Night Before

It's the night before Corrina's "activation", which, if you have been following our story, you will know this means Corrina's implant will be turned on tomorrow! We have had a good week, but a sick week. Corrina is getting over another bad ear infection, but is mostly back to herself now. My old fisher price kitchen arrived in the beginning of the week so Corrina has been playing with that, as well as the box it came in (thanks mom!). She has been learning to joys of coloring, eating crayons, and hiding crayons! She bumped her head this week which left a little lump that resembles the beginnings of a growing horn (picture a baby goat maybe....). She skinned her knee today at Church, which didn't bother her at all, but she's a little beaten up looking. All in all a busy week!
We are very excited to see how Corrina does with hearing! We will be off to bed early this night so that we have enough energy for the morning. I will do my best to post asap tomorrow! Please pray for us all tonight!


This is the way that we occupied ourselves for a little while yesterday!
One: pick crayon


Two: look inside to ensure proper placement
Three: poke through holeFour: check landing
Five: sure enough!!
Six: I'm bored, give me the camera

Round Here

...which, if your interested, is one of my all time fav (counting crows) songs.

I just love this tray. I found it at Ikea.


A friend gave us this Kitchen cart because she redid her entire kitchen and didn't need it anymore. It really helps in the space! I love baking by it because everything is accessible and tidy too.

Forgive my horrendous photos of Corrina. I have to snap quickly else she bullets over for the camera.


I made the very best oatmeal chocolate chip muffins today from one of my loneyspoons cook books (guilty confession: I made them yesterday too, and we ate them all, so I made more today. We did share a few...)


I can't leave everyone these delicious pictures without posting the recipe, now can I? So...

Oatmeal Choco-Chip Muffins (p. 53, LooneySpoons Cookbook):
1 1/4 cups oatmeal
1 1/2 cups boiling water
**Pour over oats, stir and let sit for 20 minutes
In the meantime...
Combine
1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup unpacked brown sugar
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon Baking Soda
1 1/2 teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
** stir these dry ingredients together
In another bowl combine
2 egg whites
1/4 cup pureed canned peaches (seriously, i just used apple sauce... 1/2 made very moist muffins!)
1/4 c. marg or butter, melted
1 tsp vanilla
*mix together, then add to oatmeal... mix very well then add to flour mixture
The batter will be VERY thick. Stir until all ingredients are moistened, then add 1/2 cup (yeah right, like I didn't add more!) Chocolate Chips!
bake at 325 for 20-25 minutes

I am in love with mini muffins, so I make one tray of these, one tray of normal, then about a half tray more of mini...

Being At Home

We have been home for almost a week now. We have taken our time to settle back in as it was difficult to part with such good family moments and wonderful visits with friends ( Both Claire's report of our visit and Susan's report are MUST READs, or at least see the pictures!). Corrina is completely back to her 'normal' self. In fact she is even better than when we left because while we were away she learned to twirl in circles and to do the chicken dance, well, the chicken flap part. She is sleeping well and enjoying all our visits with friends here. Just today she was horribly bored with Dave and I around dinner time when our friends (al, sarah, heather, candace) came through the door. Corrina ran excitedly toward the door, laughing and waving widely at her guests. She was pretty sure that they had all come just to see her! She ushered them all in and showed them her toys... all in her precious silent way.

A confession: I have never seen Dirty Dancing, until tonight, and now I UNDERSTAND. What a great movie (except for the abortion subplot... poor unborn babies). When I was maybe 9 or 10 I had a mini pops record (yup, record!) with alot of great songs. What I didn't know until tonight was that most of those songs (and pictures on the record cover of children dressed up like adults) came from the movie. Ha! I love it! So, I am not sure if this makes me a geek, or a romantic, or what!

While I was watching the movie I felt like I was in someone else's house. Why, you ask... well, I was on the internet last week when I came across a posting for an ikea garage sale. Of course we told our friends and went ourselves and there we found a wonderful, comfy couch. We deliberated purchasing it because while it was a little more than we were budgeting to spend on a second hand couch it was in great condition and a 1/4 of the original price. But in the end we could not pass up the opportunity to have a couch that we could actualy sit comfortably (have you ever sat on our couch? You know what I am talking about then!). We also found a great little cabinet for our television, which takes the tv out of Corrina's height- so no more turn offs during the plot of movies! We rearranged, although we are not completely done as our old couch is still stuffed in a corner of our living room. However what we have done feels like a real living room with a cozy touch, yet still functional for our very busy toddler. AHHHHHHH, I can't express through words how wonderful everything is and looks-the best part, the cheap cheap cost!

