Jodi Speaks Her Mind

Summer goings-on 6/10/2008

Adelina is attending two summer classes: Cooking and Writing

Sophie started her summer pre-school class (more like camp) yesterday - looks like fun! It’s only two days a week for 3 hours each time.

Adelina is making some nice progress in gymnastics.

Sophie is making some amazing progress with her CI’s. She has about 5 sounds now and is beginning to put them together in some form of babble. I love to listen to her pretend to talk!

I’m still working on navigating the busy-ness that comes with parenting two kids, especially now that I’m also trying to home school Adelina. We’ll start more “officially” in August, but we’re warming up and doing what we can to address her reading and math skills that were sorely neglected this past school year.

We’re also enjoying our new pool - such fun! We’re also trying to emphasize family time and really bonding as a family. This is both fun and positive.

That’s the update for now. Sorry for the dearth of posts. Here are a couple of pictures to keep you coming back…

This one is from a camping trip we took in March. Sophie had fun with the boots and hats they had for dress-up at the horse riding place we went to.

Adelina performed in the “Olympics” and here she is with her medal and flowers and her gorgeous smile! (taken at home after the event)

Welcome to the swim season 5/13/2008

We put a pool in over the “winter”. We bought the heater so we can enjoy it in the spring months, so we have thoroughly enjoyed it already and we are looking forward to a fun and long swim season. Here are the girls in some new swimsuits:

…Must…blog… 4/23/2008

Wow, nothing happens simply in our house.  I have so much to share.  Let’s see… do I begin with my youngest profoundly deaf daughter, who is now learning how to listen to sounds - successfully (among many other accomplishments)!?  Or with my older daughter, who is now being partially home schooled?

I guess we’ll start with Sophie… Sophie is just doing wonderfully with her new implants.  She can already imitate two speech sounds (ah and mm) and makes a very early attempt at the word “open” (mostly she just bobs her head up and down indicating two syllables, but it is a genuine attempt at the word!)  She is spending a lot of her time these days just vocalizing and “listening” to her own voice among many other sounds.  She currently goes about with an almost constant hum.

Adelina is doing quite well.  She just lost both front teeth (on the top) within 3 days of each other, so she has a big hole in her mouth right now.  What a great look!  She is doing well in gymnastics and is thoroughly enjoying our pool (as we all are).  On a slight negative, she was not doing so well at her new school, and upon investigation it became clear that it had to do with the quality of instruction.  I’m not going say more than that, but the result is we made an adjustment to her schedule so she would come home earlier and I am teaching her math, reading, and some language at home.  So far, so good, and the additional time has fostered deeper bonding between us as well.  I am really starting to get into it and will probably be posting more about it as we get going.  Things are slow right now as I am figuring out what she can and can’t do and many things she previously knew will have to re-taught because of neglect or poor instruction.

No idea what we’ll be doing next year.  We’re crossing each bridge as it comes up.

More to tell, but that’s all for today!

Pictures! 3/31/2008

We finally uploaded some pictures.  More are coming, but there are 3 new albums in the gallery.  Enjoy!

Brief Life Update 3/12/2008

Sorry for the silence.  Things are going very well in our house.  Our pool is finished and we’ve enjoyed it twice.  Weather here is beautiful and Easter is coming soon, so spring is very much in the air.  Adelina is feeling much better and has had another “language leap”, which just means that she has noticeably improved language compared to the previous months.

Sophie gets her CI’s activated on Friday and I am just so excited.  I feel like I’m waiting for Christmas.  My child will finally have access to sound, so it is a remarkable day for sure.  Sophie continues to be such a joy to our family.  She is full of zest for life, and she just smiles and laughs all the time.  She and Addy are getting along more smoothly too.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, we’re also getting a sweet tax refund this year thanks to the adoption tax credit.  Woohoo!

I’ll write more after Sophie’s activation.  Also, pictures are moving up fast on the priority list, so hang in there, they are coming soon!