Stop the ride, please.

Cold Play has it right. "No one said it would be easy, no one said it would be this hard. Take me back to the start." As I finished writing the last post and took a few long exhale breaths, the rug began slipping away from under our feet. The short story is basically Tommy has decided that the rollercoaster is his ride of choice and we better strap ourselves in for the long haul. The Summer started with an almost instantaneous regression in social skills, pragmatics (ie. growling instead of requesting something), and the spark in his eyes was no where to be found. We chalked it up to the end of the school year blues and we're still banking on that as part of the problem. Tommy lives for his buddies and was doing so well with his hearing friends we assumed we were on the right track, but this summer a divide grew that was tough to watch. The upshot was that held it together in his summer school class in July so we're hopeful that he just LOVES school. The top of the hill, so to speak, was our trip to New York City. We couldn't have had a better time and it was by far our favorite/easiest vacation. Since school has ended we've noticed his hearing/listening decline greatly and currently are in the throws of "exploring" what's going on with his CI and left ear. My gut is telling me that his progressive hearing loss is gaining speed and his CI needs a new map. Couple those things with the 100 degree heat (not friendly for hearing equipment), a malfunctioning hearing aid, constant on/off hearing from being at the pool or on a bike and we've got a nice little storm brewing.

Fingers and toes crossed that Fall will bring good news and lots of smiles for our Kindergartener.