Yesterday we met up with a family we had met at The playgroup at the Deaf School. The older sister in that family is hearing, and she and Sydney got along quite well. They were both a little shy at first, but Sydney ended up havering a lot of fun. Besides both having deaf little brothers, and being active creative little girls, they both also do gymnastics. I think it is great for Sydney to meet other hearing siblings of deaf kids- because there is some extra understanding there- even if the kids don't know they could benefit from those peer relationships.
I had a great time talking with the mom, who signs and wears a hearing aid. We mostly talked about mom stuff, and watched Peter try to get dirt to eat. She likes to read, and teaches reading, but those topics will have to wait, as we had to feed the starving children, and head off to a party!
The party was an ASL using group of adults. I did my best, but keeping an eye on a baby pulling up on everything means I missed some. Luckily a couple people helped out :). My favorite signs I learned - Lemon (Peter was eating one) and Lemonade ;)
There were other kids for Sydney to play with, too. Two of the kids were deaf, and signed, but also had CI's and spoke perfectly. Sydney really enjoyed meeting these older kids- not because they had CI's, but because they were just regular kids AND older (always a bonus) AND they had a hamster (double bonus) AND a puppy (triple bonus). The hostess also had a CI. The whole family was very pro- ASL and CI's. It was a very positive experience, and everyone was lovely. I hope I get to see them again.
The question of Peter's surgeon came up, and it turns out that Peter's ENT was a Fellow at Stanford for the daughter's surgery, and the mom works with the ENT's son (she's a teacher, too). Small world! But it made me feel even better about moving forward with the surgery.
No comments:
Post a Comment