I found myself so wrapped up in the protesters outside Liam's school and researching their agenda over the past week that I forgot to pay attention to some of the amazing strides Liam has been making. To most people, they probably aren't much. To us, they're huge. Luckily, last night I was brought back to planet earth again.
We had some friends in from out of town and took our kids and them to one of our favorite restaurants. Liam is a little bit of a picky eater so we pretty much always order him the same things. Macaroni and cheese with a side of french fries always leads to 100% customer satisfaction with him. As he's gotten older, he's wanted more and more to go with those things, though. While we were sitting at the table, Liam very clearly stated, "I want ketchup". Instinctively, I passed him the bottle of ketchup and he happily drowned his fries in it.
It took me a second, but I suddenly realized what a moment that was. Liam was able to tell me with words what he wanted and I understood him on the first try! Even more, he knows the sign to tell me "I want ketchup", but he CHOSE to voice it and did so beautifully.
This is such a different scenario from just six months ago. I remember clearly on CJ's birthday going out to eat and Liam crying inconsolably for something that we simply couldn't understand. We'd given him every single thing on the table, but nothing satisfied him. He was frustrated. I was frustrated. I imagine those dining around us were even frustrated. We were almost ready to haul him out of the restaurant, but I knew that would only lead to an even greater feeling of defeat for him. He wasn't being naughty. He was trying to tell us what he wanted, but we didn't understand. Finally, after a good fifteen minutes and even me being on the verge of tears, we figured out that he wanted an icee. An icee!!! Something so simple led to so much frustration for him, and I don't know of any signs for that word that he would have been able to use to tell us.
The great blessing in having children who are different from typically-abled children is that we get to truly rejoice in the little things rather than just taking them for granted. Who knew something as simple as asking for ketchup could ever be such a milestone?
that must have been a proud moment for you for him to say that :) i hope to hear more stoies x
ReplyDeleteI am so happy for you! I love those wonderful parental moment that those outside your family just "wouldn't get". I'm sure strangers looking at your table on your frustrating day would never have understood why you were near tears... Nor would most understand why you would want to shout for joy over him asking for ketchup. If I am not being rude I do have a question for you. I was wondering if bothe the hearing impared children are biologicly related. If so is it common for thos kinds of challenges to occur in the sam family? Don't feel obligated to answer if you aren't comfortable with the question.
ReplyDeleteThe hearing loss my kids have is genetically related. Every time we have a boy, we have a 50/50 chance of hearing loss. I'm not sure what the percentage rate is when we have a girl actually. The audiologist at Liam's school today said she figures the odds are probably about the same.
DeleteI'm not sure what the percentage rate of children with genetic hearing loss is, but I can tell you that "it all depends". It depends on the cause of the hearing loss, the type of hearing loss, etc. as to whether or not it runs in the family or remains with just one sibling. I'm sure there are studies that have been done, but I've not seen any. That's really sort of a non-answer, but I'm happy to look further into it if you want me to.