1st Hearing Christmas

I didn't send out as many Christmas cards this year. However, if you got one, did you notice it came before Christmas this year?! Go Katie! Brody was waving to Santa and super happy before I placed him on Santa's lap. My bad! Poor child. He has been trying to say Ho, Ho, Ho. He moves his mouth in the right movements and sometimes will add the "h" sound. He's also been saying "hi" and "ooooo iii" (translation-roll tide). Sorry Jordan, but go Irish is too hard to say right now. :)

Brody's PT had ordered him some SMOs. Not entirely sure what it stands for, but they are little foot braces. Grandma had to take him to Stride Rite to get some double wide shoes. Brody has a fat foot and with the added braces it's even fatter. Aunt Sara had fat feet too and they thinned out as she grew. :) the braces are supposed to help with walking. His feet turn in a little when walks and the braces keep them turned right. 

Brody went to the pediatrician on Friday. He is 29.8 pounds and 33 inches tall. We asked about his weight but they reassured us that with his height he averages out. This boy loves his food though. Lately he's gotten into eating tomatoes and bananas...yum!

We headed up to Cinncinati on Friday night. We spent Saturday at Traders World. If you have never been to Traders World, you are missing out on some major people watching. With Christmas a few days away, everyone was out with their craziness! 

On Sunday, Jordan met up with some childhood/college friends to go to the Bengals/Vikings game. Brody and I met up with some of my college sorority sisters. Brody did great all day on only a small nap in the car. 

When we got back to Grammy and Papa Tom's house, some one decided they wanted to unpack the cabinet for them. 

And then we had a major diaper blow out which ended in a bath and Daddy getting to change the next 10 diapers! 

Brody loves him some Papa Tom (Jordan's dad). He has also really gotten into flap books. He likes to knock on each picture and say "oooo" for open. 

Monday, Papa Tom took off of work so we could all go to the Newport Aquiarium. Brody loved the fish. He signed fish and (tried) to sign turtle all the way through. We got to see Scuba Santa!

We also stopped my Neiderman Family Farm. It is down the street from Jordan's parents house. It is a completely free light display that has a biblical background. It was really cold, so we didn't get any pictures. 

Christmas Eve was spent with Jordan's side of the family. We went to Uncle Jake and Aunt Sarah's house to open presents with the immediate family. Brody was pretty excited about his Mickey Mouse ride on toy and his Elmo (very loud) guitar!

Then, we went on to Grandma Winkle's house. Brody had a ton of food and convinced people to give him more :) He cleaned up on the gifts there too. A new Mickey Mouse ball pit, a flap book, piano, basketball hoop, and tumble ball were a few of his favorites. 

Brody's been giving kisses lately. He puckers up for anyone. 

My Santa won again this year and left unwrapped presents. Santa really loves Brody!

Reaction to seeing his Santa presents!

Santa already knew to bring Brody a car, but when he spent all last weekend in the one at Papa Tom's house, we knew we asked for the right thing. 

Forget all of the new toys. Brody opened a new sweatsuit from Grandma and Papa Brown and insisted on putting the jacket on. He was super content once he got it on. 

Peek a boo with Aunt Sara's hair! 

Brody's gift to Grandma (and Grammy). Baby Jesus in the manger (yes he's yellow because I ran out of other colors and had to get it made)!

New wagon from Aunt Sara and Uncle Dany! After about an hour of putting it together (thanks Jordan), he loved it!!

Merry Christmas from the Fromholts!

Kosair Holiday Party

Do you like my new glasses?

Yesterday it snowed and iced. We took Brody sledding down the little hill in our backyard. He wasn't too fond of it at first, but then he loved it! 

Today, we went with VIPS to the Kosair Holiday Party that was at the Crowne Plaza. We saw Brody's girlfriend and her family. It seems as if Pyper and Brody have moved on from each other. They haven't been too interested in each other the past few times. :)

With one of the Shriners. Brody loved his hat!

Kosair Charities put on the event for the kids. They had different stations set up for crafts, face painting, games, and pictures. They also had Santa! Brody got a stuffed dog, sock monkey, and a book. Of course he cared more about his new book than anything! Well, the book and his cookies and milk! Brody also won a tricycle. It's a little big, but he'll grow I to it over the year! We also got to meet Rick Pitino and some of the UofL basketball team. Jordan was nervous to meet them in his Notre Dame sweater!

