Tropical turkey

We took Collin on his first big trip for Thanksgiving--Maui, Hawaii.

My favorite things about Maui: the rustle of palm trees, the perfect 80 degree weather, the blue, blue, ocean that matches the sky, the exotic looking birds, the bright, fragrant flowers. And hearing "mahalo." It sounds much more laid-back and happy than thank-you (but don't try this in the mainland, it just isn't right).

Mike's parents rented a gorgeous home in Haiku, a little town on the Hana highway. It was a full house and allowed Collin to spend time with all his loving relatives (and gave Mike and I a break!)

Collin got to spend lots of time with his grandma (aka one of our trip saviors)


Grandpa (another trip savior) got to feed Collin lots of yummy food (Collin discovered fresh papaya and pumpkin pie!)


Just hanging with Auntie Virginia and Uncle Tom


Mike and I stayed in the home once before with my parents. It is the perfect place for a vacation away from the tourists. The house has a huge deck with a view of the ocean and beautiful grounds with tropical flowers, and coconut trees, bananas, mangoes and guavas. There is also a pool (with a self-cleaning robot!) and hot tub.











Collin got to finally meet his great grandpa!


4 generations


Hanada guys


Collin also met his Hawaiian relatives. They were so sweet and he bonded with his (2nd, 3rd?) cousins--twins Sarah and Jacob.






Collin had a big crush on Auntie Joanne


Family


And lots of family!


Feasting away on endless amounts of food


We took Collin to Baldwin Beach which had some killer waves. After eating ocean at several failed attempts to body surf I decided laying in the sand with Collin was a safer bet.















We took Collin to see the banyan tree in Lahaina (he wasn't too impressed)


But park benches are cool


And of course the notorious boat trip. Fun at the time, we sailed to Molikini Crater and saw some amazing coral and pretty fishies. Little did we know however that our fates would soon change.





The only parts of our trip I would happily erase from memory are:
a). Flying with baby. I demand a teleporter next time. Collin liked to practice his shrieks and also bang on the tray table of the poor soul occupying the seat in front of us. He also refused to nap on our laps. Overtired, squirmy baby not so fun.

b.) Food poisoning. The last couple days of our trip were spent hovering over ye porcelain God thanks to vending machine like sandwiches supplied on a snorkel trip. Six of us (me, Mike, Chris, Todd, Virginia and Tom) were all stricken with the same horrid illness a day later. Thankfully, Mary Ann and Jon stayed back with Collin and took care of him (and us) as we all went on our "cleanse". They also tended to him on the plane ride home as Mike held the barf bag and made a beeline for the bathroom every 30 minutes and I drifted in and out of semi-consciousness.

But the good memories won't fade and I know we'll be back to Maui with Collin again and again. And just in case you didn't get enough photos, here's the album:

Maui Thanksgiving

Watch out world...

Well after making his way in circles and backwards, today Collin started crawling for real! Just a little over a week ago he mastered getting into a sitting position. I have a feeling we'll need to bring out the baby gates...Before I know it I'll have a wobbly little toddler.

Here he is trying to catch me!
(Excuse the annoying high pitched mommy tone, it's a force of nature I can't control--unavoidable around babies and puppies)

Holy 7 months Batman

Hmm the signs proclaiming his monthly age may end up being a futile attempt at this point. All Collin sees is, mmm paper must eat arhhh!!



Well I was convinced he would be crawling by now but apparently this leaning to move your limb stuff takes quite a while to master. I will say Collin is definitely closer than he has been for the last few months. He now has reverse and circles down and gets on all fours to rock back and forth. I'm sure once he's crawling around and getting into everything I'll miss the days of one position. He is also one steady sitter!

Two sharp teeth are nearly out at the bottom (teething isn't so fun).

A small hearing update: It looks like the aid is helping (big sigh of relief!) He still has a hearing loss on top of the auditory neuropathy in the left ear, which means...I'm not quite sure. I guess the aid will help discern voices, help him localize sound, but the neuropathy still causes background noises to be jumbled, not make sense, etc. Basically they don't want the aid turned up to the point that it just amplifies the noises. Because it's so rare to have this in one ear we're still waiting on some test results and will need to talk with the doctor, audiologist, etc.

The upside--we won't have to worry about purchasing an aid for a while (maybe up to two years) because they want to ensure that it will be the best thing for him and figure out the settings, etc which can't really happen until he starts talking. Hopefully by that time insurance companies will be required to pay for it! (Or at least we'll have enough saved up).

My 7 month synopsis: It makes my day to have this little jolly person laugh and stare with his heart melting eyes. If I could glimpse into the future I see Collin as a happy kid, curious and eager to discover the world.

Do you find this amusing mom?

yes here it is...the obligatory baby costume wearing photo. You can tell he's quite thrilled. But he is one damn cute monster/dragon/whateveryouwanttocallit

Spot the Punkin'

Not sure what to think

Well as it turns out Collin may have something called auditory neuropathy. Essentially it means that he has nerve damage in his ear. When the brain processes information, it gets garbled and doesn't make sense (translates to a hearing loss, or hearing static to loud annoying noises). Check out this link to hear what it sounds like: (scroll down to 2. http://www.ucihs.uci.edu/hesp/Simulations/simulationsmain.htm)

So what does this all mean? Not sure yet. Apparently it's pretty uncommon and discovered in the 80's, the audiologist and the person from the hearing program weren't too familiar with it and rarely encountered it in one ear only; hopefully meeting with the ENT doctor will provide some insight.

It sounds like A). His hearing aid most likely doesn't help. If he doesn't actually have a "loss" in that ear, the hearing aid just amplifies the annoying noise. Today when he went in for a test, they blasted some sound that he shouldn't have been able to hear near the poor ear and he burst out screaming. As in the noise scared him, so he obviously heard it. This isn't a sure thing yet. Collin will continue to use it until we learn more. B). Sometimes this gets better over time. Sometimes worse. Because he's a baby he can't exactly tell us what's going on so it's not easy to asses. We're holding out hope for the getting better part of course and he'll continually be tested. C). He could have to live with this. In which case we'll learn if there's anything we can do to help. We'll have to be an advocate in classrooms, etc. Teach him to be extra cautious when crossing streets, etc. And he'll adapt.

I'm glad we discovered this early and have a whole team of people working with us. And truly thankful this is only in one ear. Collin has lots of supporters and love so he'll do just fine. And I know he won't know any different if his hearing remains the same. Still when I plug up one ear to comprehend what he must hear, I can't help but to feel a little sad on what he's missing.

Rx for our current economic climate

This is for you mom. Deep cleansing breath.

I know I know it's only temporary relief but Collin had a vibe of extra cuteness I had to capture in his rocking onesie, pirate leggings and sneaker socks.