I have to say, TulipGirl made my day (maybe even my weeek!) I had a comment this morning that someone actually checks my blog! Whoohoo! LOL!! I am such a bad blogger! I think about it often and then I get busy on something else. I realized that my last post was the beginning of the school year and now here we are winding down. So much has happened this year!
Chelsea did go to private school, had a rough start because of the higher academic expectations, overcame and made some huge strides, got a part in the school play, had some awesome teachers, made some friends, and now she has decided to go back to public school for her senior year. It's not what I would choose for her, but we promised her the choice if she would try private school for a year. I am proud of her for trying it and how far she has come!
Foster has had a great year. He and his best friend, G. have survived the year with friendship intact. They get regular playdates after school and he sees G. on Wednesdays when the homeschoolers come to campus for their programs.
Faith has not let the hearing loss slow her down at all! Neither has Ella! Both girls recently scored above age level on all of their language tests. I am still worried about Faith's pre-reading skills, but all I have to compare her to is Foster (not the norm! His reading scores came back at 9.o recently, yes that's a 9th grade reading level - he's only in second grade). Everyone tells me she is just fine and right on track so I am trying not to worry! Ella is communicating up a storm. Just in the past month of so it seems she made the shift from repeating things that she hear to expressing her own ideas. Now she isn't completely talking in understandable sentences, but she definitely gets her point across! There other day Faith was at Granny's and Ella and I were at our house. Ella comes up to me with the phone. "Bai(t)... Bai(t)...!" (That's Ella's way of saying "Faith", the (t) is very soft.)
Me: Faith is at Granny's, Honey! What are you doing with the phone? Oh, do you want to call Faith?"
Ella nods furiously and hands me the phone. I call explain to my mom that Ella wants to talk to Faith and Faith gets on the phone. I hand the phone to Ella.
Ella: Bai(t)? Bai(t)? Where you?
Faith: I am at Granny's.
Ella: Wha' doin'?
Faith: Playing outside.
Ella: Dogs?
Faith: Yes, I am playing with the dogs.
Ella: Dogs! (I think this meant something like "Pet the dogs for me!" It was a statement where as the previous "dogs" was definitely a question.)
Faith: Okay!
Ella: Bye-bye! Ha' guhh da! (Have a good day! We always say this in the morning when dropping the kids off for school and Ella has picked it up. In her vocabulary, it goes with "bye-bye". LOL!)
Faith: Bye!
So there you have it! A complete telephone conversation from my hard-of-hearing 20 month old! I was so proud and a little amazed! Even all the therapy and testing and assurances from professionals didn't ease my fears as much as that innocent exchange between sisters on the phone. She's doing fine!Here's a fairly recent photo of Ella. You can see her sparkly ear molds if you look closely.
