HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!

Happy Holidays one and all! I thought that I had updated this blog after Thanksgiving... but apparently I was wrong again. The day before Thanksgiving J.T. recieved his hearing aids. He can hear quite a bit of lower tones with them, but he doesn't know how to respond to sound so it's not doing us much good yet. We are working on getting him to turn and look when he hears something. Our holiday was lovely spent with friends. A friend of our family flew out for the holiday weekend and we spent Thanksgiving at my best friends house with her friends and family. JT found it to be fun and although we missed Michael deeply, we were rejoicing in the fact that we knew he would be home soon. ....AND HE WAS!

Michael arrived in Colorado Springs on December 2nd and we are having a smooth transition. J.T. is getting to know him and although he is not totally comfortable with his Dad yet, he is happy spending time with him. He just doesn't know what to expect from Michael yet. Michael is really enjoying J.T. and he makes Michael smile as much as he does the rest of us.

On December 3rd J.T. was in the school program and danced with his classmates to "Singing in the Rain." It was absolutely precious and we enjoyed the whole show. At Deaf Chat... the Santa at the mall walked up to J.T. and SIGNED "Merry Christmas, I love you." Of course I had to have pictures so J.T. and Devin sat on his lap and told him what they wanted for Christmas. J.T. is very excited about Christmas. He did a great job of helping to decorate the tree.

One weekend recently we spent visiting with J.T.s Auntie and Cousin whom he adores. My nephew is great with kids and JT even asks for him when he's not been around for a while.

Here is a picture of JTs first snowman he made....

We have moved (sadly from Holy Apostles parish) to St. Marys Cathedral downtown. They not only have a weekly interpreted mass, but there are several deaf parishoners which of course makes J.T. not so isolated in his church family. We have chosen a god mother for him and are looking into his baptism soon

Christmas and new year were a blast. JT finally understands gifts and really enjoyed his and all the sweets and time spent messing around. We bought ourselves a Wii and he really likes playing with that all together as a family. His favorite is the sword fighting and he screams out loud while he is kicking butt. lol. It's his new favorite thing to do. (He is still a movie fanatic though.)

J.T.s new year started off well. He is excited to start back to school. He stayed up all night and watched the ball drop and blew his horn (which he blows more like a Kazoo with voice added.) He probably doesn't understand "new year" but he enjoyed the party just the same.

October Outta the Way!

JT is starting to respond to people who sign to him in public. He is starting to experiment more with signs and fingerspelling. His teacher is amazed because he is able to use signs appropriately both receptively and expressively after being shown just once or twice. He still freaks out a little when the korean lady at Deaf chat smooches his cheeks... but he recovers pretty quickly.

He loves attending mass for the deaf once a month and we are switching parishes to attend St. Marys cathedral where the 8:45 mass is interpreted and there are other deaf parishoners. He knows he's deaf now and will readily remind me if I start singing in sign language. He even told Emma that she doesn't know how to cook because she is hearing and he knows because he is deaf. lol. This Deaf Pride thing has it's limits.

He already knows his entire alphabet and can count to 15. He recentely learned "cute," "tomorrow," "friends" and "better," and we have had the opportunity to teach "truth/honest" and "lie." That went exceptionally well and I felt blessed for the opportunity to present itself as it did. I attended his first Parent/Teacher conference and am thrilled to share that his report card was wonderful. We celebrated his excellent grades with an extra candy at dessert time.

Halloween was a wonderful experience, the weather was wonderful. JT was a red Power Ranger (picture) and we enjoyed a couple of parties as well as trick or treating and carving pumpkins. (picture) He carved his pumpkin with minimal help and I thought it was adorable. JT had a harvest party at school the day before as well.

JT. got to play in the snow in the backyard and it took about 10 seconds for him to figure out the concept of a snowball. :) He enjoyes the snow... but gets cold and needs to come warm up often. I'm not sure he was allowed to play in the little snow they had in China. He does like hot cocoa.

We are talking about Daddy coming home in a month and JT seems to understand. He replied to me the first time, "Daddy come home, tickle me." JT also attended a doctors appointment this month at a hearing specialist who cleared him for hearing aids. Hopefully we will be able to order them soon.

Adjusting well and learning tons!

