Thursday, December 22, 2005

Wee Sing for Christmas

This image came from Amazon.com. It says on the site this item is not yet released, but I just bought it from TJ Maxx. Originally I bought it for Chris, who seems to love music and singing. It came with a CD and music book. We listened to the CD in the truck this while driving Josh to school, Chris sang with me a little. While looking at the book, though, I thought about how cool it would be for Matt to listen to the music with the words there in front of him, to help work on his auditory discrimination! I remember learning Russian, and it was VERY different to know the language and to be able to understand it in song. But the Wee Sing books are very well put together, with the words to the songs set up in an easy to follow manner. I'm going to give it a try with Matt, see what happens.

Oh, and when I picked up Josh from school today his teacher said it sounded like he was "trying to sing" with them earlier in the day. Yeah! I wonder if that was because we were singing with the music on the way to school? I'm going to keep this up with ALL of the boys. :)

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

G.I. Joshua

A new military display just opened in our area. We went to the ribbon cutting ceremony with Chris and Josh. We LOVE the display. I used to volunteer at the National Infantry Museum at Fort Benning, GA, and would like to volunteer here, too (I need to call them back...). The were designed very well, just draw you into the "action". The kiosks are interactive with recorded audio and visual media, stories straight from those who lived through them.

While Hubby and I could hear the programming through the sound speaker above us, both boys (Chris hearing, Josh w/CI) found this difficult. It was very loud in the building, and the speaker sound came from way above the two little guys. Chris and Josh both liked using the hand held speakers when listening to the stories. Well, they listened as much as any 2 or 4 year old would. Josh did get the knack of it, though. In this picture he's trying to figure out why he can't hear the sound any more. He's trying to "make it work" with the helmet on. :)

Old Faithful

Man, I could come up with some really corny remarks right now about Old Faithful and how amazingly faithful the boys' CIs have been. I'll spare you. :)

I remember asking Matt what Old Faithful sounded like when the water finally came out. At first everyone was cheering, then he said it sounded like the bathtub. Interesting. I loved it when he would describe the raindrops on the tent, too. These are things I would normally take for granted, but really enjoy hearing from his perspective now.

I was just thinking about why we had the boys wear their BWPs for the trip. Seriously, we would just put their on in the mornings and forget about them, go on with our day. Matt now wears his BWP at school and his BTE at home. I'm thinking with the new iConnect for his FM system, I may actually let him wear the BTE at school next year. Right now he claims to like having just one headpiece and wire, though, as inconspicuous as possible. His hair is much darker than when first used his CI. We need to change to darker wires and swap out the headpiece cover for brown, very easy to do. There are 11 kids in his school with CIs, 9 of them have Advanced Bionics products. He may change to his BTE because I think that's what the other kids wear, too. It's up to him, really.

Are we there yet (North Pole)? Picture...


I finally uploaded our photos from last year, yeah! Having a digital camera is great, but not uploading is like not getting rolls of film developed. My main Christmas gift each year to grandparents is a Photo Book from Shutterfly. Their big sale just ended yesterday, hence my drive to get the pictures uploaded AND put into a book. Done!

And because of that I have more photos to post. My favorites are from our trip to Yellowstone. In the process of moving from WA to PA we drove across country with the boys in our truck, towing our car behind. That alone is enough to drive well meaning parents nuts, but it was amazing to see the countryside, too!

The boys mostly wore their BWPs for the trip. Keeping their batteries charged was easy. We either charged them in hotels or in the truck when we were driving. The boys were able to wear their CIs with one battery a day, worn into the night. We would turn their CIs off when they were asleep, put them back on in the morning and still had good use out of their battery from the day before. We brought along the extra attachment to use regular batteries if we ever ran low on the rechargeables, didn't need them, though.

Hope you enjoy the pics!

Sunday, December 18, 2005

Summer Camps


2006 CNI Cochlear Kids Camps: http://www.thecni.org/hearing/kidscamp2006.htm
A Program of the Colorado Neurological Institute's Center for Hearing
Introducing unique recreational and educational experiences where families of children with cochlear implants gather to have fun, learn and celebrate success!

