Leaps and Bounds

January 19, 2011

I wanted to give a quick update on Ayize's progress, two months after his recent surgery, with a few videos from recent days, since I only posted one other update from the day after. I know I'm biased (!) but he really does seem to be making progress by leaps and bounds.

Singing bits of songs, dancing to music, holding his own in basic conversations with others, listening to books and stories and actively engaging in them - these are a few of his recent developments. It's all so exciting and mind-boggling!

Anyhow, apologies for all the clips, but when it comes to his hearing/speaking - well, it really requires a few videos to "speak" for itself.

(Ha ha ha)

So, first up - singing.

This is such a fun development. Ayize began singing snatches of songs a few days after surgery and now he will accurately sing along, in whole or in part, to his favorite tunes. He busted out "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" in Gymboree yesterday morning and only skipped a few words. I could not have been prouder! (It helps that his Gymboree teacher went through an almost-identical experience to Ayize as a child, and so has become his biggest cheerleader! So when Ayize crooned, "...like a diamond in the sky..." to beat the band, then busted out the accompanying diamond-shaped hand motion, both Jonathan and I were beaming ear-to-ear like idiots.)

Other faves are Laurie Berkner's "Moon" and Elizabeth Mitchell's "Little Bird."

(Yes, he DOES listen to adult music too...but he can hardly be expected to belt out Screeching Weasel lyrics just yet, right? Give the kid a few more weeks, though, and we'll see.)

Anyway, one of the first nights he sang was a few weeks ago. I caught it on video, and at first, he just sang along with the "ooh-whee" from his fave old Disney short about a cowboy:

...but then, as if feeling inspired, he gave singing along a try. I was really impressed with his efforts (hey, it was his first try! LOL):

These days, he'll sing whole verses of this beloved jam.

I filmed a short video of him shouting, "And a cowboy needs a rope, needs a rope, needs a rope" as he mimicked lassoing with a huge imaginary rope being flung round and round over his head, and uploaded that too, but when I played it again just now, it was impossible to hear anything...because I filmed it at Jump Zone on a wild and crazy day, and he was atop his "horse" - an inflatable dinosaur - which kept flopping around and bopping the camera's microphone. So I won't torment y'all with that crappy video!

But maybe a "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" extravaganza will be coming to you in the near future. (To be followed shortly thereafter, undoubtedly, by a toddlerized version of "My Brain Hurts"!)

Another awesome thing is that he's dancing again. Yes Peter, he's still kind of doing the ol' Peg Leg (his godfather's affectionate name for the stilted dance steps he developed after he lost his hearing, which were just kind of a rhythmic bouncing to the loudest part of any song's beat), but he's starting to throw in some twists and spins again:

I know this is totally lame, but I've been in mourning for the longest about my sweet baby's slow cessation of dance moves. When he was teeny, from a little after a year on, he was showing off some serious footwork, and our family and friends just loved to watch him dance to every kind of music.

But once he began to lose his hearing, he slowly began to stop dancing. It broke my heart, though I didn't know exactly what was happening then. But now I see it all so clearly, and I can even go back to my old videos and see a progression of how he began to change. As he got older and more coordinated, he began to go the opposite direction of what I'd thought, dancing less and less instead of more and more. Now I know why.

I still get all morose and drop into a funk when I think of the vast span of time he had limited hearing for. What if it had never happened? What if he had developed an amazing ear for music during that time and gone on to be a world famous pianist, or rapper, or banjo player? What if he had heard rhythms fully during his formative babyhood and developed into a world-class ballet dancing boy at twelve? Or one of those break-dancing kids you see on YouTube who are five years old and doing head spins? Or at the very least, what if he had learned to dance a sight better than his ungainly mama (you do NOT want to see me in action, especially after a few drinks)?

But here's the thing - as my sage friend Ash said, "Ayize is meant to develop into the person he was meant to be." An she's admittedly SO right on (deep breath).

So I try not to dwell on the what ifs. And I'm totally geeked to see his dance moves coming back, slowly but surely. Even if he IS stuck with a permanent peg leg now!

;-)

Anyway, a glimpse back through time.

Approximately fifteen months old, and hanging with his girl cousins. He got a little dizzy but he never lost his balance too badly. And in between, he had some smooth moves:

Around eighteen months old. He rocked out a little to Bob Marley first:

...and then moved on to the next song, a fast-paced Caribbean jam, that he used to love to totally go WILD to:

Those were the days - I could have watched him do this all day long. But by then, he already must have had some impaired hearing. And by the fall, (here he was around 22 months old), he was definitely losing steam. He rallied only for loud, thumping bass lines.

Here's a little of the "early Peg" LOL as he rocked out to an Eminem tune on the radio:

Anyway, sorry about the time capsule. But you can see why I'm excited!

He was filled with so much joy when he was dancing. I'm so thrilled to have that little music-loving boy of mine back again!

Ayize has also managed to improve his speech remarkably. He can be understood by family and friends most of the time now, and by strangers a lot of the time too - this was NOT the case before. He also has gone from one and two word "sentences" with horrible pronunciation, to where he's at now - long sentences, pretty easy to understand, and expectant of responses from the people around him. In other words, my kid and I (and my kid and others) are now having conversations!!! This is so unspeakably HUGE to me, that it's hard to even begin to describe. The first few weeks, I often just broke down and kind of teared up when we'd talk back and forth, and I'd have to struggle to hide it. Otherwise, we'd move on to a conversation about my feelings. Yes, you heard me right. Conversatin. Us two. Bout feelins.

CRAZINESS.

!!!!!

