2.3 years

December 2:  Isaac's first sentence: "nigh nigh daadee" (spoken several times, but no repeats since).   

2.2 years

Moving into our new Florida home was a lot of work.  Isaac helped a little but after he found his collection of cars, he was happy with whatever else was going around him.

Thanksgiving dinner was our first "nice, sit-down family meal" in our new house.

Daddy put him right to work as it came time to start our construction projects.  Never too young to learn how to use power tools...right?!

I think he's going to like it here.

2.1 years old

This month we did some traveling across the United States to introduce Isaac to a whole bunch of new people.  In Utah he met all of his cousins on the Kindred side of the family, all 20 of them together for the first time.

In Idaho he met up with Grandma and Grandpa Kindred again.  They welcomed him into the Spanish world during his first three weeks of life.  It was a sweet reunion for all of them.

Hiking through Cub River Canyon is one of our favorite Idaho traditions.  This was no exception.  It was beautiful.

After a couple of weeks, we headed off to Montana to meet Grandma and Grandpa Peterson for the first time.  (I can't believe I didn't get a picture of him with his Grandpa!  Next visit we'll make up for it.)

While we were here, we realized Isaac had been sick for the last few weeks with double pnemonia.  He even had to be hospitalized overnight. 

After he started feeling a little better, he was able to play in a pile of Autumn leaves for the first time.

 In South Dakota we stopped at a rest stop and realized this was as close to Mr. Rushmore as we would get this time.  We took a picture and got back on the road.

 And in Illinios, we found a family of cousins from the Peterson side.  Here are most of us, but there were more that aren't pictured here.

Finally, we found ourselves back in Florida to start a new life and to start making new memories.

2 years old!

The day after we arrived in Florida to start house hunting, Isaac turned TWO!  He opened presents in the car and enjoyed his birthday dinner and family party at Red Lobster.  "Welcome to America" my little baby boy.

 He didn't seem to mind the traveling party in the least.  Here he is signing, "thank you."

What's not to love about Mr. Potatoe Head, when you're TWO!

23 months

"Mommy, look at my picture!"  In speech therapy, Isaac has been learning about body parts.  First he draws the face with marker.  Then he copies over it with a glue stick.  Then he sticks all the parts into place.  Coincidentaly, he loves locating and tickling ears on his pictures, on him, on me, and on others who will play along with him.  He can say "ear, nose and hair" but I haven't heard him say eyes or mouth yet.  Such a cute time in toddlerhood!

In other news, we FINALLY have all the parts to his new FM hearing aides.  This has been a painful process that started about a year ago and is still not finished.  Let's travel down memory lane for a minute... Lt. Duhon first orderd the FM system before he moved away, last September.  It took about four months for them to actually arrive in Rota.  It was the middle of February.  By this time we didn't have a local audiologist so we had to wait until May for our next audiology appt.  So in May, we had high hopes of getting them fitted and set up for use.  Lt. McArthur switched out his original hearing aides with these new ones but was unable to get the FM attachments to connect.  She decided it would be better to send them back to the States to be fixed or replaced and try to set it up again at our next appointment.  She left for three months and while we waited, we regularly checked on the shipping status and was assured they were in process, blah, blah, blah. By mid July, we still didn't have them back so I persisted to get more details because our audiology appt was coming up in about 3 weeks and we still didn't have the FM system back.  After more generic, non specific responses about "Isaac's FM system," I finally recieved an email from our audiologist (based in Naples, Italy) explaining that it wasn't here, wasn't coming and she didn't know what to do.  So, she flew into Rota the day before our appointment and looked around the offices, didn't see them sitting around, wasn't sure if they had ever even been sent off, decided to call it "lost in the system" and started the paper process of ordering new replacement parts.  I hated going to this appointment because I was so irritated about the whole process.  Isaac was acting horrible during the whole appt and we barely got a little hearing test squeezed in that basically just confirmed that his current hearing aides were working at the set decibles.  I think they are a good setting but his responses to hearing tests would be so much more reliable at this age then the last time he was tested.  I really want him tested in a sound booth to confirm or adjust the information we've been working with for the last 10 months.  (sorry, I got off track for a minute)  Anyway, she started the re-order process and after not hearing anything from her or the audiology clinic for three more weeks, I had to start "stomping my feet again." ...blah, blah, blah... her original emails didn't get any response so she started over with a new person from Phonac and within two weeks, we FINALLY recieved the FM parts, again.  For now, they are sitting in their boxes, waiting next to my suitcases, as we are packing up and moving back to America in just a couple of weeks.  After house hunting, family visits and vacation time, we'll be ready to find a new audiologist and hopefully get these things hooked up for use!  This will be in November.  (sounds like forever away) What a painful process! ~grrr

a little conversation we had

The end part is funny because I say goodbye and he starts to wave but then quickly signs, "why are you saying that, you're still here?" ha/ha/ha 

