Nothing annoys me more than wrong information getting out to the public about Cochlear Implants. It's usually from people who are against implants in the first place. They don't take the time to find out the truth. They just repeat what they "heard" without verifying the truth in their statements. This leads to more people getting more bad information.

Look, I get it. Implants can be controversial. Not everyone thinks children should be implanted. You are entitled to your opinion. You are allowed to make that decision for YOUR family. Just like I am allowed to make the decision to implant my child for MY family. While I think children should be implanted I never BASH other people because they choose to not get implants. So, why do those who DONT have them feel the need to say things about those parents who do? Why do the continue to perpetuate untruths? Why can they not just say "it's not what I want for my child BUT it's the parents choice?" If I waited for Cormac to tell me he wanted implants, well, I would have missed the boat for language aquisition. He CANNOT get that back. If he decides when he is older he suddenly doesn't want implants he can take them off his head. He is STILL DEAF. I never deny he his deaf. I think I gave him access to both worlds. In a million years I cannot see him deciding he doesn't want to hear. Do parents who put glasses on their children expect when their children are older they will throw their glasses away and walk around not seeing?

This issue gets me fired up. I never thought anything was "wrong" with Cormac. I still don't. He's not broke and I didn't try to "fix" him. As his parent I chose to give him access to something that was not available to generations before him. I gave him access to a world of sound. I gave him access to hearing my voice and his brothers voices. My job as a parent is to give my son all the opportunities the world has to offer. Well, our world is a hearing world. And when I say world I mean my family. If you saw how much Cormac missed in his first year of life as compared to after he was implanted you would see the benefit. He was like a spectator in his own house. He was on the sidelines alot because he just didn't know what was happening around him. This broke my heart. He is now the leader of the pack! He knows if his brothers left the room. He hears them yell "Cormac, come play with me downstairs" when he is upstairs.

Cormac also can sign. He doesn't use it any longer but he can do it. All the boys and I know a lot of sign from his first year of life. That is how we communicated wtih him before his implants. So, it wasn't like we didn't try. This boy LOVES to hear. He LOVES to sing. He LOVES to talk. He LOVES life.

He lives his life like a typical 3 year old. He does gymnastics, plays soccer, goes to music class, art class, plays on playgrounds. You name it and he does it. And he does it all incredibly well. He excels at school. He can go to Las Vegas.(see link below) He can go through a metal detector. He can't have an MRI but he can have a CAT scan.

He understands and speaks at a level well above his actual age let ALONE his hearing age. He loves to hear stories read to him. He loves to dance to music. Lots of these things would not be possible without his implants.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and to make decisions about their family. But please base it on truths and not lies. Do your research for yourself. Actually TALK to person with an implant or a parent of a child before you write things that are not correct.

If you are wondering what prompted me to write this post. Click here.

While the writer of the above post didn't really bash us it's just the wrong info that gets to me. AND I get google alerts about implants and this was one of them.

Ok. I feel better!

Look out Mickey.....

Do you think the mouse can handle the triplets? We will find out in less than a week. We leave on Sunday. Excited can't really descibe how I feel. I cannot wait to see the faces on the boys when they get to see Mickey and the rest of the characters in person. My only worry is Frank won't be with us and he will miss this amazing experience. But he has no more days off available at work. WIth Calleigh being in the hospital so much at birth and then again when she was sick he used all his time. We couldn't pass up the opportunity. Frank's Uncle John and Aunt Mary were so kind to give us their timeshare for the week. Frank was kind enough to say we can go without him :( because he knows it's a chance we won't get again. He's pretty bummed about missing it.

Now we need to figure out all the details about Cormac's processors. We will have access to an FM system at Disney if he needs it. We will bring lots of tape to keep them on his head when he rides the rides. Water rides, well that's a given they will have to come off. But he doesn't really mind.

I'll post again before we leave but wanted to share our exciting news.

Writing, teaching and mice!

