A lot has happened in 7 months. First of all we have 4 children now instead of the original 3. BJ's mom had another baby - a girl!!! We will call her BG for baby girl! BJ adores her to death, but is still adapting to having a baby in the house who took over his place as baby! BG was born very healthy and we picked her up from the hospital when she was just 3 days old with no withdrawal. She is the happiest baby I've ever seen and smiles and coos and sleeps soo good. We had her sleeping in our room until last week when we bumped the older boys into the downstairs bedroom and put her in her own room finally! It was well over do. We thought about putting BJ and BG together, but BJ has a tendency to cry out at night hence why he is seeing a neurologist so we couldn't do that.
BJ had an MRI and an EEG last week because they want to find out the root of all the crying out at night. It's only for a short period of time, but he does it often and then goes right back to sleep. BJ also has many delays and has 3 different therapist to help him. He has a Speech/Language therapist a Developmental Therapist and just recently an Occupational Therapist was added. The 1st twe he has had since November '09, but we were wait listed for O/T. He is just coming off of a cold/fever and he has been sooo whiney and attached lately. He is especially attached to my mom, because when he's sick and can't go to daycare he stays with her and OMG she babies him sooo soo much. I can't complain because she is taking care of him for me, but at the same time she makes life rough for us when we have to attend to all 4 and can't spoil him the way she does so we end up with a whiney whiney boy who wants to be held and catered to all day long!!! Anyone else have this problem and how do you deal with it? Other than a few delays he is absolutely amazing. He is super smart as far as memory and recognizing objects and loves loves animals. He is a genious at puzzles and is eating well on his own, needs some help with a spoon sometimes, but he gets the idea.
N5 and X7 are still with us. They are now getting 3 visits a week with their BP's. They had home visits, but those were recently taken away because BD is not reaching all of his goals. They should have never been getting home visits especially since the home was never approved, but some how each agency is different and the case had to change agencies for a little while because our original agency didn't have a Spanish speaking case worker, but now it does. Anyway more on that later. TBC. . .
Friday, March 5, 2010
Monday, August 17, 2009
BJ is 14 months old and wet pull-ups
This morning I wake up to my boys getting themselves ready as they always do. X6 proceeds to tell me that he did not wet his pull-up which is fantastic. We just put him on medicine last week to retain his urine at night and this is the first day that I just think maybe, just maybe it’s actually going to work. So then N5 proceeds to tell me that he did not wet his pull-up either so I praise him and I ask him to see his pull-up only because 2 days ago he did not realize it was wet and put a smelly pull-up in the box and caused the room to reek – hence I have to ask him to see the pull-up in question. He says “No, I didn’t pee in my pull-up.” I proceed to tell him if he didn’t pee than he has nothing to be afraid of. He was angry and almost melting down when I picked up the soaking wet pull-up out of his box. I looked at him and told him he would be getting a consequence for lying and explained to him that putting a stinky, wet pull-up in his box was not sanitary and that is what made his room smell and that lying would not be tolerated. He was not caring. I asked him to take the pull-up and do the routine with it (put in a bag and throw out), he would not take the pull-up so I said very sternly “Take the pull-up or I will put it on your head.” Needless to say he took the pull-up. Of course I would never put it on his head – but at the moment it seemed fitting to tell him this because he didn’t know I wouldn’t do this and his little defiant attitude needed a reality check! I went in to tell my husband and of course I’m now laughing at myself because of how straight faced I said those words. Every time I tell the story it gets funnier. Case in point I could choose to be very angry right about now at how he lied and how sometimes, just sometimes I feel like we are taking care of Satan’s spawn (I say this lovingly of course), but I choose to focus on what makes me laugh and right about now this is pretty darn funny!
