The year started off right with Kevin finally completing his assignment in Corpus Christi and returning back home for good! After two years of being on assignment, it was great to have him back home with us but also an adjustment too. When Kevin started his assignment, I was 6 months pregnant with Henry, and when he finished it, Henry was 18 months old! But soon enough, we all managed to adjust and settle into the new routines that come with having a new person in the house. This mama gladly gave the bath time duties back to daddy, and I was very glad to have someone else helping to make meal time decisions!
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Emma's initial hearing
test at TCH
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It was the perfect time for Kevin to come back home since unbeknownst to us, Emma was about to embark on the biggest year of change out of everyone in our family. At the end of 2017, the elementary school where Emma went to weekly speech class tested her hearing, and she failed, spectacularly, earning us a referral to Texas Children’s audiology department. So in January 2018, we walked into TCH to get her tested thinking that maybe she just needed tubes or something was just obstructing her hearing. Instead, we learned that day that Emma had sensorineural hearing loss and can’t hear high pitched sounds unless they are 60 decibels or louder (normal is 20db). This is a permanent type of hearing loss that can’t be repaired, only managed, but it also accounted for why she had problems with saying P,K, and H sounds. In February, Emma was fitted for hearing aids in both ears, and she has adapted very well to this change. First of all, her speech has improved noticeably! We’ve learned new morning and night time routines in caring for her hearing aids, and to be honest, she’s better at it than we are (note: you must take them out before she gets in the shower!). Every now and then, we forget to put them in, but for the most part, it's like she has always had them.
Left: Taking molds of Emma's ears for her new hearing aids
Right: Emma with her new hearing aids - she even got a teddy bear with hearing aids
Just as we were getting Emma all set up with her new hearing aids, life threw our family another curve ball. Kevin's grandfather, Loyd, suddenly passed away at the end of February, and then Kevin's uncle, Louie, passed away just a few days later. We buried both father and son within a week of each other with one funeral here in Houston and the second in Atlanta, Georgia. It was a emotional time for all of the extended Banes family, but it also reminded us of how strong each of these men were in their faith in the Lord and that we could best honor them by continuing to live by their example.
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| Henry and his splint |
Once March arrived, things seemed to settle back down into a normal routine again, and for Henry, it has just been one big adventure after another. He went to his very first Houston rodeo and loved every minute of it. To him, there's nothing better than animals, trucks, tractors, and hanging out with his Pappy. Of course you can't have Mr. Adventure without a little bit of Mr. Misadventure from time to time. Somehow, Henry managed to hurt his arm this spring and earned himself a trip to the orthopedist. He ended up having a badly sprained elbow and wrist and earned himself two weeks of an arm that was totally wrapped up in a split all day and all night long. Thankfully, it wasn't a cast because that little boy is messy and is always on the move, so it wouldn't have lasted long at all. Even being splinted up, he never stopped smiling and never slowed down a bit! Luckily, he was all healed up just in time for Easter egg hunting, going to see Disney Jr. Live with his grandparents, and setting sail on our Disney Cruise!
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Since we hadn't had a real family vacation in almost two years because of Kevin being away in Corpus Christi, we decided to save all our pennies and dimes to go on a trip of a lifetime - a two week Disney Cruise through the Panama Canal. As time inched closer to our April 8th sail date, we were all so excited, but none more so than Emma because it also happened that the cruise coincided with her 5th birthday! Before we left for the cruise, we had a few mini birthday celebrations for Emma at school and here at home, where she got to open the presents that were either too big for us to take on the ship with us or things that we wanted her to have before the cruise. Her biggest present was her American Girl doll, who she named Sofia. Emma received all kinds of matching princess dresses to go with Sofia, and Sofia even had hearing aids like Emma! She was super excited to get to take Sofia on the cruise with us.
Now, when you've got a big cruise planned you definitely don't leave things to chance, especially when it comes to flying. It was Henry's first airplane flight, and he was fascinated by watching all the goings on at the airport. We had planned ahead and flew into Orlando the afternoon before and booked a room overnight at the Orlando airport hotel. We even arranged to have groceries delivered to the hotel, so that we didn't have to pack diapers, and I even got some Diet Dr. Pepper to take on the ship. Necessities!! Since this was going to be a two week cruise, we splurged and had booked a two bedroom concierge room on the Disney Wonder. Let me tell you, the room was glorious and so worth the money to have the extra space with two little kids and all their stuff! My parents came along with us on the trip, and they often hung out in our room too, even though theirs was just right next door.
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The view from our cabana
on Castaway Cay
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For her 5th birthday, we spent the day Cartagena, Colombia at a hotel/resort along the beach. The kids had a blast swimming in all the different pools, and Emma even got a lunch time serenade for her birthday and special ice cream treat! That evening, our princess opened some more presents on the ship and paraded around in her princess costume eating up all the birthday attention thrown her way! All the characters made sure to make her feel extra special, and I have to say, it was a pretty extraordinary birthday for a little girl!
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Entering the first set of locks -
you can see the ship ahead of us
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The next day, the excitement didn't stop either because we were headed through the Panama Canal! We started the day at 8am when we prepared to enter the first set of locks; there was one ship ahead of us already in the locks, so it was cool to watch our ship and the ship in front of us. We also had a prime viewing spot on a special crew deck that they opened up just to concierge guests, and our concierge host Glen took such great care of us as well as regaling us with his copious knowledge of the trip. Since we were going through the new, larger locks, we only had to traverse two set of locks; our route was as follows: Agua Clara locks, Lake Gatun, Cocoli Locks. The engineering and manpower to get all the ships through the locks is so awesome to watch. We spent many hours up on deck just watching the goings on of the workers as they kept us moored as the chambers filled and moved us through the locks. We had raised above the Atlantic Ocean to the level of Lake Gatun and exited the first set of locks at 11:30 am, almost 4 hours after we first entered it. To get to the set of locks that would lower us to the Pacific side of the continent, we first had to sail through the country of Panama itself and all the twists and turns or "cuts" of the canal. The scenery was so beautiful and lush, and the weather vacillated from sunny and bright to cloudy and cool and even to a few downpours as we made our way across. Many people stopped along the way to wave hello to our Mickey Mouse boat - a crossing that only happens twice a year! We sailed under the Centennial Bridge at the continental divide of the Culebra Cut, and finally at 5:30pm, we were ready to enter the second set of locks. They moved us through the second set of locks pretty quickly, and we were officially out of the Panama Canal at 7pm and headed out towards the Pacific Ocean.
