Deaf become Hearing?

Mikaela was wondering and decided to ask me... Can deaf become hearing? I explained to her that I born deaf and can not be fixed. She said... But Doctor CAN! I explained that doctors can not fix everything... only few things. She said it was not fair! I decided to ask her - why do you ask? She said ... I want you to hear me sing and the music that she made. I told her that you can sing anything you want no matter if I can hear or not. It will always make me proud of you to sing any songs. I added - you can sign a song once a while. She smiled.

It touched my heart. I do feel bad but I born to be deaf for a reason. If she wants to be a musician - then its ok with me. I want her to do anything she wants to do (in a good way ;o) ) and I will always be proud of her.

You have read this article deaf / hearing / mikaela / music / sing with the title deaf. You can bookmark this page URL https://playing-home.blogspot.com/2007/12/deaf-become-hearing.html. Thanks!

Sign language and charades !

First and FOREMOST, I have to thank Gemini Girl for her thoughtful gift.
The signing cards are awesome. I have already started trying to teach the boys some of the signs. Spencer seems ready to go. The gift was GREATLY appreciated. Thank you thank you thank you !

My goal now, since returning from New Jersey is to learn sign language fluently. To teach it to my children and to HOPEFULLY better communicate with Toni and Hollie when they come to visit in November ?....December ?.....maybe January ? Well I'm still working on the logistics of that hopeful trip :)

Talking with Toni and Hollie was pretty easy. They were both mainstreamed in the hearing world and are both very good at communicating with hearing people. Toni has talked about her family still not knowing sign on her blog. (something I can't understand)
A lot of deaf people are forced to read lips and speak in deaf talk, never learning sign language. I can't imagine a world with limited communication.

Hollie who has no hearing ability what so ever spoke very loud and very clear. There were times that I felt as if I was talking to a hearing person...other than the fact that her hands were going 50 miles an hour. :)
Toni, my shy sweet Toni :) was very soft spoken. She has a beautiful speaking voice, but would mostly sign. Which helped me learn a lot of signs while we were there.

One thing I did learn is that in order to be deaf you must be able to spell well. HOLY SHIT. They sign words at the speed of light. There were several times that I had to have Toni sign a word out for me like 3 times.....I had the problem of watching her expression and not focusing on her hands. (she has the greatest expressions.....especially when she's in a heated debate with Hollie about something important....like chocolate)

Of course we learned all of the dirty words. sex, masturbate, asshole, fart, poop, bitch. :)
If you wanted to know what the signs were, you would ask Hollie, because it was fun to watch her squirm and blush...and then after terrorizing her for a few minutes you would ask Toni. Once we learned the sign we of course spent the next little while practicing by calling each other bitches :) (yes we are 12)

ANOTHER AMAZING THING, when Mikaela would get in trouble, or when she would argue about something with her moms. (HARDLY ever happened) She wouldn't make any noise. She would argue and cry very quietly. It was amazing. She understands that her moms are deaf and knows that screaming and crying will do nothing for her.
She speaks deaf talk when signing to them.....and under her circumstances speaks VERY well when talking to those of us who hear. She signed when talking to the kids sometimes, and taught the little ones signs too.

It was so much fun to meet these amazing women. To watch their children.
To learn, even though a limited amount, another language.

Here is a website. It's a GREAT TOOL to learn sign language. You click on the letter and then the word and it is signed for you. How awesome is that.
Thanks S for sending it to me.

From left to right
Birthmoms...Darcy, me, Elyse, Toni



Our wonderful wives.....Cindy(Elyse), Mary Lou(Darcy),J,Hollie(Toni)

You have read this article deaf / sign language with the title deaf. You can bookmark this page URL https://playing-home.blogspot.com/2007/09/sign-language-and-charades.html. Thanks!

Heartbreaking

My most heartbreaking that happened last month. I accidently turned light off in the kitchen while Mikaela was there. She cried and cried. (it wasn't dark as we have light in the next room). Kyron was pointing at Mikaela. I ran to her - what's matter? She was crying so hard. She said, "I called mommy mommy mommy and you didn't hear me!" I said I'm sorry... you're right that I can not hear because I'm deaf. She said - I cried - MOMMY real loud. I dropped my tears. I said to her - I'm so sorry and I do wish I could hear you.

