Man in Tights, Family Pics and a Wedding

Brandon and I were asked if we would dance in our ward play in November. I said yes and so that meant that Brandon had to dance with me. Brandon was such a good sport about it, he even asked if he could wear tights! We were the evil, worldly castle dwellers who ate, drank and were merry! I know the picture is blurry but it is because the lighting wasn't very good in the church gym.I've wanted to get some family pictures done for a really long time so I asked our friends Jeniece and Taylor if they would take them for us. Thanks Taylor and Jeniece!

Last Saturday my sister Victoria got married! She was such a beautiful bride and had such a handsome groom. Congrats Victoria and Matt!

Sometimes don't you just want to...

I just had to post this picture because I love it! I wanted to take a few pictures of Zeke while it was still warm a couple of weeks ago and he just was not in a happy mood. I took his binky out of his mouth and started capturing the moment! This is totally how I feel today because I woke up to snow. I am not ready for snow it is still fall, I love fall and am not ready for it to be over. I love snow but only for a little while and I am not ready for snow yet.

Anyway, nothing much has happened around here lately except Zeke said his first word last week! I was in the kitchen and something dropped on the floor and Zeke put his hands on his cheeks and said "UH-OH" He now says it for everything.

Halloween!

Zeke loves watching Pingu. We found it on Netflix and he has been hooked! Pingu was the inspiration for Zeke's costume this year. At first Zeke hated the costume because it had the hood, but after we would put it on we would let him watch Pingu and he realized that it was him. After I put the eyes on his costume he really liked his costume and didn't want to take it off. The way I made the feet on the costume made it look like he was really waddling like a little penguin. It was kind of an optical illusion!

Skateboarding Pingu!

Taking a rest while Trick-or-Treating! He loved it!

Eating the Oreo's he scored!


We had such a fun Halloween! Zeke loved the whole thing. He loved going door to door and would usually sign candy when people came to the door. He loved it!

It's been a while!

Life just seems to go way to fast! I haven't updated our blog in a very long time so here it goes!

Zeke is doing very well with his Cochlear Implant. He babbles a ton and can repeat all of the ling sounds except for the 'sss' and 'shhh'. He had another mapping appointment and we were able to do some testing. In the higher frequencies he got some responses at 20-25 dB and the middle range frequencies he responded about 30 dB which is excellent! We are very happy with the results he has had so far.

For Labor Day Weekend we went to Bear Lake for a day. It is always fun to get a way. Zeke loves the sand and the water! He loved to find big rocks and throw them back into the water and watch them splash. (Told you it has been a long time since I have updated the blog!)

Zeke is now officially in a Toddler bed. I was so paranoid he would fall out of his crib. He would try to climb out every morning and one morning he actually did fall out. He loves being in his bed, at first he wasn't sure about it but he really enjoys the freedom of being able to get in and out by himself. For naps it is a little more difficult because he use to take a 3-4 hour nap but now it is only a 2 hour nap. He doesn't go down for a nap as easily and he will usually end up playing in his room for a good while then fall asleep on the floor.

A couple of weeks ago we went to the Elephant parade that they have at the Gateway whenever the Circus comes to town. Zeke loved watching the Elephants and the Circus people, he never took his eyes off the parade.
I loved how the elephants all held the elephant's tail in front of them! It was so cute and if they let go they would hurry and find it again.


Zeke kept signing elephant when they were going by, he loved them.Watching the Elephants!

Watching the last of the parade. When it was done he kept signing that he wanted more!

My Silly Little Monkey!

Zeke is one silly little boy! Lately he has been really into puckering his lips out for kisses and his cute monkey face. Adorable!

He is also into his cheesy grin, which I absolutely adore! He is so funny and he moves the bottom part of his jaw to the side so his cheesy grin is crooked!

He thought it was funny that he didn't slurp the noodle all the way up. He was very proud of his dangling noodle!

Another mapping!

