Happy New EAR!

  This morning was College Sunday at our church. The college students all come home and lead the worship service. After the service, I went and got E from the nursery and brought him into the worship space. The college students were still on the stage playing music as everyone left. My husband took E and allowed him to go up on stage and see all the instruments. I was chatting with a friend and looked up to see my little boy standing in front of a guitarist, DANCING!!! It was clear that he not only FELT the music, but that he HEARD it too! I suddenly found myself grinning with tears rolling down my face. I am not a crier. Anyone that knows me will tell you that I do not do the tears thing. I am an ugly crier and I always get a headache after, so I have trained myself well to avoid "emotional leakage." The sight of my little boy happily tottering and dancing to the music caught me off guard and a flood of things I have held back over the past year broke through. Afterward, the drummer let E sit on his lap and play the drums. E is surprisingly well coordinated for a toddler and used the drumsticks to test out the various sounds. He seemed to like the cymbals best.

  I just can't describe the feeling of seeing everything we have worked toward for the past nine months manifest in a moment of dancing. It was like digging a tunnel and suddenly breaking through into the fresh air. You all know that getting the CI for us was NEVER about trying to change our baby. We only wanted to give him all the tools and opportunities we could give. My husband and I have always been music lovers and to have my son use his CI to get such obvious enjoyment of music after having it for such a short time was a very unexpected surprise for me. He had started dancing to the "Hot Dog Dance" on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, but we were unsure if he was dancing because of the music or if he was mimicking the characters dancing on the screen. There were no other people dancing on that stage today. It was clearly the music. I am so excited to share with you all that my new year started off with tears of delight! Happy New EAR to you all!