She finally asked me - why you deaf me hearing? I said - I don't know... I born deaf and you born hearing. I teased her a little to make her feel better... You hearing because you sing very well and love to listen music. She smiled and said - Wish you could hear me sing a song. It brokes my heart again! I said I can see you signing a song. She smiled and signed a song.

I was wondering... what is like to be hear her voice? She loves to sing... I will try video her singing someday... Now Kyron loves music just like her sister Mikaela. He always asked me to turn music on. Means other singer in the family...

You have read this article deaf / hearing / heartbreaking / mikaela with the title deaf. You can bookmark this page URL https://playing-home.blogspot.com/2007/05/heartbreaking.html. Thanks!

You Deaf? YOU?

Often I go out with my family. We stopped many different places. I remembered when I was young – I played little league baseball. Coach didn’t know that I was deaf. My friend gave me hints what to do. After few innings, coach called my name. Of course, I didn’t turn my head around. He was puzzled and asked one of players. One of players said, “She’s DEAF!” Coach said, “No way!” He tapped my shoulder and he gestured (his head nodded no and point his finger to his hear). I nodded and said yes. He was – oh brotherly – shocked – you deaf? You? You played baseball! Urgh… Yes I can play baseball and I can do anything just like you except hear. (haha)

Other days ago, I took my kids with me to grocery. One lady tapped my shoulder. I said – yes. She said – you speak? I said – well – sometime – not very well. She pointed two kids – asked me who’s kids? I said they are mine – my babies. She said – oh nice, you’re babysitting them – was surprised that someone let you baby-sit them. I was puzzled and said – why are you talking like that and those kids are MINE! Mikaela turned and said to me, “Mommy Mommy I want chocolate milk!” The lady was so surprised and said “You Deaf… You? Have babies? And can speak a little.” She looked so confused. *Rolled my eyes* I said – My dear, I can make babies, I can do anything if I want (hee hee) but only thing that I CANT is to hear.

Wow… It has been on going since I was little girl. What a interesting place to live in this world!

My precious -- My freind's daughter Am took picture of them. Am was playing with my camera - swap color, etc... It came out good.

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As Deaf Parents Raising our kids - Pt. 1

Being Deaf Parents….. Hearing Kids

H and I’ve always wanted to have children. We knew we will have hearing children. For several reasons, donor is hearing and I come from a hearing family. Most of my relatives are hard of hearing but that doesn’t weight much of having deaf children.

H and I knew we will face some challenging. The most challenging that we had faced were – our kids’ peers’ parents and my child’s teacher. Some of those issues had solved. (Will discuss more later on)

Raising our hearing children weren’t so difficult. We have a device that helped us a lot which is baby cry signal. When a baby cry – that device send to light flashing to let us know that baby is crying. We might be in trouble if power went off. It does happen to us several times. What we did, we took our daughter, M to sleep with us. She will move and "tap" our body to wake us up. Our son, K has been sleep with me in same bed (rarely use baby cry signal). He will hit (not hard-whew) you until you wake.

I believe that we probably raise our kids just like most of you raise your own children. I’m trying to figure out what difference between hearing families and deaf families with hearing children. Probably the communication part. We use American Sign Language (ASL).

H and I strongly believe that our children must know how to use american sign language and be able to communicate with us fluency. It’s our primary communication mode. We are glad that our children have the able to use ASL and speaking English.

Often people stopped by and asked us – Are your kids deaf? We always tell them – no, they are hearing. They were so shocked to see them signing so young. ***In my mind, Hello!!! You started speaking so young too! Ha ha… Some people are sometime – ignorant! But again, sometime they didn’t know… ***

H and I wanted our kids to grow as normal kids as other. We put them into different kind of activities with other peers (hearing peers, kodas, deaf peers). I've faced some challenging myself - for example... neighbor kids were playing outside. Their mothers were chatting. I came out and they waved. That was it! I want to be part of group and chatting with them. I often watched my kids playing or doing my yardworks. I would like to know what's going on with the community or what they are talking about. I'm not going to stop my kids from playing with their kids just because of their mothers. Next door, N was nice enough to make effort to communcate with us. Have to applause for her effort but I do wish that she could do more.