Corrina's Recovery

Good news! Corrina’s surgery went very well! She is happy and healthy and all is well.

It is Saturday, May 5, and we are writing from Sarnia because Corrina is recovering so well we were able to leave the hospital after only one night! The morning of surgery Corrina had a lot of fun playing in the many different play rooms in the different sections of hospital that we were in for prep and such. She was having wagon rides around the waiting room (seriously, the most amazing children’s hospital I have ever seen—it was like an amusement park at times), and rode into her surgery room in a wagon, happy as can be (well, a little worried, but no where near upset). She was given an orange flavored mask to start the anesthetics which looked very fun to play with and went to sleep immediately. The doctor and nurses were wonderfully nice, and most importantly really loved children and treated Corrina with such care! Surgery was about 2.5 hours, followed by a short testing time that assured the implant was in the proper place and working, which it was!! We went to see Corrina in recovery after she had woken up from surgery and she was upset and disoriented, which is to be expected. However, she had two doses of morphine so we knew she wasn’t feeling a thing! The nurse gave Corrina a few freezies which calmed her down and filled her little tummy. She soon got over the fact that her IV was there to stay and just started working around it. For the first few hours she was touchy and had a hard time settling down. She drank a lot of juice and cuddled and fussed. She had a little nap around dinner time, ate some jello, juice, and other friendly foods, and followed that up with a walk around the hallway. She was VERY eager to move which told us that she was recovering well. In fact, she recovered so well and so quickly that she didn’t give mom and dad time to “recover”! She slept great that night, didn’t vomit, and only woke up once for a cuddle and diaper change (IV’s really do fill those diapers up, but I only got peeded or leaked on twice, so I was happy!). This morning her bandage and IV were removed which allowed her to play without restriction and run around the hallways. Yes, she was running less than 24 hrs after surgery. That’s our Corrina!
The hotel that was stayed at was GORGEOUS. Everything was comfy and luxurious (the best shower I have ever had). Corrina didn’t get swim because the pool was closed (of all days) for maintenance. But it is nice to be able come home (to the Colvin’s, that is)
We just arrived in Sarnia after our 3 hours drive from Toronto. Corrina slept! We are all doing well but need some rest.
I cannot think of anything else to report, however if you have questions or want to talk on the phone please email or call us!
As you can tell God has been taking tremendous care of us (there was a little fellow across the fall with an new implant that wasn’t doing so well… vomiting and such… so we know that her recovery isn’t average). THANK YOU for your prayers, support (in so many ways!) and love.

Sorry for how long it tooks us to write this up. Take care everyone!

Love Janie, Dave and Corrina

(first time washing dishes with mama! If you look closely you can see that her ear is sticking out a little because her stiches/sterri strip tape is pushing it forward... that's all you can see of her surgery from the front though!)

Bilateral

I would love to begin this post by announcing that MB health has accepted our application for bilateral implants, however this is not case. They have neither accepted nor declined the application, they have simply told us that they are unwilling to make a decision by May 1st. I think this is ridiculous! Can they do that?
I feel exhausted and a little defeated. I hope we can fight for an answer- a positive answer. But tonight I am tired and would throw in the towel if i had any say in the situation. I hope to sleep well and be ready for more political battling tomorrow.
Corrina had her mri today. Have any of your ever had an mri with your child? It is awful. I hated it. Corrina has never cried so hard or long in her life. She was in a state of complete panic while they put her iv in, and for the 20 minutes after while we waited for the mri room to open up so that she could be sedated. She was so upset that even when she was partially calm against my chest, rocking back and forth in a chair, her little body would twitch as her body inhaled and exhaled at high speed. At points she would perk straight up and scream a blood curdling yelp of fear. Once she was situated with electrodes (and all the other crap they had to attach to her before sliding her into the mri machine) they finally administered the sedative and she was alseep instantly. Could they not have done that before pinning her down and poking her entire body. I hate medical stuff. I was not created for the benefit of medicine. I am having such a tough time seeing her go through this. Perhaps God created her deaf to be deaf?
I think this is the exhaustion talking, none the less, mri's suck, and I have great feelings of empathy for families who face this weekly, perhaps daily, with their children when facing life threatening illnesses.
May Peace be with you all.