John Tracy Clinic Summer Sessions: http://www.jtc.org/summersessions/index.php . Three-week Summer Sessions for children who are deaf and hard-of-hearing 2 through 5 years old and their families are offered each summer at the Los Angeles campus. The sessions include preschool, audiological services, parent classes and support groups, special events and a sibling program for brothers and sisters, grades 1st through 6th. I have heard rave reviews about this summer program, would like to attend some day. Hmmm... first I need to send in our monthly reports on time...

Aspen Camp School for the Deaf: http://www.acsd.org/index.htm . They have e-mailed me their updated schedule for 2006. I will post what I can, but will forward their complete e-mail with attachments to anyone who's interested. Their camp has been around for over 34 years, has a wide offering of classes and activities. Here is the schedule:

Adventure & Leadership Ages 14 -HS Sat. June 17 - Mon. July 3
TotallyTeam buildingg Ages 8-HS Sun. June 25 - Sat. July 1
Leaders-in-Training Ages 16-20 Mon. July 3 - Wed. July 19
Discovery & Fun Ages 8-12 Sat. July 8 - Wed. July 19
Exploration & Cooperation Ages 12-15 Sun. July 23 - Tue. Aug. 8
Friends & Fun Ages 8-12 Sun. July 30 - Sat. Aug. 5

The CCHAT Center San Diego sent me a "Save the Date" flyer that I can also forward. Here is the info from their flyer: 7th Annual San Diego Area Deaf and Hard of Hearing Family Camp, Camp Marston in Julian, California, May 26-28, 2006. For registration and information contact Dorri Hawkes at 760-634-7953 or dshawkes@cchatsd.org. They will have a camp website soon, too.

The Laurent Clerc National Deaf Education Center puts out a list late Feb/early March, I'll add what I can then.

Well, that's a start. I am trying to find more camps specific to CI kids, but will gather what I can and keep posting! :)

Stories from other users.

There are links at the side of my page to stories from other users. I'm going to list some more here. Sometimes I correspond with parents who have the same concerns I did before my sons were implanted. It was a GREAT help for me when others shared their experiences, helped me to better understand what was going on, what great things could happen in the future.Okay, enough soapbox, here are the stories:

http://www.healthyhearing.com/library/testimonial_content.asp?testimonial_id=89
My Cochlear Implant Story, 5/23/2005
Story from a child's perspective. Great, open and honest story. From what I can tell, this boy was implanted in 5th grade, and would now be in 11th grade.

http://www.iloveellie.com/index.html
Wow! This site is really cool! Mom and daughter's CI experiences. Cute site.

http://wwwimage.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/11/24/
earlyshow/series/week_of_wishes/main657706.shtml
AB gives the gift of sound to a 16 year old girl, deaf since the age of 2.

Oops, just saw the time, need to get headed out to church. More later! And I have a little more info on camps to post, too.

A Cat with a Cochlear Implant?

Just when you thought you've seen it all! :)

The paper with information about this cat can be found at: http://www.bme.jhu.edu/labs/ryugo/pdfs/kretzmer_etal_2004.pdf

Saturday, December 17, 2005

Another user's experience with 120 channels.

As a parent, I'm on a couple of forums full of adult CI users, and love hearing them share their experiences in ANY way they can. I think adults really describe their experiences better than my 3 and 7 year old CI users. Reading adults' stories helps me better understand what my boys may be going through with their hearing loss and CIs.'

That said, I've come across another great forum posting from a lady going through the AB 120 channel trials. Below I've pasted excerpts from her post on a forum re: her experiences. None of the testers are able to give their specifics, but I find what is said to be exciting.

"There is absolutely so much to understand about how the virtual technology works that I am not going to go into all of it. My excitement in the 120 channel software is not from what I am reading or even from what I want to believe or any hopes I might have...it is because I am using it and can actually realize first hand what kind of improvements are taking place for me and also my friend, Judy. We compare notes often.