Today BJ is 14 months old. Happy Birthday to him. I really do love this age. He is pretty spectacular. He has a little blister on one of his knees from all of the crawling he does. I think this is a good thing because now he is no longer on his knees and he walks on his hands and feet so we call him Mowgli. He amazes me because he is a little daredevil climbing onto the couches and getting down all by himself and throwing himself onto my bed, but his confidence in walking is not quite there yet. He is still small enough to bathe in the kitchen sink, so I haven’t had the pleasure of breaking my back to bathe him in the tub yet, but since he splashes like nobodies business I think the tub is inevitable at this point. He loves this DVD I got from the library called Baby Songs: Babies Busy Day. It was made in the late 70’s but he’s 1 so he really doesn’t care what their wearing, but you can tell it is very dated, but the songs are great. He’s so funny because he will see me pull down the TV in our kitchen and he will start wheeling his high chair over to the TV to inform me he is ready to watch his show. Too Cute!
Today BJ is 14 months old. Happy Birthday to him. I really do love this age. He is pretty spectacular. He has a little blister on one of his knees from all of the crawling he does. I think this is a good thing because now he is no longer on his knees and he walks on his hands and feet so we call him Mowgli. He amazes me because he is a little daredevil climbing onto the couches and getting down all by himself and throwing himself onto my bed, but his confidence in walking is not quite there yet. He is still small enough to bathe in the kitchen sink, so I haven’t had the pleasure of breaking my back to bathe him in the tub yet, but since he splashes like nobodies business I think the tub is inevitable at this point. He loves this DVD I got from the library called Baby Songs: Babies Busy Day. It was made in the late 70’s but he’s 1 so he really doesn’t care what their wearing, but you can tell it is very dated, but the songs are great. He’s so funny because he will see me pull down the TV in our kitchen and he will start wheeling his high chair over to the TV to inform me he is ready to watch his show. Too Cute!
Sunday, August 16, 2009
Too much chlorine and talking!
Turns out too much chlorine in the pool can be a bad thing! So we went swimming yesterday and my friend Lisa was just bragging to us how her pool is so clean now because all she does is shock it. So my kids went swimming there and when we got home X6 says to me - "Mom my pee pee hurts and it's all red." When we left her house X6 eyes were all squinty and I just figured he was really tired, but turns out he's a little sensitive to the blast of chlorine she shocked her pool with!!!
Ahhhhhh N4 is driving me crazy! He reminds me a lot of myself when I was little. He is 5 now so I guess I should be call him N5, so he is N5 now! Anywho, they are sitting here coloring and I swear the kid has not stopped talking since we sat down 30 minutes ago. Now I know how my parents felt when I talked ALL THE TIME!!! I still drive my DH crazy sometime. I can remember sitting in a movie theater waiting for a movie to start and we were the only ones in the theatre and I was just chatting away and he says under his breath "Woman shut up!" I looked around to see who he was talking about because I assumed he could not be talking to me I thought maybe he was reading something off the movie screen and then I realized he was talking to me!! We both started busting out laughing because for some odd reason it was just halarious, but now I can't remember why! Anyway, now I know how he feels sometimes you just want to sit in silence.
Ahhhhhh N4 is driving me crazy! He reminds me a lot of myself when I was little. He is 5 now so I guess I should be call him N5, so he is N5 now! Anywho, they are sitting here coloring and I swear the kid has not stopped talking since we sat down 30 minutes ago. Now I know how my parents felt when I talked ALL THE TIME!!! I still drive my DH crazy sometime. I can remember sitting in a movie theater waiting for a movie to start and we were the only ones in the theatre and I was just chatting away and he says under his breath "Woman shut up!" I looked around to see who he was talking about because I assumed he could not be talking to me I thought maybe he was reading something off the movie screen and then I realized he was talking to me!! We both started busting out laughing because for some odd reason it was just halarious, but now I can't remember why! Anyway, now I know how he feels sometimes you just want to sit in silence.
Friday, August 14, 2009
Fun Filled Summer
Well the summer hiatus is over and registration for school began last night. Here are the summer updates:
Baby J - which I will refer to as BJ from now on is still with us. His BM's rights were not terminated at court because technically her 12 months service plan did not begin until BJ was 6 months old because they were waiting for a paternity test on the boyfriend (who may I remind you is NOT the father). Anywho, she has to have her full 12 months to prove to everyone she is an unfit parent who has maybe come to a handfull of visits all summer long. Her visits were reinstated back in July, however, since they were reinstated she has only seen BJ 1 time and missed 4 visits in a row.
