July 2013

In Hot July, we...

Blew bubbles (and practiced cueing bubbles)

We could do bubbles for hours...if they didn't knock over the bottles all the time

Cued while reading books

Became book worms

Started doing "cannon balls"

Blew kisses from carousels

Were really mischevious

Wished we were at the beach

Waited everyday for Papai to come home from work

Ate our very first Krispy Kreme

It was his first Krispy Kreme too

Went to the zoo

Learned to play in the mud 

played in "rivers"

Mamae's goal was to achieve this every day

Cued I Love You for the first time

Went down GIANT slides

Even the little one went by himself!

Spent almost everyday in our pool

and tried out bollywood dancing

June 2013

Happenings this month included KB finishing preschool this year, me being done with work for the summer, and spending a LOT more time with my boys.

A giant puddle formed on our patio

As you can see, we had lots of fun

Went to a few softball games our friend Chance played. 

Being comforted by Gatsby when sick

Finally playing with papai who has graduated from Georgetown

Attempting to play catch

Last day of preschool, even though he has one more year before he can go to Kindergarten

His preschool class, the Cued Speech preschool in FCPS

The ground and PK met each other...

Summer fun officially begins with ice cream!

And many days at the splash pad

And carousels and trains

and movies!

May 2013

In May we...

Gave mom heart attacks

Learned to climb independently

Got along for the most part

Got exhausted from church

Went to Celebrate Communication for the awesome face painting

Hugged a giant yellow dog

Showed our joy from said celebration

Went to Bryan's graduation

Got to see Papai up close at graduation

Waited for Papai to come home

Insisted on tasting a lemon

Hung out with Papai more now that he's done with school

Update on PK Cochlear Implant

I had hoped to do a special post at his 6 month mark post activation, but just got really busy with life.
Instead, this is a really long video of what we typically do during therapy. PK Therapy  It is 14 minutes long. It's not his best example, but the best we have on video. As soon as we pull out the camera, he goes crazy.

So the list of words he can say:
more (signed as well)
please (cued as well)
cheese (cued as well)
go (cued as well)
shoe (cued as well)
up, down, no, thank you, good job, here you go, stinky, juice, milk, mmmm, shh, night night, papai, mamae, Kiernan (he says in nuh), baby, let's go, choo choo, mooo, baaa, ball, beep beep, wah wah, swish swish, grandma, grandpa, hi, bye, hi kitty, woof woof, meow, roar, book, look, bath, uh oh, oh no.

He can combine some of the listed words above into two word sentences, but only occasionally. He can follow directions like a champ, when he wants to and usually does not need any visual cues to understand what we mean. He can also follow cued directions when his implants are off as well.

Overall, he's been doing fantastic with his implants. We haven't had any issues, other than we discovered that his back up coil cables somehow didn't come with our kits. So I had to use my back up one for him while we ordered a replacement and got the back up ones. We also had to replace one of his processors as the orange light didn't work anymore, thus it was hard to tell if it was even on or off when it wasn't on his head. We also had to replace one of his rechargeable batteries.

Patrick has been pretty good about keeping his implants on. The only time he takes them off are when he's bored in the car (and he'll also take it apart piece by piece), is tired or knows I've reached the end of the bedtime song. In the morning, he even finds his implants and brings it to us to put it back on him. if any part of it comes off his ear or head, he frequently says "oh no" and points to his head for us to put it back on for him.

One thing I did learn, just in case other parents out there are reading this, it is smart to use all sets of rechargeable batteries and rotate them. Advanced Bionics and Med-el rechargeable batteries have lithium ion in them, which has a very short shelf life. So if you don't use them and rotate them...they still "lose" power over time. It's better to use them and rotate the batteries to have equal wear and tear. For Cochlear America, they didn't say anything about the shelf life, but they did say it's good to use them before the 1 year warranty is up so you can get it replaced before the warranty expires on them. Good to know!

April 2013

In April we:

Checked out the DC temple

We love holding hands with our kids

Boys will be boys

Checked out an awesome park

He kept saying snap snap when he saw this dinosaur, thinking it was an alligator

Kb is getting so big!

Brotherly leave

First time they've seen a river together, and loved it

They could've spent a lot more time here, it reminded me of Winnie the Pooh and Christopher Robin

We attempted to see the small chance of Northern Lights, didn't work out, but it was a beautiful night anyway

He continues to make my heart skip a beat

Another budding musician...really they both didn't stand a chance with us for parents

I love seeing them together

Worm pudding

PK loved it too

We got board games for Christmas as well, KB loves playing Candy Land

They've been playing together more and more lately

I finally made it to the temple to do some work, almost two years after moving here. Took me long enough...

Every kid has to have a sad picture somewhere...he was MAD that I wouldn't share my cereal....when he had the same one in front of him in his own bowl...the horror. 

First set of "stitches" in our household. They had to use dermabond. He fell and hit his head on the edge of our bed frame. Really...with KB and PK combined, we're lucky it's taken this long for something "big" to happen.