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A Day to Remember - Elizabeth sporting her left hearing aid

After a three-month hiatus, Elizabeth is back to wearing her left hearing aid.  Details coming soon but for now enjoy these pictures.

Daddy and his girl

Snowball fight!

Mommy and Elizabeth

Our own ice-skating rink

The park was incredibly slippery after the snow.  Katie needed a little help from daddy to stay upright.

Eighth Avenue

Another attempt at street photography

Who is that handsome man?

Looking towards Upper West Side

PHOTO A

PHOTO B

These are the same picture edited with different effects.  I am really curious to learn what picture you like best.  This is the same photo taken from the rooftop of our building.  I should probably also note that I had Elizabeth strapped to me and had one eye on Katie.

World Trade Center

PHOTO A

PHOTO B

Husband and I are having a debate about how to edit this picture.  Help us solve it!  Please comment and let us know which photo you like best?  Thanks!  Taken from the roof of our building.

Once last picture before bedtime

My first attempt at Street Photography

Katie at the frozen fountain in Bryant Park

Daddy looking at the frozen fountain in Bryant Park

Elizabeth enjoying her coffee creamer.

Who needs coffee when you have creamer?  Skip the food too, okay dad?

Love

Friday night traffic coming into the city

Katie and Daddy in Central Park after Nemo

Post nap and happy!

The many expressions of Katie part 2

We interrupt the Katie expressions with this message from Elizabeth

The many expressions of Katie part 1

I love this little face

Pink

You know you are a mom of girls when doing laundry your load of lights is essentially just a load of pinks.

American Museum of Natural History part 2

This was taken in an incredibly dark room.  I was just happy something came out!  The museum proved to be quite a learning experience for my photography skills.  Every room had different lighting.  Everything was taken sans flash.  It was difficult.  Fortunately we have a membership so I can go back and try again!

Elizabeth's Hearing Loss

I am not sure how much we have shared about Elizabeth and her hearing loss on this blog, but I thought I should post an update. 

Elizabeth was diagnosed with moderate to severe rising hearing loss in her right ear and severe hearing loss in her left ear.  What does that mean for Elizabeth?  In simple terms, it means that in her right ear she can hear high pitches but really struggles to hear the lower ones. In her left ear she struggles to hear most pitches.  Those were the conclusions determined after several Audio Brainstem Response (ABR) tests.  Here is the general timeline of what has occured since we learned that Elizabeth has significant hearing loss:>

At 4 months of age, Elizabeth received her first pair of pink (of course pink!) hearing aids. 

At 5 months of age, Elizabeth began learning how to do behavioral hearing tests. 

At 6 months of age, Elizabeth began going to speech therapy sessions once a week for an hour at a time. 

At 10 months of age, Elizabeth began going to speech therapy sessions twice a week for an hour at a time. 

At 11 month of age, the frequency of Elizabeth's hearing tests were increased to every other week. 

Also at 11 months of age, Elizabeth's audiologist, Miss Johanna, decided that we should see how Elizabeth responds/grows without wearing hearing aids. 

At 13 months of age, it was determined that Elizabeth does indeed need some audio assistance (i.e., hearing aids).

Despite the increased testings we still cannot get consistent results.  This past week I thought we were going to go ahead and give Elizabeth her left hearing aid back.  We "think" that Elizabeth is hearing better in her right ear than we originally thought and that maybe her left ear may have a rising hearing loss.  However, at our appointment this past week, Elizabeth again was not responding with her right ear, so we are all left very confused. I am making an appointment to get Elizabeth another visit with her ENT to have her re-examined to see if the ENT notices any new issues in her right middle ear. 

Within the next two weeks, our team at NYEE Children's Hearing Institute will make their recommendations as to what what they think will be best for Elizabeth.  At this point, I want Elizabeth to return to wearing the hearing aid(s).  I want to know that she hears sounds around her.   I feel like she has stalled with her speech development, and I want to see her progress.


We will keep you posted! 

American Museum of Natural History Part 1

Peering through the telescope

I believe Katie's favorite part was all the space to run around!

Playing on Momimy's pink iPad (it is actually a Kindle Fire but don't tell Katie)

Thankful

Yesterday our dear friend Hannah, a young child with hearing loss, celebrated her one-year anniversary of receiving bilateral cochlear implants.  What a day to celebrate!  Hannah is an adorable little girl (she is almost 2-years-old).  Hannah is so full of life, and she has an adorable smile.  Thanks to cochlear implants Hannah can now hear her mommy sing to her.  She can hear Katie call out to her when they play before speech therapy.  Hannah and her mom, Jen, have become wonderful friends to us since we started going to the Children's Hearing Institute. Over the last 24 hours, I cannot stop thinking about how blessed we are to be raising children at this point of history.

I know our country is struggling right now.  For many reasons, it breaks my heart to think about what may be in store for our children as they get older.  Frequently, people tell me that they are sorry for the world that our children are inheriting.  While there certainly are some huge challenges facing our children, this point in history also provides our children with some amazing blessings.  
 

Thanks to living in New York City in  2013, I know that my daughter will be able to develop reasonably normally despite her hearing loss!  Thanks to the amazing technology of newborn hearing screenings, we became aware of Elizabeth's potential hearing loss before we left the hospital two days after she was born.  Thanks to the amazing technology of modern hearing aids, Elizabeth be able to grow up without having to learn sign language and with very little speech delay (hopefully).  There are so many blessings that are available to children today that were not available in previous generations.  I choose to be thankful.

Okay I am off my soapbox now. 

Is it me or does she have a look that suggests she is up to something?