Chance takes first place

Chance took first place in literature in the 6th-8th grade group in his school's Inspirations contest.  He wrote about snakes and how he wanted to collect several over his lifetime.

Chance's brother's pet snake

This was a surprise to me.  I knew that Chance's brother wanted to have pet snakes but did not realize that the passion had spread to Chance.

Perhaps he was inspired by our recent acquisition of a baby corn snake as a pet. He has been a big hit around the house.  He eats pinkys.....that is little mice.  We buy the frozen ones.

It is funny the reaction people have to snakes.  The art teacher who I think was over the contest,  really does not like snakes.  Really, really, really does not like snakes. I know this because my older son, who took first in the photography section, won with a picture of his new snake and he told me that she was sicked out by the thought of having the snake come to school as the boys talked about.  To her credit, she helped judge the boys winners and did not let her personal bias cloud her professional duties:)

Chance playing in the Red Rocks near Grandma and Grandpa's house

Chance is pretty excited about the win.  We were on vacation and the first morning the boys were to return to school, we got a phone call first thing in the morning from one of the boys' friends telling us that they had both taken first place.

That was a nice bit of information to get as we all tried to get back into the groove of our normal lives after being on a lovely holiday:)

Chance CAN hear himself think....(it's important that we know that)

Chance got up Saturday morning and had some sort of altercation with his sister that left him sulky and distraught. He was obviously quite upset about something.

He was not eager to share what was wrong, not even when his dad sat him down to try and figure out his distress.

Chance's sister said she was sorry for whatever had upset him, but it not bring closure to Chance's worries.

We chalked it up to Chance being tired and thought he would loosen up as the day went on.
It became apparent however, that this was not going to pass and at the urging of his father, Chance came to me in the kitchen to tell me his troubles.

"She said I can't hear myself think!" he said starting to cry.
She of course being his sister.

"She said that?" I asked surprised she would come up with such a statement.

"NO!" Came his sisters voice from the piano. "I did not say that!"

"Yes!" Chance said emphatically."She said I can not hear myself!"

"Of course you can hear yourself." I said rubbing his back. "Everyone can hear themselves think no matter if you are deaf nor not."

"But she said I can not hear myself and so did Dad!"

Now this was starting to make sense. When Chance does not have his implants on, he can be loud and not know how loud he is. Apparently, he had taken the comment of, "You can't hear yourself" which has been said sometimes when his implants are off and he is louder than he realizes as an assault on his ability to hear himself.

"You can hear yourself right?" I asked.

Chance nodded slowly. "We all know that you can hear yourself in your own head. We all can hear ourselves. People may say,"You can not hear yourself when your implants are off and you are being louder than you think, but we all know that you can hear yourself think."

That seemed to help him and he could carry on.

How interesting that it would bother him so much when he thinks people are implying that he can not hear himself think.

Rapelling down the rock

Over the Christmas break,  we went down to see Chance's grandparents...they live south, which is always warmer than we are.

While we were there, we went to a park that is basically just giant red rocks, crevices, tunnels, and a crevice so narrow, that when you hike through it,  you are wedged in between two giant rocks that tower up above you and enclose you.  The man in front of me was claustrophobic and it was a slow go for him:)

One of the rocks was big enough that people were rapelling off of it.  Chance was walking along the top of this rock taking great interest in the men rapelling down when they made him an offer he could not refuse.

If he brought his parents over and they gave permission, they would let him rapell down.

Chance has been talking about this experience for a few weeks now.  He loved it.

I love that Chance has the ability to interact and communicate with people he just met .  The implants allow him to just be like any other  child.  He can talk to anyone and he has the confidence to interact with people he does not know.

You wonder how your deaf child will interact with the world when you first discover they are deaf.
We are very pleased about how the interaction thing is going for Chance:)

You can't shelter them

Chance is getting to a point where his friends want to go greater distances on their bikes etc.  This is all a part of growing up and it is both gratifying to watch Chance grow bigger and also a little sad.

