Third time's a charm!

At last, we have a successful hearing test!

After two nightmarish failures, I got a good recommendation of an audiologist who deals with a lot of kids and is very patient. I called for an appointment and was told the first one was in June, but as I was booking it someone canceled and we were invited in immediately! As advertised, the woman -- an adoptive mom from way back, by the way -- was awesome. She let Quinn play with puzzles in the sound booth, did the test without closing the doors (which freaked him out last time) and really, really took her time.

He cried a little and was clearly scared during the test, but didn't lose it. He sat on my lap and would look one way if the bunny in one corner of the booth made a noise, and look the other way if the kitty in the other corner made a noise. He responded appropriately when she asked over the microphone (veeerrrrry softly), "Quinn, where is your nose?" etc.

So he passed!

Next up is the entrance exam for public pre-school for kids with developmental delays and disabilities. I'm not entirely sure I want him to go (a topic for another post), but at least we'll have the option.

Hooray for brave little Quinn!

Ballooooooon boy

Can you guess what word Quinn is saying??

NOW you tell me...

Quinn is being tested to see if he qualifies for a public pre-school program for kids with developmental delays and disabilities. First he has to get his hearing tested so today we traipsed down to see an audiologist at our local school district. The minute I saw the probe she wanted to stick in Quinn's ear I knew this was going to be a bad scene. And it was. He started crying the second she touched it to his ear and grew increasingly upset until he hit a state of full-on hysteria. I tried distracting him, holding him during the test, taking a break, and nothing helped.

When the sweetest-keeled kid I've ever met looked over from his happy play break and let out a blood-curdling scream when he spotted the probe in the waiting audiologist's hand, she sighed and said she was just going to have to refer him to a local hospital. I asked why - did they intend to sedate him? "No," she said. "They have a fun sound booth over there where kids can hear sounds bounce off the walls rather than have to hear them inside their ear." Whaaaaaat? Why did no one even mention that was an option? We could have saved the poor child a truly traumatic experience.

I'm new to the public school thing, but this sure taught me a lesson. I need to ask questions before submitting Quinn to these mandatory tests. What are our options? Is there a gentler version of this test available? I know almost nothing about his early months but I do know something in his makeup or something in his past makes him easy to scare in instances like this. It's up to me to sniff those out in advance and try to prevent them. Lesson learned.

Suddenly afraid of the dark

Since coming home in November 2008, Quinn has insisted on total darkness to sleep. His two worst nights were at the White Swan, until we realized that a little lamp under the bedside table was keeping him awake, and out first night in Tucson, until we turned off the night light in his room.

But suddenly, inexplicably, he's scared of the dark. He was crying after I put him down the other night, which is HIGHLY unusual for him, and when I went into his room he was pointing at the tiny light on his baby monitor camera. After a few minutes I plugged in the old, abandoned night light and he laid right down and went to sleep. Every night since, if I turn on the night light he goes right to sleep; if I forget he cries.

Has anyone else seen anything like this? Any ideas on what might cause such a sudden switch?

Renaming the 'rents

First Quinn renamed the dogs, then he moved on to all four grandparents. Now it's our turn. At least for this phase, the grown-ups formerly known as Mama and Baba are called Mimi and Bobby.

Surgery is scheduled

It's time.

Dr. Waters wanted us to wait to do the surgery until Quinn's mobility and range of motion stopped improving. He still is showing some very gradual improvement, but in the meantime he's developing a series of work-arounds that result in him using his right arm less and less.

We shared the latest range measurements and these details with Dr. Waters' staff, and they decided it's time to go ahead. April 29 is the first opening, and of course we couldn't get tickets with our frequent flier miles that week. We didn' want to push it much later and subject Quinn to a summer of hell in a cast and brace. So I called American Airlines hoping to get a mom I could appeal to, and lucked out! She agreed to appeal on our behalf, and her supervisor agreed, and that guy's supervisor agreed, so we got the tickets.

I'm relieved, but nervous.

The joys of ice cream

I ordered some ice cream the other day because it's something I can eat despite my broken jaw. Quinn has shown very little interest in hard-packed ice cream (he does like soft-serve) so I didn't think he'd take too much. Ha! He took a bite, then slid the whole parfait glass in front of him and wouldn't give it back.


I thought he'd give up when he ate through the vanilla and got to the green tea ice cream. Ha! He loved that, too. He did finally stop when he hit the cut-up roll cake at the very, very bottom of the glass. Finally I got some!