Hearing Everly's Story: 2016

A month late but I did not want it to go unrecognized... Everly had her first hearing birthday!!! This may sound funny to most that are not in the deaf and hard of hearing world, however this is a big deal for Everly and our family. On April 21st last year, Everly's ears were born. Since then she has grown and developed by leaps and bounds. She amazes us every day with her progress.

At one year of hearing, Everly tests within the normal range for an almost 2-year-old. She has about 80 expressive words, several three and four word phrases, and she constantly babbles and uses jargon all day long. Some of her favorite phrases are "hold me mama" "sit down" "help me" "Brooks come!" And this girl cannot get enough singing. She will sing almost every song we introduce to her. So basically we are singing all day long in our household! This week she has been practicing her ABCs. It's pretty cute (and amazing) to hear a little deaf baby singing the ABCs!

We celebrated her 1st hearing birthday by swimming and eating cake!

Life just keeps happening before my eyes! Where does the time go!?! I have been meaning to update you with Everly's incredible progress over the past months.

Every morning when I put Everly's implants on, I feel like I'm going to well up with tears. What a blessing it is for her to hear my voice, dad's voice, and Brooks' voice. This is something I hope I will never take for granted. We have a song we sing every morning when her implants are turned on. Brooks is now bored of this song, however she insists that he participates. :) It's one of those simple things that I am so grateful for. And it's a memory we will always have as a family.

We are so proud of Everly. She continues to progress and grow each week. It's amazing to see the immense changes that happen with toddlers when you're monitoring so closely. Every new sound, new word, new understanding of a word, I write down and keep a running log. I know that's not a typical thing mothers do however, it's quite amazing to keep a list of words that your deaf baby can say! I share this list with her therapists and they are happy with her progress as well. For example, this week she now says "row" for the song row row row your boat (thanks to grandma Marsha for singing that to her over and over). She also has her first three word combo. "Dada one more". Matt has a sweet tooth and is determined to pass that onto our children. He loves to give our kids sweets. And it prompted Everly to ask dad for one more jellybean. Whatever it takes...she said three words in a row. It's pretty amazing!

Everly has a strong personality. She's stubborn, relentless, and happy (most of the time). All of these traits will serve her well as she will need to learn to advocate for herself throughout life. It's our role as parents to help her use that stubbornness and determination in the right way. She is a stark contrast to our sweet, sensitive, and funny Brooks. Both of them keep us on our toes and complete our family with full hearts. ❤️

Here are some pictures from Christmas and the new year. ❤️