Chance the driver

Chance is learning to drive.  He wants to drive home when I pick him up from soccer, he wants to drive to church, to the store and to any where else the family may be going.  Since Chance is taller than anyone else in the family now, he says that we all put the seat too far forward when we drive and he slides it way back when he drives.
Chance is actually a pretty good driver. He is careful and since he can't drive with out me or his father, he always goes the speed limit:)  I actually think Chance would go the speed limit even if we were not in the car with him.  He is very conscientious of what the speed limits on the roads are.  As he gets more and more comfortable with driving and can drive on his own, he may speed every once in a while.  I have heard that many teenage boys do this:) It is not worth the ticket you get and the mark it leaves on your driving record though.  We shall remind Chance of this regularly so he doesn't forget even when he is driving on his own.
For now, Chance is willing to do almost anything to drive and I enjoy my time in the car with him.  It is fun to talk to him and witness him grow and learn to do new things.  Especially when he is learning to do something that he enjoys so much.

Away in the mountains

There was no posting on the blog last week because our family was spending some time in a cabin that was in an area that was secluded enough that it didn't have any internet access without a several mile drive.

It was a difficult situation when it came to trying to turn in homework assignments, but a glorious situation for our family.  We spent a few days cross country skiing, snow shoeing, sledding, and sitting in the hot tub.  The kids built up quite a sledding hill.  The hill was there already in place thanks to mother nature, but the path was enriched and embellished by Chance and his brother.  Chance took a shovel and moved snow around so that the sledding path could start further up the hill and not lead into a tree.  Then Chance used the path as a skiing hill in his cross country skis that he brought from home.  It worked out well for him.



Chance had this to say about the cabin and I quote: "This must be what heaven is like......relaxation, miles and miles of pure country to roam in. Too bad I don't live here, or else I would be able to explore this place, know it, meet the people here."









There were bald eagles soaring overhead, and a beautiful fox that would walk right up on the side of the cabin by the window.  When the kids ran over to see him once, they scared him away, but he came back a few minutes later.  There must have been something he really liked by the cabin.








Chance took a cross country skiing break into the quiet wilderness among the trees. He was able to enjoy the solitude and openness of the lake and the clear bright sky.  It is off season for the area so we had the frozen lake and area to ourselves for the most part.  Our sledding path ended out on the frozen lake, and the tracks of our snow shoes and skis made paths across the snow covered surface.  We all loved it.

We played games as a family and had no appointments to keep except for the call of the snow outside the window. Many of Chance's friends wondered how one could survive without being able to use a computer or cell phone.  It can be done. I was glad to see that Chance was determined to bask in nature and forgo his cell phone even before we realized that receiving service at the cabin would be difficult.

Deaf teens don't have to worry about going deaf at a concert

Chance's school had a lip sync contest this past week.  Chance and his brother joined one of the teachers and performed a wonderful rendition of Vanilla Ice's song, "Ice Ice Baby."  I did not get a recording of it as I ran in just as the song was ending.  Thankfully, one of Chance's friends recorded the performance so I could see it.  The performance won 3rd place and came with a trophy and a bag of chocolates.

After the show was over, a local band held a concert in the gym. Any of you who have attended a concert for teenagers knows that the music is usually loud.  By loud I mean that people in the next county can hear it.  This concert was no different and two giant speakers blasted music out into the gym. Naturally the teens all gathered right up at the front of the stage where the music was the loudest.  I joined the boys up front and enjoyed the music for a bit.  Having deaf children makes one think of hearing and loud noises differently than the average Joe. I couldn't help but think that I may be loosing some hearing standing there so close to the speaker.  Chance's brother apparently felt the same way as after a while he approached me from the side and said he thought he may go deaf with how loud the music was if he stayed much longer.

Then there was Chance.  Chance was standing right next to the speaker rocking out.  His friends were amazed at his ability to be so close and not be uncomfortable as the rest of us could feel actual hair cells dying when we were that close to the speaker.

The moral of this story is, if you are going to attend a rock concert with your deaf teenager, you need to remember that you and your hair cells are on your own with the noise.  Your teen is already deaf, so that is no longer a concern they have.

For your amusement, here is a dancing hair cell.  One that has not yet been killed by attending a really loud concert.

A day in the life of a mother with deaf children

Today I thought I would provide some insight about what it is like living with deaf children.  Two incidents happened today, one with each of my deaf boys that I am quite sure are unique to a mother who has deaf children.

The first incident happened at the school when we went to see Ammon's sister play basketball.  On our way to the school, Ammon informed me that his hearing aid battery was dead and that he needed a new one.  I keep hearing aid batteries and cochlear implant batteries in my bag for obvious reasons so I wasn't that concerned about the hearing aid.  I figured we would just change out the battery when we got to the school.  Ammon does not like to go without hearing for any amount of time, so he was trying to tell me that he needed the battery right now.  As I was driving, through a construction zone no less, I told him that he would have to wait until we got to the school to change the battery.  He didn't really like this plan, but seeing as he couldn't reach my purse, and I couldn't hand it to him while driving through a construction zone, the situation was what it was.

While I was pulling my bag out in the parking lot, Ammon started to tell me what the difference is between hearing aid batteries and cochlear implant batteries.  He explained that the hearing aid batteries were the little ones and that the cochlear implant batteries were the bigger ones. How long have I been dealing with batteries for my deaf kids I ask you.  The answer is 9 1/2 years. I can see though that even after all of this experience, my young son doubts my ability to choose the correct battery for the situation.

Then later tonight as I sat in the living room with Chance, me in one chair and he in the other, I had an incident with my cell phone.  By incident I mean that I got a call from a number here in town twice in a row that I missed.  I wasn't sure whose number it was, so I called it back.  No one answered the phone, but my cell phone wouldn't hang up.  It kept ringing, ringing and ringing and the screen that would allow me to hang up disappeared. I could get to the screen to dial and call someone, but not the one that had the red button that ended a call.  I was gesturing with a "what in the world" sort of gesture and Chance noticed asking what was going on.  I started to answer him, then realized that Chance did not have his implants on, and furthermore, he had asked me the question and then turned away to look at the computer screen.  I am thinking that he didn't really want to know what was going on over in my chair:)

And then there is my all time favorite thing that happens when you have deaf children.  When they hear something wrong, they think you said it wrong, not that they heard it wrong.  For example, I will tell Ammon to move the chair and he will say, "Mom! You said move the hair!" Then he will laugh.  I know that I am not perfect when I speak every time, but it is interesting how your deaf kids figure that it must be you talking wrong rather than them hearing you wrong.

Last but not least, deaf children like to ask you questions when they cannot hear the answers. Big questions, how does the world work questions first thing in the morning or at bedtime, both times when hearing aids and implants are no longer on.  Here are a few of the questions I have been asked by deaf children who have no hearing device on:
How does electricity move through wire?
How do hydraulic engines work?
How come we can't see all of the planets at night?
Why did dinosaurs go extinct?
How do airplanes stay up in the air?

I am delighted that my children are curious about the world they live in. We just have to delay some answers until they can hear them:)

Implant found!

Chance has had a stressful weekend.  Friday night his implant died while he was driving us home from his grandparents' house.  Chance has a learners permit as opposed to a driver's license which means he gets to drive with his dad or I whenever he drives.  It is a great time in the life of a parent as you have a very motivated teenager who wants to drive and they can't do it with out you:)

While Chance was driving he handed me both implants and told me to switch the batteries as the implant that had died was his right one which is the one that was facing me in the passenger seat.  He told me to switch the batteries so that he would be able to hear me.

That was the last time he remembered seeing both implants. Chance went right in and went to sleep.

Chance woke up on Saturday morning, and couldn't find his right implant.  At first we thought it would just be a few minutes before he located the lost implant which had most likely fallen off while he was sleeping.

Chance was quite troubled that he could not find his implant and was not satisfied with just wearing one.  He spent a good chunk of Saturday looking for that implant.  By Saturday night, his dad was even offering a reward to anyone who found it.

Sunday morning we all went to church and Chance was still running on one implant.  As luck would have it, one of Chance's siblings was slow getting ready so we were a few minutes late which meant we had to sit in the back. Today was a meeting called Stake Conference (including about 10 individual congregations) that is held every 6 months so there were more people than normal trying to fit in the overflow seating area. And as luck would have it, the speakers were out in the back of the church and as technical people tried to fix the problem, my little deaf boys were hearing nothing.  I was having a hard time hearing since we were so far back and every time a baby cried, or someone moved their chair, it would block out the speaker's voice.

After about 10 minutes, I told Chance's older brother to out in the hall to see if the sound was better out there since there is a speaker by the entrance doors.  He came back and said that you could hear a lot better out in the hall, so we started moving in that direction.  Once we were out in the hall, one of the ushers told us that they had just opened a meeting room up the hall and that we could go in there. The speakers were fabulous in there!  Chance came into the room and his face broke into a huge smile and he sat down in one of the cushioned chairs able to hear all that was being said.

I was really starting to get concerned that Chance would not have both implants for school and then Chance finally found his implant.  It was in a Pringles container. That's right, a Pringles potato chip container which was laying next to where Chance fell asleep.  Doesn't everyone keep their implant in a potato chip container? If they don't they should:)  It is well protected in there and no one will be able to steal it.

San Francisco and Shrimp

Chance just got back from a 5 day trip to San Francisco, California for school. He ate shrimp while he was there and he really liked it.  Shrimp.  This little ocean creature would not have been added to Chance's diet had he not stayed in Hawaii for 4 weeks during the summer where he gained an appreciation for seafood.

When Chance was about 10 years old we went on a family vacation to Southern California.  We wanted to give the kids an opportunity to try some seafood since we were by the ocean and they don't get much of a chance to eat seafood at home.  We ordered a pasta dish with shrimp at a restaurant and Chance's brother gave it a try and enjoyed the new flavor.  Chance gave it a try and we had an embarrassing moment where we thought Chance was going to throw up at our table.  We were gently telling him to spit the shrimp into his napkin and to take a drink of soda pop to get the taste out of his mouth before we had an incident.

Chance's taste buds have matured, and they were further refined in Hawaii where he was exposed to several different foods including lots of seafood.  Chance has adapted to shrimp so well in fact, that he has asked us if we can add it to a Spanish dish that his dad regularly makes here at home called paella.  Paella traditionally has shrimp as an ingredient but we have left it off for many years now for the children.  Now, Chance and his brother as the oldest children are asking that we add shrimp into our diets.  Who could have guessed that would happen?

Chance had a fantastic time in San Francisco.  His brother and several of his best friends from school were able to travel together which made it even more exciting.  They all got to ride a train to California which was a 17 hour trip.  The boys did sleep a bit on the train, but there was also a lot of eating and playing card games with friends as well. Chance's younger brothers and sisters were quite jealous when we dropped the boys off at the train station.  It is not common here to travel by train to other states so this was a new experience for most of the kids headed to San Francisco. We have heard it was quite the experience and look forward to hearing more details in the days to come.

The boys were so enamored with the city that they neglected to take many photos with people in them. Chance didn't take one photo with him in it.  No selfies on this trip.

 

Chance has a style all his own

Chance's cousin got married over the holidays.  We spent the weekend with cousins, aunts and uncles celebrating with the happy couple.  Chance is close to this cousin and has enjoyed getting to know his new cousin-in-law :)

Christmas is a popular time to get married in our neck of the woods as we have several colleges nearby and Christmas break is a perfect time for couples to get married in between semesters at school.

