Hearing Aids the Naked Truth

So my son Sammy has bi-lateral hearing loss.  Mild to moderate in his right and mild in his left.  This means that he needs to wear hearing aids as much as he and I can tolerate.  So when Sam was 8 months old he was fitted for hearing aids.  They take an impression of your ears and cast a mold from that and sent it to you in the mail.  The cool part is you get to choose what color your mold will be so we went with red and green for Christmas. 

As you can imagine getting an 8 month old to wear a hearing aid is about impossible.  He tore those things out and threw them all most the second they hit his ears.  If he didn't throw them right away he would suck on them, and then they would short out and die.  So our first hearing aid only lasted a month. 

We got our second set of hearing aids in March when he was about a year old.  After learning he is deaf blind and the duel sensory lose is a major thing and he needs all the input possible so we got the left and right ear aided this time.  We went with red white and blue molds. 

He also had a fancy test called an ABR which is a sedated hearing test that measures how well the brain is getting sound.  This is important because a 1 year old isn't always great at telling you what he can and cannot hear.

That set of hearing aids was by far my favorite.  They fit his ears really well, and we wore them all the time, then he out grew them.  We went for Green and White that time and ironically lost one of them on the campus of MSU.  We lost the other aid 2 days later.  Rather impressive since we had never lost an aid till then.   The good news is his aids are covered for 1 year and we had them from just under one year so we got new ones in the mail.

About this time an organization called Hands and Voices contacted us.  To this day I'm not sure what their purpose is but they came to the house and chatted with us for a bit and gave me a binder on hearing loss.  Funny thing is for us, hearing loss is just a stepping stone if you will.  For many parents hearing loss is the worst diagnosis they will have to deal with and I feel like they didn't know what to do with us since its only a small portion of our issue.

So now we have Yellow, Red and Black aids for Mickey Mouse.  The right ear doesn't fit into his ear canal very well and he gags when I try and get it in and for some reason he doesn't like to only wear one aid.  So we are waiting for tomorrow, he has another hearing test and hopefully he either does so well we can pitch the aids or Lori can help me fit the new aid into his funky ear canal or make us a new mold. 

Don't ask unless you really want to know

So their is this Thai restaurant here in town.  Jeremy and I both really like it.  We have been there so many times we know the people that work there.  They are always very nice when we go in, ask how my kids are and I ask about hers.

Well the other day I decided we should have Thai for dinner since we hadn't been in a while.  I go in and Kim was sitting there with her nephew and she says "wow you look great, whats you secret to lossing the baby weight  are you on a diet or is it stress?"  I stood there for a sec and thought about my answer.  What do I tell her?  Do I lie and say nothing special.  Do I say breastfeeding which is at least partailly true?  Or do I tell the truth and say my son was born with a rare genetic disease that you have never heard of before and every time we can home from a specialist with a new list of what was "wrong" with him I didn't feel like eating for the next day or so. 

Its kind of like when you are late to something and someone says something like "did you get into a car wreck or what"  Well sometimes the answer to that question is yes.  So in the end I told her that I breast feed for a while and that Sam was a little sick as a newborn so some of my weight loss was due to stress but now he is doing better.  She said, "oh so you breastfed", a little uncomfortably, and then changed the subject.

I felt kinda of bad about the conversation.  She wasn't in any way trying to be mean or rude, and I didn't want to lie to her but I did kinda feel like the whole story was way to much information.  I guess the lesson here is don't ask unless you really want to know.

Sense of Direction

I have a really bad sense of direction.  Even on routes I have taken many times before I can get lost.  I have trouble with North, South, East, and West.  Don't even get me started on Left vs Right.  I don't know why this is really.  A friend of mine asked my dad if I came into the world backwards and my dad said "well actually she was breach."  Well at least I get it honestly. 

I bring this up because my son Max has an excellent sense of direction.  He knows the second I take a different way home, he yells from the back seat "going the wrong way!"  Then I have to explain to him why I went the way I went. 

We were at St Joe's a while back for some apt and we left the hospital a little differently than we had entered.  I was looking around the parking lot for our car and Max pipes up and says "the car is over in there mom"  Oh yeah, so it is.

