The Simple Things

There's not a day that goes by that we don't appreciate the miracle of Cochlear Implants.

Nearly everyday I have a a story for daddy or grandma about something Aiden heard or said.

Then there are some days, like today, where I'm completely nonstop,

running from appt. to appt., that I realize, it's truly about the simplest things.

The simple things, in the moments of craziness, that make me stop and cherish;

yes, completely STOP and CHERISH;

the teary eyed moments;

the moments I SMILE and WHISPER, "Thank you God."

Such as today,

when my phone rang (old style ring tone) and he pointed to his ear, HUGE SMILE on his face,

and belted out, "I erd at! Hewo!"

when I asked him in the car, without turning around, "Aiden are you hungry?"

to which he replied, "NO!".

"You don't want to eat?", I asked again. "No, no, no, no, no!"

when, moments later, I spelled out S-T-O-P (without saying the word), to which he yelled back, "STOP!"

and just seconds later as we pulled into the drive, "Yay, house!"

(again, this was after being gone all afternoon at appts)

when I sang to him as we drove to therapy and he told me, "No",

which I ignored and continued to sing, since "NO" has become the word flavor of the week

(and let's hope it loses its flavor and doesn't last much longer).

Then when I didn't stop, he tore off his CIs and gave me his first true shit eating grin.

Ya. Tell me I wasn't trying to hide my laughter.

when I called his name from the kitchen as he sat playing Wii in the family room with his big sister

(great language opportunity btw).

He turned to look at me and I said,"Daddy has your bath all ready."

To which he jumped up, ran down the hall to head upstairs,

and I said, "Aiden wait. Mommy needs a hug."

To which he turned around and ran to give both his sister and me a big huge hug.

Yep, it's the things that can seem that simple,

that really aren't

that simple.

Halloween Madness

Where did October go?? My life seems so nonstop right now, which honestly, it has been since the day I delivered my second child ten years ago, then add in a third, and I'm constantly in search for a stop sign. I'd even take a yield at this point. As much as I wanted to post about each little fun thing we did the past month, ya, didn't happen.

Our October was full of fun all around. I remember last year at this time trying to get Aiden to repeat the Lings "oo" and "ee" and what a better way than with all the wonderful sounds of Halloween! He gave me pumpkin-"uhin", and bat-"a", and even a long o sound for ghost ... but no "oo" and no "ee". Well, this Halloween he pronounces them both beautifully and from all our work last year, I could tell he found that vocabulary file in that cute little head of his and just took off.

This year we heard pumpkin (still without that /p/), witch (its and ee-ee-ee), ghost (now with a good /s/ and final /t/ and the lovely "ooooo" to go with it!), bat, trick-or-treat (ih-o-eet), owl (he says the best owl), moon, broom (which he really has trouble saying words that have the /u/ sound, but says it perfectly in isolation) and so much more.

What are the fun things we did to immerse Aiden in the world of Halloween and fall vocabulary?

I made pumpkins from construction paper, cut out different shaped face parts, then let Aiden glue them on as we talked all about it - he even announced he was giving it ears all on his own. (Vocab - eyes, nose, mouth, ears, pumpkin, triangle, circle, glue, sticky, orange, yellow, black). Even though he knows all this vocabulary, we worked on two and three word phrases such as circle eyes, black mouth, glue it down, glue is sticky etc.

getting his pumpkin off the fridge to show daddy

I made a picture chart which labeled different Halloween terms, then copied it again to cut out each card to play matching games, to which candy corn was the treat ... Aiden DOES NOT like candy corn ... so we switched to m&m's and played Halloween bingo with them.

Showing a picture with a word is also an excellent pre-literacy/phonological awareness skill to teach that letters, make words, and have meaning. After Aiden matched each separate card to the correct picture, we would "read" each word from left to right, top to bottom.

We went on a fieldtrip to learn all about COSTUMES and found the perfect one for my little monkey (which was LAST YEAR's costume).

Halloween 2009

This year he chose Mickey Mouse - his new all time favorite character.

Halloween 2010

He was so excited to try it on when we got home and was in awe looking at himself. I had to fight the little stinker though to put it on for trick-or-treating. He sure knew what to do to get that candy though and would run up to each door, knock (even if they were sitting outside, but had to knock because that's how we practiced all month), open his bag, and say, "Ih-oh-eet" and a quick "Tan tu" as he ran off to the next house.

We visited a pumpkin patch and ate fresh Kettle Corn and pet the (very few) animals they had, and went on a hayride.

I printed out a Halloween activity from the Listening Room, which was a book about how a witch found a piece of paper and made it into a house for her and her cat. We followed all the steps she took to make the house and in the end, the house was also a PUMPKIN! Very cute! Love this site.

We made good ol' Betty Crocker CUPCAKES with orange frosting and topped them off with owls and pumpkins. (SO much vocabulary when cooking/baking and honestly, TONS of fun too!)

Turn off the music on the right to hear him counting the yumminess before he gobbled one up.

(without captioning)

(with captioning - works on my Mac, but not my PC?)

I bought tons of stickers to decorate cut out pumpkins or just stick on plain old white paper and played "ghost" and read tons of Halloween books and sang songs and looked through every.single Halloween aisle at every.single.store we walked into.

The boy definitely knows Halloween.

Next up ... leaves, apples, and Thanksgiving.

The SPIRAL

Since Aiden's hearing loss, the spiral look of the cochlea has become very meaningful for our family. Not only does it represent the cochlea, it represents the miracles Aiden receives through the use of his cochlear implants. It represents him being able to hear all the beautiful sounds our world has to offer, our voices as we speak to him, the cats meows, the tick-tocks of a clock. It represents his voice, and being able to hear him speak those three words I one time thought I'd never hear him say, "I wuv ew".

With this said, I was excited to see that Cochlear Implant Online is hosting its first contest giveaway and wanted to share the chance to enter. The lucky winner will receive a beautiful spiral pendant, from Lisa's Pieces, a shop at Etsy.com, like the one shown below (with a chance to choose from a list of phrases).

What a great way to represent the gift of hearing AND to spread cochlear implant awareness. Go here for instructions on how to enter for your chance to win.

and to share a couple other cool "spiral" items we've received as gifts:

A very dear friend and former college roommate also creates jewelry. When I saw some of her work, I commented on how I loved the spiral effect and why it meant so much to me. We got together awhile back and she had some ready and waiting for me to pick one from, all depicting the spiral. I chose this one, not only for what the spirals represent, but also for the beautiful blue color, which reminds me of Aiden's blue eyes. Her work is beautiful, no two alike. If you're interested, let me know.

My mom bought Aiden his own patio set this past summer. She thought it was cute and well made and didn't think twice about the design on the table top. Aiden loves it. Check it out.

Even if I don't win this contest, I will be ordering one of Lisa's Pieces pendants (oh, and check out the earrings she has too) not only for myself, but they will also make great gifts for others! Plus, it's never a bad thing to add a new jewelry shop to my list!