Eyes and Floors and Pets. Oh, My!

Kailyn recently had an evaluation for dyslexia. I had surmised that she had this three years ago when she began the 1st grade. I was confused by some of what she did, such as reading words that were not on the page, but were related to the words actually there. At the time, I didn't realize that was also a part of it. I think most people think of dyslexia as simply seeing letters or words or numbers backwards, or in reversed sequence. That is a part of what can happen, but there is so much more than just that. A friend of mine lent me a CD series made at a seminar related to The Charlotte Mason method of home schooling. In this seminar, the speaker made reference to a book entitled, "The Gift of Dyslexia." It took me months to get the book. I was about the 5th person to request it from the library. I did eventually get it, and I'm so glad that I did! It was like putting together a puzzle for me. I had all of these pieces, but I couldn't see how they would ever fit together. Based on my reading, I was convinced that Kailyn was dyslexic. I mentioned this to the eye doctor. She said that Kailyn needed a diagnosis. So I scheduled her evaluation. Sure enough, she is! The eye doctor was so very sweet and encouraging. She did not have anything but encouragement to offer. Kailyn's testing revealed she is very behind in coordination and academics. She had strengths too, as her visual sequential memory scored at the equivalent of a 15 1/2 year old, and a couple where she was right on the mark, but many other facets of the testing revealed deficits with a perceptual age of 4-7 years. Having the test results gives me a great sense of relief. While she is "behind" according to the average, we home school, and she is not doomed to stay "behind." I did learn some things today about how to implement some things to improve where she's at that I hadn't really considered. There are some things she doesn't do well, simply because she doesn't try. She tends to avoid what she isn't "good" at and leave those things for the people who are. It's good for her to still apply herself in these ways. One example is "hidden pictures." She scored pretty low there, but she lets everyone else find things in those exercises. She has the option of therapy, and we will implement that in addition to the curriculum I have found for her. The curriculum is based on the book I read, and the center that created it has a 97% success rate for improving reading skills drastically. She sounded excited about it. We worked well into the summer on our schooling last year, and I won't start school for a couple more weeks.

Kailyn in her new bifocals.

We are finally installing baseboards, and are nearing the stage to re-floor the spare room downstairs. We will transform this "junk room" into a studio! I am picturing a place where we can do school, art, sewing, and other projects. The first step is to clear the junk!!! I don't know how papers find their way into my house so fast. I know they multiply on their own!! After I can clear the space, the carpet will come out, and the flooring will go in! We have finished all rooms downstairs except for the studio and the bathroom. Can I say how much I love NOT having concrete floors?? We chose a product called "Luxury Vinyl," which is a PVC product that is very durable. I have loved having these floors. They do not tear like normal vinyl. There is no paper in this flooring, and it has been a pleasure to walk on! It looks just like hardwood floors. The pieces went down like planks, and we did all of our cutting with a razor blade. (It took a few tries to realize the cutting process involves scoring, folding, and finally cutting.)

Early this year we took a trip to Dallas to visit family and to pick up a St. Bernard puppy. I remember not wanting anymore dogs, but late last year, this area suffered many break-ins and home invasions, many times in broad daylight, and once by a person who looked like a police officer. Jeff was right to say I wouldn't feel safe without a dog. So we got an 8 week old puppy and named him Caleb. He's also been known as "Kitty," or "Buddy," and I don't know what the name is this week. At the moment, he is nearly 8 months, and weighs in at over 90 pounds. He has an average weight gain of 3 pounds per week. He stays inside, due to our lovely hot and humid weather. St. Bernards are most comfortable in temperatures ranging from 30-70 degrees. We've stayed in the range of 92-110 this summer.

caleb at 8 weeks (with rachel)

caleb at 7.5 months (yep, that's rachel!)

This summer Jeff picture texted me one day with a photo of 2 tiny kittens. He had me come pick them up. They had been abandoned in a taped up box with their mother on a 100 degree day. One of the kittens didn't make it. She died of heatstroke. We had to take her to the ER vet. The symptoms of Rabies and heatstroke are very similar. We had to do testing, however, as she was really displaying some frightening behaviors. The test was negative, but we did lose her. The kitty here with us is "Fluffy."

