Our first teenager

Kaykay has been with us for a month now. It's going a lot better than I was worried about. She spent a lot of time in her room the first week, which made me worry about getting to know her. If you can't talk to someone and they don't talk to you, how do you know what their needs are.

Kaykay really opened up after the first week. We talk a lot now. I actually think we are becoming pretty close. She told me about her family and I told her a little about mine. She has only been in foster care since she was fifteen, so about two years. For only being seventeen and what she's been through, she has pretty good goals. She wants to go the college and knows what she wants to do.

I told her I would do everything an adult has to do to get her into college but she has to do her part. I'm talking to the social worker about Kaykay staying in the foster program until she's twenty-one so she can go to college and not worry about a place to live, transportation and a job.

The only problem that we are having is her using her cell phone a lot and staying up too late. She gets up on her own in the morning for school, but is pretty tired when she gets home, but she still stays up. It hasn't really been a problem but I want to see her grades at the end of this session. We may have to restrict the time of the cell phone usage.

She has a boyfriend but that hasn't really been a problem either. Although I wish he would call before he shows up. I actually told Kaykay to suggest that to him so we can have the option of saying yes or no to his visit. He doesn't drive so he has to arrange someone to pick him up and I think he waits until he needs that ride before he thinks about it. Seems like a good kid though.

Gone but not Forgotten.

The "three" left in early July. Right before Ike's birthday. We knew it was going to happen soon but when I got the phone call from the caseworker it really hit me that they were leaving. I had become pretty attached to Ike and Flower. I actually got most of the kids stuff together the night before in preparation for the court decision. The Aunt called about a half hour later and we arranged for her and her husband to pick the kids up. They picked the kids up within 3 hours of us getting the call. I didn't tell the two little ones they were leaving but I did tell Ike. He was okay with it but I think he wanted to stay. He did however, decide to leave his bike and scooter here so he could have it when he visits. I think he just wanted to leave roots.

Their Aunt brought them back for a visit, the next week, and so we could give him his presents. DH gave him a race track and I gave him a Teddy bear I made at Build-a-Bear with a special voice recording just for him. He really liked both his gifts.

I've kept in contact with the Aunt. In fact, I talked with her the other day. She told me that Sugar Ray is having problems. He's not talking as clearly, he looks right through you, he won't or can't follow simple instructions, and he cries or whines when asked to do something. Anyone that has experience with Autism might recognize these signs. She is having him evaluated for Autism after speaking with a relative who's child has Autism. Even though Sugar Ray got on my nerves, it still breaks my heart to think of him as having Autism. There is no way that the mother will ever be able to take care of him, if that's the case. She has her own problems.

The mother is in rehab and may possibly get the kids back afterwards. Ike is not happy about that decision at all. I don't really blame him but maybe she will be okay after she gets help.

We have not seen the kids since that first visit. I wondering if we will ever see them again. We can only pray and hope for the best for those children. We both miss them and I think of them every day. I wonder if that's the way it's going to be with every child?

Soon to be three less

Some of you might think after the lice thing, I gave up. It's just that we've been so busy since the kids are out of school. We still have all five kids, for now.

We think the Ike, Sugar Ray and Flower will be leaving us soon. They are going to live with their great Aunt and Uncle. They are nice people and we think they will be happy there. The kids have been seeing their mom during the weekends that they are with their Aunt. Mom hasn't shown up for her visits during the week, for the past three weeks. I have a feeling they won't be going back with her. I'm hoping the mom will give the Aunt guardianship or even give up her parental rights.

I think Ike's father will give up his rights, Sugar's father is unknown and Flower's dad is going to be spending more time incarcerated than originally thought. I don't think there is any way he will get any of the kids after he gets out.

Flower had her 1st birthday last month. I made her a pretty little birthday dress and cupcakes. I was so impress with myself for the way the dress turned out. One of the neighbors knew I was looking for a dress, but instead of a dress she found a little tshirt that said "Birthday Girl" on it. I cut the bottom off the tshirt and sewed material on to make it into a cute little dress.

Ike's birthday is next week. DH wants to get him a race track and either give it to him early or take it to him next week. The Aunt said she would like us to continue to see the kids and we think it would be a good idea, at least for Ike's sake. He has become very attached to us. He told me the other day, he wishes I was his mommy. We have been snuggling in the evening, after the little ones go to bed and before his bedtime. We usually watch something on TV that we both pick out. He told me he never knew what snuggling was until he came to our house. I think that's so sad.

I hate to say it but I will probably not miss Sugar Ray. He gives me such a hard time. I know it's his age, but he cries every time I ask him to do something or even ask him if he wants to do something, like go outside. I don't think he even thinks about what I'm saying before he starts whining.

Flower used to scream like crazy but she has gotten so much better. We have got her off formula and only give her baby food occasionally. We mostly give her table food cut into little pieces. She still gets a bottle, but we give her milk instead of formula. I'm going to miss her most of all. If I had a choice, I would keep her.

Speaking of keeping, we got the good news that Princess' dad has signed off on Little Prince. We can go ahead towards adoption! We already have a lawyer that will handle all the paper work and the kid's caseworker is thrilled and is providing us the nessessary information. Little Prince has picked out a new middle name. We are changing Princesses spelling of her first name and adding DH's mother name for her middle name. I can't give the names yet but hopefully soon. Hopefully we don't run into any snags along the way.

Wrote but forgot to post!

