Signing- for now!

Thursday night, Nancy with the Louisiana School of the Deaf, came over for a meeting and talked strictly signing. She said is it time to start doing it constantly without hesitation. Granted, we are only started with baby signs for now… milk, more, eat, sleep, change diaper, mom, dad… but around 5-6 months is when babies generally start concentrating on what the hands are doing, and then they start to immitate the signs. We are on top of it and ready to become quite fluent. The signing vs. no signing is kind of a controversial issue, but neither way is a wrong way, it’s what each family decides is best for them and their child. Since we have decided to start seeing the certified Auditory Verbal Therapist, once Hunter is activated, we will keep the signing to a minimum so that he doesn’t fall back on signing rather than really trying to learn to hear and speak through seeing. As Nancy said, we can change our methods if something isn’t working out, but for now this is the route we have decided to take.

Also, big news…..we are starting at a new babysitter on Tuesday! Not that we don’t love Ms. Darla, because she has been SO good to us. But we found a lady in Maurice who was sitting for a child, Mia, with the CI. This little girl has been going to Anita, “Nini” since she was 2 months old, and she is now 4 years old and is going to be mainstreamed. She listens and speaks so well that she scored above the level to receive free services in the public school system. Nini learned sign language with Mia and all of her hearing kids also sign as well. She is also very familiar with the Early Steps therapy and allows them to go into the daycare during the day. She probably knows more about all of this than Blair and I do. And she incorporates the signing and the therapy into everything they do during the day. When I spoke with Mia's mother, she said her daughter would not be where she is today if it were not for Nini. It’s a big curve in the road for us, but definitely something that will benefit Hunter in the end. He won’t be with his cousin or current buds at daycare, but he will definitely make new friends who are hearing and already know how to sign, and hopefully he will be caught up enough by the time he is ready for school to be mainstreamed.

Nini’s house is in Maurice, but just so happens to be on Blair’s way to work every morning and afternoon, so he and his daddy will do lots of bonding during the car rides! Although mommy wants to bring him his first day, or two J

Other than that, he has been babling up a storm, laughing, rolling over and he just started holding his own bottle. Now that our weekends have slowed down and we aren’t going to be out of town this weekend, we will be testing out our first round of baby food (besides cereal)! We can't believe our baby boy turns 6 months old next Monday, where has the time gone?

Thank you all for your continued love and support, we could not do it without you all!