BJ has developed by leaps and bounds. He is now taking steps, not quite walking, but taking steps. Sooo cute. His hair is soo curly in the back it is adorable. I'm sure he will lose those curls with the first cut - which BM asked us to cut his hair - but no way am I doing that until absolutely necessary. He is right around 20 pounds and he is no longer in the baby carrier anymore. He is a bit too long for that so we had to switch him to a front facing car seat. He loves it. He turns 14 months on 8/18. He has been pretty healthy all summer long until this week he came down with a croupy cough. Dr. put him back on the Prednisoline for a few days. He is still on the inhaler/spacer taking Flovent 2 x a day and it has helped tremendously. He has a follow-up with his pulmonolgist next week. Fun times! BJ no longer takes bottles only drinks out of sippy cups. I probably would have kept him on a bottle for a while longer at least at bed time, but the CW really frowned on it and said he should be having a sippy cup by the time he was 1. I guess everyone is different because a ton of my friends kept their kids on bottles until they were at least 2. Now if only I could get him potty trained before his sister comes. Yes, that's right BM is having a girl which is due in October. BJ and she will only be 16 months apart. I'm excited and petrified all at once. Of course there are no guarantees we will get her, but that is the plan. My mom did this amazing mural in BJ's room. I will have to post it. Not today, but soon.
We still have N4 and X6.
X6 had his IEP done back in May and they found that he does need lots of extra services and I'm so glad that he is going to get these. He is going into 1st grade so this will be a big transition for him to be in school all day. He is reading like a fene and loves it. We can't go anywhere without him reading some sign or box. It's especially akward at the library when he reads the innaproriate stuff out loud. Nothing too bad just a little PG-13 reading on some of the movie covers. Gotta love those times. He's been enjoying his summer riding bikes, going to birthday parties and enjoying taking field trips at summer camp. Their camp is pretty cool they go bowling, to the movies and have water day every week.
N4, N4, N4 what can I say he is hand full. We have had our ups and downs with him this summer that is for sure. We had a 3 hour long meeting with their CW and his supervisor regarding this one. We had therapy for him, but it was more like therapy for my husband and the therapist only saw N4 1 time before she told us she was leaving and her internship was over so we would be getting a new intern, which she is starting to see my DH next week. They belive N4 has some kind of AD (attachment disorder). N4 has lost his priveleges to go on field trips with his summer camp because when they went bowling, he was in a time out and he decided to go to the arcade with another kid he is not suppose to be playing with because as you can see why they get into too much trouble together. The daycare thought him going on field trips was a safety issue and we agreed. He can reinstate his privleges when he has had 3 good days without incident, but that hasn't happened yet and really there is only 1 week of field trips left. We found out last night that N4 will have X6 Kindergarten teacher at school so we feel like she is in for a rude awakening. She won't even be able to believe they are brothers because X6 is very compliant, however, as a teacher she must know siblings can be very extreme! Don't get me wrong N4 has had a pretty good summer, but in times like these we tend to focus on the negatives, but I have to remind myself he just turned 5 and he has been through a lot. These are the days where as foster parents you have to wonder why anyone would do this for the money!!!!!!
Baby J - which I will refer to as BJ from now on is still with us. His BM's rights were not terminated at court because technically her 12 months service plan did not begin until BJ was 6 months old because they were waiting for a paternity test on the boyfriend (who may I remind you is NOT the father). Anywho, she has to have her full 12 months to prove to everyone she is an unfit parent who has maybe come to a handfull of visits all summer long. Her visits were reinstated back in July, however, since they were reinstated she has only seen BJ 1 time and missed 4 visits in a row.