As anyone who has read "Notes from Mickey" lately realizes, Princess hasn't said a word in several months. Yesterday, DH called me at work to tell me that Princess was in a really good mood and came up to him, in the kitchen, and said "Mama". DH told her "no, I'm daddy", she said mama again and he said "no, I'm daddy". Then she said "Mom!", he said "daddy", she said "MOM" quite clearly and forcefully and then ran off laughing. This is exciting! I told him I didn't even think she thinks about me but then he reminded me, we don't know what she thinks. I wish I heard her say words but hopefully it will come eventually. She did say "yum" the other day after I gave her a cookie, but I thought it was more of a sound than a word.

We have been working on Ike's behavior at school. He has never acted out at home but he has rotten school days. He got suspended again last week and he had only been there for 10 minutes! I actually think it was wrong for them to send him home. He doesn't hurt anyone but he does knock thing off tables or knock chairs over. Anyway, they called me at work to tell me we need to pick him up. I had to call DH who was on his way to take Princess to school. Like I said, he had dropped Ike off about 10 minutes before that. It took him about 30 minutes to get back to pick up Ike. Ike spent most of the rest of the day in his room. I don't know why he had so much anger. He's only six. He had another bad day on Wednesday of this week but he at least was able to stay in school. They called me to let me know and I told them they could not keep sending him home. I didn't tell them but he has a right to an education and this school is suppose to specialize in behavior problems like ADHD. Right after school he had therapy. The therapist started a behavior chart which has worked for the last two days. He has to get 4 stickers in a week to get a prize. He gets a sticker for each "happy face" and each "okay face" he receives. He is graded in the morning and the afternoon. Thursday he received a one of each and Friday he received two stickers. It's only been two days and he was received four stickers already!

L*I*C*E

As you can tell by the title, one of my worst fears have come true. When we first start the foster care process, I feared having head lice come into our home. Well, it happened last Thursday.

I dropped three of the children for a parental visitation and within five minutes, the worker who was supervising the visit, called to tell me they found lice on Sugar Ray's head. GROSS! The mom wanted me to shave his head but she did it before I picked him up. I immediately checked Princess and Little Prince's heads. I didn't find anything but then I didn't know what I was looking for. I called my sister in hopes she could tell me what to do. She told me what to look for but I still didn't find anything on their heads. After I picked the kids up, we stopped at a pharmacy to get RID or something like it. I talked to the Pharmacist first and was told I shouldn't use anything like that with the younger children and that I should contact their doctor. I got lucky and was able to talk to their Pediatrician. He suggested using olive oil over night and then call if I found anything in the morning. I double checked all heads when I got home. I didn't have to worry about Sugar Ray because he no longer had hair but I checked the baby and Ike's. I didn't find anything. I rechecked the other two but noticed nothing unusual. I gave Little Prince and Ike hair cuts.

Ike's hair was already short so I just trimmed it. Little Prince lost quite a bit along the sides and the back. I left quite a bit of length on the top. I washed all the bedding in hot water and put all the stuff animals away. I thought we were safe - until the next morning.

Before my day even began, I woke up early with a migraine. I ended up calling in to work. My day just got worse from there. First I gave everyone a bath and checked heads again. I check LP's first. I found two live ones! I immediately put Olive Oil on LP's head and wrapped it in glad wrap. I also soaked my hair with Olive Oil. I had been itching but I was hoping it was psychological. I washed all the bedding again. I left the oil on my head all day but I washed LPs out after about two hours. I then took him outside and told him I was going to cut his hair like daddy's. He liked that idea. I cut it pretty short on the sides and left about 3/4 of a inch on the top. It looks really cute, kind of like the kid on the movie "Jerry McGuire". Later, I was looking at my head in the mirror and found a slow moving "bug". I guess the oil did something but I was grossed out by it. I put more Olive Oil in my hair, wrapped it with Glad Wrap and then took out my blow dryer to heat my head up. I don't know if it did any good because after that DH ran up to the store for some Lice treatment.

He was so sweet, he did my hair for me. I didn't like the thought of using a pesticide on my head but the thought of bugs in my hair was worse. It was funny the next day at work. I got two comments about how good my hair looked. I told my friend I should "do" hot oil treatments more often! Anyway, I think they're gone now. I'm going to have DH do another treatment on me this weekend just to be sure. I still don't know where they came from. The only two that go to school didn't have them. Maybe I got them from work, from a patient? Who knows.

Princess and the pea?

Princess has been doing very well for the past several weeks. The one thing she does, that I can't figure out, is her eating habits. For instance, I gave her fresh cut strawberries with her dinner the other night. She liked them and ate everything on her plate. A few days later I did the same thing but for breakfast, she refused to eat them. When I told her to eat, she stuck one in her mouth and would not chew it or swallow it. She even drank her juice with that piece of strawberry in there! The strawberry was still in there, when I took her to school, forty-five minutes later. Finally she swallowed it before the teacher got her out of the vehicle. She has done the same thing with chicken, beans, broccoli and carrots. One day she likes them and the other she acts like we are trying to poison her. I say that because DH was reading about Autism one day and he said that their sense of smell and taste is very strong that sometimes it's too much. Maybe hers changes from day to day.

Well, she was almost potty trained a year ago but went backwards for several months. We had to start reminding her to go to the potty and most of the time her response was crying and running to the bathroom. Once she was in there and on the potty, she would be fine. Starting in March she stopped the crying but we still have to reminder. She wears big girl panties during the day and pull ups at night. She hasn't had an accident for quite some time and has woke up dry for the past four days. She has even went in on her own a couple times over the past week.

