Fun with water and Jake.

My little ballerina !  Maggie struck the cutest pose while she was playing with her cousin Jake Sunday night.

They loved playing with Jake's birthday presents and the water play station was Maggie's favorite ! I think she played for a solid hour dumping water out of cups and sailing boats.  Jake had fun too, except he liked to pour water all over himself and laugh.  Boys will be boys !! He turned two on Sunday and we had so much fun celebrating with family.  They may not realize  it now, but these two they are going to be big buddies one day.

What's Up With The Headband ?

I get asked A LOT about Maggie's headband.  Most people think I just love headbands  and that Maggie just wears big bows and headbands everyday for the fun of it.  This is funny to me because I do not like headbands ! I don't think they are that cute and they always seem a little over the top ( in my opinion).  Which makes it all the more funnier that Maggie HAS to wear one every day until she is at least five years old when she can get a bone anchored hearing aid ( BAHA).  Until then, she will wear her headband every day, hot humid weather and all.

Maggie's headband is just a simple way to keep her bone conduction hearing aid on her head.  She can not wear a hearing aid in her ear for two reasons.  First, the cochlea in her normal ear does not work so a hearing aid would not help that ear.  Second, her other ear is closed and tiny (microsia/atresia) and so a hearing aid can not go in a closed ear.  So, the bone conduction hearing aid is just perfect for Maggie.

I am often asked " how does she keep that thing on, doesn't she pull it off " ?  Nope.  She does not mess with it at all.  Amazing isn't it for a 19 month old.  Maggie knows she can hear with her headband on and she likes it.  She will stand very still with her head bent forward and wait patiently for me to put it on.  She loves her headband.  In fact,  if it slips down over her eyes she will just pull it back on her head.  It is her" miracle".

Splash Park

Velcro Baby.

Maggie has been very clingy lately or as the adoption community calls it " The Velcro Baby Stage".  She wants to be held a lot and only wants mommy to hold her ( Daddy is very sad and trying to not get his feelings hurt).  This is a normal stage she is going though and I know it is helping our bonding.  But....kinda of hard to get stuff done around here when Maggie is clinging to my leg and crying to be held.  It is so pitiful and I am a pushover for her sweet fat cheeks and dimpled hands !  Oh well, some things will have to wait while I love on my velcro baby.

Maggie Updates

Maggie has been with us six months now and boy has she changed !!! She is feeding herself now and loving real food.  Her favorites are peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, burritos and lasagna.  Maggie is also tolerating getting her teeth brushed now - still not loving it though.  She can also do the sign for "more" and "all done".

We think Maggie just gets prettier and prettier every day.  Her hair is really growing long and I am not sure what to do with it because she has to wear her headband ( bone conduction hearing aid) every day.
 Any suggestions ?

She loves her American Flag and we are looking forward to celebrating the fourth of July this year.  Independence Day has a whole new meaning now !

This picture was taken in China on the famous Red Couch in Jan. 2010.  Maggie was fourteen months old.  I am still A-MAZED at how much she has changed in just six short months.  She is catching up so much developmentally now and babbling more and more.  We LOVE her so much and although I have said it a million times I will say it again " I can't imagine our life without her".  She is an amazing little girl so full of life and personality.  Every day she surprises us with something new she can do.  It's like she just changed over night ! Unexplainable, except I know that LOVE had everything to do with it. Thank you Lord for the gift of Maggie !

Sunday.

Here are some more pictures from Sunday we took right before church. Maggie was a bit sleepy and not wanting to get her picture taken.  It was also about ninety degrees outside ! 

Father's Day.

The Greatest Gift I Ever Had
Came From God: I Call Him Dad !
~Author Unknown

Happy Father's Day !

Happy Father's Day, Chuck ! You are an amazing Father to our three beautiful children...

I love that you take us all on adventures.....

and you love to play.....

Thank you for always being there.....

And for wearing costumes !

You are everything a wonderful father should be....

Thank you for all the time you spend with the kids, teaching and loving them.

Words can not describe how wonderful you are !  I love you !!!

Speech Update.

Since Maggie has had her hearing aid for almost four months now, I thought I would update everyone with how her speech is going.  Most people ask me if she is talking yet and that is a reasonable question.  Before we found out about Maggie's severe hearing loss, I did not know anything about hearing loss.  I had no relative or friends that were deaf and I  had never researched about this special need either.  These last four months I have had to have a crash course about hearing loss in children and I can say that I am starting to understand it all a little better, but I am certainly no expert.

 Children must pass through all the normal stages of language development.  This is important for Maggie because the day she got her hearing aid was day one for her.  So, she is like a four month old baby in language development since she has had her hearing aid four months.  For a child that is 3-6 months old you can expect:babbling with vowels and consonants, some repetition, and experimenting with loud and soft sounds.  This is exactly what Maggie is doing !  She is saying lots of vowel sounds mixed with consonants, she says mmm,bbb,ddd, and ggg.  We have heard her say it very loud and very soft.  It has been amazing to watch her babble and try to communicate with us ( and Charlie the dog).

We are learning  that shaping speech is an  on-going process and we find every opportunity to work on speech with her.  Even the boys look for ways to help reinforce Maggie's speech therapy at home. I read to her all day long and thankfully this girl LOVES books ( she's so much like her mother).  We are learning to use a melodic sing song voice with her to promote inflections in her voice and to not rush to help her say a sound.  We are learning to pay attention to all of Maggie's babbling and babble back to her.  But mostly, we are learning that Maggie is just now getting to know all  about this mysterious hearing world and she likes it !

Peanut Butter n' Jelly.

Maggie can eat a whole peanut butter and jelly sandwich now.
Yes she can !

Pretty.

Maggie loves jewelry !  We call it her PRETTY.

If you ask Maggie where her PRETTY is, she will go find a bracelet and put it on.

And then walk around the house very prissy like.

She also loves her sunglasses.  You go girl !

Camping

We went to Bryson City again and camped at The Lost Mind Camp grounds.  It is an old fashioned camp ground that we have fallen in love with.  A beautiful creek runs in the back of the camp sites and lulles us to sleep at night.  The boys made a repelling station and they played all day in the creek, skipping rocks and building dams.

Maggie loves to camp and it is a diverse sensory playground for her. She picks up rocks, plays in the dirt and laughs at the trees.  All of the things she has missed in her early beginnings.  She just comes alive !

We visited the Smokey Mountains National State Park Pioneer village.  This is our attempt at a family picture.

Go Camping !!!