Zeke got another mapping last week and we have seen big improvements! He can now hear softer noises better and he is babbling even more then before. While getting mapped we had the audiologist look in Zeke's ear to see if he had an ear infection because he has been knocking off his head piece. There was definitely something in his ear so we scheduled an appointment with Zeke's ENT the next day. The ENT looked in Zeke's ear with the microscope and discovered that there was something large blocking his tube. I had to pin Zeke to the big chair by holding his arms and legs while a nurse held his head and the Dr. pulled out a very large piece of dry blood. Since Zeke has tubes in his ears after the surgery the blood drained out of the tubes and some of it just dried up in there. It was pretty gross and it was pretty big, I couldn't believe how big it was. No wonder his little ear was bothering him! He is now keeping his implant on! Yay!

Temple Open house, Aunt Mandi, and hats!

Last weekend we had the opportunity to go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple Open House! It was beautiful. This is the best family picture at the temple we could get. Zeke wanted to play in the fountain and run around. Mandi, Brandon's sister who lives in Virginia came to visit last week. We loved seeing her and loved that Zeke could get to know her a little better. Mandi is pregnant so we were teaching Zeke that the baby was in here tummy. We would sign where's the baby and Zeke would point to her stomach. One time when we asked him, he signed that the baby was stuck! It was darling.

Aunt Mandi and Zeke. (Zeke had an itch or was signing something)

My little boy is now 18 months old and goes to nursery! I can't believe it. He was so happy to go into nursery because he had been eyeing those toys for the last couple of months. They didn't even have to come and get Brandon and I at all the entire 2 hours.

This is Uncle Macy's hat, Macy is Brandon's brother who is serving a mission in Peru. Zeke saw it and wanted to wear it. He loved taking pictures with it on. It is funny now when I get the camera out he will usually smile pretty big and want his pictures taken.

I love this picture he looked at me and gave me this look with mischievous written all over it.

Last pictures! Just look at those curls! I am lovin' those curly things on his head.

I guess before I finish I should give an update on Zeke's progress. Ever since last night Zeke has not wanted to wear his implant. He knocks it off with his hand or bumps his head on something to get it off. He is being a stinker about keeping it on. He gets mad every time I put it on and it is just a fight. I have even tried turning it down but it doesn't matter, he won't even wear it when it is turned off. I hope this is just a phase of learning what his implant is for and what it does. Any mothers with children with implants did they go through the same thing?

Other then that he is doing amazing! He babbles up a storm now. He has now repeated the ling sounds "ahh" "mmmm" and "eee" He is doing so good. He is recognizing different noises all the time and is getting very loud. He just talks/babbles every moment he can, and we are loving every moment of it!

Zeke said "ah"

It has been just over 2 weeks since Zeke's activation and he is doing so well. At Speech therapy this week we were going over the ling sounds, ling sounds are: ah, oo, ee, ss, sh, and mm. With each ling sound there is usually an object that goes with it. Ah happens to be an airplane, Zeke's favorite. The therapist started to do ahhhh with the airplane and Zeke looked at her and said ah. He did it 2 times. I know it is just ah, but it is amazing! My jaw dropped when he said ah! He has never copied us before because his hearing aids did nothing for him. Later the therapist had a car and was doing Raspberry's/motorboat sounds. Zeke looked up at her and pushed out his lips trying to copy her. Now if we do Raspberry's without him looking he will usually push out his lips and look at us. I think it is amazing that when he hears it he knows what to do without having to look at us. It is so cute. I am amazed and so grateful for his implant!

A week of hearing!

I have gotten a lot of requests to post about Zeke's activation. I am a total slacker and have been so busy! Zeke is doing so great and is adjusting great. When the Audiologist first turned on the CI he tapped his ring on the desk and Zeke gave him this look that was priceless. You could just see his little brain working wondering what that strange noise was. He kept looking at the Audiologist when he would tap his ring. When he turned it up louder we got more of a reaction, he started to cry. He didn't do too bad with the noise though and he calmed down pretty quickly with his binky. I will post the video once we get it edited and I figure out how to do it. It was so amazing and such a blessing.

That first day of hearing was a lot for Zeke and he slept really well that night. The first couple of days Zeke would kind of whine when we turned the Implant on, but now when he sees it he points to his ear wanting it on. When it falls off he usually tries to put it back on his head. It is awesome how quickly he learned how much he likes it and how much he likes to hear.
This picture was in the hotel after his first long day of hearing. He was running around the room and then just stopped and layed down on the floor!