Video Below: Timelapse of our Panama Canal Crossing Shot from the Bridge
If you watch closely, you'll see us at the bottom edge of the video!
Kevin has a red shirt with black hat, I'm in a purple shirt with a ponytail, and my Dad has on a white hat (sorry Mom, you were a bit too short!)
Kevin has a red shirt with black hat, I'm in a purple shirt with a ponytail, and my Dad has on a white hat (sorry Mom, you were a bit too short!)
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| Palo Brunch - yum! |
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As school started to wind down, we celebrated the end of an era as Emma officially graduated from preschool at Wee Wuns. For four years, she went to "school" every Tuesday and Thursday. She had great teachers that helped her learn and grow, and we were all very proud of what she accomplished! She was ready to move on to the next level though. For years, she has been asking us when she was going to get to ride the big yellow school bus, and we kept reminding her that she had to be 5 years old first. I swear as soon as she turned 5, she wanted to know how many night-night sleeps until Kindergarten started.
With the end of school, we began the lazy days of summer...HA, yeah right! First up, we had Henry's second birthday to celebrate. Being two and having a summer birthday can only mean one thing - a "Choo-Choo I'm Two" swim party! Henry had a blast with his cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents swimming the day away. I can't even tell you how many times he went down the slide into the pool at his Mimi and Pappy's house. Then, to top it off he got to blow out the candles on his very own Thomas the Tank Engine train cake! What more could a boy ask for? Our little man soaked up every ounce of attention and had a wonderful time celebrating!
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Totally fine for 2 kids
and a dog, right?
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With the remodel complete, we still had half of summer left to enjoy, and it did not disappoint. We were able to go swimming, have friends over, go on sleepovers, and all kinds of fun things. Emma even lost her first tooth on July 4th! For our 13th anniversary, Kevin and I managed to slip away for an extended weekend to Marble Falls, Texas. We did some shopping, some sightseeing and exploring, and lots of eating! We were glad to go for some adult time and relax without the kids, and the kids were glad to go and hangout with Mimi and Pappy at the farm.
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Finally, school started! Kevin and I took Emma to meet her teacher, Mrs. Worchesik, and she is totally the perfect teacher for Emma. Emma absolutely loves going to school each day and has already been learning a lot. It's not always easy for her though. We've had some growing pains trying to find the best instructional strategies and testing practices that fit her hearing needs. Even with her hearing aids, when there is added background noise Emma only catches about 70% of the sounds that she can't normally hear; so in January, we will be adding some more amplification technology to her arsenal that will allow her teacher to broadcast her voice directly into Emma's hearing aids. But despite these challenges, Emma is meeting and exceeding her grade level benchmarks. She also still goes to speech class twice a week at school, and that is also helping to reinforce what she is learning in the classroom. I will say, it's hard for "hearing" parents to understand what their hearing impaired child is going through, especially when they are at Emma's age and really can't describe it to you yet. We don't know what the world sounds like to Emma, so unless she tells us, we have no way of knowing if she's struggling or not with something. We are constantly adjusting our expectations and understanding of our situation. Still, you would never know she's a child struggling with hearing loss. She is the sweetest, most outgoing person you'll ever meet. She's everyone's friend and is always looking to take care of those around her. She's had a lot of fun in Kindergarten already this year with guinea pig visits, character dress up day, 50s day, turkey day, and field day!
Henry started back for his second year at Wee Wuns in September. His teachers Ms. Jackie and Ms. Kendal have their hands full with this silly toddler who is definitely in the throes of terrible twoness. Now for the most part, Henry is Mr. Giggles, who is easygoing and always full of smiles and hugs. Seriously, he mostly just rolls with the punches. But don't let those dimples and grins fool you! He is very opinionated and bossy when he wants to be. Kevin says he gets it from me, but I don't see it! But for all his current stubbornness, I wouldn't trade him for anything. He's my co-pilot during the week, and he has thoroughly enjoyed having his mama all to himself while his sister has been at school. This little boy loves his trucks, trains, puppies, and most importantly, chicken nuggets. Ask him on any given day what he wants to eat, and you'll likely only hear one of two options: chicken nuggets or Whataburger! He's very vocal, and I guess he has to be if he wants to get a word in since he's the youngest. Even if he's just parroting something back to you, there's an inflection and a cock of his head that makes it all his own, and sometimes he has the perfect comedic timing and turn of phrase. He is truly growing up to be his own little man!
Kevin and I survived another Aggie football regular season. We were able to take Emma to two games this year, which she loved. We even lived to tell the tale of the LSU game with its record-setting SEVEN overtimes. What a game to be at! We will be talking about that one for ages.Well, that's it! 2018 in a nutshell, give or take a few random everyday happenings here and there. We've had a busy and challenging year, and we've tried to take it all in stride so that we can learn and grow. It's been worth it though, and we wouldn't change it for anything! If you've made it this far, thanks for reading and checking in on us. We hope you have a blessed Christmas season and a wonderful New Year!
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