What Did You Say?!?

The device that allows bug to hear

In a matter of just a few weeks we have started hearing sentences come out of Lily's mouth.  We often look at her and say "what did you say?'.  We are still in awe when we hear her speak in sentences.  She has also started to put more than one sign together when she signs.  It seems like just yesterday she was startled by the fact that she could suddenly hear.

Some of her most used sentences as of late include "Where it go", "That is Mommy's", "That is Daddy's", "Where ...insert name here", and "This is mine".  She has many more that she uses as well these just happen to be the ones she uses the most.  Her new favorite game on car rides is to ask where mommy, daddy, Leland, and Christian are.  After we answer where we are we ask her where bug is and she responds with "here".

Lily has also developed a great love for playing at the park.  When she sees we are near a park or playground she says "I want to play" while signing play.  She gets along great with other kids and loves to say "hi" to all of the other kids she sees.  She is very shy around adults and we are completely okay with that!

Here are some pictures that show, CI or not, she is like every other kid.  Except when the slide is a bit of a bumpy ride she might lose a processor.

She Will Move Mountains!

Our super hero...She will move mountains in her life!

It has been way too long since I have posted updates about Lily's world.  So let me start with Halloween!  Once again our little bug was dressed as a super hero for Halloween.  This year we chose Batgirl...why?  Because it was so adorable and fit Lily's personality so well!  By the second day she had her costume she was signing bat and then girl and saying Batgirl.  We even got her to sing "nah nah nah nah batgirl".  She wasn't completely in love with wearing the mask that I made her, but she warmed up to it after we finally got it on her.

Excited to go trick or treat!

Lily has started a toddler class here at the Phoenix Day School for the Deaf and this made learning some cool Halloween signs/words really fun!   We learned the signs for pumpkin, bat, vampire, ghost, and spider.  Lily really enjoys the company of the other kids, though she is pretty shy.  She is starting to open up and play more with her classmates and she is starting to interact with her teacher more as well.  It is just amazing to watch Lily pick up so much language!

signing cracker

We love that smile!

Lily's favorite brothers! (They are her only brothers too)

Happy Late Halloween!

Bug Turned 2 And Had Her First Road Trip!

Lily's amazing 2nd birthday cake!

It seems like such a long time since my last post and I have so many things to share that I will probably be making more than one post.  First off, our Lilybug turned 2!  This was of course a very bittersweet moment for me.  I have 4 kids who all got another year older in May and Lily's cochlear implant surgery was a week after her first birthday, on May 30th.  So the month of May in general is a very emotional month for this mama!

Goodbye Arizona

We left Arizona 3 days before Lily's birthday to go visit family, many had never met Lily, in Indiana.  One of the first things we did was go to Walmart and order the cutest cupcake cake ever for bugs special day.  The cake just seemed to fit her perfectly.  The day of her birthday we went out to lunch with some family and friends and Lily got to experience her first crepe as her birthday desert from the restaurant. Later we picked up her cake from the store and she had the most amazing expression at the sight of her cake.  She really just wanted to eat a cupcake, but I can pretend she was as overjoyed with her adorable cake as I was, right? 

Lily's very first crepe!

 We had a baseball game to attend for my nephew the night of Lily's birthday so we chose to have the cupcakes at the game so the whole family could celebrate together.  Also I am one of those moms who doesn't like the mess of cupcakes so outside worked out great!  It was nice and warm too so I just took off Lily's shirt to keep it clean as she shoved her cupcake in her mouth and covered her face with icing.  All I had to clean up in the end was her face!

Bite one of her cake!

Lilybug approved!

 Sadly our week and a half in Indiana went by way too fast!  It was really hard to leave our family there, but Bobby and I were so ready to be back in our own bed.  Lily enjoyed the ride home a little bit more than the ride there, but we stopped quite a bit more on the way home to let her run and play.  I think Lily will be much more excited about road trips as she gets older and her communication skills develop!

She learned how to walk barefoot in grass!

Lily ready for bed night 1.

Now for your viewing pleasure some pictures of Lily and Summer, they were due the same day and Summer was born at 28 weeks.  They had just met for the first time on this road trip and are cousins!  They are just too cute!

Stay tuned for more happenings from our last couple of months!

Off To Ballet And Where did Those Words Come From?!?

Our little bug started ballet last week and we are just so proud of her!  She is a bit skittish with the teacher, as she usually is with strangers, but she absolutely loves the interaction with all the other children her age.  This week was her second class and watching her in class with her biggest brother just melts my heart!  It just makes me think about what a great young man I have!

 

My baby boy and my baby girl!

This week was our first interaction about her cochlear implants in class.  It was kind of interesting because there were two older ladies sitting next to me watching their grand daughter and talking amongst themselves.  I happened to hear one of them say "Oh look, that little girl has hearing aids, that is interesting".  I didn't say anything just kept watching Lily in class with Leland and each time she would see me she would look and I would wave.  Eventually the lady's said "Is she your little girl, she is beautiful!  Are those hearing aids she has?" to which I proudly replied "Those are cochlear implants".  they were very pleasant and had even know a girl in their neighborhood who had cochlear implants like 10 years ago.  They were very interested in how she was doing with them and the technology behind them.  It turned out to be a great conversation and I love to show the world how awesome cochlear implants can be!

Laying Cinderella down for a nap...It is tiring being a princess!

So this week Lily has not ceased to amaze me!  Most of our day is in some form of conversation.  Even if not every word is understandable she carries on a pretty good conversation.  Another thing she picked up on this week is her brothers names!  I will be honest I didn't teach these to her...her big brother Christian did and when she says his name it sounds a bit like kitchen, but he'll take it!  It is amazing how two teenage boys just turn to jello with their baby sister.