He'd ask if I was happy, or sad, and so forth, if I was "okay", and he would give me a kiss to "help" or tell me to be happy. All just such amazing, wild, extravagant, fantastical developments that once seemed to much to even dream of.

Now he is counting objects up to six, trying to learn some letters (he can recognize "O" and sometimes "A"), knows several shapes and will make them with his hands, talks about colors, animals, makes animal sounds, uses pronouns, knows his own name, can use language now to pretend-play, etc. I could go on.

No, he's no great orator, nor even close to his peers, most of whom already speak like little adults. Yes, he has a ways to go in terms of clarity, pronunciation, object naming, sentence construction...

But just the fact that he's on such a roll warms my heart! It's only been two months, and his progress so far is - to me, but also according to his speech therapist - nothing short of amazing.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we visited my folks. My dad is quite hard of hearing and has never been able to understand Ayize before, but these days, he can readily understand almost anything he says. I know this seems like a small thing, but to me, this leap towards a better chance for my son to connect with his beloved grandpa is such a source of joy to me.

Here he was trying to assist Grandpa with his Sudoku puzzle:

And here, he was first just having fun with Brianna, but then having a "moment" after he accidentally let his balloon get away. Yes, he's upset, but even through his frustration and sadness, he's effectively getting his point across:

There are much better conversations we've had, but many of them take place in the dark, at night, just before he falls asleep, when he always gets very chatty (and the one place I'm guaranteed NOT to have my camera LOL) - about our day, and what we did, and then usually a little pretend-play.

Last night's conversation: "I'm a fish, Mama! I'm a red fish like James! And you are a frog, Mama!"

"Oh, am I green like Percy then? I must be a green frog."

"No. You are BLUE THOMAS!" (hysterically laughing at his own joke).

Tonight's was short and sweet, because he hadn't napped, and he was exhausted. "Mama, I'm cold."

"You are?? Honey, don't be cold. Use the blanket!"

"No, I'm cold Ayize. No, I'm CRAZY AYIZE!" (more laughing at his own hilarious joke, which referenced a goofy conversation from yesterday, in which he told me he was crazy Ayize, and I am crazy Mama. Which was, actually, pretty funny.)

"Ha ha ha, yes, you are crazy, silly boy. But seriously, I don't want you to be cold. Are you cold?"

Silence.

"Ayize? Are you cold?"

More silence. I peered closely and saw he was out like a light.

Well, hey, that's the upside to no more naps, right??

Speaking of bedtime...so before bed, we always read books. We used to do one or two, and it was a nice snuggle routine, but he only really looked at pictures and never got to into the story unless it repeated a certain word that he could mimic. Of course, now I know why...sigh. [Yes, Ash, I will channel your sage advice again, instead of pondering how he could have been the next William Styron. John Irving. Margaret Atwood (the male version, anyway).]

Anyhoo.

All that has changed, pardner! We now negotiate each evening as to number of books we shall read. He always starts with "Six?" I bargain it down, depending on how tired he is, and the length of his various choices, though, in actual fact, it usually ends up being pretty close to six, since I'm so damn delighted that I have a kid who LOVES - ADORES - GOES GAGA - for books! All books! All topics! All lengths! He is just book-crazy, like his mama, and we could spend all day reading if we wanted to, and never grow tired of it (though my vocal cords surely wouldeth protest).

Anyhow, not long after surgery, godfather Peter came by before bedtime one night for a surprise visit. Ayize was delighted!

Pete read him a few of that evening's selections, and approached the task with great vim and vigor, as he does all he takes on. Ayize was over the moon. And Mommy was even higher than that, because there was nothing like witnessing Ayize's joy at hearing one of his favorite tales recounted in a series of silly voices.

Just to see how he could * hear * was enough to make me want to cry tears of joy! We have waited so long for this!!! But to see him as he heard and processed the story, to listen to the tinkle of his laughter as he enjoyed Pete's comic repertoire, to experience his love for his godfather and his ability to better connect with him now that this lacking sense has been opened unto him...it was just an amazing thing. Very special for me, and I'm unbelievably happy that I had the camera nearby that night.

With that as my inspiration, I filmed a tiny bit of us reading his all-time favorite, The Runaway Bunny, because he truly interacts with the book, something he never did before surgery.

He will hunt for the bunny on each colorful page, especially the one with the hidden garden - "Not here, not here, not here" as he points to various flowers on both pages, before always triumphantly shouting, "HEEE-EEERE!" at long last when he points to the right flower:

...and he loves to discuss the mama and whether she is being good or bad on the black-and-white pages in between. He loves to count the crocuses in the garden, and the heads of lettuce in the vegetable patch; he loves to blow, as the mommy bunny blows the baby sailboat; he loves to giggle at the two men in the circus flinging each other with a long pole; and he most especially likes to pretend to be the baby bunny approaching the house where mom waits inside:

But what makes me happiest of all is simply witnessing how being able to hear has allowed him a whole new and deeper level of love and friendship with his best pals. Being able to communicate with his friends - watching them engage in serious discussions over who can have what, and how to use a potty, and whether they want chocolate milk or juice - all these things are awesome.

And best of all, he can play with them as he never did before. He has always been super mega-sociable (now, wherever did he get that from?? LOL) but he would often end up on the fringes because he wouldn't be able to hear a song or understand simple directions. Often, he would misinterpret a game and end up being ousted or would simply wander off, having given up, after not understanding what was happening and ending up being too rough or unable to play.

No mas, senor!

Now he is sooooo right in the thick of things. Here he was last weekend, having a jolly old time with Kai and Kayla:

And as big as his smile is here, you can bet that mine was even bigger.

My son, I could not be prouder of you.

Keep it up, baby boy - you're SO doin this thang!