Hidden Compliment

Last week Sadie, Troy & I were playing in the front yard one night after dinner.  Some of neighbors from across the cul-de-sac were walking by with their 2 children. I had not met their kids yet, and only waved to the neighbors in passing, so they stopped by and we had a nice chat.  They have a boy and a girl who are both 2 years old.  During our chat, Sadie was her normal talkative self (pointing out our neighbors cute green shoes, etc) and our neighbor said "Wow, she has a great vocabulary, how old is she?"  I promptly answered 2.  Our neighbor's mouth dropped.  She said she could not believe Sadie was only 2 and that they were working with her kiddos to talk more.  Later in the conversation, she asked when Sadie turned 2.  I was like "2 weeks ago."  You could just see on her face how astonished she was. 

In the meantime, Sadie had taken off her jacket she was previously wearing.  She was also wearing her hood up, so when she took her coat off, I could tell that our neighbor noticed Sadie was wearing hearing aids.  So of course, I shared the fact that Sadie is hearing impaired and we do weekly speech therapy, which has aided in her speech and language.  Again, I could just tell this woman was ready to take her kids home and start working with them ASAP.  She had no idea what a huge compliment this was to Sadie and quite frankly to Troy and I.  I think Sadie is doing very well, but it is always nice to have a complete stranger confirm it as well.  Our neighbor made my night :)

Who me?  Well, thank you for the compliment!

Sadie Turns 2!!

Sadie turned two years old on August 26th. I cannot believe how time has flown by. I am so proud of my little girl and she continues to amaze me every day.

We had a small get together for her 2nd birthday. Sadie loved all the attention and her favorite part of the whole night was when everyone sang Happy Birthday to her.  We had been teaching her that song, and so she was literally thrilled when everyone sang it. Then she got to blow out her candle, which she had also been talking about all week.  "Sadie has to blow the fires out of the candle.  Can't touch it, it is hot."  I can't tell you how many times the previous week I heard that phrase.  And now Sadie loves to sing Happy Birthday, and wants you to sing it to her as well.  Apparently we are celebrating her birthday all year long :)

 Opening presents in the morning from mom and dad

 Smiling for the camera

 I am loving this attention!

 Mmmmm, ice cream cake.

 Uncle Keith & Aunt Nell know just what I like!

Let's see if I can wear everything I got all at once!

Twinkle Twinkle

Sadie has now decided that she LOVES to sing (except on camera..and in front of anyone but relatives).  In our past therapy sessions, we tried over and over again to get her to sing and she would never do it. Then one day, all she wanted to do was sing.  She rides in the car with my mom and shouts "more songs!!!" I love it. She knows her ABC's, Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle, Tiny Turtle, Itsy Bitsy Spider, Pop goes the Weasel, and more.   We found a rare moment where she let us capture her on camera, so hold on to your seats for this cuteness! :)

 

Proud Mama!!!

A couple of weeks ago we headed back to KU Med for another visit for the Outcomes of Children with Hearing Loss study that Sadie is a part of.  Sadie knocked it out of the park :)  She was able to point out pictures of various objects and say what they were, and only missed two.  One was a TV that had rabbit ears (they need to update their pictures...pretty sure if it was a flat screen TV she would have known what it was), as well as a picture of a purse. The purse was one of those old lady purses with the ball clasps.  Troy said he was sure Sadie would have answered correctly if the purse had the Coach or Gucci logo on it :)  We KNOW she knows what a purse is because she is obsessed with her Barbie purse (see below picture), she just didn't recognize  that particular type of purse.  She finally said "bag" and they counted it. 

Well, tonight I got the final results back on how she ranked compared to NORMAL hearing kiddos(drum roll please!):

• Receptive language (what she understands)= 99%ile
• Expressive language (what she says)=99%ile

This time last year she was at 93% for receptive and 46% for expressive.  Based on a series of questions I answered on some paperwork, her scores also went up on communication, daily living, and motor skills.  Oddly enough they went down on socialization.  I'm not quite sure why she went down, but don't you worry, I will socialize this kid until the sun comes up :)

Last week we went to the audiologist for a sound booth test. We go about every 6 months at this point.  It is still very hard to pinpoint exactly how well Sadie is hearing because of her age, but we try.  This time we attempted Conditioned Play with her hearing aids in.  Basically they have Sadie put a peg up to her ear and when she hears a sound she puts the peg in the pegboard.  After a few tries, Sadie had it down pat.  She would even say "I heard that!"  She was also able to point out the picture of "xyz" when the audiologist asked her to.  There were 4 pictures on the page and some were of things that were very similar sounding (ie-school and pool).  Sadie got all of them right except for a plate of meat (come on, who knows that!) and a picture of a school, which she has never had exposure to.  She could, however, repeat the words when asked (well, school, was cool, but that is normal for her age).  When we got done, our audiologist informed us that they typically don't even ATTEMPT to train kids to do this type of testing until they are AT LEAST 2.5.  Sadie isn't even 2 years old!!.  Her hearing levels were at about 15-20 decibels (which is below normal conversation levels), except for one high pitched frequency which was at the normal conversation level.  Basically this means we just need to ensure she is hearing her "s's" because that is the frequency that sound falls in.  At this point I am not concerned because Sadie is able to repeat words with "s" in it, as well as add "s" to the end of words when appropriate.  We head back in another 6 months to try again.

