First, he taught me that he can say more than I give him credit for. As a part of our agreement to participate in a Med-El study of newly activated babies/toddlers, I had to complete a receptive and expressive diary listing all the words, approximations, and learning to listen sounds that Thomas knows and/or says. I won't take you through all the statistics, because it would probably bore anyone that isn't his parent. However I will say that, I was shocked by the results. No, shocked doesn't do it justice...I was you've got to be freakin' kidding me, pick my jaw up off the floor, get me a doctor to restart my heart...kind of shocked. He knows and says WAY more than I was giving him credit for. While he isn't a "normal" child nor is he a CI superhero, he is making some really great progress. We wouldn't be where we are today without his A-FREAKIN'-MAZING cert AVT, Ms. Becky, his wonderful teachers at the Hearing School of the Southwest and his 7-year old sister, Sidney. Can I get a "yahoo" or "maa-woo" (as Thomas says it) for these women -- they are the rock stars in Thomas' life.
The second thing that I learned from Thomas in the past couple of days is that he's not a mama's boy anymore. Gone are the days of tearful good-byes, well on Thomas' part at least. On Thursday of last week, I walked Thomas to his class at the Hearing School. Previously, this activity meant that Thomas would be clutching my leg and whining for me not to leave him. However, this time was different. He walked into the classroom and sat down with the other children. He took the play dough out, waved to me, blew me kisses and said, "bye-bye." So, I started to tear up a little and stopped to talk with his teacher by the door. Thomas heard me talking and got up out of his chair. He walked over to the door, waved to me again and proceeded to shut it on my face. That little stinker!
He showed me again that he's much more comfortable with leaving his mama when we went for our first swimming lesson. Okay, I have got to stop hear and give a BIG THANK YOU to Lucas' mom, Jennifer, for posting about their swimming lessons -- Lucas has LVAS just like Thomas and swimming lessons can help with balance challenges and for Thomas swimming will help to build his core muscles. Jennifer lit a fire under my rear and I signed Thomas up for lessons, too.
So, I take Thomas to lessons, get him changed into his swim suit, and we wait for Ms. Katherine to come and get us. As you can see from the picture below, Thomas really wanted to open the door to the pool and jump right in...alas, we talked a lot about waiting our turn...my talking to him really didn't help -- he wanted in that swimming pool!
When Ms. Katherine came to get Thomas, he waved good-bye to me (no words this time because I'm not brave enough yet to let him swim with his CI on) and off he went with a complete and total stranger. Yes, I cried as I watched him get into the water and not give me a second thought. He swam for 30 minutes, jumping in the water, going under while holding Ms. Katherine's hands, learning to kick, etc. He had a complete blast as you can see from the pictures below.
Ms. Katherine was awesome. She is a certified swim instructor for special needs children and has taught many deaf and HoH kids and adults to swim. She will use the tied noodle under his arms for a portion of each lesson until Thomas understands what to do without visual cues. Thanks to Alyssa for finding this teacher for me!
So, Thomas is definitely teaching me some lessons...I'm not the only teacher in this relationship. He is doing well in life, not the mythical normal child, no. And I wonder, who really wants the normal child anyway? I'm happy with what I've got...a child that is deaf in one ear, HoH in the other, who has sensory integration issues, a child that is completely crazy, a child that is amazing to me and one that I should give more credit.
What a great post Kat! xoxo
ReplyDeletePS - you forgot to put yourself on the amazing women in his life list! You should be at the top! Seriously.