We are both amazed in what is happening with music! Music with HiRes is fantastic as compared to the traditional strategies I have used. I have used three previous generation CI speech strategies and HiRes blew them away. My test scores with HiRes were very unexpected for a person with 31 years of nonstimulated deafness. I had been told by independent researchers that there was absolutely no other speech/sound strategy to date with any company that could possibly have given me back what HiRes has.

The new 120 channel software is another notch in the right direction...it has to be heard, and experienced to be believed! Michael Chorost explained it well in his "Wired" article...he explained how much his pitch discrimination had improved with the virtual technology. I know what he means!! Did you read it? Here is the link if you are interested. My experiences with music are similar to what Michael is experiencing and what Judy is getting. Michael's experience with speech is not similar to mine. I have not noticed any differences with speech and he has...but that just goes to show how different we all are and as with anything else...it will be a personal journey._http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/bolero.html?pg=1&topic=bolero&topic_

With HiRes no sounds are dropped out of the signal, because all sounds are important. Since everyday sounds like speech, environmental sounds, and music have many different pitches and components to them, HiRes looks at the LEVEL of each of these components and stimulates the corresponding electrodes at the level relative to the strength of the signal. For instance if electrode #9 might have a very strong presence, electrode #4 might have a small presence and electrode #1 might have a medium presence etc. All of the electrodes are stimulated during each cycle, but at different levels, providing a full and complete picture. Nothing dropped out or sacrificed. With the 120 channels presented on 16 electrodes, the accuracy of the pitch presented will be improved because the same spectrum is divided into smaller parts (120 instead of 16). Combinations of electrode stimuli are used to present at the most accurate pitch and level for each component of the sound. Electrodes are the number of physical contacts that can stimulate, and channels are the number of pitch divisions that sound is divided into across the entire electrode array. More channels mean more sound detail....that much is simple and easy to understand.

I don't pretend to understand this in depth, I will leave that to the scientists and engineers. Working with the engineers at AB has made me realize how much I don't know....but I am very very very grateful and confident that they know what they are doing, I am living proof of that!
Deb H"

Deb also has a blog online, found at: http://debrah.blog.com/ .

We just saw Chronicles of Narnia!

Amazing, amazing, amazing. Unbelievable! What a beautiful movie. The picture above is a Walt Disney Pictures photo by Phil Bray, found at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2005/12/09/DDG9QG4FJS1.DTL&o=0&type=movies .

And even more unreal is that we made it through the movie with all of the boys! No potty breaks, Josh "behaved". We wanted to bring Matt's FM system for him to maybe help him hear better, forgot. But we ended up sitting up front and Matt says he heard pretty well. Now he wants us to go buy the books. :)

Without giving too much away, I can say the opening battle scene was so beautiful, I almost cried.

What does this have to do with our "CI journey"? I don't know. We are very fortunate that we live with the boys' CIs, but they've become such a part of our lives we don't think about them so much any more. We just go to movies, pizza, book stores, sports, everything else like every other family. Sure we work on therapy, have to maintain the equipment. Two of our boys are deaf, but they sure love sound. Pretty cool.

Oh, here's a CI moment tonight, speaking of equipment. Matt was wearing his BTE. Usually we carry an extra battery "just in case" his battery dies, but this time we had forgotten the spare. Matt had the same battery on since early this morning, and it was quite an old battery. Good news is his battery didn't loose power until just after we left the theater at 5:30 p.m., yeah! A CI user's battery usage will differ according to the power needed to run a specific program, I think. We absolutely LOVE the power and reliability of the rechargeables, Matt seems to get quite a bit of time out of each one.

Much better explanation of 120 channels.

