Strawberries ARE in Season...

At least in AJ's world they are!

Today, on Day 2 of Preschool, AJ's teacher reported me that during snack he SIGNED:

Strawberry. (pause) Strawberry. (pause) More. (pause) Strawberry.

HOLY COW!!! I could hardly believe what I was HEARING!

What was equally as awesome was when she was telling me the story...his teacher has the BEST animation and tone in her voice. She said/signed "Tell Mommy what we had for snack today. We had strawberries." AJ's eyes immediately looked up at her when she said the word strawberries-and he grinned at her. He recognized the word!

We now have TWO WORDS in his signing vocabulary. WAHOO!

AJ's First Sign 1/18/09

Ladies & Gents,

Our son signed his first word tonight.

"MORE"

Age: 31 months
Exposed to Language (sign) @ 18 months old - Total exposure to date: 1 year
Developmental Age: 15 months(ish)

Signed,
AJ's Very Proud Mommy & Daddy

Betty Brinn ROCKS!

AJ's EET and I decided to take him to the Betty Brinn Children's Museum in downtown Milwaukee.

It was AWESOME!

As soon as we walked in AJ's eyes started wandering and he decided to walk with his EET over to what else-a red wall. (Red is the color he sees best-and that we've deemed his favorite)

We spent more of our time HERE in the toddler area-Betty's Busy Backyard. AJ was go go go the whole time we were there.
He enjoyed the sand table, the metal tree mushrooms, and most of all the tunnel! His face was priceless-the moment he figured out I was on the other side...turned around and saw his EET where he had started...he laughed so hard. He though he was pretty cool!

They also had a log that you could crawl through, with a detour to the left (a branch). Guess who took the detour....:) After about an hour, he was done, so we walked around and toured the rest of the museum. It is for ages 0-10. I wanted to play! We will have a membership soon and will be visiting quite frequently-since AJ liked it so much.

This was another awesome language opportunity. I love having his EET around. One can handle while the other signs-which is sometimes necessary with AJ. She's just awesome. I highly recommend this children's museum...Betty Brinn ROCKS!

Below are some pictures:

He really liked these flowers


Tunnel Time!


Check me OUT!


Detour!


Zonked out on the ride home

Shake Shake Shake

This past weekend my mom came over to bake cookies. AJ served as taste-tester. He gave the spritz cookies his thumbs up. Ok, he just ate them and giggled. He took a nice long nap during the afternoon. I had the afternoon to myself. In my own kitchen. I was on a baking frenzy. I'm still not sure where that came from. I will say that it was very theraputic and I was glad to have both ovens to work with.

After dinner Jer and I had AJ decorate the sugar cookies. Playfully referred to as our "Under The Sea" sugar cookies. Little did I know, AJ's Mommy does not own one cookie cutter. Thanks to AJ's "Playdough Bucket of Fun" we used plastic cutters to create starfish, dolphins, fish, lobsters, and more. We even have a few giraffes, alligators, dogs, and cats. OH MY.

Decorating the cookies created an awesome language opportunity. AJ obliged and shook the sprinkle can a few times, but was more interested in eating the can & sticking his finger in the dough. He had fun. FYI: Double-tailed dolphins look really strange when they come out of the oven :)

Below is the video & pictures (be sure to disable the playlist above before playing the video). It is a bit dark-sorry! This is my first video with captions-I'm so proud!!

Detour: Winter Wonderland Ahead

This weekend was the annual Winter Wonderland Party for the Center for the Deaf & Hard of Hearing (CDHH). AJ receives early-education services from CDHH. His EET (refer to Blog LINGO-scroll down-its on the left bottom) comes to our home once a week. We were looking forward to the party since there would be a signing snowman, cookie decorating, face-painting, coloring, story-time (signed), and music-time. I was looking to the signing snowman the most.

AJ woke up early which threw off his whole napping schedule. We picked up Grandma Cheri and arrived mid-party. By the time we got there, we discovered the signing snowman was gone. The cookie decorating table was taken down just as we settled in. AJ does not color (yet). Face-painting + child with sensory issues with his face/head especially = disaster. We didn't even pursue that. We ventured into the play area where they had an igloo (crawl-through tube), a ball pit, slides, etc. By the time we got in there the sign that said "Parents Please Supervise Your Children" had gone out the window and the kids were hyper off of cookies & hot chocolate. Understandable, but not so good for AJ. Jeremy and I both looked at each other and knew if we put him down he would get trampled. Literally.

Instead, we went back to our table. I saw a baby, probably around a year of age, watching his Mommy sign to him and I could tell he "got it." I had a huge cloud of guilt suddenly hover over me. Why does my son not understand me? I'm not doing enough. He should be understanding more signs. What do I need to do to make this happen? I know what everyone will say. You can only do so much, there are only so many hours in a day, you're doing a great job. He's got other things going on in addition to the hearing loss. I know all these things. But I am also incredibly aware of the things we need to do to keep him progressing. Any parent that has a special needs child knows that plateaus-SUCK.

Four helpings of pistachio salad for AJ later, we left the party.

Bummed.

