The Monkey Man Turns Three And I'm God's Comic Relief

Hi ya'll,

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted. I promise to post more often. As you can guess from the title Toby turned 3 yesterday. It was AWESOME!!! Seems like yesterday I was toatin him around in my belly. Man has he grown. I put my ears on yesterday morning and all you could hear from the other room was "it me birf day.....it me birf day.......I'm free......I'm free (meaning three). Then he officially declared that he is now a man. I gave him a look and said WHAT!?!? to which he promptly replied with a scowl "Ok little man" :O)

Everything in the hearing world is coming along slow but sure. I still have some trouble with conversation, but surprisingly I'm getting most of it. Individual voices are just starting to come thru. Right now everyone sounds like they are talking in a well, but I have an adjustment appointment next week so maybe she can fix that. I'm so amazed everyday how I go from being totally stone deaf to hearing all in a matter of seconds when I put on my processors. When I get up in the mornings I dont put my "ears" on right away. I usually get the kids up, get a drink, go to the bathroom, and maybe do an odd little job before I ever get the chance to put them on. Well...Josie and Toby were watchin tv the other morning when evidently there was a knock at the door. Of course I didnt hear it or feel it. Well Josie looked out the window and saw it was the neighbor so she opened the door. (This is the neighbor that they call Grandpa so she knew it was safe to open the door.) Anyway she told him that mom doesn't have her ears on yet and that she would go get me. She came to me, got my attention, and signed the words door and grandpa. Well the neighbor could see all this from around the corner because of the way our house is set-up. He was so proud of how Josie being all of 6 1/2 can go from signing to talking. I am very proud of my kids. To them and Jay this is normal. And it's nice to know that while most other people look at you as odd or weird that with my family I am just normal mom. I know that may not have made sense to most, but try going thru walmart with 2 cochlear implants on in a rural farming community.

Speaking of Walmart. Here is a funny. Well it wasn't funny for me at the time, but Jay assures me it was funny. We were walking thru Walmart the other day and normally Toby dosent pay too much attention to the people around him. Well this day he was really paying attention to the people around us. And he realized that the people behind me were kind of staring. Not that I blame them, I'm sure it looks weird and I have no problem with people coming up and asking me questions. But anyway, all of a sudden Toby got this MAD look on his face and yelled, "It's mommie's ears, take a picture why dont ya" OH I WAS SO EMBARRASSED!!!!! So I turned around and apologized to the people and they of course smiled and said it was ok that he was just protecting me. Then they asked if it would be ok if they asked some questions. I said that would be ok and I answered them and we went on our way. As we were walkin away Toby yelled "NICE TO MEET YA, BUT NEXT TIME JUST ASK" Oh trust me folks God DOES have a sense of humor. And I must be his choice for comic relief.

Anyway, we are wanting to go to the HLAA (Hearing Loss Association of America) convention in Nashville Tennessee. The convention runs from June 18-21st. I know we wont be able to be there for the whole time, but we would at least like to make it one day. There will be booths set up with different products designed to make life alittle easier for people with hearing loss. There will be seminars and lunches and all kinds of goings on. I really hope we get to go and meet some of our friends from Hearing Journey.