Yay for "Tom & Jerry"!

  E has an appointment Wednesday for his sedated testing. We should hopefully have much more information after this test. We were told that E cannot have anything to eat 6 hours prior to the procedure. He can have clear liquids until 4 hours prior. SERIOUSLY?! He is going to be one SUPER hungry baby!!! I am not at all happy with the idea of having to sedate my little guy, but I know that it is the only way to get the most accurate information.

  We went to South Carolina this past weekend to spend time with our family and celebrate the 40th wedding anniversary of my husband's parents. E was fabulous. He was such a wonderful baby all weekend. He charmed everyone as usual. He flirted with the hostess at Olive Garden and completely stole her heart. He was every bit the star wherever we went :-)

  We took the opportunity during our traveling time in the car to study up a bit on ASL as well as deaf and HOH (hard of hearing) culture. There is much more to learning ASL than just the signs. I do not yet know how E will be medically classified. When I try to explain our situation to others, I would typically say that E has been diagnosed with "hearing impairment".  You should know that it is not a term that is well received within the Deaf and HOH community. The reason I used it is that it is hard to convey the proper connotations to a hearing person when you say "deaf" or "hard of hearing". People hear the word, "deaf" and think that someone is totally absent of hearing. This is not true. Many deaf people do hear sound. The level, tone, and understanding of that sound varies, but they do register sounds. "Hard of hearing" seems to make people think of an elderly person that hears, but just needs to turn up the volume on the TV. This is also a common misconception. When I tell people that my son has "significant hearing loss," they ask me when he lost it. This term does not mean that he used to hear fine and now he does not. He did not necessary have hearing and then LOSE it, but rather may have never had it. I have started reading a few blogs written by other parents of children with hearing loss. We are certainly becoming much more informed both medically and culturally. I have always tried to be very aware and informed, but have been surprised already at just how much I did not know or understand.

  Check out this link that includes several good blog posts written from an HOH perspective. I especially love the one titled, "It's Clarity, not Volume that Matters."
http://www.ehwhathuh.com/2011/03/communicating-with-deaf-hard-of-hearing.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+EhWhatHuh+%28Eh%3F+What%3F+Huh%3F%29&utm_content=Bloglines

  In trying to take a closer look at cartoons from my son's perspective, I have been surprised to find that sometimes, it really is the oldies that are the goodies. "Tom & Jerry" is fantastic! In the older episodes on Boomerang network, Tom and Jerry do not talk. Everything is conveyed through movement, facial expression, and context. Music plays in the background, but there is no need to hear the music or to read captions to follow the story line. It is quite perfect in its simplicity! Muppets on the other hand are really frustrating. With facial expressions that do not change and "mouths" that do nothing but open and close, they are quite useless without sound. Just for kicks, take about 10 minutes and flip through the channels with your TV on mute. Are you surprised to find what shows are still interesting and which ones totally lose your interest?