Despite our hardest efforts to NOT have it be this way, this time of year is a little bittersweet. While we are having a ball shopping for AJ this year, this season is still hard for us. Last year, we had hope in thinking "next year, he'll get it." "Next year, he'll be able to participate." Don't get me wrong...I am thrilled and amazed that my son has made such tremendous progress going from 0-15 months developmentally in a year and a half. I am thrilled he is responding to more signs and making daily progress. But, we took him to an event geared for children/families with hearing loss and yet he still didn't benefit from it. We are going to take him to see Santa soon. We were not avoiding Santa this year, but though the signing snowman would be more appropriate and special. Of course it bothers me he can't hear Santa's sleigh bells, but I don't see this visit to Santa being as heartbreaking as the first. Right now, its the rest of the stuff that bothers us. Sometimes we don't feel like "doing IT", whatever "it" may be, simply because AJ doesn't "get it". All of this is hard only on us, as parents, at this point. I hope we snap out of this funk sooner than later.

On a positive note:
We visited with AJ's EET for a while at the party. We also ran into the instructor of the sign classes Grandma Cheri & I took. Well call her "T". She is deaf and is one of the teachers for the toddler group we so desperately want to get AJ into. She is the cutest & most ecstatic pregnant woman I've ever met, which is such a breath of fresh air! She can't wait to be a Mommy!! "T" and I communicated in sign. I understood everything she said, which is not a feat, but she understood me too. I felt very proud. It was great to see so many people using a common language-other than English.

We found a new tree-as ours was older than old-and was past its prime. We decided to stick with artificial, as it is more cost-effective. We made our tree lights "blink" by using the twinkle bulbs. Grandma Cheri had told us a few weeks back that he enjoyed Great Grandma's tree when she turned the lights on/off.

So, we know what "doesn't benefit AJ" (yet). Jeremy and I brainstormed last night to figure out what we could do that AJ would enjoy. We are going to take him to Candy Cane Lane and to the light display at the Country Inn & Springs Hotel in Waukesha. We have heard that light display is amazing. In addition, Grandma Cheri and I will be making Christmas cookies here soon and we'll have AJ "help". Extra bonus: He's only 1 room away from the bathtub for easy cleanup!

I am also constructing AJ's 1st experience book. A few months ago AJ's EET & I created an "All About Me" book for AJ. We had taken pictures of me dressing AJ & a few of his favorite toys. We mounted them on cardstock, wrote captions (i.e. "AJ stands up, he's all dressed"), laminated each sheet, punched holes in them and put them all together with silver clip rings. This is sort of the same idea. I am working on a winter/holiday book for him. Soon we will be reading & signing with the book each day. Hopefully I can keep this going and do more experience books for him. (Did I mention I'm still working on his lifebook-first visit pages-STILL) I will post pictures as soon as I am finished with it.

Snapping out of it and taking the detour ahead? Workin' on it.

Alphabet Soup

On the way home from Great Grandma Annie's this afternoon, I found myself signing and singing the alphabet song. As we drove home in the faster-falling snow, I tried to match my signed letters to my singing speed. "A,B,C,D".... I didn't get stuck until the end, trying frantically to figure out the easiest way to sign "Now I know my ABCs, next time won't you sing with me."

Pretty proud of myself for improving this skill over the last few months, I turned to gain AJ's approval. Recently, we moved his carseat from the middle of the backseat to the right seat. I did think I'd like it, but it is great. He can see me much better when I sign to him, I don't have to turn around like a twizzler to see what he's doing, and it will help create more language opportunities in route to our destinations. So anyhow....There he was, sound asleep. Hm. I guess I sang and signed my baby to sleep. Ok, fine. The car ride did it. One must give credit where credit is due. Our little critter is so tired these days. From the time he's up till the time he's napping or down for the night, he's "go go go." He walks to and from everything. You can tell his little body is tired, but he's totally enjoying his new found freedom.

In addition to today's ABCs in the car, our heads feel like a bowl of alphabet soup. All these letters with "other information" floating around. We are having a major struggle deciding what brand of implant AJ will receive. Our issues are with size, weight, wearing options, and most of all THE MAGNET.

Ugh! Why is this such an issue? Well, the magnet inside the interal device (under the skin) "catches" the magnet in the external device's coil. The coil sits on his head and stays there by way of the two magnets. However, patients with CIs cannot have MRIs. Let me take that back. Patients with MRIs can have MRIs up to a certain Tesla-2 or 3. They don't make MRI machines that "low" in Teslas anymore. The magnet of the MRI vs the magnet in AJ's head could cause serious damage and even dislodge the implant inside his head.

One company has a removable magnet. Now, this would still require a small surgical procedure to remove the magnet, have the MRI done, then replace the magnet. But it sure beats having the whole implant removed and re-implanted. We are not sure AJ will ever need another MRI. But, since he has cerebral palsy, we must take that into consideration. I placed a call to AJ's neurologist to get his opinion on future MRIs etc for AJ. Recently we joined a cochlear implant group online and learned that another member's child had been implanted without a magnet. They shave a small part of their child's head and use a special tape to keep the external coil attached to the child's head. I am not sure if this is even a possibility, or even necessary, but I have placed a call to AJ's surgeon as well on this issue. We'll see.

I spoke with AJ's SLP today and asked her recommendation for which type of communication she feels AJ would do well with post-implant. We discussed at length. I was happy to hear that Jeremy and I do not have to decide yet, nor do we have to set something in stone. He is one they truly believe we'll have to "wait and see" what he does post-implant. AV, AO, TC, CS....AHHHHHHHHHHH!

What ever happened to the days where we'd play in the snow and then come inside to Mom waiting with some yummy soup? I betcha it wasn't alphabet either :)