Noah is doing well. He is continuing to grow like a weed...has gained about 20 lbs since his arrival a little over a year ago. And yes...his feet are still growing as well. Fall was a year of not only physical growth for Noah but cognitive and emotional growth as well. He continues to move forward in his 2nd grade class. At this point Math seems to be his strongest subject. His command of the language is also mind blowing. He can express himself without any difficulty although at times we have to chuckle at his Noahisms. For instance, tonight Hannah is going to watch Sam and Noah while the rest of us work at the homeless overflow shelter in Vancouver. He can hardly wait for 'baby take care of me' with Hannah.
Translation: Baby Take Care of Me= babysit : >)
Noah has blended very well into our community. The excitement of a new student from Ethiopia has worn off across the board. That has been somewhat hard for Noah to adjust to the attention off of him so he has gone overboard at times to get some negative attention. We have had to come down hard on him with consequences. Another for instance...and in truth it is somewhat laughable...but...he just can't do this.
The hearing and audiologist came to the school to screen the kids for hearing and sight. I happened to walk into the office a few minutes after Noah had his testing done.
The school nurse came up to me and said, "Did you know Noah cannot hear or see well."
I laughed, "No...what do you mean?"
"He failed both...according to the results he is sight and hearing deficient."
"He hears fine at school in Mrs. Smith's class. He chooses NOT to listen to me at home but that's not because he is deaf. He seems fine around the house." Then I looked at the nurse and said, "He's playing you guys for attention."
She was left wondering what was up. I got caught up in life and forgot about the conversation.
Following week we get a letter in the mail from the Educational Service District informing us that our severely deaf and hearing impaired child needs further testing through a specialist provided to us through the ESD and we would need to call to make an appointment.
"NOAH," I called him into the room. I read the letter word for word, accentuating the words severely deaf and sight impaired . "What's this all about? Do you realize we have to take you in," and then I began to fib a wee bit, "and now you are going to need to have to get glasses that are strapped to your head with a rubber band AND you are going to have to have a little box screwed to your head, behind your ear, with a wire running into your ear so you can hear better."
He looked at me horrified.
"It's ok Noah...it will make you be able to see and hear better. It's what we have to do...for you."
He sat very silent and then looked to me with his big brown beautiful eyes. "Can't I just do the test again?"
"Why would you have to Noah...unless..."
"I want to take the test again," he insisted. "I lied."
"Why would you do that Noah?" I explained to him the chain of events, the extra work these adults had to go through to get to the point of the letter I held in my hands. "Why?"
"I wanted to see what would happen if I failed."
Logical for someone still trying to figure out this new world of his BUT not acceptable.
"Well...here's what would happend, " I told him. "You go to your room....and no video games for the long weekend. You wanted to know what would happen...well...here you go."
Noah likes to wear the sweat pants that swish when he walks. He quickly turned on a dime, knowing full well any form of argument would fall on my own self imposed deaf ears, and quickly swished to his room.
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