On a different note, here is a rather boring video of Corrina walking around our house drinking her water. This is the both mundane and thrilling thing we do all day long. Enjoy, if you like!


On a TV show I saw someone talk about what to do when you are feeling a little blue: stick a pen between your teeth (do you know why???? I do!). While coloring later that day I told Dave and Corrina about this. Then we tried it out:

Corrina is such a good copy cat!

Dave thought this might make him feel happy too:


Corrina loves her choo choo train. I love her belly:

Before I start another gruelling day of studying, for my last exam!!!!, I thought I would post a few snap shots of the lovely Corrina doing her stuff...

Sitting to read a book in the morning:



And 'hanging' out with dad:



Thanks for all the thoughts and prayers. We still have not heard from MB health regarding the funding. We have to hear by the end of the week else we won't be able to even book the two surgeries. Either way, she will have one, and this is such a blessing!

Surgery!

First, I apologize for my lack of communication with a lot of people who are important in our life. This has been a very intense semester, and while I have learned SO MUCH I am desperately looking forward to the end (unfortunately summer classes kick off May 4th!). I am in exam week now with one down, two to go (today I am studying!). So, if you have not heard from us, either through email or blogs or phone calls I do apologize and please do know that I am thinking of everyone, family and friends, and appreciate your support in our lives.

Second, SURGERY IS A GO. Our ENT doctor in Winnipeg looked at the CT scans yesterday and made the decision that everything needed for a successful implant and hearing outcome are present. That would be the cochlea itself, and hearing nerves! We will indeed be having surgery in Toronto on May 1st. The only dilemma that we are still facing is receiving notice of funding from Manitoba Health. There is little doubt that we will receive funding for a unilateral (one) implant, however we are waiting to find out if MB health will provide the funds necessary for a bilateral implant (two), which would greatly increase Corrina's ability to hear and communicate. Of course, as we know, two ears are better than one, and we do hope that funding is available to provide Corrina with the opportunity to hear twice as much in life, which in turn would substantially increase her ability to communicate and learn, which will assist with her cognitive and social development. All in all, the benefits would lead to a more normative social existence for Corrina. But hey, what's normal anyway?! Either way, we do hope the funding is provided. Here is the catch, MB health is notorious for taking their precious time in deliberating theses decision, however as the surgery date nears the surgeon needs confirmation BY WEDNESDAY, LATEST THE END OF THE WEEK. Please pray with us as our audiologist advocates and as our Doctor continues to make contact regarding this information. If we do not receive funding for two implants that the surgery will provide Corrina with one implant and I believe we would persist in working towards funding for two.

How are we adjusting at this point? I am not very good with medical procedures. Iv's, blood, needles, cutting flesh all equal a whoozy Janie. However Dave is a master at facing these types of invasive procedures, so I am fine because he will be very supportive. I will be there to love and comfort Corrina and he can take care of the medical stuff (looking after incisions, etc.. or he can teach me and this can be an opportunity for growth). Prior to the surgery we still have a number of doctor appointments (yup, one everyday next week!) so please do pray as appointments can be stressful for Corrina as us as we wait, and wait, and wait, and wait in waiting rooms! Also, these procedures are not much fun for a little person (vaccinations, ct scans, mri's...) but we pray that Corrina would deal well with the stress and find comfort and support from us, friends and daycare. We also hope this does not interfere with her sleeping and she needs to be well for her surgery (ie. no ear infections, colds, and most importantly fevers). In the past stress has affected her ability to nap and sleep at night. Lots to think about...
Dave is feeling very relieved that we have a confirmation of surgery! He was feeling stressed and worried this week but now feels refreshed (from what i can gather!) He could use prayer for accomplishing his many tasks at work while at the same time juggling doctors appointments this week as I study and write exams. He is such a trooper and our family is blessed by his positive, sacrificial attitude for Corrina. He takes her to any appointment I cannot make it to and never complains that he might be falling behind at work. Church has been very supportive and understanding of the situation and the youth and families that he has contact with the most are very empathic of the situation. In other news, DAVE LOVES HIS WII!
I am getting a cold again, most likely from studying late, waking up early and poor nutrition. But, just a few more days.....

Thank you for your prayers! If you have any questions or thoughts please do email us and ask! Oh, ps, I don't know if I had mentioned this before but we will be on a documentary for The Nature of Things. I do not know when it will be released, we haven't even done the interviews yet, however they will be filming Corrina's surgery (something I actually do not want to see). However, I am excited about being on tv, creating awareness for the clinic and people we work with, as well as a the issue of implants and hearing impairment in children!

