Happy 1st Hearing Birthday!

One year ago today, Sean's CI's were activated, giving Sean access to a whole new world of sound through the use of cochlear implants. 

Reflecting back on this past year I think about the countless ENT, Audiology, and Speech Therapy appointments that we have had to help Sean get to where he is today.  We can't thank all of our family, friends, doctors, therapists, and teachers that have helped us along the way.  And let us not forget, that a child with cochlear implants true success is dependent upon the work done at home with the family.  :)  Sean is so lucky to have a big brother who works hard with him to develop speech and language.  Just yesterday at speech therapy, Blake was amazing in asking Sean for two critical elements.  Blake spoke clearly, slowly, and paused to give Sean enough wait time to process! 

While our journey is still not over, we are forever grateful for the love and support we continue to receive.  We celebrated by visiting our library, where we listened to Pete the Cat books and sang songs.  Pete the Cat even made a special appearance!  We spent the early evening playing at the beach then headed home for pizza and a special cookie cake for Sean! 

A year ago today...

Sean had his cochlear implant surgery.  A surgery that would change out sons life forever.  We are forever grateful to Dr. Moody-Antonio and her team. 
Because of Sean's LVAS and Mondini Malformation diagnosis' we had the mindset of "when" Sean needs cochlear implants, not "if," which helped tremendously in transitioning from hearing aids to CI's.  We are so proud of all that our little man has accomplished in such a short amount of time. 

Sean knows his ears!

Sean knows when his CI's are not on the correct ear! Not just because the sound is different, but he now knows based on looking at the color on the CI!  The CI with the red dot goes on the right ear and the one with the blue dot goes on the left!  Such a smart little man!  Mr. Independent would love to turn on his own ears too, but he hasn't mastered holding the on button down long enough to do so. He will sometimes get it by luck, but we would rather him not mess with the buttons right now! :)

 

"Ears broken!"

After a long day and evening spent watching baseball at Harbor Park, Sean brought me his ear and said, "ear broken!" Way to go little buddy!  He now can tell when his CI has turned off or not working.  Pretty impressive that he could tell that just one ear went out!

Dryer buzzer

I guess it's a boy thing, wait a minute, it's a Jennings thing, but Sean gets the biggest giggle out of fart sounds!  See the picture below of Sean playing with the "fart app" on the iPad.  Lol! 
We've been working on having Sean just say "excuse me" when he farts!  That's because he will usually say, "Sean farty!!!"
I can't forget this funny...While in the family room, the dryer buzzed (quite a distance from Sean), and without skipping a beat, Sean says, "excuse you daddy!"  Of course we were proud of Sean's good manners, but even more excited that he heard the sound from such a distance.  Now we must work on discrimination of fart sounds versus the dryer buzzer!

Auditory memory growing

It's been amazing to see/hear how Sean's auditory memory is growing.  Auditory memory is the ability to process information presented orally, analyze it mentally, and store it to be recalled later.
Just the other day Sean said, "See my Buzz Lightyear shirt?"