Chance takes his implants off at the family party

Last night, we had a family Christmas party.  As part of the party we played a game using white elephant gifts.  Everyone brought a gift to exchange, and since they were white elephant gifts, many of the gifts were gag gifts or funny gifts.  For example some of the gifts last night included an empty box full of "a lifetime of air", candy with cleaver sayings, a canister of PlayDoh. Chance brought a funny framed picture of himself which he signed. There was also a blanket, a game and a puzzle etc.  The gifts are all placed in the middle of the room and there is a bowl full of numbers that everyone draws from.  When your number comes up, you pick a gift out of the center of the room.  Once you open it and see what is inside, you can either keep that gift or steal a gift you want that someone else opened.  Once a gift has been stolen twice, it cannot be stolen anymore and the 3rd person to have it gets to keep it.

Sometimes people try to wrap their gift in a way that makes it look really appealing.  And sometimes, people call out and try to get you to pick certain gifts.  When it was Chance's turn, many of his cousins called out to him telling him which gift to choose.  Chance just took the magnet part of his implants off and then smiled at everyone and said, "What? I can't hear you!"

In the end, our family came home with some old fashioned candy and Play Doh among other gifts.  We got to eat good food and visit with family.  And Chance added a new twist to the game by taking off his implants when he was done hearing the suggestions of his cousins:)

Chance = sick = no implants = captions

Chance has been sick today and that means that he has spent most of the day without his implants on. When Chance gets a headache, he tends to just go without his implants.  Of course, he still talks to us and acts like he will hear our answers. He also likes to draw all of the blinds when he sick so that it is nice and dark.

We watched a devotional on television tonight and Chance still didn't want to put on his implants. There were subtitles and Chance is excellent at reading subtitles.  He really seemed to be paying attention because he was taking notes.  Taking notes and reading subtitles.....that takes skills.
Chance can also read lips extremely well.

Ammon on the other hand, does not like his implant and hearing aid off when he is sick. In fact, he gets really perturbed when his implant is off for even a few minutes.  He puts them on first thing in the morning and he doesn't take them off until he is settled for the night. I wonder if this is because he had hearing with out implants and hearing aids up until about a year and a half ago.  For Chance, being deaf is pretty natural.  He likes that he can take his implants off and have quiet.  Ammon doesn't seem to crave the quiet of not hearing. We'll have to see if it stays this way.