Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

We went on the trip to the waterpark. It was a pretty fun time! Some of the highlights: - My husband met up with us on Wednesday night so the boys (and I!) got to see him which was awesome. Also, one of the boys needed help with something...and my husband helped him! I realize this is a fairly normal thing but I had been on my own with them for several days at this point and so it was nice and kind of strange to not be the only one doing everything. :) - My parents met up with us too, and the boys were so excited! The little boys played with their doctor set that they got for Christmas and gave both of my parents many, many "shots", cut their hair and their fingers and toes off, listened to their hearts, took them to the hospital, etc. etc. It was very cute. :) - We ate for cheap at the breakfast buffet because kids 3 and under are free (Y is 2 and C is 3), and D still counts as a "child" since he is 12. We also ate lunch at a Pizza Hut buffet and it was less t...

D's mom decided he ought to go to practice today (I agreed with her, which is always a good thing!). So she made him go. I went to pick him up from the visit, and as soon as I walked in M started crying and reaching for me. Bio mom gave her to me and I held her and she was quiet, then when it was time to go I handed her back to bio mom and she started crying again. :( Sad! If she is that attached to me then I can't imagine how attached she is to her foster mom. She has spent a lot of time with me, especially when I did daycare for her 40-ish hours a week...but she has not spent nearly as much time with me as she has with her foster mom! Poor little baby. She is getting to be just as cute as a button! She is always all girled out in tank tops and sun dresses and stuff...adorable. And I'm not technically sure if what she is doing is called "crawling" or not, but she is getting up on her hands and knees and making forward motions. It's slow, but she is...

I really can't. D wanted to play football with a tackle league, because at the middle school level it is only flag football. It makes sense to me, I mean if you are going to play tackle in high school you might as well start learning the rules and proper tackling and all that in middle school, right? So we signed him up, paid $175 for it. Found out that he has practices for 2 hours, three nights a week...so he would have to leave two of his visits early. He would still get two-hour visits on those days. And now? He just doesn't want to go to practice. At all. Doesn't want to play football. Calls it quits. This is the same child that used to say "I spend half of my time at the visits in the basement by myself anyway!" and the same one that said a 7 hour visit is "too long", and also the same child that just got 3 more hours of visitation a week than the rest of his siblings get. Also the same one that has been moping around the house all summer with ...

Yesterday I took the little boys to the museum. I accidentally parked in the wrong parking garage (I know, I know - how does that even happen?) and we ended up having to walk 2 blocks...which is apparently a very, very long way for little boys! On our way back to the garage after our museum excursion, C asked "Can I sleep in the elevator?" Then when we got to the van, "Can I sleep in the van?" Then when we got home, "Are we gonna take a nap now?" I think somebody was a little tired! The other morning, I asked him what he wanted for breakfast. His response? "Michael Jackson!" Today Y bit C on the arm. After sitting him in time out, I told him he needed to tell C he was sorry. He did so, and then C invited him to come sit on his lap. So he did. Then C got tired of it and asked Y to get off, and then Y started chasing him around saying "Yap! Yap!" :) I love these kids! :) Also, it has been so peaceful without D here. Does it make me...

Welp, D left today to go to respite. My husband left to ride his bike. So here I am all alone with the little boys, who are asleep. D told his mom that I was sending him to respite for a few days, and she told him that I was probably going to get sick of him and kick him out! Obviously not true. At all. I am just having a really hard time with him. It's so hard to know when to have a little grace, and when to put my foot down. And it's hard to know why he is acting like this. I mean maybe it doesn't matter, but it would be helpful for me if I understood. I (vaguely) remember being 12, and it is a hard age. I don't know if he is acting this way because of just being 12 and hormones and all that stuff, or if it's something to do with his life in foster care. I feel like he has gotten to the point where he is looking at his time with his mom through rose-colored glasses. He hasn't lived with her in over a year; and he hasn't spent a summer with her in...

Welp, I think it's been a while. Where shall I begin... D has been approved to have monitored visitation with his mom. This will be happening on Saturday afternoons for 3 hours, then the rest of the children will head to the visit for a supervised 4 hour visit. He and his mom both wanted the monitored visit to be on Sunday; D said 7 hours was "too long" to spend at his mom's house. Yes I know, it's extremely odd. Anyway, I am thankful that Sunday didn't work out because that is really our one day a week we can spend with our families or whatever and not have to plan around school and/or visits. How do I feel about this? I have no freaking clue. I mean it's good of course (since the goal is reunification!), and of all the kids I am most comfortable with D being alone with his mom. Part of me has alarm bells going off in my head saying "THEY ARE GOING TO GO HOME SOON!" which may or may not even be correct. I am just trying to go with the flo...