While sitting at a table during the wedding reception, one of Chance's married cousins made an interesting observation about Chance.  He watched Chance for a minute and then said that Chance reminded him of his brother who had an attitude about him that said he was his own person, had his own style and wasn't concerned with what other people thought about him. He also said that was cool that Chance was like that.

I thought that was an interesting observation about Chance.  Chance does have his own style and he is his own person. And I hope that Chance realizes that he doesn't have to worry about what other people think of him if he is true to himself and his values. He doesn't seem to be that concerned about what other people think.  Oh he wants to make sure that his hair is in place and he has opinions about clothes and what he thinks looks good.  There is so much pressure to be like everyone else and to follow the crowd. I am glad that Chance is comfortable in his own skin and doesn't feel like he has to please everyone else around him.  Due to the fact that he wears implants, people sometimes do a double take when they seem him out in public, just kind of checking out the implants or wondering what they are, but Chance doesn't seem to be phased at all by that fact and just goes on with his life being himself.

I think it is cool that Chance is like that too.

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.

Have You Seen This Rechargeable Battery Pack?

We have had implants in our family now for about 9 and 1/2 years.  In all that time, we have never permanently lost a rechargeable battery pack.  Sure one would go missing every once in a while, but we always found it eventually.

That has now changed.  We lost a battery pack.  Ammon's new battery pack.  It is new because he has had an implant for less than a year now. It happened at a birthday party.  The party goers had gone to a trampoline place where kids are able to have immeasurable amounts of fun doing flips on trampolines, playing dodge ball on trampolines and jumping into foam filled pits.

Now, if you are thinking that this scenario was a disaster waiting to happen, I want you to know that I planned this all out.  I called the boy's mother and we talked about the implants and had a plan. Ammon was going to wear his implant and hearing aid to the facility, then, when the boys all started dashing off to jump, he was going to give his hearing devices to the boys mother in his little yellow hard case that would offer protection.  The case even has a strap to put around your wrist should you so desire.

The plan played out very well at first.  The kids got to the trampoline place, Ammon took off his devices and handed them to his friend's mom as he ran up a ramp leading to a trampoline. Then the kids had fun for 2 hours.

When it was time to go, Ammon got his implant and hearing aid back from the mom.  He asked her where the battery pack was.  She didn't know.  She didn't realize that the implant had two parts until that moment.

The search began.  This woman and her husband emptied her purse where the implants were, looked around couches, got down and searched under chairs and around the foam pits.  They found nothing.

Meanwhile, Ammon got home from the party and after excitedly telling me how fun it was, he went about his business.  He mentioned something about needing a battery pack, but I thought he meant his implant battery was about to die.

Then the phone rang. This poor mom asked me if Ammon had said anything about his implant at the party.  I could tell she was a little nervous, then she told me that they had lost the battery pack and had searched all over the place for it, but found nothing.  She felt really bad and responsible. I told her that it was part of the program when you have kids with implants and that we were not mad at them at all.
She said that she had accidentally left the yellow case on the kitchen counter with some other things that she was supposed to take to the party, and had wrapped the implants and hearing aid in a napkin before putting them in her purse.  She didn't realize there were two parts to the implant until Ammon asked about them after the party.  I am sure this was not a fun phone call for her to make.

So, my husband and I drove down to the trampoline place. Kind of like a date where you go searching for implant parts together.  Doesn't everybody do that?  We looked under couch cushions, under chairs, around foam pits and around the dodge ball pit.  We found nothing.  Some of the workers helped us look and they were very nice and helpful.  We left our name and number so they could call us if the battery turned up.

It has been three weeks now, and the battery has not shown up.  I think we may have to admit that the battery has moved on to another place.  That means buying a new battery (several hundred dollars), which we have not yet done.  We have been surviving on disposables hoping the rechargeable one would turn up.

I guess it was bound to happen eventually when you have two kids with implants in the family.  By the way, if you should find this battery pack, we are looking for it.