Friday, November 28, 2008

Settling In




November has been a fun month - I hate to see it end! For Emma it has been a month full of school, sleep overs with Cassie, reading her first book, 100% on a her first spelling test, learning how to say "Mama" and "Da", and settling in. Oh, and most important of all, hair long enough to put in pigtails! This had her dancing around the room excited!

Emma seems more relaxed with each passing day - always full of hugs and ready for the next adventure. Shopping is by far one of her favorite things. She loves to write things down on the grocery list, head off to town, and get ice cream cones from McDonalds.

She also likes to take care of people Feeding and putting band-aids on her family members are important to Emma. No matter how small her brother's injuries are, she drags them to me for inspection and treatment. Her Dad has also become the apple of her eye these days (and vice versa). She gets so excited when I say we are taking dinner to her dad, signing "My daddy is hungry!" She wants to put it all together and present it by herself. The other night she trudged across the field so she could hand deliver food to Vernon in the combine, refusing any help from me. I was sure she's spill it, but she didn't. And she was beeming proud when she handed it to him and then climbed up in the cab for a ride.

This Thanksgiving I am just so very thankful that this little girl is a part of our lives.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Cochlear Implant Update

I'm a little late posting this - but all the testing is done and the verdict is in: The Cochlear Implant team at Boy's Town National Research Hospital has accepted Emma as a cochlear implant candidate! We are waiting on some paperwork right now and then they will schedule a surgery date. We are SO excited for Emma. In the meantime they started her out with a hearing aid. She doesn't seem to notice sound much just yet, but they said this is normal and it will take time for her brain to start interpretting sounds. But, every now and then, she gets a funny look on her face, signs to me that she just heard something, and then nods thoughtfully. Too cute!

Today she is being evaluated by a nearby school that has a deaf/hard of hearing program that she may be able to go to. We are keeping our fingers crossed, as we think this will be a great place for Emma to learn more sign language and have access to all the resources that will help her catch up. Hopefully we'll get some Thanksgiving pictures soon. Emma's hair is getting longer and she's been SO excited about this! She put it in tiny pony tails and danced around her room!