Sparks Family Blog: 2010 in Retrospect

Wow. It has been a long time! This year has gone by so fast! It has been a good year. This Spring, Jeff and I took parenting classes. They were entitled "Growing Kids God's Way." This is a class I highly recommend. We attended for 18 weeks straight, with 2 other supplement classes. There are no short cuts, as it would be hard to duplicate what goes on in that time frame. I own a set of books by the same authors, with the same precepts in them. However, this class gave week-by-week lessons and assignments in order that we could be on a path of mastery to each component. I am not saying I mastered each week. I am saying I had the time to apply each concept before I moved forward.

Lacey completed her occupational therapy at Aspire. What a great place! The staff is very warm and so helpful! Last year about this time, perhaps a little later, I began to wonder about whether Lacey felt secure. Jeff and I were concerned for her because she not only still sucks her fingers, but she was sucking with more intensity, biting through the skin and then through the callouses. On top of this, she was beginning to tuck her elbow into her shirt, sometimes ripping her clothes, in order to have her arm close by her. Thinking back, she had really been this way all along, but some of the calming comforts had gone away, such as swaddling, the infant swing, and she was big enough that I couldn't really hold her as much. She's a real snuggler.

A very good friend of ours had had some sensory issues with their son. They had been to many different professionals for him. They went through many diagnoses for him, none of which really fit. Finally, last year, a fitting diagnoses was made: sensory processing disorder, or SPD. Now this child just turned 12. (I can't believe it!) And he was vastly different than Lacey. He was really opposite in many ways. Avoided sensations, overwhelmed by "too much" going on around him, low muscle tone, among other things. When a diagnoses was given, the family had relief, as the prescription for this is THERAPY, not drugs.

I googled SPD and found checklists that I used in relation to Lacey. I found two wonderful books: Sensational Kids, and Lacey fit perfectly into the far opposite spectrum from our friend's son of this disorder, so I asked my doctor about it and was referred to an Occupational Therapist for evaluation. Sure enough, Lacey was off the charts as a Sensory Seeker. I can sum that up by saying she's a diagnosed thrill seeker. That's not entirely what it encompasses, but it gives an idea to what my days are like!! God gave me a measure of patience He knew I needed. She's a beautiful girl, and makes me smile. But boy, do I have to watch her!!! At one she was climbing onto the kitchen counters. At two she was jumping off the bar. At three she told me she could "just hop out" of the second story window!!!!! Thank the Lord I saw the gears turning before anything happened. At the time that happened (or didn't happen) we were in the middle of weekly therapy appointments, so the therapist and I teamed up and went over safety issues with her.

Lacey needs "deep pressure" activities to keep her body feeling normal. Swinging, hanging, jumping, squeezing, spinning, etc. Though her appointments have stopped, we do these things at home to help her feel balanced. My sweet Monkey Child. :)

how Lacey gets her clothes from the closet

hippity hop ball. (wonderful for a rainy day!)

In June we began swimming lessons! Megan was our instructor and we had so much fun this summer! I now have two children who can swim! I am afraid of water, so I have avoided pools as a mom. I know this isn't the answer, so I finally made swimming attainable for my kids. We'll definitely do this again next year, as long as Megan is still available. (She is awesome!) Lacey will be really ready by then. The little ones had lessons too, but we didn't get very far with them.

Sweet Kailyn

Maddox (yellow is his favorite color!)

Kailyn and Korbin listening to Megan

Lacey on her back

In July the kids participated in Vacation Bible School. That was such a great week! We took a young group, ranging in age from 3-9 years old. Korbin helped me in my 3 year olds group, since he was too old to actually participate this year. Maddox joined the 3 yr old class with me for one day, so he was very happy to participate with the others in the Friday night show!

There was one day we were hanging out with our friends, who were in the process of moving, and Maddox found a purple Sharpie marker and colored his teeth with it. Half of his teeth were purple. Nothing I could do would get it off! I called the dentist in a panic, and they had him come in the next day. (of course it was 5 o'clock) The situation had resolved itself by that time, and there was no trace of purple left behind.

This August we went on vacation to San Antonio. We visited the Alamo, The Riverwalk, Six Flags Fiesta Texas, and Sea World. Each day was so busy that I couldn't call it relaxing, but it was full of fun!