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!

Behind the scenes at Penguin Encounter at Sea World

The Alamo

Sea Lion Interaction Program at Sea World

Jack Sparrow and the Batman at The Magic Time Machine restaurant

Cannery Row Caper show at Sea World

The Riverwalk

For the second straight year we were able to enjoy SNOW!!! It snowed in December here. This was the 5th snow in my lifetime here, and the 3rd for Korbin & Kailyn, and the 2nd for Lacey & Maddox!

frost across the street :)

Leilu was even excited!

Getting 4 kids to take a good picture is an elusive art.

The "bulk" of the snow fell during the little ones' nap time.

So much fun!

additional photos of haircuts

august vacation

For our August vacation time, we made a LONG drive out to North Carolina to see some good friends who moved there last year. Here's Lacey and Cameron. They were so happy to finally see each other! The biggest surprise, however, was the way Cameron just LOVED Korbin! He was everyone's big brother that week. He didn't mind everyone climbing on and roughhousing with him, in spite of the fact that he's usually quiet and not so rough and tumble. We felt like we just got to relax and have a wonderful time there. Harby and Elliot let us stay with them... which made 10 of us between both families and it never felt crowded! It wasn't even until the very end of the time there that Cameron started to seem that she wanted her space back. These photos were taken at the Greenville Zoo in South Carolina.

Once we got home, we decided it was time for the little ones to get their first haircuts. Kailyn decided to donate another 10 inches of her hair to locks of love as well. Maddox was very wary of the stylist until she took the time to make him comfortable with bubbles. What a great experience! He never cried.

Garden "fruits" and other goings-on

This is my FIFTH batch of tomato sauce! It contains garden tomatoes, oregano and basil. I also add some sea salt, freshly ground black pepper and sugar. Makes a great base for spaghetti and other italian dishes.

Isn't this beautiful? I noticed the cloud forming through the front window as I was in the house. The sunset was starting, as you can see a bit if you look at the bottom of the cloud.

For two weeks Maddox had been telling me his foot hurt. He would sit and look at it...much like in the picture and say, "ow" in a whisper. I finally found a splinter in his toe! This is him checking it out after I got finished.

Here are Kailyn Melody and Anna at our Terra Cotta Warriors field trip. I believe they had statues that big for sale! The actual warriors were larger than a man. It was quite fascinating. The favorite was the Shark IMAX. Even I was reaching for the jellyfish right in front of me!!

Good friends, and good food!!

Here is Lacey wearing the same boots that Jeff wore as a little one! Korbin wore them, Kailyn wore them, and now it's Lacey's turn. She is in love with the boots!

This is a sample of our wonderful fruit and vegetable harvest! The tiny pumpkins are called pie pumpkins. I discovered them last year at the grocery store, and it just grew out of our compost!! In the picture there are chinese eggplant (they made a wonderful eggplant parmesan with the homemade tomato sauce from the millions of roma tomatoes we're getting!  There is also plenty of cucumber, bell pepper, and basil, oregano, rosemary and chives. It's so much fun for me to go outside pick something, and cook it!! (I never appreciated that growing up!) What's in the basket with a handle is all that we picked in one evening.

Rebecca, Anna and Joel came to visit us today. The kids played as Rebecca and I sorted through my scrap fabrics and organized them into the zipper bags that came with sheets inside. (Rebecca is so clever!) Anyway, as we were working on this, I had showed her something in my craft room. Now to see anything in that room required a degree in acrobatics, the room was really really really a disaster. Not even a path. When we were later rounding up kids so that they could leave, I walked into the room, which, from the outside of the closed door I was marveling that 4 kids could fit in there in the state it was in, I opened the door, and to my shock and delight found it stunningly CLEAN! 

Because of such a thing I was very inclined to keep up the momentum after they left and turned the bed into a sort of day bed (it's the bottom of a bunk) and I love it!!!! I even hung lots of things on the walls that have been on the floor around the room, brought an extra nightstand downstairs to have a side table for a guest, and hung some dry-erase boards that were given to me so that the kids could do handwriting in a fun way. Thank you, Kailyn and Anna!!!!!