GFCF

We started Princess on a Gluten-free/Casein-free diet yesterday. We went to Whole Foods to get her gluten free snacks. We bought pretzels, cookies and cereal. I sent some to school and some to daycare. The daycare will make sure she doesn't get anything with gluten or dairy. We also bought some soy milk and rice milk. We are going to try to figure out which one she likes best.

I gave her some soy milk on her cereal yesterday for breakfast. She seemed to like it, but when I picked her up last night from daycare they told me she had two accidents. The DC lady asked if we had started the soy milk. I guess that's what did it. So far she likes everything we're feeding her. Although, we received a note from her teacher yesterday; "we gave ____ pretzels for her snack and she very politely placed the pretzel back into the bag, closed the bag and pushed it aside". We gave her a few pretzels last night before dinner and she seemed to like the pretzel sticks better than the pretzel twists. I also gave her about 3 oz of soy milk along with a half Lemon-Ginger cookie (gluten free) after she ate all her dinner. She liked it. (so did Little Prince).

Kimochis!

I found this neat blog while I was "surfing". The site was actually "Ten Kids and a Dog". There is a give away of this product called Kimochis. It's four different characters that have little feelings that a child an pick to express or learn about. I picked the cloud for the give away because the cloud "is a bit unpredictable" and because the cloud can "sometimes be moody", kind of like Princess. I don't think I have mentioned it before but Princess has autism and she doesn't really speak. I'm really thinking this might help her with her emotions. I figure it's worth a try. Please check out Ten Kids and a Dog and Kimochis

Bad Dreams?

Both kids had bad nights. Princess woke up around 12:30, crying. I went into her room and covered her up with her blanket but she didn't open her eyes and she didn't move. I think she was still asleep. I lightly ran my hand across her hair and she stopped crying. About two hours later, Little Prince came running down the hall into our room - crying. I asked him if he had a bad dream and he said "yes". I let him crawl in with me and told him after he fell asleep I would put him in his own bed. Needless to say, I fell back to sleep and it was about 4am before I carried him back to his bed. When I did put him back to bed, I heard Princess babbling in her room, she was still in her bed so I didn't bother her. I think she might have even been still asleep. Both kids had a hard time falling asleep at bedtime and both were really tired when I had to get them up at 5:30 to go to daycare. Tonight should be more relaxing since I don't have to work tomorrow and we can spend the day together.

Testing the water?

I'm not sure if Princess and Little Prince are acting like any other kids their age or if they are testing us. According to our classes, we had to take, foster children will test you and they certainly are. I don't know if the kids have picked up the acting out thing at daycare or if we just treat them differently than their past foster home.

I know we probably made the mistake of giving Little Prince attention when he was crying but we are trying not to do that anymore. We started noticing that every time he doesn't get his way, he cries (without tears). We have tried everything to keep Princess from jumping on her bed but nothing is working so far. We even bought her a little trampoline with a handle bar on it and she still jumped on her bed. DH ordered the trampoline from someone on eBay. It arrived yesterday afternoon, so he put it together right after he picked them up from daycare. Princess jumped on it for about 10 minutes or more. I also had her jump on it right after I put her PJ's on. Then it was time for bed. I put her to bed and snuggled her brother. I no sooner sat down with Little Prince when I noticed her bedroom light on and heard her breathing (I can tell when she's jumping). I put LP down and went in to tell her to lay down and go to sleep. Probably about 10 minutes later the same thing happened again. This time I "escorted" her to the living room to jump on her trampoline and tell her she can only jump on it and not her bed. I let her jump until she stopped (about 2 minutes.), then back to bed. Soon after I was sitting back down with LP in my lap, I heard her again. This time I didn't do anything. LP wanted to get in his own bed, so after I took him in I made a visit to Princesses room to find her playing on the floor. I made her get in her bed and told her to go to sleep. By the time I got Princess in bed, LP was crying for me to sit with him. By the time I got to bed I was upset, worn out and wanted to sleep. I guess was upset enough that I couldn't get to sleep and I woke up so many times through out the night I was very tired at 4:30 this morning.


