Mama, Watch This . . .

Sometimes those three words precede a trip to the ER.

Sometimes they precede something truly wonderful.

Don't worry, this post describes the latter.

Remember when I posted about how far communicating with Eli has come in just a year?
It just kicked up another notch! I guess he must be receiving some sort of speech therapy at school, although I am a bit surprised they wouldn't have notified us of this change to his IEP. It was previously discussed that his level of hearing loss excluded him from this therapy, unless we specifically requested it. Since we were more than fine with him communicating exclusively via ASL, we did not request it. Anyway . . .

The other day I was making dinner, and Eli was seated at the table stalking my every move just like any normal mealtime. He waved at me to get my attention, and signed, "Mama, watch this!"

Me: "Okay."

Eli: "Watch, I'm going to talk."

Me: (internally dubious) " . . . O - Kay"

Eli: signs 'what' and then actually says the word what!

Me: speechless

He did it a few more times, and I was just as impressed each time. He was so thrilled with himself. That night as I was tucking the boys into bed, he asked if I could help him talk. So I sat on his bed and we worked for awhile. If I make a sound into his ear, he can hear and mimic that sound (yes, that's new and quite shocking on it's own).

He would give me a sign and I would try to teach him to say the word.

He said:

Car

Eli

No

Who

Bad

Every time an actual, clear word came out, I screamed and clapped and jumped up and down. Josh would shout, "Whoa!" and Eli would burst out laughing and roll around on his bed. We were quite the insane trio. At one point, he asked how to say "Go". Every time he tried to say it, it came out as this crazy sounding tongue roll, and the three of us were hysterical laughing. Then he signed, "I love you" and asked how to say it. I placed my mouth to his ear and said "Love", exaggerating the L and V sounds.

And he said it!

He said "Love", just as clear and concise and beautifully as you can imagine.

Logically I know that this was just another word to him, but to me it sounded like absolute magic. I never, ever expected to actually hear that word from his mouth.
Yes, I cried - okay, I cried alot!

I'm not sure what all of this means, but it would seem as though Eli's hearing loss may not be as profound as the tests have shown. I'm wondering if it's possible that the stress of the transition had an affect on the audio grams with and without the hearing aids. We'll have to revisit and evaluate all of these things, but right now I'm just so happy that he's come so far.

Now, if I could just get him to say "Mama", I think I really would burst!

~ Jen