These days Sadie LOVES to sing.  She is singing "Twinkle Twinkle, Wheels on the Bus, Itsy Bitsy Spider, the ABC song, and more.  She also counts to 20, although sometimes leaves out 17 & 18.  She is always asking me "mommy doing?" and when I correct her "WHAT is mommy doing" she always answers the question (ie-Mommy driving)....then WHY did you ask if you already knew...silly girl!

She surprised me the other day by saying "there's a turquoise car."  First of all, I didn't even know she knew that word, and second of all, yep there sure was a turquoise car driving by!!  We are still working with You and I.  She always says "you want that" instead of "I want that."  Hopefully she picks up on it soon.  Otherwise, this child is having full blown conversations with me.  I could not be more thrilled by my baby girl.  Honestly, if you did not see her hearing aids, you would not have a clue that she is hearing impaired.  Just the way I had dreamed. I am one PROUD MAMA!

 Ready to go shopping!

 Ride 'em Cowboys!

Snug as a bug in a rug!

Lake Fun

Over the 4th of July we headed down to the Lake of the Ozarks.  Sadie had a great time playing with her cousins and the water.  The only hiccup was when we had to take her to Urgent Care.  Troy & Sadie were both diagnosed with strep throat.  Luckily they got some medicine and were feeling better within a couple of days.  Sadie didn't get as much swim time as she would have liked, however, since she wasn't feeling well, we didn't want to push it.  Below are some pictures we took.

 I'm ready for the pool!

 This is the life!

 Too hot to be outdoors, so just chilling in my box.

 Grandma & Grandpa got us this cool tent to play in!

 Sharing Cheezits with my cousin Nolan

 Dad & I in the pool all by ourselves!

Isn't my hat fashionable!

Ah, back home all snuggled up!

Pete the Repeat

The time has come when Troy & I have to REALLY watch what we are saying around Sadie. She is mimicking everything we say.  Case in point below:

In case you cannot understand her, she is saying "Mommy is a pain in the butt."  I wonder who she learned that from????

She also said an 8 word phrase yesterday (Yes, I count how many words she says in a row). Totally unprompted she said "Daddy's boat goes down down in the water."  At the lake, we always watch the boat lower into the water from the lift.  I was very excited, as that is like a whole sentence!!!  And she even used a preposition, which we have been working on (isn't speech therapy intriguing?)

Sadie is starting to get quite the sense of humor these days (although she doesn't know it).  She is always cracking us up.  She finally let me paint her toenails purple like mine, so the next morning she was searching frantically under the covers to find my purple toenails. She couldn't get far enough under the covers to see my feet, so I pulled one of my feet out to show her and she said with such excitement "Mommy found them!" (Probably funnier if you were there, sorry!)

Here are a few pics of my gal over the past week.  She loves riding her big wheel (she finally learned how to push on it). We have been so focused on speech I think we lack a little in the physical area.

 I love my big wheels!

We also got her a kiddy pool to play in since it has been so hot outside.

 Sadie in the swimming pool!

Best silly face I could get out of her.

And finally, baby girl wasn't feeling so well yesterday, so all she wanted to do was snuggle with mom.  I hated seeing her sick, but I have to admit, I loved the snuggle time.

I love my mommy!

Milestones

It is pathetic at how delayed I have been in updating this blog.  I need to step it up as I would love to keep this blog up to date so I can look back at all of Sadie's milestones.  So, here is a little bit of what has been going on with Miss Rose.

Sadie's therapist recently did her quarterly "test" on Sadie (which is really just a checklist of all the things she is doing receptively and orally).  She ranked in the 36 month range :)  We are estimating that she has around 400-500 words, as she repeats EVERYTHING you say.  Now, all of these words do not sound exactly perfect, but most 20 month olds don't speak perfectly clearly either.  No matter what, we are thrilled by her progress.

Sadie knows all of her colors, can count to 10, and can say most of the alphabet.  Sometimes she gets really excited when she says it (more like shouts it) and forgets a few letters.  She totally surprised me last night as we were driving home, though.  We passed the Honda Dealership and points and says "H" (as that is Honda's logo).  I have never pointed that out to her before, so I thought that was pretty cool! 

Sadie also loves to go around shouting "Happy Birthday To You."  It is pretty funny when she just randomly pulls that out.  Sadie is typically saying 3 word phrases, but has gotten up to 5 (Go home see Daddy/Louie).   

Sadie recently had the opportunity to be on video for Widex (the manufacturer of her hearing aids).  They wanted me to share my story of Sadie's hearing loss, as well as film Sadie and listen to her speak/play.  In addition, they had our fabulous audiologist on video talking about the Widex hearing aids from her perspective.  I had to laugh, because in true Sadie fashion, she made quite the statement.  I was telling my story of Sadie's hearing loss and got to the point where I was discussing how her language is developing so well and Sadie decides to shout out "Stinky Poo Poo's!"  I was like, really child...of all the words/phrases you know, that is what you choose to shout out on video?  Of course I was like, "uh, you can edit that out, right?" :)  I love that kid!  We are excited because Widex is hoping to follow Sadie's progress and make a case study out of her. I would love for her to be a success story for Widex. 

Below are a few random pictures of Sadie over the past month.

Helping Dad mow the lawn!

Princess Sadie (really just another version of a hat)

I have a thing for crowns :)

Princess Sadie siting on her throne.

Rare smile caught on camera!