The ABCs

On a whim, we tried having Simon parrot the ABCs a couple of nights ago, and he was pretty amazing. So we did it again, and filmed it. My favorite is W, which comes out "Daddy". At the end, he says and signs, "Again?"

Simon Talking

We've been doing a lot of therapy and practicing with Simon, and it's really starting to pay off! His most clear words are Mama, Dada, top (stop), doh (go), and boo (book). Thanksgiving week we figured out how to get him to parrot our speech, which is amazing.

Simon's animals and trains


Simon talks to Buster (vocalizations)


Simon and the Animals (aka Simon talks with his mouth full)

Pumpkin Farm

We went out to the Pumpkin Farm in Snohomish on Saturday. It was foggy and cold in the valley, but the sun came out and made it into a beautiful day. Simon wore his new boots, and started kicking the pumpkins like they were soccer balls. Uh-oh! There was also a small petting zoo area, where Simon got to pet a couple of rabbits. He also sat on a tractor, and saw a cow, some donkeys, and pigs. On the way home, he ate his first hot dog bun. Wasn't so excited about the hot dog. His culinary preferences now include bread, cheese, ham, smoothies, and raisins.

View more Pumpkin Farm photos

Ocean Shores

We took Simon to Ocean Shores for the weekend. It rained the whole day on Saturday, but then the clouds parted and we had some blue skies Sunday morning, before we came home. Simon's friend, Allison, was there, along with her parents, Karen and David. We got together several times so the kids could play on the beach, and also went to the Ocean Shores Interpretive Center and had fun swimming in the pool. Simon loved digging in the sand (which is a big improvement over his time in Hawaii), and decided that he liked eating it, too. Allison shared a lot of her Cheerios with him, which made his day.

See more Ocean Shores Photos

CI - 3 Months

Simon has had his Cochlear Implant for three months now. He seems to be growing more and more receptive to both speech and sign, and is starting to express himself more using both methods. He's starting to copy our gestures a lot more, and continues to have an identifiable word every once in a while, in the midst of his babbling.

He went in for his three month check-up, and did very well on the hearing tests. He demonstrated hearing in the 20-25 decibel range, across all of the frequencies. That's very exciting, as it means that he is most likely hearing all of the speech sounds around him.

Tara continues to take Simon to therapy and Family Conversations, and does a lot of signing and speech practice with him. I read a lot of stories with him, and we watch Signing Time together just about every night - two of Simon's favorite things. He loves books, and is fascinated by the videos of children signing.

Here's a video of a kid named Drew, who's had his implants for three years - very fun to see how well he speaks and hears.

iPhone 4

I dropped my iPhone, so Simon and I went to the Apple store to buy a new one. So far, so good - I especially like the video camera built into it, and it takes much better pictures. Now I just need to make videos out of some of the footage I've recorded. Simon helped me carry it back to the car...

Visitors

Christi came for a visit in August, which was great. She spent the night, and joined us for a folk-rock concert at The Woodland Park Zoo. Simon also did his first-ever bubble blowing with her. Bubble blowing was recommended to us by one of our therapists - he was a natural!

View Photos from Christi's Visit


We also had a fantastic visit with Oliver, Leslie, and Willa Libaw, who came up under the guise of attending a Bob Dylan show at Bumbershoot. Willa's adorable, and it gave us a good reason to get our friends together on multiple occasions. We got a nice photo of Charlotte, as well...

View photos from Willa's visit

Leavenworth

We took a little weekend trip to Leavenworth. The big hit was having dinner at King Ludwig's, and Simon dancing with the Oom-Pa band. He loved it! He did lots of marching around, and had several waltzes with Tara. We ended up going twice, and the workers saved us a spot right up front where we could watch.


View Leavenworth Photos

Trip to Magnuson Park

It's been a hot July, and we thought Simon would enjoy one of Seattle's wading pools. When we got there, we were surprised at how tiny it was... but the kids there were having a great time. Simon was tentative at first, but did splash around a little and was excited to play with a ball and bucket that were there. His favorite part was getting to hold Buster's leash as he walked up and down Kite Hill. How lucky we are to have a dog as patient as Buster!

