A new set of ears

Avery received her hearing aids on Dec 17. We learned how to put them in, clean them and take care of them. We were so excited to put them in and turn them on for the first time. I got my video camera ready and they turned them on and…..nothing. I was expecting a big reaction like the viral videos you see on You Tube of kids hearing for the first time. I was surprised that once they are in her ears, Avery does not touch them. They don’t seem to bother her at all. We did have some issues with feedback while we were at the appointment. The minute you would get your head close to hers you would hear feedback like from a microphone. It was horrible. They adjusted some settings and it seems to be better.

After observing her using them for a couple of days, I would say that they seem to be helping. When you call her name, she seems to respond quicker and more frequently than she did prior to having the hearing aids. I am hoping to get better at putting them in. There is a great deal of feedback when putting them in so we have been leaving the battery door open until they are in her ears and then once they are in place we close it. This helps limit the amount of feedback.

We did get BCMH to cover everything that my insurance through the Cleveland Clinic will not. We are very grateful for this because it includes her hearing aids, molds, exams, and batteries.

Avery seems to be communicating with us more. She used to do this hand movement when she was all done eating and now she does the hand movement and says “all done” The “done” part doesn’t sound exactly like done but she has got the “all” part down pat. She babbles and babbles and I can’t wait for her to start saying more things.

Right now she says (or we think she says):

Hi

Momma

All Done

Lily (our cat)

Up

I love you (most people might not pick up on this but Tim and I have heard it)

Good night (again, Tim and I know this is what she is saying)

I am probably missing a few things but she is getting there.

We took Avery to see Santa last week. She wasn’t a fan of him but she didn’t cry. Santa said she was very well behaved for a two year old. We have been having quite a few people tell us how well behaved she is. The dentist said she did so good and so did the audiologist. Now if we could just get her to be a little less shy we would be all set.

We hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. Fingers crossed that we will not be spending Christmas in the hospital like we did last year.

These puppies love me. The treats I am holding in my hand have nothing to do with it.

I love Charlie Brown Christmas. I should probably get closer to the tv

Hanging out at the Audiologist's office. Hmmm, I wonder what this button does.

Check out my new ears!

Hey babydoll, this is Chewie. He is my best friend and will even let you lay on him

My hearing aids light up and Mommy likes to sing Rudolph around me...You would even say she glows.

Nothing to see here

Mommy and her Pinterest addiction. I think my hand print looks pretty cool..the faces and hats she drew on the snowmen, not so much.

I decided to be a girly girl for the day and let Mommy paint my nails.

Fun with Mommy

Chewie and I decided it would be a good idea to head butt each other. My forehead didn't agree.

Daddy, thanks for buying me and Scarlett new beds for Christmas. Chewie, I don't know where you are going to sleep.

That suit must be warm because he smells funny.

Tubeless!

So guess what, Avery is tubeless! I came home from work the other day and I sat on the couch and I looked over at the coffee table and Avery's Gtube was sitting there! We talked to Avery's babysitter, Auntie L (our friend Chucks mom) and she said Avery picked it up off the floor and handed it to her. She didn't really know what it was so she put it on the table. I feel so bad for her because she feels so bad. I told her it was mine and Tim's fault because Tim told me the other day to check and see how much water was in the balloon. The balloon is what keeps the gtube in place and helps it not fall out.Well, needless to say I should have checked.

We ended up not putting the tube back in for a few reasons:
1. We might not have realized it fell out in time. The hole closes up pretty quickly, within an hour or two so if it falls out, you have to go to the hospital pretty quickly.
2. Even if we would have realized it in time, we did not have a new backup gtube. You aren't supposed to put an old one back in. I swear I had a backup but I looked in Avery's closet and I had three empty gtube boxes. A lot of good that was going to do
3. Avery doesn't even use it anymore. We were only keeping it in because she will most likely have surgery in the summer to close the fistula in her mouth. When she had her cleft palate repair, she wouldn't eat anything by mouth for two weeks so we are hoping that won't be the case this time around.

Avery had her first trip to the dentist this past week. I know most kids don't go to the dentist at 2 but her front teeth are notched so we wanted to make sure everything is ok. She also seems to be missing teeth. I told the dentist that it is going to be impossible to see in avery's mouth because she never lets us look in there. Tim and the dentist sat in chairs facing each other and a board was placed on their knees. Avery was placed on the board and her head was near the dentist and her feet near tim. They brushed her teeth and counted and examined them. At the end of the "cleaning" they brushed on some flouride paste. After the exam, the dentist explained how everything went. He said it seems like Avery is missing teeth at the moment. He said most kids by the age of two have 10 teeth on the top and 10 on the bottom. I think she might be missing 4 teeth. He said there is nothing to do about it now but wait.

Her two front teeth seem to be notched due to grinding them. He said it doesn't look like decay but it almost looks fractured instead. He said when she is a little older he could fix/reform them to make them look better but she would need to be put to sleep to do it. Tim asked if any of her nerves are exposed because her teeth are so notched and he said no, that we would definitely be able to tell if the nerves would exposed because she would probably always be screaming/crying because it would be so uncomfortable.

Avery is getting her hearing aids this week! I am so excited for her. I will post an update after her hearing aid appointment.

