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!