My new bike

With Coach Rick Pitino

Blurry...but Kevin Ware handing Brody a present from Santa.

Santa, Brody, and Jordan

Steven Van Treese, Brody, Jordan, and Russ Smith

As you can tell, Brody was in a great mood at the party! He came home and decided he was too cool for naps today as well! He is in bed early tonight!

It's been awhile!

We have had a busy few weeks!

We met with the foot specialist to have Brody measured for foot braces called SMO's. They are a light weight plastic that go up to about his ankles. His PT doesn't think he will need them long, but it will help him be more aware of his feet and hopefully start walking soon...maybe!

He had a lot of fun walking back and forth holding on to the rails at the doctor's office. 

We went to the Kentucky Horse Park's Southern Lights. The first part you drive through and look at the Christmas lights from the car. Once you park, there is a petting zoo, Santa, model trains, and doll houses. Brody and Papa Brown rode a camel! Brody wasn't too sure what to think. He just held on for dear life!

Jordan loved the petting zoo more than Brody did I'm pretty sure. :) We probably liked Santa more too. Brody just stared with no emotion-more like who is this weird man you are leaving me with!

 

We headed to St. Louis for the Massey family Christmas/Thanksgiving. We got a huge surprise for Thanksgiving!! Aunt Sara flew in to surprise us! We didn't think she was coming home until December. She had worked it out with my cousins to be picked up from the airport. We had no idea! Brody was kind of confused as to why Aunt Sara was not in the phone, but he took up with her quick! 

My cousin's son is about a month older than Brody. I know you aren't supposed to compare kids, but I always like to see that Brody isn't too far behind right now. Other than the walking and a little talking. It's coming soon though!

Brody was super jealous of Grandma giving another baby attention!

 

This week he saw Ms. Paula, his deaf education teacher. Grandma said that Brody worked with her the whole time. When it was time for her to leave, he tried to get back in the high chair to work some more! He has been turning and trying to figure out every noise. He "says" more, uh oh, and open. He has been signing candy after dinner every night. He got a little too used to Halloween candy, but he seems okay when we tell him it's all gone. :)

We also had a break through at Auqa Therapy. We were able to get through a whole lesson with no screaming and crying! Just a few little tears. I was able to get out of the pool too and just have Ms. Melody work with him on her own. Next week we are going to try me not getting in the pool at all! We'll see!

Brody has been trying to stand on his own the past few days!

And his new favorite hobby is "drinking" coffee. I think on our snow day, he watched me drink one too many cups! He carried it around with him, would pretend to drink it, and continue on. Silly kid!

Big surprises!

Brody saw Ms. Kristie again this week. My mom set the tripod up and was able to catch Brody imitating some words!

Might be a stretch but he got the mmm and rrr for more!

Brody has said "uh-oh" a few more times now. So...we have our first word!! Only two months post implant. CRAZYNESS!

We mailed off Brody's backup processors (the N5's) back to Cochlear to get upgraded to the N6 on Tuesday. Wednesday morning Brody's right processor stopped working...with the backups in the mail :) Another reason I am happy we went with bilateral (two) processors. I troubleshooted it doing everything I knew to do. Dr. Scott gave me a few other ideas, but in the end, we were pretty sure the processor computer parts were not working right. We already had an audiology appointment scheduled with Dr. Scott for Friday. So instead of going up Wednesday, we decided to tough out one processor a couple of days. Brody did fine with one. Dr. Scott had placed the order to get a replacement and had it waiting on us for Friday.

We got to Cinncinatti way too early, so we surprised Papa Tom and Uncle Jake at their office. We went to lunch with them. Brody was so excited to see Papa Tom and wouldn't let go of him!

When we got to the audiology office, Dr. Scott had a surprise for us! He worked his magic and got the N6 to replace the broken N5. He also surprised us and had the N6 to replace the other processor too! So now Brody has the newest technology for his processors! The backups are still in the mail and should be here before Thanksgiving.

They look very similar to the first processors he had. They added some gray to them. If you saw the old ones and these, you probably wouldn't notice a difference. The technology part of it is where the updates were. There weren't as many in this upgrade as the previous one that was about 6 years ago. This video explains the features better than I could type them out.

