We were driving home tonight and from the backseat we hear "I love pizza." Oh really? Miss Kat is actually a very picky eater so for her to request pizza would be quite unusual. She eats mostly fresh fruits and veggies and a few basic carbs. So, we followed up, "If you want some pizza, I'll get you some pizza right now!" To which we got this most appropriate and hilarious answer, "I want just cheese. NO KETCHUP UNDER THE CHEESE! Just cheese. If it is from the restaurant, I will like it. If it is cooked at home...YUCK!" Hmmmm, not a fan of the sauce then. (We actually already knew that since she orders pasta without sauce.)

Alright, Pizza Hut "Book-It" pizza will be ordered JUST CHEESE!

The original post.

So, we got a really cool note from Miss Kat's school on Friday. All the students in her school are going to be receiving FREE BIKES from a local charity! How awesome is that?! We will attend a special ceremony where they give each kiddo a bike, picked out just for them (based on gender, age, and height). Isn't that just really cool?!

This isn't the first time her school has had special perks either. She got the chance to meet some of the Harlem Globetrotters as well as special field trips and even free books for Miss Kat (and all the students, of course) during their literacy fair. Pretty cool!

Also, the other day we were walking out to the car and Miss Kat turned and looked at me, she said "Hey, I hear crickets." WOW! She not  only heard them, she knew what the sound was, and what animal was making it. Not too shabby.

We have a meeting next week with the audiologists, just to get a plan together for her MAPping. They attended a big cochlear implant conference over the summer and they want to make sure we have Miss Kat in the best possible MAPs. (And, actually, we have been having some trouble with her right side processor. We sent it in last week, and the new one came, but when we put it on this morning, it wouldn't connect. We tried switching out the headpiece, but that wasn't the problem. I guess we'll send it in again. Luckily she has a back up for both sides, so no "off air" time).

Also, within the next month or so we will have her next IEP meeting, since she met ALL the goals on her IEP from February. We need to write all new goals. Not just language and auditory skills, but all her academic areas as well. She did her state testing (same as hearing kids) and we got the results back just before school ended. We were very happy with the results. She moved up to the next "level" (her school is ungraded but the kids are grouped according to ability).

And finally, we are spending Labor Day at the amusement park!!! We are taking Miss Kat and one of her friends from school (well, technically she already graduated, so she is mainstreamed, but a former schoolmate) and are headed out to have some fun! Miss Kat is so excited!

I won't stop.

I have been wanting to write about something for a little while, but I have paused. I wanted to share something that happened, but I was afraid. I wanted to memorialize something cute that happened with Miss Kat, but I was worried about the reaction of some people. And you know what, I shouldn't. I shouldn't have to edit myself because some loud, angry people will call me names. Why should I care about the opinions of people that I don't even know, who don't know me, or my child? Why should their nastiness cause me to edit what I write? I am not writing this blog for them. This blog is not public so that they can twist my words against me, write posts of their own about me, saying I'm a...(insert offensive overblown term here).

These are members of a community that is supposed to welcome my family and my child. A community that claims to love my daughter and want nothing but the best for her...but, this angry, vocal minority seems to only want her success on THEIR terms. They don't want to accept that perhaps HER path, HER life will be different from theirs. They can not open their minds enough to see the future. They can not see past their hurt and pain to see what the world looks like to kids like Miss Kat. I totally get that there are still kids that are falling through the cracks. I swear I do! But, why does that mean that parents who ARE involved, who ARE making sure their children have language, communicate well, attend good schools, have friends...THRIVE are still getting attacked.

I just don't understand how this helps your cause. How is this turning more families towards ASL? How is this showing the benefits of early language in deaf kids? How is this helping to build better Deaf schools? Raise test scores? Improve literacy? How does hurting parent EVER help deaf kids? I don't know, and frankly, I'm really done caring. Write hurtful comments. Make blog after blog "calling me out". Call me an audist, say I'm obsessed with my daughter's ears, tell me that I'm a Nazi, that I'm killing her spirit. I am done. I KNOW you are wrong. I see my daughter every day. I see the joy when she skips to the front door of her school every morning, and how every afternoon we have to coax her to come home. I see her playing with her friends, I see her giving her teacher, principal and speech therapist big hugs. She tells me that she is happy. Why should I believe you over my child?

I have been advised to make my blog private. They say that it will stop the harrassment. But you know what? I don't want that. I don't want to hide. I want other parents to get support from us and the things we have been through. There aren't very many blogs about kids who have ever used ASL, and there certainly aren't many about late implanted kids. I LOVE reading about other kids, and I know that it helps when I feel down, to see that there are other dedicated, loving parents out there, helping their kids conquer the world. I hope that is what I am to other families. And if I go private, no new families will ever get that chance. So, here we are. I'm not going to stop, and I assume neither will you.

So, good luck, and have a nice life.