I do worry a little more about Chance than I did his brother though at this age when it comes to riding his bike and having to cross major roads.

Chance attends a charter school thus some of his friends live farther away than our little neighborhood.  One friend wanted to ride to the local grocery store Macey's where the boys can get cheap ice cream cones and cheaper candy:)  This is of course a great activity as far as young boys are concerned.

But the boys have to cross State Street with cars whizzing by at what seems like 150mph sometimes.  There is a crosswalk and pedestrian lights and all, but it is still such a busy intersection.

My bit of angst comes from remembering the day I drove up behind Chance and honked and he didn't hear me.  At all.  Of course he had hearing aids then.

However, it is winter and Chance has both a hat that has flaps that cover his ears for warmth and a bike helmet.  Not ideal hearing conditions. I don't know what his hearing is with all of those contraptions on.  If a car decided to barrel through a red light, would Chance hear it coming as he crossed?

Perhaps if I hadn't witnessed psychotic drivers in my lifetime it would ease my worries.

Like the time I was driving up by a local university when a student started to cross the four lane road in the crosswalk.  I stopped, but the driver behind me, while letting me know he was highly annoyed, had swerved around me into the other lane and barely missed the student when he slammed on his brakes.  I thought I was going to witness a death that day.

Or the father of one of the families in our old neighborhood who would drive through way too fast, honking as he sailed through the neighborhood intersections so kids would get out of the way.

I think about these sort of things when my deaf son is up against a busy road where cars are whizzing by.

Then I remember the conference I attended seveeral years ago where a deaf man talked to us about letting our children do what any other kids their age do.  You can't shelter them, he had said.

I don't want to shelter Chance, I actually want him to be able to branch out and experience life.

I just don't want him to get squished by a car.

Our own Christmas miracle

On Christmas day, we attended our church for a service that included a few speakers and some beautiful musical numbers.  It was an uplifting meeting and a wonderful way to start Christmas Day.

The speakers were wonderful.

The music was inspiring.

The deaf child, my deaf child, rising from our pew to sing with the choir was a miracle.


When Chance was first diagnosed as being deaf, everyone was so leary to give us specifics on what he would be able to do.  I understand that, but I really wanted to know  if he would be able to enjoy music.  Would music just be something he never knew the pleasure of hearing?  Would his experience with it only be a thumping on the floor which he would feel through vibrations?

Chance had been the only member of the family able to attend choir practice and so it was that when they called up the choir,  Chance alone rose from our pew and headed up to the stand.  He stood confidently next to a brother who shared music with him.

At first, Chance looked around like he was assessing what exactly was going on.  The songs prepared for Christmas were more intricate, more challenging.  There were arrangements of several songs strung together and harmonies and solo parts.  Chance had not been able to attend every practice and had in fact pleaded with me to be able to attend practice when he realized a few weeks earlier that choir was in session after church.

Soon though, Chance was reading the music,  singing out with confidence, and by the end he was holding the music and turning the pages when it was time for himself and the two others sharing his music sheets.

It truly sounded as if the choir was accented by angels who joined in praise.  Along with the deaf boy whose voice helped uplift a congregation.

I am sitting here at the desk listening intently to a Collin Raye song.  Chance is standing here next to me with a questioning look on his face waiting for me to reveal what the lyrics are saying in a few spots of the song.
You see Chance loves Collin Raye and is listening to one of his CD's while he does his job of cleaning the kitchen table and mopping the floor.
Chance thought he heard the word freez'in and wants to know what that word means.  This word is not to be confused with the word freezing as Chance is emphatic that freezing is not the word used in the song.  It is doubtful freezing is the word used since it is a love song.
Ahh Hahhh!  The word in question is "prison".  Collin Raye says prison.
I have been singing the lyrics as Chance closely watches my face.  I think we've answered the questions for this morning.  At least for this particular song:)

Take your ears off

We were driving in the van into the dark of night when Chance's brother mentioned that someone has been making fun of him and mocking him in front of some of the other boys . It was someone that we all knew, and I feel that when my kids are talking to me about other people, it is on a sort of need to know basis. Unless it affects them, I feel we should try to have respect for all of the parties involved which means not sharing information all round. This helps keep harmonious relationships with people around us and makes sure that an ant hill is not blown into a mountain.

