AV therapy and new tricks

Ava's auditory verbal (AV) therapy is every Monday but we had to reschedule this week so we had therapy today. Ava has an amazing therapist named Sandra who was also my daughter Lauren's (4, bilateral hearing aids-moderate loss) therapist. Sandra has been working very hard at trying to get Ava to detect some sound so as to form pathways in the brain so that once Ava starts hearing with the implants, sound won't be so foreign to the brain. Also we have been working on getting Ava to vocalize as a means of communication (other than crying of course). One of the sounds we have been working on is "uh oh!" whenever Ava drops a toy off her high chair. Well today Ava dropped something and Sandra did her usual "uh-oh" and paused for Ava's reaction and Ava actually said "uh-oh" back and looked back at Sandra for her reaction! It was more like "uh uh" but it was definitely a deliberate attempt at vocalizing that sound. Sandra and I looked at each other completely speechless for a few seconds and then we started hollering with excitement. Another new trick Ava did today was while Sandra was showing her this toy where there are different knobs and a Sesame Street character pops up when the knob is manipulated. Ava really loved this toy. I started asking Sandra a few questions about Ava's upcoming surgery so Sandra's attention was diverted to carrying on this short conversation with me when suddenly Ava decides she's had enough of waiting to be entertained so Ava grabbed Sandra's finger and placed it back on the toy so as to indicate to Sandra "ok enough gabbing let's get back to work now". This is all so exciting as there have been times where Ava didn't really respond much at all to therapy but lately she has been demonstrating that she is definitely getting something out of it despite hearing very, very little with her hearing aids.

I didn't make it down to the hospital for Ava's blood test today. We will be going tomorrow morning instead.