Christmas and Update on the Kids

Christmas was pretty quiet for us this year. We had the older kids until Christmas Eve and then they went to their mom's house for several days. As is customary in our house, if we have the kids up until Christmas Eve, Santa comes on the night of the 23rd and we open presents on the morning of the 24th. A lot of times we plan a trip or have family visit around Christmas. Since my mother's accident last year we haven't had much in the way of family visits. and, because the economy is so bad now and we just moved into a new house this year, we decided not to go anywhere for Christmas.

David's dad, Rodney, was able to come down and visit us from Canyon, Texas. It's about 6 hours away. He was able to drive down this last Thursday and stayed until yesterday. We all really enjoyed his visit and we're very glad he was able to come. He also assisted David in giving our youngest, Logan, a blessing.

This is a whole different topic but I'll touch on a few of the specifics. Logan was born healthy and happy. The hospital did a newborn screening test (as they do on all newborns) and did not indicate any abnormal findings. Logan is almost 2 and has yet to say any deciferable, meaningful word. He makes noises and, at times, will attempt to say something, but he is unable to form the right sounds. We had his hearing tested (the first step in a speech delay evaluation) and found out (just before Christmas) that he has moderate hearing loss in the lower and middle frequencies and almost no hearing in the upper frequencies. This helps to explain a lot of our concerns.

The treatment for this is hearing aids and extensive speech therapy. This loss is different from the loss that some kids have from having repeated ear infections. It's classified as a sensorineuro hearing loss. This basically means that the loss is permanent. One of the next steps is to have an MRI done. This will tell us if his inner and middle ear formed properly and evaluate his brain to make sure there aren't any abnormalities there. If there is a malformation in the ear, there is a greater chance that this could be a progressive hearing loss. Otherwise, if his sturctures are normal, they will continue to explore other explainations.

He is a very happy, healthy kid and (other than not talking)seems perfectly fine. We are just having to spend a lot of time in doctors' offices and doing testing. We have a lot of unanswered questions as well a lot of decisions to be made over the next several months. We are trying to get him all the help that he needs and expect him to get completely caught up within the next year or so. We just hope and pray that there is not something more severe developing.

So, other than the craziness of the doctors' appointments, things have been pretty quiet around here. We have had some time off from school and sports, but those activities resume this week. As far as the older kids:
Andrew is playing basketball through school, as well as through a rec league (can you believe it - he is actually 5'8" already and still growing)He's in 8th grade this year
Kaitlyn is in 6th grade. She's plays in the percussion section in band. She still likes soccer but got hurt last season and hasn't been able to play for a while. She hopes to start again in the spring.
Matthew is playing basketball through a rec league. He is in 4th grade this year and really enjoys playing football.
Brie is in 6th grade. She is in choir and was a cheerleader this last season with the rec football league. She hopes to join the middle school squad next year.
Ethan in every bit a 3 1/2 year old BOY. He is very active and loves to play computer games and help daddy in the yard.

I think that's a "quick" (HA HA HA) update on all the kids. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to post pictures, so I'll ask you for a little more patience for those. We've had some computer problems recent;y and have just been able to get everything ironed-out. And, now that the kids are back in school I have a LITTLE more time on my hands to get things updated.