Wordless Wednesday

master lip reader

So, I guess I'm not keeping up with all of my New Year's resolutions (namely blogging 2-3 times a week). Some are clashing with others currently. But here I am, and here's a much overdue update. We, like most other parts of the country, have been experiencing some icy, snowy weather.  Lucas has had a blast playing in the snow with his daddy and aunties, while I stand around and take pictures. :)

On the ear front, Lucas has been making some progress, I believe. I am learning, however, that he is a master lip reader. I have to be really extra careful that he cannot see my lips when I'm testing his new ear alone, or else he absolutely knows exactly what I'm saying. It's best if his back is completely to me, because I think sometimes he sees my lips with his peripheral vision when he's not looking directly at me. You can tell that he's still just beginning to recognize some words, because he's terribly uncertain. He plays a guessing game when identifying objects, always looking for confirmation because he's just not sure. He's gaining some confidence though, and we continue to see glimpses, despite the 30 times a day (truly not an exaggeration), when he takes his ear off and we threaten him politely ask him to find his ear immediately as soon as possible. I can't wait until he's over that. One time last week, he even made it an entire 20-minute car ride without ripping it apart and throwing it on the floor. I was seriously thrilled.

I just think it's so interesting how well he reads lips, because he absolutely needs NO visual clues with his first ear. He does not rely upon lip reading one tiny little bit with it, but he's still good at it. I figure that because he is still technically missing one of his senses (even if it's certainly being compensated for really well), the other 4 are stronger, especially his sense of vision. I also think back to his entire first year of life without sound. I think he learned to use his eyes to gain information about his world, because his ears were no good to him. Whatever the reason, lip reading is a great skill for him to have for the future, and right now in the bathtub. Except for when he thinks "no pee pee" and "no mommy" are the same thing. 

We head back to CHOP on Wednesday for another mapping session, an auditory evaluation and an appointment with his ENT, followed by a well-deserved stop at Baja Fresh. Hopefully he'll show some progress since last month. If not, we'll just keep pressing forward. He might need a little extra time. And that's okay. We'll get there. Still thankful for that first ear.

a trick-or-treating kangaroo

Lucas went trick-or-treating for the first time Friday night. Yes, I said Friday night. For some reason, our county decided to trick-or-treat on Friday night because Halloween fell on a Sunday. We went with it! The last 2 years, we just dressed Lucas up and gave out candy. This year, we went door to door in our little cul-de-sac. It was perfect for a little guy. He seriously had a blast. He would scuttle up to the door, ring the doorbell (if he could), and say, "knock, knock, trick or treat." He got to go with his cousin, Ryan, too. They were quite the duo.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

pumpkin fun

hay tunnels...

digging corn...

hayrides...

pumpkin pickin'...

pumpkin posing....

pumpkin painting...

CI pumpkin...

barrel riding...

positioning...

decorating...

pumpkin fun 2010!

the last days of summer...

We're soaking up the last few days of summer, and trying to fit in some last minute activities before we start the school year. On Friday, we visited the Please Touch Museum in Philadelphia, which was pretty phenomenal. Lucas thoroughly enjoyed himself, as did Oma and I. I scored a great deal on Living Social (daily deals @ up to 90% off) for tickets to the museum, and am so glad I did. Here are some pictures from our day!

Yesterday we joined our friends and visited Lake Tobias Wildlife Park. When we visited last year, Lucas wasn't even walking yet. Time has really flown! The highlight again this year was definitely the safari tour, but Lucas enjoyed all the animals. We saw lions, tigers, bears, monkeys galore, zebras, ostriches, alligators, capybaras, wallabies, prairie dogs, emus, llamas, and more! Check this place out if you're ever in Central PA!

we tried to warn him...

LA weekend fun

We enjoyed a sunny weekend just hanging around LA! On Saturday we visited the Los Angeles Zoo. The zoo was super hilly and a lot of walking, but we had a great time. Lucas really soaked up a lot of great zoo language. He especially liked the giraffes and primates.

We spent a good 4 hours there, and were planning to see a few other attractions in Griffith Park - Travel Town and the Griffith Observatory, but alas, our little Lucas fell asleep. We kind of knew it would happen, and were glad he did, because he was pretty grumpy by the time we left the zoo. So, instead we drove around the park and looked at these sites from a distance, and then headed to Hollywood. We did a little sightseeing by car while Lucas slept. It was the perfect combination.