Birthday 2.0

Celebrating your birthday and getting gifts on the actual date of your birth is so old. The NEW and IMPROVED way of doing things is to order things online after your birthday and have them arrive weeks later! It's Birthday 2.0!

Yesterday was My Birthday 2.0! On the same day we recieved in the mail Both our T-shirts from Threadless.com (which I LOVE by the way!) AND OUR NINTEDO Wii FINALLY ARRIVED! HURRAY! Janie phoned me at work when in arrived and I was at home and pluggin it in within 5 minutes. I've since spent hours playing tennis and golf, practicing my boxing, swinging, hitting and blasting crazy bunnies, and saving the children of Hyrule. Janie said I was so excited that my eyes were visibly larger than normal for the rest of the day! All while wearing my fancy new threads! What a day!

Nintendo Wii Review: First Impressions
-HOLY CRAP IS THIS THING AMAZING!
-This is Hilarious!
-I can't believe the level of control this thing has
-My arm is actually getting sore. Maybe I should be stretching.
-Old, non-motion sensitive games just aren't going to be the same
-Gaming is Fun again!
-Okay fine! You can play too!
-Is it my turn again yet?
-This SO reminds me of real Golf!
-Oh my goodness! Link! LOOK OUT! Behind you!
-When was the last time I laughed out loud while gaming?
-But I don't WANT to pause!
-Huh? Midnight? Since when?

Total Score (out of a Possible 10)
Nintendo Wii: a bazillion.

And Yes, everyone is invited to come over and play. See you soon.
-Dave

A blur

Yes, some of these photos are very blurry, but they are just too cute not to show.

Corrina loves standing on our window sill and waving at the passerbyers. Sometimes she even gets waves back!


I wanted to capture the queen sitting on her royal rocking throne, relaxed to the max, however by the time i returned with the camera I found little miss sprawled out like this, sorta stuck!


Another stuck position:


A few nights ago Corrina discovered the fun of crawling under and through things... chairs, tables, and little tiny stepping stools. I watched her crawl under the stool a number times, attempting to make it in and through from a numerous directions, but never quite succeeding. After crying out in frustration and fear I would untangle her and send her off to play with something else, but she was determined to master the stool. After many hard to maneuver removals (i really thought she was stuck at one point and I was ready to get the butter!) I just took it away. What a silly babe!

Can't resist a resting face! I love deep sleep!

Oh no. I went to post and it was all deleted because firefox shut down. So...

Just a few thoughts from my head:

-Corrina's CT scan went well. She actually was not sedated. They need the babies to be very still, so they swaddle/wrap them up in a warm flannel hospital blanket, and of course Corrina was wrapped with pooh bear. Her head was placed in a little head holder, and little pillows were put on either side so she couldn't moved. Another pillow was strapped to her head, and she was covered in an x-ray lead vest. The she was slid into the big circle ct scanner. Dave stayed in the room with her, as I am not very good with baby crying medical procedures (although i wonder now if I were there is she would have calmed down a little more?). She was able to see dave, but kept her eyes close. She cried a little, and whined alot. But, the procedure took only about 5 minutes. Luckily she didn't try to move around very much; if she has moved alot she would have needed to be sedated. Short and sweet! At the end of the month we have the MRI, for which she will most definitely be sedated as it takes quite a while.

-Corrina and I enjoy drinking peppermint tea together. I put some in her sippy cup, with some water to dilute and cool, and we have tea parties together. The best tea biscuits: mr. christie tea biscuits! Love em'
(my favorite are the tea biscuits, not the social biscuits.. oh, and nila waffers! yum)

-I am working on a paper today while Corrina naps. Due thursday... better get going!


-I just learned on Martha that such a thing as icing drawing pens exist... for tracing on rice paper, or drawing cookies, etc.. many different colors! neat! They were used to draw butterflies on rice paper, which were than colored in with glitter and placed on petit fours as a decoration. Here's the link for a video with the butterflies. Something a more simple would be very fun to do as a craft with children!