Popcorn Please!

Zeke loves PopCoRn! Whenever he wants popcorn he goes to the cupboard and grabs the popcorn bowl and signs popcorn. This time when he wanted popcorn he did this cute thing where he moved his entire upper body side to side while signing popcorn. It was so cute. After he gets the bowl he goes to the pantry and waits for me to grab a bag of popcorn and after I put it into the microwave he sits on the floor with the bowl between his legs signing popcorn with his entire body moving. He is such a smart little guy.

Lately he has been putting 2 signs together which is very impressive for a 16 month old. He saw his goldfish crackers and signed fish then cracker. He also does please and thank you and more after some words. It is darling and I just love how he tries to figure out how to use his little hands. It is amazing to me. If I teach him a sign he will usually try and do it right away.

Zeke's new favorite thing to do is watch the movie Bolt. He will sit with a bowl of cereal and just eat and watch the movie. When he gets activated with his implant it will be interesting to see if he still likes watching it. He might like it even more then he does now. In 2 weeks he will have sound! We are so excited but so nervous to how he will react to it. I have heard of many kids throwing tantrums, shaking because they were scared and some just very silent. It will be interesting to watch our baby boy hear for the first time.

Zeke also has a fun little game that he loves to play. I will hide is binky or another object and sign where and binky. He loves looking for it. Now when I go to get him in the morning he will hide his binky under his blanket in the crib and sign where and binky. It is so adorable. One day I was driving to my mom's and we usually see horses on our way and I always sign horse and point to them so Zeke will see them. This one day he saw the horses first and he signed horse and then where. He was asking me if I knew where the horses were!

Recovery!

I can't believe it has been over a week since surgery! Zeke is doing excellent. He is back to his normal funny, busy self. I have been so paranoid that he would hit his head because he is so busy and is such a little dare devil. He is constantly climbing on the chairs to get onto the table and other dangerous things like walking down the stairs. He thinks he is a big boy and can just walk down the stairs without holding on and he actually did take a tumble down 1 stair and hit his head a little, but he is fine, thank goodness. I am constantly chasing him around because I don't want him to get hurt. I am just so grateful that the recovery has been so fast and that he is doing well!

These pictures were actually taken before surgery, but I thought they were cute. I have these crocheted flowers that I got at Ikea that I was going to embellish a pillow or something with. Zeke thinks that they are hats and whenever he sees them he puts them on like a hat. He thinks it is so funny and he concentrates very hard to try and put them all on at the same time.

Surgery

Zeke had his surgery on Friday. He was scheduled to be at the hospital at 1:30 p.m. and into surgery by 2:00. We got a call that morning and they told us that the Dr. was behind schedule and we needed to be there at 2:30 instead. Zeke wasn't allowed to eat anything after midnight except for apple juice, water or pedialyte until 1:00 p.m. Poor little guy was starving. We got to the hospital around 2:15 checked in and waited until the nurse called us back. Finally around 2:45 the nurse called us back checked Zeke's vitals and gave him a gown to change into. She said surgery was scheduled for 3:00. We went into the 2nd pre-op waiting room where they had a lot of toys for the kids to play with. We waited in there for 2 hours because the Dr. was so far behind. Zeke was such a little trooper. He only complained and whined a few times when he saw my diaper bag and he would sign milk. We pushed him around in the hall in the little cars for a little while to try and pass time. At 5:00 PM the anesthesiologist came to get us and walk us down the hall to the doors where we would say our goodbyes and give hugs and kisses. Zeke went with no problem to the stranger. Brandon and I went to eat after they took Zeke. I was starving because I pretty much fasted along with Zeke because at home if he saw me with food he got pretty upset and wanted it. I don't think I have ever shoved food down my face as fast as I did. I was starving and I was an emotional wreck! In the waiting room we watched America's Funniest Home Videos which helped the time to fly by.

