Finally! an update.

Norah turned 5 years old this month and had a wonderful birthday party at Nana and Papa‘s house. There were more toys, cake and ice cream than any one of us needed. Lori got Norah an “It’s My Birthday shirt” to wear that was big enough to wear next year too. Lori had also bought Norah a Princess and the Frog doll for her birthday gift. The swingset was Norahs big birthday present but we wanted her to have something small to open up at her birthday dinner.

We have had to start bribing Norah to get her to do her listening practice. She now has to listen three times. After each lesson she gets to put a sticker on a page we printed out and then after three stickers she gets a suprise. The suprises are just stuff that we picked up at the dollar store and wrapped up. It really seems to be working. When we were doing listening practice the other day Norah's prize was a frog house. She asked me to get her a frog for her house, so I went outside and in two minuets was back with a frog for her. Oh my, she was so excited, she helps me put the frog into the house and runs to her room, returning with princess Tiana so she could talk to the actual frog. Norah played with the frog and doll as if they could understand one another. It was to funny watching how her mind works and seeing her having fun using her imagination. After about 20 minuets I liberated the frog back outside so that he could get some rest from what was fun for Norah but I’m sure traumatizing to the frog.
Norah has only been wearing her new CI on her left ear and is doing extremely well with it. She tested at 25 DB in the booth but we all know she can hear at a lower level than that. The problem is that Norah wants to recognize the sound and then work on figuring out how to say the sound back before she will respond. She can now hear so low that you can’t get your voice to make a eeeee, ooooo, ahhh, or mmmmm sound that's too low for her to hear she can hear them all. So the only sounds we can get make that low are the sssss or shhhhh sound and that is just putting your lips togather and blowing very softly. The 25 DB she got in the booth is what they call a "super score" she can actually hear alot lower than that but will often freeze up until it is loud enough to where she can recognize if she is hearing ssss or shhhh and say it back. So the good news is Norah can now hear a nat fart. We know she is in a good map and we will give her back her other ear after she develops very good discrimination in her new ear. Then we will start working on discrimination by picking the right photo when she hears words like rat, bat, and cat. Then hopefully advance to things like movie, moving. The next few weeks we will be working on her using her voice to respond to signed questions. If we ask Norah a question in sign language that is a yes or no to have her answer with her voice yes or no. She can say the word no but yes is very hard for her still, maybe it will come around.

In other news Miss Annie went back home to China this week. I drove her and her friend to the airport last Tuesday. I am so proud of her and we look forward to her coming back in August for next school year. I'm sure that Annies family is VERY excited to have her home for awhile. They are wonderful people and love her dearly.

Brandon is still working away at school. He missed the May 14th graduation because he has another class to complete. His new finish date is June 7th. Other than that he is hanging out with his girlfriend and being a typical teenager.

2 short clips of Norah

A swing for Norah.

Norahs birthday swing. Lori had been saving in her Christmas account at work for Norah to get a swing and one went on sale for just the right amount she had so we went and got it early because it was on sale, if we waited until her birthday it would have been $75.00 dollars more.

The day before when Lori, Norah and I went to Kmart to pick it up, Norah and I stayed in the truck parked in front of the store. I signed to Norah that Mama was going into the store to get her a swing for the house. She got unbuckled from her seat and was trying to look out the back window. She grew tired of this and turned around and half asking half telling me about the swing she was getting for the house. I confirmed to her that yes she was getting a swing for the house and mama was in the store getting it. Oh she was getting excited. Then Lori exited the store with an employ pushing the cart up to the back of the truck and quickly popping the swing up inside.

Lori gets in and we start pulling away. Norah starts crying the most pitiful lip quivering cry. Lori asks her what’s wrong she can’t even speak or sign she is crushed. I quickly figure out what the matter is. I had told her she was getting a swing and Mama was going to bring it out of the store and if Daddy says something, it happens he never says something to Norah that is not true, even with the swing we had a rain check and Kmart had called Lori to tell her it was in, otherwise I would have not said anything to her on the chance it might not be there. Oh my she was devastated so I pulled the truck over in the parking lot and parked we all got out and showed Norah the box in the back of the truck with the photo of the swing inside. She is not materialistic she does not have to have something every time we go to the store so I don’t think it was total about getting or not getting a swing. I think she was mostly upset because she thought her Daddy who she has grown to love and trust had lied to her about something that is important to her at this time in her life. Lori tells me Norah’s future husband is going to have to be pretty special because she will hold men up to the same standard of treatment and respect her Dad has shown her and that sounds fine with me. Ha ha good luck boys!

Brandon helped put the swing together as we reminisced about how Lori and I spent one late night with a flashlight putting a swing together for him when he was her age so he would be surprised the next morning. We were glad he was here to help this time. After the big day Norah had she disappeared into the bedroom. When I went to check on her the last photo is how I found her, makes my hips hurt just looking at it. I repositioned her and she slept through the night.

Preschool is out for the summer.

Norahs time in preschool was short but she really liked it. She does not understand it is out for the summer, we will miss it. Norah will be turning five soon but next year we are going to send her back to this school because it is the closest thing to an oral- signing deaf school in Arkansas. What I mean by that is at the school they will sign with Norah in SEE2 the same way we do at home and talk to her at the same time, like her hearing peers. With Norah their hands and voices are always on so she is getting visual cues to go with the words she is hearing. She is the only one in the class that uses sign, the rest of the kids are working on becoming oral only but they were Implanted at age two or younger so they not only get the benefit of early intervention but they have been hearing for over two years now. The next year will be a very important one for Norah because Lori and I decided when we first got Norah and did research on late implanted CI kids that we would try to do our best to not get discouraged with Norah’s progress until she has been fully bilaterally implanted for one year. If at that time we see Norah making progress towards understanding speech we would keep moving towards a more hearing form of communication setting. If she looks like she is still stuck not understanding speech at all after one year of being bilaterally implanted then we will reassess how far she has come and the speed of her progress at that time. She has just started labeling things with speech to her best ability. My hope right now is that Norah is soaking up every thing right now like a sponge and sorting it out in her head, and when her mouth catches up with her brain we will see she was understanding a lot more then she let on. She is already showing signs that that is happening. I just won’t know the extent of it for awhile. It will take about a month to get her into a good map with her new ear, she will then have the hearing capability to become oral. We just need to see if her brain can store, process and spit back out the information it is finally receiving.

Photo size comparison Cochlear freedom and the Nucleus 5, or N5

Norah got her New Nucleus 5 CI activated yesterday and is already hearing some sound out of the newly implanted ear. We will keep her other CI off of her ear that has been activated for six months now, until we can get this ear into a good map with discrimination. Then we will program her other N5 to replace her freedom for that ear.

I took some photos for other parents that are wondering about the size comparisons. She has bright pink covers that she picked out for her but you don’t have to have them on it is just to dress them up to her liking.....