Little Ears Update

Yesterday Sophie had another appointment with Miss Dena, her audiologist. PRAISE GOD that all of her results remain consistent with what they have always been. This is such wonderful news, mainly because Sophie's hearing loss isn't getting worse! Since we have no family history of hearing loss at birth, and we don't know what caused Sophie's loss, there was no way to anticipate what it meant in the future for her. A year-and-a-half of extremely consistent results is an amazing blessing!

I'll try to explain exactly what kind of hearing loss Sophie has. The picture below is of what's called a "speech banana" (you can see the letters on the graph - the speech sounds - fall in a rough banana-like shape... hence, the name "banana").

What this diagram is showing is where different sounds typically occur in our range of hearing. Sounds have high or low frequencies (the numbers listed across the top). Each frequency of sound can be delivered at a different level of decibels (the numbers listed along the left side) - this is how loud or soft that sound is.

As an example: if you look near the middle of the graph there's a piano. The graph shows that the piano is found at around 1,000 Hz (the frequency), but is delivered to our ears at about 80 decibels (dB) on average (the loudness).

When a child has hearing loss, the main concern is to make sure they develop their speech and language normally (because, of course, we learn those things by hearing them!). Sophie's hearing loss is categorized as borderline mild hearing loss. In both ears, Sophie hears all sounds at around the 20-25 dB range. I shaded this in red so you can see where it falls on the graph.

So, if you looks closely, most of the sounds of speech fall below where Sophie's loss is, and she should be able to hear them just fine. There are a few sounds, though, that fall right around the area of her loss, such as the "f, s, th, p" sounds. These sounds are typically not developed until a child is in elementary school, so we'll just keep watching and waiting to see if she acquires them on her own or needs some help.

In the meantime, there is a speech therapist coming to see Sophie about every 3 months to help me make sure that Soph continues to develop right where she should be for her age. So far, she always says Sophers is doing great. She asked me to keep a list of the words Sophie says, and it keeps expanding all the time! Of course, she doesn't say the words perfectly (many of them most people probably wouldn't recognize), but I was adding to her list today and realized that she has over 30 words that she uses! One of my current favorites is, "Amen," which sounds like "ah-neh." She loves to chime in at the end of prayers with this one (and sometimes in the middle if we're taking too long).

Our incredible God can take any situation and make it beautiful, and that is precisely what he's doing with our Sophie!

Halloween Sneak-A-Peek

Friday night brought our Family Fall Festival at church. All the kids dress up in costumes for it. If you know me and Ben, you know that an event such as this means we will inevitably don a costume as well. So, many of you have been asking what Sophie (and subsequently her mom and dad) was going to be for Halloween.

Therefore, may I introduce to you....

The Flinstones 2008!

Litte Miss Pebbles:


Sophie/Pebbles had a little friend from church who we convinced to be Bam Bam! We couldn't get a great picture of the two of them, but they were so cute!

"Fred" attempted, in all his assumed manliness, to hold the two kiddos on his shoulders. Obviously he was no match for Bam Bam's extraordinary strength.


There were lots of games for the kids to play.

Sophie, however, found her greatest entertainment from the cones that separated one game from another.

And this wonderful lady below is Miss Andrea. Andrea is a dear friend who generously made our Pebbles shirt and adorable bone-bow. She is also the one-and-the-same Andrea who makes most of Sophie's hairbows. I am trying to convince her to go into business.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN FROM THE FLINSTONE/TYSONS!

California Dreamin'

You can't help but hum a few "Beach Boys" tunes when you experience the gorgeous weather of San Diego before returning to the crisp, autumn weather of Kansas.

On Saturday in San Diego, we all took a trip to Coronado Island. It was the most beautiful beach I have been to in the United States (and I've been to a few). The sand was extremely fine and the water was a brilliant blue. Not to mention the high 70s- low 80s temperature... absolutely perfect!

Some of you might recall that Sophie and I went to the beach in Maryland with my parents this summer. We had a great time there, as well, but this time I was so glad for Sophie because she had her DaDa to play with. He's just much better at playing than Momma is!

The water was cold, so I didn't put Soph in her suit. I should've known better, though. It only took about 5 minutes for her shorts to get wet and she spent the rest of the time in her shirt and diaper!

Here is a plethora of pictures!

Sophie LOVED the sand! Even when her DaDa buried her in it, she just sat there and played as happy as can be:

Watching the birds with grandma:

Again, playing with DaDa:

Sisters!

The original Eroh kids (plus Sophie):

Our little fam:

I absolutely LOVE these last two pictures of Sophie and Ben. Watching those two together is the most amazing feeling in the world.

