I forgot to mention the final step in the Spa treatment.  One of the twins got out all her Easter candy (I make them sort out their Halloween & Easter candy and keep only a small bit in a plastic bag in the kitchen), and she put it all in a basket an offered some as my treatment was over.  I would definitely say that it was a full service Spa.  They made their Father make an appointment for today for his pedicure and massage.  He also received the full treatment minus the nail colors and designs...

Now their next customers will be their Girl Scout leaders and they can earn a couple of badges from it as well.  They are so industrious.

I found out today, that my daughter CAN hear with her hearing aids on.  I thought they weren't working because she never responded to anything including working with her on 'hearing' her name.  Through a little Q & A, I discovered that she has no 'connections' in her brain to hear sounds, they don't register.  That makes sense you say, well yes, but somehow that barely crossed my mind.  So I explained to her that as soon as she hears her name she must look right away to see who is calling her.  I did a few experiments when her back was turned and darn if she didn't hear each time, she even said she did.  She just didn't know what to do when she did hear.  So now I need to create new exercises to start connecting those synapse and training her brain to recognize sounds.  Yet one more thing on my 'To Do' list.

So I started today, I sat her down and started her on listening to the alphabet.  I  didn't want her to say the letters, just listen to the sounds.  I took a long time working with her, and made comparisons such as the sound for "I" and "eye".  Then I would say a letter and have her try and sign what she thought I was saying.  And for such a short time, she got a lot correct.  Then we moved onto the vowels, and the long and short sound symbols.  With a lot of explanation and examples she started to understand the theory behind long & short vowels and how they effect the pronunciation of a word.  Then we had fun with a picture book where I chose things that are in a bathroom.  We did, towel, soap, bathroom, toilet, and a few others.  Again I tested her by saying the word and having her point to the picture.  When she got it wrong, it really wasn't wrong because it was part of the process of training the ear. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of work.  And we did numbers up to ten, and 'who', 'what', 'where' & 'why'.  Yes it seems like a lot on the first go around, but she was enthusiastic, so I kept going.  We'll go over them again tomorrow.

This could be a start of great things to come...