Here is an amazing posting to the CIHear yahoo forum on this issue:

It takes an understanding of "current steering" technology, which is responsible for the creation of virtual channels, in order to understand how a cochlear implant can produce 120 channels. The unique ICCE electronic architecture of the AB devices dating back to 2001 can do this (so 120 will be immediately backward compatible to folks implanted as far back as 2001 when it comes out!). What's happening is with the simultaneous stimulation but different weighting of adjacent electrodes, the place of neural stimulation is shifted to a point in between the two electrodes. And it constitutes another "channel" because it is focusing the stimulation in a new place on the cochlea in attempt to allow the person to perceive this new place of stimulation as representing a different pitch percept. By varying the weighting of the stimulation on the adjacent electrodes(e.g. 90% on E-10 and 10% on E-11 versus 60% on E-10 and 40% on E-11),the focus of neural stimulation shifts and can create a new pitch percept. By "steering" the current between electrodes in this manner,120 (or more!) channels (or pitch percepts) can be created, all with the stimulation of the same 16 electrodes. Amazing, isn't it! So the strategy doesn;t need to "rove" as you call it, because all the electrodes are stimulated each time. The weighting of the electrode pairs and ultimately where that current is steered, is determined by the characteristics of the incoming sound. So this is potentially a much more precise method of stimulation, providing up to 120 different pitch percepts (if the person's neural survival enables that).

So the concept of 120 being a roving versus fixed strategy is really not an issue here. It's fixed in that all electrodes are stimulated every time, which is a good thing. It's "roving" if you will, because the focus of neural stimulation changes to different places in between the physical electrode contacts. That's different than your device, I know, because since your device does not stim all the electrodes each time, it has to rove up and down picking and choosing which of the 10 or 12 pitches you should hear.

So I wouldn't knock 120 channels if I were you! It's really quite a leap in cochlear implant technology! It's not unrealistic either--I am using it too and can experience the benefits first hand. And because my internal implant enables current steering, I was able to find out through a special software program used in the research studies, that I am able to perceive 284 different pitches! So 120 is a grand leap from 16 or 20, hopefully helping me to make better use of the neural survival I have. I really and truly hope some day you are able to experience something like this.

I have definitely noticed speech in noise improvements--I was at Orogami, a fairly new sushi bar here in Valencia California. All tiled floors and hard wood furniture and walls, tall ceilings--yes, the reverberation was awful! The place was packed, with two tables of 10 surrounding us on both sides where the people were laughing and shouting almost obnoxiously. This was a business dinner and we contemplated going somewhere else where it was quieter so we could readily talk. But I really wanted to try out this restaurant so I made us stay. Low and behold, I was able to carry on a business meeting with my boss in this crazy environment without difficulty! I true CI moment with 120, for sure!

Music at first when I started trying 120 (as part of the in-house clinical trial), sounded not too hot I have to admit. But after two weeks of use, I am hearing instrument combinations that I never knew existed--like the strings playing with the piano and the cymbals playing with the drums. 120 is allowing me to distinguish these for the first time. I mean, I love music with my HiRes programs anyway,but I am now (with 120) just starting to understand some of the many beautiful aspects of music that I have been missing.

It may not happen this way for everyone as we know everyone is unique in what they hear with their CI, but if there is additional potential existing in my auditory system, I sure want to do everything I can to try to make use of it and I really appreciate the fact that AB (and the other companies) don't stop at basic speech understanding in quiet but instead truly want to keep forging ahead to try to allow me to have better and better hearing to not only understand speech, but to enjoy a vast array of listening experiences. thank goodness for research and development!

Sandy
Audiologist and CI user with AB in the BEA

Friday, December 16, 2005

Pic of My Guys!

These are "My Guys". I've had kind of a "blah" day, I just like to look at pics of my family to cheer me up sometimes. :)

Cranky Joshua, 120 channels

Josh was cranky when he woke up this morning. I don't care if he just turned three, that boy needs coffee in the morning!

Anyway, Matt was a HUGE help getting Josh pointed in the right direction. Josh watched Matt put on his CI, Josh put his own on (with my help). No complaining this time. Josh watched Matt dress, Josh got dressed. Thanks for the help, cool big brother! :)

Okay, next topic. There's been some recent discussion on forums about AB's future 120 channel programming. I'm not a techy-type person, more of a mommy. But there were some amazing posts that described the technology very well. As well as some vague descriptions of users in the testing of the product. I guess they can't be very specific about how things are until the testing is done. I'm waiting to hear back from them, with their permission to put their posts on this blog, too. I'm very excited about this kind of upgrades for my boys' CIs.