JT has learned so much since he started school, he almost knows the whole alphabet and can count to ten. He writes his first and last name and sight reads all the other students' names as well. He has adjusted well enough to know that he can protest the serving (and buying) of milk by trying to keep me out of the milk cooler at the grocery store. He puts catsup on his peas and soy sauce on his corn (ew.) He is learning abstract concepts such as "pretty" and today he signed "please" without being prompted appropriately. His teacher is blown away by how quickly he learns. His signing has a long way to go, but he can tell me what he did at school most days and he understands that Halloween is about dressing up (in his case as a power ranger.) He knows Daddy will come home in a couple more months and that Christmas is coming and he has learned who Santa is and has expressed a desire to go and see the man. He has seen his first snow since coming here and stood at the glass door signing snow and screaming with glee. He has grown well over an inch and is out of all the clothes I bought him when I brought him home. His hair got long enough that he was geling and blowdrying it trying to give himself a faux-hawk. (We got his hair cut.) He is able to talk about seeing the leaves change color because it is Fall. He also gets excited about things like my putting an old pair of SpongeBob sheets on his bed, or his first pair of "footie pajamas." He flexes his muscles for me often, lol. He is adjusting well enough that he is becoming more of a "normal" child... makes ya want to sit on him sometimes... but then he does stuff like this:

He is so definitely one of us. Everyone who meets him just loves him and we couldn't feel more blessed. I can hardly wait for his Daddy to come home and get to know him! He's a hoot and a half! WE LOVE JT!

More Firsts!!!

I apologize for all the time that has passed since my last post. It's been so busy the last month. J.T. experienced his first day of school and his first camping trip since I last posted! School is going wonderful for him. The day before school started he got to go to his school and register which included seeing his teacher and classroom. The first day was Aug. 17th and he was so excited to go. He had never been to school before and loves to learn and to focus on school work, and try to please those teaching him. He was apprehensive when the bus came to get him, but I sent him off with a smile and at the end of the day he was already trying to tell me a story in sign language... he makes a lot of it up by drawing pictures in the air and it's hard to understand... but his teacher is wonderful and has informed me that he is "a sponge," "loves to learn," and can sight read the names of the other children in his class already. He has 5 other children in his class. He was very excited the second week of school when he got to paint for the first time. He attends a special school for deaf children.

This (Labor Day) weekend he went on his first camping trip. We took the trailer and my best friend and her children and went to Eleven Mile Reservoir for the weekend. JT got to kayak in a tandem with me and did a great job. He had so much fun doing that. We also hopped the fence into the Rocky Mountain National Forest and shot some arrows at Daddys target bag. JT has a hard time with the bow... but he tried and enjoyed being able to have a couple turns. He made a "J" and a "T" and brought it to show me while we were waiting our turns.

I'm also posting a couple pictures from "around the house" to include J.T. sharing Mr. Winstons bed with him and some silly pictures we took just for fun with "the good camera."

Where do cookies come from???

Things are moving along just as smooth as can be...

J.T. is still having many "firsts" and we recently baked our first cookies. We learned about different kinds of sugar, licked our first beater, and have savored the satisfaction of fresh, warm chocolate chip cookies made from scratch.

We have been having fun with sidewalk chalk, & learning games and puzzles. Recently JT found a new hat which looks just adorable as well.

Summer is almost over...

We are planning a camping trip for Labor Day weekend with some friends and are praying that the weather is agreeable!

Other things J.T. has experienced this summer is visiting Garden of the Gods (above) and seeing the big rock formations... it is only a few miles from our house and we go fairly often when the weather is good.

We have also been to the zoo twice (we are members... gotta make it worth it!) Above: Emma (JTs sister,) a macaque and Emmas cousin, and (right:) JT. with a sleepy orangutan.

J.T. has started to learn to ride his bike. He is very slow on it as he has gone downhill and although he nodded that he understood the braking system.... he apparently didn't and after throwing his feet off the pedals several times going WAY too fast downhill he ended up feet over head in the bushes a couple times. I finally tied his shoes to the pedals and he is doing better. He still has training wheels, but it is fairly frustrating for us because he is so slow that if we were to travel at the same speed he does ~ we would fall over. So that is something we will continue to work on.

Turning SEVEN!

On Sunday, J.T. turned 7 years old and we had a party for him as both a welcome home and a birthday. We prepared him by talking about it and he went shopping with me for most of the supplies. He was very excited! He did very well at the party and played with the children.... he seemed to really enjoy running around with our friend Derek. He didn't understand the birthday song but stood their waiting just the same. We did the re-lighting candles... which I won't ever do again because about 10 kids wanted to help him blow them out when they re-lit which meant there were 10 children "blowing" on the cake.... good thing I had cupcakes in a box still, for the germ-a-phobes. lol. When it was time to open presents J.T. didn't know what to do. He sat there with the first gift on his lap and we were finally able to explain to him how to open it. He told me he liked the party and he had TONS of fun playing with all the generous gifts. He drove the cat and dogs nuts with the remote control car and giggled uncontrollably. He sleeps with the big plastic Ultraman that his father and I got from China. Speaking of his father... Michael was able to join us for a short time on Skype and enjoyed being able to see everyone until the storm knocked the power out. I hope everyone who attended had a good time... J.T. did and although I didn't take many "still" pictures (I really have to work on that) I did take a few plus some video.