Twenty Five Years Old

Eat the soft cake
open shiny boxes of gifts
birth days remember


So that is my very bad Haiku in celebration of DAVE'S BIRTHDAY. Another type of Poemish thing for Dave
D- droll
A- altruistic
V-vivacious
E- energetic

Truly a helpful, supportive, empowering husband, Dave helps out in anyway he can. I spent the weekend writing a long, difficult paper and Dave spent the weekend looking after Corrina, playing, changing diapers, bathing, feeding, loving, caring. He did not complain or bother me to finish so he could do the things he wanted to get done. He gives time and love in every way he can. A special guy and a Best Friend! He has been endlessly patient with at least 2, if not three therapy and doctor appointments a week. He shows his love in so many ways to his daughter, through simple things, and more difficult things like being up for 3 hours at night with her when she is sick and scared.
I love Dave!

I have not been doing too many updates on me or dave because nothing really changes. He works his butt off at church to do as much as he possibly can in one week for the people and families we worship with, and I attend classes and write lots and lots of papers.

But Corrina: might have a surgery appointment for May 1st. It is not booked as of yet but that date is available. She has a CT scan, for which she will be sedated, coming up next week. She has a doctor appointment this week, and another one next week for her vaccinations. Sometime in the next month she will also have an mri in preparation for her surgery; she will also need sedation for that process. There is always a small risk when toddlers are sedated, but the risk is no more than a drive in a motor vehicle. None the less these appointments keep a baby very busy, will probably be scary for her (and me too, i am so bad with medical procedures), and stressful. Please be praying along with us for her, that she will be given strength and good health (she has had a cold/ear infection on and off since January), the ability she needs to navigate through her days and be understood as she tries to communicate her needs, and continued joy in her life (as she really is such a happy baby!).

Corrina and Dave went for Corrina's first Outside walk, on the sidewalk, with rubber boots, through puddles. It was so very cute to see. Dave will tell you that she took about 4 steps and stopped to play with/in a puddle for about 10 minutes. Dave coaxed her along, until she stepped into another puddle to play with leaves and sticks! All in all she really enjoyed her walk outside and we can't wait for the weather to get better and better!




Candace made a very beautiful dress for Corrina out of the same material that our baby sling was made in, and we just LOVE IT:

New to the World

Welcome to the earth little Samuel H. Naus (what a nice looking name!). Susan and Dave birthed their baby boy with love and a lot of energy. They have a really great birth story to share on their blog. Although it was intense I get a feeling of underlying peace and trust as they worked to bring Samuel into the world. He arrived just this morning (March 20th), at 5am. Next year on his birthday he will be able to eat the first blooms of tulips in his mamma's garden.

Praying for you Naus's. Happy Resting!!!

Go see pictures!!!

I am uploading pictures now, so once they are on the computer i will probably remember what i was thinking of posting about.

Dave is sleeping. Corrina is sleeping. I have some time to read and research for my family counselling paper that is due one week from today. I have done very well on all my paper thus far, and have also learned a lot while writing them so i have no reason for worry about this upcoming paper. But, i do have a major reading assignment due 2 days after this fairly large paper, as well as another paper due that same day. This puts me severely behind. So while before you may have been thinking "everyone needs a little internet break, especially when the paper isn't due for a week", you are now probably thinking "Janie, get your butt in gear, you have a huge amount of reading and writing to accomplish!" Yes, i am thinking this too, but you see, i started looking at crafty blogs- this one especially is fun and has a number of great links- while i was waiting for Corrina to fall asleep. I did not want to start my reading with the thought of having to stop every few minutes to help her settle down (which, she has really been having a hard time with. Any thoughts? Is this because she is older and can stay up later, or maybe she needs her morning nap decreased so her afternoon nap, which is now at about 4pm, is taken earlier... i am out of ideas... but i know we are having trouble and restless nights.. something is wrong.. but do i have drive or time to fix it? nope) so i started looking at blogs. now i am stuck.

Oh, the pictures are ready now!
How can you resist this alluring face? I certainly can't:





I bought a little bag of coffee for a friend the other day, and i could not resist picking up a bag of coffee for my french press. With all the reading and studying going on in this house coffee has become a new part of my routine. I bought starbucks, breakfast blend. I have NEVER bought expensive coffee for at home; it is delicious! Lots of frothed milk tops the cup off. I discovered, because we had no milk one day, that skim milk powdered milk makes the best frothy foam, and I can hardly tell the difference in taste. That's my secret for you!

I have been re-learning how to play guitar (it's not like riding a bike, you can lose it! But it is rather quick to pick up again, especially when you only know 10 chords in the first place!) and Corrina thinks it is a dandy new toy for her to fiddle with. So, up on the lap she comes for some strumming fun. I like that she can feel the vibrations; i can't wait until she hears the music that goes with the movements! (note: look at how long she is! She already comes up to the top of my hip when standing!) I think I actually resemble my brother in this picture. Do you think so??

