Painting with words

April 15, 2007

We had a good week. Mark David continues his strident use of the word no. But he is adding new words to his spoken vocabulary every day it seems. Some days are difficult. Those are the days when you wonder if the coo-ing and gurgling noises that Mark David makes are something other than the normal sound play of a two year old. You worry that it might mean his cochlear implant is not functioning properly. Every day we read to Mark David, especially at bedtime. One day this week, when I was reading to him, he was making more noise than usual and I had to tell him shush, be quiet and listen. It seems normal for a two year old to make sound play like this but... it is something I worry about.

With that said it was a great week. Words he used this week that I can think of now are -- dog, truck, door, knock, cast, cow, -- and many of the words that he already knows. Every once and awhile a new word will come out or a word he has used before will seem more clear and closer to the proper pronunciation. The word dog seemed much clearer this week.

Here are the links to this week's pictures. We spent Easter Day and had a beautiful dinner with our good friends the Cicmanecs. The Easter Day link is where you will see pictures of their children Audrey and Johnny and the rest of us on that day.

In the link to the April photos, so far, you will only find our beautiful art day. These photos were taken Saturday, April 14. We spread a tarp in Mark David's room, got out of the finger paints and plenty of paper and convinced Mark David to finger paint brush paint foot paint and in general have a blast.

OK - Added to the April photos are the pictures from the Berwyn Egg Hunt. The North Berwyn Park District put on an egg hunt April 7, a very chilly day in Chicago, at a local field. It was freezing but we were determined that Mark David would see the giant bunny. It was unbelievable to watch the parents of the two-year-olds, the only parents allowed on the field, chasing down the plastic eggs for their little children - there is a video in with the pictures. I'm sure I have many more years of that kind thing to look forward to. And, speaking of things to look forward to, we received at 3 am the next morning Mark David's first reaction to a few too many jelly beans. The poor little fella just couldn't keep them down, no worry though, he went back to sleep easily.

Side note: working with the dictation software, I believe, will really pay off. It is slow at first but much better than my typing.

Easter 2007 Pictures

April pictures

Gentle knocking at the door

Knock knock knock

I hear that

Someone is knocking at the door


Listen

I hear that


Open the door and see who it is

I am the proud father of Mark David.

Mark David is 2 1/2 years old, however his hearing age is only one year. Mark David was diagnosed deaf at one year of age. We made the decision to have a cochlear implant provided for Mark David shortly after his diagnosis. It took another four months to complete the paperwork, get the insurance approval, have the surgery, and activate his device.

In early May of 2006 his device was activated and he began to hear sound through the cochlear implant for the first time. Since that day we have been working with a team of professionals that include speech therapists, speech pathologists, auditory-verbal therapists, audiologists pediatricians and other caring individuals to help Mark David become a full member of the hearing community.

Mark David attends Child's Voice school in Wood Dale Illinois. Child's Voice is an oral deaf school for hearing impaired children. Children at the school use hearing aids, cochlear implants, or both. We can't say enough good things about the school. We have become active members in the school, helping with fundraising and being actively involved with other parents and children. We also have Mark David attend a session with an auditory-verbal therapists named Lynn Wood one hour a week in her house. Mark David love's his sessions with Lynn. We see the auditory-verbal method that Lynn uses as central to our approach in working with Mark David's developing listening and vocalising skills.

With the help of these professionals and all of the other caring people in our life Mark David has begun to speak and hear. We cannot properly express our joy at the progress we have seen. Beginning with the turning of his head when he heard his mother or father's voice he has rapidly developed to understanding much of what we say. And he has begun to vocalize, that is, he's talking to us now. His vocabulary includes many nouns, especially animals, body parts, names of friends and family, and he is now beginning to add verbs.

"Noooooo" is the most recent and powerful addition to his vocabulary. Again, you cannot imagine the joy and pride we as parents take in the addition of this small but oh so powerful word to his vocabulary. He is beginning to control his environment by listening and speaking.

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I intend primarily to share pictures here, but it is also a chance for me to explore blogging technology, and I am using dictation software to write everything in this post. So bare with me, if you see spelling mistakes or punctuation errors.

So for today, I'll simply mention that I have posted on Picassa a number of albums containing old family pictures from Tatjana's life and my life, as well as current pictures from 2007. Here are the links to the pics:

Tatjana's Family Pics

Wood Family pics from Julie's album

Our Family

January 2007

February 2007

March 2007

Feel free to post. I look forward to your comments.

Regards, David