BAHA-HA - double the hearing aids, double the fun

This morning when I was half-dressed and my hair was half-dried and we were trying to get on the road to the kids' schools, the call came. . . . the Speech and Audiology department phoned to say that Micah's second BAHA had arrived.

And with an appointment slot available at 3pm, my day went from:

- drop Thea at school at 9 am
- drive 40 miles or so to Summit School for group 10 am until noon
- drive 35 miles back towards home to be at OHES for the OT evaluaton at 1 pm

To all of the above, plus finding a route from OHES to Edison (another 30 miles, give or take) in a state that has no decent East-West roads and then driving 30 miles down Route 1 back home . All on a grey, cold, miserable, grungy, rainy day.

Despite this, I was high-fiving myself. Months of nagging, pushing papers along, more nagging, making phone calls and we're finally at the finish line. For 15 seconds in my own mind, I was a Rock Star. Then, back to my multiple neurosis already in progress.

And throughout all of this Micah survived on just a 30 minute nap, a snack while at school and lunch after the hearing aid fitting, and he managed to even have some fun at the OT evaluation. This kid is so adaptable, he just rolls with whatever comes his way.

He was so excited to go to his school today, he was singing about it in the car. It was so adorable - right up until he said, "Play with 'Laina?" Ouch. Not possible, sport. His best pal turned three in mid-December and has left group for preschool. Doesn't pay to fall for an older chick, sometimes.

At the hearing aid fitting, he was properly excited to have two BAHAs on - I don't know how much more sound it brings to him, and it may take some time to figure out one side is vibrating more so that means the sound is coming from that side, but in the sound booth he was able to hear the audiologist telling him to point to his nose at 15 decibels, which is great. The staff at JFK, particularly his audiologist, love him and he flirts with them shamelessly.

When we got home the mailbox held another bonus, the second set of blocks for the BAHAs had arrived from Forwerd, so I can rig up Micah's baseball hat again (for only one BAHA); I pinched the block from the hat to put on his elastic band. Unfortunately, I had put a message on the order asking for two thin blocks instead of the one thick, one thin in the starter pack which was ignored. But if that's the worst thing that happened today, it's not a disaster. I just hate it when a provider of a service fails to listen to me, especially when I'm paying good money for that service.

We were back in the car one last time because there was a message from The Optical Shoppe that my new glasses were in. Tomorrow the shop is only open until 5:30 pm and I'm working, so it was today or wait until Friday.

Now we're home, I'm trying to upload a picture of the double BAHA, but Blogger or Kodak is thwarting me, so dinner first, photo later.

After dinner addendum: Success, finally with the photo - though even with cropping and enhancing it is still tough to really see the two BAHAs. During dinner I just realized that this two-year old is sporting $8K worth of miniature electronics on his head. Yikes. That gives me a bit of pause considering the Crash Test Dummy wannabee lifestyle this boy lives.