Around 7:00 I was reunited with my sweet little man. He had just woken up to strangers and was sitting in his crib crying. When I got there he stopped crying and reached his arms to me. He quickly fell asleep in my arms. He pretty much slept for the rest of the night, waking up for pain medicine. We had to stay over night in the hospital because he is under 2. They brought in a bed for us to sleep on which was only big enough for 1 person to sleep on so Brandon let me. He slept in the uncomfortable hospital beds that pull out to a bed. I slept so well, I think because I was so exhausted emotionally and physically. In the morning the Dr. checked on Zeke and said he was doing great. Zeke just had to keep some food in his stomach since he hadn't eaten anything and the anesthesia makes him nauseous. He drank 9 oz. of milk in like 5 minutes. He kept it down, but we had to wait for the Resident to bring Zeke's Rx since the surgeon forgot to give them to us at the pre-op apointment.
When we got home Zeke went straight upstairs to our bedroom and kept signing that he wanted to watch signing time. I made some pancakes, Strawberries and String cheese for Zeke to eat and he was so happy to eat it. He was starving for food and not just liquid or milk. While he ate he had his eyes glued on the computer watching signing time. He slept a lot of the rest of the day and slept really well that night. He has been really good not to try and pull off the tape, but he loves to stick his fingers in his ears. Because of the tubes in his ears they drain blood so we try to keep a cotton ball in his ear but he always pulls it out.

I am so grateful for all of the prayers and fasting for my Zeke and I am grateful everything went so well! Thank you everyone. Zeke will be activated on July 8 and July 9! We are so excited for him to hear. It will be quite the adventure.

June 5th!

Zeke is scheduled and ready to go for June 5th. He is getting his cochlear implant and we are so excited. Our insurance approved and gave authorization for his implant. We are thrilled they are covering it. After he gets it we will see if our insurance will cover the second one. We talked to a family who has our same insurance and they said they would cover 2. We are crossing our fingers!

I don't really have any funny or cute recent pictures to post, but while I was looking through pictures I came across this one. When we first moved into our house the floors upstairs weren't done so our bed and Zeke's crib were all in the family room. One morning I was extremely tired and Zeke woke up so I told Brandon to watch him for a little while and to change his stinky bum. Brandon said he would but he didn't want to put a diaper back on him. While Zeke wandered into the kitchen I told Brandon that I hope he would pee somewhere. The dishwasher was a little bit open so Zeke decided to open it all the way and stand on it. He loves the dishwasher! Well it turns out that he did pee and it was while he was standing on the dishwasher. Zeke thought it was pretty funny, so did I. Brandon was the lucky winner and got to clean up the mess!

I can't believe it's been a year!

It's been just over a year since we found out the degree of Zeke's hearing loss. It was on my birthday last year that we had an appointment with Zeke's ENT and Audiologist for them to go over Zeke's ABR test with us. I remember them telling me that he had Severe to Profound hearing loss but closer to Profound hearing loss, I just wanted to go and hide somewhere and cry my eyes out. I remember thinking why Zeke, why did this happen to us. Why was he deaf? It was very hard to understand all of this and be told my child is deaf. I had no idea what we were going to do. No one in our family had hearing loss.

I thought to myself over and over that I couldn't handle something like this. I was a brand new mom and thought everything would be perfect with my little angel, just like my friends and their babies. Looking back to last year I have realized that I am able to handle something like this even though it is extremely hard. The Lord wouldn't give me something that I couldn't handle and overcome. Having a deaf child is not easy, it is very hard. It was especially hard when I would see other babies who were Zeke's age and they were saying mamama and dadada. I remember thinking and being so sad that he wouldn't be able to say mom and babble like other little babies. It made me sad to think that he wouldn't be able to hear me sing him to sleep.

I am so excited for him to be able to get his implant, but I am so nervous and scared. I know that with his Implant he will be able to hear and say things, but not without a lot of work and speech therapy and learning to listen exercises. I am excited for him and I am excited to see his face when he hears for the first time. I am so amazed at the techonology there is to give deaf children the opportunity to hear. What a blessing.

I was sad when we found out about Zeke's hearing, but I have realized that I cannot be sad about it. Being sad makes it so much worse. I couldn't have stopped this from happening, this is how Zeke came to our family and he was given to us for us to help him. I am so happy! I am happy that I have a healthy boy and I am happy that he is such a happy little guy. I am happy that I am able to teach him ASL and that he learns quickly. I am happy to be his mom and to know that the Lord trusts me to be Zeke's mom.

