So as some of you will know, in April next year two will become three.

Five years after our beautiful daughter Alice joined the world, Alice and Joseph will have a new brother, and us a new son. We couldn’t be more delighted and Alice is coming round to the idea that being the only girl is actually a good thing.

Meet 'Bob'

This, of course, got me thinking.

Having never been offered the opportunity to finally work out the cause of Alice’s ANSD, we have no idea whether this will be a risk for the new addition (affectionately known as ‘Bob’). Given the proven genetic causes of ANSD, will Bob be born into the hearing or the deaf world?

And here’s the crux of it. I couldn’t care either way. Being entirely selfish and honest, Alice’s ears are a bit of a faff. They are time-consuming and the cause of endless stress when one goes missing (she managed to drop one on the radiator the other morning while bringing them to us to put on – an hour later we found it, hanging there by its magnet….). Alice and we have been on a pretty arduous journey these past few years. Alice has coped as if nothing had ever happened (countless assessments, countless therapy sessions, two 4-hour surgeries) but at the end of it all Alice is still Alice. Alice is still the same Alice she was before we ever found out about her ANSD. She makes us laugh and cry and we love her very much.

So to God: If you do decide to bring Bob into the world with ANSD we know what we are facing now. Rather us than someone less prepared. But just don’t try to catch us out like you did last time. And if you could help those clever Scientists at Cochlear to invent a device for finding mislaid N5s, I’d be most grateful.

So last week we had Alice’s first Parents’ evening; a chance to talk to Alice’s classroom teacher about how she is getting on.

We both came away full of tears. Regardless of her progress, it was so wonderful to talk about Alice rather than Alice’s deafness. We have always said that we didn’t want Alice to be defined by her hearing problem and here was the eveidence that, for now at least, we are winning.

Alice is getting on really well. In academic terms she is spot on where she should be and she is a popular and chatty member of the class. She is learning to read – something we thought she would really struggle with, and is something of an artist. We are trialling a dynamic soundfield system in her classroom at present, so I hope this is helping – it moves around the school with her and the teachers are reporting good things – she has certainly managed to learn the songs for the nativity….

Anyway, a snippet of Alice showing off for you…