Belief in Brody: A year since surgery!

Its been an entire year since surgery! I can't believe it! In the last year, Brody has caught up to his peers with his listening skills. That means that he is a normal two year old when it comes to understanding what is being said to him. He can follow two step directions. He can hear the dog barking outside and go to the door to tell him to be quiet. Brody can hear one of his songs on the radio and start doing the motions along to it. He can laugh when people around him are laughing and show sympathy when he hears a baby crying (or starts pretending to cry to make fun of them...he is two). Best of all, he can hear me say "I love you" and responds with "uh oo." The speech is coming. Slowly, but coming along nicely!

This past year has brought a lot of firsts. Starting with the surgery. We were the first family that we personally knew who had both ears done at the same time. That left a lot of questions that we only could have answered by the doctors. I would have much rather talked with a friend about what was going to happen. The surgery was just over 5 hours. That's a lot of waiting and worrying. Of course Brody was in excellent hands with Dr. Choo, but it was still my little baby in surgery! Then we worried about the healing process. Brody healed perfectly! Lots of prayers went up for his activation day. Two weeks after surgery. Would the implants work? Would he hear? What would his reaction be? Being in the field, I knew that his reaction would not be like the you tube videos. But I thought we would maybe get at least a smile. Nothing...and then crying...then nothing...then ripping it off his head, over and over...then nothing. It took a few days and a few program changes before we saw any progress or even any reaction. Look how far he's come!

In listening therapy today with Ms. Shelby, Brody was imitating 2 and 3 syllable words and phrases. He is also starting to use words and phrases that are routine or reoccurring phrases that we use a lot.