Lillian's one year mark!!!

This weekend we hit Lillian's one year mark of her cochlear implants being turned on.  Our lives have changed so much!  She can hear her brothers!  She can hear her peers!  She works so hard at correcting her articulation errors when she speaks!  She is being understood by her peers!

While the implant is not perfect, we've had some technical difficult with equipment over the year, it is wonderful.  Her ability to understand spoken language has greatly improved.

Example:  Lillian with hearing aids couldn't hear me if I was not in the same room with her.  She spent a lot of her time wondering around the house looking for me.  Lillian with her implants can hear me in another room, just cannot locate which direction the sound is coming from.  So if I say 'I am in the Kitchen' she knows where to find me.  If not she will wonder around calling to me.

Lillian still gets lost in large groups, but that is understandable.  Tonight some friends from church were at the same park as us.  Lillian saw them and played with a group of girls and boys (6 kids total)!! She did not drag me over there to ask what everyone was saying.  Made my heart happy.  She also loves to play with Jackson.

Lillian picks up on those annoying teasing phrases kids say.  I have to laugh when she comes home saying something snarky.

 I am so lucky to be the mom of this crew!  Such blessing I never imagined possible!

 Lillian's worked so hard this year!  This Girl has had 6 hours of therapy a week outside of school!  7-8 if you count her in school therapy also!  Learning to understand sounds and language with a cochlear implant is not easy.  Lillian makes it look easy, but I see how hard she works.  So grateful for her love of learning and desire to keep at it.

 Took the kids to the Zoo a few weekends ago when Steven had to work.  They were great!

 When you sick mom lets you have ice cream after dinner every night.  Mom gets it too!  Now that she is well she still request it... not a chance sweetheart.

Summer starts for the boys tomorrow.  Lillian has another week of school, then strait to summer school.  I have really schedule a lot of activities for the kids this summer.  I hope they enjoy them!