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!!

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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. ;)

Then and Now

This was K last year :

And here he is exactly one year later...

Yep it's been one year since Kemper's cochlear implant surgery and he will soon be celebrating his first hearing birthday. We couldn't have asked for a better year. His surgery went smoothly without a hitch and K took to his new hearing like a fish to water. We prayed and hoped for the best and it came true. It has been amazing!

We decided to go out and celebrate K's 1st year CI surgery anniversary at his favorite restaurant, Joe's Crab Shack . This restaurant has to be the loudest sensory overloaded restaurant out there, but K loves it. All the lights, singing, and dancing combined with chicken fingers and french fries = K heaven!  I get a lump in my throat each time I see K get down from his high chair to dance with the waiters. Someday I will get it on video.  He has been camera shy lately and stops as soon as he sees me pull the camera out. I had to sneak this video with my phone. It's not the best quality, but you get the idea. He loves to hear!!

"Hears" to many more years of hearing!!

Feliz Navidad!

K has really enjoyed this holiday season, so many things to see and do.  He's even added a few new words and phrases to his vocabulary:  snowman, ho ho ho, Santa, tree, choo choo train, and even "don't touch!" (  I guess he has heard it a few times) My favorite is when he sees something exciting like Christmas lights on a house he will say "oh wow!" I cringe to think how we will keep him entertained once all the lights and decorations get taken down and all the festivities come to an end.

 Here's a little recap of some of our 2010 Christmas activities:
 
Santa's Village

I was so excited to take Kemper to Santa's Village. It is the same little village that went to as a child and it was just as neat and exciting as I remembered. K loved all the little buildings that were just his size.

K writing his letter to Santa.

 Visit to Santa's Safety Station. He was fascinated with the Fire dog and Safety fox, as long as they didn't get too close! We also had a visit with the police officer to check out K's record to see if he has been naughty or nice this year ;)

Then we were off to the Polar Bear Bank, to get money from the ATM. K was very entertained with the ATM, he kept wanting to put his money in and take it out over and over. I was entertained by watching my 6"3 husband try to fit in the tiny little buildings.

Our final stops were at the ornament factory and the music shop. My little drummer boy had a blast.

Christmas wouldn't be complete without a visit to Santa. We were not wanting to deal with all the people and the line, so we went and saw Santa on a Wednesday as soon as the mall opened. It turned out great. There was no line, so no wait and K was a happy camper. We even had a little time to chat with Santa. He was curious about Kemper's cochlear implants, so we got to tell him all about them. Even Santa has a few things to learn!

 Finally, I leave you with an and adorable video of K dancing to his favorite ornament that plays the song "Feliz Navidad."

Merry Christmas!!!



Party in my city! Yo Gabba Gabba Live!!

It's been a while since I last posted. I have tons of draft posts, but I just can never get around to finishing them. I swear it was just Thanksgiving yesterday! Anyway to get caught up I guess I will just work my way backwards from last weekend when I took K to see YO GABBA GABBA LIVE!

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Ok, so if you don't have children or live under a rock and you don't know what Yo Gabba Gabba is, let me explain...  Yo Gabba Gabba is a children's TV show on Nick Jr. It consists of six of the weirdest characters you will ever see singing and dancing  in a crazy, retro, almost psychedelic, 80's Atari video game style. I guess its the latest version on the Muppet Show, Fraggle Rock, Sesame Street, that I grew up on. It too teaches valuable lessons such as "All my friends are different", "Don't bite your friends" "There's a party in my tummy" (eat your veggies). I don't quite get it, but K loves it!

K and his cousin Nolan on the way to see "Abba Abba" ( as K calls it). They were so excited just to be sitting next to each other in the car.

 We had great seats, no one blocking our view!

Olivia, my old college roommate joined us with her little girl Ella.

 There were bubbles, balloons, singing, and dancing. They were in toddler heaven.

 To tell you the truth I was very worried about taking K to this live show. I knew it would be loud and a possible sensory overload, but he did great. He really liked it. As soon as he saw the characters come on the stage he had a huge smile on his face. He recognized the songs and started to do a little shimmy like dance. He would clap his hands and I would even catch him patting his hand on his lap to the beat. It was awesome!  I'll admit it, tears came to my eyes because he was having such a great time. He could hear and understand the music and loved it!

My child, who does not have an attention span at all, watched the entire show in fascination. There was no whining, crying, asking for his paci. I couldn't believe it.

A must see show!