Photo with Santa

It seems that a nice photo with Santa is the standard right of passage for children and Christmas time. I used to think that the visit to Santa was for the children - so they could tell Santa if they were good and suggest some items he might want the elves to work on for them. However, now that I have children, I have come to the conclusion that the visit to Santa is really for Mom and Dad so we can check off the list one more completed holiday tradition - the celebrated "photo with Santa."

Each year we join the ranks of parents who have gone before us to try and get a good photo with Santa. We have made it to the mall but NOT to the line to see Santa because the very idea of getting near Santa sent Julia into hysterical cry mode. This is Julia's fourth Christmas and she is only now starting to slightly warm up to the big guy. As for Emma, well she has always loved people so it's no surprise that she is more than happy to hang out with Santa Claus.

Julia's preschool had a Christmas party and Santa and Mrs. Claus stopped by for a visit. We were pleasantly surprised to be able to get a nice little visit with them and even posed for a family photo. Julia was very fond of Mrs. Claus, so I think that is the reason she isn't all red eyed and crying.

Thanks for the visit Santa and Mrs. Claus! We hope you are able to stop on over at Christmas - we've all been really good this year!

Hear, Hear

The not-at-all-secret BIG news in our house is that Emma now has two cochlear implants. I did a post on the surgery here. It seems like just yesterday that we were dealing with the multiple insurance issues, change of surgery date and trying to fend off the H1N1 virus! The surgery came and went without any complications, thank God, and we have kept quite busy ever since.

Truth is, our everyday lives are quite crazy with therapies, appointments, and extracurricular activities that I didn't realize how quickly the activation date would come! When we were waiting for Emma's first CI activation it felt like FOREVER between the surgery and the initial stimulation (activation) and I think this time, since Emma already was hearing quite well out of her right CI, the time went by much quicker. Which is quite strange since it was a 5 week wait for the activation vs. 3 weeks wait in 2008 with her first implant.

Waiting patiently before activation

On Dec. 7th Emma heard out of her left ear for the first time ever! Her reaction was similar to when her right ear was activated in that she jumped a bit when it was first turned on and then she let out a HUGE smile. She looked all around the room at everyone smiling. This was such a huge moment in time for us! We started discussing a second implant with the team before she even received her first and our journey from one to two implants was just shy of 1 year since her right ear implant was activated on Dec. 10, 2008.

Sporting the Nucleus 5 and smiling at activation

Emma did so well at the appointment even though it took place right at nap time and it took a long time. She is lucky that she was able to receive the latest implant released in Sept. 2009, the Cochlear Nucleus 5. She has two of these external devices and we are using one on each ear and using the older Nucleus Freedom models as her back-up device.

Bilateral implants!

There is a learning curve to the Nucleus 5. We are getting used to the new device operations and the remote assistant (which looks like an iPod) feature. We are also still figuring out the best way to wear the device so it doesn't keep falling off her head. We pulled out the pilot caps again to help keep them intact and are using the toupee tape quite liberally. The right device seems to stay good but the left device falls off quite frequently. This is mostly due to some residual swelling in the area of the implant that will decrease over time. I remember from the other side that it takes a few months for the swelling to go away so the magnet to really "seat" correctly on the head and avoid falling off constantly.

I can't help but be amazed and so thankful for this technology and the world it has opened up to Emma. The access to sound really has changed Emma's life. She has made so much progress in communication and motor control since she tapped into sound and everyone can see the changes - they are that major! At the same time, though, I still wish that Emma wasn't deaf so she wouldn't have to deal with us fussing with her CIs or attend hours and hours of therapy to learn to listen. But she is and she does and we're with her every step of the way so she isn't going through this alone and she is making amazing progress.

How amazing you ask? Well, in just one week with bilateral hearing, Emma has impressed everyone including her Auditory-verbal therapist who is a bit hard to impress! She is turning to sounds quicker, with a noticeable decrease in the amount of time it takes her to process the sound and respond to it and is pretty much spot on when it comes to localizing sounds. Emma has also demonstrated good sound awareness by picking 4 of 4x the correct box with an object in it when presented with identical boxes that were shaken with an object in one and nothing in the other.

Emma can hear! Out of both ears!

