Hi all,

Well, Rose finally took her first steps yesterday! She unfortunately was very ill with stomach flu, and took those first steps at her pediatrician's office. However, it did mean that both Ben and I were there to see her take them. She's better today, though. Keeping food down, and has taken a few more steps. She will be running everywhere before you know it I suppose, and that's great!

We will try to get some video of her walking for you. Till then, we will post asap!

Another audiologist trip yesterday to change the programs on the implant, or at least the outside part. The plan is to have 4 very quiet ones, to get her used to wearing it, then change the programs so they are louder, which we did yesterday. In 3ish weeks, we will get them changed again, even louder. Thats not to say she can't hear now, she can, but nothing will startle her.

She is doing very well with it, the whole point of the beginning weeks is to avoid an aversion to the implant, but Rose not only tolerates it, she *likes* it. She smiles when we put it on, and although she takes it off now and then, mostly when she gets tired of it, she enjoys sound very much.

So, she is playing on the floor behind me, enjoying some music. A symphony called "The Big Band of Rogues", they play Nintendo themes, so we're listening to Mario and Yoshi music mostly. She will be a Nintendo girl, what can I say, daddies girl.

Byee
--Ben

Hi all!

We haven't posted nearly as much as we would like since Rose's implant was activated, but boy, oh boy, has it been keeping us busy. Rose has been doing fantastic with it. Much better than we could have even hoped.

It's been so exciting! Rose HEARS! She doesn't hear a whole lot yet. The device is programed for a very small amount of hearing, and will be turned up over a long period of time. But there are things that she hears now, and that's AMAZING. She likes hearing us "roar" when we look at the lion page in her animal book. She hears music a bit. She hears us laughing when she's being silly. She hears herself sneeze. She hears her own laughter when she's on the swing at the park. It's great.

The hard part is convincing her to leave the external part on. It looks like a hearing aid, a pager, and a barrette, all linked together with thin cables. It's so easy for her to just reach up to her ear and fling it. We have to try to keep her hands busy with something else until she forgets that it's on.

Ben has some pictures ready, but I'm having computer trouble, so I can't post them. But hopefully he will very soon. If you drop by the blog, though, please leave us a comment. It really helps motivate us to keep posting. We LOVE knowing that you are all out there!

More soon... Tiff

A day after Rose has had the full implant, a day of hearing, and she loves it. She is doing so well with it, smiles and all. I've got a pic here of her in the docs office, implant on, sitting on my lap.



It was also auntie Hayley's birthday a few days ago, so here is a pic for her.



Bye all =)

Rose went in for her implant yesterday, we received the outside part of the implant, and she heard for the first time.

I'm not sure exactly what she heard, but she was reacting to sounds. The implant is set very low right now, and over the next week we will turn it up slowly, since a bad experience is the last thing we want right now. She needs to get used to having something hanging off her head all the time, then get used to the sound itself. After that she needs to learn what the sound is, and how to interpret it.

So, its an exciting time, and we'll have exciting pictures later on.

Byee
--Ben