We need another stash of batteries

Many moons ago, when Chance wore hearing aids, we had hearing aid batteries stashed in the glove compartment of the car, in my purse, at his preschool and at each set of grandparents house.  (We followed this same practice with his cochlear implants before he used rechargeable batteries)  Chance was really young so he was not a good source to tell us when his battery was dying so we just tried to be prepared everywhere we went.

We have apparently lost our edge. Today, in the middle of the afternoon, Chance's brother told us that his hearing aid batteries were dying.  Both of them, at the same time.  And five minutes later, both hearing aids turned off.  Chance's brother's hearing is such now that he cannot hear much without those hearing aids.   This was when we discovered that WE HAD NO HEARING AID BATTERIES ON HAND.  We were not prepared and our son begged us to go to the store and get some more batteries.  Quite the change from only a month ago huh, when he didn't even want to wear the aids at all.

Today is Sunday and we try not to shop on Sundays.  It is our day to go to church and spend as a family. But we could not have our son not hear for half a day, so I ran to the store and got him some batteries.

Today he  was begging for us to get some batteries; a month ago, he would have seen this as an opportunity to take the hearing aids off, but now, he realizes how much better he hears with them.

It is time to prepare ourselves again and stash hearing aid batteries in the car, in my purse and maybe at the grandparents houses.  There is something a little pathetic about a child with hearing loss having to beg for hearing aid batteries.

Crispy fall leaves just waiting to be walked through

This is a look at what is going on in our neck of the woods.  It is fall, and as we get ready for Thanksgiving, crisp leaves blanket the ground and the weather is turning colder.

I love the huge hay rolls that appear in the fall

It is also time for the cub scout derby! The derby is a highly anticipated event where cub scouts build their own cars out of a kit and then race them against each other.  Chance's brother had a marvelous time building his car with his dad.  Last year he won 3rd place, but this year he just had LOTS AND LOTS of fun racing the other boys.

The boy in the picture is not Chance's brother, just a cub scout ready to race.

The only problem we had with the derby had to do with hearing the time to turn in the cars for a weigh in.  Chance's brother was bound and determined that at church when they announced what time the cars had to be turned in, that they had said 2:00 in the afternoon.  I received an email telling us that the cars had to be in at 5:30, but my son had heard 2:00 and he could not be talked out of that time.

This is one of those interesting things that happens when you have deaf and hard of hearing children.  They sometimes don't hear things quite right, but they think that it is YOU who have heard it wrong.  It is quite comical sometimes.  We finally talked our son into believing us that the weigh in was at 5:30 but it took several days and a conversation about how at 2:00, both the boys and their dads would still be at school and work.

We have another hearing test today to see if Chance's brother has lost more hearing.  Each time we have had a test in the past several months, at least one ear has lost more hearing.  We are now looking at cochlear implants.

Wish us luck in the hearing booth!

Chance moves to Tonga and joins the United Nations

So, we went bowling again this week as a family.  This must be some kind of a record.  We had another birthday in the family and I would just like to say that, I BEAT CHANCE!

Chance participated in a re-creation of a United Nations Meeting this past week at a local university. High school kids from about 16 high schools in the area were bused in to re-create a United Nations Conference. Chance was the UNICEF (The United Nations Children's Fund), representative from the country of Tonga.   Chance and his fellow high school students had a debate on the resolutions that should be passed for children involved in and affected by armed conflict in the world.  The second debate was about children in poverty across the world.   Chance really enjoyed the experience and wants to participate again next year.

I am delighted that Chance got to participate in this program.  He is now a little more interested in taking debate classes as well.

All I can say is that if Chance is a representative from the nation of Tonga, I think I need to pay him a visit:)


Update:  Chance's brother has a big hearing test tomorrow.  By big, I mean it is his first one in 3 weeks, and each time we have gone in these past few months,  his hearing has fallen a little more. Tomorrow we will do at least a few hours of testing and see how things are progressing.  In the meantime, our boy has taken to Harry Potter and when he got a scrape across his forehead, he was delighted to see that it looked awfully similar to Harry's scare and is even in the right spot.  This made dressing up for the masquerade ball that his children's choir performed in, even more delightful for him.  You usually just can't plan scrapes like that.

After our marathon testing session, we will head over for an ice cream cone at the creamery up the street from the sound booth.  I think we may even get double scoops.  Sitting for several hours in a sound booth testing your hearing deserves a double scoop of ice cream.

How Chance celebrates Halloween

This is Chance planning and carving his Halloween pumpkin.  We have a pumpkin patch up the hill by our house and so the kids all got to pick their own pumpkins.  Naturally, everyone chose the biggest ones they could find.

Morph Suit + High Heels = Chance?

Chance has been enjoying this Halloween season.  He went to a Halloween party dressed in his morph suit, and then at some point during the party, he decided to wear the high heeled shoes of one of his friends.  He asked me how girls could wear high heels because they are really hard to walk in.  I hope those shoes are OK for his friend to wear again.... Chance's feet are not small and dainty by any stretch of the imagination.

At school and for trick or treating, Chance dressed up as Sanka from the movie Cool Runnings.  So did his brother.  Chance now says that he wants dreadlocks, but apparently he got voted "best hair" a few weeks ago at school with what he's already got so he may want to reconsider.

Chance went trick or treating with his cousin and texted me with the message that they had gathered 11 POUNDS OF CANDY!  I am going to have to bury some of it in the backyard so that Chance doesn't get sick.