Happy Easter!

Brody went to VIPS's Easter Egg Hunt on Saturday. He had a lot of fun playing with his new friend Pyper! She is the only baby I have really seen him interact with. VIPS had made some sensory eggs to play with filled withe rice. Deaf-blind kids have it hard. Brody isn't losing the eyesight right now, but will be eventually. For kids with hearing loss, everything is made very visual. For kids with vision problems, everything is made tactile and usually has some sound component too. This is why we are so eager to get the cochlear implants and give him access to sound! The rice filled eggs didn't have much meaning for him other than the plastic egg tasted good :)

 With Mommy

 Aunt Sara and Brody

"I'm a Chick Magnet" shirt from Aunt Sara!

They had hid about a million eggs on the playground. Brody found a couple! Next year will be more exciting for him. Hopefully he will be walking by then!

Putting eggs in his basket! 

"I SEE EGGS!"

Brody loves playing on the rubber pavement on the VIPS playground.

 

They also had sensory eggs. These were eggs that beeped really loud, not loud enough for Brody, but very loud for everyone else! They had them in a separate part of the playground called the sensory garden.

VIPS Easter Bunny...Not a fan!

We then went with Papa Brown, Grandma, and Aunt Sara to the Easter Parade on Frankfort Ave. We didn't park in the best place for the parade and ended up missing a lot of it. Oh well, Brody had fun anyway! Grandma and Aunt Sara swear he made a reaction when the fire truck turned on its siren. On Thursday, Dr. Angie, his audiologist, did another hearing test in the hearing booth. He had some turns to the sound at about 70 and 80 decibels. I don't always give him credit for really hearing something verses turning by coincidence, but I will give him credit for those! Looking at the chart below, you can see that he should be able to hear Bear barking now and music. Dr. Angie gave him credit for some 50 and 60 decibels, but I am a little harder on him :). The fire truck siren is about 100-120 decibels.

Some pictures of the parade floats:

 

Brody met the Easter Bunny there too! Funny how most Santa Clauses look so much alike, but the Easter Bunny comes in all forms!

 

After the parade, we met Papa Tom and Grammy at the University of Louisville vs. Notre Dame baseball game. Brody had fun relaxing time. We sat by the Notre Dame players' parents. The moms all thought Brody was the cutest...maybe they will help pay for him to go one day!

Such a cool dude!

We went to church this morning after Brody opened his Easter Basket. He likes his new sippy cup the best! Then, we headed to Grandma and Papa Brown's house for Easter lunch.

I have the week off for spring break! Woohoo! Teachers love spring break almost as much as the students do! (Okay...we love it more!) Brody and I are going to have a relaxing week...and work on crawling bootcamp!

Pretty cool link about a woman who has received the eye implants. She has the same eye diagnosis that Brody has.
http://www.nytimes.com/video/2013/02/14/science/100000002039719/the-fda-approves-a-bionic-eye.html

Wordless Wednesdays 3/27/13

See I told y'all I wouldn't be able to remember! I thought about it on Friday last week. BUT I remembered this week!

Green beans!

 

Relaxing watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

 

 

Self pic :)

 

 

 

Hanging out after bath time in his STL towel...already a fan!

 

 

Big boy food!

 

 

 

Walk4Hearing

Some people have asked how to donate money towards the walk and also how to sign up to walk with us. We are so excited that people are interested in helping out the little man!

How to sign up to walk with us...
 1. Go to the home page.
2. At the top of the page, click "Find a Walk."
3. Click on "Dayton/Cincinnati Walk4Hearing."
4. Click "Find a Walker or Team" (there is a green footprint next to it).
5. Click "Find a Team." Type in "The Brody Monsters." Click "Find."
6. Towards the bottom, it will pop up in blue. Click on "The Brody Monsters."
7. There will be a small table. In the table, you will see a list of walkers' names. In white, it will say "Join Team." Click it.
8. This brings you to the registration process. It will ask you if you want to donate towards our team. Walking in it is free, they are just asking you to pay a donation or raise some donations. Fill out what you would like, then click "Next."
9. Click "Register As a New Walker."
10. Fill out the registration and click "Next Step."
11. Agree to the terms and click "Next Step."
12. If you have other family members to register, click "Register Family Members." If you are only registering for yourself, click "Complete Registration."


How to just donate to the walk...
1. Go to the home page.
2. At the top of the page, click "Donate."
3. Click "Find a Team." Type in "The Brody Monsters." Click "Find."
4.  Towards the bottom, it will pop up in blue. Click on "The Brody Monsters."
5. Click on "Kathryn Fromholt."
6. On the left hand side, under the logo, click "Donate."
7.  Fill in your information and click "Process."


If you have any other questions, feel free to contact me! We have raised $100 towards our team so far. Our goal is $500! Help us reach it for Brody!

VIPS Playgroup

Brody had a doctors appointment Friday with Dr. Sammons, his pediatrician. He had to finish all his immunizations before his surgery this summer. Poor thing had to get both thumbs pricked too! They tested his iron levels. His levels were a little low. Mine are always low too, so I'm not too worried. We are supposed to start him on iron drops and continue them for a few weeks. He loved the band-aids on this thumbs. We didn't make it to the parking lot before he was chewing one like he had gum in his mouth! Scared me half to death!

 

Brody measured 28.5 inches long (50th-75th percentile). He weighs 22 pounds (75th percentile). His head is in the 98th percentile. A big ole boy! He found himself in the mirror again. This time he was trying to get the other baby's foot.

