And I'm not even going to pretend to have a reasonable excuse. My kids are not super-hard; they both go to be easily and early, sleep through the night, and wake up late. My job is flexible; I get a lot of vacations and people WANT ME to bring my children into work.
I'm just still processing all of this. And, let's face it, I'm kind of old to be chasing around a toddler (and I do a lot of chasing--he doesn't hear very well, so I can't just yell. Much as I love to do that). I'm tired. I'm overwhelmed. I'm constantly running.
Also I've been doing a terrible job taking pictures. I can never find the camera.
But for those who are curious, Jack is doing great. Oh, and we've started calling him "Jack", because it really....fits! Jack now has bilateral cochlear implants. He has been hearing sound for exactly seven weeks today. Here is what he can do already (keep in mind that he has only been hearing English for SEVEN short weeks--that's not even two months):
He understands many animal sounds (moo, woof-woof, quack, bawk-bawk-bawk, meow, baaaahhhh, squeak-squeak, ooo-ooo-ah-ah [monkey]); sound associations (la-la-la, brrrrr, ahhhhh, shhhh, woo-woo-woo, choo choo) words (bye-bye, hi, hot, shoes, please, open, more, milk, up, poop [yeah. poop], head, uh-oh, ow, down) phrases (all done, change your diaper, night-night, sit down) and songs (itsy bitsy spider, head shoulders knees and toes). And today, he said "mama" for the first time! He also says "up," "more," "ow," "ahhhhh," "meow", "moo", "hi." I'm sure there are things I'm missing. He's impressively smart. Oh, and he identifies and signs about 13 letters of the alphabet already.
Nora has transitioned well to sisterhood, and is a great big sister and helper. Jack loves, loves, LOVES her. He wants to be with her all the time and wants to do whatever she is doing.
Nora turned six in February! I just can't believe it. Here they are playing Twister. Sort of.
We made spam musabi. At Nora's request.
Here is a letter that Nora wrote to us:
