Music

Frank and I differ greatly on our choice of music. Frank's a Dead head. He's all Jerry Garcia all the time. Literally, he has a six 6 cd changer in his car and ALL SIX have The Greatful Dead. Hey, I don't mind them but not my choice. The kids call it Jerry's band and seem to like it. I, on the other hand like completely different music. I like all kinds. Really all kinds. I listen to classic rock,some country. I even love Justin Timberlake. But my favorite band is Metallica. Most people who learn this about me are shocked. I don't really seem like the Metallica type.

I can't tell you the last time I put music on in the car. Between the kids and the DVD player I just never put on the radio. Not to mention I was paranoid to listen to the radio when Cormac was first implanted because I didn't want to add any more "background noise" then there already was in the car. But as time has passed and I realized Cormac can hear me just fine in the car and since we got the new truck I thought I would throw on the CD player. Got out my favorite CD, Master of Puppets and loaded it into the changer. By God, these children LOVE it! I played a few songs and I look back in the car and they were all rockin' out. Heads going back and forth and some serious dancing in their car seats. THey asked me who was singing and I told them. Now every time we get in the car Colin, in particular, asked for MEtallica. Master of Puppets is his favorite and you have to hear him sing it! Here's some video of them in the truck. I took a great one on my cell phone but the audio didn't work for some reason.



I taught them the hand movement as a joke but they seem to like it. I know, not the most appropriate music choice but it doesn't have any curses and for now they are too young to understand what it's really about. They just think it's about puppets!

I have never taught them the lyrics but the know a lot of the words. I was pleasantly surprised to realize Cormac could understand the lyrics as well. I wasn't sure how he would react but as you can see he really likes it!

I am sure Frank would be much happier if they were chillin' to Jerry, but hey, I can't control what they like!

On a different note, I had to share these pics of the boys. When they were small I always took their picture in the rocking chair in their room.



Just seemed like it was easy to prop them all up and get them all together...


Well, the chair has been moved to Calleigh's room but I asked them to sit in it all together for old times sake.... Notice Cormac has to sit on Colin's lap because they are just too big now. This is why I LOVE these boys....






Can you just see the LOVE in their eyes when they look at each other? Warms my heart and makes me smile. That's why I love the candid photos much better than posed.

And I feel like the princes is being neglected in the photo department so here's a few the the little lady...




She's just started smiling for real, you know, not just from gas :) This is the first photo I caught of her smiling.



FOr those that don't know, Calleigh was born with an incomplete lip. It's actaully even smaller in person than in photographs. SHe will have it repaired in a few months. Funny thing is I don't even notice it when I look at her.

Thank you

Thank you for all the wonderful comments on the last post. I am glad Cormac has given others hope for their children. I am thankful for all the support over the last three years. I am hopeful for the future for all the amazing "bionic" children in the world. And I wish all of the parents all the patience, time and ENERGY to continue on your journeys.....

From Contrail to Comets

Last Wednesday Cormac had his last day at Summit SPeech School :) He will be heading to preschool in September. While we are thrilled he is doing so well we are sad his time at Summit is over. Luckily, his support services in district will be provided by Summit so we will still be part of the school. I am hoping we stay part of the Summit family forever. Our lives would not be the same if we had not found out about Summit and we will be forever grateful for all of their support over the last three years.

On the car ride to school his last day I was thinking to myself "I hope we are making the right decision. I hope he will be OK. You know, all the usual self doubts you have regarding decisions we make about our children. As I am thinking all this I hear from the back seat "Mommy?" I say "yes Cormac?" He says "Why is there no contrail coming out of that plane flying in the sky?" My first response was "I don't know". My second was "you are going to be alright kid!" And he says "I know Mommy." Then he says "Contrail looks just like a comet!". Gotta love this kid. I don't know many people LET ALONE three year olds who know the word contrail. Anyway, it made me feel just awesome that day. Totally made me forget my worries (for a while).

They made him a special breakfast and I was able to stay with him for his last morning. It was sweet how the kids interacted with him. He certainly has no problems making friends.






By the way, the Eye Spy containers were a huge success. The glue gun was not sufficient and we had a minor spilling of rice but I was able to put clear packing tape on them and you can't even see it. Now they are more durable. We played Eye Spy for the long trip to the beach last weekend.

As we reach this next milestone in Cormac's journey I still can't believe all he has accomplished. He continues to baffle me on a daily basis with what he can hear and say. He NEVER stops learning. He loves it. His ability to recall information is better than mine. I honestly think he has a photographic memory. I have never really seen anything quite like it.

We spent approximately 112 hours in the car just commuting to Summit since April. I then spent approximately 225 hours entertaining Ciaran and Colin while Cormac was in school. I was pregnant and had a baby somewhere in there too. For the last month or so I had Calleigh along for the commute and the wait time. I say this not to complain but to just know while it was a tough time for us IT WAS WORTH EVERY MINUTE OF OUR TIME! It's time we will never get back and I mean that in a good way. For Cormac this was and is the most important time. We can't go back to being three when he is six. What he achieves now is the strong foundation he will need for his future.

For those of you who read this who are in the beginning of your journey to hearing just know it gets better. It gets easier. There is a light at the end of the tunnel. It's tiring, it can be frustrating at times but I think the rewards are just so much sweeter. We might never know why we were chosen to have children who are deaf but know that your hard work is rewarded. Years from now when are children are successful, happy adults you won't even remember how tiring it was to get there (I hope).

A much happier post...

Calleigh finally came home from the hospital on Friday evening. She is doing well but is still hanging onto a cough. Poor little thing had a rough go of it. Here's the run down of what actually happened.

We left for the shore Friday afternoon. The boys all had runny noses and a cough. Calleigh was fine. By Saturday morning Calleigh had a little cough. Nothing else. By the afternoon she didn't want to eat and started to get a fever. Thinking it was better to be safe than sorry I brought her to Jersey Shore Medical Center. My pediatrician said if I had any concerns to bring her. With her medical history and her cough they said they would admit her and observe overnight. She was tested for RSV and flu and both were negative. We were released on Sunday early afternoon. We came home back up north thinking we should be closer to our doctor. She never got any worse and seemed like she was just a little under the weather. Being nervous I "slept" in the rocking chair in her room with her on my chest the whole night. At 6am I put her in her crib in her carseat to keep her upright. I just wanted to lay down for an hour before the boys got up. At 6:30am Frank was getting ready to leave for work. He went in her room to see her. He picked her up and she was grey and blue and came into our room with her. He handed her to me and I said call 911. I gave her two rescue breaths and she coughed. SHe was still breathing very shallow.

She was brought to the hospital by ambulance and stayed for the week. It was really just a bad cold and upper respitory infection but she couldn't breathe through her nose at all and her mouth was closed so she was not gettin enough oxygen. I never knew babies don't know to open their mouths to breathe until they are closer to 6 months. You think I would know this. Thank God, Frank went into her room.

I stayed at the hospital for four nights and didn't get a wink of sleep. I am still trying to catch up.

I have lots of other stuff to tell about Cormac's last day at Summit and some other cool happenings but will have to do it in another post.

Why we are MIA....

Calleigh is back in the hospital. Long story that started over the weekend but I don't have time for all the details at the moment. Let's just say I am glad I now infant CPR and thrilled our 911 repsonds so quickly. Calleigh is doing fine now. She has been in the hospital since Monday morning. Probably will be there until Saturday. She has a really bad cold. That's it. No flu, no RSV. Nothing serious. But I guess when you only weigh 8 pounds and have a VSD it can really knock you out. Keep her in your thoughts.

Learning and Hearing and fun in one.

Well, I survived another day. Today was much improved. No puking. Still alot of coughing and gagging but no puking.

Someone posted this on Cicircle and I just wanted to share it. Thought it was pretty cool. Build a Bear has hearing aids you can add to your bear! You have to order them online but it's totally worth it. They look like cochlear implants to me so it would work for either. I am so psyched we might have to head to build a bear this week!


We have been trying to do something productive each evening after dinner. If I keep them busy it really is much easier. Left to their own devices.....you just never know! Anyway, we geared the last two nights toward listening games but most of our life is like that!

Last night we decorated hats. (yes, after my hellish day I actually did a project with the boys) Ciaran and Cormac had safari hats and Colin picked a yellow contruction hard hat. They were from Micheal's Crafts and we only like a dollar or so. I bought a bunch of foam stickers and let them decorate them. For Cormac I would say "can you put a purple elephant next to the yellow giraffe?" and so on. I let him do a lot without instruction but added in some listening skills. He also would tell me "I am going to put the purple heart above/next to/under the green rhinocerous." It was fun and learning built into one.

Here are the final products!





Today we made our own I Spy containers. I saw them at the store last week and they wanted like $30 a container. I wasn't spending $90 on I Spy so back to Micheal's we went. I found these great clear plastic containers. I also found lots of little things to put in them. They were all small plastic buttons. You can buy a bag for a dollar. I picked lots of different themes. Sports (baseballs, footballs, basketballs and soccer balls), things that live in the ocean, fruit, crayons, vehicles, shapes. There are more but I don't have the list in front of me. I let them each pick a few from each category and put them in their container. Then we filled the rest with rice. VOILE! Our very own I Spy containers. I am praying the glue holds the lids on or it will there will be rice everywhere! I plan to use them in the car for a game. It's a great listening game. "I spy something that lives in the ocean" Then they look and have to tell you what it is. You get the idea. You can change it up "I spy something red".

Here's how they turned out. Nothing fancy but they loved them. We are heading to the beach for the weekend tomorrow afternoon. We will be bringing them along for the ride.



Here's a close up of the buttons inside.

My day went something like this...

Up at 4:30 to feed Calleigh
Tried to go to sleep again.
Boys up at about 6:45am
Out of the house by 7:55am
SOmewhere in there I three boys went potty, got dressed, ate breakfast, brushed teeth. Calleigh also was fed again and dressed.
Drop Cormac off at school.
Now comes the 3 hours of time to kill with three kids.
Drive nearly back home for Calleigh to go to pediatrician.
Drive the 45 minutes back to pick up Cormac
Drive BACK home to drop off triplets so I can drive BACK 45 minutes to take Calleigh to her apppointment with the surgeon to have her butt irrigated.....
My Mom calls and says lets meet at Target and give the boys lunch and we can switch cars. Sounds like a plan.
We start eating and Colin starts coughing like crazy. Enough to make himself gag which led to puking all over the Target, himself while many people were just trying to eat lunch. (Insert crying hungry newborn here!)
My Mom takes him to the bathroom while I try and feed Calleigh. He has to be stripped down to his underwear because there is so much puke. It's even in his shoes.
He refuses to come out of the bathroom in just his underwear. But eventually caves. I buy him new clothes and get him dressed.

I now drive 45 minutes to the surgeon. Drive back home. Didn't get home until nearly 5pm.

At some point Calleigh ate 3 more times while on the road and needed multiple diaper changes. Can this all be taking place in one day?

SOme humor for the day? Calleigh has a colostomy bag until she has her second surgery. Not as bad as I thought. However, during the course of the day as she passes gas the bag fills with air. I have to let the air out and let me tell you the smell could knock you out! Well, today I do it in the car and out of the backseat I hear Ciaran "Mom, Calleigh is KILLING me with that smell!" He is too funny.

It's now near 6 we have no dinner in the house and I am very tired. Everyone is waking from naps and I am not sure what the evening holds for us.

By the way, we had an awesome weekend and I will share some really cute pics later.

COrmac only has 5 days left at Summit SPeech School. We are so sad. I am looking forward to not commuting there every day. Luckily, when he starts preschool in the fall he will be receiving support services from Summit so we will still be part of the Summit Family. Hopefully, forever!