We had the opportunity this past weekend to go to PIP deaf camp for Zeke. It was so wonderful. Zeke got to play all day while Brandon and I and some of my family members listened to different perspectives of people who were deaf or hard of hearing. Justin Osmond spoke first and he did such a beautiful job. He is Merril Osmond's son and he is hard of hearing. He has 7 or 8 other family members who are deaf or hard of hearing but he is the only one in the second generation. He plays the violin and plays it beautifully, he is very succesful with work. He works for a company called Starkey...something can't remember...they go around the world giving hearing aids to children and adults who have never had the opportunity to hear. We also got to listen to a panel of people who are deaf or hard of hearing and could ask them questions. It was very neat and informative.

I really enjoyed everything about PIP camp and can't wait to go next year. It was such an emotional day for me because it brought back so many memories from a year ago.

I loved being able to talk to other mothers about their story with hearing loss in their children. I was able to ask them questions about things I was maybe unsure about. I also was able to make friends with mom's at the camp and I am excited to have play dates with them and their children.

I better stop before this post becomes a novel. Here are some fun, cute pictures I took of Zeke last week. Next to my mom and dad's lot there is an empty lot with grass everywhere. I thought it would be fun to take some fun pictures of my little guy. He is so photogenic and cute! Enjoy!

This is his "UH-OH" or "OH-NO" face!
Peek-a-boo!

He is signing drink. I guess he was thirsty and he thought he could get water out of the old spicket.

He loved sliding down the big hill of grass.

Smelling the flowers...uh, weeds.

I am a bad blogger!

We have been pretty busy here at the Butterfield household. I am going to try and update more regularly about what is going on in our little corner of the world. I just feel like blogging is the last thing I have time for in our busy lives. I also know I still need to post pictures of our house, but to be honest we are not all settled and unpacked. I just got Zeke's room all done so I will take pictures soon. Unpacking is not my favorite thing right now!

Anyway, Zeke got his tubes in his ears about 3 weeks ago and he did really well with the surgery and has recovered just great. It did not however change his hearing. Maybe a tiny bit, but not enough to matter.

So...we ordered his Cochlear Implant and all the colors for the implant and we are now just waiting on our insurance. If things go as planned, Zeke will be getting the implant on June 5! I am so extremely nervous, excited and scared, but this is what we want for Zeke. We want to let him have the opportunity to hear and be able to get speech so he can communicate with all our family and friends. I am so amazed with the technology we have these days, it is absolutely amazing.

I know that once he gets the implant he won't hear right away and be able to speak right away, there is a lot of work involved. We will be very busy helping Zeke learn to listen and identify different sounds.

I am excited to take this new journey with Zeke and teach him more and work with him constantly, he is so smart. He already makes it very easy for me to teach him ASL. He picks up on things very quickly, I mean, he already knows over 40 signs and uses them and understands all the signs he knows. He always tells me what he wants, whether he wants something to eat, what he wants to eat like ice cream or candy, if he wants to go outside, go in the car and even go in general. In church on Sunday during Sunday school we were out in the hall and he kept signing 'go' and walking towards the door. He had enough church for the day and was ready for his nap. He tells me when he is all done, when he wants a bath, when he gets hurt, when he wants to watch signing time and even when he wants to color. I feel like he throws less tantrums because he can tell me what he needs or wants. I will definitely teach all of my children to sign even if they are not deaf.

Here is a picture of what Zeke will have once he gets activated with the implant. This is the bodyworn processor, he will only wear this one for a little while until Advanced Bionics gets their new Behind the Ear processor approved from the FDA. The new one that they are coming out with is more kid friendly and smaller to go behind Zeke's little ear and I am so excited for it to get approved. The black round thing is the magnet headpiece that will attach to his head where the implant is located.

When Zeke is a little bit older and his ears are a little bit bigger, he will wear a Behind the Ear processor like this. We actually ordered this color, blue and green. It comes with purple but I don't think he will ever wear the purple! If you want more information on the Advanced Bionics Harmony Implant you can check out their website at this website: http://www.bionicear.com/?langid=1