Simon vs Thomas

We took Simon to visit Thomas the Train when he came to Snoqualmie. It was a beautiful day, and a gorgeous view from the train. Our favorite parts were playing with the small trains, of which there were many, and then going for the ride. The conductor in our car was deaf, and he was excited to meet Simon... we were able to sign with him a little bit. Whooo-whoooo!

Dance Class

Simon goes to dance class every week, which has songs, parachute time, obstacle courses, and lots of fun.

Hearing Test

Simon had his first hearing test post-Implant. He goes into a sound-proof room and sits on Tara's lap, and a helper comes along to play with toys and keep him focused. The audiologist sits in the adjoining room and watches through a window; she plays different pitches, types, and volumes of sounds. If Simon looks to the side when she plays the sound, it activates a toy or the TV. Simon looks around a lot, so it's a little challenging, but it's also pretty clear when he's heard the sound. There's a cute part where he waves at the audiologist through the window.

Soccer

Simon has been going to Lil Kickers Soccer classes for the past month. He's learning to kick the ball, stomp on bubbles, run up the field, and stop and go. Here's a movie of Simon in action, complete with "Scaling the Wind Tube" and "Crawling in to the Net" celebrations!

4th of July Parade

We joined the preschool parade of families in the Wallingford neighborhood this morning. It began at McDonald Elementary, which we hope/think will be Simon's school in a few years. He did a great job of carrying his paper flag around, and marching in the parade. We met a 3 year old named Raffi, who will probably be going to McDonald, as well.

Simon Moos

Simon has been learning animal sounds as part of his aural habilitation - Tara has been doing them with him for several weeks. He moos now whenever he sees a picture of a cow, or plays with his toy cow. He also moos when he sees a pig, but he does know the sign for pig.

CI Activation

Simon's Cochlear Implant was activated this morning around 10:00. He didn't give a big reaction, but instead was mostly interested in playing with the toys that they had there. However, when we turned it on the second time, he did give a big blink and looked around. He wore it for the rest of the day, and was great about not taking it off.



Later today we also took him to his first dentist appointment - quite a day for our little man. He wailed during the teeth cleaning and fluoride, but it really wasn't all that bad... and his teeth are looking great!

More dentist photos

Cochlear Implant

Simon turned two years old on June 1, 2010. We had a couple of different celebrations for him - a playground time at our favorite park, a special dinner on his birthday (cheese pizza for everyone), and a family dinner with grandparents and Tara's relatives. Simon's starting to understand the concepts of presents a little more... and that what's underneath the wrapping paper is even more exciting than the paper itself.

On Monday, June 7th, Simon had his Cochlear Implant surgery at Seattle Children's hospital. We went in that morning at 8:00, and then had to wait in the lobby for a couple of hours. At 11:30, we were brought back to the surgery center. I washed Simon down with some cleaning cloths, and then he got dressed in his hospital gown.

For the next hour, he played with a toy truck and went in and out of the sliding door that was in our room. Simon had fun playing peek a boo using the curtain, and going into the hallway and waving at Tara through the window. At 12:30, the doctors were ready. I put on a protective suit and carried Simon into the OR; I helped them put the anesthetic mask on Simon - he was doing great right up until then, and then decided that he didn't like that part. Simon quickly went out... his breathing was a bit shallow, but he looked pretty peaceful. The doctor walked me out, and then Tara and I had to go wait several hours. We were called up a couple of times for updates, in which we were told that things were going well.

At around 5:00, we were sent to a recovery room to wait for Simon. He was wheeled in shortly later, still out from the anesthetic. His face was so puffy - they had given him lots of fluids during the surgery, and he was all full of liquid. He had a blue bandage wrapped around his head with a gauze pad, which had some blood on it. Because of his tubes in his ears, he had some blood drain out for the next day. Every once in a while Simon would move around a bit, and he kept grabbing the bars on his bed. Eventually, Simon came out of the anesthetic around 11:30. The nurse came in and gave him some pain medication through his IV, which put him back to sleep.

