July 16, 2013

Nothing Stops Her

It's camping season, and we've been spending as much time as we can at the campground. We stay close to home because of all the therapy appointments and our work schedules. While it's still soaking in that Audrena really doesn't have Usher Syndrome, we still realize that things would have been ok. We are overjoyed that she will not lose her vision, but Audrena proves to us daily that nothing will stop her. She is determined and feisty. Take, for example, the following photo. Audrena mastered climbing this ladder. Then she moved on to the BIG one. Thankfully Daddy was there to catch her when she fell at the top rung! But she just does what she pleases, no matter that her balance is not good, or that she is only two! Nothing stops her.

I know. That's a plastic slide. But sometimes you have to let a kid be a kid. Plus, this one wasn't full of static like most others. We just didn't let her on the tube slide since those seem to be really bad for static.

On the subject of Audrena's balance, I am happy to say that she has made great progress over the past few months! She is walking better on uneven surfaces, running, jumping, and even sets up her own physical therapy style obstacle courses at home! It's wonderful to see her improving so much, and others have noticed the progress as well.

As for her speech, she is in a period where she is not learning as many new words, but she is figuring out how to put them together. She is using mostly single words or simple phrases at this point, but one night last week she surprised me. Kelton opened the door to go outside and play. Audrena, being the bossy little sister, yelled at him, "Hey! Kelton! Get back here!" She is also getting better at pronouncing words that she has known for months. The old words are coming out more clearly, and she is becoming more comfortable with trying to repeat new words.

One day a few weeks ago, she was in her car seat, and from the driver's seat I could her her talking to herself. She was saying what sounded like, "Bit**, Bit**, Bit**." I was thinking, "WHAT?!? Where did you learn that?!?" So I turned to look at her in time to see her trying very hard to form the /f/. She was really practicing, "Fish, fish, fish."

I haven't reviewed the First 100 Words checklist for awhile, but I would venture to say we're somewhere in that next 100 words by now. But here are some of the more recent things Audrena has said:

Flower
Oh! It's you!
Who's that?
What's that?
Where go?
Get back down!
Get back here!
What?
Hey!
Pizza
Beach
Butterfly
Nigh night
Fish

We are losing our speech therapist again. She is moving on to bigger and better opportunities for her family. We respect that, but we will sure miss her! It sounds like our Birth to 3 team may have found someone to replace her. I'm not sure what kind of experience the new person has with children who have hearing loss, but I'm confident the team will continue to pull together to make sure Audrena is getting exactly what she needs. Her last speech therapist told me that no matter what happens, Audrena will be just fine. As a parent, I will always worry that we are missing a piece of the puzzle, but also as a parent I know my baby girl. And I take comfort in knowing that nothing stops her!

What a Difference a Year Makes!

Last year on the 4th of July, Audrena had hearing aids and couldn't yet walk. The hearing aids weren't doing much good, but we thought she could hear the fireworks. She would react to the boom before the explosion of color. We will never know for sure if she was feeling the vibration, or if she was actually hearing it.

This year, Daddy threw a fun snap down on the ground behind Audrena. She was facing the other direction, and when it popped, she turned to look the ground behind her. She threw her own fun snaps down. If one didn't pop, she stomped on it to make sure it did. She ran and played with the big kids.

When it came time for the big fireworks, she heard the boom, and then she localized the direction of the echo. She yelled things like, "oh," "pretty," "more," and "look at that!"

About 11 months, 4 surgeries, and countless programming and speech therapy sessions later, Audrena is hearing fun snaps, localizing sound, listening to what we say, talking in response, and putting together phrases! What a difference a year makes! On Independence Day we couldn't help but reflect on the difference cochlear implants have already made in Audrena's life and what kind of independence they will continue to give Audrena throughout life.