In the past couple of months we've heard her say ah goo, boo, oh yeah, go, blue, water, her version of Julia, and her sound for Finnegan. And, just this week I think she could have said Ma (with lots of prompting, but I can't be sure and no one else was around to hear it!). On Nov. 30th and Dec. 11th she said "I love you" to Finnegan - click here to see the video - and I can't help but think that she'll belt out an I love you to me, Chris and Julia very soon. I can't help but think how much a CI has opened up Emma's communication and are thrilled to see how she does with two implants.

There is a saying I've seen that says "Talk is cheap unless your deaf. Then, it's priceless." This is so true!

We are truly blessed to have such a wonderful, hard-working little girl. We are blessed to be working with such an amazing cochlear implant team that has taken the time to get to know Emma and believe in her unlimited potential.

Both my girls amaze and inspire me everyday, but in different ways. And this Christmas I feel very blessed.

Christmas Tree is up!

We put up our Christmas tree tonight! What looked like a small tree out in the field turned out to be a pretty big, full tree in our house. Julia was so excited to get the ornaments on the tree and put herself in charge of overseeing the operation. Emma thought it was hysterical that we brought a tree into our house and decked it out in lights, but got into the fun of it and helped us put a couple of ornaments on the tree. It was really great to pull out so many of the ornaments that have special memories for us. There is the Hawaiian Santa from our honeymoon, the Bride and Groom from the year we were married, the ornaments from the girls' First Christmas, the hand and footprint ornaments from Julia's first Christmas, the black Lab ornament from Finnegan's first Christmas, homemade ornaments from over the years, etc. It's amazing to me how many memories come back when trimming the tree! We put Emma near the tree in her Child Rite chair and she scooted herself under it and kept poking her head into it and looking up at us trimming the tree. It was so cute! When we were done hanging up all the ornaments Julia said she thinks we need to go out and get more - she was sad we were done! I told her we could start a tradition of picking out a new ornament each year and I'll take her out soon to buy a new ornament and I think we are all looking forward to this tradition. We also hung our stockings and put up the nativity set, so now we are officially ready for Christmas!

It's beginning to feel like Christmas

We're starting to get into the holiday spirit around here.

A photo of me and Chris after he finished putting up our house Christmas lights

On Friday we had a busy day. The girls and I headed into the city to see the 3-D Christmas show in the Comcast building lobby. We got a great on-street parking spot with a meter that saved us a TON of money on parking. Once we got out of the car, though, I realized that I had given all our change to a homeless person about a week ago and didn't have any quarters! When I was telling the girls we needed to find some change for the meter a man that was walking by us double backed and gave me some quarters for the meter and didn't want anything in exchange. What a lovely thing to do! We then headed over to Chris' school for the book reading and book fair. The storyteller had brought her cat and dog and the girls loved seeing them. Overall, the day was so pleasant that I remarked to Chris that it really did feel like Philadelphia is the City of Brotherly Love!

Julia wore her new shoes into the city!

We attended the cochlear implant program Christmas party on Friday night, which kicked off our holiday party season. The girls had a lot of fun doing the crafts that were set up around the room and Santa even showed up! Emma loved Santa, Julia screamed and cried and wanted to go home once he arrived.

On Saturday we had our first snowfall of the year. It was wet snow, but it still felt great to see it coming down and sticking in the yard a bit. Today the sun was shining again so we went and picked out a Christmas tree, chopped it down and hauled it home. We went to the small Christmas tree farm from last year and realized they weren't really selling trees this year but they decided to let us have our pick of the field anyway. The trees were fantastic since they weren't picked over at all and I think our tree this year is the best one yet! Since it was such a nice day Chris focused on getting our outside decorations in place and we decided we'll bring the tree inside and put it up later this week. Julia had a ball roaming around on her summer toys outside and Emma joined us in her stander and loved all the action. Since we recently purchased a large ladder, this year we were able to string lights along the entire house and it looks so nice! We also have a blow-up Christmas tree in the yard but it seems that the penguin and snowman don't seem to want to work this year. This doesn't upset me since I'm a bigger fan of the nativity set, but Chris and the girls really liked the extra decorations in the yard so Chris will try and get them working again. Overall, it's really beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

New Look

So, do you like the new festive look of my blog? I love it! Thanks to Tara at TMI for creating and loading the design and getting us in the holiday spirit.