What you said?

While Carter's commonly asked question, "What you said?" is funny to hear him say, it is important to know if this is a question he asks out of habit or because he was not paying attention...or if he really had difficulty hearing what was said.  This week was his annual visit to the Cranio-Facial clinic at Children's Hospital.  He met with the plastic surgeon who will be making his outer ear in a few years, the ENT doctor who will help create the inner ear, a speech therapist and an audiologist.  The plastic surgeon and ENT did not have anything new to say from last year...which is good.  Last year when the speech therapist came in, Carter got quiet...and Carter is rarely quiet.  This year, however, he answered all of her questions and talked up a storm.  She said that he did great and answered everything the way that a 3 year old should.  She had no concerns at all with his speech development...he sure gets enough practice!  Last up was the audiologist and Carter got to answer questions when he heard them  with the headphones on.  He would also put balls in a bucket when he heard sounds with the headphones on.  She would even have white noise on his left (big) ear and then have the sound he had to react to only on his right (little) ear.  He did very well.  She said that his cochlea seems to be completely normal and that he performed just as someone would without conductive hearing...or someone who has no opening in that ear.    It was funny once when even though she was hiding her hands when she would press a button, he looked at the doctor and asked "have you pressed that button yet?"  Little man was just too smart and had the doctor laughing.  He was such a trooper and never complained at all and did all of the tests exactly as they asked.  He did fall asleep within a couple of minutes of getting in the car however.