So I jokingly told Chance to turn off his ears while we turned onto the road.

A few minutes later Chance asked," Can I put my implants back on now?"

What an obedient boy! The magnets of the implants lay limply by his head and his sweet face was turned to me with that simple question of,"Can I put my implants back on now?"

Now, if only all of the family had this ability, imagine how easily Christmas surprises could be discussed:)

Chance's watch

Chance has a watch that he wears most all of the time. He is conscientious about time and tries to make sure he is on time to scouts etc. which is a good thing.
However, for some inconceivable reason, the alarm goes off on this watch at odd times sometimes. It just starts beeping. This is all well and good if you are deaf and it goes off in the middle of the night.
However, when you have perfectly normal hearing and an alarm goes off at 1:00 a.m., you notice.
Chance fell asleep curled up by the fire on our bedroom floor. He looked so snugly we just left him there for the night.
Then the alarm went off in the early morning hours. Chance slept blissfully on while his dad and I lay in bed trying to figure out first of all what the noise was, and then wondering when the noise would end.
The alarm usually doesn't last long, just long enough to wake you up when you hear it.
Unless you are Chance of course. In which case, the alarm going off has no affect on you and is thus useless:)

Writing class

Chance's writing class is broken up into 3 groups: One group reads a book such as "Tom Sawyer", one is a poetry group where the kids read, write and analyze poetry and to be honest, I am not sure what the third group does.

Chance is in the poetry group. I noticed last week that he kept asking me what words meant as he did his homework and then it dawned on me that it was taking quite a while for Chance to get his homework done which is not characteristic of him.

Some of the poetry used words in ways that no one would ever use in normal conversations. Or writing for that matter.

Other poems had words that were not used often or old fashioned.

It occurred to me that Chance may be struggling with the vocabulary of these poems and when I asked him if he had to figure out what many of the words meant before he finished the assignment he said yes.

Then the last day of school before Thanksgiving break, when I thought all of his homework was done, Chance informed me that he had not gotten two poems finished for his poetry unit which was due that day.

Chance is very conscientious about getting his homework done on time and when I asked him why he did not have the two poems ready to turn in, he told me that he had done all of the others, these were the last two and he had done his best.

I asked him if the words in the poems made it hard for him to finish getting them done and he told me yes.

So I went in and talked to the teacher. I told her that some of the vocabulary made it hard for Chance to get through all of the assignments as he had to figure out what so many of the words meant before he could do the assignments and asked if I could work with Chance over the Thanksgiving break and get the last two poems done. She was very understanding and said that would be alright. I want Chance to do all that he is capable of and rarely do I feel that he needs special time lines to turn in assignments, but when I realized just how much the vocabulary was affecting his ability to get the work done, I felt it was only fair to allow him more time to complete the assignment. Chance is pulled out of the last bit of writing for speech once a week as well, so sometimes he misses what the teacher explains during that time.

Now the night before school starts back up again, Chance is done with his last two poems. We had a discussion as to what "analyze this poem meant" and what logical and nonsensical meant as he was supposed to pick out examples of nonsensical and logical verses from a poem they had done in class.

Just little things that amount to a lot when you are trying to get through a poem. Chance actually did most of the assignments with out my help. Most of the difficult vocabulary was in the assignments that he already turned in before the break and once we sat down and talked about what certain words meant so he understood what he was expected to do he was fine.

