Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

The two littelest have been very sick. Pretty much since Friday.  Sunday I stayed home with all 3 from church. Y was a zombie sitting on the couch for about 2 days straight, poor guy! Got them to the doctor on Monday.  Stayed home with all 3 Monday. Had to wake them up from their naps to get them to the doctor and Y started crying and said "When we get back from the doctor can we sleep some more???" Then Y and M only stayed home all day on Tuesday. But on Tuesday I had to drive my husband around for his work for like 3 hours in the morning, so they came with us and coughed in their car seats (and slept!).  We got home, ate lunch, and they laid down for nap. Then I had told a friend I'd watch her almost-2-year-old during her doctor appointment, and he came over during "nap" time. But would not nap.  I think developmentally he is a little "off", not a normal 2 year old by any means.  So I was basically chasing him around the entire time, he would not...

Our attorney FINALLY received our adoption packet yesterday.  Her assistant called today to go over some details. First, nobody ever filed anything for D's dad to give him notice.  I am shocked. That was sarcasm, FYI. I'm pretty sure I started asking about this back in, what, July? June, maybe?  Now here we are, October 26, one month away from our hoped-for adoption date, and it is still not done. So basically the paralegal said she did a bunch of research on D's bio dad, found his last known address in his juvenile court records, and that unless she can find anything else then she will publish in that city. She has to publish a notice to him once a week for 3 weeks, then he has 5 business days from the last notice to file a petition contesting the adoption. Then if he doesn't do that, she will have to file a notice of what they did and that he never contested, and THEN the adoption can go through. Because of the Thanksgiving holiday we are cutting things a little s...

Yeah you should be proud, 2 days in a row! Just because I have a lot more stuff to talk about. D asked me a few days ago, "Can we see our mom next year?" He has never asked what our agreement with her was as far as contact, I'm sure he assumed (or may have been told) "They won't let me see you."  I explained to him as delicately as I could what our agreement states, that she has to initiate contact but she can have two visits a year, one around Christmas and one around Mother's Day.  And that, again, it is up to her to initiate. Our phone numbers have never changed, she knows them and knows where we live. He asked why she had to initiate. I explained that she moves around, her phone number is always changing. In fact right now we do not have a current address or phone number for her.  Also that we didn't want to be the ones to track her down because we can't be sure of what kind of "place" she is in. I believe that is how I put it. ...

I should really write more blogs, that way when I do write they don't have to be 80 million paragraphs long. Sorry! :) Soooo last Saturday we had Miss M's birthday party. It was so fun! I had a really fun time picking out GIRL things, girl gifts, pink cake and frosting, and decorating. I tried the trick of filling a plastic baggie with frosting and cutting a corner and piping. It turned out really well actually and the cake was pretty cute.  It was a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting, and then I made strawberry cupcakes with pink frosting and also used pink frosting to decorate the cake. She got lots of dolls, doll accessories like a stroller, crib, and swing, doll clothes, clothes for herself (which were alll adorable).  We got her a bike helmet and a camping chair, and she loves both of them so I guess that's ok!  Fun and cake were had by all.  The little boys have been playing with the dolls too. It's as though there are no other toys in the h...

Well after puking up the first thing he ate this morning, the C monster has not puked again today! I felt so bad, I was just letting him eat little bits of food at a time and then waiting to see if he could keep it down or not. He was STARVING, which I can't blame him, he hadn't been able to keep anything down since breakfast yesterday. Every 5 minutes he would ask "Can I eat some more now?" I think he is finally full. :) Anyway, we watched Sesame Street and Dino Train all morning, and this afternoon I am trying to get some work done while he is playing in the basement play room next to my office. He is talking, talking, talking...I'm not sure if he thinks he is talking to me or what, but the poor child is not used to having nobody to play with and I think he kind of doesn't know what to do with himself. So he is just running his mouth, singing random snatches of songs, just generally making noise. It's kind of hilarious. Y and M might have to get pi...

