Me A to Z

A. Age: 33
B. Bed size: queen. Wish I had a King
C. Chore you dislike: all of them. Wish I had a maid.
D. Dogs:  Mini Schnauzer (although he's not mini) Raider
E. Essential start to your day: taking the dog out.
F. Favorite color: red
G. Gold or silver:  diamonds Silver or white gold
H. Height: 5'3"
I. Instruments you play(ed):  recorder (didn't we all?) violin
J. Job title:  mom, registered nurse
K. Kids: 2  little boy, my husband
L. Live:  The Eyes of TEXAS are upon you...
M. Mom’s name: Mom,  Isa when I'm mad at her ;)
N. Nicknames:  Bones- from my dad for being skinny, Smelen- the only name my drunk college friends could think of that rhymed with Helen. It has nothing to do with my hygiene habits. Call me either one now and you will get hurt.
O. Overnight hospital stays: 4 (eye surgery, kidney stones, gallbladder removal,  baby)
P. Pet peeves: non RSVP'ers and people who say insulting remarks followed by "I'm just kidding!"
Q. Quote from a movie:  "Lieutenant Dan. Ice cream!"
R. Righty or lefty: Right
S. Siblings: Older sister and younger sister & brother
T. Time you wake up:  when I hear my toddler yelling through the baby monitor or 3pm (after working a night shift)
U. Underwear:  yes. cotton bikinis. None of that thong crap, I choose comfort.
V. Vegetables you don’t like:  cauliflower, steamed/cooked spinach
W.What makes you run late:  lately,toddler temper tantrums. I'm a stickler for time so it's rare for me to be late. I try to accommodate for temper tantrums.
X. X-rays you’ve had: teeth, kidneys
Y. Yummy food you make: desserts. I consider them a food group.
Z. Zoo animal favorites: lions, elephants

Melmo

K has a " slight" obsession with Elmo right now.

He goes everywhere we go...

restaurants, grocery stores, birthday parties....

K loves to share his bananas with him each morning, leaving mommy to have to scrape them out of Elmo's mouth later. Fun times.

He's just part of the family.

So to help K get his daily Elmo fix I took  him to see Sesame Street Live, Elmo's Healthy Heroes!

K and his cousin Nolan, and yes we gave into buying the overpriced toys.

K was so excited he kept on yelling out "Melmo and B bird!" and looking back at me as if to say "mom are ya seeing this?!"

Can you guess what the letter of the day was?

 K!!

The number of the day was1 but all the moms thought it should have been 15. $15 dollars for parking, $15 toys, $15 food... UGH!!

The boys playing with their "Melmo round and rounds"

Kemper's little girlfriend Ella and her mommy Olivia joined the fun. Funny how our kids don't look too impressed, but I promise you they were!

I bet you can't guess what K's 2nd birthday theme is! ;) ;)

Go Stars!!

K went to his very first professional hockey game! ( yes we have one in Texas)

Dallas Stars vs. Nashville Predators

We have a family full of hockey fans. My older sister Maria ( a.k.a. the nephew whisperer) has season tickets, so she took K as her date. My mom, younger sister, and her little boy also came along. Maria even got the boys little hockey jerseys to wear to the game.

Elmo even got to go to the game. Elmo has become our version of the American Express card. Don't leave home without it him!! This picture makes me laugh. I think K looks like a Sesame Street character himself, with those big brown eyes and shaggy hair!

K with his grandmother "Wela" (abuela), best seat in the house.

K even made some new friends at the game. Notice the man in the background? He has bilateral cochlear implants too!! Crazy, a stadium with thousands of seats and they just happened sit next to each other. He told my mom that he was implanted 10 years ago at the age of 20 and he has been very happy with them. I think it made his day to see another C.I. user too.

My sister has been wanting to take him to a game for the longest time, but I was hesitant thinking it would be too much for him. As you can tell I was wrong!

No nap that day and K was wired! He finally crashed at 8pm that night and didn't wake up until about 9:30 the next morning!

In the end the Stars won and it was a great day! K says thanks to his aunts and his Wela!

1st Hearing Birthday!!

Today we celebrated K's first hearing birthday. I can't believe it's been one year already! It seems just like yesterday we were bombarded with all this new information and equipment.We were scared and had no  idea what the future held. Flash forward to a year later and we have a happy, hearing, talking almost 2yr old boy. We couldn't ask for anything more.

 I made a little video about Kemper's hearing journey. I guess you can call it my therapy. It took quite some time for me to come to terms with K's deafness and I will admit I still struggle with it at times. When he was first diagnosed I cried everyday for the first three months. The crying gradually decreased but never went away.  I still cry sometimes, but more often than not they are happy tears. I am so thankful for his cochlear implants and their gift of hearing. I am so proud of my little boy and all that he has accomplished. I am so thankful for our family and friends. I was so scared in the beginning, but today I was finally able to say "He's going to be okay!"

It seems so exceptional
That things just work out after all
It’s just another ordinary miracle today.
~Sarah McLachlan - Ordinary Miracle

Happy 1st Hearing Birthday Baby K!!!

We love you!!!

Stir crazy!!

Click on image to enlarge

via

We have been stuck in the house for the last 4 days.  It all started last Tuesday when we were hit by a huge ice storm. It turned the city of Dallas into a ice skating rink. Literally 2-3 inches of nasty slippery ice everywhere! Then last night and today we were greeted with 6 inches of  pretty fluffy snow. Schools have been closed, most stores have shut down, everything has come to a standstill.

You see Texans don't do well with snow, at least not with snow that lasts more than one day. All over Texas there were "rolling blackouts", but lucky for us our power stayed on. I bet all the Green Bay and Steelers fans visiting this weekend for the Superbowl are laughing at us.

The weatherman predicted about 1inch of snow, I think not!

Polar bear club anyone?!

K didn't quite understand all this white stuff...

...and after 4 days stuck inside he's going a little stir crazy!! Help us!!

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday to my husband :

• My best friend
• The perfect husband
• The fantastic father
• Gas tank filler
• bug killer
• family provider
• Sexy man
• I could go on and on...



We love you!!!

Keeping his "ears" on

I have been asked a few times about how we are keeping K's processors on his ears so I thought I  would make a quick post about it.

We are using Cochlear's latest Snug fit. You no longer have to use the hard removable plastic ear hook. It is now a soft plastic that is incorporated into the snug fit. The bottom portion of the Snug fit is bendable and easy to shape around the ear. I think they work great and we have not had a hard time keeping them on. Also we were able to get rid of the nasty sticky Toupee tape I hate so much.

 
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Note: if you order them do not get them to match the processor color ( like they recommend), go with your child's skin color because the bottom portion wraps around the front of the ear.

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I'm still paranoid about losing these suckers so we also use K's old hearing aid clips. That way if it falls off and he runs away, it will still be attached to him and I won't have to waste my day looking for it.

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We also switched to using the compact rechargable batteries. So far we get about a day and a half use out of them before they need to be recharged. We just recharge them every night along with the remote when he goes to bed. We also bought an extra set (when they were half-price off) so I keep the extra set in my purse and don't have to worry about having a charger around.

And because I am extra paranoid I also busted out the label maker and put our phone number on the inner sides of the processors that face his head. My thinking is that if someone finds one and they have no idea what it is they may just toss it aside, but if they see a phone number they may think it's important and see that it gets back to its owner. Call me crazy, but it helps me sleep at night!!

 If anyone else has any neat tricks or ideas please let me know!!

** the little white square on his processor ( top picture) is there for his grandmother to make it easier for her to know what ear the processor goes on ( white = right) when she watches him. ;)