Running with new friends from ballet class!

I didn't get much video footage from speech this week since my camera battery mistakenly wasn't charged the night before...so I will share some footage of Lily listening at the beginning of speech and a small clip of her in her ballet class (if you listen closely in the beginning you hear her call for her daddy)!

Lily 8 Months Post Activation!

That's our Lily!

On the 12th Lily was officially active for 8 months and my oh my how she has changed!  Not only did she grow more hair and get so much taller, but she speaks and understand so much.  She has always been a talker/babbler and now she talks almost every minute she is awake during a day.  Like a normal toddler if she is quiet you better go see what she is into!

Getting the ball for Leland!

One of the things I love to stress to people who meet her is she is like any other toddler.  A few weekends she even went out and played some catch with her brothers.  The one difference between her and other toddlers is the amount of equipment that can be damaged by a ball while playing catch.  My sons would throw the ball and Lily was suddenly very close to being hit by it.  This wasn't their fault it was more that Lily wanted the ball and as soon as they threw it she was on it!

I want to play catch too!

We sometimes get the comments that it is sad or that people are sorry that Lily is deaf.  We don't get offended by it anymore we just tell them she is like any other kid and with her cochlear implants she can "hear" like any other kid.  She is by far the most courageous kid I have had, not because she has implants, but because she knows no fear other than strangers.

Jumping with Daddy!

 Speaking of strangers...guess who is not so much of a stranger to Lily anymore?!?  Cheryl no longer has stranger qualities in Lily's mind.  We often get to the office early and we play outside until Cheryl arrives.  Starting a few weeks ago Lily now runs to Cheryl when she sees her coming down the sidewalk.  It really is one of the cuter things she does!

Waiting to see Cheryl

Over the last few weeks Lily has learned bath time words and foods!  It took Lily a little bit of time to warm up to the idea of giving the baby a bath, but eventually she got really into the concept.  After all she seems to love anything that has to do with babies.  We learned bath, bathtub, soap, water and many more fun bathtub words.  Lily has known and signed water for a few months now, but it was in the context of drinking.  It is neat to see her pick up on the other contexts of words.  Foods she had no problem with seeing as Cheryl picked so many of Lily's favorite fruits and vegetables to start with.  Lily is a fruit and vegetable fiend!  We have worked on strawberry, banana, orange, carrot, peas, yogurt, and milk!  Oh, we can't forget the eating utensils!  Lily has also picked up bowl, spoon, and cup!  Her speech is coming right along!

In this weeks video not only will you see Lily say a few of the previously mentioned words, but you will see her talk in sentences!  Where did those come from?!?  Cheryl and I were completely amazed!

 

As always we are so excited about Lily's progress and how far she has come in, what seems like, a few short months.  As Lily's daddy often says "She is amazing!"

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

As a family we have learned so much this last year when it comes to Lily.  Most people have a baby and think that a typical baby comes with a huge learning curve.  Lily, I must say, came with one of the biggest learning curves I have ever seen in one of my children.  All of my kids posed challenges for me at some point in time just not when they were so young.  Lily was a whole new ballgame and I think we took her challenges exceptionally well!

Oh my how she has grown!

I will admit that one of the biggest challenges we have faced with Lily this year was not the surgery, the therapies, or the adjustment to all the new equipment...it was actually other peoples reactions.  We have learned to take it in stride when people ask what is wrong with our daughter and luckily this doesn't happen often.  Usually we get very polite questions about her processors and then once we explain and answer all the questions we get very supportive and loving comments from others.  We are told regularly how beautiful she is and how she is so lucky to be given the gift of hearing through today's amazing technology.  Let me tell you that as parents we thoroughly appreciate these comments.  We are hoping in 2014 to keep the positive energy going about cochlear implants and of course help to positively educate those who want to know more about them!

 

Many thanks to Cheryl and Carla Lily loves both of these!

Now onto the progress Lily made over the Christmas holiday and New Years!  I was just telling Cheryl how some weeks it seems as if Lily just takes off and picks up like 5 or so words while other weeks she only picks up maybe one.  Well during this holiday season Lily picked up a ton of words.  Not only that but we notice she is starting to "fine tune" words more often.  Water started out at "wa" then went to "wat" then it was "watee" and now after about a week it is "wata".  I don't know how much I can reiterate how amazing it is to watch her grow.  Watching every child grow is amazing and they all have firsts, but with Lily it is just a bit different.  Lily had firsts with all the physical milestones and firsts with ASL and now we are getting all the firsts with speech.  It just seems so amazing because we started with a baby that we didn't think would ever hear us or speak and now we have a beautiful little toddler who understands a good percentage of what we say and can communicate through speech and hearing.  Isn't technology fabulous!

So, thanks to Lily's cochlear implants she was able to get lots of toys that made sounds for Christmas which thoroughly excited her!   I think her favorites were her books that make animal sounds, her cupcake set,  and the Leapfrog Fridge Words.  A close second place was her Little People Princess Castle and violin.  We are super excited about the violin!  One of the reasons we wanted Lily to be able to hear was to be involved in music like her big sister and brothers.  Now she can start learning the violin in a few short years!  The butterfly dream light was one of the best investments ever!  Lily now goes to sleep staring at stars on the ceiling and it seems very soothing to her.

2013 was a great year for our family and Lily and it ended with family, friends, and some fabulous speech therapists!  I hope 2014 is just as exciting if not more and we learn even more than we did this year!

Coming next week: More speech development and a visit to see Jackie Busen at Phoenix Children's!