Hunter singing Happy Birthday to You

My video didn't upload in the last post, so here it is :)

Memorial Day Weekend

These days, Hunter in public can be hit or miss. Sometimes he will sit in a high chair for an hour, no complaints, and sometimes he wants out the minute he gets in. He is in constant.motion.all.waking.hours. Since our beach trip last summer, Hunter hasn't really been on a family trip so we decided to go to the Audubon Zoo and Aquarium of the Americas with our friends Courtney and Chris and their 2 year old James. Hunter and James get along very well and feed off of each other, so we knew it would be a good time with the two of them. It's still a lot of parallel play at this age, but they definitely know when each other is there and ask where they are when they are apart.

Saturday we started at the zoo around 11 and left around 2. There were a ton of people, but it was so big that you could hardly tell. There were lots of shaded areas as well, which was nice in the 86 degree weather.
Here are a few pictures from the zoo:

Here are a few pictures from dinner, and a video. We lucked out and picked a place with a completely empty ball room upstairs where the daddys took the boys to run pretty much the whole time we were there!

The boys found a mic upstairs, and while James was singing Life is a highway, Hunter was running, and running, and running and running. Until he finally got the mic, and broke out into HBDTY! Haha. They reminded me of Sophia Grace and Rosie, the male version!

And a few pictures from Sunday at the hotel and the aquarium. It's true, temper tantrums followed us to New Orleans, but overall we had a GREAT trip and are so glad we went!

Yes. Santa makes all trips.

After a great weekend in New Orleans, we spent Memorial Day by the pool at my parents' house. ALL Hunter has been talking about for weeks now is the boat behind Pappy and Nana's house that he saw. So Blair put his boat in the water to take Hunter for a ride, but he cringed as we walked towards the wharf, whined because he appeared scared to death, and he never set foot in the boat, after all that! We tried.... maybe another time :)

CI Mapping 05.10.13

Hunter, Blair and I hit the road Friday, May 10th for a mapping appointment with Mrs. Tanya at Ochsner's in New Orleans. Our last appointment was in January and she did not change any of his settings. She wanted us to go back in 3 months (which ended up being 4 because of tax season) just to check in on things again. The one piece of advice I will never forget when first researching Cochlear Implants was to have them mapped (programmed) as often as possible. So I am definitely not opposed to making the trip, even though we were most likely not going to change anything. She asked if we were having any problems, plugged his ears in to check to the programs, made Hunter say a few things, hit the sound booth for a minute and we were done!

Here is a of video from the sound booth after the appointment. They play a low sound from either the right, left or front and Hunter has to look. Once he looks they turn on the lights and a louder noise, like a rabbit playing a miniature drum.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all of my mom friends, and even my non-mom friends. Thank you for everything you have done for me since I have become a mom to Hunter. It definitely takes an army to keep our lives going and to keep it all together. So thank you to every single person in our support system, big and small. You all make numerous impressions on Blair, Hunter and myself and none of us would be where we are today without you. The people I surround myself with are who make me the mom I am today. I got numerous sweet thoughts yesterday about being a great mom to Hunter. But the truth is we start to take on the habits and attitudes of the people we surround ourselves with, and all of you have contributed to my strength as a mom. Thank you all! 

The following video was probably the 3rd time that day that Hunter sang Happy Mother's Day to me and it was the best part of my day! I got to sleep in while Blair took Hunter to an early mass (which is a task in itself) and I even got to shower and put on my makeup ALL.BY.MYSELF. That doesn't happen very often anymore. Well Blair and Hunter walked into my room with a plant and a card READY to sing, and I have to say it TOTALLY made my mother's day. For those of you who don't know, Hunter is obsessed with singing happy birthday to anyone at anytime. So singing Happy Mother's Day was just as satisfying to him to be able to sing it to me, his Nana, his Gammy and his Nanny yesterday. I caught this one on video after breakfast while playing at the gazebo in downtown New Iberia. 

And here is a picture of me and Hunter :)

And here were Blair and Hunter when they came in to wish me a Happy Mother's Day! Saying cheese of course..... ;)

Hunter's 1 Year Hearing Birthday 4/27/2013

To all,
We have reached the 1 year mark, the most exciting 1st year with so many milestones I can't even begin to express how grateful we are for Hunter's ears. It has changed his world while he has changed the world around him. The joy and laughter and words and sentences, yes sentences, bring a smile to my face that only the mother of a child born deaf can understand. Hunter still amazes us every single day. His memory blows me away. The things he picks up on constantly makes me wonder if we are challenging him enough.

Oh and a few things I don't think I ever addressed on here. We now just have to travel to Breaux Bridge for therapy on Wednesdays instead of Baton Rouge. The Chesney Center hired a therapist who drives to Breaux Bridge once a week to meet with their patients from the Acadiana area. Also, we switched out the color of Hunter's coils from tax to brown and they blend much better now!

Here are a few videos from Hunter's AV Therapy session last week. They just make me smile big big!

Blair and I tried to compile a list of new things he was saying last week and here are a few of them:

Good job buddy getting ball

Daddy where are you?

One, two, three throw!

Ready, set, go throw

Bye dogs see you later

Boat pass pappy house

Close door nana house

See you tomorrow

McDonald's french fry with Gammy

I love you more

Nice to meet you

Go get towel mommy

Get Icee Friday?

Mama play bubbles outside

Now this was probably two days worth of things from last week and I haven't even had a chance to write down new ones from this week, but he just keeps stringing new words together every day! He has even started saying Thank You without being prompted and his use of the word please has increased as well! 

Thanks to everyone who constantly works with Hunter, he has made progress like I've never imagined he would. We are so grateful to be blessed with such an amazing support system of friends, family and therapists. 

Here are a few recent pictures as well.

And one from his hearing birthday: