I just heard back from Silas' doctor and his kidney's look perfect! Praise God! It is rare for someone to only have both ears deformed without having any other syndrome or complication, so we are blessed that only his ears are affected.

It is BEAUTIFUL outside today and we are enjoying it!

As most of you know, Silas has been receiving several therapies through our state program, First Steps. The therapies will continue until age three and then he is turned over to the school system for therapy. He'll be three September 1, so we are already starting the process of switching over to the other system. On Tuesday, we had his first referral meeting with the school. His Speech Therapist, our First Steps coordinator, the school speech path, OT, audiologist, district rep and someone else we all there. It was a little overwhelming! Jason of course had to go out of town, but I'm hoping he can join me for the next meeting.

Basically the meeting was just to determine areas he needs to be evaluated in to see if he qualifies for therapy beyond age three. We know he will due to his hearing loss, but we still have to jump through the hoops. Right now we are going to evaluate him for speech, language, sensory processing and they are also doing a cognitive/social evaluation of some sort. As of now, with his hearing loss, he qualifies for a great preschool that focuses primarily on hearing and speech. I'm very hopeful that he can attend there! I'll update the blog as we make progress in our evaluations.

On Wednesday, we went back to CCH for his renal ultrasound. He did great, they even had a D*ora movie for him to watch. I did not find out anything while we were there, but am hoping to hear tomorrow. I figured if it was of great concern I would have known before I left the hospital. Hopefully all will be well and we will not be making anymore trips until October!

Progress on the deck is happening, slowly but surely. Last week we had rain a couple days and our crew only came two more days to work. We are thrilled with how it is turning out! The floor, steps and all the framing are done. The detail work like the roof, ceiling, electric, screens, and side rails are all still left. It's supposed to rain the first few days this week so it could be mid-week before they can work again. Even though it is not done, we still grilled out and ate on the deck last night!

In other news, Madelyn had a piano recital today and did great! She played her song perfectly and we were so proud of her! Silas was excellent during the recital. He loves listening to music. We're thinking he'll be our violinist. : ) Caroline has already taken dibs on the cello. Madelyn also had an awards ceremony at school on Friday. All the students in her class win awards to motivate them and encourage them in school. For this nine weeks, Madelyn won a Math Award and a Reading Award. We were proud of her!

Silas also had another follow up at Cincinnati Children's last week. We had appointments with his audiologist and his ENT. Both were thrilled with his progress. He did great on the hearing test. It is amazing how much the BAHA helps. He has very close to normal hearing with it on. We are heading back this Wednesday for a renal ultrasound. The kidney's, the ears and the heart all form at the same time. We are not anticipating any problems, but since his ears are affected, we need to rule out any kidney problems. Hopefully after Wednesday, we won't be making anymore trips to Cincinnati until his 6 month follow up in October.

Silas has been talking so much lately! He is labeling almost everything he sees and I can understand probably 75% of what he is saying now. His language has really taken off in the last few weeks. Being able to communicate makes life so much easier. He says the same things over and over and sometimes I even have to tell him to be quiet! I never though that would happen. We actually had a really good week. I'm afraid to write it because usually after a few good days we revert back to some difficult behaviors. The hard days seem to be getting fewer and further between stretches. He was actually enjoyable most days this week. : )

We had a great Easter celebrating our Risen Lord! We enjoyed a wonderful service at church and then hosted our family Easter dinner. Enjoy these pictures of our day!

Thursday we began our new deck! Here are some pictures of our old deck - it was in terrible shape. We have needed a new one for several years and are so happy it is finally happening!

Today the girls had their first soccer game. It was chilly, but sunny and they both had fun. It should be a fun season!

Sunday afternoon we went to the cemetery and took pictures. They have beautiful flowers and it is gorgeous this time of year. Can I just say again how much I LOVE my new camera?! It takes the best photos. I'm going to have several of these blown up instead of taking the kids for professional pictures.