Since DH has to leave for work before I get home tonight, I had to take the kids to daycare at 6:00 this morning. He usually takes them, but we only have two car seats right now. I will pick them up after I get off work. Both of the kids were pretty tired this morning, although I try not the wake them it's impossible not to. Little Prince woke up as soon as I moved him and the first thing he said was "eat". I told him it was too early to eat and he was going to be "playing all day" (that's something he says when he's been at daycare). I got him dressed and then woke Princess to try to go potty. I dressed her and then rushed out the door. I have to do the same thing tomorrow morning (boo)


I hope we can get this under control soon. DH told me last night that he doesn't know if he can do it anymore. (Earlier yesterday, DH told me that LP was giving him a hard time.) I think if it wasn't for Princess, I would be fine.

School Started

Princess started preschool yesterday. The teacher said she had a real good day. They went outside and blew bubbles and laughed a lot. It wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to sign her up. I met with her teacher a few days before to inform her about Princess' likes and dislikes and what they might expect from her. I had to provide them with shot records and a birth certificate (which I still need to get). Princess went with me so she could meet the teacher and then when it was time to leave, she didn't want to go. In fact, she threw a fit - stomping her feet and messing up some balls that were laying on a shelf. At least her fits don't last very long.

Our little prince is in daycare while his sister is in school. He likes it there and he gives all my kisses away to all the nice ladies there. Princess is in the same daycare while I'm at work, she feels comfortable there. In fact, she has said a few words that she hasn't said at home. The ladies at the DC are letting us know what she's saying so we can try to get her to say them again.

The parental visit got messed up again. This time I think it was the counties fault. Someone dropped the ball and no one picked it up! No visit today.

Mommy, mommy....

We've been very busy. We got the call at the end of July for a possible placement. Two and four year old siblings. It was between us and another family. The other family was him'ing and ha'ing about it so the decision was made to place the children with us on a trial basis. It was actually considered respite with the possibility of a permanent placement. They have been with us for a little over a month now, so needless to say they are considered a placement. We will have to wait until the end of September to see if the judge terminates parental rights this time. I say this time because, the parent has received two 90 day extensions already and is still screwing up. I have met the one parent during visits. DH and/or I have to take the children for visits twice a week until the TPR (termination of parental rights) is or may become effective. I believe in my heart that these children would be better off without their bio parents but I guess that comes with being a foster parent.

We have become very attached to both of them as they have become attached to us. The little one has called me mommy from the first day and DH, daddy starting the second day. The older one doesn't speak, but is very attached to DH. I took a couple weeks off work to arrange daycare and do other things that needed to be done. DH was able to take off a week which was very helpful. The four year old has some emotional/mental issues that we hope will resolve for the most part. The way we feel right now, we would like to adopt these children but we are nervous about the older one and how much care is involved.

I know I only have two followers but I'm still sorry it took so long between postings. I will post more frequently from now on.

On the top of the list

We finally got another call. Well, let me start from the beginning. DH and I decided that the child we turned down deserved a home so I called the agency and talked to the counselor. She told me I could come in and look over the file since parental rights had been terminated. I was only expecting the read over the one child's file but was able to read over the sibling's also. By the time I was done reading I had decided neither one of the children would be a good fit. I told DH what I had read and asked him to call the agency the next day and tell them "no". Well, the next day we were out running around and he decided to just stop into the agency and see if he could read the files. After reading them we talked about it some more and decided to take the young one in but we agreed we would not be able to take in the sibling. We talked with the therapists about DH's concerns along with other problems we might run into. Everything was set and we were going to be considered until we got home.

After we got home I checked our voice mail and there was a call from the same counselor we had just visited. She had two young children who were about to be up for foster to adopt. DH and I were so excited...I called her right back to tell her "we'll take them". She gave me a little information and told me she had already sent our "home study" for the other agency to review and we are on the top of the list. I'm sure hoping we get a call this week saying we were the best fit.

PS - lesson learned; make sure the agency has all means to contact you. We missed a call for a 3wk baby because I was at work and DH was sleeping after working all night. They didn't have my cell number. I guess it wasn't meant to be.