Milestones

Hold on to your hats...in the last three weeks, three major life milestones have happened upon the Engelharding world.

First, we traveled to California to attend my 20-year high school reunion, an event that stretched over three days with various incarnations of activities and locations, all of which were great fun for me, as I was lucky to be graced with the best high school friends for which a girl could ever ask. Friday we BBQ'ed at my parents' house, Saturday were reunion events at the park (with families) and the bar (adults only), and Sunday we brunched at Sandra's by the pool. What an amazing set of friends I have, I love you guys so much!

Next, we headed up the coast to Patrick's Point State Park, north of Arcata, CA, to camp and hunt for agates with my mom's side of the family. This was P and S's first camping adventure, and they did awesome.

We were accompanied part of the time by Herb, our exchange student from Germany my senior year in high school, who came over for the reunion and made a grander trip out of it. It was great to reconnect with him and show him PP and Aggie Beach...much loved traditions for the Vige-Hardings.

While in the PP area, my mom and her siblings took the opportunity to arrange to scatter my maternal grandparents' ashes in the place they loved so much and introduced us all to many years before. We gathered at Trinidad Head, on a Coast Guard-secured fog horn platform teetering above the Pacific. My aunt Tammy brought a flower for each of us to throw in the ocean after the ashes were scattered. It was a beautiful and fitting tribute.

The above pic is from Christmas 2002 at the Harding's in Los Altos. Grandma Eleanor is holding baby Anika and Grandpa Dick is standing next to my mom.

Lastly, we've been absorbing the news that Skylar has some degree of hearing loss in both ears. We don't yet know the cause, extent, or exact plans for treatment, but suffice it to say this is big news that is all at once validating, scary, and amazing. Validating because it explains the language development that has been lagging behind Paige, as well as certain behaviors and communication difficulties that we feared might be developmental. Scary, because there is still so much unknown about the cause, extent, potential for progression, etc.

And amazing, because my little girl has been compensating so well that we almost didn't even get her hearing tested. She is reading lips. She is a keen observational learner. She is doing well socially with her peers, and knows all her letters and is beginning to spell words. She supplements her verbal communication (which continues to improve in clarity, vocabulary, and length of phrases and sentences), with gestures and signs. In short, she rocks. And I just love her more than anything right now.