The HOH Mommy has exciting news!

Turns out, 2016 is bringing many blessings to my little household! So far, we have four big, wonderful announcements:

1) A number of you already know that we are expecting baby #2 in early June, and yes I'm thankful that the first trimester is over - so far, so good at 20 weeks currently!

The baby bump grows! (The middle photo is from Maui *wink*)

2) Hubby got a job promotion! I am incredibly proud of him and will do my best to support him in whatever way I can.

3) Our little girl is finally potty trained! (not quite yet at nighttime... but that will come eventually). Very glad not to be changing poopy diapers for at least 5 months. 
 

and finally *drumroll* ...

The Original Hard of Hearing Advocate

In the early years, who did we have to advocate for us? To feed, clothe and make sure that we had access to all the necessities in life? In most cases this answer would be 'our parents'.

Today, I was thinking about a conversation that I had a few months ago with a former high school classmate. We reconnected over Facebook Instant Messaging where I asked her about another classmate. In that conversation, I learned about her journey as a parent, and how it's been a challenge for her as her child has a form of autism.

I thought of my mom immediately. Dealing with a child with a hearing loss definitely brought the tiger (and the lamb) in her. If you've ever seen my Big Fat Greek Wedding, where Toula's mother says: "the woman is like a lamb in the kitchen. But in the bedroom? Oooh no! She is a tiger!" The sentiment can be said the same for my mom. Let me paint a vivid picture for you:

Imagine being the only person in your classroom - no wait - school, with a hearing loss. In the early 1990s, when technology was still making headway in the public. There are no cell phones (only pay phones!), wifi does not exist, and the computer is just gaining traction in the classroom. I'll never forget the boys in my class who started off playing SimCity in Grade 3. My mom really didn't want me to miss out on having a normal childhood, even though it meant having an itinerant teacher visit me each week for an hour; wearing a big, bulky FM system; and setting up a Closed Captioning TV box on the portable TVs (back then captioning wasn't even programmable on TVs!). Most of all, she wanted my teachers to have a positive experience with me.

How did you two meet?

Aloha! Hubby and I returned from our very first trip away from our little girl to the beautiful island of Maui (more on that in another post). It was hard on me at first, but when we saw her on Face Time each day it was as if we had never left. We've been back for a few weeks now, but with Christmas, New Years and currently in the throes of potty training I've finally decided to sit down and write about this experience.

The way back home from Maui was an interesting story that I'd like to share with you all. With a full flight, we didn't get our usual empty seat in the middle - which was fine with me as I love to snuggle up with Curtis, his personal block heater.

Last night in Maui!

At Haleakala Beach

Sitting in the middle seat, I sat next to a lovely lady from Vancouver. We struck up a conversation starting with where we live, what we do (and I naturally talked a LOT about my little girl), and even found out that I'm the same age as her sons. We even talked about pregnancy stuff as she is waiting for her sons to give her some grand babies! Then the million dollar question came up: "How did you two meet?" This question will almost always lead to a hard of hearing advocacy moment in my case.