Hearing: still not out of the woods

We were back at the ENT hospital today for yet another hearing checkup for Charlotte. While I am wholly grateful to the NHS for the first class treatment we have been getting for free, the waiting times each time we attend a clinic are phenomenal. But today it was pretty good: in and out in less than 2 hours. But no discharge yet.

Charlotte still has some mild hearing loss. In reality, she is probably no worse off than many children her age but because we got into the system, they can't discharge us in good conscience until she is testing normally. Today's tests went particularly badly: it was nap time, she was crying and carrying on too much to hear the sounds and hated having headphone-type sensors put in her ears. But we got the best results yet so hopefully next time, with more co-operation from her, she will get a good score.

Blog post

I wanted to share this blog post about mothering a disabled child. It sums up my feelings very well.

Famous navigators

Christopher Columbus, Ferdinand Magellan, James Cook? Oh no, my little Charlie is the best of them all!

Without her, Granny wouldn't have found her way to pick Emily up from school. She was heading into the completely wrong classroom and Charlotte grabbed her hand and started pointing and pulling her into the right room. Granny had no idea why she was making such a fuss but was so proud of her for being such an expert navigator. Not bad for a toddler!

Little rocker

Charlotte went to her first concert today. As I suspected, she rocked out!

Aside from the typical naughtiness expected from the under twos in public, she seemed to really enjoy herself. She danced along, looked at the lights, enjoyed the darkened surroundings and was generally an exemplary concert participant. I thought she would enjoy it because even in Starbucks, she bops in her seat to the music!

It was pretty clear she couldn't see the stage and was probably completely unaware that there were people on it but even Emily had difficulty grasping the concept of a live performance. Maybe binoculars would help her in the future, but, hey, who can see properly at a live performance?

Who did we see? The Wiggles!

Achromatopsia playdate

This week Charlotte had her annual get together with her little friend Harvey. We can only do this during school holidays because they don't live very close to us but it was worth the trip. It is so nice to get together with people who are having the same experience as us and even if Charlotte and Harvey have nothing in common as they grow up, hopefully it will be a comfort to each of them to know that there are others in the world like themselves. Plus, it is fab to go to someone's house where they also keep the curtains closed!