Narrative Family Therapy here i come!

I Did This

If you look closely in the picture you can see that this window is broken. A piece has fallen out and sits between the two-pane window. Well, the piece actually did not fall out. The window was mostly frozen open, and as my 'technique' has worked on other windows in the house I applied my skills to this window. I gently tapped where the glass met the metal frame, as i applied a little pressure at the same time in hopes of moving the window forward. This didn't worked, as you have guessed, and i pushed my hand through the window. I only had a small gash on my wrist and there was only a little blood coming out of my body. This was about a month ago though and by now i have a scar, but i only just called the landlord today about having the window fixed. He said they would take care of it in spring. Lucky we have two window panes else we would have a cold baby room!

Last Saturday I set up the Colvinson Cafe and served my little family the BEST banana pancakes I have ever had or made. Yum! We had delicious coffee with frothed milk and a nice time dinning together in the morning. I always wanted to open a cafe and serve yummy treats and warming breakfasts. One day, maybe. For now i will just feed us! The beautiful flower plant on the table is from my friend Allison to bring me hope during a very stressful school time. I wasn't able to keep it alive though. It even had little flowers that looked like they would grow beautiful and tall. The worst part is i don't know what happened. Maybe the cats chewed on it (even though it was put on the counter at nights), or maybe i hurt it by watering it too soon. Happy flowers, sad death.

Corrina is learning to drink from real cups and she just loves it, though sometimes she gets a little carried away and dumps the entire little cup of water onto her face, down her neck and of course all over her outfit. Today in the bathtub, our favorite practice drinking place, she threw her water back, too quickly this time, and choked herself for a moment. Poor thing. Once the water had finished coughing the water out she sneezed about 10 times. I think the water made it up her nose too. Poor little gal. So that was the end of bathtime tonight as she wasn't very interested in remaining in the water that had just scared her.





Walking walking everywhere. She can make it across our house now, although she doesn't too often. We were having dinner with some friends last night and she walked the entire time. We had never seen her walk so much. They had a puppy, a big puppy, who was very excitable. I think Corrina just thought "Big cat!!" and enjoyed waving, poking, and giggling at him. Doggy liked jumping up at her, so he ended up outside!



Enjoy the movies

If you were wondering

Just in case you were wondering what Janie is doing with her day, she (I) will tell you! I am at home writing a paper for my intro to social work course. Good topic, lots of research, movie study of Losing Isaiah, but where to begin???

Nothing fantastically new in the world of Corrina. We were going through a check list of communication abilities for little ones in her age bracket and we found that she is doing great with all the skills a baby of her age usually has. That makes us very happy as it means that she isn't falling behind in other areas of life and most likely will pick up language quickly. I am getting more and more excited for the semester to end, for the operation to come around (we still do not have a date, but are getting closer to knowing), and for the summer and all the sounds it brings to come our way. Of course between now and then I have 5 very large research papers due, but in 5 weeks I will have finished my first semester back at school!

I have not been camera crazy lately thus this post is picture-less. Back to paper writing, or paper starting, which for me is the most difficult part!

Mario Galaxy!

(Not a Corrina Video)

mountians with white peaks

If you were to look deep inside Corrina's mouth you would see 4 big mountains, one on each side, with white peaks poking through the pink.

Yes, she is cutting 4 molars, all at once. Plus, she is also working on another 2 front teeth, one up top, and one down below. She is having some trouble sleeping, has cold symptoms (she also had an ear infection last week and is getting over that cold still), and all the other fun diaper related side effects of teething. But 4 teeth all at once.. that is crazy!!!! I am wishing i had one of those little 'net feeder bags' so i could give her some harder food and ice cube to gum on.

This is a picture of hearing aid time, during which she has to wear a toque so she doesn't pull her aids off. She does really well once we have the toque on her and she pretty much forgets about pulling at her ears! She loves to play with anything that shakes (i thought babies liked rattles when they were like 3 months!), so we bought her some big red maracas to shake about! It looks like she just pulled her pink sock off as well.

