights and just goofing around getting tackled in the snow (which is why I had the camera in my hand).
I was a little bit worried about any snow getting in his coat or under his had and reaching his processors but he was pretty well bundled. His snow gear wouldn't win his fashion king of the day but he stayed warm. He hasn't worn his dinosaur hat since last year but it was tight enough that it kept his coils on the entire time..YEAH!!! Unlike last year there was no stopping mid-play trying to get a pair of dry hands in his hat to flop a coil back on.
We all had a great weekend ~ this week is supposed to bring us more snow and bitter cold temperature~ Thursday we may have a high of 2!!!! I better start looking into weekend getaways!!!!

SNOW

I think we may head outside this afternoon. The boys are driving me crazy~ they both want to go outside and play in the snow. I took the dog out this morning ~ she took one step into the backyard and sunk down so I could only see her head and the top of her body and a bit of her tail. She was loving it.
I havent watched the local news yet but from what I can see I would say we received about 8inches of snow already and it keeps coming. I guess I better go get our snow gear ~ boots, snow suits, hats, gloves, scarves, etc. and head outside. It should tire them out...for some reason they have ALOT of energy this morning. UGH..I wish I had some!!! lol

Start Brushing

One of the gifts in the boys stockings were new toothbrushes. They each received this kind of toothbrush (Thomas has the Lion King). He refused to throw out his other toothbrush so he has been switching between both.
Tonite after his bath he wanted to use his "tingin toobrah" (singing toothbrush). We put a dab of toothpaste on the bristles and he pressed the button and i heard a very faint "are you ready to brush?" and Thomas said "Yeah". I was pretty surprised he had heard it...I barely heard it. He was busy brushing and when he stopped I heard "you're not done yet..keep brushing" and Thomas answered "Oh..Ok" and kept on brushing.
I don't think I will ever stop being amazed at how much Thomas' being deaf and the eventual receiving of his CI's has changed our lives. There is so much I used to take for granted, hearing wise, and now I am so much more aware of the sounds around us. The sounds Thomas misses out on while he is in the bath or sleeping....and of course, each and every sound he is able to hear with the processors on. And to think back a few years ago and how upset I was thinking that he would never hear me say "I Love You". Not only does he hear me say it to him (and big brother and Daddy) but he is also saying it. It will come out at some of the most random times~ just the other day he walked up to my brother and said "Maffew...I Luv You" my brother really got a kick out of hearing Thomas say that to him.
On another note...I have been having problems with his one processor. In the morning before while I am putting the processors on I do the listening check and for the past few mornings the one processor has had its Sensitivity to "1" and the other is at "10". I am going to try it again tomorrow morning and it if happens I will make a call to the audiologist to see what she thinks is going on.
Next Wednesday (14th) we have our initial transition planning meeting at the preschool Thomas will be attending in the Fall. I can't believe my baby will be 3 in a few months. I'm not sure exactly what is going to happen but I believe its more of a meet n greet..look around at the school..let them meet Thomas and set up the next few appointments. I will definitly update after our appointment!!!