Little Prince has been doing well the past couple days with not having an accident in his big boy pants. I think it might have changed when I asked him if he was peeing in his pant because he saw Sugar Ray do it. He told me "yes" which surprised me but he hasn't had an accident since. He has, however, continued to do things that Sugar gets in trouble for. My mother told me to ignore it but how can I give him the impression that it's OK for him to do it and not Sugar. I know he's doing it to get attention but I give him a lot of attention anyway. It was funny last night, when I got home, both him and Sugar came running to the door - mommy, mommy, mommy. It feels good but on the other hand I feel bad they don't do that to DH. I sometimes wonder if I should tell Sugar to call me by my name instead of mommy. I don't mind if he calls me mommy if it makes him feel safer. Sugar and LP do a lot of things together and I know they are learning good things from each other too.

DH ordered that program to teach your babies to read. Both LP and Sugar watch it twice a day. After the DVD, we do the word cards with LP. There are ten cards and yesterday LP got every word right without any hints. We only started the program less than three weeks ago. We are so proud of him. I bet he will be able to read by the end of the year.

Is the Stress too much?

I don't like to write about negative things but I think the stress is finally getting to me. It's not just one thing, it's everything together. Each child has contributed to my stress in the last few weeks. The children are not really to blame, it's really the way I deal with the situations that come up. We will start with the littlest person in our home.

Flower is the baby that doesn't sleep through the night. I can probably tell what you're thinking - get up and put a pacifier in? Oh no, she doesn't take a pacifier she either wants to be held or she wants a bottle. We make sure she has a full belly at bedtime but she still wakes up every 3 to 4 hours and stays up for about 20 minutes to a half hour. So it's not just disturbed sleep, it's get up, stay up until you're wide awake then try to go back to sleep so you can work in the morning. The only thing she responds to is patting her bucket harder than she should like it. I'm really wondering if she was a drug baby. I know some of the drugs babies, that I've come in contact with, like more physical stimulation when trying to calming down. If you pat her bucket she usually goes back to sleep. At least she can't get out of her bed like Sugar Ray does.

Sugar Ray stays asleep but he has a heck of a time getting to sleep. I bet I had to go upstairs five times last night to put him back in his bed. I've tried to be comforting but kneeling down by his bed and rubbing his back until I thought he was asleep but it never fails - as soon as I get back downstairs he's back, at his gated doorway, crying. I have also tried getting upset with him and that doesn't work either. It wasn't any better when he was sharing a room with Ike. We had to move Sugar Ray to a room of his own because of what we found out at Ike's school meeting.

Earlier in the week Ike had another bad day at school so I decided to meet with his teacher for about five minutes to let Ike see that I talk to his teacher and his teacher talks to me. His teacher, Ms. Sped and I have been using a communication book so I know exactly what is happening at school. We made a deal with Ike that if he is a good boy at school he will receive a quarter when he gets home. Well, earlier in the week Ms Sped wrote down things that Ike was doing and it wasn't good. Ike starting yelling at her that I was going to see it and that Ms Sped doesn't ever write anything good. She tried to explain that what goes into the book is only things he does and he can control what he does. The therapist called DH at home to ask for a meeting in the near future but when I called her back I couldn't get a hold of her. So anyway, I wanted to meet with him and the teacher together so he knew we were on the same page. By the time I got to school the asst. vice principle and the therapist were also involved. We met for about a half hour without Ike in the room and brain stormed to get ideas to help him with his anger problem. By the way, we have not seen any anger issues at home. I also found out some things we were unaware of like this has been going on longer than just this school year. The therapist also told me that he had bad anger issues at his mothers home too. He actually tried to kill his little sister. Keep in mind Ike is only six years old.

When I got home, I told DH what I had learned and we decided immediately to move Sugar to another room. If Ike was to get upset with Sugar for not going to sleep he could try the same thing with him as he did with his sister. If he did that we wouldn't have a clue until morning. Scary stuff. We also called Linda at the agency to let them know that maybe this is more than we can handle.

Linda was totally unaware of the past actions of Ike and she actually thought he should be in a household without other children. We are not going to do anything drastic yet but he will receive counseling/therapy starting next week. I really hope we can solve his anger issues. I'm thinking between not getting a good nights sleep and the stress of his actions at school it's really getting to me and DH.

Princess's teacher told DH today that she thinks that the stress of these kids is too much for me. I'm wondering if I look that bad? He told me she has noticed that I look run down. It could also be that when I thought I was going to only have a five minutes meeting with Ike's teacher that turned into a half hour meeting, I forgot to pick up Princess from school. I was a half hour late and boy did I feel like a bad mom. How could I forget my own daughter? Then to top it off I forgot their parental visit the next day! They still made it to their visit but they were a hour late. I'm sure I will hear a comment from the anti-foster parent woman but if I were her I wouldn't bother.

Speaking of visits, we started the visits with Flower's other parent at the county facility. DH stayed with her though the visit and it went well. The parent held her the whole time. DH told me there is a good bound there. So far, the other kids are not included in that visit.

Little Prince is being a normal three year old brother. He copies everything Sugar does, good and bad. Sugar will do something that I will then tell him not to do and LP will turn right around and do it himself. LP has also had accidents in his big boy underwear for the last three days. I think that happened because he sees Sugar do it in his diaper. I'm hoping that Sugar will copy LP and be interested in potty training soon. Boy, he can make a diaper stink!

