Visit with Aunt Theresa

This past weekend, Ben's aunt Theresa came to visit. I know Mike really enjoyed having his sister around (and I did too). I sometimes take for granted that my family is all within an hour (except for my grandparents) and is here so much. Mike's family lives in Northern Ohio (4 hours away) and they aren't able to visit as often. Mike's mom will be visiting this coming weekend. I'm sure she will be shocked with how different Ben is now compared to how he was before the holidays last year. It is amazing how curious Ben has become and how he can get anywhere quickly, by rolling. Just yesterday, he rolled into the kitchen and found his way to one of our lower kitchen cabinets. Within a few minutes, he opened one and was knocking stuff out. He doesn't miss a beat!

Ben is becoming a little monster though... he is OBSESSED with pulling on his trach and his cochlear implant. He does it for the attention (and when he is bored) and we are trying everything to break him of these bad habits. We put a hat on Ben to stop him pulling on his implant and that seems to help, but we aren't making any headway with the trach pulling (and this is the dangerous habit). He doesn't quite understand (or care) about the sign for "no". Small slaps on his hands don't work either because they don't hurt him (very high threshold for pain) and he then thinks it is game. We have tried putting arm restraints on for 2 minutes when he starts pulling, but he just sits there and patiently waits for the 2 minutes to be over and then starts all over again. Anybody have any tips for us!

This is the hat Ben spends most of the day wearing to keep his little quick fingers from snatching off the implant on his head. I find it appropiate because the hat has a "grabby" lobster on it.