It was fabulous and so much fun! All of us had a wonderful weekend. Our boys in particular had a great time with the other kids who participated in the conference.

We'll be there in two years!

Yes, thanks again to you, Jodi, and your dad for donating the book and T-shirt. Much appreciated!

And if it makes you feel any better, I missed the cicircle lunch get-together as well! As some of you know, my son got injured, by, of all things, his name tag!! Yup, that's right, a name tag resulted in a 3 hour trip to the local emergency room. The tags were on elastic strings and so tempting to pull down on and snap back up. Well, one snap went right into his eye and scratched his cornea! He was mighty uncomfortable for a while there, but fortunately, it healed quicky and says it feels totally normal now.

Hi All!

We had a great time in Sturbridge. It was amazing to meet so many kids and imagine what Brendan might be like in a few years. I have to second the kids panel as one of the meeting hightlights. My favorite line was Sam Mellert (I think he's 12!), when asked if he ever had difficulty hearing his friends, say that generally he had no problems, it was sometimes his friends who were INCOHERENT. I doubt there are many hearing 12 year olds with vocabulary like his. I also thought Chris Barton and her music therapy were amazing. I think a lot of her songs are on www.hearingjourney.com under the tune-ups section in the kids room. She also said she's going to put together a cd.

It was also great to put faces with names from CI circle. I agree that many of the meetings were too short. We should try to arrange regional CI circle meetings.

I wanted to thank everyone for being such a great resource and support system. It relieves a lot of anxiety about Brendan's surgery next week to know that so many others have gone before him.

The good:

Best sessions: David Luterman(sp ??). This guy really, really gets it. If you ever have a chance to talk to him or listen to a presentation, do it. Thanks, Barbara, for the advice. Teaching point: "community" - our deaf kids need people like them. Critical social developmental time is 3rd and 4th grades (here in the states.) Local groups if possible, camps, internet, that sort of stuff if not locally available.

Anything with Christine Barton, a music person. The sessions I went to were lightly-attended, but absolutely fantastic. Our kids can hear, appreciate, and perform music, probably way, way beyond what our professionals tell us is possible. Younger is better.

The "kids panel" session, mentioned by Dean, I think. Sam Mellert did an amazing job.

Meeting old and new CICircle folks - Lisa and baby Brendan and Gramma, Gail and Jake and doing what moms gotta do; Susan Campbell and Suzanne Bidwell and their kids; Debra and Steve (?); Karen Biernat, Lydia and wounded son, new member Dean (thanks for the additional testosterone - this group could use a tad). We spent lots of time with Barbara's family and with Janet and Kate (and Co). I saw Jen Borghyi (way sorry for the spelling!) frequently, others I can't remember now. I saw the Rearwins several times, but never even got to say hi.

Finally meeting with people who work for my son's implant company. They feel like old friends, but actually meeting them is pretty cool.

The bad:

Drive-by interactions with people you really, really would like to talk to more. At the keynote session, Barbara M. pointed out an early therapist for one of her sons, my wife said "I KNOW those people!!", 2-minute talk, session starts, we don't see those people again until we're packing up to leave.

Technology "update" sessions that don't update you on technology. An aside - if someone has a bone to pick with a company, pick your bones before or after the session. Those reps have a job to do, and can give personal attention for as long as you like, after the session.

Too many sessions, too few bodies to attend all the interesting ones. Common complaint, I don't know how this can be fixed. Any session that tries to sell something, which isn't identified as "we're trying to sell you something". (My own personal beef...) It'd also be nice if a "target audience" blurb would be included in
the session description. Something like "this is best suited for families who are considering an implant" or "best suited for adult users of implants", something like that.

I wish there was a place/time for people, like CICircle folks, to meet in a quiet place, where we could just relax. With small kids sleeping, rooms being set up for the next day, trying to figure out who is there and where they are... I found that the dining hall was way too big, way too loud, and way too busy to do much more than say "hi".

What the heck??

Keynote speaker, Michael Chorost, ("Rebuilt") has an AB device - my company. He's been fighting insurance for a long time for a second implant, and it also looks like (please correct me) that he still does not have his own Harmony (the new BTE, which he field tested for AB). wouldn't it make good marketing sense for AB to donate a Harmony to him? He does a bunch of public speaking appearances... I'm obviously missing something...

A "WOWWWWW" moment:

I was dropping Jonah off at the child care room. (This conference does an EXCELLENT job of caring for your children, from very young all the way to teens.) There was a kid Jonah's age, 3 or 4 or so, who probably would have preferred to stay with his parents. This kid was PISSED! He looked at the offending parent, howled in rage, ripped off his device, and hurled it across the room. I've heard that kids do this, but never saw it. As an attention-getting activity, I can see how it could be pretty damm effective. That kid had a GREAT arm. If any of you new parents are concerned with how durable the Freedom BTE is, I can assure you that it's pretty good. (FWIW - not 3 minutes later, that child was happy as a clam playing with other kids in his group.)

My own personal "AWWWWW" moment:

There's a little beach next to a lake. After dinner one night, while wife and friends were still eating, I took Jonah to the beach. It was just getting dark. There were 3 kids there, parents sitting on a bench. Two boys, ages maybe 9, 7, and a girl, 4. They were dashing around, digging in the sand, just doing what kids do. Jonah went over, stood around, and when they dashed away, he followed along like a little very blonde duck. They did this for probably half an hour, back and forth, headstands in the sand, digging holes, whatever. At some point, he and she were standing quietly next to the lake, and he stood up on his tip-toes and gave her a quick peck on the cheek. And then they both dashed off again. I don't think that they ever said a word the whole time they were playing.

This is my second trip to Sturbridge, and each time I come back with new info and new friends. Maybe next time, in two years, we'll stay an extra night, just to enjoy the environment.

So that's my story. Looks like a slow news day, hope I didn't offend!