BJ has developed by leaps and bounds. He is now taking steps, not quite walking, but taking steps. Sooo cute. His hair is soo curly in the back it is adorable. I'm sure he will lose those curls with the first cut - which BM asked us to cut his hair - but no way am I doing that until absolutely necessary. He is right around 20 pounds and he is no longer in the baby carrier anymore. He is a bit too long for that so we had to switch him to a front facing car seat. He loves it. He turns 14 months on 8/18. He has been pretty healthy all summer long until this week he came down with a croupy cough. Dr. put him back on the Prednisoline for a few days. He is still on the inhaler/spacer taking Flovent 2 x a day and it has helped tremendously. He has a follow-up with his pulmonolgist next week. Fun times! BJ no longer takes bottles only drinks out of sippy cups. I probably would have kept him on a bottle for a while longer at least at bed time, but the CW really frowned on it and said he should be having a sippy cup by the time he was 1. I guess everyone is different because a ton of my friends kept their kids on bottles until they were at least 2. Now if only I could get him potty trained before his sister comes. Yes, that's right BM is having a girl which is due in October. BJ and she will only be 16 months apart. I'm excited and petrified all at once. Of course there are no guarantees we will get her, but that is the plan. My mom did this amazing mural in BJ's room. I will have to post it. Not today, but soon.
We still have N4 and X6.
X6 had his IEP done back in May and they found that he does need lots of extra services and I'm so glad that he is going to get these. He is going into 1st grade so this will be a big transition for him to be in school all day. He is reading like a fene and loves it. We can't go anywhere without him reading some sign or box. It's especially akward at the library when he reads the innaproriate stuff out loud. Nothing too bad just a little PG-13 reading on some of the movie covers. Gotta love those times. He's been enjoying his summer riding bikes, going to birthday parties and enjoying taking field trips at summer camp. Their camp is pretty cool they go bowling, to the movies and have water day every week.
N4, N4, N4 what can I say he is hand full. We have had our ups and downs with him this summer that is for sure. We had a 3 hour long meeting with their CW and his supervisor regarding this one. We had therapy for him, but it was more like therapy for my husband and the therapist only saw N4 1 time before she told us she was leaving and her internship was over so we would be getting a new intern, which she is starting to see my DH next week. They belive N4 has some kind of AD (attachment disorder). N4 has lost his priveleges to go on field trips with his summer camp because when they went bowling, he was in a time out and he decided to go to the arcade with another kid he is not suppose to be playing with because as you can see why they get into too much trouble together. The daycare thought him going on field trips was a safety issue and we agreed. He can reinstate his privleges when he has had 3 good days without incident, but that hasn't happened yet and really there is only 1 week of field trips left. We found out last night that N4 will have X6 Kindergarten teacher at school so we feel like she is in for a rude awakening. She won't even be able to believe they are brothers because X6 is very compliant, however, as a teacher she must know siblings can be very extreme! Don't get me wrong N4 has had a pretty good summer, but in times like these we tend to focus on the negatives, but I have to remind myself he just turned 5 and he has been through a lot. These are the days where as foster parents you have to wonder why anyone would do this for the money!!!!!!
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Suspended Visits and Extended Visits!
It's been awhile, but here are the updates. Baby J's BM got all her visits suspended until further notice. Apparently we found out that she locked the CW in her house and wouldn't let her out and was verbally abusing her. Needless to say that does not look good on BM. It has been 2 Friday visits so far and the permanency hearing is June 9, 2007 where the courts could look to terminate moms rights. We are hoping for this so please pray that this happens. Mom is sooo not stable and she does not ever seem to be with her sickness. She is just not capable and being pregnant and on low medication does not help, but neither does being in a co-dependant relationship.
Good news is N4 and X6 have gotten extended visits. Their BP's have finished all of their programs and DCFS has increased their visit time. Not by much from one hour a week to 2 hours a week, but at least it's something. Well I'm exhausted so I'm going to try and catch a nap while everyone is sleeping!
Good news is N4 and X6 have gotten extended visits. Their BP's have finished all of their programs and DCFS has increased their visit time. Not by much from one hour a week to 2 hours a week, but at least it's something. Well I'm exhausted so I'm going to try and catch a nap while everyone is sleeping!