My favorite happened just recently.  The family had gone to the Hands On Museum and Jeremy lead us around the block the wrong way to get inside.  On the way out he said we should go the other way, and we did and i looked at jeremy and we both quietly said I wonder if Max will notice.  Sure enough "your going the wrong way mom and dad"   He so did not get that from me.

Who knew?

Max will be 4 years old in July.  I am excited about preparing his party.  Even more excited about him starting preschool.  But what I want to know is why no one ever told me, or why I never really knew about 4 year olds. 

Did you know for instance that 4 year olds have really bad attitudes?  I didn't, I never would have imagined that Max would look at me with disdain and say No like a teenager. 

Did you know they ask 400 questions a day.  Not just why, more elaborate than that.  Why are we going this way?  Why did you do that?  Where did the dog, cat, you, me, plants, and every toy I have ever gotten come from?

Did you know that 4 year old girls tattle tale like crazy over ever little stupid thing possible?  Stupid stuff like "Hey mom the cat is eating" "Hey mom, Max is sitting in a chair".

Did you know that 4 is when they learn to lie?  They aren't very good at it yet but they will lie to you.

I can't believe I didn't know about any of this.  I know my son isn't the only one because when someone says they have a 4ish year old I say "oh dear" and I always get a knowing smile. 

Know by no means is 4 all bad.  They say and do really cool, and funny things.  For example the other day I said "I have and idea".  Max asked where and I said, um in my head.  Max replied, "I want one too."  Later he hurt himself and I asked him if he stubbed his toe, he said "no I hurt my feelings"  So now he is crying and I am trying not to laugh.

Blood Everywhere!

On Tuesday I was doing laundry.  The plan was for me to put away laundry, get Sam a nap in and then go to the park.  Sam was in his brothers corvette bed. I had my back turned and I heard a thud.  A forhead on metal thud.  I turned around and scooped up Sam knowing that had to hurt.  Then I looked at his face.  I couldn't tell where all this blood was comming from but their was a LOT OF IT!  I thought at first maybe it was his nose, then I saw his forhead.  It had a 1/2 long cut right in the center.  I ran downstairs to my phone and called my poor husband and said there is blood everywhere come home now!  He arrived to find out I was not exaggerating.  By then Sam and I were covered in blood.  I looked like I had committed a crime.  I knew he needed stitches so I took a 3 min shower and we drove him to Mott's  .  We decided to take Max with us, he looked terrified and I need Jeremy to help me keep Sam's hands of his face in the car.

 One burrito wrapped baby later we had 3 stitches.  I feel like maybe he needed 4 since on side is a little open but he seems no worse for wear. 

My little Frankenstein.  Too bad it isn't Halloween.

Hamburg Family Fun Fest

We went to the Hamburg Family Fun Fest tonight with my dad.  Its a little carnival put on by the small town of Hamburg.  Max has been there once before when he was small this was Sams first trip. 

We arrived and Max wanted to ride the big steering wheel. Ferris wheel actually.  The closer we got to the actually "steering wheel" the less excited he was about it.  He choose to ride the carosel instead with my dad.  Then we say the little kiddie coaster that all fairs have and I didn't think he would want to on but he would if I went.  So we got on and he had a great time.  We rode it twice, the second time in the front seat with grandpa. 

Sam got to sample his first elephant ear which of course enjoyed.  We played a balloon pop game and Max poped 4 balloons to win a minion doll.  The carnie was impressed. 

Front seats on the caterpillar ride.

Sammy ready for anything as usual.

This was from 2009, Max's first trip to the fair.

Where is my wiener?

Max has been asking a pretty wide array of questions lately.  I know this is normal 4ish year old behavior but he has expanded on just the simply "why".  The other day he wanted to know where he came from.  I told him my tummy.  He then proceeded to ask me where every person he knew came from.  When he ran out of people he knew he started asking about where the pets came from.  We were on the way to Ohio at the time.

Yesterday he asked me where my wiener was.  I told him I didn't have one.  And of course he asked why.  I told him mom's don't have wieners.  I thought that satisfied him, its not the only time he has asked that question but this was different, he is a little older and he then asked how I peed.  I really need to start locking the bathroom door.