Princess still has to be reminded to go potty but she is doing better. She really has been a very good girl. She's doing well in school. She can trace her name and write two of the letters without tracing. We are so proud of her. She can dress herself but sometimes she puts her shirt on backwards and her shoes on the wrong feet but she has come along way. She laughs a lot and is very happy most of the time.

All in all, I guess it's not so bad. We just have to adjust to having five young kids in the house.

And now there's five

Tink went to live with her daddy a few days ago. We got a call the night before that she was being moved to her fathers but were asked not to say anything to her just in case it didn't happen. That night, at bed time I basically said my good-byes without her knowing it. I told her to be a good girl and that she would always have a safe place here. I had to work the next day, so I waited for her to fall asleep when I packed up her clothes, leaving an outfit for her to wear the next day.

DH called me the next morning, at work, to tell me that the case worker picked her up in the morning (it was suppose to be after her afternoon nap). Everything went fine and Tink was happy she was going to her dads. Ashley, the caseworker, sat her and her brothers on the stairs to talk to them about what was going on. I really thought Ike would be more upset but he seems to be OK.

Sugar Ray is doing better being in the same room as Ike. I know Ike wants his own room but I keep reminding him he can have which ever room he wants after Sugar is able to sleep by himself. The first few nights we let Sugar fall asleep down stairs before we would carry him up to bed. Last night DH just had him get into his bed at the same time as everyone else was going to bed. He stayed in bed all night and didn't even cry. I wonder if Sugar Ray would like to share a room with Little Prince. They are almost the same size and we have another toddler bed. I guess the better question would be if Little Prince would like it.

Sugar started calling DH "daddy" a few days ago. We didn't even notice until Ike asked about it. DH told him that Sugar probably doesn't understand that he's not his daddy but he hears LP calling him "daddy". He doesn't call me anything. I don't want him to call me "mommy", that would be disrespectful to his mother.

According to the new caseworker (we'll call her Cathy), the mother has the worse case of ADHD she's ever seen. I don't know if she's on medication but that could explain the issue we had with Ike's missing pills.

Looking back on the posts, I noticed I didn't tell the part of the story of the missing pills. When we received the placement, Ike came with three pills of his ADHD medicine along with a sample of a medicine that is suppose to keep him from having outbursts. I didn't think much of it and beside I had to take him to the doctor the next day. Well, the prescription was actually filled the first week in March which means there should have been at least 15 pills left. When I noticed there wasn't any refills, I called the automated line at the pharmacy for them to call the doctor to get a refill. The next morning I called the pharmacy to make sure the prescription was ready and they told me they couldn't fill it because it was a narcotics and I would have to get a written prescription from the doctor. I understood and called the doctor to get a prescription. When I got to the doctors office, they gave me the hand written prescription for a 30 day supply even though they told me I should have pills left. They know I'm the foster mom and are also familiar with the bio-mom. Meanwhile, the little ones are getting restless because it's nap time. I drove through the pharmacy to drop off the script and showed my ID. I told them I would be back later that evening. She responded with "no problem". I called about 8:00 that evening, right before DH was going to run up and get it. The pharmacy didn't fill it! They told me that it was filled on March 5th and I should have plenty of pills left! Oh, this did not make me happy...I told her that if I had plenty of pills left I wouldn't have made a special trip to the MD to get another prescription. This conversation went on for at least 10 minutes. I dont' usually loose it but I did that time. She proceeded to tell me they would have to call the doctor to verify that it was OK to fill it. By that time the doctors office was already closed and Ike didn't have any meds for the following morning. I "suggested" they red flag it or something so the doctor would be called first thing in the morning.

The next morning I called the pharmacy again. They had already called the doctor and were waiting to hear back. I called the MD's office to try to move it along. They told me they would be able to make the call within about 20-30 minutes. I told them that was fine since I was on my way to take two of the kids to the dentist. Noon rolled around and still no call to the pharmacy from the MD's office. I called the MD's office again. They assured me they would call immediately. I should never have waited until late afternoon to check on the filling of the prescription but I figure it was too late for Ike to take his meds anyway. So I called about 4 ish to let them know I was coming to pick it up...they didn't fill it!! They told me because I should have pills left that Medicaid wasn't going to cover it. My question all along was "Why didn't you call me?". I then had to call the caseworker at CPS to see if they could do anything. She said they could go pick it up but not until morning. So Ike didn't have meds all day but he actually did alright. I just reminded him to stay calm and if he needed to be by himself he could. Thank goodness it was a nice day outside for playing.

Not a big happy family yet.

I have to say, last year at this time, we never dreamed we would have six kids in the house or even be in this house. We have been staying very busy. I realized today, that if I didn't have to "police" the children all day, I could get a lot more done.

Today was nice enough for them to play outside. They play pretty well together when they want to. However, Ike and Tink are really good at excluding Little Prince. He so wants to play with them and be around them. When I took them for their parental visit, the other day, Little Prince didn't want me to leave them (especially Tink). He also wants to be sure he says good-night to Tink. I really don't know why because she sure isn't nice to him. She takes his toys away while he's playing with them and she yells at him a lot. It could have something to do with her past experiences. The day after they came, she told him she was going to be the mom and he was going to be her baby, then she proceeded to shake her finger at him and say "I don't care about you". Where do you think she could have heard that? Isn't that sad. I wonder, if Ike wasn't here, would she be any different.

Ike and Tink were suppose to be going to their fathers but after court the other day I found out it isn't going to happen for some time. I'm not sure what's going on but I have a feeling they are going to be here for awhile.