Monday, April 20, 2009
Lung doctor and soccer games
Baby J had his follow-up pulmonolgist appointment last Thursday and he is finally off of everything nebulizer!!! Yippee!!! We did get yelled at for using the blow-by treatments instead of the mask because the pulmonologist said it should be illegal for respiratory therapist to suggest blow-by treatments becuase the kids get less than 10% of the medicine when it is disbursed this way. But I feel like if the kid won't let us put the mask on his face 10% is better than no percent!!! Baby J is now on MDI treatments. Which is basically an inhaler with a face mask attached - so instead of a 20 minute nebulizer treatment 5 times a day he is getting 2 - 20 second sprays through the inhaler. I guess he was too little at 6 months to try this on him so now that he is older we can use the MDI. Baby J is finally looking and feeling really good which is huge.
N4 and X6 had their first soccer game on Saturday. N4 has really improved his attitude during soccer because we told him if he acted up he was off the team. I guess that really worked because up until the day of the game he thought he was kicked off the team. Of course our club does not keep score at this leve, but you better believe the kids were keeping score in their heads and 3 out of the 4 quarters we got creamed. We have to coach to games simultaneously so DH is on one field and I am on another and in the 3rd quarter I created my dream team with our players and we won that quarter 4 to 0. I was happy to see that it is not the coaches, but the players that make the game. My DH is forming a game plan for our next practice so our kids will at least know which way to go during the game.
N4 and X6 permanency hearing is next month and it totally snuck up on us because I guess we did not put it in the calander so the CASA worker said that this is a really big deal because the judge is going to determine which direction this case should go. I was hoping the kids would be able to go back home by May, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Looks like the dad still has a lot of work to do before they can go home. I guess it's just more of the same wait and see.
N4 and X6 had their first soccer game on Saturday. N4 has really improved his attitude during soccer because we told him if he acted up he was off the team. I guess that really worked because up until the day of the game he thought he was kicked off the team. Of course our club does not keep score at this leve, but you better believe the kids were keeping score in their heads and 3 out of the 4 quarters we got creamed. We have to coach to games simultaneously so DH is on one field and I am on another and in the 3rd quarter I created my dream team with our players and we won that quarter 4 to 0. I was happy to see that it is not the coaches, but the players that make the game. My DH is forming a game plan for our next practice so our kids will at least know which way to go during the game.
N4 and X6 permanency hearing is next month and it totally snuck up on us because I guess we did not put it in the calander so the CASA worker said that this is a really big deal because the judge is going to determine which direction this case should go. I was hoping the kids would be able to go back home by May, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Looks like the dad still has a lot of work to do before they can go home. I guess it's just more of the same wait and see.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Happy Easter
Baby J's BM did not make her visit on the 3/28 so her first visit to see Baby J was April 3rd, so it had been 6 weeks since she saw him. My DH was surprised when he walked into the visit and BM's brother and wife and 3 kids were there for the visit. Not thinking and being totally caught off gaurd the brother asked for our e-mail address and my husbands phone # to keep in touch and not thinking my DH gave it to him. Luckily the e-mail address he gave them was wrong by mistake of course. DH said they seemed like really nice people and they were from out of town visiting for the Holiday weekend. Seems like BM lies to her family because they had no clue that we had Baby J since he was born and they didn't know anything about him being soo sickly.
I guess a fear would be that they want to take him, but the CW said they have no rights to Baby J whatsoever, so that would not happen. Of course we don't know if BM will ever get him back, but if she doesn't we want to be the first in line to adopt him and I know that doesn't always work out that way as I can tell from many of your stories.
N4 has been pretty low key lately. Not too much drama - a few episodes here and there. Like the screaming match we had this morning. He likes to yell at me when my DH is not around. If my DH was around it would never happen. How do they know these things! So I have to get my stern strict voice on and get him to submit because sweet, loving mom is not cutting it on those days.
