Holiday Wishes

 

 

Even if this is a few days late, we wanted to wish you all the best this holiday season.  We pray your Christmas was filled with wonderful things and that 2013 will bring peace and happiness to your family.

Who Knew??

Add this to the list of things that you learn when you have a child with a hearing loss......they can be allergic to the hearing aid mold.

Jared had oral surgery 3 weeks ago, the next day he started what we thought was an ear infection.  Because it was Saturday I had to take him to The Little Clinic in our local Krogers store.  They have him the standard pink stuff and sent us on our way.  It cleared the infection( or so we thought) for about a week or so and then it came back with a vengeance.  Jared's ear was red, itchy, his ear canal swelled and he had drainage.  A call to his ENT was in order, we have a great ENT who got us right in( even though they were scheduled out until Jan).  We saw him yesterday and let me just say.....YUCK!  I will not gross you all out( in case some of you are eating as you read this) with all the details.  The first thought was the oral surgery, they had to go up into his palate to get the extra tooth out and it messed up the eustachian tubes, but after the doctor looked in his other ear and noticed the same redness he decided that Jared was allergic to the hearing aid mold.  His left ear was not nearly as bad as the right, but it was heading that way.  So he is on another antibiotic and ear drops( oh joy!) for 10 days.  We head to the audiologist next week to get a new set of ear molds made.  Hopefully we can put a rush on them because of his allergy. 

Update on Allison

Allison saw her wonderful audiologist on Monday.  She did great, these appointments are becoming old hat for Allison, so she knew what to expect and how long they will last.  It is wonderful that Allison can answer the questions asked to her and can tell Miss Cindi if something sounds too loud, to soft or just right.  Allison was able to share all the wonderful things that happen at school and tell about her SLP, FM system and such.  All this is made possible because of the wonders of the CI.

After testing her implants to make sure all was up to snuff, we headed to the sound booth.  This was the 1st time that Allison was alone in the booth and did a great job, she clicked away using the clicker and once again she was at 15-20 dB's in both ears.  They also tested Allison live voice recognition.
She scored 72% words and 62/75 phonemes in her right ear( a great improvement from previous testing) and 92% words and 73/75 phonemes in her left ear.  YAY, we finally got her right ear and left ear to the same place. 

Oh and on another note( pun intended)  Allison will be starting piano lessons soon. Yes you read that right.......our deaf daughter who hears with Cochlear implants will be starting piano lessons.  She is so exited about it.  Now if we can figure out where we are going to put the piano in our house.  Only time will tell how far Allison will go with this, but if her commitment to piano is anything like her commitment to hearing and talking, you can expect Allison to be playing in Carnage Hall in the near future.  :-)

I'm Still Here

I have been very neglectful of my blog lately and I really don't have any other reason for this but..........LIFE. 

Life has been very busy in the Krull household.  Jared, Allison and this year Jordan started school in Aug.  We have had a good start to the school year, notice I said good, not great.  Jared has had a few issues with being in 5th grade, mostly the workload and taking responsibility for his own actions.  He has had to learn the hard way and yes it was a tough lesson to learn, but I think we have him back on track.  Allison has adjusted well to 4th grade and still loves school.  Jordan is doing great in K.  I am enjoying teaching him at home this year and he seems to enjoy having mommy's undivided attention once again. 

It is time to start thinking about basketball season again.  Jared loves playing, so we will see if he can keep up with his schoolwork well enough to play again this year. 

Allison continues to amaze us with how well she is doing with her CI's.   You would think that after 8 years, it would just be common place, but it still brings tears to my eyes when I think how far she has come.  This past Sunday, on the way to church, Allison was reading a book to Jordan and Bill turned to me and said..."did you think 8 years ago, that Allison would be reading a book to her brother?"  She was not only reading, but doing the different voices of the characters.  I think I actually saw a tear in Bill's eye as he was asking me this.

Allison and Jordan both had birthdays in Sept.  Allison turned 10 and Jordan turned 5.  We celebrated with 25 of their closest friends and family at World of Bounce.  It is a huge indoor bounce house.  They had a blast and I enjoyed the fact that I did not have to set up or clean up.  I made 48 cupcakes, bought juice boxes and ordered pizza, the rest was done for us

All 3 of the kids are involved in AWANA at our church.  AWANA is a weekly Bible club.  They are really enjoying being a part of it.  We chose in the past not to be involved due to Jared and Allison's school schedule, but this year we decided to give it a shot.  So far, so good.  The kids are keeping up with their schoolwork and are not fighting me too bad on Tues mornings when it is time to get up for school.  Hopefully that trend with continue.

