Taylor D

I feel that Taylor has not gotten much mention on the blog lately, so tonight is a post about my smiley son!!

He is so happy and precious! The best part of the day, is when I lean over the crib to pick him up in the morning and he just breaks out in a huge grin! Love it so much and love him too. The only time he fusses is if he is hungry. He is so easy going, which is good since sissy is a little high maintence:)

He is a great nurser, and I am so glad I stuck that out. It obviously does him good, since he is a chunky monkey, and it is such a sweet time to spend with him. Yesterday I sat under a tree at a birthday party for Emma's friend, and the breeze was blowing and I could hear the kids playing in the pool behind me and Taylor was nursing sleepily and I thought " Motherhood is wonderful!" We have tried cereal but he is not too much into it, so I am waiting a bit more before I try again. I am also looking into making some of his food for two reasons: 1. better for him 2. cheaper as well. But we will see how that all works out.

He is finally rolling over and Emma gets so excited. She starts yelling roll, roll, roll, when he starts to flip. It cracks me up! He is also scooting around on his floor mats and also trying to sit up alittle bit as well. He does not like to lay back or be ignored for long. We started using the excersaucer this last week as well, he likes it pretty well. His favorite thing to do is chew on everything and drool:) I think teeth should be showing up soon.

All in all life is good right now, we are rocking along and Taylor and me are enjoying our little time alone while Emma is in school. I love my little boy!!

Starting Pre-K!!

Emma started Pre-K this week, in a blended class. That means there are special education kids and regular kids and it is taught by a special education trained teacher. Then, her special teachers: her OT, PT, hearing and speech teachers come to her classroom to work on her goals from her IEP. I was a nervous wreck, but things are going great. I love her teacher and she is not annoyed by my questions through email or texting:) She actually has an autistic and adhd child, so she really understands special needs children.

Emma is loving school as she calls it, and even wears her uniform without to much of a fight, just not her bow:) I still worry but I can email her teacher and get answers quickly which helps. Today she emailed me that Emma is really doing well listening and talking (i had asked how she thought she was doing with her hearing aids), that they are having to remind her when she is allowed to talk and when she has to listen. Hehe, I always got in trouble for that too:) I am so proud of her! She is even being quiet at quiet time. Her favorite thing is the playground right now and she tells me all about that when she gets in the car

Speaking of talking to me in the car, I get so tickled that we are able to have so much more of a real conversation now. She is doing soooo well with her aids, and she is able to answers some questions and tell me some details, and it is thrilling to me. I have waited so long to actually talk with her. She has a ways to go but it is so much better.

All in all she has had a great first few days, and I am getting use to having her gone. Taylor misses her and keeps looking for her, but he is loving all the time with mommy:)

I wish

Today my wish is that our life was not full of dr's visits, tests, sedations, and stress!!

We met with a social worker this week as part of the process for cochlear implants and she informed us, that based on our parent stress index paperwork, we scored off the charts on stress. Then, she said she understood after reading Emma's background, but that we had to start taking time for ourselves and as a couple. (we try but not hard enough). We are stressed for sure, but so is our whole family (aunts, uncle, grandparetns etc) and most of importantly Emma is as well. She just clung to me tonight, scared to go to sleep alone. She has major meltdowns lately too (worse then ever). We are going to so many appts right now for her hearing and her "normal" medical stuff, and it is wearing us all down.

I just wish our biggest worry right now was starting her new class at her new school! My goal for tomorrow is spending time with Emma and Taylor just being at home and playing and having fun! We just need a day to play! My Emma is so strong and has been through so much, I just wish she could not have..... A song phrase has been running through my head all day "there will come a day, with no more pain" I am sure that 100 years from now when Emma faces God in heaven, her wings will be brighter than bright!!

Great First Week

Emma has had an amazing first week wearing her hearing aids. Every morning she ask to put them in and wears them most of the day, her ears are getting a little sore so she is starting to want them off earlier in the night, but for the most part she wears them all waking hours. I still can not get over her face when she gets them both in, she just smiles. She hates getting them on, they are a very tight fit and have to go so far into her canal that she does not really like that part, but smiles hugely once in and on.

I still get so tickled when she turns around when I say her name, no more clapping and screaming to get her attention. I will also never forget the first time Taylor really started fussing, Emma started to shush him over and over again. I just about fell over laughing (if she only knew how loud she talks without the aids in).

We are all so proud of howwell she is doing and quickly she is adjusting. I can not wait to see how she learns in them and how much better her speech will continue to get as she learns the sounds and words around her. Right now her favorite thing is singing and watching singing shows and she loves loves to clap and make noises ( I guess she never has heard them before)

We are in a flurry of appointments not only her normal appts but tons of ones dealing with her hearing aids and the possiblity of implants. She has CT and MRI scans coming up, a new speech eval, we are meeting with a social worker as part of seeing if she is a good person to recieve implants, we also have a few other appts, it is all very overwhelming but exciting as we learn and row. On Thursday Emma will be having the tooth she knocked lose, when she knocked the other tooth out, pulled. We hate that was the earliest they could do it, since she will be missing her first day of pre-k. But it has to come out, it really bugs her and is messing up her bite.

Life is so exciting and very busy right now, but we are trying to fill it with some fun before school tarts next week. I will post some photos of our water fun soon and her last ballet class as well.

To more, here is to hearing you!!

Magic Ears

Today has been a day of discovery! We took Emma in for her hearing evaluation for the cochlear implant program, and due to some mistakes in scheduling we should have already had her hearing aids first. So they did part of the test and came back and said that they could fit her hearing aids today instead of three weeks from now. So, without much prep work on our part to prepare her or plan anything, including bringing a camera to capture these moments, we headed to another office to get her magic ears.

Wow what an amazing afternoon it has been. Emma did great! She was scared and quiet at first and was pondering and concentrating pretty hard, but things got better as the day went on. I will say trying to take her to a noisy place to eat lunch was a very bad idea!! She freaked out and I ended up outside with her. I had never noticed how loud it was there but today I did and so did Emma.

We dropped daddy off to go to work after lunch and headed to Meme's to get baby and see some family to show off her pink ears! Emma did great at her grandparents. It was not as noisy and she was so proud to show her ears and her kit of supplies to care for them. She kept smiling and pointing to them. I loved watching my sister and mom watch her respond to them like a normal hearing child, no yelling at her to get her attention. (she still has a way to go as she is still learning sound and is limited in her speech memories but it is so much better listening already). Tears fell all around as Emma smiled at her name being called or Barney singing songs on the tv.

The best part of the whole day however, was well two things actually. She was watching Barney and pointed to her ears and said "Barney yeah!!" loved it. Then, on the way home tonight Taylor started crying and she said "shhh baby, loud" and kept shushing him all the way home. I could not get over that she acutally heard her brother for the first time:) Love and tears again!!

She wore them all afternoon and cried to take them out tonight. We promised her they would be back on tomorrow. She did amazing today and after I get some sleep I will share more. I am so proud and amazed at her. I think today opened a whole new world for her and I cant wait to see it unfold.

Sorry no photos yet of her tiny pink magic ears! God is so good!! The road will be long to teach her to listen and hear and speak, but step one today was so amazing and she is adjusting quickly. Looking forward to the hard work to help her learn and grow!