We are ending this week on an exciting note! Josie had her developmental testing today and she has made unbelievable gains! She is now functioning like a two-year old and has really held her own over the last 6 months since the last testing. It seems that language was a real barrier and ASL is opening a whole new window to her development. I can't tell you how excited we are to see these gains and know that the testing reflects it. It really proves that the move and all of the new things we are exposing her to are working. We have started working with a deaf educator through Infant/Toddler services that did the testing and is also supporting us in the home with learning sign. She has been really helpful in finding new ways for the whole family to learn and Josie is learning sign more rapidly than any of us. 
Henry is doing wonderfully too:) He is talking a lot more and also learning sign quickly. He and Josie have developed quite the friendship and he wants to hug her and give her kisses in the morning. His latest interest is hats. He has a cowboy hat he wears around the house frequently and of course he is into Josie's pink hats:) I think he'd wear a hat all day if I helped him keep it on his head. His biggest issue is his head is so large he can't wear any of his infant ballcaps anymore, so he walks around the house with them sitting on the top of his head. He has started to get a little separation anxiety and has become an ankle weight for me if he thinks I am going to leave. Luckily he seems to get over it pretty quickly. The last couple of weeks he has moved up to the older class at the church and is really enjoying it more now that he has older boys to follow around.
The kids have been going to our neighborhood church for some time for a Wednesday parent's day out, but we went to our first service a couple of weeks ago. It was amazing, in the fact that they had a deaf guest speaker for the service and Josie's sunday school teacher is an interpreter. Just seemed like the place for us to be. It is so nice to develop a community of people who like and understand our kids needs. Also, nice for Chad and I to have an hour or so of adult time at the service and know the kids are in good hands.
On a final medical note, Josie had a follow up appointment from her surgery this week and we learned that basically none of it worked. Her laryngomalacia is back and her laryngeal cleft has healed to still have a hole. So two surgeries and we are back where we started. At this point, we don't have a lot of options to improve her swallowing and the ENT has recommended we continue on knowing that Josie aspirates and eating is going to be very difficult. This was extremely disappointing and we will take some time to figure out what our next steps are. There are some other surgical options, but they are risky and those risks may very well outweigh the benefits. I just keep telling myself to remember that her respiratory health has been very good (knock on wood) and she doesn't need any kind of monitoring for her breathing. It could definitely be worse and if she needs a feeding tube the rest of her life at least we know that we can provide her the nutrition she needs. We are going to focus on the things we can do something about and that is communication and learning. Hope everyone has a great weekend! We can't wait to get outside and enjoy the fall weather!
