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 :> :>