Obviously we’ve become a family that cares a lot more about hearing since Natalie was born. But most importantly, we’re a family that cares about making sure Natalie know that there are other people that look just like her! So we decided to do the Walk for Hearing in Houston this year and invited anyone to come along who wanted to join us.
We even got some of our favorite people to take us up on the offer! We were so excited to have Allie and the Larson clan in addition to Nonni coming with us that I decided to make us shirts for the event! I found a place where you could design and order the most random sizing of shirts and their logo generator had a tsunami wave…
Those of you that know about our youngest’s birth story know that a tsunami warning went off in the hospital room right as she was born. We always refer to her as our little force of nature, so it was such a perfect logo! :)
The walk had some fun activities for the kids in addition to the actual walk. Natalie looooooved staring at the animals in the petting zoo. I wasn’t quite up for letting her in the pen, but she danced for the bunnies from outside the pen anyhow.
There were also several booths for hearing related products. We went over to say hi to the Cochlear people since she has a Cochlear BAHA and they gave her this super cool cape!
A true hearing super hero! :)
But you know who is not a hearing super hero? Her mom who doesn’t carry spare hearing aid batteries and we suddenly realized Natalie’s hearing aid was dead. I felt terrible that she wouldn’t be able to hear well at a WALK FOR HEARING…
We went back to ask the Cochlear representatives if they by any chance had any spares. They didn’t, but went and asked other people. Natalie’s deaf education teacher was also there and she asked all of her families. No luck! But one of the other mom’s did show me her battery holder she always carries with her. So next time we will be better prepared. :(
It was so hot outside! And all of the kids were sweaty and worn out before the walk even started thanks to all of the activities! And since Natalie’s hearing aid was pretty much useless, I took it off since it was just going to get all sweaty.
Thankfully, I had lots of helpers to push the stroller, so I got the chance to take some photos while we were walking! You can just barely see Theresa off to the side - her walk was starting with carrying her youngest. Maybe we don’t arrive early enough to wear the kids out next time.
At least part of the walk was in the shade. But it was soooo hot. Making me long for some Alaskan October days. We were definitely struggling more than the Texans who have been here the last few years.
Everyone wanted to push the stroller though! Which was more than welcome from me unless they started to steer like crazy kids. ;)
We may or may not have skipped part of the walk. It wasn’t intentional, but given how sweaty (and complainy) the kids were, I wasn’t go back to rectify it. I blame the misleading arrows!
And done! I decided Natalie was likely to fall asleep as soon as we got in the car, so I plopped her down to get a meal before we headed out. She really wanted to drink out of our water bottles instead of her thick water, so I finally gave her an empty one to pretend with to make her happy.
We picked up an extra kid on the drive home! The girls were going to look for a guinea pig and Wallace didn’t really want to go, so he was Natalie’s buddy on the drive home. He also stole my hat because he apparently loves float planes sooo much. I ended up having to sneak it back before he really stole it.
So many kids! Ours were playing outside and the neighbors came out to join in the fun. They mostly did a good job staying on the cul-de-sac part of the road, but I was helping on car watch just in case. Overall a super fun weekend and hopefully we can get more people to join us next year!