I better go back to my scrapbooking. I will come back and discuss more about some issues/stories.

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Things that I didn't know....

Things that I didn't know....
Its good to be back home again! Kids and I were gone to upstate NY for my brother's girl friend baby shower and at the same time kids seeing grandparents, uncles, aunts, cousins, and others.

During stay at my sister's place, my sister T and my mom had shared with me many things that I didn't know. For examples:

Kyron was singing (humming) to sleep. I never knew. Kyron could say some words - mor - for more, ella for mikaela, doggy, mama, mommy, milky and others.

Mikaela sings well. She could talk funny like comedian. It made people laugh so hard. I was puzzled and concerned that they might make fun of her talking (voice). I asked my sister T - why are they laughing. T said Mikaela sings so funny song - talk about family and friends, she makes up the song and stories. I asked is it about her voice? T was like huh? Voice? I explained ya know... Deaf talk. She said ohhhh no no she didn’t use deaf voice to sing the song. Later that night, T said - wow... Mikaela knows when to use deaf voice. She came to me - with sign - milk with deaf voice. I said ok you may have milk - ask T if she could get you one as I was busy. She ran to T and asked her if she could get her milk. T said she was saying milk right way but not to me - She was using deaf voice. Wow... She knows when to use. It’s amazing to see how kids know by naturally.

We had a baby shower for my brother’s girl friend, C. There were some kids. They asked Mikaela, do you want potato chips. Mikaela always said, “I have I to ask my mommy first.” Mikaela do say excuse me or thank you. Many of my family/relatives and friends asked my mom, how did Tonya raise their kids so polite and respect? My mom asked me, “They want to know the secret of raising polite children.” I was like – huh? There is no secret. Discipline with reasoning and love. I have no idea. I thought all kids should’ve known. But I didn’t know that many children are not like that. I was a little sad to learn that but at the same time I have to be proud of our kids. Hope they will continue when they get older (*crossed finger*). (Sure wish they were that angel and polite at home – argh!)



Kyron's "first fall into puddle"
3/25/07

What had happened? Kyron was playing outside - puddle on driveway. He was trying to lean and touch the puddle. He lost his balance and his face was into the puddle. It was so funny to watch him but at the same time, it breaks my heart seeing him crying and got marks on his cutie face. :o( Yet, he went out and played with puddle again.)
(taken picture 3 days later - It was much bigger but good news that he's healing)
It's good to be home again! Mikaela was thrilled to be back home. I asked why - She said - Cold up there -- here warm! My sister and parents' house - still have snow on the ground and temp was about 45 to 50 degrees. While here - much warmer - flowers start to blossom. 70 to 80's here.

Kids want to go out and play... Gotta run - can't beat beautiful weather! :o)

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OUR kids are KODAs

Our children, M & K are KODAs. Both can hear -'hearing'. H (mama) and I (mommy), we both are deaf.

What is KODA?

KODA (Kids Of Deaf Adults), is sometimes used to refer to CODAs (Children Of Deaf Adults) under the age of 18.

Anyway...



When we decided to have children, we both 'kind of knew' that we will have hearing children. We are glad to have hearing children. Don't get me wrong... If M and/or K are deaf, we would be still happy too. We love our children! We wanted to have children. I always wanted to have 4 or 6 kids. Hollie wanted 2. WAAHHHH!

As for right now, we have two. Mikaela and Kyron's first language was American Sign Language (ASL). We communicate with each other in ASL. We will post our video of our kids in using ASL soon.

We are very fortune to live in Maryland because there is two organizations for KODA - http://www.mmkoda.org/ and the other one is very new - Metro Washington Deaf Parents. Many states do not have those organizations.

H and I will post once a while about our experiences with our kids as well for ourselves.

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