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.