Ellis Island

My blog, resting in peace.
Ellis Island My blog, resting in peace. Nov 25, 2012 No offense to grandma. I've decided to close an era. I'm archiving this blog. After 10 years, it just feels...big. We will still have access to it. Just not for comments, etc. Probably nothing will really happen until after we move into the new house, because i need hubby to do it. BUT I'm not abandoning blogging...
Sun, Nov 25 2012

My Grandma, resting in peace
Ellis Island My Grandma, resting in peace Nov 23, 2012 My Grandma died last Saturday. I was able to make it in time to be with her. We had her memorial service today. This is what I wrote to read, which I somehow managed to do, though I was choked up before I could even start: When I was 7yo, I started going down to visit my Grandma for two weeks every summer. She...
Fri, Nov 23 2012

Some trip pics
Ellis Island I already mentioned my trip to Boston last week. And I feel that any major trip that I take alone with the boys is worthy of dwelling upon for any length of time. So here are some pics. First of all, you have to know something about me, I obsess over maps and ways to get places. So we've been going to Maine in the summer for the past four years. And this whole time I'...
Tue, Apr 26 2011

And proud of it!
Ellis Island When we moved to this city block last October I debated whether or not to get a deaf kid sign. I kind of decided against it. For one, I didn't think it would make any difference. People would speed regardless. For another, we've taught Ellis basic street safety. He's a cautious kid and takes pretty good care of himself. Besides, I'm usually with him when he's out fron...
Thu, Aug 12 2010

deaf and music
Ellis Island This post has two parts. Part the First: wherein encounters with the public library lead to benefits beyond my wildest dreams. I am attempting to renew our overdue relationship with the public library. (heh, heh.) The public library and I have a rocky relationship that is based on fines. When we moved to this house last fall we changed counties from the 'burbs to the ...
Wed, Aug 11 2010

Parent panel
Ellis Island Today Chris and I were on our first parent panel. We were asked to come to a regional meeting that the State Dept of Ed sponsors for those who are service providers for children with hearing loss. There were people in the room from all over eastern Pennsylvania. Also on the panel was another mother of a kid from PSD; her daughter was in E's class last year. And a moth...
Thu, Jun 24 2010

Interpretation
Ellis Island In a week, Ellis will begin his first experience having a personal ASL interpreter in a hearing setting. He will just barely five years old. He has been in great situations thus far. At school, he has full access to communication, because he goes to a Deaf school. At home, we do our best to also provide as full access as we can. And we, his parents, bridge the gap as ...
Mon, Jun 14 2010

"Where did you find him?": God and ASL (Part 3)
Ellis Island So why three parts? Because I had more thoughts than I had time at a time to write. And because what I wanted to say falls roughly into three points: background, what's going on now, and the obligatory abstract reflections. Incidentally, this is Christopher writing. I'm pretty sure we've said this stuff before. Anyway, it won't be news to anyone who follows us that bi...
Wed, May 26 2010

"Where did you find him?": God and ASL (Part 2)
Ellis Island In a previous post I talked about our difficulties finding an interpreter for church, and I mentioned some of the reasons why we think it's important to have one. Let me just say: thank God for the men in our church. Here's why. We recently changed churches. When we moved from the 'burbs to the city we were much closer to another church in the same denomination. So i...
Sat, May 22 2010

"Where did you find him?": God and ASL (Part 1)
Ellis Island Amid all the searching and learning we've done since we discovered Ellis was deaf, the biggest issue for us, the elephant in the room, always was what to do about church. Anyone who knows us well knows that we take church very seriously. J and my own experiences growing up in the church were typical of what we call "covenant children". We believe that our children are...
Sat, May 22 2010

good news
Ellis Island I guess I spoke to soon. I made some inquiries about including ASL in Ellis's IEP evals, thinking that it had been overlooked. Or just didn't really exist. When we were preparing his 3yo transition to preschool evals, my understanding was that there were not official rubrics for evaluating ASL for an IEP (which seemed weird to me). Maybe it was my county at the time, ...
Thu, Jan 28 2010

that time of year
Ellis Island 'Tis the season for IEPs. And Ellis is getting ready to transition to kindergarten next year. No, that is not my baby going to kindergarten!! Part of the process is evaluations. I was pleased about many aspects of the evaluation results, especially his reading readiness. I was also pleased to read that one evaluator noted that "one should not assume that just because...
Wed, Jan 27 2010

meeting other parents
Ellis Island This evening Ellis and I went over to school for the first ever meeting of the CI Parent Support group. The CI Coordinator and I had been talking about this last fall, so I said I'd make soup, because it was either that or, um, pizza. No offense about the pizza, but soup was better. I made a pot of chili and a pot of vegetarian Indian red lentil dal. Around six famili...
Wed, Jan 27 2010

