The icks!

Been a busy couple of weeks as usual. Last week was VBS and it was in a park this year. So that means lots of chasing Ridlee around. Friday and Saturday of last week I had a Play Therapy training. Friday when I got home I had to take Kieran to Urgent Care for fever and sore throat. Throat swab negative but they would send off for culture. Saturday when I got home I was exhausted and took a nap. Good thing too, because when I woke up her fever got worse and I had to take her to the ER in Talequah. There she tested positive for strep... ugh! 7 hours later we get home at 4 a.m. Sunday on Father's Day in the middle of mine and Steven's Wonder Woman date, the other clinic called back with results... positive! No duh! 
Back to the regular grind this week until Friday again. Steven and Heston went to Oklahoma for Steven to help his dad out at work. I work all day as usual and when I get home things are fine for a few, until 7:15 and Ridlee comes down with a fever. Ah! And Urgent Care closes at 8:00. I rush and take her. Good thing too because she had double ear infection and super red throat. No need to swab. So now she is down, especially when fever hits. Both girls are on antibiotics and I worry about the other 3 and myself since I have to work. Summer is supposed to be somewhat easier on me with Steven home. But thus far this year I have been running crazy. And yup no vacation in site. 
VBS

play therapy training play

My youngest sick girl

Hyperlexia

Sitting here waiting on Ridlee, while she's in Speech therapy and pondering the mysteries of the brain. All my kiddos have had their own unique quirkiness. I too was a pretty quirky child. Ridlee though, from those early days as a super small baby and a sensitivity to any caffeine I drank, has had some interesting quirks. Even in the field I am in, there is constantly a learning curve. It wasn't until recently that I found a term for what she has. And I still don't know what's really under the iceberg of what we see with her. It was around 6 months or so ago that we even knew she knew all her letters, identifying them just out of nowhere. We had not been actively working with her on them. She learned them on her own. We knew she had an affinity for numbers and colors, but the letters shocked us. That's just an example of how we learn what she might know. Her pragmatic speech is delayed, even though she said her first word around the typical age most do. She's just didn't talk as much for awhile. Everything else has come easy and early for her. The past couple of months I've seen a side of her that is both fascinating, yet confusing. She is becoming more fascinated with phonics, to the point that I was even curious if she could be reading before she actually carries on conversations. Apparently you can. I'm learning as I go with this one. But the term is hyperlexia. And there are three types. She is a classic third type. These types are not your neuro-typical child just reading early (that's hyperlexia 1) but these types often have Speech delays and some other odd traits that overlap the autism spectrum, but usually dissipate overtime. Some of those have already dissipated. This brings out so many questions on the brain for me. We truly don't know why one part of the brain can be advanced while another is delayed. When thinking of those injured in accidents this comes to me a lot. Parts recover quickly while others take longer. This one organ holds so many mysteries. I probably think too much on it. I will say this though, I don't want to "fix" Ridlee. Whatever she has is amazing and I love it. She is the sweetest, most affectionate, most stubborn, and active little girl. Her speech will catch up. This is definitely an adventure for sure. And I'm learning things from her everyday. Most of which is helping me in my own profession. #adventuresofRidleeEvangeline #hyperlexia

Catch up...

I will start from today and go back and hopefully not miss anything. 
Today was my first summer 10k and man was it hard. It was hot, hilly, and I didn't carb up enough. It doesn't help that I am actually trying eat super healthy recently and get rid of all the processed crap. Unfortunately a side effect is running performance in races is hindered. I did fine up until mile 5 after many of the hills and just felt a crash. But I still managed a 10k under an hour.

The older kiddos/ the Bigs got home from camp yesterday. They went to the one I went to as a kid in Oklahoma. Small and more like a family. They of course had a blast.

Yesterday also marked one year since we got Harley. It was her celebratory gotcha day. 

I got a chance to take Heston to a play center last week, while Ridlee was at school. This might be the last time for awhile that I got to do something with just him. I took him for coffee/brownie for him that morning, then went and played, and then went to eat. He had fun.

And last but not least the older boys got hair cuts. Gage even went for a new style.

The Bigs still have another camp coming up and VBS is next week. I am hoping I can keep the blog up through the summer, but there is a lot going on for sure.