Fun at Riverfest & Update on our Norah

Norah, Lori and I all loaded up for the Riverfest and headed out for some fun. I forgot my beloved camera, augh, there was some of the best photos to be had out there and I was missing my camera at alot of times during the day. Norah is holding one of the many crafts she got to make while we were there. Look at that coca brown skin. I am so jealous of her melanin.

Onto the update. As for Norah taking to me, it has gotten so much better in just two months. She has progressed so much but I have seen the most improvment in the last two weeks because Lori leaves for work before I do. I am the one who gets Norah up and dressed for "School", it is daycare but it is more like school for a four year old than daycare. It is structured and all the three and four year olds are learning some sign language. They were learning a little before Norah got there but added a whole lot more once she arived. Norah's teacher (Mrs. Gina) has really taken to signing, as well as talking to Norah. We purchased her a sign exact english book for her to look up new signs as they need them to communicate with Norah. I can tell you, having Mrs. Gina there helps. She is motivated and has really attached to Norah and Norah has really taken to her too. She even calls her "mygirl". We are very fortunate.

Today when while were out Norah was very affectionate to us both. If we needed to go somewhere she would have me carry her or hold my hand and walk next to Lori. That was totally unthinkable two months ago, she would go with me and have fun but if Lori was around Norah would only let Lori do those things. I can see it in her eyes now too, before she would look lovingly into Lori's eye and when I looked her in the eyes she would avert her gaze. Now she will look lovingly into my eyes at diffrent times of the day. In the morning when I carry her or if we are just playing, or in the moring when I am doing her hair and putting her hearing aids in.

Speaking of hearing aids, when you have a deaf child and get them hearing aids aid they don't just start talking. It is a long prosses. We are working on just listening to sound and understanding that "Hey, there is a noise, maybe I should turn my head and pay attention." When we first started she would not turn her head for even loud noises, now there are a few items she will hear and turn her head everytime, like the drum Annies Dad gave us for Norah when we were in China. One thing she dose do is say bye-bye now when we are leaving some where. That is her first and only spoken English word. We chosw bye-bye to work on because it was very similar to the "baa" sound that she bables with all the time. It will be some time before she develpos speach. That is why signing is so important to her. Her vocabulary is growing as fast as Lori and I can learn sign. She can say sooo much more with signing. She started out as we did with one word signs, now she can understand whole sentences from us and has started signing back in 2 and 3 word sentences just this week. She is learing to be polite and signs "thank you" to people and us on her own.

A large part of this progress is thanks to the people at Arknasas Childrens Hospital. After this last appointment it seems more than likely Norah will be getting a Choclear implant so she can get more of the sounds needed to develop speach. For now our goal is to be able to teach her to speak and sign at the same time only time will tell if that is possable or not. This child amazes us all the time so we will just work at it and see what tomorrow brings...

Glen