Lily has long wanted to be an otolaryngologist, teacher, pediatrician, Cochlear Implant designer, Mom and a million other professions, when she grows up.
However, a new profession, Forensic Scientist, has now entered the mix. Although Lily has no interest in blood and guts, this new career is closely related to her love of spies and mysteries.
My New Year's Resolution is to get back to blogging. It's important!
However, nearly all the blogs I have followed for the past 7 1/2 years are either slowing or have died long ago. I miss knowing these kiddos lives from afar! Certainly Facebook and Instagram have taken their place as a way to share a story. In addition, the kids have gotten older and there becomes less day to day discussion of the hearing journey. But I hadn't realized how important continuing to tell our story would be, until Lily recently found her blog books.
Every few years we've printed out the blog, using Blurb as a book publishing tool. The books have always sat under the coffee table ready to read. However during this winter break, Lily has found and devoured them, reading and re-reading each page as if it was the secret to her life's story. I always wrote with this end in mind, but didn't imagine it would happen when Lily was in the second grade.
Here's to another year of blogging and total bliss (when you meet Princess Elsa for the first time)!
Lily commonly reads upside down. She and the book are totally flipped over while her legs wave around in in the air. Not sure what it means or if there is any research around something like brain stimulation when reading. Maybe this could be Aunt Kelly's new reading research focus???
Lily continues to devour books and grow in her literacy skills. We check out bags of books, instead of just a few, because they don't last very long.
With all this time spent upside down and flipping around, Lily is now enrolled in gymnastics. We briefed her teachers on tips for communicating, but parents sit behind a glass window in one corner of the gym, so I'm not sure how much she is actually hearing or missing. The gym is a very challenging listening environment. However, even with the difficulties hearing, Lily is loving the experience.
Her Neptunes make a little bump under her leotard, but don't seem to give her much inconvenience. The headpieces stay on well in their ponytail setup, even when she's spinning around and around and around. No limitations for this kid!
Being Lily's brother/shadow has its good times and bad. Mostly good. We already have Bodie swimming and he has taken to it incredibly quick. No fear, just floating on his back. Lily stands ready during the lesson to assist with high fives and waving under the water.
Last week, I also found Bodie perched next to Lily eating an after school snack and devouring a book. I think Bodie already has that love of reading like Lily does. While Lily doesn't read 10 books a day anymore, we try to encourage her to read at least one book or an hour of reading each day to build her language skills. When not nestled up to Lily, Bodie's favorite spot to read is on Grandpa's lap. They cover such favorites as The Fire Truck book, Tiny Hands and Max and Ruby.
After being invited to a Harry Potter birthday party, we figured that Lily/we needed to get up to speed on all the lingo, names, potions and culture surrounding the book series.
Since that time, Lily has read the first Harry Potter book and watched the movie. There are so many details, stories and characters to remember. I can't keep them all straight. After the party, Lily came home and turned our foyer into Diagon Alley, a street where Wizards buy their tools. Note the hat, cape, wands, owls, potion books, etc. Such imagination and a switch from the "Lily's Rainbow Spa" which is a permanent fixture in our bathroom.
Over the holiday break we've hit a few of Lincoln's newest Little Free Libraries, a library craze happening all over the country. Their theme is "Take a book, leave a book."
It was quite an adventure finding the libraries, discovering what was inside and then convincing Lily it was alright to take a book at each stop. She had them all read by the next day so we'll have to make another journey to return a few books in their place.
By January 2014, thre are supposed to be 10,000 Little Free Libraries all over the country.
We picked up a sweet little book at AGBell called "Let's Hear it for Almigal" by Wendy Kupfer.
The story is about Almigal or "Ali," a happy, spunky little girl with a BIG personality who feels unlucky because she can’t hear everything she wants to hear. Written in a similar style to Fancy Nancy and illustrated just as beautifully, Almigal loves to celebrate her friends differences including her own hearing aids. One day, Almigal can't hear as well and must get Cochlear Implants.
When I read this book to Lily, the moment I said Cochlear Implants, her eyes got big and her mouth fell open. I didnt realize just how impactful this type of story could be for her. Seeing a lively little girl who talks non-stop, loves pink and wears cochlear implants was definitely someone she could relate to.
The story continues with Almigal jumping in a pool and getting in trouble because her CIs aren't waterproof. Lily instantly started asking why she didn't wear Neptunes. (My how times change so quickly.) And then Almigal's dog ran off with her CIs. While this is something Lily's dog would have done if given the opportunity, there is no way Lily would allow this to happen. She doesn't take her CIs off.
The story ends with Almigal's parents putting her to bed and now she can hear them saying that they love her. Tears! Great book. Thanks for writing it Wendy.
Playing in the leaves was a perfect way to spend a beautiful fall day.
Lily knew that leaves rustle and crackle. And of course they "fall from the trees because winter is coming." Leaves and trees have been a theme at Nature preschool which she continues to enjoy.
Speaking of Crackle - Lily is starting to read. The Rice Crispy Box was in front of her and she sounded out "POP!" "And there is an exclamation point," she said. We also put the bowl of cereal up to her microphone and she said she could hear it cracking. Now that is a very quiet sound.
Last week she also read her first sentence in a library book that she had never seen before. It said "I Love Dogs." What an exciting moment. Who would have ever imagined that she would start to read at 3.4 years old.
One of the things we try to do constantly is to expose Lily to as many different experiences and learning opportunities (combined with fun). We think it's been vital to her vocabulary growth, social development, and overall good character building ;-)
This weekend Lily had an opportunity to meet the Cat in the Hat at a local bookstore. We spent the evening at the Twilight on the Tallgrass fundraising event for the Spring Creek Prairie Audubon Center. Lily identified birds, pressed flowers, pet a horse, and of course rolled down the hill of prairie grass. Good times.
Had the opportunity this weekend to spend some time with Carol Flexer at the Aurora Leadership Center where she came to speak to parents and professionals about hearing loss. We've promoted her book Children With Hearing Loss: Developing Listening and Talking Birth to Six in our Amazon list since we started this blog and it was nice to finally meet her and get some first hand teachings and insights.
She spent two days presenting on a variety of topics - all relevant, engaging, and spot on to our hearing journey and others. Can't recommend enough to see her speak if you get the chance (She'll be speaking the AG Bell Conference we mentioned last post).
Anyway, here's a series of mini notes I took during the sessions.
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Continue reading "Carol Flexer - It's All About the Brain (Part 1)" »
Lily spends a lot of time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. While she's there, she attends "Papas" school. They read lots of books, talk about colors, numbers, shapes and letters. Lily has mastered most of the colors, the basic shapes, one through ten although two and seven are often missing, and many letters in the alphabet including A, B, L and I. Many of the lessons are on the computer. Her reward for good work of course includes M&Ms. Yes she knows the letter M as well. Thanks for your help!
Last week Faye brought Lily a couple of books to read during the week. Her favorite is Carl's Birthday about a big dog and the baby Madeline who go on an adventure. It's actually a series of books. They are marvelously illustrated, but except for the first page or so, no words appear on the pages. One of the things we learned early on in our journey was to read, read, read to Lily, but not to always be restricted to the words on the page. The Carl books are excellent at helping us do this. Lily loves looking at the pictures as we make up the dialog and explanations on each page. It's been an excellent way to try new language, expand vocabulary, and ask questions.
