Another Skyrocket Day

Ric and I took Aiden to his AV Therapy session today all by ourselves - I don't think that has happened yet! My Mom (who sometimes comes with me) is on vacation, and Noah (who is usally there too) is in summer camp this week. What a big difference in our session - our full and undivided attention was on Aiden and his therapist (which, I guess, is how it should always be - but life just gets in the way sometimes....). And, I don't know if it was because of that or because Aiden is just making such great progress, but he had a FANTASTIC session. Maybe his best yet.

As soon as Aiden's therapist laid out an object, Aiden named it off (or at least its sound) before she could even prompt him. And, when asked to pick an amimal out of a line of about 7 animal cards - he did it every time without hesitation! Not only that, but he was just chatting away to himself (in his own language for now) like crazy. One time during our session, a couple of other people walked through the hallway (behind a closed door behind us) who were talking. Aiden stopped what he was doing, turned around, and pointed to his ear. Wow! I barely hear their voices :>

Other than that, Aiden had a really super day. This was Noah's first day at camp, and I thought that Aiden was going to be really missing him. We kept him pretty busy during the day, so he wasn't bored, but he did walk around the house calling, "moah, moah" a couple of times. I have been taking the kids to a playgroup at the gym that is around the corner from my parent's house (Do those of you who don't live in Canada have this? In our big superstore grocery stores, there is a gym upstairs with weights, classes, cardio equipment, etc. AND a daycare. I think it's one of the best things every invented! Not only does Mommy get some time alone, and some excercise, but the kids get to spend an hour playing with some friends, playing games, and doing "kid friendly" excercises.). Anyway, Aiden ususally goes with Noah and Noah takes care of him while they are there (gets his snack, drink, etc). I didn't know this morning how Aiden was going to fare without his big brother, but I shouldn't have worred - he did great :>

Sometimes a "buh" is just a "bus"

I have to admit, there's one thing I don't totally get about Aiden's AV Therapy. Shortly after "switch on" we spent a TON of time teaching Aiden to say the sounds that are associated with certain items, and not the names associated with them (ie: meow for cat, ee ee ee for monkey, buh buh buh for bus, moo for cow - you get the picture). I realize that he needed to learn how to make all of these sounds to learn the sounds of speech. But, once he got all of those sounds down pat we are trying to get him to CHANGE and now say the real words. It's like, "Okay, you're very smart - great work learning all those sounds. Now, that's not what I want to hear anymore - say this instead." I'm sure it's frusterating for the little guy. It's frusterating for us too. No matter how many hundreds of times I say "cat" when he sees a cat, Aiden still says "meow" every time.

However, we did have a little breakthrough of sorts the other day. There is a school bus yard just down the street from our house. So, everytime we drive by the yard we hear, "buh, buh buh". In turn we say, "Good Aiden, that's a busssssssssssss". Well, we were all driving in the car out to Ric's Mom's house for dinner, and when we were driving by the bus yard, Aiden said, "bus" clear as day! I think we almost drove off the road :> Even Noah was cheering and clapping with us. Now, the cutest thing happens - Aiden still says a clear "bus" most of the time for all busses, and gives himself a little round of applause each time :> :>

Look Who's Talking Now

Some days, it seem like Aiden's progress happens tiny bit by tiny bit. A new word one week, a better vowel sound another week, etc. And sometimes, when you are really paying attention, Aiden's progress seems to skyrocket out of "nowhere".

Last Wednesday was one of those skyrocket days. We were in Belleville for a couple of days and Aiden was up at his usual 6:20 am (that changes when they get older, right?). I went in to get him and there he was, cute as always, jumping up and down in his crib with a big smile. He waved and said, "hi!!" in a big excited voice, handed me his soother and said, "soosie", then "up, up, up". We grabbed a diaper and headed into Noah's where we've been changing Aiden since the change table moved to Ottawa. Noah has a solar system mobile on his ceiling that Aiden likes to watch, so we turned it on and he said, "round and round". When we were finished we turned off the mobile, to which Aiden said, "All done. Bye bye." Going down the stairs it was, "down, down, down". When we got downstairs Aiden greeted Noah with a big, "Moah!!!"

It took me a minute after this exchange had happened to realize - hey! - Aiden just had a little conversation with me (okay, TO me) - USING WORDS!!! The funny thing was that his implant wasn't even on until we came downstairs and saw Noah.

Like I said, some days it seems like the progress is slow. And then there are days when you realize that Aiden's really GETTING IT, and this words are really coming together to help him communicate with us. I just can't wait to see what we'll be saying about him in 6 months time.

Progress!

Happy summer everybody! As you can see above, Aiden is having no shortage of fun this summer :> And, he is progressing like crazy with his listening and speaking. We had him back at the Audiologist a couple of weeks ago for his 6 month "mapping", and that went really well. I think that Aiden is hearing more sounds - even very quiet things. In the sound booth he heard sounds as low as 25 decibels, which is amazing. What it means is that he hears everything that a person with good hearing would hear.

And, Aiden's vocabulary is improving and expanding every day. He says new words all the time, and is now starting to say a couple of 2 syllable words like ice cream and all done. He even says his own name almost perfectly! (But, if you can believe it, still not Mom or Dad!!!!).

Actually, his new found ability to communicate is both good and bad... It's good, because for the first time he can actually ASK for what he wants (by saying juice, shoes, cheese, up, more, etc.) - which is great. But, it's kind of getting in the way of his therapy sessions. Up until now, Aiden has happily gone along with his therapy and pretty much did whatever anyone asked him to do. Yesterday, I was doing a little session with him and I said, "okay, now give the ball to the girl." (note: he has to pick the ball out of a number of objects, and hand it to the girl doll as opposed to the boy doll). He looks right at me and says, "No!" What do you mean "no" ????!!!! We played for a couple more minutes, and he says, "all done. up. up. up." Okay.... I guess we're done. I guess I should be excited that he is acting just like any other two year old would :>

One cute story to add. Aiden had a follow up appointment today with his Pediatric Surgeon in Kingston. While we were in the waiting room, Ric and I were playing a little board game with Aiden, Noah and another little girl on one of the tables. The waiting room was packed with people, and when Aiden got bored of the game I went and sat beside another woman on the chairs. We got to talking and she was asking all about Aiden. One of her questions was whether he had any lasting consequences of being just one pound at birth. I said, "well, he lost his hearing in both ears." She looked at me very strangely and said, "but he can understand what you are saying to him" I explained to her about Aiden's Implant, but inside I was thinking, "Seriously! You really think so? The fact that he can hear is evident even to someone who he doesn't know his story, watching him for just 5 minutes? Yeah!!!!!!" Yes, Nicole, Aiden can hear :> :>