Today at our audiology appointment Corrina wore her hearing aids, and we were able to see her respond to very loud, low sounds. The exact numbers were 90 decibels with 250 Hz. Think lawn mower! It was so neat to see her still (she actually stopped what she was doing), think and then look for the clapping monkeys that come on after a sound. She didn't notice sounds at any other levels, like 80 and 500 or even 90 and 500, but we are so happy with the small responses we saw. She was also very happy after hearing the noise!

We are still working on walking and becoming more controlled at stopping, turning around, and bending down to pick toys up. We also learned to dance without music by bouncing up and down while standing! Pretty cute.

Corrina is pretty sure that socks go on her hands now. Yes, that's our fault! I thought it would be cute to put them on her hands, and she really enjoyed it. Now when we are putting them on her little feet (which she just loves to help with!), she often offers us her little fist. These are daddies socks, which work even better. We were spending some time bouncing on the bed here and making Finaggin puppets!

Funny incident tonight: Dave was bathing Corrina, and I was in the living room reading for school. I could hear her swishing the water all over the place and moving up and down, throwing toys around and having fun! Then i heard a different type of noise and i thought to myself "She sure is grunting in the tub, hmmmmm!" A few minutes later i hear "Janie, Come here quickly" I jump up and go the bathroom, and dave says "She pooed in the tub!" But then he points to the cat food dish, where Corrina has flung her little poo! This situation is unavoidable in my opinion. I have been waiting for the day when she would poo in the tub! Dave, who has been looking elsewhere, thus missed the whole pooing part and hucking of the poo also says "I hope she didn't put it in her mouth first" We checked and her mouth was red and white, just as it should be with no brown! Later, as i was getting Corrie's Pj's on dave comes into the room and announces "I just scooped a kernel of corn out of the bathrtb (sad face)." Ha ha! So funny! When i told dave that i had heard some different grunts than normal while he was bathing her he was pretty annoyed that i didn't tell him. I said "Hey, you were right there i was pretty sure you were hearing them too, and SEEING what was going on!"

She's a moving

Just a quick video!


She can master about 7 steps now!

-j, d, c

In review

How can I put this week in review. I spent a great deal of time reading, and second runner up just playing with Corrina. We are still on information overload (there is a large stack on one side of our couch just waiting to be read. Lots of great info about ears and hearing i am sure, but my brain cannot take anymore), are feeling ridiculously busy, and we are trying to get to bed at decent hours, on the other hand Dave announced that he 'feels bored. Not like nothing to do bored, but like doing the same thing all the time bored.' "well, my dear," i replied "we don't have alot of extra time to do new things, so let's make the most of the time we do have together." "okay!" Hmmm, that was a little too easy! One great thing about being busy is that i don't have time for frivolous shopping, which also means that I am not bored and looking for something to fill my time with. Although i did fit a nice 'mall' time in this weekend with the gals!
Although Corrina is deaf, she is still a normal little one year old, just without the mimicking "No no no" being perpetually repeated after every question asked! Fun new things she likes to do: conducted anyone willing to watch, which includes both hands in the air, clapping, head touching, mouth hitting, pointing... Very cute. She also discovered the fun of ice cream buckets today in the bath tub. She has been working on standing on her own. We often find her just standing around with toys. She only lasts about 30 seconds, but her muscles will grow quickly. She has been taking what we call 'falling steps.' From standing she sorta falls forward and her feet sometimes follow for a few steps and other times she's on her knees pretty quickly. But, she is moving along, that's for sure
Here are a few little movies to show you just how fine she is doing.

A normal post?

It is sunday morning, although time is quickly moving into the afternoon. Dave, COrrie and i went down to our car this morning, unplugged it, buckled ourselves in, and turned the key to be greeted by an angry, frozen engine that would not start. Our block heater is broken (we did know about that, but somehow we thought that our car could handle the -48 weather). Corrina and i stayed home from church, and dave suited up in long johns and a two pairs of mittens and two toques and off her went! I am working on a school assignment today, a subjective assessment of my family of orgin; practice for future work with families. Interesting, stretching and actually hard. I am not very good at summarizing so i have a lot of cutting down to do tonight!
Corrina received these jeans (well the whole outfit) from our friend Pam a few months ago and now they fit perfectly. They are little baby levis and I LOVE EM! It is so adorable and i have been sucked into liking it when she looks like a little teenager!
So that is my normal, not talking about Corrina's hearing loss, post! I just needed to focus on something different for 5 minutes!
I will answer comments and thoughts soon (like how/when we started thinking that Corrina wasn't hearing), but not today.
I hope you are all staying warm if your province is as frozen as mine is!