Well, I responded to the posts, too. Here are my responses:

Date: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:56 am

I'm not an electrical engineer, but as a mom I have to ask: Why would we only need "roving channels" to select which electrodes to use for sound when more could be activated? How do my ears hear? Is only a small part of the cochlea and auditory nerve used with each sound? Sound is a very broadly defined sensation. If two (or more)vastly different sounds were played at once, how would the implant/ear choose which to process, which to stimulate? I would prefer a broad window of input, high signal processing and fast overall stimulation (over all 16 electrodes), as close to that of the human ear as possible.

It is very true that some folks very strongly prefer one processing strategy over another. Especially if they're used to one or another. The 90K implant offers a variety of stimulation strategies: simultaneous, partially simultaneous, and non-simultaneous options including HiRes (HiRes-P and HiRes-S) and emulation of MPS and CIS with current software. If I were implanted, as my sons were, I would want to have this range of strategies to choose from.

The 120 channel programming is not "unrealistic", it's being tested right now. One adult in the testing has blogged a little about her experience with it at: http://debrah.blog.com/ . She also comments on Michael Chorost's book "Rebuilt" where he talks briefly about his experience with testing "121-channel software". I don't know the stimulation specifics, HiRes vs. 120 channel programming, but I am very excited by the advances and anxious to read the results of testing.

I remember when my family bought its first home computer, how strange and new it was. Now my boys have "little computers" in their heads to help them hear! The technology is wonderful, the products ALL keep improving. We feel very blessed to have access to this technology right here and now. :)

Date: Thu Dec 15, 2005 4:48 pm

Okay, again, I'm not an expert, just a concerned mom. And for this I understand why we non-pros may not fully understand the technology of "current steering". With this technology, all electrodes are stimulated in each cycle, not only a few. But at the same time "virtual channels" are created through ICCE technology (I know, I know, another acronym) between the actual 16 channels. These are created through the simultaneous stimulation of two adjacent electrodes. The actual programming that creates this is way over my head, I'm just summing up the basics. But the virtual channels have the ability to provide over 5 times more pitch information at onetime--from 16 to 120 points of stimulation! Pretty easy to understand this is a great benefit!

Here are a couple of more resources to better explain/describe the 120 channel technology:

http://www.healthyhearing.com/library/interview_content.asp?interview_id=72
08/1/2005
Interview with Mary Jo Osberger Ph.D, Director of Auditory Clinical Research Advanced Bionics
Topic: Completely Implantable Cochlear Implants, Current Steering,HyBrids and miscellaneous CI issues.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/13.11/bolero_pr.html
My Bionic Quest for Boléro
He's been haunted by Ravel's masterpiece since he lost his hearing.
A deaf man's pursuit of the perfect audio upgrade.
By Michael Chorost (re: second half of long article)

Happy reading! :)

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Noisy Toys

Yup, I'm still thinking about that first Christmas with Matt's new hearing. We bought him toys with sound, and he loved them. The toys and sound were new to him them. Now he plays his games like any other kid. And I've found that he can plug into them, from the headphone jack directly to his processor. Then he can hear the game, I can't. I need to get those wires out and make him do that more often. :)

Josh likes his noisy toys now, too. I have a little Leap Pad toy with just the alphabet on it. It's small, fits in his lap just right. He was playing with it on the way to school yesterday, just listening to the letter sounds. At a red light I turned and asked him where the "T" was (he's worked on this letter at school, recognizing it), and he found it! We've used a lot of toys with "voice", and I think the Leap Pad products are the most true to sound. Matt prefers them and says they're easier to understand, too.

I try to work with the boys each day. Sometimes I forget about Matt, just take for granted that he's doing so well right now. But a couple of weeks ago we started something new with him. While playing back a recorded program, Rudolph's Shiny New Year, I would pause the show and ask Matt a question about something that was just said. Something like, "What is the Baby's name?" "What is the bird's name?" "What island are they on?" Matt watches the shows, understands what's going on, but doesn't pay attention to the details sometimes. At first he didn't understand some of the words, what exactly was said. Then I'd tell him the name, we'd replay the segment, and he'd get it! And when the name was said again, he'd pick it out in a flash! Matt is very easy to work with, tolerant, and seemed excited to be "hearing" even better. :)

My husband and I studied Russian in the past. While it was easy for me to read the language, listening to actual Russian programs and conversations was more challenging. When I would have a list of key words in front of me, what to listen for, comprehension was much easier. And with practice I didn't need that help, the language just "clicked" for me. When I work with Matt and "TV listening practice", it reminds me of when I was studying Russian. Practice, practice, practice...