December 23
Ellis Island We all have them. The ornaments we made in school when we were little kids. I think mine was made of pipe cleaners and beads; it was supposed to be a wreath. Ellis came home with probably the best school ornament ever. The ILY glove--a little handing signing "i love you." Yes, it is proudly displayed on my tree! Bookmark/Search this post with: Email this post...
Wed, Dec 23 2009

Parenting a Deaf Kid as a Hearing Parent: Four Years In
Ellis Island Ellis runs ahead of me in all his four-year-old boy vivacity. As I lumber along with the baby on my back, lugging our little bag full of snacks and water bottles, I watch him, waiting for the moment, just before he disappears around the corner, when he'll turn around and make eye contact. I wave him down signing WAIT FOR MOMMY! but he's already plopped down on the par...
Mon, Sep 14 2009

First Day of School
Ellis Island Yesterday was the first day of the new school year for Ellis. Since we've been involved with school since his first year (early intervention), it seems old hat to us now, even though he is only four. But he moves up to a new classroom. He's in the class with the kids with the most auditory access. And yesterday he came home signing so much. I think we all missed scho...
Wed, Sep 09 2009

Two Years!
Ellis Island Yesterday we went down to the children's hospital (CHOP) again for Ellis's two year evaluation and mapping. Today marks two years since his activation of his cochlear implant. He wears a Cochlear Freedom on his right ear. Ellis is interesting. I think we all expected him to really get into his implant, but he hasn't so much. He's not an auditorally-inclined person. I...
Tue, Aug 04 2009

Two Years!
Ellis Island Yesterday we went down to the children's hospital (CHOP) again for Ellis's two year evaluation and mapping. Today marks two years since his activation of his cochlear implant. He wears a Cochlear Freedom on his right ear. Ellis is interesting. I think we all expected him to really get into his implant, but he hasn't so much. He's not an auditorally-inclined person. I...
Fri, Jul 24 2009

Finding a religious interpreter
Ellis Island It's amazing. Simply amazing. We've been agonizing over how to find an interpreter for our church services. Having made no progress, we turned the project over to Mom, and within a few weeks she has made more progress than we've made in many months. The background: we finally convinced the session at our church to hire an interpreter. I say "finally," not to say that ...
Fri, Jul 24 2009

Birthday Bashing
Ellis Island Ellis's birthday was yesterday, but basically he's been celebrating his birthday for the past three weeks. I explained to him that first, it was Marlowe's birthday, then his, then Daddy's (whose bday is in a couple of weeks). As soon as M's birthday was over three weeks ago (they are exactly three weeks apart), it has been E's birthday. This past weekend was the real ...
Tue, Jun 16 2009

the end of an era and some reflections
Ellis Island A couple weeks ago we had our last speech therapy session at the children's hospital. We have been going every week since Ellis's CI was activated 21 months ago. He does get speech therapy, both group and privately, in school, but we had been going to CHOP for a little extra. It was also nice to have his therapist's input on his development, since she has more CI expe...
Wed, Apr 22 2009

mapping on a snow day
Ellis Island Yesterday was such a dreary day! We woke up to a blanket of snow that eventually got soaked with rain, becoming a wretched blanket of slush. Since our weather was somewhere between snow and ice, I took Ellis to his audiology appointment via regional rail instead of driving. He was absolutely thrilled to be able to ride the train and said "choo! choo!" the whole way th...
Mon, Feb 02 2009

spelling, counting, and politics
Ellis Island I've gotten some fun movies of Ellis recently. These are taken roughly around eighteen moths post CI activation. In the first, Ellis is fingerspelling the title to his bedtime story--and saying the letters as best he can (though he's not wearing his CI in this one, because he's going to bed). He loves to spell out the title of the books before we read them. Bedtime s...
Mon, Feb 02 2009