Isla spent most of this summer listening…to everything. Her cochlear implant was activated in July, and it works like a dream. The implant is for her right ear, since that was the ear with the most hearing loss. As a result of being able to hear better, she is now vocalizing more and learning how to make the various sounds that will eventually develop into words. She is also attending speech therapy, as this is essential for learning how to hear, as well as listen. (Yes, there is a distinction between the two.)

Most importantly, Isla is happy. She loves learning new things and is excited when she can show off her newfound skills, such as book reading, book tossing, and book attempted-eating.

She has also moved on from simply laughing at her dad’s antics, to actually trying to crack me up as well. This is her scary face:

Kid’s got some serious comedy skills. There’s no way this will ever lead to something bad, right?

Right??