Matt's dad bought a video game a couple of years back, Socom on Playstation. Something like that. I don't know much about video games. But this one used a headset and microphone that the player had to speak commands into for his team. Matt used it! I was shocked. Hubby would be playing the game, tell Matt what to tell the team, and Matt would tell them. I'm not a huge fan of any games, but how could I tell them to stop playing that one?

Sometimes toys with all the bells and whistles (literally) drive me bonkers. I find it very difficult to have a quiet moment in my house with three active boys. I crave peace, quiet and calm. But I also appreciate moments like Josh looking from one room to another for the "skiing snowman" when he hears its music playing. To me it's an annoying toy, you press its hand and it skies across the room while playing the same loud song each time. But sometimes when Josh hears that music, one of the other boys playing with the snowman, he'll walk around looking for it. I don't like the music, but I love that Josh hears and recognizes it, specifically looks for the snowman skiing across the room.

Writing these thoughts and memories in this "journal" format has been helping me keep things in perspective. Although I do sit down and do "therapy" with Matt and Josh (Matt-moreso reading aloud to help his speech and comprehension, Josh-Listening for Littles), I'm finding lessons for them in everyday activities like with the TV shows, Leap Pad toys, playing with stuffed animals, and when cooking. Josh LOVES to help with cooking! When the boys are having more fun, they don't see the therapy as "work". Oops! That remind me that I need to file my first report for John Tracy Clinic lessons! Another good program. :)

Well, those are my thoughts for the day. I really need coffee before the boys wake up, before the noise begins again...

Wednesday, December 07, 2005

Joshua's 3rd Birthday, Remembering Matt's 3rd Birthday.


Joshua just turned 3! Hooray!!!!! (His tongue is blue from the cake frosting.)

Josh is so adorable! We had a small family party for him, with just a couple of friends. Family had sent cards and some great gifts, and Josh was THRILLED with every present. Trains, Corduroy and PJ's, exactly what he "wanted". Thank you everyone, from Josh! :)

We half debated having a bigger party for him, like we did for Matt years back. But our schedules were a little crowded, plans changed. I asked Matt if he even remembered his 3rd birthday, it was quite a large event. He couldn't even remember where we were living at that time.

Matt's party was quite large. It was also his Dad's birthday party, too. There were family and friends spilling out of the house, grilling out front, and even swimming in the pool across the street. We had a blast! There was a good mix of friends, too. Matt was going to the State School for the Deaf at that time, so a few friends and their families from there showed up, as well as some deaf folks who worked on post. We had come to know a few as really good friends.

We especially remember one conversation Hubby had that night with two deaf friends of ours who worked on post at the time. They asked Hubby why were choosing to implant our son. Hubby told them that while we fully accepted his deafness, we wanted to help him have more access to the hearing world, too. Broaden his "options" for the future. Their response was very interesting, and accepting. One of them was brought up at a school for the deaf with very little oral speech. The other man was brought up "oral", I can't remember his schooling or if he had hearing aids. The one that wasn't very oral admitted he thought his lack of communication skills with hearing peers actually kept him from progressing in his career. He wanted to move into higher management positions, but knew that would be more difficult.

This man and his wife have become very dear friends of ours, I think about them often. His wife is hard of hearing, a hearing aid user, while he uses no amplification. She had suggested to him that maybe he could get a CI to help him hear, but he seemed very content with his life as it was. His parents had forced hearing aids on him, even when they didn't benefit him. As soon as he left home, he stopped using the aids. He was very happy with the life he had created for himself, didn't see a need to change or alter that with a CI. A personal decision that was his. Interesting note is that his wife's hearing has since deteriorated, and now she is going through the CI candidacy process, her own decision.

