Dibble Dibble Dibble Dop

...that's the sound, in Marlee's favorite book, "Mr. Brown Can Moo, Can You?," that Dr. Seuss says rain makes as it drip drops to the ground. Running bath water, on the other hand, makes a much louder sound. A sound Marlee just heard for the first time last week!

We take Marlee's implants off before bathtime because they cannot get wet. She sees the water running (and loves it) but doesn't hear it. We did not realize she had never heard the water until she stood by the bathtub with her implants on last week. When Greg turned the water on, her eyes became as big as saucers, and she quickly backed away. She was nervous until we showed her what the noise was and let her feel the water.

The next night, when Greg started her bath water, I was playing with Marlee in her room. Through her bedroom wall she heard the water come on and, again, startled. She gave me a puzzled look and immediately pointed to her ear - telling me that she wanted to know what was making the sound. I took her to the bathtub so she could see it was the same noise she heard the night before.

I hope I always remember the, usually apprehensive, look on Marlee's face when she hears something new. I love watching her make connections as she intently points to her ear. Watching her discover sounds will never cease to amaze me. I pray Marlee will never take her gift of hearing for granted - I sure don't!

                      Splish Splash!!

18 Month Update

I don't know how it happened so quickly, but it did! Today, I have an 18 month old baby who seems more like a toddler every day!

Marlee's latest stats:

She is 25 lbs., 31 inches.
Wears 18-24 month clothes and size 5 shoes.
Began walking at 17 months and has not looked back!
Recently decided to feed herself cheerios in the morning all by herself with a spoon!

Has some sweet curls :)

Marlee's favorites:

Sesame Street

Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Reading books! Especially, "Mr. Brown Can Moo...Can you?"

Dancing every time she hears music!

Flipping through her mommy's magazines :).

"Coloring" and perusing coloring books!

Carrying around any type of bag like it is a purse...often while pushing her shopping cart. 

Going on wagon rides with her cousin Hunt.

Playing with her alphabet blocks - examines them, hides them, stacks them, and pretty much plays with them all day!

Laughing at her daddy! She LOVES her daddy!

Oh and playing peakaboo!!!

When Marlee is not doing these things, you will likely find her waving and saying "bye-bye", pointing at things excitedly while saying something that sounds like "that", and "mooing" when she sees a cow! 

You may not see her smiling in a stroller when she would rather be walking, while getting her diaper changed, or when we leave her in the church nursery. You also will not find her sleeping all night :).

We are amazed at all Marlee is learning and doing. Recently, her "listening" age jumped four months in just one. Her occupational therapist told us that she has never seen a child make so many improvements in such a short amount of time. In fact, that therapist will start coming monthly instead of weekly just to check up on Marlee. We cannot say enough wonderful things about cochlear implants and the way they have changed Marlee's life in every way - not just hearing- in only 5 months! 

Marlee, you are our joy!

We love watching you grow and learn! 

Thank you for being our happy little girl!

Fun with Playdough

Yesterday, during therapy at MOSD, Marlee helped make play dough. They made all sorts of shapes using cookie cutters. Marlee mimicked an airplane flying and a bunny hopping. She even made noises like Mrs. Nathalie was making with the airplane and the bunny. 

She was engaged and had so much fun! She sat and played for half an hour and was not happy when play time was over.  

Why is it, though, that when we play with play dough at home all she wants to do is eat it?

Maybe it was being buckled into the cute little just-her-size chair. We need one of these at home and the table too! They use these chairs in the two year old class at MOSD. You should see them all buckled in at the table listening to their teacher. It's precious!

Well, whatever the reason for the excellent behavior, I'm onto her now! Next time we play at home,  I will expect nothing less than playing with, not eating, the play dough :).

Ling Sounds

Over the last year, Marlee has had speech therapy in our home once a week. During each session the therapist conducts what is called the Ling Six Sound test.  It is a quick listening test created by Daniel Ling who was a hearing loss "guru".

"The Ling-6 sounds represent various different speech sounds from low to high pitch (frequency). They help to test your child’s hearing and to check they have access to the full range of speech sounds necessary for learning language." This quote came from Cochlear's website.

                                          Here are the ling six sounds: 

These sounds are a good, quick way to test hearing because they are all found within the speech spectrum and span from low to high frequencies.  It is often used as a way to make sure hearing aids or cochlear implants are working correctly. In our case, we first began using the test to see if hearing aids were providing Marlee with any speech sounds. The goal in the Ling 6 test is, of course, to turn to the sound when it is made. Marlee was tested weekly but never turned to any of these sounds consistently with her hearing aids. She turned to "ah" a couple of times, but nothing to indicate she was always hearing that sound. 

After Marlee's implants were activated, we continued the test each week during therapy. Slowly but surely she began turning to some of the sounds. It was SO exciting to see her turn after months of seeing her continue to look strait ahead, not hearing a sound. On January 16th, Marlee turned to ALL of the Ling sounds!!! That's a big deal! Four months earlier she was not hearing any sounds, and now she is hearing even the soft sound of "s". 

The next week during therapy, I videoed the Ling 6 test. We owe a big thank you to our sweet therapist, Miss Elizabeth, for all of her hard work with Marlee!! We love when she comes to see us each week! 

Here are the six, short videos:

                      

So, now that Marlee is turning to these sounds does that mean she's good to go? The answer to that is not at all! Hearing the Ling six sounds is big step that suggests the implants are giving her full access to sound, and now we can start concentrating on all of the complexities that go along with learning to listen and to speak. Listening will never be normal or come naturally to Marlee, but that is why we will continue therapy and she will soon begin going to school five days a week. Turning to these six sounds is one of the first of many miracles we will experience as Marlee progresses through her hearing journey! 

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... :)