Rowan likes to put things into rows. He does it with everything: some rocks in the park, his toy cars, and his broccoli at dinner. The rows are neat and tidy, and every item is carefully placed. He learned how to put things in a row from his therapy sessions where we give him an animal or sound object, make the associated sound, and then it goes into a row. As Rowan is learning more and more about sound, communication, and the listening world around him, he has to organize all of the chaotic noises into meaning, ideas, and ultimately words. Slowly he is working on putting his world into a row, making sense of what must be an overwhelming mess. We are definitely seeing progress as his first little words have started to show up. He loves to say “uh oh” (there are ample opportunities for this one), “bye bye” and “up up up.” He responds appropriately if you ask him if he wants more.
Together we are figuring out how to live life with two cochlear implants. His newest implant is turned all the way up, so both are functioning. Rowan is pretty patient about wearing them. Occasionally he will get mad and pull one off of his head (as part of a fit, not because he is bothered by it), but usually he is pretty good about wearing it all day long. The devices consist of a body-worn piece that attaches via a cord to the magnetic piece that attaches to his head. The body-worn devices sit in a harness that Rowan wears around his abdomen under a shirt; because of the batteries, it is bulky and a little heavy (maybe 1-2 pounds). For a 28 lb kid, that’s 3-7% of his body weight. For a 150 lb adult, it would be like carrying a 4.5 lb-10.5 lb bag around all day long. The magnets stay on his head most of the time (except for crazy moments of wrestling with his brother or jumping on the couch) and when they come off, they beep, which has made me hyper-sensitive to any beeping sound that is remotely close to the sound of his device. I think that I would salivate at the sound of a beep. There are moments when I look at his devices and feel a twinge of sadness to think that he has to be burdened by it at such a small age, but there is also a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity he has to hear.
Because of Rowan’s language delay (he has the language skills of a 15 month old which is pretty good considering he has only been hearing for 7 months), I sometimes forget how old he is and what I should be expecting from him in his other developmental categories. With his strong, independent spirit he reminds me that he is capable of doing a lot of things on his own. Having the advantage of a bigger brother to watch, he is rapidly demonstrating new skills in his play and coordination. We went to a park recently that we had not visited for a few months and I was amazed at all the things he can do on his own that were challenging for him a few months ago. I think that his earlier problems with balanced caused by the problems in his ears forced him to work harder and now he is a very strong guy with really great balance.
Together we are figuring out how to live life with two cochlear implants. His newest implant is turned all the way up, so both are functioning. Rowan is pretty patient about wearing them. Occasionally he will get mad and pull one off of his head (as part of a fit, not because he is bothered by it), but usually he is pretty good about wearing it all day long. The devices consist of a body-worn piece that attaches via a cord to the magnetic piece that attaches to his head. The body-worn devices sit in a harness that Rowan wears around his abdomen under a shirt; because of the batteries, it is bulky and a little heavy (maybe 1-2 pounds). For a 28 lb kid, that’s 3-7% of his body weight. For a 150 lb adult, it would be like carrying a 4.5 lb-10.5 lb bag around all day long. The magnets stay on his head most of the time (except for crazy moments of wrestling with his brother or jumping on the couch) and when they come off, they beep, which has made me hyper-sensitive to any beeping sound that is remotely close to the sound of his device. I think that I would salivate at the sound of a beep. There are moments when I look at his devices and feel a twinge of sadness to think that he has to be burdened by it at such a small age, but there is also a deep sense of gratitude for the opportunity he has to hear.
Because of Rowan’s language delay (he has the language skills of a 15 month old which is pretty good considering he has only been hearing for 7 months), I sometimes forget how old he is and what I should be expecting from him in his other developmental categories. With his strong, independent spirit he reminds me that he is capable of doing a lot of things on his own. Having the advantage of a bigger brother to watch, he is rapidly demonstrating new skills in his play and coordination. We went to a park recently that we had not visited for a few months and I was amazed at all the things he can do on his own that were challenging for him a few months ago. I think that his earlier problems with balanced caused by the problems in his ears forced him to work harder and now he is a very strong guy with really great balance.
More than anything, I love Rowan’s silly personality and delicious laughter. He gets this little mischievous glint in his eye and you know that he is up to no good. The other night I had a surprise sneeze that made Rowan nearly explode with laughter. He makes me laugh when puts all four on the ground with his bum straight up in the air (my Samoan friend told me that in her culture, when a child makes that pose it is a sign that his mom is pregnant; I assured her this was not the case and not to expect it anytime soon). I love my little blonde and blue!
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