Crash course in parenting - Life as a foster mom

OK so after writing my blog last night (which by the way I didn't even want to write, but my husband said I ought to do one, so I did) last night Ben only woke up three times. And one of those times was right before I went to bed, so I only got up with him twice! Whaaaaaat!?!?!?  The last time he woke as around 5 or 5:30, I can't remember exactly. But after I laid back in bed I thought to myself "Boy, I sure feel well-rested...zzzzzzzzz" :) Then this morning I woke up at 7:30 and went to check on him, and he lifted his head up and looked around. I thought for sure he was awake and I rubbed his little fuzzy head, but his head flopped back down and he went back to sleep for almost another hour. Silly baby! Then at church he was fussy because he needed a nap, but when we got home I got him down and he has been asleep for...wait for it...almost 3.5 hours.  What? Whose baby is this?? I snuck in a little nap and honestly I'm rested enough that I just couldn't slee...

Things have been kind of hard lately.  I'm feeling overwhelmed with the kids; they have been super naughty and it is so, so frustrating when you have told them 80 million times not to do something and they do it anyway. Consequences are administered accordingly, but still.  I have been making an active effort to spend more time with them (as opposed to cleaning and those kinds of things). We read a ton of books, and I've just been trying to sit with them and hang out with them a little bit and be accessible (not on my phone or busy with other stuff).  But it just always seems like it's not enough, and the weight of all there is to do is heavy on my shoulders all the time. Ben is still not sleeping well, of course.  I tried to let him cry the other night and after about 45 minutes I was crying myself. It's so hard. I so want him to sleep, and I know I will be a better mom and human being if I can get more sleep. He will probably grow better and be happier if he can ...

This blog will be all about Y. I really should think of a more creative name to call him on here. So yesterday, I was taken aback when I told him "I love you!" after he woke up from nap and he looked at me and said "Why?"  My response was "Well, because you are awesome!" And let's face it, he is! I think he has a budding career as a worship leader.  In the past week or two he has been using a magnifying glass as a guitar and singing worship songs. Mostly they are a hodge-podge of songs, lyrics might be "Welcome to my worship, oh my soul, God is the boss of me!" Some of those aren't actually from any songs that I personally know, but oh well! :)   And he also does little commentary, like "OK, today we are going to sing this song and worship God, so let's practice!"  I was recording him on my phone, and he sang a song for 3 minutes straight (that's a pretty long time!) and finally I quit recording but he kept on singin...

I am sick. Uuughhh.  I don't get sick very often, so I probably shouldn't complain. Last night I couldn't fall asleep until like 11:30, and Ben was up for the day at 5:45, not to mention the 2 (or was it 3?) times he woke up in between.  I have been having a terrible time falling asleep lately, I don't know why. I almost feel like I'm just so tired I can't sleep. I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when I regularly get more than 3 hours of sleep in a row. Anyway, my entire face is congested. When I was nursing Ben to sleep this morning (after he cried for, oh, 2 hours, and I had already tried to get him to sleep 3 previous times), the snot literally dripped out of my nose onto him. So nasty.  I need to take out stock in Kleenex because I'm using a TON of them. My goal today is to do as little as possible, just enough to keep everyone happy and the house from completely looking like a pig sty.  I just want to sleeeeeeep. OK I'm don...

I'm feeling a little bad about being such a home body lately.  I feel like Y and Miss M are getting bored. I mean we leave the house every day twice to walk to C's school to get him (we probably walk over a mile a day), and probably twice a week we go grocery shopping (I find everyone's patience levels, especially mine, are a little better on shorter trips). But other than that we pretty much stay home. I have been reading to them a lot, and they play outside and we color and what not, but still not much in the way of experiences I guess.  I don't really have any friends here yet and we don't have groups or anything that we belong to. So anyway I thought I'd take them to the library to get more books.  Then I saw that the library has story time for preschoolers! I realize most libraries have this. However, when the C-Monster stayed home with me I just didn't have the energy to expend in taking them to a place where I knew he would be completely crazy.  Ser...