I'm am going to hold this bowl here for five minutes hoping to get one drop of water even though I am sitting in a whole tub of water that I could use to fill my bowl.

I love tub time!

Once the cats are fed their dinner (and then the dogs clean the plates), I collect them and hand them to Mommy. The other day when the cats and dogs were finished, I brought them to Mommy in the bathroom.

Why am I wearing a coat and hat inside?

My hair looks as red as the pizza sauce in this picture

This is my new flovent inhaler. I use this instead of the nebulizer with pulmicort. I'm not really a fan. The facemask makes me feel like Darth Vader.

Don't cut your finger open with the ornament hook, don't cut your finger open with the ornament hook.

Lily, you don't belong in there!

 Since I am not around kids anymore, cats now have an influence on me.

Mommy liked this picture for some reason. Personally, I think it looks like I am pooping.

Ain't nothing to see here. Just reading a book upside down.

Everyone says I look just like Mommy. Mommy says I can go in to work for her tomorrow!

Lily, when I grow up, I want to be a door dasher, just like you.

Mommy thought it would be a great idea to get a cookie card at Giant Eagle so I can get a free cookie every time we go shopping. Then mommy realized it wasn't such a good idea because she had to spend $2 on wipes because I was a mess!

Playing with my cousins. They build things and I destroy them

What the....MOM!! we don't need anymore toothpaste!

My two favorites..bathtime and Daddy!

 Daddy's distant cousin is a professional skateboarder and mommy found this for sale online. It is now hung on a wall in my room!

Daddy, it's crooked. 

Look, I have two bellybuttons! This was about an hour after my tube fell out.

Here is my tube. The balloon at the bottom should be filled with 5ml of water and that is why it fell out

At the dentist. Don't let this picture fool you. Daddy wasn't holding my hand..he was holding my arms down because I did NOT want to be there. The dentist said I was a really good patient though!

Mommy was off of work the day of her work Christmas lunch so we decided to stop up and see everyone. Needless to say, I didn't see much of anyone because I hid my head on mommy's shoulder for a half hour when we first got there.

I climbed up here all by myself. I am so proud! 

So my friend Aria and I went out to eat breakfast the other day.

and when I say eat breakfast, i really mean eat butter. All I ate was butter! Mommy even bought me a kid's meal with a pancake, sausage and home fries and all I wanted was butter packets.

Look what I have done with the place. I started decorating my house. That snowman was on the tv stand in the living room but I think it looks much better in my place.

Mommy said my hole is looking good. She also said she never imagined in a million years that she would say that statement.

Hearing aids

Sorry I am so late posting an update. Things have been a little hectic around here with doctor appointments, the holiday and a wedding.

Avery was one of the flower girls in Greg (Tim’s brother) and Lauren’s wedding. She is in stage right now where she is super shy and clings to me or Tim. She refused to walk down the aisle by herself so I carried her. While waiting in line to go down the aisle, I looked down and realized Avery was only wearing one shoe. One of her shoes had fallen off and I had no clue where it was. We ended up praying nobody noticed and just walked down with one shoe on. While watching Greg and Lauren say their vows, Avery decided to be loud and scream. She didn’t calm down so I took her to a room in the back of the church. We missed the whole wedding and were in there so long that I managed to find Avery’s missing shoe under a couch.

We hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. My mom had to work so we celebrated with Tim’s family.

Last week we went and saw Audiology with the Cleveland Clinic. We had the molds taken of her ears and FINALLY placed an order for her hearing aids. Since we are going through the Cleveland Clinic, they will be paying for half and we are in the process of getting BCMH to pay for the other half. I am so excited for Avery to get her hearing aids. I really hope they help her with speech development. She is starting to get frustrated that we don’t know what she wants and we will get frustrated because she will just point towards the fridge and say “uhuh”. Then we spend ten minutes showing her every food and drink in the fridge while she shakes her head no. It will be great when she can finally tell us what she wants or what’s bothering her. She is going to be getting an Oticon Sensei hearing aid... They take a few weeks to come in. We have an appointment on December 17 for her to try them on and for the audiologist to show us how to work them.

http://www.oticon.com/products/hearing-aids/children/sensei/about-sensei.aspx

Tim made Avery a cool house out of some big boxes that we had. It has windows, a door, shutters, a chimney, etc. It is pretty awesome and the best part is that Avery loves it! She loves sticking her head out of the window and throwing a ball through it. She also screams when Lily goes in the house and sometimes Lily jumps out of the window. I am sure the house would be bigger if we had a larger living room.

Hi neighbor!

Welcome to my house!

Ahhhhhh!! This is awesome

Want to come in my house, Chewie?

It looks cold out there

Doing one of the things I like best...feeding the dogs

Bubbles!

Cheese!

Thanks for building me this awesome house Daddy. I love you!

Taking care of my baby

Me and Mommy

It was Daddy's birthday and me and the puppies wanted to surprise him. Those dogs did not want to keep their party hats on

I didn't like the party hat on my head so I decided that it makes a good fruit holder instead

Hey guys, want to come check out my new house?

Hard at work

I decided that I wanted to write like this one day

 Oops, thats not the paper

I love reading books

Me and Mama

Family photo!

This is a pic of a picture that the photographer took. I didn't really feel like walking down the aisle.Its hard to tell in the pic but I am only wearing one shoe!