Father's Day Fun

Sunday we had fun celebrating Father's Day and thanking DJ for being the amazing dad/husband he is. 

After breakfast, Siena and Amelia gave DJ the cute cards they made for him at school.

 

Then we drove to South Carlsbad State Beach to check if they were any last minute beach sites available for Sunday night.  Luckily, there was a campsite available so we rushed home and packed up our stuff as quick as possible and headed back to set up camp.

 Then spent the rest of the day relaxing, playing,

and enjoying the beach (even if it was a little chilly and overcast).

 

 

 

No camping trip is complete without s'mores.

Happy Father's Day!

We love you!!

 

More noise!

Tom and I were away for two weeks vacationing in sunny Aruba and had a wonderful time. We came back tanned and rested, or so I thought until two days after we returned and I came down with some sort of bug (cold/flu etc.) that kept me in bed for days. Okay, enough whining from me! I know what you really want to know......

Kristina and DJ took Amelia to her second mapping appointment at the House Ear Institute on May 30 and it went very well. Using clever tests and games they were able to get a response from all 12 electrodes this time which is great news. (At the last visit it was only 5.) She also has a new coil on the back of her head and this one is pink. It goes with the pink battery pack behind her ear which is a bit smaller than the old one since it only holds two batteries instead of the previous three. This one fits better and does not put as much strain on her ear. Also her hair is growing in again and will probably soon hide more of the appliances. At the moment it’s a very cute little pixie hair do and most of it stands up on end. It’s all about style, isn’t it?

Amelia appears to be hearing more things all time and is becoming more aware of her surroundings. She’s also much noisier! While before she would often play very quietly and we constantly had to go looking for her, she now makes lots of “baby sounds” while she plays. Sometimes they are soft sounds, but often very loud too. She seems to be experimenting with patterns and noise levels. Just as she used to sign to herself when she looked at her books, she now makes sounds at the same time. We just love hearing her “chatter” like that.

 The HOPE speech therapy is still going on twice a week and those dedicated and clever ladies have managed to extend her coverage through the end of the summer. Amelia loves to see them come and is eager to play the games they use to coax sounds out of her. She’s able to produce a fairly good “mmm” now and learning to differentiate between “ooo’s” and “aaa’s” and “eee’s”. She’s not consistent with this yet and she tries to cheat when she has to repeat the same sound too often. She just gets louder and higher as if to say, “There - take that!”.

Amelia does well with patterns of sounds. “Quack, quack, quack” becomes “ah, ah, ah” and “beep, beep” sounds like “eh, eh”. She enjoys it when we sing little songs like Old Mac Donald and the Wheels on the Bus to her, even though we have no idea how much she actually understands. And she has developed a new interest in the toys that produce sounds. She’ll push those buttons over and over until we want to run screaming from the room. The other day I saw her “counting” her ten stacking cups. She touched each one in turn and made a little sound with each touch. Thrilling!

We are all trying very hard to use more words and less sign language in order to force her to focus on hearing, but it’s not easy, just like breaking any other habit. We also want so much for her (and all of us) to continue growing and developing in ASL.  We were told to orally “narrate her life” as we go through every day activities. “Time to wash your hands. Wash, wash, wash. Come and sit in your chair. Up you go! Up, up, up. Now take a bite. Would you like an apple? Here’s your apple. It’s a yummy apple. Take another bite. Now drink your milk. Mmmm, milk. Milk is good.” And so on and so on. It’s exhausting, but if it’s best for Amelia, we can do it!

Mother's Day weekend

I took Friday off of work so I could attend a Mother's Day Tea (juice and muffins actually) at Siena's kindergarten class.  It was so much fun watching the kids sing and dance and they made all of us beautiful placemats.  Her teacher said she learned lots of interesting "facts" about all of us ladies.....haha....I'm sure she did :).

I was home in time to hang out with Amelia while she finished breakfast and I recorded this amazing video of her "talking".   This is the best response to speech sounds that we have seen yet :)

 I'm sorry it is so short but I ran out of space on my camera card.  She repeated these sounds throughout the day.  We changed her ABI to a new program on Sat and she has done it once or twice since then.


Then I took Amelia to her physical therapy session.  My mom usually takes her so it was great to get the chance to see her in action.  Amelia has a new therapist and I was very impressed with her.  As usual, Amelia was very excited to participate in all of the different activities.

Amelia and I picked Siena up from school and we headed to Golden Spoon for some frozen yogurt.

Today, DJ made crepes for breakfast and they were delicious :).  Then we delivered cookies to our two awesome moms/grandmas, visited with some friends, and took a walk on the beach.  It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed spending it with my family.

Happy Mother's Day!

Amelia's in the mix

Amelia is a busy body!  She wants needs to be involved in everything.  I can't tell you how many times she has smashed our toes with her step stool while following us around the kitchen trying to "help" with cooking, washing dishes, loading the dishwasher, ... everything!  Naturally, she especially wants to do everything Siena does. Siena is such an awesome big sister.  She is very patient with Amelia and really wants her to be able to hear and talk.  Luckily she is a great role model since she talks non-stop all day long :).  She teaches Amelia many new things everyday without even realizing it.

I'm sure it must be difficult for Siena to have a little sister that gets so much attention.  Everyone is always asking about Amelia and we are always either taking Amelia to doctor/therapy appointments or having therapists come her to work with her.  This isn't to say that Siena doesn't get plenty of attention from us and her doting grandparents but I'm sure it can be tough.  She does get jealous at times but for the most part she takes it all in stride.  It is her "normal" and jealously between siblings happens in all families, special needs or not.

This weekend we made up a new game for Amelia that Siena called musical hide and seek.  Siena and I would take turns hiding and would play an instrument (usually a drum or tamborine) while Amelia looked for us.  Amelia was really good at this game and was definitely locating where the sounds were coming from.   We had lots of fun and I'm sure we will be playing musical hide and seek again soon.

Being a busy body has really helped with Amelia's therapy appointments.  She is usually raring to go and can't wait to play with the new toys the therapists bring.  She loves solving problems and puzzles.  We went for her first mapping (sound adjustment) at House Ear Institute in LA on April 18th and she did great.  It was a very long day (10:30 to 4:30 with an hour break for lunch) and she played and stayed engaged for the entire session.  Finally, around 4 pm, she had enough and let us know she was over it.  I think she fell asleep before we even got out of the parking garage!

Amelia is still responding consistently to loud sounds (clapping, loud kissing sounds, banging plates and silverware,....) and some softer sounds like keys jingling.   She seems to be noticing new sounds daily.  Today, for the first time, she responded to Hannah, our dog, barking at the door as well as the door bell.  She does not seem to respond to voices yet except inconsistent responses to shhhh sounds.  Her brain is still learning to listen.  The last two days she has been incredibly vocal and repeats uhh, uhh, uhh over and over again so we are wondering if maybe she is beginning to hear her own voice and playing with controlling it.  Every day is a new and exciting day in the Heston household :)  Never a dull moment........