We wish YOU a Happy New Year!

What a year it has been! That Lola sure has taken us on an adventure! Thanks to all our friends and family and all our blog readers for their support over the year. Thanks to the amazing scientists for creating the cochlear implant. Thanks to Dr. Severtson, the surgeon, for being a perfectionist. Thanks to Dr. Windmill, our audiologist, for always making us feel like we're her only appointment for the day - very rare in doctors these days! Thanks to Paula, our teacher from LDOS - we will miss you when Lola starts playgroup! Thanks to everyone we've worked with through First Steps; it is such an amazing program and we are so grateful that it exists. Lola continues to amaze us constantly, and I am confident that the upcoming year we will see incredible strides. Stay tuned! Bonne année et bonne santé!

Derrick, Susan & Lola

Shhh and Sounds

We've been playing a game lately where we put our finger to our lips and make the shhh sound. Last week we were driving in the car, and I was sitting directly in front of Lola and our friend Lisa was sitting beside her in the back. I read a sign that said "Shhhhh" and Lisa reported that Lola immediately did the "sign" for it; that means that she heard the sound and knew what it meant without seeing me!

She's been making lots of sounds too. She does a "mama" and we've even heard a meow. She does make approximations of up, hi, hot, quack and arf. Over Thanksgiving weekend, she started doing "ba ba ba" sounds. She's also really imitating the sounds of speech. It's just amazing how fast she is picking things up, and even our teachers agree with us that she probably did hear for awhile before she somehow lost her hearing.

Daddy's Girl

Lola loves a good scary book! We've been reading Dinosaur Day by Liza Donnelly for weeks, and her favorite part is when the dinosaur (we call it a monster because it is a "monstersaurus" in the book) jumps out of the snow and chases the little boy and his dog. This book is how she knows the signs for "monster" and "scared." The first 10 or so times we read it, she really jumped at this part and grabbed onto our arms. As soon as the book was over, she would grab your hand and have you read it again. Anytime someone new was around at bedtime, they also had to read it. Aunt Dole read it to her, and Uncle Jeff did an inspired version with many many new sounds. We do read it less now, but she still loves the scary part!

She also loves pickles! Derrick says that she had a mouthful of cheese the other day at lunch and she spit it all out as soon as he brought out the jar of pickles. When they bought pickles at the store, she hugged the jar and didn't want to let it go.

But what about me? Well it does seem mother and daughter both have a sensitive scalp, as we make the same face when the Christmas Tingler approaches!

Lola's Signs

1. cheese
   
2. more
   
3. milk
   
4. Lola
   
5. duck
   
6. bird
   
7. dog
   
8. cat
   
9. where
   
10. shoe
    
11. toast
    
12. hear
    
13. fan
14. thank you
    
15. rabbit
    
16. eat
17. noodle
    
18. hi
    
19. water
    
20. bath
    
21. book
    
22. hot
    
23. train
    
24. pig
    
25. sheep
    
26. light
    
27. Daddy
    
28. Mommy
    
29. Wilson
    
30. cracker
    
31. cow
    
32. witch
    
33. tomato
    
34. want
    
35. ball
    
36. mouse
    
37. monster
    
38. fish
    
39. pear
    
40. up
    
41. smart
    
42. all done/finished
    
43. cold
    
44. Knuffle Puppy
    
45. cookie
46. airplane
47. scared
48. brush teeth
49. water
50. banana
51. apple
    
52. light
53. stars
54. bed
55. lion
56. spider
57. hungry
58. snow
59. airplane
60. pickle
61. monkey
62. ice cream
63. on
64. balloon
65. phone
66. bear