You can't go back......

My husband and I  watched some family video footage tonight of both the birth day of Chance's younger sister and the first few weeks of her life.

Chance shows his affection for his baby sister.

It was cute with all of the emotion of those tender moments with our new baby flooding back along with the darling interactions of our boys with their younger sister.

There was the footage of us leaving the hospital where Chance kept running way up ahead.  We called him back, but of course he did not hear us.  He found a couple at the end of the hospital hallway who were gathering up their supplies to take their baby home. Chance sat on his little haunces entranced watching them.

He had no idea what was being said by them or by us who were calling him to come back.

Chance after helping to bath his baby sister.

Some of the video made both my husband and I cringe though.

 Like the scene where we are all relaxed in the living room watching the miracle that is a new baby flex her fingers, open and close her eyes and make squeaking noises.

Chance's brother was walking up and  kissing his new baby sister.

Not Chance.  We would ask him if he wanted to, but he just kept in the background.

I have a segment of footage of Chance when we put the video camera on him as that is what we thought he wanted.  He kept peeking around to the front of the camera.  We thought he just wanted to see himself and there was probably some of that.
But when we focused the camera on him, there was also a look on his face of deep contemplation, like he was trying to figure things out.

I put my head down on my husband's chest at this point and kind of groaned as my husband sighed.

Chance looks like he is thinking and figuring things out.

There was our  sweet darling boy who was not hearing anything and here was this new baby and all of these things going on around him that he just did not understand.

Then there was the point where we kept telling Chance to "stop pulling on that."(we think he kept pulling on the lens cap for the camera.  That is our best guess from what we can see in the video)  We repeated that phrase several times and our poor deaf boy just kept going along probably wondering why his parents had a look of disapproval on their faces.

It is a little heartbreaking to look back now and watch Chance knowing that all the while during those times in his life that he was deaf and no one knew.

I wonder if he felt alone.
Did he long to hear again?
Did he wonder in confusion why he could not hear anything anymore?
Was he scared?
Oh how I wish I could comfort that small deaf boy that he was and snuggle him and let him know that it was alright.  That we would help him and that he was not alone.

Chance makes a fashion statement

While it doesn't do the cut justice, you can still almost
make out the cut

Who could have guessed almost seven years ago when Chance got his implants that someday down the road, the scars would become trendy?
Just goes to show that you never know what is going to happen in this world.

Chance's fashionable moment started when we pulled up to the hairdresser's.  I had taken the boys to the appointment right after I picked them up from school so we had not had time to discuss hair cutting.  I thought we were just going to do the usual, you know,"Give us the usual Leann."  But my boys had other plans which they sprung on me as we raced into the building so we wouldn't be late.

There was talk about some sort of stripe on the sides of their heads.

Being a conservative person with hair,  I was leery. Stripes?  This did not sound like an attractive look to me, but Chance's brother pulled a picture up on his lap top to show me what they were talking about.
OK, is was not as bad as it initially sounded and the boys would not end up looking like they belonged to some sort of grungy boy band in the end, so I let them have a go at it.

They were very excited and we showed my friend the picture on the computer so she would know what to do.

It was not until Chance's hair cut was well underway that I thought about the scars from his implant surgeries that are vertical.  The strip look is horizontal.  It suddenly occurred to me that this haircut might end up either high lighting his implant scars in an unattractive way, or just look plain dorky.

Chance doesn't wear his implants while his hair is being cut, so  my friend and I had a short discussion and then decided to proceed with the stripes anyway.

And wouldn't you know, when all was said and done,  it looked great!

As my friend took the cape off of Chance's neck, she said,"You know, the scars kind of make it look cool."

I had to agree that was the case.

So now Chance has a stylin' hair cut and it is truly unique to him.  This is not a look that just anyone can get, you have to just have it naturally.  Others can look in envy and want the look for themselves, but only Chance can pull this look off in the end:)

I hit Chance with the van

I hit Chance with our van.  A moment of panic that obviously came as quite a surprise. Frankly if it was going to happen, I thought it would have been when he was younger and wasn't hearing.

I worried about Chance being hit by a car when he was little because he could not hear cars.  It didn't occur to me this late in the game that I would hit him because he mistook the sound of the van starting and backing up to be the central vacuum cleaner turning on..  The vacuum empties into a canister in the garage and it does make a bit of noise.

Chance came around the driveway, behind his dad's car, and bent over to pick up the newspaper just as I was backing out of the garage to drive the boys to school.  I thought Chance was still in the house, and apparently, Chance thought I was still in the house too which is why we bumped into each other.

It was quite a scare for me to see Chance's head suddenly poke up in my back window.  My heart skipped a beat, I sucked in air, slammed on the brakes and  started a prayer of gratitude that it was a miss.

The look on Chance's was a mix of surprise and unfathomability.

Later, Chance told me,"The van actually touched me! Just barely."

All of that time that Chance could not hear and now is the time that he is hit by a car albeit ever so gently thank goodness.

Chance said that he heard a noise in the garage, but thought it was the central vacuum starting up.  This is why  he wasn't concerned about the possibility of the van rolling down the driveway while he bent over to retrieve the newspaper.

Thankfully, we are all safe, and thanking our Heavenly Father that Chance was protected from what could have been a tragic situation.