andrew, 4 months

Yum, yum, YUM!

carter bug

Its been a while since I posted about Carter. So here's a few highlights.

1. Still working the dimple.
2. Can go across the monkey bars by himself. He's going to be a really athlethic kid.
3. Is very polite - most of the time.
4. Loves Andrew and adores Abby.
5. Fights me all the time about clothes. If he had it his way, he would hang out in his pajamas all day.
6. Is doing really great in school and loves his classmates and teachers.
7. Is doing well with speech and language, but his articulation leaves a lot to be desired.
8. He hates it when I sing. :( But loves it when he and Abby sing in the car.
9. He's been a really picky eater lately. Gotta work on that.
10. Says I love you freely and love to hug his family and friends. But he saves the kisses for me. :)

so many things, but just one thing today

I have so many things to say, but because I haven't been consistent with blogging, its just too overwhelming to play catch up and then get into the habit again of blogging like I used to.

But I did have to post about this. We don't sign in our house anymore. Initially when we started this hearing loss process, we were a total communication family and Abby had probably 200 signs in her vocabulary. And I was at the point where I could sign in complete sentences, although I was pretty slow about it. But that was over two years ago. Since she started at Pearson in the Aural class, we haven't done a lot of signing, except to reinforce very basic daily tasks, like "done" and "stop" and "more" and usually only when my children aren't wearing their equipment.

So the other night Abby was taking a bath and reading my lips (which she is VERY good at), and I signed something to her as I was talking. And that got me thinking about the summer and how much we swim and how important it is for Abby and Carter to be able to communicate in some form when they aren't wearing their hearing aids. So for fun, as I was putting Abby to bed, I quizzed her on the signs she used to know. I was amazed that she remembered probably 75% of the signs I quizzed her on. For her to remember something that she hasn't used in two years? I thought that was pretty cool.

And then I thought about how ironic it was that I was teaching my DEAF child how to sign using verbal language. I would say, "Abby this is the sign for ___" and show her and if she didn't get it right I would be like, "no, you need to put your pinky finger up to your chin, like this." It's totally backwards, but totally awesome at the same time. My almost completely deaf child can HEAR. She can communicate verbally on a extremely high level, almost equivalent to her hearing peers. And I am teaching her sign language for "fun" and for an added form of communication. Do you know how incredible that is?!

Its in those little moments that I am brought to my knees in overwhelming gratitude. I am completely indebted to the Lord for my children, for technology, their teachers, and the many miracles, big or small, in our life.

andrew has discovered his hands