If you try to calm a hysterical 2 year old by singing "You are my sunshine" and rocking her in the dark...and then start to get all choked up at the thought of someone taking one of your babies away. Hormones, I tell ya what! The song did work, though. :) Also a bit of random information: yesterday I had a piece of chocolate cake and laid down for a nap. Normally I sleep on my tummy and so far it hadn't caused too many problems. But yesterday when I laid down all I could feel was "flutter flutter flutter". I could hardly sleep because the baby was tickling me on the inside. I think she likes chocolate cake as much as I do. ;) Got a call from preschool today that C was puking, so I went to get him about an hour earlier than usual. He puked all his lunch, and was just puking stomach acid the rest of the night. He can't even keep water down. If we all get sick I have no idea how i'm going to deal. Normally I have a pretty tough stomach but today as I wa...

My little darling spitfire Miss M is 2 years old today. A little over two years ago in June/July 2010, we had just accepted 1-year-old Y, 2 year-old C, and 11 year-old D into our home.  We had never had children before.  I was staying home during the day with the little boys and was struggling mightily with C's enormous tantrums and everywhere I turned for help I got NONE.  Shortly after the boys were placed with us we heard that their bio mom was pregnant. I knew they'd ask us to take the baby. They have to; after all we had all the siblings and technically we had the room. Bio mom asked us to take the baby. The state asked us to take the baby. I begged my husband to take the baby.  She was due in November, but often had her babies early so September/October was looking like the more likely time for birth. In my heart I knew, I KNEW that I could not do it.  I was barely getting by trying to be a stay-at-home mom, keep up on my work for our business, etc...

Welp, had a follow up baby appointment today. Everything looked good I guess. I've only gained 2 pounds in the last 4 weeks so I am OK with that. Baby's heartbeat was 150.  She showed me a picture of what a baby looks like at 14 weeks - it looks HUGE compared to what it looked like only 4 short weeks ago!  And it looks like a real baby.  She said she wants to wait until 20 weeks to have the next ultrasound, so that will be in mid-November sometime.  I guess at some point I have to make up my mind on if I want to find the sex out ahead of time or not. I want to wait until birth but I just don't know if I can!  We aren't getting any kind of genetic testing or anything like that, so the 20 week scan will be our next change to see the baby. You guys. I have a baby growing in my belly. Can you believe how crazy that is???  I am still trying to wrap my brain around it. I mean, I know he or she is in there. I've known for over 2 months now. But with every appoin...

For Hire: Someone willing to coach a 4 year old with chronic constipation and explain to him on a daily basis why poop is necessary and that everybody poops.  Must be able to encourage said four year old and sit with him for hours upon end encouraging him to set his poop free into the toilet. Ear plugs (in case of intermittent screaming or yelling) will be provided. Pay is negotiable, must be available to work 24/7, especially afternoons and evenings.  Must be patient and not prone to laughter during yelling fits of "I'm NEVER gonna poop!" and "Fine, then I'm not being your friend!"  Must clean poop out of underwear, off the floor, and any other place that it may land.  Must be able to spot a "poop incident" before it occurs and rush child to the toilet.  May require lifting up to 35 pounds. Until we can find someone to fit these stringent requirements, I guess I'll have to fit the bill. *sigh* I hate constipation. And I wish he believe...

It's been a while since I blogged so this might be a long one. Sorry! :) Parent-teacher conferences were last week.  The day before D made a point to tell me that he had several poor grades but had plans to bring them up.  I think he was pretty nervous.  My husband went with D; normally I take him but I figured that Brian ought to have a turn and honestly I knew that if there were problems he would have a better idea of how to handle them and how to handle D as well.  My husband is a brilliant man, you know. :) Well, he had a couple D's, some C's, and I think one A+ (science, his favorite class - go figure!).  Brian and I have been talking about not focusing on grades so much as effort level - if  child is truly trying their hardest, doing all their homework, studying, and the best they can manage is a D, well then good on them for passing their class. D never brings homework home. If he does have to work on homework on the computer (like a presentati...