22 months

He speaks!!! During June and July his communication skills really started to show up.  I don't think I've mentioned it here but we took a Mommy and Me baby sign language class for 8 weeks in the spring.  After this class, I've been able to sign most of the things in his little world, with him.  Very simple and basic but it was a great class and it's helped so much.  About two months after the class, he finally started signing back.  In June, he started signing things to me before I did.  One evening we were at the beach exploring the tidepools and he showed me the birds, and the water and asked to take his shoes off.  Oh, I was so proud of him!  He's actually signed bird for several months before this and he loves finding birds everytime we go outside now!   Between sign language and a few spoken words, we're able to communicate better than ever before!  Here's a list of what he tells us at this point.

speaking:  mama, no, tada!, ah-o (ought-oh), iiieee (kitty), mmm (yum), ghgh (poopoo-I know this because he grunts this sound while touching his diaper and a little bent over and within 5 min he needs a diaper change, ha/ha) baba (bubble), lllolllo (hello), naanaa (banana)

signing:  eat, more, hurt, blanket, night/night, mama, hello/goodbye, shoes, socks, drink, milk, water, cracker, cheese, no, bird, tree, sunshine, moon, car, horse, dog, kitty, book, open, play, what?why?where?huh?, up, all done, help, banana, flower

21 months

Isaac finally walks!!!  at 20.5 months old!!!  We're so proud of him.  Honestly, it's the most adorable event ever to witness as my little baby, who used to need me to hold up his head, is now balancing and moving like a big boy.  We've worked so hard to make it to this milestone and now he just does it!  Crazy boy.  What took you so long???  He's still a bit wobbly and unpredictable but because he's taken his own sweet time in this area, he's progressing amazingly fast.  His arms are still out to the sides but I doubt that will last too long because he can carry items while walking already.  Our next goal for him will be to kick a ball, run, and to walk up and down the stairs.  Here's a picture of him playing in the park with his little friends, Ava and Oliver.  Now that he's walking, he can play with them better.  This picture was taken just a couple of days after he started walking independatly. 

20 months

19 months

We're doing well here. Isaac is 19 months old now and is still crawling all over the place with little spurts of walking only if he has a FIRM grip of someones hand or finger.   He's not speaking at all but communicates pretty well (I think) with several definite signs and other gestures. The older he gets the more we see the gap in some of the "normal" milestones so in that way it's frustrating but I have him set up with good hearing aides and weekly speech therapy so I think we're doing all we can for him right now.

We have a military audiologist that comes to our base every 3 months or so for testing and follow up appointments. The last time she was here, she tested his hearing and found his hearing loss to be closer to 40 Db rather than the original diagnosis of 55-65 Db. So I guess that means he has more of a mild/moderate hearing loss to deal with. I think that's good news but not really sure how reliable it is.  She did all his testing in one appointment and reset his hearing aids accordingly.  From what we did before this, and from what I've read, it's more reliable to do many, multiple hearing tests in order to get a good reading on all the sounds and pitches.  He has a short attention span and a moderate tolerance for being in the testing room. There is good technology for us but he's still so young that I don't think we really don't know for sure how he's hearing right now.

Keeping the hearing aides in daily is a big energy investment for me too. I often wonder if they bother him more than help him. Sometimes I'd rather just talk really loud and purposefully with him instead of constantly dealing with the aides. I'm looking forward to getting plugged into stateside programs, having an available pediatric audiologist, and a speech therapist with hard-of-hearing pediatric experience. I just think having second opinions and "been there/doing it" experience will help me feel more comfortable with how we are supporting his needs.  Tentatively, we're planning to move to Florida later this year. Oct./Nov. possibly.  I'm thinking it will also be nice to plug into social groups and make friends with families that are dealing with the same sort of issues: hard-of-hearing baby raising.  Like I said, we're doing pretty good here but maybe there's "a better way" in our horizon...(maybe not).  Leaving it in God's hands so I won't stress about what we do or don't have available in this foriegn land called Espana.

18 months

17 months

16 months