Look who turned 2

Miss Natalie turned 2 the middle of March. Such a sweetie! When we ask her how old she is now, she has finally caught on and says "TWO" and tried to point 2 fingers in the air. (it is a bit tricky but she can do it.)

We kept her busy for her birthday. We went to a mall, had lunch, played on a carousel, went to a children's museum, had dinner and cake and played in the sprinklers. She isn't much a sweets person, but she did try out the cake some.

She was exhausted by the end of her birthday. We are excited to see what this next year brings her!

the cake

picture with daddy

a very warm birthday here in NC

thank you cochlear for waterproof processors!

"Ears"

When Natalie gets really tired or isn't feeling 100%, (or if she isn't getting quite the attention she wants) she occasionally takes off her "ears". She mainly leaves them alone, but I always notice when she has been teething, or has a cold or is extremely tired she doesn't want them on. If I feel like on one particular day she is consistently doing this, and after many attempts of them being on and off, I will put her in her crib with some books and give her 15 minutes to chill.

Usually she calms down and wants to listen again. I don't really want to punish her for not wearing them, but she needs to understand that she needs to wear them in order to hear and listen. And I generally think when she takes them off, she really is just trying to be naughty most of the time. And a good part of her success of how well she is doing is because she does wear them so much.

Here is one particular sequence of events. She got mad at something and ripped off her headband that has her processors in place. (And look at that beautiful head of hair she has.) So, this is just one of those daily things us parents of kids with hearing loss get to deal with. Sometimes on multiple times each day. And we get to teach any caretaker how to put them on and explain how they work.

Just one of the struggles we get to tackle...

Old Posts

I recently transferred a bunch of old blog posts from our family blog to this one. I started this blog once Natalie had her cochlear implant surgery, but I think for record keeping, it is best to know her whole story from birth and so on. Those posts are under the year 2010 if you want to check them out. This was during the diagnoses phase, hearing aid trial and all that fun stuff leading up to her CI surgery.

Squeaky Shoes

I picked up a cute pair of squeaky shoes (our first ever) at a local consignment sale last week. They are adorable and Natalies LOVES them! It is so much fun watching her walk around and I love the fact she can hear how cute they are too!

          ** And as I type this blog up and Natalie is nearby playing, she can hear the video I am uploading and runs to look. Good ears Nat!**

She is doing amazing with her speech and language. She can count to 10, sings the ABC's, knows her colors and just seems so observant and smart these days. She will turn 2 in 10 days. Another year to celebrate her wonderful life!

Check out her squeaky video ~

Dancing Diva

Natalie's new favorite song is Stronger by Kelly Clarkson. She is starting to really like a lot of songs (ABC, clean-up song, Twinkle Twinkle and asks us to sing them to her.)

She loves to dance to music!

My other therapist...

Natalie has such great older siblings. They love to help teach her the LING sounds and see what other responses they can get from her... I love the extra help!


Dylan helping with the LING sounds:

Helping with Colors:

Colors

Natalie has started learning her colors. It has been so cute to watch. I originally started out by taping some different colored construction paper up on a our laundry room door and labeling them. We have been talking a lot about colors and she is really catching on.

Here she is saying a few of her colors:

She also really loves The Napping House book, and at the end there is a rainbow. She loves when we sing the rainbow song too. I think for her birthday I am going to attempt to make a rainbow cake...