The Itsy Bitsy Spider

So, we are officially moved to Ohio. I have so much to catch up on with this little one. I feel like her vocabulary has just exploded this summer. (note.. I haven't even kept up on tabs of words she knows on the side.. she knows way too many to keep track of now which is amazing!) I think a good part of that influence was having Dylan home from school, because I really noticed her talking a lot more about 2 weeks after he was out of school.

Now I can't get her to be quiet! Seriously, in church today, I was constantly whispering to her to be quiet. Part of me feels like I shouldn't do that, because how awesome is it that she is speaking so much and so well and I don't want to discourage that, but on the other hand, there is times and places for us to be quiet and I can't quite figure out how to get her to "get it".

So a little story about spiders. Our new house has a big basement and all the toys are downstairs. One day Natalie was downstairs playing and I heard her kind of whispering/crying. I went downstairs to see what was the matter, and by that time she met me by the stairs. She was saying "spider on my arm", "spider on arm" "spider bite arm", "spider bite hand".

I saw a a little red spot on her hand, and it honestly just looked like a mosquito bite. I asked her if the spider was black. She replied "brown". And she went on and on about spiders the whole day. I went down in the basement playroom and looked around for any spiders and couldn't find any. I just figured it was a mosquito bite and she thought that was what it was.

Well, the next day, all the kids were down there and Dylan ran upstairs telling me he found a huge spider. So, I run down there and lo and behold.. A big, BROWN, spider downstairs. I killed it. So, Natalie was communicating to me about it the whole time and was right.

And today, she saw a big daddy long leg in the kitchen and told us, "spider on chair".. it was crawling on the floor by her chair and we killed it too. Spiders have been a huge part of her vocabulary lately. Lets hope this trend does not continue...

Goodbye Miss Jenni

We had to say one of our hardest goodbyes a few weeks ago. Jenni has been Natalie's early intervention and parent educator since Natalie was about 2 months old. She has been through everything with us. She came out to our house right after Natalie was diagnosed and has helped us tremendously. We will surely miss her. Tuesdays have been our day for therapy and it has reminded me of the book, Tuesdays with Morrie... so we are giving a farewell to our "Tuesdays with Jenni."


Our baby appointments - pre cochlear implants

And with CI's:

Our last Tuesday:

hearing the airplane outside

finding her nose

goodbye Jenni!

 Hopefully Natalie can look back at this time someday and realize how important these last 2 years were.

Just for Fun

Natalie's vocabulary is expanding every day. Here is a short video clip of a new word she learned.

Farewell to Doctors

A few weeks ago I took Natalie up to Chapel Hill for one last time, since we are moving. It was really bittersweet. I am so glad we won't have a long commute for appointments this next year but will really really miss these incredible doctors. We are forever grateful for these special people who have made some an impact on us. We are so glad that we decided to follow through with going up there since we are about 2 1/ 2 hours away.

We started off this journey of going up there when Nat was 2 1/2 months old... crazy!

this was her getting fitted for hearing aids

Dr. Buchman has been such an amazing doctor. I know we are just one of many patients, but we just think so highly of him.

Here is a picture of Nat and Dr. B the day before her CI surgery and then our last goodbye.

And dear Holly, our wonderful audiologist. She has made this whole process easy and each appointment was so thorough with so many things to check, double check, etc. We have been so blessed by her experience and the other wonderful audiologists there that have worked with Natalie too.

Jan 2012

June 2012

What an amazing 2 + years we have had there! I posted this months ago, but if you want to check out Natalie's 1 year hearing video I made, you can watch it here.

Ordering Cochlear Implant Headbands

I have had a lot of comments about the cochlear headbands we order for Natalie. I put my email address on the side of the blog. Please email me and I can let you know how to go about ordering them. We have loved them and honestly I can't imagine not using them.

I also love these cute flower clips we have gotten from some kid hair salons but you can also order here. They are from Katelyn and Co.

Feedback

Natalie recently figured out how to use a whistle. She loves it. She loves the feedback she gets from blowing into it and making a sound. It was interesting to watch how when her "ears" were on how much she was enjoying playing with it. At one point in the afternoon I found her headband off and she must have accidentally taken them off and she had the whistle, but it wasn't that much fun anymore.

The joy of sound! You can see her whistling below:

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!