Time Flies When You're Having Fun!

It has been awhile since my last post. Let's just attribute that to the Christmas season and all the fun we've been having! We have spent the past few weeks driving through neighborhoods decorated with Christmas lights, making ornaments, playing with the train around the tree, and learning lots of new words and sounds.

Audrena has demanded that the Christmas tree lights be turned on each morning when we wake up, to be left on all day. She would walk to the tree, point, and tell us, "Uh oh!" Then she would point at our train and say, "ooo ooo." The "ch" sound hasn't quite come yet, but the high "ooo ooo" certainly has! As we drove past Christmas lights this season, Audrena would exclaim, "OH!"

The holiday weekend was a long one this year. It was nice to be home with the kids for four days straight! One would think that the chaos and sheer noise of voices, television sets, etc that accompanies our family gatherings would be a negative listening environment for Audrena. However, she always proves us wrong. She chose the holiday weekend to have an explosion of speech and language. New words and sounds include:

• A defined me-ow for cat, rather than missing the e sound as she had been.
• Quack
• Eye (and pointing to it as she says it)
• Mouth (and pointing to it as she says it)
• Butt (Yep, and pointing to that as well! I inadvertently taught her that one, and she wasted no time showing Aunt Darci where her butt is.)
• Around
• In
• Out
• Back
• "Oh no!"
• Ball
• I love you (This one is not clear, but it's clear to us that it's what she is trying to say because she uses it in appropriate situations.)
• She pointed at a chair and told Randy, "Dada here!"
• She also yelled down the hall one morning, "DADDY!"
• Yeah
• Go (She has not said this at home but has been saying it in speech therapy.)
• Neigh for horse.
• Barn
• Hi
• Bye with a wave more consistently lately.
• On Christmas Day, Audrena was holding an ornament from the tree, and she put it in her mouth. Our nephew's girlfriend, Jessica, told her something like, "Oh, let's put that back on the tree!" Audrena pointed at her and exclaimed, "NO!" 
• Amen after our bedtime prayer. I truly love listening to her exclaim "ahhhhh muh." (After all, God has given us many miracles this year.)

She doesn't use all of these consistently all of the time, and not all of them are crystal clear. Most of them are pretty sporadic at this point, but she can say them and has done so more than once. It's like any other child learning to talk. We are also entering what I call the parrot phase. She is starting to repeat things that we say. It might only happen once or twice, but she is making the effort more and more often. It's wonderful!

Audrena's receptive language is really growing, which is really what comes before expressive language. She will respond to certain commands, like if she is in the kitchen and I say from the living room, "Audrena, come here!" She will find me. There are other things as well, but that's a good example.

Yes, I think we have come a long way in under 5 months. I can't wait to see what 2013 brings! Happy New Year to you all!

We have an /s/!

Apparently Audrena just needed to get used to hearing the /s/ because she is now responding to it, even with the speech hoop! She is now hearing all 6 ling sounds, which represent the range for hearing speech.

Last week was our last session at USD until the winter break is over in January. It went really well. Audrena was very engaged during the session. I love that she can be in one room with the clinical grad students, and I can be in the observation room with K. (SLP) & J. (Audiologist), watching through the one-way glass because we can be having our own conversation without interrupting Audrena. We were discussing how things were going. I am, by nature, always hard on myself. I always think I should be doing better, no matter what the situation. So K. & J. took a moment to stop me in my tracks. They reminded me that Audrena has basically made a year of progress in just under 4 months. That really put things into perspective for me. I had been thinking she should be saying more words by now, but K. also reminded me that this is kind of like a volcano. There will be all sorts of things bubbling under the surface before we see an eruption of language. I think I needed those reminders! Logically, I know those things, but I always want something more, especially for Audrena because I want so much to see her excel, for her own benefit in life. And as if to tell me I was worrying for nothing, before we left Audrena reached out to me and said, "Up!" Up is something she has said randomly for awhile, but within the last week we have seen more of it and with a definite purpose.

We have also received Audrena's T-comm (photo at about the middle of the linked web page)! It's a new accessory for her Neptune which will fit over hear ear to bring the sound in at a natural placement, at the opening of the ear. Currently, the mic on the headpiece is where the sound is "located" for her, so it is more towards the back of her head. She will likely not use the T-comm for awhile, but it is new, so it is being offered at a discounted price for a limited time. We just knew we wanted her to have it because eventually it will make things like talking on the phone much easier!