It seems like everything is fine until they have been to a parental visit. The first visit neither Tink or Ike wanted to see their mom. They told me, after I picked up Ike from school, they just wanted to go back to my house and play. Now, after the visit they were glad to have seen mom. Today after their visit, all of them were doing some serious crying. Tink was crying because she didn't want to say goodbye to mom, Ike was crying because he didn't get ice cream, I think Sugar Ray was crying because he was tired and Flower was wet. After we got back to the house, they played outside and the two older ones were back to excluding LP. I think Ike is getting the idea that it's not just a sleep over anymore. I wonder if that has something to do with his attitude after the visits.

I did have to switch Tink's and Ike's rooms around. We haven't been able to get Sugar Ray to sleep without a major melt down on his part. At first, we had him in a crib in his own room. He would scream like crazy. By the third night he figured out how to get out of the crib. I told DH we can't keep putting him in the crib if he's going to climb out - I'm afraid of a head injury! So DH and I desided to let him lay in bed with Ike until he would fall asleep. I gave him about an hour before I went in to get him. I wish I could have taken a picture of the two of them, they were all inter-twined. There was no way I was going to get him out of bed without waking him up. So the next night we decided to change Ike to a room with two twin beds (Tink's room) so Sugar Ray could sleep in the same room without sleeping in the same bed. Now if he would only stay in his own bed, we would get some rest at night.

All in all, everything is going fine. We are still having trouble with lying but we are hopeing that will resolve it's self when Tink and Ike learn they can trust us. Sugar Ray is still hitting the other kids and the dogs but not as often. I'm sure things could be worse and I'm glad they aren't. Who knows what will happen in the next few weeks.

Wow, now there's six!

Our household grew! We took in a sibling group of four on Thursday. They range from under one year to almost seven years. Two boys and two girls.

The girl is close to Princess's age but doesn't seem to give her the time of day. We will call her Tink, after Tinkerbell. She is definitely under weight and so is the oldest boy. Tink is four years old but even 3T cloths are too big. They didn't come with much in the way of cloths so I have been dressing Tink in the cloths Princess grew out of. I haven't seen it but DH tells me that Tink is sweet when she knows we are watching. She feels quite comfortable in our home, enough to tell me that she wants to stay and not visit with her mom. Tink has an older brother that we will call Ike.

Ike seems like to be a good boy but has issues. He has ADD and is on medicine but I'm wondering if he's received it like he is suppose to. The first evening he was in our home, he was a wild man. I didn't know how we were going to handle him but the next day was a little better and the weekend was even better. He's also under weight and doesn't eat a lot at one time. I also think he has trust issues. I have caught Ike lying about the same thing, several times. He doesn't know I know that it's not true but if it continues I will have to have the truth come out. He's kind of stand offish but I'm guessing he just doesn't feel comfortable yet. Ike has a little brother that we will call Sugar Ray.

Sugar Ray likes to hit anything and everyone. The second day we had them, I bet he stood in the corner at least five times for hitting one of the kids. When he doesn't get his way, he drops to the floor and starts screaming. He's starting to warm up to us. I asked him for a kiss and after about 3 times asking he gave me a little one. He does want me to pick him up and he will snuggle with me when he gets tired but I'm sure he misses his mommy. Sugar Ray has a little sister that we will call Flower.

Flower looks so sweet but is full of it. She's the baby but she has a temper just like just like her older brother. She really seems to have problems going to sleep at night. I've tried holding her but she wakes up as soon as I lay her down. She doesn't just wake up, she screams. She's definitely more advanced than the twins we had. Flower is quite mobile. It's quite a feat to get her dressed or change her diaper. I tried to give her a bath, the first night, in the baby tub but she wouldn't stay in it long enough. Last night I held her in the regular tub. Flower can roll over and start crawling before you even realize she's moved. She pulls herself up to stand and investigates everything she can touch. She's a stinker but cute.

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Princess is improving all the time. Her one teacher actually said she's amazing. Yesterday, DH called me at work to tell me something exciting. I've asked him not to call at a certain time but he couldn't wait. He called to tell me that after asking Princess if mama made the cookies for her, she said "mama" and then ran off laughing. We haven't heard many words from her in months. I could almost say she hasn't really spoke anything in months except jibberish. Maybe one day she will just start talking but until then we will communicate with sign language and pictures.

I haven't gotten very far on her picture book. I have the binder, the pictures, and the velcro. I have even went into her classroom to see how they made their book. The teachers gave me some good ideas. I will start with only things she likes to do and things she likes to eat. I'm also going to take pictures of places we go so I can show her where we're going before we leave. I have to get it done before we get more kids!

We got a call yesterday (DH did), from the agency, about a sibling group of four. We don't know exactly how old they are but we believe they are between the ages of 6 months and 6 years. The oldest is the only one in school. We know it's a mix of boys and girls but we're not sure how many of each. We are taking them in on Monday some time. Monday is going to be really busy.

We have decided to throw Little Prince a birthday party for his third birthday. We don't know if he's ever had a birthday party before but hopefully he will remember this one for a while. I have invited two friends from work that have children about his age. Even though the party will be a few days after his actually birthday, it will still be great for him. I think I will try to make a Mickey Mouse cake and get some balloons. I will have to make some GFCF cupcakes for Princess. I figure I can freeze all but two them to keep for later. Anyway, I have a lot of stuff to do next week.