We make decisions for our boys all the time, part of being a parent. Some of those decisions are not easy. Choosing an implant for Matt was not such a hard decision, though, as he had heard sound with his hearing aids, very much missed that sound when his hearing failed him. When his CI was activated, we still used sign language with him, that was his first and primary language at the time. But we also worked very hard to help his auditory learning and speech improve, too. Why wouldn't we? That was a primary reason why we chose a CI for him. Matt still knows sign language today, although he has forgotten some. He asked me recently if I could help him learn more. We've picked up some books and videos at the library, and use them at home.

We celebrate our special dates with parties, but we also use the time to look back on our memories. Hubby was in Iraq for Josh's first birthday, Josh was not yet walking and had very little communication at all. Josh had just started walking by his second birthday (vestibular and other issues), he had his CI, his receptive language was starting to develop, but not so much his expressive language. Now that Josh is three I am chasing him around more, he likes to climb on top of things, is using his expressive language a little more each week, signing and vocalizing (still needs a lot of help). It will be very interesting to look back at his next birthday, to see how things have changed even more. :)

Matt's Poem for Mommy

Matt (with a lot of help from his Dad) wrote this poem for my birthday, which also happened to be Thanksgiving. Matt read the poem for our whole family to hear. This poem means quite a bit to me, and just thinking about it has kept me motivated with ALL of the boys. :)

Matt's Poem for Mom's Birthday

I wake without sound, every day of every week.
My Mother comes to greet me, soft kisses on my cheek.
With her comes the world of sound, a pleasure to my ear--
I know it’s due to her hard work, that I even hear.

I don’t know how to thank her now, but will later in life
As I find my own way, home, children and wife.
After 20 years of her hard work I hope she’ll stand and say,
"I’m glad I worked to make my sons the men they are today."

Monday, December 05, 2005

Matthew the Wolf Cub, Christmas

This is a photo of Matt when he "crossed the bridge" from Tiger Cub to Wolf Cub. Have I mentioned he's a cool kid? :) We try to expose him to many different activities, figure out what his likes and dislikes, where he'll feel comfortable and have fun. Cub Scouts ranks high on his list of favorite activities. He is part of an amazing troop in our new area, hanging around with the same kids that are in his mainstream class. He has so many friends here I'm just amazed. He's walked home from school with a couple friends now, and their parents report back to me, "Matt is a WONDERFUL boy! (Of course, I knew that...) My son loves him! He talks so WELL! "

Oh, and the girls talk about him all the time, too. Now, I'm not as thrilled about that, but it still makes me laugh a bit. Last week I bumped into a mom who said, "Oh, YOU'RE Matt's mom! My daughter was in the back seat fighting with her friend over who has Matt in their class most. I asked who Matt was and they both got embarrassed quickly. 'Nobody, Mom! Just a boy at school!'"

I remember when we first found out Matt was deaf (posted back in June archives), and it was like the bottom of our world had dropped out. Then all the doc visits, schooling, therapy, just a lot of hard work for all of us. He's been implanted for over four years now and we hardly think of him as "deaf". Matt IS deaf, is always working to improve his speech and listening skills. But he is so comfortable with himself that he can meet all sorts of people and do many activities with ease. He isn't "the deaf boy", but the cool kid on the block with all the video games or Star Wars toys (yes, I'm shamed, blame Daddy).

He has done very well with what he's been through, his CI journey. His spirit encourages me to help him more, and work to be a the best mom I can to the other boys as well. He and Daddy wrote me a poem for my birthday, which happened to fall on Thanksgiving as well. I will try to find it and post it later tonight.

I think the holidays really have me in a good mood. Mostly because I will never, EVER forget that first Christmas after Matt's CI activation, when he "heard" Christmas music for the first time. What a wonderful present for him! And our present, watching him fall in love with the music, too. He's actually singing Christmas carols now, and to me he sounds like an angel. It's very neat to look back and remember these things. Interesting to think about what the future holds, too. :)