Life is Good!

I realize that I haven't posted in awhile...just busy with life and summer!  We've had a great summer so far.  Ellie continues to thrive with her cochlear implants!  I always try to get her doing new things on video, but she never seems to cooperate.  :)  She is saying "Hi" all the time!  This week she learned where her nose is...I ask her "Where is Ellie's nose?" and she points to it.  Also, whenever one of her "ears" falls off, she says "uh-oh".  :) I guess that's the newest for now.

Here is a video of her--in the beginning I am trying to get her to flap her arms up and down like a duck when I say "Quack, Quack."  She kind of does it with one arm as she is walking away from me.  Then, you will hear her saying "Hi." The last trick I was able to catch on video is her showing me "how big is Ellie."  You will see that she is a very busy girl--she will not stop for ANYTHING!  Go to youtube to see it...here is the site:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVlaQx_HsIQ
                                               Here are some pictures from our summer times!

                                              Ellie and her cousins at the strawberry patch.

                                              Swinging at Young State Park

                                            Ellie's favorite thing to do while camping was pushing her stroller.

                                       Not sure why...but this was Ellie's favorite pose on the beach.

                                               SO excited!!

                                           Surfer Girl!

                                      
                                                          Family Pic

New Tricks :)

I know it has been awhile since my last post!  We've been pretty busy over here!  Ellie is listening and learning lots of new things.  She is now hearing things and responding with actions.  When we say "quack, quack, quack," she flaps her arms up and down.  (She even does a little squat along with it sometimes)   :)  She lifts up her shirt and points to her belly button when we ask her where it is.  When we say "How big is Ellie?", she lifts up her hands.  (Our next goal of course is to get her to vocalize with each of these actions!)  She just started trying to say "buh-bye."  When she waves to people, it sometimes comes out more like "va-va."  But she is trying!

Here are some pictures from our camping trip this past weekend!

Need baby/kid gear??

A woman from our church, Jamie Bird, has offered to help us out with some more of our medical expenses.  She has offered to generously donate 50% of the proceeds from her website.  She has TONS of gear!  And it's SUPER cute stuff!  Check it out at www.minimebabygear.com.  This fundraiser only lasts until next Friday, June 4th, so get your orders in soon!!  (don't forget to put "ELLIE" in the discount code during checkout.)  :)  Thanks for your support!

Another great hearing test!

We did another hearing test with Ellie--this time at Shawnee Park, with Jack and Kelly.  Last time, Ellie was kind of scared to be in the booth, so we were hoping that today would be a better experience.  We discovered that she is scared when we shut the door, so we kept the door open.  It also was kind of dark in there, so we brought a lamp in for more light.  High maintenance little girl!  :)  When we were finally settled, Jack tested the different levels and frequencies.  They seemed to be about the same as what we found at Spectrum Audiology with Darcy.  There was even one time when Kelly and I barely heard the sound, but Ellie looked up, letting us know that she heard it! 

We are having fun with Ellie and figuring out that she is learning pretty fast!  When we say that we're going to go "bye-bye," she starts walking to the door.  And some of the time (not always), when we ask her where her belly button is, she lifts up her shirt and shows us!  :)  She says "ma-ma-ma-ma-ma" a lot, and we are starting to randomly hear other sounds, like "ba".   This afternoon, while Ellie was napping, I was taking some laundry upstairs to fold.  I set the basket on the floor--actually, kind of dropped it on the floor without thinking...5 seconds later, Ellie was up from her nap because she felt the vibration all the way in her bedroom!  It still amazes me that she is so sensitive to that while she is sleeping! 

Here are some pictures of our beautiful day today!  Ellie never likes to look at the camera, so they are kind of random, but cute nonetheless.  :)

Good Reports!

We went to see the audiologist again yesterday. I was a little discouraged because Ellie was still only on the 1st program. But we did a hearing test, and it showed that Ellie is hearing as low as 20 dB. So technically, she could hear a whisper where she is at now. Darcy wrote on the audiogram, "Responses to narrowband noise in the sound field are in the borderline normal to mild hearing loss range at 500-4000 Hz." Wow! Borderline normal! Yay! So now, we are working on short "stuttering" noises versus long noises--trying to get her to copy us. :) Here is a video of Ellie responding to her name!

Airplane noises

I just wanted to quick share a fun thing that happened with Ellie's class today! Her teacher, Kelly, always brings different toys each week for Ellie to play with. Today she had the cars, trucks, helicopters, and airplanes (and many others!) :) Kelly was making the airplane noise (ahhhhhhhh)--start low pitch, go higher, and come back down again. Then she showed Ellie the airplane and Ellie did the same noise! This is so awesome to see Ellie copy a noise that she has actually heard!

Ellie has been experimenting with her "soprano" voice for the past few days. It sounds like she is whining all day--Kelly calls it singing. :) She is just constantly making high-pitched noises! The only problem is that we can't really tell when she is actually whining...we just figure that she experimenting with her voice. :)

Music :)

This past weekend, Ellie started dancing to music! It is difficult to tell when she is actually dancing to the sound of music because she dances all the time. We have a CD player that lights up when it spins, so Ellie learned early on (when she couldn't hear anything) that when it lights up, we dance. However, I have a CD that first has some talking for about 10-15 seconds, then the music begins. This past Saturday, Ellie didn't do anything during the talking part, but she started dancing when the music began! Then she did the same thing a little later in the day! It was fun to see, and to know that she is distinguishing between music and talking. :) I'll try to get it on video sometime!