Simon slept through the night, and woke up around 5:00 the next morning. He was still puffy, but seemed happy to be awake... before too long, the nurse was able to take out his IV, and he got to walk around. We went on some treks around the hospital, and got to go down to their playroom, which was fun for him. He found some cars to push around, and had a pretty great time. Later that afternoon, we got to take him home. By then, the fluids had worked their way out of his system, and he was looking really good.

For the next two weeks we had our regimen of putting antibiotic drops in his ear and medicine on his scar. We had a blue headband for him to keep wearing, and some gauze pads to keep things covered and clean. He also had an oral antibiotic and some children's Tylenol - those were his least favorite things. Tara came up with a good system of wrapping him up in a towel when we gave him the medicines, to keep his arms down, and it also caught any medicine that he spit out. He was so good about it, as much as he didn't like it - he would put his head down on my lap so Tara could drop the medicine in his ears, and then fuss once she did it. Same with the orals - he would open his mouth, swallow and cry, and then open his mouth again. Such a good little boy...

Now he's back to 'normal' - his scar has been healing well, and he's done with all of the meds. You can feel the Cochlear Implant in his skull - there's a silver dollar sized bulge behind his ear. I'm sure when his hair grows back in, that won't even be noticeable, but of course he'll have the external pieces that he wears.

We go in next week for his external pieces, and his first activation. My understanding is that the activation will happen in stages - they'll turn it on tomorrow, with a fairly low volume. Then we go back in a couple of days, and they turn it up and make it so that we can progressively increase the sensitivity this week. He'll go in for a couple of more tune ups (they're called mappings) over the month, and then we're supposed to be good to go for the rest of the year. It's exciting - a few nerves, and a good deal of hope that it works.

Hawaii, Camp, and Cochlears!

We went to Maui with grandma and grandpa for a week of beaches and snorkeling. Simon got his first aloha shirt, and played in the sand... he didn't seem to think much of it at first, but after a few days he began to enjoy digging and filling his bucket. Our weather was good - sunny most of the time and around 80 degrees, and then a little rain in the afternoons.

When we got home, Simon had another sedated BAER test. It confirmed our original test which showed that he is profoundly deaf in both ears. He then had another behavioral test, which also said the same thing. The good news is that all of those results have convinced the medical team at Children's hospital that he is a good candidate for Cochlear Implants, so we are now on our way towards getting one/them. We've selected the Cochlear Nucleus 5 - http://products.cochlearamericas.com/cochlear-implants - it's the latest and greatest, and hopefully will work really well for him.

Simon and I also went to Deaf Camp over the weekend. We met a lot of families, and there were children with all sorts of degrees of hearing loss. They used a mixture of ASL, SEE, implants, and hearing aids to communicate, and it was great to see the kids all having a good time together. Simon did his first fishing, and we met another family from Seattle, with an older son. Very nice folks.

A Busy Day

Simon had another hearing evaluation this week, which was good in that it was consistent with his BAER exam; it showed that he does not hear anything other than airplane-type frequencies, and hopefully will help us take another step forward towards cochlear implants. He will have two more exams at the end of the month, and then we'll see where we are then.

Simon had a great weekend - on Saturday morning, we visited Thad, Amy, and Charlotte at their new apartment in downtown Seattle. Thad made some cinnamon pancakes, and Simon enjoyed playing with Charlotte and jumping on their couch. Charlotte was a terrific sharer, and the kids had a fun time together coloring. After his nap, Tara took Simon to Green Lake for a walk with her friend Jenny, and the kids played at the Green Lake playground. After dinner, we went to the U-Village playground for some sliding time. We got home just in time to help celebrate Buster's 3rd birthday. Tara made him Carrot Pupcakes, which Simon watched him eat with great interest.