Hopefully DH and I can get the rest of the stuff out of our house we are trying to sell. The realitor told us we should either lower the price or do some painting. The house is in good shape but I painted in colors we like and they are not neutral. The living room is dark green and the master bedroom is kind of a pink/mauve color. So I will try to get over there in the middle of the week to paint those two rooms at least.

Another Step

We are very pleased with the results from giving Princess Vitamin D and Probiotics. She has been taking them for about a week. She seems to be thinking clearer and not looking so blank. This morning she spilled her juice and when DH told her it was an accident, before he could reach for paper towels, she grabbed a towel and started to clean it up off the floor! This a big thing for her. The other night I heard her up at about 3am. When I went up to see what she was doing, she had taken her wet pullup off, put a clean one and put on a pair of sweat pants. Of course I made go back to bed but I couldn't believe she did that. She's not whining as much when we remind her to go potty. She even puts her bowl or plate in the sink when she's finished with a meal. Yesterday after breakfast she figured out how to carry her plate, fork and sippy cup to the sink at the same time by holding her sippy cup in her mouth. She just seems to be "thinking" more.

She immitates every hand movement I make when I talk to her. DH and I really need to learn more sign language so we can teach her. I think when she immitates my hand movements, she thinks I'm doing a sign. I did get the pictures, for her picture book, printed. I just have to get them laminated. There is always something to do.

The weather has been really wintery in the last few days. We got several inches of snow. That didn't stop us from trying to take the twins for their RSV shots. We actually got half way there and were told we shouldn't go any further. We stopped at a local store to fix the windshield wipers and that's how we found out State Troopers were giving out $50 fines if you got pulled over. Needless to say, we turned around and rescheduled the girl's appointment. Honestly, the roads weren't that bad.

It's been a very interesting few days. First I want to thank all the people who read my blog and make positive comments. I actually made it over a year without a negative one until this week. I will not allow negative comments to be posted anymore, negativity breeds negativity.

Princess surprises us every day. The other day she helped her brother put on his towel before dinner. Yesterday she picked up all her toys when asked and even retrieved the baby bottles to be washed. She has been taking more of an interest in the babies. We will really have to watch her closely but it's nice to see her recognize them as people instead of fixtures. I have made a conscience effort to include her in the things I'm doing. She likes to watch me do dishes and for fun she runs around the vacuum cleaner. She was doing good with the potty training until about mid week. Then we went back to pull ups. We still remind her to go potty but at least if she has an accident, she doesn't have wet pants. She has some good days and some not so good days.

Little Prince was a real good boy yesterday. He did what he was asked without any fussing. When DH put him down for his nap, he told him he was going to have to put up the toys in the playroom after he woke up. Well, about two hours later DH heard some foot steps running around upstairs. He just figured LP was awake and in his room so DH called his name from the bottom of the stairs, LP came from around the corner and said TA DA! DH asked him if he said ta da just because he woke up? LP said "no, I clean up toys! We are amazed he remember that he was suppose to do that and that he did it as soon as he got up. LP got one of Daddy's special candies for being such a good boy.

One of my friends is letting me borrow a crib for as long as I need it. It's in good shape and came with a real nice mattress. Bouncy and Sunshine need their own cribs. Most of the time Bouncy is either right next to her sister or has her legs over the top of Sunshine's legs by morning. We will probably set up the crib tonight. Since the babies are so much littler I dont' think it will matter that I switched the mattress from LP's bed to the nice mattress. I actually think he slept better last night. He did sleep longer. He didn't get up until 6am! DH said he got up right after I pulled out of the drive. Soon after that Princess was up and then both babies. The family had a early start this morning.

Tomorrow everyone will have an early start. We will have to get up by 5:45 in order for everyone to eat breakfast and get ready to take the babies for their parental visit. I figure we will have to leave by 6:45 to be there by 8:00 for the visit. The visit will last for three hours and then we will have to get home in time to get Princess to school. We will have a busy morning. I think to waste time during the visit we will try to get the grocery shopping done. That shouldn't take more than an hours since DH will be with me and we won't have the babies. I have shopped with LP and the babies. It takes me twice as long as it should because LP doesn't want to ride in a cart. He doesn't get into anything or wonder way but he wants to know about every thing he sees. He's in the "why" stage. Some times I think he just says "why" because he likes the word :)

Response to comments

First, I must say that I know we have to do what CPS/DCS request and "deal with it" but that doesn't mean we agree with it. If the mother had taken care of her kids like she should have then maybe they wouldn't have been taken away. I am all for getting the kids back to their mother when she can get her act together. As for the visits..all I'm saying it seems to be a waste of time to have a drive that long when she could see the kids for two hours longer if they were in the same town as mom. So I agree that some things that CPS/DCS does could be fixed. What I don't agree with, is all foster parents are bad and there should be no such thing as foster parents. If we weren't foster parent do you think the state wouldn't have taken the children?? Instead they might have went to a group home, used to be known as an orphanage! Yes, we do get money..should we take care of another persons children for free?? We get less than a baby sitter does and we have to supply food and clothing. The children in our home eat well balanced meals and have nice clothes. Anything we buy for them will go with them when they do leave.

As for children that are hurt or killed in the hands of the foster parents that is terrible and absolutely sick but there are probably an equal amount of children killed at the hands of their own parents. Why don't you put that in your "news" blog. Some people should not be parents and some people should not be foster parents. I am not going to try to convince you that we are good people because you already have a preconceived notion that all foster parents are bad. The world needs good people to care about children when their parents don't.

