September 2012

This month was busy! I started doing my home visits for work, KB started school, PK turned one and had his activation AND second MAPing. PK's birthday will be in a separate post for two reasons, 1 - it's a birthday post, he deserves it, and 2 - Bryan has all the pictures somewhere....I have no idea where.

KB started his first day of school on September 6th. He was so excited! He is a peer model in the Cued Speech preschool classroom. The nice thing is that his classroom is where my office is, which makes dropping him off and picking him up that much easier. Life would be a lot easier if he could ride the bus, but they only provide the bus for those students who have an IEP, and he doesn't have one. So I have to provide transportation. that's ok as it allows me to see him a little more often throughout the day!

This is right in front of his school

We did take a short road trip over the weekend to Harper's Ferry. That was fun.

Bryan and KB walking on the railroad tracks

This picture was not prompted in anyway. It was very sweet to see this without a parent asking them to do it.

A long video, but I wanted to show off his receptive skills for cueing. In the beginning he is actually cueing about the light. 

I'm in trouble, the boys are already learning how to play "rough" with each other. Boys will be boys.

The funny thing about this video? Patrick can walk just fine now. He doesn't need any help. He just likes pushing the train around.

For some reason, PK found this hilarious. We're just knocking on the door of the picture of the house.

PK loves the kitchen a little TOO much. He does this whenever I tell him no, or get him out of the kitchen. It makes cooking time...interesting :)

Loving cheetos. Don't worry, I don't feed him junk food all the time.

Kiernan knew where all the parts of a bus went. 

This picture surprised both Bryan and I. We've never been able to get KB to get into color or drawing, so I had no idea what he was capable of in terms of drawing. He came home with this picture, and Bryan didn't think he at least drew the majority of that picture himself. 

So...to prove Bryan wrong, the following picture is a bad picture of KB's drawing of daddy in the sand. I watched the whole thing, and he drew a head/body, arms, legs, eyes, nose and mouth all on his own. Our kid is growing up!

He's walking ALL over the place, ALL the time now. So crazy

PK's 1st birthday

PK's first birthday went a lot smoother than KB's. KB was very sick for his, so we were not able to do much. PK was the opposite! He had just gotten his first implant activated the day before the party, other than that he was healthy as he could be.

We invited some of our close friends and a couple of people from the ward who had children PK's age. It was fun, and we enjoyed it a lot. We had it at a park in Fairfax, had subway sandwiches, chips, juice/milk and cake. Unfortunately Bryan and I forgot to take a picture of the cake. Fortunately, it's the same cake I made for KB's birthday. So just imagine the coloring to be a little lighter because I did not anticipate how much the humidity would affect the butter cream frosting. 

KB's old cake, but this is what PK's cake was too, down to the flavor of the cake.

I learned that there were very very few photos of me with PK that day, as I was moving around a lot as I talked to guests and mostly tried to keep KB in line with good behavior. I had good friends to help me out with PK and made sure he had a good time too.

Patrick having a great time. Photo by Chance Hammock

Bubbles with Jenny. Photo by Bryan Mulholland

Jenny and Patrick, there's a picture somewhere of her holding Patrick the day he was born, and her birthday was two days after Patrick. Photo by Chance Hammock

Hamming it up with Dad! Photo by Chance Hammock

Singing/Cueing Happy Birthday to PK Photo by Chance Hammock

Checking out his cake while we sing. Photo by Chance Hammock

Having a blast eating his cake. He LOVED it. Photo by Bryan Mulholland

Of course, we can't forget KB. He had so much fun. After the party, he had the chance to go out to a baseball field right next to the park with his friends, the Hammocks and the Jansons. As you can see, he had a lot of fun.

KB after playing in the baseball field and eating cake. Photo by Bryan Mulholland

It was a fantastic day, and the only thing that could've been better is if I had an actual photo of all four of us, and a picture of the cake.

PK's Activation

Before watching the video, there a few things that I want to explain:

-We went in expecting him to cry. The majority of children cry at their activation appointments because hearing sounds is such a new sensation they don't know how to deal with it. It doesn't hurt them, it's just a new thing that's never happened before. This especially happens with babies who did not benefit from hearing aids at all. PK did get some sounds from his hearing aids, but certainly not enough to benefit from them, hence the surgery. He didn't cry, which surprised us, and the audiologist was very happy to not have another crying baby in his office :)

- In the beginning of the video you will not hear any sounds, but will see him reacting. The Audiologist is checking the electrodes and the nerve responses through the internal component, which causes some beeping sounds that only PK can hear. I know this as I experience it myself at every audiology appointment I go to for myself. 

- Look for subtle responses. Great big smile with squinty eyes, imitating babbling, pausing in the middle of what he is doing and looking at people.
- I edited the video to make it shorter so you can see the reactions specifically. We were unsure at the appointment if these were actual reactions. Since being home from the appointment, we have seen consistent responses the way he reacts in the video with sound in our own home. While he does not react every single time (as expected, he is still learning how to hear), it's often enough that we KNOW he's hearing things.
- The audiologist starts off with conservative programming so that we do not overload the child's brain with stimulation. Having both of my cochlear implants activated at the same time helped me to really understand that. I was EXHAUSTED after having both of mine activated. Typically, at least out here, with young children, they activate one a time in order to make sure they have the programs set appropriately. Children as young as PK are not able to tell us specifically if something doesn't sound right, is too loud, or is wrong. Doing one at a time will allow the audiologist to focus on one side. So if PK was fussing and blinking, then we would know for sure that it's the left side that's too loud, because it's the only side that's on right now. If he had both on, it would be difficult to figure out any negative reaction and the cause for it. So right now, PK has his left implant on, and his right one will be activated in October.

Here's the video: