Another weekend has come and gone.

First, I'm going to photowhore some pictures of absolute perfection.







Now a different kind of perfection...



Lastly for the pictures...



*whew* All done slamming photos in your faces.

Have you ever noticed it's harder to listen and pay attention when you're exhausted? David is the same way. I think everyone is. It's just harder for us when he's exhausted. He doesn't concentrate on the sounds, and then he gets frustrated, I get frustrated, and the kids get frustrated.

My tip of the day:
When you're tired GO TO BED!!!

LOL :)

One month later...

This past month has been a whirlwind of appointments!

David had his most recent mapping session on Monday. She re-tested him using the same test that she used prior to surgery.

He did better with the implant then he had done with his hearing aid :) She even suggested he might want to get the other ear done because he's doing so well. Obviously, it wouldn't be for at least another year, but so far David is exceeding everyone's expectations :)

We're still waiting to hear from the speech therapist before we set up another appointment for mapping. She's waiting to hear from the insurance company to see if they're going to cover the therapy (They'd BETTER...)

We're all just plugging along, working on new sounds, and trying to stay sane with our insanely busy lives!

Speech Evaluation

David had his speech evaluation yesterday. We went in and talked about his goals, what he felt he needed work on and about how we're going to have homework, then I took the kids out so she could do the testing.

He was tested with the implant and the hearing aid, as well as with just the implant.

He practically aced it. He can determine word length, sentence length, environmental sounds, high frequencies, low frequencies...you name it, he did it. The only thing he really needs work on is some vowels, and consonant sounds. She is writing up the report for the insurance company so that they will cover his sessions.

She is going to work on the consonants with him, as well as distance, so that he will become better at understanding me if I'm in another room, or not looking directly at him. She will also work with him on environmental sounds without giving him choices to help him figure out what it is. She'll play a sound and have him tell her.

She told us for now to work on putting stress on different words like: I am going to the store. I am going to the store. I am going to the store.

Hopefully the insurance will come through quickly so that Martha and Rebecca can work together so that David's mapping will be more fine tuned.

I'm once again, simply amazed at how well David is progressing.

Wind, crunching, and rumbles

David went for a bike ride this weekend. At first the only thing he could hear was the wind rushing by as he rode. When he took a break he put on his lapel microphone. This is a little microphone that plugs into the processor to allow him to get a more localized sound. Once that was on, he rode again. This time he was able to hear the crunching of his tires on the rock path. That was a new sound :)

We had an enormous thunderstorm yesterday, and we shut everything down and just watched and listened. The rumble of thunder is a beautiful, relaxing sound (unless you're three...) He heard the low rumbles, the loud cracks, and of course, we saw the lightning bolts.

I went to turn cartoons on for Jaime and when I came back out, he had fallen asleep just listening. ♥

I love the new sounds, the amazement, the wonder as David hears more and more things.

Kids are funny

Joe (nephew) to Jaime: "What's your mom's name?"

Jaime: "Wivabef"

Emma (niece): "Eeeeeeelizabeth"

David: "Jaime doesn't know my name"

Me: "Jaime, what's daddy's name"

Jaime: "Honey"

David and I were laughing so hard. Kids crack me up!!!

It feels like Friday.

Why isn't it?

So, David heard me muttering under my breath today. I'm in trouble!!!

He continues to do well with his CI. The new maps are better than the old ones. Now that they're a bit more powerful, he's hearing more little things.

He was downstairs washing diapers (yes, we cloth diaper the babies) and there was a cricket in the basement. It was driving him NUTS. I think crickets drive everyone nuts. They make that irritating noise, and you can never find them!!

He also heard a jet fly over our house yesterday, he heard the neighbors talking when he was in the garden, lots and lots of different bird songs. I wish I knew what kind of birds they were so that I could tell him what they are!

It's the little things.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. This is amazing.

Happy June Dear Readers :)

David was Remapped yesterday.

His audiologist is extremely pleased with his progress :)

She took the loudest program that he had and put it in the first slot, then made the remaining three maps progressively louder.

When she got to the loudest map, David looked startled when he talked. He could hear himself, and he didn't sound hoarse. He said that his voice sounded deep. He was thrilled to hear himself and thinks that it's really going to help with speech therapy. He's already trying to correct himself when he pronounces something wrong.

I'm SO proud of him. So proud.

He heard just how loud the car is when you drive yesterday. He described it as the wind hitting the car. He never realized that made a noise. He heard an 18 wheeler as it drove by.

*sigh*

I feel so privileged to be a part of this transformation. There are so few people that get to experience such a miracle in their lives.