Dealing with DCS

Little Prince is stilling thinking he is going to get flushed down the toilet if he falls in. He still goes by himself but the toilet he uses, most of the time, we've had to put the potty training toilet seat back on. Which means I have to go across the house to use another bathroom or take the seat off every time I have to go!!

Last week we took the twins up for a visit with "mom". It was at the DCS (dept of child services) since "mom" doesn't have a place to have visits with them. Anyway, DH and I dropped them off then we wasted time around town. We drove through down town since DH had never been in that part of town. It's a pretty little town with old store fronts and little shops. The visit was suppose to be a hour and a half long. When we got back to pick them up, DH ran in to get them (I sat out with the other kids). Soon he came back out without the babies. I asked him what was going on.."they (social-workers) are walking around the office, holding the babies". He went in a few minutes later to get them. He came back out again without the babies! "What's going on?" I asked. He told me they (three social workers) basically attacked him with accusing us of not taking care of the babies. Bouncy has had a rash on the side of her face for weeks. I asked her doctor about it during a visit in early January. He said it was probably an allergy but didn't suggest anything. Sunshine had a rash around her chin from the baby food I gave her the day before the visit. The DCS workers said it was from our cats! Who ever heard of a topical allergy to cats without a respiratory issue?? DH was so mad but was able to keep his mouth shut. The last time he came out without the babies, I told him to get in the van and I would go in and get the babies. I was NOT happy and I'm sure they talked about it after we left. I went right in their, told them it was not a cat allergy and informed them I HAD taken the babies to the doctor. The old bat supervisor asked me if the cat is around the babies when they are sleeping because we know that is a big issue..I said "no, the cat doesn't like to be around them at all". Did she think the cat was going to "suck" the breath out of them? DH thought for sure they would have the babies moved to another home.

I called the babies therapist right after we got on the road. I told Lindsey what had happened and she said we shouldn't worry about it and that they wouldn't move the babies. She also told me I don't have to contact the mom and it would be better if I just emailed herself about the babies, she would forward the emails to the case worker, who then could let the mom know. I spoke with her about the whole rash thing and how we were basically accused of not taking care of the babies. She suggested I called their pediatrician for a referral (which is what the DCS supervisor "suggested").

I called their doctors office the next day to get a referral. Jack was very help and called me right back after speaking with the doctor. The pediatrician does not usually give referrals for babies so young. The doctor also said that it is probably eczema and that babies get that a lot. She will look at them when I have to take them in for their second Synigus shot. In the mean time, Bouncy had an appointment this week for a Neonatal followup with a doctor I happen to work with at the hospital. Sunshine didn't have anything on the books but I took her along anyway. It worked out fine because the doctor actually needed to see her too. They are both doing good but Sunshine lost about a half pound since the beginning of January. Dr D suggested I increase the "strength" of her formula to equal 24 cals per ounce. It takes her a while to eat the whole bottle and sometimes we have to give her the last half like an hour later. Dr D also looked at their little faces. It was diagnosed as Eczema! haha DCS take that! She suggested I pick up some Eucrine cream and put it on their faces regularly. I'm also to put Neosporin on Bouncy's face because it looked like it could have a touch of infection. Their little face look better already and it's only been a couple days.

The babies mom can't seem to make up her mind if she is going to give them up or keep them. Or maybe she has made up her mind and is just working the system. We have a new case worker (we'll call her Charity). Charity wants to have a meeting next week to discuss the plan and to set up visitations twice a week for about three hours at a time. How are we going to spend that much time away from home? If one visit is down near our home, they can visit with the babies at the facility and I can get other things done like take Princess to school and take care of the other kids responsibilities. But if we have three hour visits near "mom's home", I have two hours of drive time and then three hours to waste around that little town. I don't know what to do besides suggest that the time up there be shorter and the time down here be longer, or that babies mom come and get the babies in the morning and bring them back later in the day. We are going to be getting more children in the house and then what are we suppose to do?

Bad day for Daddy and LP

One of Little Prince's greatest fears came true today - he fell into the toilet! He has been afraid of falling into the toilet for some time. Most of the time he goes to the bathroom by himself but sometimes he asks us to help him/hold him so he doesn't fall in. Today he did fall in and then my sweet DH tried to tell him he was too big to fall in (too big to go down into the toilet) but Little Prince didn't believe him so DH held him and carefully lowered him down into the toilet. Well, that back fired! Little Prince started crying and now he won't use that toilet. DH told me that he carried his little stool across the house and used our bathroom in our room. Poor little guy. We will have to get him over that fear, I don't want him using our bathroom!

As you may know, DH works all Thursday night, then comes home so I can go to work and then stays up with the kids until I get home Friday evening. I don't know how he does it or how much longer he can do it. He calls me a couple times a day just to talk to me. This afternoon he called to tell me he was having a trying day. LP was upstairs crying so DH asked him what was wrong (from the bottom of the stairs), LP answered "I poopy'd". DH told him "that's OK, I will be up in a minute to wipe you". Well, when he got up there, LP had a case of diarrhea. It was all over the floor, down his legs, all over the toilet and he was standing there saying "I sorry Daddy, I sorry Daddy". Another "poor little guy". Daddy told him it was OK and that accidents happen. DH said it took him a while to get it all cleaned up and then he put LP in a "warm" shower.

