Feeling blessed

I've been a little down lately, for lots of reasons unrelated to Miss M's hearing loss.  Because of this, I've been trying to make a conscious decision to look for the positives around me.  These are a few things that I've seen and heard.

- Matilda started pre-prep at a mainstream school in February (when she turned three).  The school has minimal (i.e NO) experience with deaf kids).  She is loving it.  She comes home singing songs that she has only heard at school.  She is talking about her friends, and her favourite things, and can spend 5 minutes just telling me what happened that day.

- While driving home in the car the other day, Matilda was singing a Letterland song that she learned at school.  One of her brothers joined in.  At the end of the song Matilda said "good singing Emerson, now let's give it one more try".

- Matilda now has favourite tracks on a few CDs in the car.  She can tell me the track number, and can pick the song just by hearing the first few bars.  Who said that deaf kids can't distinguish between tunes!

So, despite all that has been going on here, I am feeling amazingly blessed that my three year old, profoundly deaf child, is thriving at a mainstream pre-prep, and is just soaking up her surroundings.  We are fortunate that she will be able to attend this school until she is in grade 12 (so another 14 1/2 years).  I'm sure by then she'll think that she owns the place :)

Its been a while

Still haven't quite got this regular blogging thing going, but we've had some good times, so I thought that I'd share them.

Matilda turns 3 next week.  She has decided that singing is her most favourite thing.  Anything can be turned into a microphone - a cup, or even a toilet roll.  I get a tear in my eye every time I hear or see her sing.  It is truly a miracle that my little girl, profoundly deaf, can sing, and even in tune (as much as a three year old can be).

Miss M is also starting pre-prep in two weeks (our version of kindy).  She will be on the same campus as her two big brothers.  When we went for a meeting last week, Matilda sat down at a table, and chatted to one of the teachers about the play dough shapes she was making, just like any other kids - AMAZING!

It has been a tough three years, but we've come so far.

This is a pic of her after yet another trip to the Children's Hospital for another test to see why she is so small.

Wouldn't change a thing

We don't have Thanksgiving in this country, but we have lots of friends from the US, and some do a big celebration in our street.  It has made me think about the past few years and what we've been through with the kids.  Yes, I have a little girl who is deaf, and who struggles to grow.  Yes, I have a boy whose lung problems mean that he might spend a good portion of next year in hospital.  Some days are tough, but these are my kids, and I love them dearly.

This morning Matilda was playing the harmonica while dancing.  it was a simple thing, but I am ever so grateful that I could experience it.  The other day my five year old took photos of the insides of his lungs and an oxygen mask for show and tell.  It didn't seem strange to him at all.  He's got so many of these pictures that he thought it would be cool to show the other kids.

Life may be easier if my kids didn't have their little quirks, but I wouldn't change it.

Below is our Christmas card for this year.

2 years post assessment

So, I got Matilda's assessment report in the mail today.  I had already been given the standard scores, but I like seeing the age equivalents as it gives me a better idea of how things are going.
Here are the results (chronological age is 2 years 7 months):
Auditory comprehension - 2 years 11 months
Expressive comprehension - 3 years 7 months
Total language score - 3 years 1 month

I am stoked.  Her auditory was lower, but I think that's because she was playing games with her therapist and refusing to point to the correct picture.  She has made 15 months progress expressively in 6 months.  We're off for her audiology assessment on Thursday.

Two years

I can't believe that it has been two years since Matilda's switch on.  It seems like so long ago, but I can't still remember it vividly.

This is the little video that I did at the time for some family overseas (apologies for the poor quality).



We're having Matilda's assessment next week, but I know that she has around 800 expressive words, can say 8 - 10 word sentences, counts to 20, sings her ABCs, and keeps telling me that she wants to learn to write.  She is an amazing kid!

MAPs are important

We've had issues for the past 6 months or so with Matilda's maps. The low frequencies drop off after a few weeks so she loses sounds. We've done 3 maps over the past month and I think we're getting somewhere.

Matilda's language seems to have exploded. She is saying full sentences (6 plus words) including joining words. This morning she said "on Tuesdays I go to Karen's house and Daddy goes to work and Mummy goes to work". Her 2 year post implant assessment is coming up in a few weeks so I will be interested to see how that goes.

This is a pic of Matilda on the giant rocking horse at the Children's hospital. Fortunately for her, she was just visiting. It was her big brother that needed the treatment this time.

I need free fuel

So, after an email conversation with Matilda's audiologist today, we've decided that she does need another MAP. It will mean that I'm doing 5 trips to the city in 3 weeks. With fuel at almost $1.50 per litre it will be a hefty bill.

On the good side, we reviewed Matilda's therapy plan today and she has achieved most of her therapy goals up to 30 months.

She has also learned to put her coil back on - yay.