All three of the kids went to the dentist this past week. For C and for Y it was their first time - don't judge me, I had no idea kids could start going as young as 18 months! Otherwise C would have gone, oh, a year or so ago. :) Both of the little boys made me lay down in the dentist chair with them because they were scared. C actually laid right on top of me the entire time, and Y just laid next to me. Y brought his Thomas toy into the dentist, and he made the dentist clean Thomas's teeth too. It was sooooo cute (and the hygienist was so nice to do it and help him feel more comfortable). They both did really good and got new CARS toothbrushes from the dentist! And they each got to pick a prize too. This morning C and I had a lovely conversation: C: Do you need your hair brushed? Me: No, I think it's fine. C: You need to get the comb. Me: No it's OK, I don't think my hair needs to be brushed. C: You DO need to brush your hair. You need to get the comb. Tha...

Y has started talking more and more. It is so adorable to hear him sound out words with 2 or 3 syllables. It's not so adorable when he copies C by saying things like "Immad a yoooooou!" He is just a shadow of his big brother. C asked for milk on his cereal this morning, and Y immediately took up the cry...but continued eating his cereal without milk, because he didn't really want milk on his cereal, just wanted to copy big brother! Some of the gems lately from C: "I'm mad at you!" (with arms crossed and a scowl on his face) "I don't want to stop kicking you!" (during a tantrum when I asked him to stop kicking me. He did actually stop but wasn't happy about it!) "Let's get under the blanket and dance!" (one of the many, many bossy things he says to Y on a daily basis. Y is surprisingly compliant - wish he listened to me as well as he listens to C! :) And from Y: "Really hard!" (making a funny face while poopin...

This is just going to be a jumble, but I better write it all before I forget! D got a job! Sort of. He handed out fliers in our neighborhood for his dog-walking service. One of the guys down the street called back and and said he doesn't have a dog, but he does have a garden full of weeds...and would D be interested in working for him for $6 per hour pulling weeds? So Friday we went and met with him. He seems like a really nice guy, he owns this huge property that he is planning on turning into storage units but for now it is just sitting empty...so he planted an enormous garden which he calls a "community garden" and he plans to donate the produce to the church or to whomever wants to pick it! He said D can work whenever he wants, just to keep track of his hours...and he would pay D bonuses if he does a good job! So far he's worked for 2 hours and made $20. Pretty sweet! Wish I could have made $10 an hour when I was 12! Sheesh! D's camps are all done for the...

Welp it was a pretty good day! My husband went and did a 50-mile bike ride and I stayed home with the boys (on the 3rd I did a duathlon and he stayed home with them, so it was a bit of a trade-off). Y woke up early and I rolled out of bed and grabbed him, then put him in our bed with me on my husband's side since he had already left. I got a little bit more sleep, but pretty soon Y was nudging me with his foot and putting his fingers in my nose and eyes. So I got up and held him...and then he ate breakfast...and then he wanted to be held. And held some more. I held him probably a good hour or hour and a half! It's nice sometimes to do that. :) We went and played at the park, and after nap time all of us went to the pool. The little boys are so different at the pool than they used to be! C used to SCREAM the whole time unless we let him sit on the steps. He wouldn't even stand on the ground in the very shallow end. Now he jumps up and down in the water unassisted and...

Here is your darn old picture, Kim! ;) I put them in order from most crappy to least crappy. As you can see the one on the far end has a LOT of space in it. I think this is OK since it is filled with liquid, not air. I have read up on some ways to tell if food is spoiled or not, so hopefully we won't get botulism! It appears the lids have all sealed correctly so that's good. I think we'll still eat that jar with a lot of space in it right away though - at this point it is fine because really all it is is peaches that I cooked yesterday. :) They do look pretty, though. Aside from the somewhat disconcerting floating fruit. I am ready for another canning challenge! I have one tiny tomato on my plants, it is maybe one inch in diameter. Also my first Anaheim pepper is about 2 inches long. Can't wait to get down on canning some home made salsa!