I might have said this, but we signed N4 and X6 up for soccer and they had their first practice on Saturday. My DH is the Head Coach and I am the Assistant Coach. Practice did not go well. Now I know why 4 year olds are not allowed on the team. We are allowed to have N4 on the team if we are the coaches, but the whole time N4 didn't want to do anything everyone else was doing and he kept saying he wanted to go play on the swings. Fun times!!! My DH wants him off the team, but I think we are going to give him one more try and let him know exactly what is expected of him. X6 did pretty well. Got a little tired, but that's a good thing.
We had a great Easter other than getting called out of church to take Baby J to the hospital. He was throwing up yellow stuff and he kept doing it and crying so we took him to the emergency room. Found out he was throwing up phlegm because he had so much of it because of all of the congestion. We finally got squeezed into the pulmonologist this coming Thursday morning after waiting 2 weeks since his last episode. I'm not sure if I'm really happy about it or not because no one has been able to help him thus far. I am just going to pray that there is some kind of break through for this poor baby. Here we had taken him off of 4 medications because they weren't working and after he got out of the hospital they put him on 2 more. Will it never end! This kid is a walking pharmacy.
The weather is starting to get nicer and it has been soo nice to put the kids outside to play in the yard. They love it and I love it. This winter has been hard on all of us. I'm so glad to have Spring here. Can't wait for summer and BBQ's. Although it is tuff to put the kids to bed at 7-7:30 when it is still daylight outside!!! I guess I will have to invest in some room darkening blinds or some denim curtains. Any other suggestions besides letting the kids stay up. We find that putting them to bed at the latest 7:30pm gives my husband and I some sanity and alone time which really helps the marriage. Also, they just get into bed at 7:30pm and listen to a Patch the Pirate CD (a story with music) to fall asleep too. Works wonders.
I guess a fear would be that they want to take him, but the CW said they have no rights to Baby J whatsoever, so that would not happen. Of course we don't know if BM will ever get him back, but if she doesn't we want to be the first in line to adopt him and I know that doesn't always work out that way as I can tell from many of your stories.
N4 has been pretty low key lately. Not too much drama - a few episodes here and there. Like the screaming match we had this morning. He likes to yell at me when my DH is not around. If my DH was around it would never happen. How do they know these things! So I have to get my stern strict voice on and get him to submit because sweet, loving mom is not cutting it on those days.
I might have said this, but we signed N4 and X6 up for soccer and they had their first practice on Saturday. My DH is the Head Coach and I am the Assistant Coach. Practice did not go well. Now I know why 4 year olds are not allowed on the team. We are allowed to have N4 on the team if we are the coaches, but the whole time N4 didn't want to do anything everyone else was doing and he kept saying he wanted to go play on the swings. Fun times!!! My DH wants him off the team, but I think we are going to give him one more try and let him know exactly what is expected of him. X6 did pretty well. Got a little tired, but that's a good thing.
We had a great Easter other than getting called out of church to take Baby J to the hospital. He was throwing up yellow stuff and he kept doing it and crying so we took him to the emergency room. Found out he was throwing up phlegm because he had so much of it because of all of the congestion. We finally got squeezed into the pulmonologist this coming Thursday morning after waiting 2 weeks since his last episode. I'm not sure if I'm really happy about it or not because no one has been able to help him thus far. I am just going to pray that there is some kind of break through for this poor baby. Here we had taken him off of 4 medications because they weren't working and after he got out of the hospital they put him on 2 more. Will it never end! This kid is a walking pharmacy.
The weather is starting to get nicer and it has been soo nice to put the kids outside to play in the yard. They love it and I love it. This winter has been hard on all of us. I'm so glad to have Spring here. Can't wait for summer and BBQ's. Although it is tuff to put the kids to bed at 7-7:30 when it is still daylight outside!!! I guess I will have to invest in some room darkening blinds or some denim curtains. Any other suggestions besides letting the kids stay up. We find that putting them to bed at the latest 7:30pm gives my husband and I some sanity and alone time which really helps the marriage. Also, they just get into bed at 7:30pm and listen to a Patch the Pirate CD (a story with music) to fall asleep too. Works wonders.
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