Jared head to the oral surgeon on Oct 26th to get his missing tooth cared for.  Hopefully this will be an easy surgery and not a complicated one.  They think he has and extra tooth that is blocking his front tooth from coming down.  They should be able to go in and removed the extra one, open up his gums and put a "button" and chain on the front tooth so the orthodontist can pull it into place.  There is a chance that the extra tooth could be high up in the gums, if that is the case it may be more involved than originally thought.  We are praying for easy.  If you think of it.....say a prayer for Jared.

Thanks!

1st Day of School

                                                                                    Jordan's Classroom

                

Birthday Kids.

Summer Time

It has been a busy month of June for the Krulls.  Jared and Allison finished school on June 7th!  Both did a great job in 4th and 3rd grade this year.  We are so proud of all of their hard work.
The week after school let out, all 3 of the kids were able to go to our neighbor's Vacation Bible School.  They had a great time and I enjoyed 3 hours of peace and quite during the morning.  It was Heaven!
The 3rd week of June we headed out for our family vacation.  We headed up to MI to visit my aunt, who is 85 years young.  You sure couldn't tell she is that old.  She still has a whole lot of spunk.  We were also able to visit with a college friend, who I roomed with when I taaught in Maryland.  It was fun to catch up on life.  After spending 3 days in MI we headed down to Sandusky to the Great Wolf Lodge.  The kids had a blast at the indoor waterpark.  Jared and Allison were very happy that they were both tall enough to go on every single waterslide by themselves.  Which worked out perfect because Jordan had to stay with a parent at all times.
This week is our own church's VBS.  It has been a busy week, but one that is so much fun.
Oh and to top off June..........Jared got braces today!!  He is now learning what he is allowed to eat and what he is not allowed to eat.  The rule of thumb is......no sticky, crunchy or chewy foods, well that about knocks out anything that is good to eat.

I am looking forward to next week, when we have nothing planned and no where we have to be..............I think I might actually sleep past 7:00.  That is my goal, I wonder if I will be able to do it....wish me luck.

Jared is 11!

Can it be?  My baby turned 11 this past week! 11 years ago, April 25th started out as a normal day, I was 34 weeks pregnant.  I had been put on modified bed rest 2 weeks earlier due to high blood pressure, so that meant I had stopped working.  It was kind of nice, I was able to sleep in instead of getting up at 6:00 so I could get to school by 7:30(I was teaching 4th grade), I didn't have to try and find a place to put my feet up while teaching, I could relax on my couch.  Around 12:30 or so, I started leaking fluid, I called my doctor who told me to lay down and see if any contractions started, none came, so I thought I was in the clear, until around 4:30 when they called back and told me they wanted me to head to the hospital to get checked.  I called Bill who was working for a landscaper at the time and told him to come on home.  He was not too happy about having to leave work, of course that might of been because I told him I was not in labor and I was sure that the doctor would just send me home.  We got to the hospital around 6:00 got all set in my room, got checked by the doctor who told me that my water had broke, really I thought you were suppose to get a gush of fluid?  He asked me if I was feeling any of my contractions, I wasn't.  He told me that I was there to stay until I had the baby.  If the baby started to come, they would not do anything to stop it.  He said he was heading home to get something to eat, but would be back in plenty of time to deliver the baby( yeah, little did he know).  Around 10:45, my contractions started to get really painful so I asked for the drugs, however, Jared had other ideas and I went from 4 to 10 in 15 min.  I stared pushing at 11:10 and he was born at 11:19, yes ladies that was 9 min of pushing( I know not fair).  Oh by the way....my doctor missed the whole thing.  He passed Bill and Jared in the hall on the way to the NICU.  Ever since that day, Jared has lived by his own rules, but we would not trade him for anything.  He is a sweet, loving and funny boy.  He still gives me hugs and says, "I love you, mom." ( I wonder how long that will go on ?  I hope he never out grows giving mom a hug)
Happy Birthday to Jared William.

Jared's Living Wax Museum- Cy Young

The computer finally allowed me to upload Jared's 4th grade project.  This year his class did a living wax museum.  He was Cy Young.  He did a great job and worked so hard on it.

Proud Momma Moment.

Here is another proud momma moment.  Allison singing right along with her class at her 3rd grade program.  I am truly amazed at how far she has come.  These moments make all of the hard work so worth it!

Easter 2012

New Email Address

Just wanted to let you know that we have a new email address- krull5@columbus.rr.com

The streak has been broken.

