Andrew Whalen

By Andrew Whalen

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A baby born deaf cracks a subtle smile when her hearing aid is activated for the first time, then appears to valiantly hold back tears as a range of emotions play over her face when her mother expresses love.

The original video, titled "My baby hears me for the first time and is almost moved to tears!" posted by Christy Keane in October 2017, has more than 47 million views. Her baby, Charly, used hearing aids beginning at two months old and was the recipient of a cochlear implant when she was ten months old.

Keane, Charly's mother, called the video "one of the most special moments in our life."

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Now, Charly's adorable reaction is finding new life on Reddit, where it made an explosive re-debut on a subreddit called r/Aww, which specializes in everything cute. The post "Baby hears her mothers voice for the first time and is almost moved to tears" garnered more than 23,000 upvotes on Thursday.

Because Keane continues to share Instagram and YouTube videos of her three children, describing herself as a "multi passionate mom navigating motherhood and raising and deaf and hearing kiddos," people can see what the ultra-viral baby is up to now that she's a few years older.

While Charly, short for Charlotte, has regular speech therapy, she has also learned American sign language, beginning with the sign for 'milk,' which she began signing before first speaking.

View this post on Instagram

Charly’s first sign (as she tries to latch the couch lol) 🤟🏻 I still remember the pride I felt in this moment. I have ALWAYS equally shared our moments of “firsts” on this journey as hearing parents raising a Deaf child and have been exposing ourselves & Charly to ASL since the day of diagnosis. Literally within HOURS we were learning basic sign. Dude- my heart hurts as I have read comments from people persecuting and shunning some of the amazing Deaf mentors who have embraced us on this journey. These Deaf mentors have encouraged us and GENTLY sat us down and shared with us the rich history and culture that is important to them and why cochlear implants are a sensitive topic within the community BUT they never turned their backs on us. They EMBRACED us. They are honest, open minded, and supportive. They understand hearing loss isn’t a “one-size-fits-all”. They made us feel welcome and eager to learn such a beautiful language. Someone wrote this comment to a particularly amazing friend who spends her life dedicated to teaching ASL and raising awareness for language for Deaf children : “WHAT? You support this?... Dissapointed in you. I will stop referring my hearing friends to your IG.” That’s a DAMN shame. Truly. The divisive attitude and judgement IS pushing hearing parents away from embracing and learning about Deaf culture and identity. Sad. But as always- culture, confidence, & identity starts at home and as long as you’re giving your child love and language you’re doing a great job🤟🏻 #asl #deaf #cochlearimplants #deafculture #deafkidsrock #signlanguage #editing #momlife #reelmom

A post shared by Christy Keane (@christykeanecan) on Aug 20, 2020 at 6:27pm PDT

"It is really important to me that, regardless of her cochlear implants, that Charly has a strong deaf identity and ties to the deaf community," Christy told Good Housekeeping in 2018. "We appreciate everyone's love and support from around the world and we can't wait to see what amazing things Charly will accomplish in her life."

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In her most recent video, posted in August, Keane addressed some of the most common questions she's heard about Charly's cochlear implants, which include both an external sound processor that attaches to the side of Charly's head with a magnet, and an under-skin implant connected to what Keane describes as an "electrode array" placed in her inner ear.

"My experience and what we chose for our family might not be what somebody else would choose for their family, and I completely understand that. I'm not here to judge anybody," Keane says in the video. "As long as you are giving your child love and language you are doing a great job."

View this post on Instagram

Yes magnets could stick to her head but no she won’t stick to the fridge 🙄🤣🤟🏻 If you’re new here, Charly was born completely Deaf and got cochlear implants at 10 months old and can hear with them on. She’s now 3 and can now listen and speak as well as sign! She is an amazing little girl! #DeafKidsRock #ASL #cochlearimplant #ci #lsl #speechtherapy #speechtherapist #viral #cochlear #editing #momlife #motherhood #reelmom #reels #momsofreel #darlingcharly #charlyshearingjourney

A post shared by Christy Keane (@christykeanecan) on Aug 9, 2020 at 6:55am PDT

Now that she's three-years-old, Charly has been playing with makeup, cuddling her younger sibling and acting like a classic picky eater:

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This plate is a picky eater hack 🤯 (probably one of my most viral videos on tiktok!) Linked in bio on my Amazon lists under Cool Parenting Products #momlife #parentinghacks #hack #lifehack #reelmom #editing #viral

A post shared by Christy Keane (@christykeanecan) on Sep 2, 2020 at 6:36pm PDT

Newsweek reached out to Keane via email to learn what Charly has been up to since, but did not hear back by time of publication.

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