Our flight home on Sunday was quite delayed. We were supposed to take off from the San Diego airport at 6:20 a.m. Instead, we found ourselves finally leaving the ground at around 4 p.m. SO, that made for quite the long day in the airport. God was so good to us during that time! All of us stayed calm and patient, and Sophie was fantastic the whole day. She loved saying hi to all the people around us and was a hilarious little show-off. Even though she only took 2 small 25-minutes naps all day, she was happy and fun.

Here she is playing with a little girl in the airport who had some great stuffed animals.

And, of course, tuckered out!!

Needless to say, she slept very well that night after we finally made it back to Wichita at 10:00 p.m.

Private Jeremy Eroh

We made it back last night from San Diego. We had a wonderful time, and Jeremy is finally a true United States Marine! His stories about boot camp are amazing - about all the things he went through and had to accomplish in order to get to this point. Have I mentioned how proud I am of him?

Here are some pictures from his graduation. They are a little hard to see with him mixed in with his platoon, but I put red arrows on the pictures pointing to Jeremy.

This first pic is actually from the day before graduation, called Family Day. My mom, dad and sister made it on that day. Ben and I came the next day for the actual grad. Here he is getting ready to go on a run with his platoon. This was the first time my family got to see him.

The picture below was part of the graduation ceremony. Jeremy is marching with his platoon.

Here Jeremy and his platoon are in formation listening to the ceremony and awaiting their orders to be "released."

Here I am with Ben, Soph and Jeremy after the graduation ceremony.

Here is my handsome brother of the United States Marine Corps.

After his graduation, Jeremy was released to leave base for the first time in 14 weeks. We spent the rest of Friday and all day Saturday in San Diego enjoying the beautiful weather and scenery. It was fun to watch Jeremy wear his Marines t-shirt in public and get thanks from random people for serving our country.

Once again, I just have to praise our amazing God and Father for all He has done for Jeremy! Jeremy knows it is through God's strength that he's where he is today. How precious and humbling it is to serve such a good, powerful, life-giving God!

San Diego Bound

We're off to San Diego! We have waited for this moment for the last 13 weeks. My brother, Jeremy, is graduating from boot camp tomorrow and will finally be an official Marine!

Jeremy is in the picture below, but it's a low quality picture. He is the one in the middle. I will post better pictures as soon as we get back.

I'm so proud of Jeremy and the decision he made to join the Marine Corps. I'm also extremely thankful to the Lord for giving Jeremy the strength to make it through this long and trying time.

Please pray for our safe travels, and say some thanks to God for bringing Jeremy to this point!

Will we still sneak in at night to catch a glimpse of our angel when she's 5? 9? 14?

Tag, I'm It (And Now You Are, Too)

I was tagged by my sister, Katie. The rule is to post the 6th picture in the 6th file of your photos. This was mine, and it's odd that, just like Andrea, mine came up a Halloween picture from last year. Can you tell who Ben and Sophie are? I actually completed the costume, but unfortunately I wasn't included in the 6th picture.



Tag, you're it! I now tag:
Missy D
Donna H
Jessica C
Abbie H
Rachel P

Our Monkey and Her Monkeys

One of the books that Sophie currently gives rave reviews to is "Ten Little Monkeys." Here is a sweet video of her DaDa reading it to her. It's a short video, but there's one part where she "bumps her head" just like the monkey. I love it when she does this, because it's not something we taught her. She took us both by surprise when she did it the first time. It's so fun to watch her learn and grow!!

Ridiculous with the Stars

The Jive + 82-year-old Cloris Leachman = turn off the TV and do something worthwhile.



I am not a huge TV watcher. There are not many shows that I allow to waste my time or rot my brain (television is so filthy anymore!). Imagine my displeasure, then, when one of the few shows I do watch, Dancing with the Stars, continues to allow this woman to dance.

I know, I know. America keeps voting for her. Until this point I have, in general, kept my faith in the American public. I am starting to doubt my decision.

Woofstock

Yesterday we took Sophie and the doggies, Hurley and Brady, to Woofstock. Woofstock is a benefit put on by the Kansas Humane Society every year at one of Wichita's largest parks, Sedgwick County Park. They have many activities for your dogs, including a dog costume contest and owner-dog look-alike contest.

It was insane the number of people that came out to this thing. We had a great time and Sophie LOVED watching all the different doggies.

Soph was tuckered by the end of our trip, and although it was less than 10 minutes to get home, she was asleep before we arrived.

While we were there watching every type of breed and cross-breed of dog walk by, we couldn't help but laugh with our God at his creativity and sense of humor. Dogs are amazing and intelligent creatures, but there sure are some that are silly looking!!

Grow, baby, grow!

Come Sunday I will be 20 weeks - the halfway point in Teeny Tiny's growth journey. As you can see from the pictures, TT isn't so teeny anymore! I often look at this stomach and wonder, "How could you possibly grow for another 4.5 months?!"