We got pretty close to the Hollywood sign. The GPS came in very handy again. I typed in "Hollywood sign" and it took us to this random neighborhood. We kept going and couldn't see the sign any longer. Somehow the GPS knew the exact last spot where you can see the sign before it disappears out of sight because of the mountains. Pretty cool, I thought.

Today we slept in and then went to a picnic hosted by a generous donor of the John Tracy Clinic. There was an In-N-Out burger truck there, with made-to-order burgers. They even made grilled cheeses for people, like me, who don't eat burgers. It was really yummy. There was also an ice cream truck with about 20 different hand-dipped flavors, a clown magician, face painting, games and lots of fun! It was a lovely afternoon spent with all the families and staff at the clinic.

Lucas got his face painted to look like a kitty cat (his choice). He sat so still!

After the picnic, we went with a few other families back to the California Science Center. We think we might still go back another time, because there's even more to see! What a great little gem in JTC's backyard! We had hoped Lucas would fall asleep on our walk there, but instead he fell asleep on our way back, which made bedtime interesting.

But, here I am, and Lucas is asleep. He excitedly asked me if he was going to see his friends tomorrow. I'm just wondering what we're going to do next week when he wants to see them then too. We just won't think about that just yet.

a beach happy weekend

It was recommended that we take it easy this weekend, so that our kids are rested and ready for school on Monday, so we decided to spend some time at the beach. It got pretty hot this weekend, with a high of about 88 on Saturday. But, it didn't feel like 88 degrees. I've come to the conclusion that 88 degrees on the west coast and 88 degrees on the east coast are not created equal. I'll take west coast 88 any day of the week.

On Friday, our half day, we visited the Aquarium of the Pacific, just as planned. We spent a little over 2 hours navigating the 19 different habitats of the Pacific Ocean. Lucas spent a good portion of his time looking for Nemo, and he was pretty happy to encounter several Nemos...

The aquarium was a great language-rich experience, as we saw sharks, eels, turtles, sea lions, lots and lots of colorful fish, sea horses, jelly fish, starfish, giant crabs, among other things. We also learned that our little monkey (as a result of a "monkey see, monkey do" experience) can swing from a bar on his hands. We learn something new every day.

We walked around the Long Beach harbor a bit, then had dinner at Taco Surf in Belmont Shore. We're lucky to have a local tour guide to recommend such places to us. :)

On Saturday, we slept in (Lucas slept until almost 9:00!) and decided to go spend the day on the beach in Malibu. We enjoyed our drive north along the Pacific Coast Highway, with many breathtaking views. We did not spot any celebrities, although we enjoyed dreaming about who might live where. We stopped at Point Dume State Beach to set up camp. We packed lunches and spent several hours there. We also stopped at a little hardware store in Malibu and bought a beach umbrella. It was a very wise decision. Lucas thoroughly enjoyed himself in the "water" and "sandbox". It was actually there that Lucas was very clever with his newly learned songs. We sang "where oh where oh where is Lucas" and he responded, "right here in a sandbox!" So we sang that question to him several times this weekend and got many different answers like "right here in a white car," and "right here in Laurie's house". Lucas loved the sand and water. So clever!

It took us much longer to get home than anticipated, as we experienced the dreaded beach traffic on PCH. But, after showers and some relaxing in our apartment, we headed to Yogurtland. Oh my, that will not be the last time we visit there. 12 different favors of self-serve frozen yogurt, with 30+ toppings to choose from, at $.30 an ounce = lots of yummy (and pretty healthy) goodness. It's a shame that the closest one to us at home is in Florida.

On Sunday we decided to head to Pasadena (which is only about a 15 minutes drive) and visit the Kidspace Children's Museum. What a delight! We were expecting an indoor museum, but it was 75% outdoors! It's a good thing we were planning to go to the beach later and had brought Lucas's swim clothes along, because he had ample opportunity to romp around in water! Again, it was a great language experience, where Lucas learned about bugs and nature and had a lot of great hands-on experiences.

I'm so glad we decided to go! We left right after lunch to head to the beach, which coincided perfectly with his nap. We didn't hit as much beach traffic as yesterday, but we had trouble finding parking in Manhattan and Hermosa beaches, so we kept driving south and hit the beach in South Redondo instead. It was a lovely afternoon spent with Laurie and her hubby. And I still can't believe she lives that close to the beach.

We had a beautiful, relaxing weekend, and we are gearing up for week 2 at the John Tracy Clinic. Lucas woke up this morning asking "friends?" again. We read his experiences books before bedtime tonight, to familiarize him with his routine. I hope that tomorrow is full of smooth transitions for our little Lucas. He sure loves this place.