Cormac has been able to write a lot of letters for a really long time. Not sure if this is normal but Ciaran and Colin are not able to write like him. His fine motor skills are remarkable. He has been able to sign the entire alphabet correctly since he was not much older than a year. He loves to write and draw and a paper and pen can occupy him for hours. He used to write them really large on the chalkboard or on paper but now he is getting the placement on the page. He wrote these two days ago. He normally does his name better but he was in a hurry!

   

I thought I got this conversation on video but somehow missed it. Here's how it went. Cormac "mom I want to draw the milky way" Me: What's a milky way? COrmac: It's in outer space" Me: What's inside the milky way?" Cormac: "A teddy bear constellation" Me: What's a constellation?" Cormac: "A group of stars" I remember not too long ago worrying about increasing his conversation abilities and taking turns. I think he has got it now, right?

Here he is being the teacher and asking me what letters he is drawing.. CHeck out the end where he draws shapes.


I have been meaning to post a link to some educational toys I picked up and have turned out to be wonderful for Cormac. They are made by Alex Little Hands. I have the 123 touch and feel cards and The First Words touch and feel cards. They are great. They have questions on the back so if your kids are a little older like Cormac they are still useful. They also take away some thought on our part and make you ask questions you might not think of! For example: Socks On the back of the card it says "we wear our socks under our shoes" Touch the socks on the front of the card Do they feel soft or hard? ( I change it and say "what do they feel like since Cormac knows soft and hard) Am I wearing socks? Mop On back of card it says" The mop cleans the floor" Does the mop feel wet or dry? What else do you use to clean the house?" I only have these two but after seeing the website I can see I will probably get some more from them.

Ok, this is just cute and I had to share. Cormac is not wearing his implants in this video. He is reading my lips and talking back :)The boys found last years Halloween costumes last night before bed.....



C

Happy Girl!

I ordered this hat for Calleigh. She obviously loves it! That's all I got for today!


 

Pop Pop

So, today we are driving in the car and Ciaran says "Mommy, Pop Pop needs to get an airplane so he can fly back from Heaven and see us again". Needless to say, it sent me into tears. If only this were possible. At that moment I wished more than anything I could make his dreams come true. But I can't. I never can make it happen. I can only try and keep my Dad's memory alive by telling them about him. About how much he loved them. About how he came by a few times a week to see them. About how he got the biggest kick out of them. About how they always stole his hat and shoes. About how he always brought a newspaper with him and when he left it was usually shredded throughout my house. About how he caught a hammerhead shark. About how much I loved him. ABout what a wonderful man, father, grandfather, brother and son was. I miss him every day. I only hope my boys can grow up and live their lives with as much dignity and love.

It doesn't make sense why some people leave our lives. I hope someday I will understand but it's only been six months and I still don't get it. I still wait for him.

My children are my daily distraction from my sadness. Even though they can drive me nuts it's them I have to thank for laughing each day. For putting a smile on my face. For consistently telling me I am their best friend. For always telling me something silly or funny. But they also are a constant reminder of what we all lost. Ciaran is such a "wallace". He looks just like my Dad.

Make sure to enjoy those you love each day. We just never know how long we will have to spend with them.

Forever Fall

I wish the fall lasted forever. It is by far my favorite time of year. So much to do and see. SO MANY LANGUAGE OPPORTUNITIES!! We spent the past weekend fully enjoying the fall. On Saturday we went on a "hike". More like a fall walk at the local environmental center. Our guide pointed out all the cool happenings in the woods that occur in the fall. We even got to go inside a Wigwam. (how great a word is that??) At the end of our walk we made apple cider and drank it. The guide caught a frog and the kids got to touch it. We found out only male frogs make a noise and female frogs don't make sounds. (even the adults were being educated!) The were able to hold a salamander. All around it was a beautiful day.










Sunday, Cormac headed to a Fall Festival for the AG Bell Association. It was in Westchester, NY. Not too far from us. We originally were going as a family but Colin and Calleigh didn't seem so great so we made an executive decision for Frank to remain home while I took Cormac. It was an AMAZING, INSPIRATIONAL day. First, the weather was spectacular. I was there as a volunteer from Advanced Bionics. I met up with Laura, another Mom to two girls both of which have implants. We had a table set up with some information on AB. But mostly we just had fun. Mingled with other children and I got to chat with lots of parents of amazing children. Cormac got to make a candy corn necklace, build a scare crow, paint pumpkins, make a pumpkin craft and the MAKE SMORES!! He had a blast but was so tired after it was crazy. He fell asleep in the car in under 30 seconds.

