I have nothing in particular to write about at the moment, so I'll just write an update. Since the last entry about Levi's baptism, we've been working away and having a fabulous summer. Elder Womack went home shortly after Levi's baptism, but we've kept in touch with him through the miracle of social media and will be seeing him in July while he's up here visiting. It has been so fun being a part of the church with Levi. Hadley has started to be a little clingy, so when Levi takes her to nursery, she tends to cry for five or ten minutes and then is fine for the remaining hour and a half. She always has a huge smile on her face when I come pick her up and she's usually drawn a pretty picture for me (how the women in nursery can get her to hold still for one second to color is beyond me!)
I was called to teach the 5 and 6 year olds in primary and I LOVE it. The kids literally say the darndest things and I come home each Sunday filled with stories about the kids. I love singing the primary songs that I grew up with and I like reading the lessons and learning the basic fundamentals of the church. I find myself as fascinated with the pictures that are used in the lessons as I was when I was in primary myself. Levi was called to scouts and has really liked it so far. He also likes attending Young Men's a couple times and month and really enjoys hanging out with the men of the ward. He even went on the ward campout, which was originally a fathers and sons event, but then got opened up to all the men in the ward, since our ward is so tiny. We love our ward and we love how accepting people have been. The missionaries kind of dropped out of sight after he got baptized, and we haven't had any lessons since then, but we are doing okay and learning things together. I think they thought that because I was raised LDS that we wouldn't need any more lessons, but that is far from true, as I'm still finding so many things that I don't know or can't remember. We have made some really great friends in the ward and enjoy spending time with them and their children, who are Hadley's age, as much as possible.
My work has been busy, despite a year full of bad news for the company. I'm just riding it out and seeing where it can take me. I actually got a nice bonus this year, so it can't all be bad, right?
Levi's shop is busier than ever. We are so blessed!! He hired a great guy named Matt, who used to work with his at the last shop, and the two of them are super busy and having a great time. The perks of his job can't even be numbered...there are so many! I still can't believe how lucky we are and we just hope that business continues to grow and Levi reaches his goals.
Hadley has been in speech therapy for over three months now and we're seeing lots of progress. We have a speech and an occupational therapist that come from the state to our home, and then once a week we take her to a great place called Kaleidoscope where she gets 45 minutes of speech therapy and 45 minutes of occupational therapy.
Initially both the state and Kaleidoscope's evaluation of her was so disconcerting. At 25 months she had the expressive and receptive skills of a 12 month old. At the time, Hadley had a very hard time concentrating and didn't seem to understand anything we were saying. Now, she has such a bigger vocabulary, saying about 30-40 words without prompting, and her attention span is so much better. She definitely has some sensory issues (SPD), and doesn't do well with sudden noises, babies crying, etc. and also has sensitivity to taste and touch, hence her picky eating. We have also been taking her to a physical therapist about once every ten days, who discovered that Hadley's head plates are tight, which is common with kids who were in the birth canal for too long, and this could be a big source of her sensory issues. She has been doing some cranial therapy, which basically looks like she's just resting her hand on Hadley's head, but we've already seen a lot of improvement since the first time we saw her. I'm confident that we will look back on this time with all of her therapy and be so grateful that she was able to overcome her problems. She is so perfect and I have a hard time thinking that she's struggling with anything. She is surrounded by so many people who love her and want to see her happy, so I know that she knows she's supported. I have relied heavily on faith and prayer to get us through this and continue doing the right thing for her.
So far this summer we've had fun taking Hadley to the zoo, swimming, going on lots of bike rides (Hadley LOVES sitting in her bike seat and pats Levi's back all throughout the bike ride) playing at the park, filling up her swimming pool in the backyard, playing in her great playhouse, and many other things. We've had visitors this summer, like my niece Rachel and my sister Laurie, and we're planning to go to Utah in August for Labor Day weekend. I'll update again soon and talk about my amazing anniversary and birthday, Redfish Lake, the building and completion of Hadley's cottage, and many other fun things.
Until then, here's some fun pics of our summer so far:
