Too cool!

Elijah and I were driving around last weekend and I was listening to music from my Iphone plugged into the car stereo system. A song started, and I wanted to listen to the next song so I skipped it. The song had just started and we had heard the first few beats of it before I skipped to the next one. Elijah immediately said, "mom I want to listen to Dynamite." He had heard just the first few beats of the song and recognized it. I was so surprised, and of course, I went back to that song and we listened to it. He sang along with it and we had a great time. He has asked for that song a few more times when we drive! It amazes me what he can do with the hearing he has from his CI processors.

Another funny story is how he has selective listening. I can say his name several times from the kitchen while he is in the den and he doesn't answer. However, if we leave the refrigerator door open and it starts beeping he will yell at me from the den to close it. He even hears it over a Wii game he is playing or just the TV being on. He can also recognize TV commercials and some that are his favorites, especially anything with cats!

Elijah heard for the first time on October 22, 2001 and for the second ear on January 20, 2005. He has been hearing for 10 of his 11 1/2 years. You would think that I would still be used to him being able to hear and what he can do, but there are times when I am still amazed. Maybe it is because I work with deaf and hard of hearing kids on a daily basis and I wish they could do more with the hearing they had. I wish they didn't have to struggle so much. Elijah is still behind in his language skills, but he is so much farther along then some other kids I work with.



He has always worn stickers on his processors, but this week we put on blue microphone covers with some blue star stickers. Here is the picture. I think he looks cute. The picture at the top was taken last year when we stopped at a Steak and Shake to eat. I thought it was another cute picture. I sure wish he could have the Nucleus 5 processor, but his Freedoms work just fine and he can HEAR!