On Sunday, we went to the pier and took the Water Taxi to West Seattle. It was Simon's first boat ride; he was more interested in going up and down the stairs than looking out at the water, but we still had fun. We stopped at the Seattle Center on the way back, and he carried around a big stick and watched the workers setting up the amusement rides. We went back home, and Simon helped me in the garden and smelled some tulips - I think it was the first time he's smelled a flower. He had his nap, and then we met my teaching friend Andrew at the Edmonds playground, along with his kids (Alyssa - 7, Rebecca - 5, Eli - 18 months). Simon hit it off with Eli pretty well, and they played on the slides and tubes for a good hour.

Easter 2010

We had a great weekend, after a tough week. Simon had a really bad flu bug - he couldn't keep anything down all week, and had to go the hospital on Tuesday to get some fluid through an IV. We learned that squirting Gatorade through a syringe works pretty good for making him drink when he doesn't want to, and today his stomach finally settled. So we took him to Easter brunch at Salty's! He ate a whole bunch of silver dollar pancakes, some waffle, and several doughnuts. Then, we went to the playground and he played on the slide for an hour. After his nap, we went to the Seattle Center, where he played on another slide for around an hour, and made friends with a little boy who was the same age, visiting from Vancouver, BC. They played with Legos for a while, and then went down the slide again and again - Simon was in heaven.

Playground

Simon @ Dance Class

I took Simon to the University Village playground today, and he had a lot of fun. The best part was that he made a little friend; there was a 22 month old, and the two of them would climb up to the top of the slide. It's a dual slide, so they could sit down next to each other, and go down at the same time. Simon was so excited - he was laughing and clapping, and then running to get back to the stairs. They probably slid down 6 or 7 times together. The sad part came when the dad of the other boy took off his sweatshirt and hat, and then Simon didn't recognize him. He kept looking for his little friend until we left.

Finding play friends is a challenge, especially ones who are deaf/HH. Other kids his age are talking now, and they seem a little confused when he doesn't talk back to them... they go on and find another kid. He's a pretty social guy, so we're going to keep working on finding him some friends to play with.

Simon on TV

This picture is back from Valentine's Day - Simon got a new chunky puzzle to play with, and some couch time with mom. It was his first present opening where he was less interested in the wrapping paper, and more interested in what was inside... looks like our boy is growing up!

We've had hearing aids for Simon for about three weeks, but he quickly developed an ear infection and wasn't able to wear them after the first couple of days. His left ear has cleared up, but his right ear continues to have fluid coming out. We also got his CT scan results back last Thursday, which apparently looked pretty good. Unfortunately, we continue to get mixed messages about Simon being a Cochlear Implant candidate; hopefully, that will become clearer soon.

Tara and Simon were on TV last week, when they were at the Mighty-O doughnut shop. Movie star!

Our man, Simon

We have our only son, Simon, who we've been over the moon about since his birth. Tara and I truly enjoy our roles as parents, and it is amazing to see him grow and develop. We noticed and were concerned when he didn't start talking at 12 months; when he wasn't talking in December at 18 months, we took him to Children's Hospital for a hearing screening, which indicated that he had some hearing loss.

A January BAER showed that Simon's hearing loss is most likely in the severe to profound range. We were hoping that he would have had some hearing that could be amplified by hearing aids, but that may not be the case. We're now trying hearing aids for a while, and then if they prove ineffective, he may be a candidate for a cochlear implant.

We've been looking at different birth - 3 and preschool programs, and met with folks from the Hearing, Speech, and Deafness Center, Listen and Talk, and Family Conversations. We're going to start with Family Conversations, as we still don't really know his true level of hearing, and want him to have a way of communicating as quickly as possible. We just went to our first weekend series of sign language classes (for Signed Exact English), and will be going weekly starting in April. It was great to be in a room with other families in a similar situation, and to feel like we were doing something proactive to help Simon communicate.

He's a good little guy; he loves brushing his teeth, putting his coat on, finding his shoes, and going to the playground. We can't get him to eat vegetables for the life of us... or fresh fruit, for that matter. Our guy loves some carbohydrates.