A New Holiday

Miss Kat has decided that she is looking forward to "Children's Day" in July. When pressed about it, she declared that "children's day" is like Father's Day and Mother's Day. She should get breakfast in bed and "lots of presents".

(It is in July because Mother's Day is May, Father's Day is June, so Children's Day must be in July.)

3 Mythbuster pigs

Miss Kat had science fair last week, and here she is explaining her experiment. 

Fundraising!

Transcript: Hello! My name is Katrina. I am deaf. I go to Central Institute for the Deaf. My school costs a lot, but doesn't turn away anyone. Can you help CID? You get yummy pizza or pie or cookies!

Voicemail

Miss Kat has been working on telephone skills with her speech therapist lately. She was working on memorizing our phone numbers, (memorization is extremely difficult for her) and Daddy discovered this on his voicemail:

Transcription:
Miss Kat: Don't call me back. I'm just practicing your phone number. Bye Dad.

She couldn't possibly be sweeter !

Miss Kat on the news!!

Just after Christmas Miss Kat sent her Nana a letter on her new Hello Kitty stationary that she had gotten from Santa. Unfortunately, the letter was so small that it seemed undeliverable...oh, and she forgot the stamp!   Someone with a big heart at the post office decided that this little letter deserved to make it to its destination, and yesterday, unbeknownst to us, Nana received the letter. Nana was so moved by the generosity and caring of the post office that she called her local news station to share the happy story.

Utah news story

Well, a station here in St. Louis heard about the story and asked to interview Miss Kat about it! They came to her school and asked her some questions. She did an amazing job!!

St. Louis news story

The interviewer spoke with Miss Kat for an hour and a half in total. She understood everything he asked her, and he was clearly able to understand her as well. She pulled out some amazing vocabulary (rockstar and impressed, and a few other doozies!) Miss Kat was so poised and amazing that her teachers actually cried from pride!

WAY TO GO BABY GIRL!!!

Christmas Program

Every year since Miss Kat has entered school, her Christmas program has been a barometer for how i feel about her school and the education she is receiving. When she was attending her bi-bi school, I wept with joy to see her surrounded by children like herself and to see her language developing. When we switched to the oral program, I cried again, but this time it was with misery when I saw her surrounded by typically hearing children with language that was miles beyond hers and we watched as she struggled to follow what was happening. She pretended to know the words to songs far beyond her comprehension level, and she just smiled and nodded, completely lost.

Again, since we have moved, the Christmas program has reminded me about the differences in the schools we have chosen for Miss Kat. This year, again, I cried. I saw how much this school has transformed her life and what a great opportunity it has been for her.

Here is a video of the upper primary students doing a dance routine they learned in gym class. Miss Kat is in the second row in the red dress and black leggings.

Silence

I was talking to Miss Kat with her implants off tonight and I asked her if she could hear me. She said "No but I can read your lips and your signing". (Of course I knew she couldn't hear me but it was leading to the next part.) So I asked her what she could hear and her answer was "Nothing". So, I asked her if it was weird not hearing, and she said "No, I like the peace and quiet." Then she said "I like hearing things like jokes, but not the rain, or the crashing and crackles (I think she meant lightning and thunder). Daddy has to wear those things in his ears (earplugs). But that is why i am just deaf."

Insightful.