Love is in the air!

We love Valentine's day around here! Well, let me rephrase that...I love Valentine's day and am training Marlee to love it too! Red and pink, hearts, flowers, chocolate - you don't get much better than that. Since I love all things girly and Marlee is sure to follow in my footsteps ;), we, naturally, love this holiday! I should mention that my birthday is the day after Valentine's day, so growing up with heart filled birthday parties also has a little (or a lot) to do with my love of February.

My 11th birthday party!

This year our Valentine festivities began on Thursday, the 13th. I keep my nephew on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, so we had a Valentine's  party with Marlee's first true Valentine, her cousin, Hunt. I stayed up (entirely too late) the night before making a felt heart garland to hang on the mantle to make things feel a little festive.

We colored, made cards, ate heart cookies, and most importantly, made very cute Valentine hats. 

As you can see, Hunt and Marlee were thrilled with the whole paper plate hat idea! 

These two just do what they're told!

But this face says the party was a success!

The fun continued that night at Greg's parent's home with my first birthday celebration of the year!

The next day Marlee and I planned a Valentine lunch date at Swanky's with our Valentine, but first we had to take a few pictures in her cute Valentine's dress. Because you only have so many chances to wear a V-day dress, pictures are necessary to justify buying the dress! Of course, the garland I stayed up half the night making had to be in the pictures as well!

Then we headed to Swanky's because what says Valentine's day more than tacos and cheese dip?!

After that, we had some special Valentines to deliver!

That night, Greg and I went to see a movie. I'd say popcorn after cheese dip is a great way to spend your Valentine's day!

My littlest Valentine <3

Our weekend continued with lots of birthday fun! At my request, Mom, Elisabeth, Hunt, Marlee, and I spent all day shopping! My birthday gift from Greg was tickets to see Wicked at the Orpheum that Saturday night. We actually had reservations to eat at Mesquite Chophouse first, but they overbooked and, sadly, we had to leave before we ate. So it was a (very) quick dinner at Newks instead. A disappointing start, but the play made up for it! I absolutely loved Wicked, and we had really great seats!

Last, but not least, we celebrated with my family on Sunday.

And THAT is a perfect Valentines/birthday weekend!

It's a bird, it's a....

PLANE! An airplane flew over our house while we were outside playing today. This girl pointed right to her ear and then up to the plane!! We have never pointed out a plane or its sound to her before. Not even four months after activation, she heard the sound and located it...unbelievable!!  Yay for Marlee! Yay for cochlear implants!!!

Hearing Aid Day

One year ago today Marlee received hearing aids. Hearing aids only amplify existing sound, so why get hearing aids when we knew she was not hearing?

Well, Marlee was not responding to any sound when tested; however, that test only goes up to 90 dB which is about as loud as a lawn mower or fire alarm. Those things are very loud, but there are louder sounds. We were told that it is unusual for a deaf person to hear absolutely no sounds at all. Hearing aids would amplify any sound Marlee may be hearing. Something like a jack hammer may sound very faint, but still be heard on some level...that's great providing you are a construction worker exposed to lots of jack hammers. We always laughed about the possibility of aids helping her to hear a jack hammer!

We were fairly certain that aids would not provide Marlee with enough sound to develop speech and language; yet, a person only becomes a cochlear implant candidate when it is proven that hearing aids will not benefit enough to provide language development. Also, even if the aids only provided a small amount of amplification, it was important to keep the hearing nerves stimulated until she received the implants. So all in all, we were very excited about this next step. For the first time, we felt like we could do something to help Marlee. Either the hearing aids would actually help her hear and develop speech or they would be the next step toward cochlear implants.

We were told to anticipate a little bit of sadness when we first saw Marlee with the hearing aids, but for us, there was nothing but excitement on this day. Molds for the aids had already been made, so today was just about putting them on her ears and giving lots of instructions to her mom and dad! I was so glad my mom came with us too!

It helped that Marlee was just perfect through the entire appointment! It was a happy day!

Our audiologist at the time, Dr. Mutchler, has been a huge part of Marlee's hearing journey. Her kindness and understanding during every step was such a comfort and encouragement. It is a special doctor who will cry with you after delivering bad news and call to check on you later. She answered hours worth of questions during appointments and on the phone. She showed us such love and compassion, and I am forever grateful.

Dr. Mutchler is no longer our audiologist, but is still our friend. This year we went back to see her over Christmas. I hope that can be a tradition!

Ultimately, hearing aids did not amplify sound enough to benefit Marlee. We saw her turn to sound on just a few occasions, but never consistently. And that jack hammer?? Well, we just happened to walk right by one at the zoo. So, of course, we turned around to walk by it again and again. She never even turned her head toward it. Just confirmation to us that this girl needed to be implanted, so that's exactly what happened! Today, she's turning to sound like a pro! I think that's amazing!!

Oh, and here are some pictures of creative things you do to try and keep hearing aids on the baby's ears and not in their mouth...

Between bows, hats, headbands, and equipment, Marlee has always had something on her head!! I wonder what she thinks about all of that... :)