I hear you, Baby!

It's official-- Ocoee has said her first word.

Last night we were looking in the mirror as she was slung on my back. I was waving to her and smiling, saying, "Hi, Ocoee! Mommy sees Ocoee! Mommy sees a ba-by!" She smiled her usual cuteness at me, and then looked at herself in the mirror again. And then we heard it-- "be-be." Looking directly at herself, and jabbering nothing else, she very deliberately pronounced the syllables. [I beckon Noah immediately; You never know what you might be missing!] Then she looked at me and I replied, " Baby, I see a baby. " Then she said it again, looking at herself, "be-be." I could swear she said it a couple more times, but my excitement is blurring the memory :) I commented again, "You said baby! I heard you say "baby." Yay!"

We hoped to catch or recreate it on video, but were unable. She was too enamored by the camera and ready to go to bed.

AMAZING! What's also neat is that "baby" was the first sign she made, back in November. It was around the time we were first testing her hearing, and I watched my mom teach it to her in about 5 minutes. That was the point at which I realized, "if this kid could hear, she'd be talking." I guess grammy picked the right word!

A Visit to the Clarke School and Surgery News!

This past week, Ocoee visited the Clarke School in Jacksonville-- a special place for children who are hard of hearing. They hold school for ages 2-7, and Ocoee got to join in for several hours one day. All of the instruction was designed with listening in mind. It ws awesome to watch her, and we met some amazing families in the meantime. She participated beautifully, and we learned a lot.

Perhaps the best thing that happened was an evaluation with a certified auditory-verbal therapist. She was able to show/tell us that Ocoee is still in the "detection" phase of listening. She responds very consistently to environmental sounds but is not as tuned in to voice. We were able to outline a lesson plan for therapy sessions to do at home with her every day. Although we are headed in the right direction, we learned that we need to focus on helping her pay attenion to voices. We learned step-by-step how to teach her to make a conditioned response to voice (also very helpful to the audiologist), and how to encourage her to vocalize using the "Ling 6" sounds of "ah, ee, oo, sh, s, and m". There are many other ways to encourage vocalization as well, from playtime to reading books to narrating what is going on around her. We are also focusing on "power vocabulary"-- words like "I want, more, up/down, open/close, push/pull, etc."

The most exciting news we have is that it is TIME FOR OCOEE'S SECOND SURGERY! The date is scheduled for Tuesday July 28th. A HUGE thank you to everyone who has helped make this possible and who continues to pour love, prayers, and support into our lives.

Lookin' Up

Things are Lookin' Up! The other day Ocoee heard me make a noise from behind her, and she imitated it! She is also humming when playing with toy cars or small animals, and babbling more. She vocalizes to get our attention or tell us about something. All of this is great! We try to use all the "Learning to Listen" techniques that we know.

If you are interested in sharing this journey, visit "The Listening Room," at http://www.hearingjourney.com/listening_room/index.cfm?langid=1