The last assignment involved Chance writing a poem about some of his ancestors so we hauled out the book I have filled with stories of some of our ancestors. Chance read through them and then decided to write about his great great grandma using activities she did in nature as his theme. He talked about how she loved to play outside as a girl and picked giant mushrooms to sell during the great depression from fields by her house. It was quite a good poem and I think Chance got to know his great great grandmother a little better as well.

Vocabulary will be something that I think we need to stay attuned to for the rest of Chance's school career. Chance is smart and catches on very fast, but all it takes is missing what a few words mean to blow your ability to understand what is being talked about.

As Chance gets older, the vocabulary will get more intense. I know he can do it. We just have to make sure that he gets the vocabulary ground work laid so he doesn't get frustrated.

The audiologist Carol Flexer talked about the importance of vocabulary and deaf kids when she came and gave a conference last spring. She actually said that if a deaf or hard of hearing child starts to struggle in a subject, especially one that has not been a problem before, to not assume that it was the child, but to look at the vocabulary and see if that is the problem.

One of those annoying cell phone people in Costco

I was one of those annoying cell phone people in the store Costco on Saturday. You know the ones, where you can hear their conversation across the store.

I didn't mean to be. I usually like to be quiet and unnoticed when I get a call on the phone. I figure everyone is not as interested in what my kids are doing as I am.

I can only blame Chance for my practical announcement to all of Costco that I was on my way home and that I would have Chance's birth certificate to the soccer game before it started so that he could play.

It all started when I left to the store and planned to just meet Chance at his soccer game. I had arranged with Chance's friend and fellow soccer player's family for Chance to ride with them.
As I shopped however, I got a phone call from a distraught Chance. Apparently, people cheat in this world and try to let their older kids play on younger kids soccer teams to better their chances of winning. At age 11? Really? Anyway, due to this dishonesty, Chance was not going to be able to play in the soccer game until I showed up with his birth certificate and proved that he was indeed 11 years old. Only I didn't realize this fact until I got the worried phone call from Chance.

When Chance called, I could hear the television in the back ground at an abnormally high volume plus his siblings were playing and making noise.

So, my conversation with Chance went something like this:

Chance :"Hello mom? Where are you?"

Me trying to be quiet and polite in the aisle"I am at the store."

Chance:"What?"

Me:"I'm at the store."

Chance:"What? I can't hear you!"

Me:"I AM AT THE STORE."

It should be noted that talking louder does not always mean Chance can actually hear me better. Sometimes it just muffles the sound more but this time, he kept asking me to talk louder.

Chance:"When will you be home? "

Me:"In just a little bit, Cade's family is giving you a ride to the game, remember?"

Chance:"What? I can't hear you!"

Me:"YOU ARE GETTING A RIDE WITH CADE TO THE GAME!"

Chance:"I know but I have to have my birth certificate or they won't let me play!"

Me:"Ok, I'll bring your birth certificate to the building before the game so you can play."

Chance:"What did you say?'

Me:"I'LL GET TO THE GAME WITH THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE BEFORE IT STARTS SO THAT YOU CAN PLAY!"

Chance:"O.K. bye."

I think everyone who was with in 3 rows of me at Costco heard that I would be bringing Chance's birth certificate to the soccer game before it started. I'm sure that put them all at ease:)

We may have to actually break down and get phones that text. Chance does not have a cell phone at the moment and Chance's dad and I can text on our phones but we pay for each and every text - so we turned off texting capabilities. Each time we have had texting turned on, we get slammed with ads. We end up paying for people to tell us about a three bedroom house that is for sale in our area. Or that we just won a cruise if we just call the 1-800 number. We pay more for people to advertise to us than we do actual texting from people we want to hear from.

But the time may have come to get a new phone plan and get texting so that Chance can text us when he is not hearing well on a telephone. (Of course, that also means providing Chance the ability to send & receive the texts - meaning getting Chance a phone) And then all of the people at Costco can shop in peace without hearing the drama that goes into playing soccer:)