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Wordless Wednesday 11/20/13

Here's you dose of cuteness for the week!

 

 

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"You never thought an extra point would have so much meaning."

@CollegeGameDay: “Brokenness does not exist in the body. It exists in the mind, heart and sprit. My mind, heart and spirit remain whole.” – Jake Olson

We are big ESPN College Gameday watchers in our household. Well, really we are watchers of anything college football. Saturday morning, ESPN played one of their "bring on the waterworks" stories. It was a follow up story from 2010 about Jake Olson. He is a 16-year old who lost his sight due to cancer. He loved football and really missed it after losing his sight. He is really an inspiration! He has the fight that we want to promote in Brody. He wanted to get back on the football field so bad and found what position he could learn to get back. With the help of his teammates, he is making his dream happen!

Here is the ESPN clip...you might want to get your tissues!

 

Here is his website if you want to learn more about Jake.

http://www.openyoureyes.org/

We are putting so much focus on Brody's listening so that when his vision starts going, he will still have his listening skills. This weekend, Brody started startling to sound. That means he is hearing it before we have to point it out to him!

 

 

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Therapy with Grandma

Brody had a really good day with Grandma today working on some vocabulary cards that Ms. Paula had given us to work on the Ling sounds (ahh, oo, ee, ss, sh, mm, bababa).

Ignore their dog tap dancing or something in the background!

 

 

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First Hair Cut!

Brody has had a lot of therapy over the last week. He saw Ms. Kristie for speech and started listening therapy with Ms. Shelby. Brody did great! He is starting to imitate some sounds. There's still a fine line of whether he is hearing the sounds or trying to imitate our mouths. Either way, Brody has been very vocal lately. He points to his ear now when he hears environmental noises. He something's responds to his name. It is kind of hit or miss. Usually the environment around us has to be quiet for him to respond.

The sound processors are water resistant. So we decided to try the bath with them on. Brody completely freaked out! Normally he loves the bath too. So I immediately took them off. I didn't want him to start hating the bath. However, there is so much language involved with bath time and I really want him to be able to hear it. We tried it again the next night and he settled down pretty quick and became very interested in the faucet.

Brody still isn't walking yet or standing up on his own for more thanks couple of seconds. Ms. Pat his physical therapist had been talking about getting some shoe inserts for him since his feet are rolling in a little when he is standing. They had already started correcting themselves so she was waiting and watching. Ms. Melody his aqua therapist (who is also a physical therapist) was looking at his legs when he got out of the pool the other night. She made the comment that he could benefit from the inserts. We gave her Ms. Pat's number so they could talk about it together. While we would rather not have another thing to keep up with, we would much rather have things corrected early than it be an ongoing issue. On a side note, Brody has decided that he is no longer a fan of aqua therapy. He screams through most of the session. He did it a few weeks when we first started and then became comfortable with it. We took about a month break with the surgery and since we have started back he isn't a fan again. Each session is better than the last so we are slowly making progress.

 New favorite activity...brushing his teeth!

We went to Huntington, WV on Saturday to go to a Marshall football game with Aunt Jodi and Uncle Josh. Brody had a blast!

 

 

We went to see Dr. Choo (the surgeon who did his Cochlear Implant surgery) for a two month follow up appointment. He said everything looks good. Brody has some scabbing that still isn't healed completely. Dr. Choo told us to put some Vaseline on it until it clears up. Brody has also had a little red spot under the magnet sight on his right ear. Some of my kids at school get them from time to time and the audiologists never freak out, so I didn't with Brody. I loosened up the magnet a little bit and it has mostly healed. Dr. Choo said it looked fine to him.

 

After the appointment, we went to eat lunch with Grammy. Brody decided he wanted to be a big boy and start dipping his chicken in the honey mustard.

After lunch, we went to the beauty school that Jordan's aunt teaches at. She used Brody has a demonstration and gave him his first haircut. His mullet in the back was getting way out of hand! We kept the southern boy swoop though! I had never thought about what you do with the processors when you get your haircut. There is a Facebook group for parents of children with cochlear implants. I asked on there what people did. The majority of people said they took off their kids processors because most hair salons are super loud and the hair dryers are just a bunch of loud noise to them. Others said that they would take one off at a time. I figured this time it would be better to take of both of them. We might work up to wearing them...who knows.

 

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