Time manages to escape me. I had an entry composed in my head two days ago and I kept intending to write but all of a sudden, it’s Wednesday night and I’m doing something completely different. That’s just how it goes, though…you live life so you can blog about it but then you don’t have the time! (I mean, we all do stuff just for blog material…right?)

This entry is definitely a lot more upbeat than I thought it would be though. See, I was born hearing impaired. There was fluid in my ears and I had ear infections constantly as a child. Eventually I got tubes put in my ears and my hearing improved drastically, but I still read lips on occasion and have to use closed captioning/subtitles on the TV or a movie.

Apparently, this is hereditary, and Noah has been showing signs of not being able to hear to his full potential. You can sneak up behind him and he won’t acknowledge you until he sees you. You can call his name and you might as well shoot yourself in the foot for all the good it’s going to do you. He babbles and won’t talk often (he says 5 words sporadically) which is sometimes – sometimes – a sign of hearing impairment. My Mommy Radar isn’t going off at all, but I did notice every now and then that Noah just wasn’t hearing my words. Then his Nana mentioned it and, well, you know.

However… we (Geek Dad and I) took him to his doctor and he agrees with us that Noah may just be too “busy” to hear. He will respond sometimes by grinning when he thinks you can’t see him and then continuing to ignore you. This means he can most likely hear and just gets too absorbed into what he’s doing or just flat out feels like he’s too busy to give you the light of day. This is excellent news, and I feel like it’s really the most likely possibility. Besides, Noah loves music more than any kid I’ve ever met. This kid dances to birds chirping outside at sunrise or because someone taps their pen in the right rhythym. You can’t tell me that it’s the vibration every single time.

Regardless, we’re taking him for an appointment to an ENT that specializes in pediatrics just to be safe. His appointment is on June 10th and it’s in North Atlanta…yes, alllll the way through Atlanta, as far away in Atlanta as is possible from us. I’m hoping to find another, more local, doctor that also works with toddlers because even though I will drive as far as I need to in order to make sure my son is okay, I’d really rather not have to.

And if it turns out that Noah does have a hearing impairment then I guess we’ll deal. We’ll coach ourselves to talk louder. See what options there are for restoring his hearing. Etcetera etcetera. He’s fortunate in the fact that he has a mother who fully understands the burden that being hearing impaired places on your shoulders. It’s not easy growing up, explaining to people that you didn’t turn close captioning or subtitles on to piss them off; you just want to enjoy the movie too. It’s not easy explaining to people that they need to face you when they talk or else you can’t hear what they’re saying or read their lips. It’s not easy explaining to most people what the difference between being hearing impaired and being deaf is – most people think you can either hear or you can’t and that there is no middle ground.

Unfortunately, it’s also not easy knowing that you may have passed that burden on to your innocent child, so I hope for his sake and my guilt-riddled heart that he is perfectly fine and just being silly old Noah. I’m supposed to make life easier, not harder.

Well look at that. Somehow this entry became about me. Typical. ;-)