Another Reason To Celebrate!

Last year was a very eventful one in our lives, not that every year hasn't proven to have its ups and downs, but in one week in March 2008, Aunt Jackie had surgery to remove melanoma from her neck and just two days later, Luke had his cochlear implant surgery. While March was a very trying month for us, we certainly celebrated in April, as Luke's "turn on" date was April 17th (and Jackie's test results were good!) I had said then that all I wanted for my birthday (April 20) was a son that could hear and a sister who was cancer free and thankfully God provided me with both!

As April came around once again this year, we knew we had to celebrate! So, on Friday night - April 17th we had a very small get together, mainly with our signing group (Nana, Papa, Aunt Jackie, Uncle Steve, Aunt Joy, Uncle Gene, Gigi and Kristin) to celebrate Luke's one year of hearing!

Many wore their beautiful orange shirts from Luke's turn on party last year!!!
Luke's current LOVE is Barney, so how better to celebrate hearing than with the annoying purple dinosaur himself (whom Luke likely wouldn't love so much if he couldn't hear him!) I opted for a quick and easy Mexican fiesta (thanks to Jackie and Steve for bringing over their quesadilla maker!) Everyone enjoyed it - even the boys! Here is Luke munching on a cheese quesadilla! Notice Dunkin's nose in the bottom of the picture?? He loves them too!
Since the night was so nice (and it wasn't raining!!!) we hung outside for a bit! The boys even got to enjoy their new bubbles from Easter! Talk about an action shot! Here is Nana blowing the bubbles and Luke going to pop it! (Great pic, Dan!)
After dinner and bubbles, we of course had to eat some Peggy Brown cake! It was too cute. Luke sat down and started singing "Happy Birthday!" We changed the words a bit to, "Happy Hearing Day!" and even had a candle on top!
It was then time for presents. We got Luke 2 Barney DVDs (for the drive to NY!) and Kristin (thanks SO MUCH!) got Luke like 30 Barney VHS tapes that she had from her daughter, Maddie! Needless to say, I think we now seriously own all Barney movies imaginable!!! Wanna rock out to the purple and green dino - just stop by our house as you'll likely find one playing almost every waking hour of the day!
In all seriousness, as I've said before, Dan and I obviously weren't prepared for any of our boys' deafness and we certainly weren't prepared for how well Luke would be doing just one year post implant! Thanks to all for your continued support of Luke's signing and speech! We couldn't be doing any of this without you!