 

Since I had already taken the day off for his doctor's appointment, I tagged along to his first VIPS playgroup. He had so much fun and was completely worn out by the end of it! First, they played with toys in the playgroup room. Brody's new favorite toy is a Pom Pom (If you are an SEC fan, this just means he already knows how to shake a shaker!). Then, we went outside to their playground. Brody absolutely loved the swing! Good thing I got one at the consignment sale this past week. Hopefully Papa Tom will put it up this weekend when they come down!

 

After the playground, we headed to the sensory room. It is completely full of lights! Brody's favorite thing! He was mostly interested in the light bulb inside the projector. We are pretty sure he will be an engineer when he grows up.

Afterwards, Brody was completely worn out! However, Grandma insisted on taking some pictures outside of the building. Such a mean Grandma. :)

 

Today, was our first Hands & Voices meeting (well my first as a parent). They had a pretty good turn out! Brody was in the child care room with all of the kids. He bonded with one of the deaf girls helping out. When she would sign to him, he would just laugh and smile! Too cute! It's nice to have such a great group of parents to lean on. I know a lot about the deaf world, but I don't know it from the parents perspective. You wouldn't think it would be that different, but you see things in a new light!

 

 

Easter Painting

Brody is entered in a coloring contest at Jordan's work. We used these cool toddler paint-markers. He needed some hand over hand assistance, but did pretty good!

We have a little Picasso on our hands :)

Today, Mary and Kathy from VIPS came for their first home visit today. They will be coming about once a month! My mom was here with them, since we were at work (Mrs. Katie's class had Pajama Day for "P" week. All my kids actually remembered this year! Woohoo!). My mom said they did some assessment type things with Brody to see where he was. He did great! That's good and bad. We want him to get the services he needs so we don't want him to do too well! With his diagnosis though, we are able to start services even though at this point, the vision isn't the main problem. Tomorrow he will start playgroup at the center. It is a playgroup/support group for parents of kids with vision problems. It is sort of like the PipSqueaks group he attends once a month at Heuser for parents of deaf kids.

 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Brody had an exciting first St. Patrick's Day. We started with church, then met the Massey family for lunch at Cafe Lou Lou (the shrimp and grits are soooo good). Brody is such a big boy now. He can sit up pretty well in the high chairs although he usually starts to get tired and slumps over half way through the meal. He got to eat some veggies and one of his new favorites, hummus!

 

We went over to Grandma and Papa Brown's for some family time afterward. Grandma and Aunt Sara had bought Brody some St. Patrick's Day attire to try on (and the dogs too)! Brody wasn't really sure what to think about it.

 

 

 

 

 

We left their house to go to the Visionally Impaired Preschool Services (VIPS) building for a St. Patrick's Day Chili Cook Off. VIPS's facility is amazing! We were so impressed! When you first walk in they have a little Kids Town set up. There is a Chase Bank, grocery store, The Bakery kitchen, KFC, Highlands Dry Cleaners, UPS store, library and loft/apartment area. I think Jordan and I would have been entertained for days and we aren't the ones it's designed for! Every little building is a different texture. Everything inside is kid friendly and realistic. There is green carpet to represent grass and blue carpet to represent the water. Connecting those is a "road" for the kids to ride their bikes around. They also have rubber to stop the kids who have greater vision problems and can't see the road so that they can still ride their bikes around too. Mary, who is Brody's vision therapist, showed us around the classrooms. We saw three classrooms, a music therapy room, Braille room, sensory room, gym, and some of the offices. Brody loved the sensory room. It had lights everywhere! Even their ball pit had a light in the bottom with clear balls. Way too cool! Everything in the school is designed with the students in mind. Awesome! Brody will start this Friday at a play group. He met one friend today. She is the same age as him and apparently Brody is already in love. He just stared and stared at her (usually he isn't that interested in other babies).

Don't forget to take a look at our walk coming up. If you would like to, you can donate towards The Brody Monsters. Or you can join us in Dayton and walk with Brody! http://hlaa.convio.net/site/TR/Teamraiser/DaytonCincinnatiWalk?px=1587276&pg=personal&fr_id=2060

Also, if you are in the Louisville area, there is a great consignment sale coming up this week. Everything there is very clean and in good shape (they won't take it if it isn't). It is also very reasonable on the pricing. See the flyer below! And no they didn't pay me to advertise, it is just one of the better ones in town. :)

 

The Brody Monsters

Jordan, Brody, and I are doing a Walk4Hearing. It's a 5K walk in Dayton, OH on May 18th. If you would like to donate towards the cause, please click the link below. Thank you in advance for your help! Our team is called the Brody Monsters! Feel free to join us at the walk if you are in the area!

http://hlaa.convio.net/site/TR/Teamraiser/DaytonCincinnatiWalk?px=1587276&pg=personal&fr_id=2060 

Wordless Wednesday-3/13/13

Another blog I read does Wordless Wednesdays. I like it and if I can remember I might try and do it too! Pretty much you are just supposed to post pictures and videos. Everyone has been telling me that want more pictures of Brody, so here you go! I added captions because I thought you would at least want to know what is going on in the picture.

Pajamas from Aunt Jodi and Uncle Josh

Helping Mommy and Daddy clean the junk room to make a Mickey Mouse playroom

Hanging out...reading the Bible :)

Brody can sit up on his own now! He loves his basketball hoop Santa Claus brought him.

Eating bananas that are not mashed up! Such a big boy now! (Aka the many faces of the Brodester)

It snowed! Brody got to play with Grandma and Aunt Sara in the snow at Grandma and Papa Brown's house.

Uncle Jake and Daddy ran in the Shamrock Shuffle 5K. Brody, Papa Tom, and Mommy walked it.