TO see so many kids and adults with implants was great. All were at different stages of life. DIfferent stages of learning. But all of them were feeling blessed to be alive when such amazing technology exists. I was so happy to be able to attend and hope to be able to attend more when I they are within a close distance to us. My camera battery died when we got there! I took some photos on my cell but haven't downloaded them yet. A family I met also took some pics and when the email them to me I will be sure to post them.

Monday was a holiday for Frank so after a quick trip to the Dr for COrmac in the morning we headed into The Bronx to go to The Bronx Zoo. I had not been there since I was about 17 (ya know, about 10 years ago LOL). Frank was only there as a child. WOW!! It was great. So many animals. So many things to see. Words to learn (monorail, grazing, slithering, scaly). But I get the BAD MOMMY award for that day! We left the house with only one implant so Cormac only had one on the whole day. This drives me insane! I know he still hears me and learns but how on earth did he leave with only one???? I know how... Try getting them all up, bathed, dressed, packed for the day, remember Calleigh's colostomy supplies, bottles, formula diapers, lunch for boys, change of clothes just in case they forget to go potty...... HMMMMM, how could I forget to put an impant on??? Problem was he got up at the crack of dawn for some reason. I put one implant on him so I could talk to him in the dark and when we got up for the day after some snuggling in the bed, he was hearing and talking so I forgot I had only put one on at 5am!

Oh, well. I am sure he did not suffer any permanent damage! Nothing like a fun filled, language packed family weekend!

FINALLY!!! I uploaded the Rachel Ray Show.

Here is our TV debut! I know some of you saw it already. However, if you watched on the website you didn't see us in the live audience. It's about 5 1/2 minutes into the clip if you just want to watch us in the audience. The kids are too cute for words and Cormac does his little bit of talking! Sorry if it's poor quality but I was having major issues uploading so I actually recorded it off my TV onto my Flip video camera.

We had so much fun and when you see the boys' faces you can see they enjoyed themselves.

Just for today

Today I am going to try and not get frustrated.
Today I am going to make sure to take time to enjoy my kids.
Today I will NOT worry about the house.
TOday I will not think about the 20 million things I need to do.
Today I will not think about the 5 doctors appointments I have scheduled.
Today I will sit on the floor and do nothing but play with the kids.
Today I will make an extra effort to let my kids know just HOW MUCH I love and adore them.
Today I will not let Colin get the best of me if he decides he wants to have a fit.
Today I will ignore the volume level in our house and be happy to have all the noise.
Today I will not care if my children do not want to eat.
Today I will make a point to try and slow down.

Today is today. Tomorrow is another day. Today I am only worried about today.

UPDATE: It is now 2:30pm. The boys are about to take a nap. TODAY HAS BEEN WONDERFUL!!! We did a little of everything. Playing at the park, picnic lunch, grocery shopping. Let's see how the rest of the day goes. But so far, so good!


PS: Lots to update coming in the next few days (Cormac's language eval at NYU for one)

Our 15 minutes of fame is over!

So, I am glad lots of you got to see our big TV debut. It was a wonderful experience and we are blessed to have been part of it. I LOVED LOVED LOVED that Cormac talked at the end and pointed out the "R's". The funny part is the producer said to me "we are going to put a mike on Cormac BECAUSE HE TALKS THE BEST!" He had no idea what those words meant to me.

I have to say my kids were the best the day we went into the city for the taping. It was their first day of preschool along with NO NAP and waiting in a green room for a few hours. They were little charmers.

FOr those that missed it (Val) I have it on DVD and am attempting and going to attempt to upload the video to my blog. Keep your fingers crossed. I wont be trying until later in the weekend when I have more time.

In the meantime, for your viewing pleasure.....

The boys first day of preschool.





And Calleigh