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?