I wish I was home. Actually, I received a text message from DH early this morning saying that he wishes our house would sell so we could pay off some bills and then I could quit working. We do miss each other. We don't have a day off together anymore and that's harder than we thought it would be. We thought we would have the evenings together but what we didn't think about is it wouldn't be just him and I. It really changed when we received the babies.

I learned two days ago that bio-mom is thinking about give up custody of her kids. There is a couple north of us who would like to adopt the twins and their sister would stay within the her family. I hope it's as easy as that but I have a feeling that terminating parental rights (TPR) is going to be a long, drawn out process. From what I understand, the man named on the birth certificate is not the father and the actual father lives outside the country. Fun, Fun. Oh, another thing; bio-mom wants me to text her every few days to let her know how the babies are but she hasn't even kept in contact with the case worker. If she is so concerned about the babies then why doesn't she ask the case worker to contact me? I don't want her to have my cell number so I called our cell company to find out how to block my number. They informed me that there was no way to do that but that I could block it when I made a call. I let the caseworker know what the cell company said and now he wants me to call her every few days to let her know how her kids are!

5 Minutes for Giveways

What a great blog site. These two sisters give way a lot of great stuff. Everyone should check it out. You can get to the site by the button to the right. Good luck but let me win first..haha

Vegetables - yuk!

For days now we have been giving Princess green beans. Just last month she loved green beans but now she has decided she doesn't want to eat them. It was the only vegetables she would eat. It started at lunch, yesterday, DH made her a nice lunch and she refused to eat the beans. Last night at dinner he made another meal with beans and she refused to eat them. This morning at breakfast and at lunch, she received green beans again and refused to eat them. Needless to say, she was starving by dinner time (3:00). So, DH decide not the fight with her about beans and made her chicken and french fries. He gave her one french fry, she stuck in her mouth and refused to chew it and swallow it!! Finally she ate it and he gave her the rest of her lunch. The first thing she reached for was a french fry!!!

I don't understand why she won't eat green beans anymore or other vegetables. Could her tastes change so fast? We will have to find a different vegetable that she likes.

Some sick, some injured

I'm getting over sickness. I can't believe how sick I've been over the last two months. I think it's finally going away. I feel much better today. The sore throat really had me worried but at least I can swallow again. I hardly ever called in to work and now since we got LP and Princess I've called in the maximum of five times. Needless to say, I got a written notice today. They give you sick hours but you can't really use them. I think I have over 200 hours saved but if I call in three more times before July I won't have a job!

The children are fine. I'm so thankful they didn't get sick. They've made up for it in injuries! Both Little Prince and Princess have fallen down the stairs. The stair are carpeted but there is hard wood at the bottom. Little Prince has fallen three times!! The first time he didn't get hurt, the second time he hit his head and made a knot above his right eye. The third time scared me half to death! I heard him fall all the way down and then hit the floor. He was still laying there by the time I ran from the kitchen. I picked him up and turned him over. He told me he hit his head and then I noticed his bloody nose. I quickly woke up DH and told him. I didn't know if he hit his nose or really hit his head so hard it made his nose bleed. He had another knot in the middle of his forehead, a fat lip, a bloody nose and a bruise across his right cheek along his jaw line. But according to LP "he didn't fall, he rolled down the stairs". Then to make things worse, Princess tried to fall later that night.

I had just gone to bed, thinking everyone was asleep. Then I hear the pitter-patter of little Princess feet running up and down the hall way upstairs. I jumped out of bed and ran up the stair. I told her she was suppose to be in bed. She had actually undid her gate and set it nicely again the wall. Well, I couldn't put her in the "corner" upstairs because she would have woke the other kids up. So, I escorted her down the steps...half way down she slipped and I hung on to her arm. I thought for sure it was broke. I called DH and told him what had happened and he came right home (he was on his way to work). DH took her to the ER and was there for about 4 hours while they did xrays and "popped" her tendon, in her elbow, back in place. She walked around for days like it was a rag hanging from her shoulder. They gave her a sling to use which she didn't and when she didn't think we were looking, she would move her arm. It's better now but that really scared me.

The babies are getting better. I had to take them up for a doctors appointment last week. They still needed their last shot of Synigus (spelling?), it's for RSV. While they were there the doctor looked at their ears and listen to their lungs. It's turned out Bouncy had an ear infection so we had to get a prescription for her. Sunshine was fine and got a clean bill of health. I think they might be behind on their immunizations but it's a long process when you are dealing with doctors in different cities. I'm trying to get records consolidated.

All the kids are sleeping upstairs most nights. The twins take turns sleeping down stairs only because they are taking turns sleeping through the night! It's weird how that happens but I was so tired today that I think I will try to keep them awake after their last bottle and try to get them to sleep for the night at a reasonable time.

Little Prince has been sleeping in his room but has developed a fear of monsters. He thinks their in his closet. We have told him there are no such thing as monsters and he doesn't believe us and then we told him this house doesn't have monsters, still doesn't believe us. So, now we tell him that monsters don't like giraffes and his 4ft giraffe, next to his bed, will keep the monsters away. It seems to work except he's still getting up between six and six-thirty every morning. At least this house has alarm tones on the doors that go off is someone opens the door. We know as soon as he is up and out the door. Then he stands at the top of the stairs and calls for us to watch him come down the stairs on his "rump".

All is well at the new house. I am planning to do some more packing at the other house so we can be totally moved over here. We haven't unpacked everything yet but we want everything to have a place and that takes time.

It sure is harder to take time to blog with four little ones in the house. I will try harder next time. I don't like to make long entries but the last two were catchup blogs.