We went almost 11 years without stitches( well, ok we had stitches from many, many surgeries) but those Mommy did not have to watch being put in.
On Monday, I had just finished preschool with Jordan when the dreaded phone call from the school nurse came....."hello, Mrs. Krull, this is Mrs Lombardo the nurse at school, Allison fell off the monkey bars and cut her head open, it looks pretty deep, like maybe needing stitches deep." 
I sprung into action, called my MIL to find out if she was available to watch Jordan, called my hubby to fill him in, checked to see what time Children's Urgent Care opened, it opened at 3:00, it was 11:30, called hubby back to find out where I should go, headed over to my in-laws to drop Jordan off and then to school to pick up Allison.
There is an Urgent Care close to our house so we went there.  We walked in and I saw all the people waiting and I thought, "oh great we are going to be waiting forever".  The person behind the window asked what was wrong, I told her and she looked like she was going to have a stroke, she grabbed my ID, and insurance card and ushered us right back, yelling to the nurse that Allison had split her head open. The nurse came in and looked at it and declared it to be "not too bad, probably would not need stitches( yeah, what does she know?)  My husband and I were a little concerned about Allison's implants, that maybe she had damaged them when she fell, Allison assured me that she was hearing fine.  I asked the nurse about it and the only thing they could do was take x-rays.  Everything on the x-ray looked fine and she is still hearing fine.  The doctor finally came in and took a look at the hole in Allison's head and declared that he could probably close it with staples, this is not what Allison wanted to hear.  After closer examination, the doc decided that staples would not do, stitches was the only way to close this.  I had to prepare Allison for the worse part of all.....the numbing medicine.  What started out as "not so bad" ended with 3 internal and 4 external stitches.  At least they didn't have to shave her head, be happy for the little things.

Decisions, Decisions

I remember wondering if Jared and Allison would be ready for K because of their hearing loss.  Would they be ready for a typical K class, should we look into our local Hard of Hearing program? Bill and I felt very strongly at the start that they would be raised oral, they would be mainstreamed and they would succeed.  We decided to home school Jared for K because of the fact that Allison was still in the auditory oral preschool, I just could not figure out how to be in two places at the same time, I'm good, but not that good.  Once Allison finished with preschool, we sent them both to the Hearing Impaired program in our county.  They were mainstreamed into typical classrooms with support from their SLP and HI teacher.  They have done great!  We just got their report cards and they are both reading at or above grade level( pretty good for a of HI boy and deaf girl). 

Now we are faced with the decision on what to do with Jordan.  He is not HI or deaf, in fact he has such good hearing that he can hear his father opening a Little Debbie wrapper from upstairs!
Jordan turns 5 on Sept 12th, in Ohio he is able to go to K because he turns 5 before Sept 30th, but does that mean that just because he can go, he should?  I have been doing preschool with him here at home and he is doing great.  He knows all his letters, can count to 100, knows all his shapes and colors.  All those things that the checklists say he should know before K.  I am just not sure if we should send him to school and have him be one of the youngest kids in his class.  I guess we can take care of this problem by homeschooling, he would be still be the youngest in his class, but when it is a class of one, I guess it would be OK.  Then there is the issue of his size, he is really small for a 4 year old.  If we gave him another year, he would not be the youngest and he might even have a growth spurt.  I guess I also have to face the fact that I may not be ready to let my baby go, he is our last.  So comes the decision that needs to be made, send him or don't send him, home school or traditional school?  If we send him to school we have to deal with his schedule not jelling with his brother and sisters, different start dates, different winter, spring breaks, different end dates.  If I home school, I can put him on the same schedule and we might be able to get a family vacation in.   I let you know what we decide, I guess we need to made a choice soon, it is about time to register for K.


I am so thankful that God have us this precious little boy.  He fills our lives with such joy.  Whatever the decisions is, we know that he will jump in with both feet.  No fear that is the motto that Jordan lives by.

Seven Years

Could it be really that long?  Seven years ago we were preparing for the unknown.....Allison's 1st CI surgery.  Were we making the right choice for her?  Would it work?  Would she hear well enough to talk?    
It has been a long hard road that we have traveled.  The trips to the hospital, the weekly,the daily therapy sessions were all worth it.  I will never forget the moment when Allison heard for the 1st time, she didn't cry like we had been warned she might, she just looked at us, buried her head in my shoulder and smiled.  Or the moment when the 1st wonderful word escaped from her lips....."help"  She wanted me to help her put her shoe on so she could go outside.
Life does not get any better than watching your deaf daughter reading to her little brother or listening to her talk to her grandparents on the phone. 
Life is so normal now, so common that I sometimes forget that she is deaf, that is until she takes off her CI's for the night. 

Oh, Allison, it was the right choice for you, it really did work and you can hear well enough to talk.  Mommy and Daddy are so proud of all your hard work, you are an inspiration to us all.  You are a strong willed little girl who is growing into a determined young lady, nothing can stop you.  Who knows what you will accomplished in your life, but know this, we will be there to cheer you on