A Single Word Made Me Cry

A fw weeks ago the boys and I headed to Rochester and the Mayo Clinic for another check-up with James' cochlear implant. The Friday before we went I was able to have a meeting with his current teachers and therapists and the deaf and hard of hearing teacher from the West Fargo School District. We had decided when we moved that we wanted to keep James in his current school and class until the end of the year. We figured that moving him to a new preschool and then again to a new school in the fall for Kindergarten that it would be too much disruption and learning for both James and teachers to get much productivity. It's worked well and we're now working on getting his new teachers and therapists ready for him. Anyway, this meeting was to talk with the new teacher and let her know James abilities and needs.

While we were having this meeting his speech therapist from his current school gave me the most AMAZING news in the world. That week during school while they were working with James on Yes and No-after the therapist modeled the word "yes" for him he SAID THE WORD "YEA" ..... TWICE...ON PURPOSE! I absolutely couldn't believe it! I've cried several times over. Of course we haven't been able to get him to do it again yet-but how awesome that he was able to do it that one time! I've honestly never even really thought what James' life would be like if he could speak. I can't even imagine the possibilities that would open up for him. I've been pretty cautious with myself and don't try to think about stuff like that too much. We just take one day at a time and go from there.

So in Rochester not much has changed. They were happy with James' progress and re-programmed his mapping. He's had about 8 months of "hearing" growth in about 6 months time-so we're on track and the implant has helped! He's been a little cranky lately when we put it on in the mornings. I'm hoping it isn't beacuse of the sound being too loud. We'll have to watch him closely and hopefully he'll get used to it. In the meantime I'm not going to mess around too much with his growing programs. His growing programs are where I can slowly increase the amount of sound and the loudness of the sound. Each time we go to Rochester they program his implant with 3 growing programs and we slowly work our way through them. I usually don't push him too hard with this because I don't want him to be afraid of the implant or dislike it. We take it really slow and wait to move up until we know that he's completely comfortable where he's at currently. We'll go back to Rochester again in August before school starts and after that appointment we can start only going every 6 months or so! I'll be excited to not be traveling so much with the boys.

We did it!

I never thought I would say this-WE MET JAMES' WEIGHT GOAL! I took James to the physiatrists office yesterday just for his check-up (we go about every 6 months unless we have AFO problems) and lo and behold he weighed just over 30 lbs. I was shocked! I never thought he'd make it. I'm still actually a little hesitant to celebrate because I'm not sure it will last. A lot of times James gains some weight and within a couple months is back to where he was. Hopefully he can hold on to this weight-even if it does make it a little harder for me to carry him.

James came home from the hospital on New Year's Day. Great way to start the year. Of course I was feeling terrible with one of the awful illnesses that's been hitting everyone. Not sure if it was the same thing James had, but whatever it was, it was terrible. We followed up with the pediatrician and they were pretty happy with his recovery. His oxygen levels were still a little low (89-90ish) but they weren't too worried because he seemed to be symptom free and feeling better. Just to make sure though, he has a follow-up X-Ray in February to make sure his lungs are all clear and looking good.

There isn't a whole lot new on our homefront. This past weekend we headed to WI to celebrate Christmas with Andy's family and the kids had a good time. They love to see the animals and gets all sorts of attention. Elliot especially loves to play with his cousins. James was feeling great and did really good at opening his presents! Leave it to me to make the fun stuff double as therapy. It's was good practice for James though. Opening presents requires his to reach and grab and hold on to something and then to let go too. Slowly but surely he makes his way through his presents. Elliot on the other hand was just not that interested in opening his presents. He was too busy playing with all the toys that are at Grandma's house. It took a lot of convinving but eventually he opened all his presents.

Now it's time to clean house and do some ABR and get ready for another trip to Montreal for ABR. In Februay, I get to take a weekend and go scrapbooking with some friends in WI and then immediately after that James and I will board a plane and head to Montreal for our 3rd session for ABR. I'm mostly excited for this session beause they'll do an evaluation and within a month or so after we'll get his first progress report. I'm excited to see the pictures. We've been able to see the head control of James improve so much. I just hope that we're doing more work to his body than we realize.