Check Him Out..

This morning we got an email from a friend letting us know that Living Social had this advertising campaign running today.  What a fun surprise!  This picture was taken when David was performing at LOL Comedy Club.

H

Every night Deborah prays. Every night Deborah prays that she will not have bad dreams.  AND, every night ... without fail ... Deborah prays for her friend H-y.  She has loved H-y for the past few years now.  She just thinks he is the best guy ever!  I have to agree that he is a pretty great young boy!  He's such a gentleman:  polite, cute, and really funny! 

Well, today he had a birthday party.  Starting several hours before the birthday party, Deborah started asking me how much longer till the birthday party.  She, of course, wasn't content with "a few more hours."  No, she wanted an exact count down, "4 hours and 11 minutes."  ... "3 hours and 48 minutes" ... "3 hours and 24 minutes" ... "2 hours and 56 minutes" ... Well, hopefully, you get the idea.  The countdown happened frequently. 

Oh, and picking the present was LOTS of fun!  We have a family budget for friend's birthday gifts.  It's the same for every friend and for every kid.  It's always the same, BUT if one of the children wants to spend more than that then they are welcome to spend their own money.  I think Deborah might have spent her entire piggy bank, if she had found a present that required it.

It was so fun to watch her pick the presents.  It was fun to see the process.  She has such a mind of her own.  (I have no idea how I have so many children with such independent strong spirits.  haha!)

Anyway ... then we went to the party.  It was so fun!  Then they played a game.  It was a game kind of like tag, but they would thrown this "cushion" and if the cushion hit you then you were out.  I wanted to play!  It looked like a lot of fun! Deborah was running fast and staying far from the cushion, never taking her eye off the cushion. 

Then I saw it ... fear.  She wasn't just playing a game.  She was scared of the cushion hitting her.  She was running to protect herself!  (Oh, if only you could see her face in this picture. )

Thankfully, Liam (H-y's older brother who was helping with the party & is also a such a gentleman) tagged her by getting her out on the leg.  Yay, Liam!  As soon as she was out, I went over to check on her.  She was so relieved to be out of the game.

That was it for her on the games, but boy! She had SO much fun, and she LOVED being at H-y's party!

The Weather Report

Today is going to be busy day following a crazy busy week of appointments.  I don't really have time to post, but I feel strongly that I want to share a few thoughts that have been brewing in my head.

A new friend I met recently, Susan, related feelings to a weather report.  The other day I was driving and thought, "It's cloudy with a chance of heavy rain showers."  I probably should have just acknowledged that it was already raining, but for whatever reason, I seem to have a probably admitting that the rain clouds are almost always looming lately. 

Then I heard the words to the song I had on in the car:

And with everlasting mercy will I succor thee
And with healing will I take thee 'neath my wings
Though the mountains shall depart
And the hills shall be removed
And the valleys shall be lost beneath the sea
Know my child
My kindness shall not depart from thee!

And, then the thought came to mind ... the promise ... the rainbow. 

The rain will always end.

Ryan's Hearing Tests

On October 28th, Ryan had his 2nd set of tubes put in his ears.  While still in the OR, they also did an ABR hearing test.  You might remember that Ryan had this same test done last August and that it showed 60-70% hearing loss then.  Well, this year the ABR showed his hearing loss to be 80-90%.

In light of the other skill losses, I suppose we anticipated these results.  It was still disappointing to learn that he has had such significant loss.

So today we met with an Audiologist and she made molds of Ryan's ears for hearing aides.  Within the next couple of weeks, we'll go back to the Audiologist's office to do a hearing test for an audiological exam.  I'm quite curious how they will do that with Ryan.

I thought you might enjoy seeing pictures of the molding process.  Dr. Board first put a little spongy material on a string.  She placed that into the opening of Ryan's ear.  Then she filled a syringe with some squishy green material. I wish you could feel the texture of the material.  It was a seafoam green and was very oily feeling.  Dr. Board put some in Ryan's hand before she put it in Ryan's ear.  She even let me play with some too. 

After just a moment or two it became set, and the doctor took it out.  Ryan didn't seem to mind the process at all.   This is what they looked like:

(We did have to repeat the first one, which is why you see 3 below.  Don't worry; Ryan doesn't have 3 ears.)  

You've heard the old saying: "Pick your battles."

My little Deborah loves to pick out what she's going to wear each day. I've learned not to pick that battle. So, each day I give her choices. A few choices. We usually do okay that way.

Today she picked a BEAUTIFUL red dress.  One of the most beautiful in her closet.  She even wanted me to blow dry her hair and curl it for her today.  She really wanted me to put some makeup on her too, but I had to draw the line at that one.  She is a little young for makeup.

I suspect she knew I wasn't going to do makeup.  So far, so good right?  Then I asked her to go get her socks and shoes on.  She picked her beautiful fancy white socks with the beautiful white lace.  Of course, she INSISTS on wearing them as knee highs, which means the lace is up by the knees instead of folding them over.  But, pick your battles right?

Then she comes back in my room to tell me she's ready to go to church.  I turned around to tell her thanks and to give her a kiss.  Imagine my surprise when I looked down at my beautiful daughter with her beautiful curled hair in her beautiful dress and in beautiful (knee-high) socks AND HER CONVERSE SHOES!

Yup!  You read that right.  Black & white Converse shoes.  The ones that match her brothers.  She thought they looked perfect.  There was no changing her mind.

"Pick your battles."   Right?

Notice her socks' ruffles are at her ankles.  I picked my battle and she wore her Converse today.

(And, she still looked absolutely beautiful!)