Peek-A-Boo!

I haven't been posting much on Baby A. No particular reason except for the fact that I hardly have more than a few minutes at a time to put any coherent thoughts together.

He's a great little guy, or as Joe would say "cool awesome". He's been rolling over for several weeks and is really good at holding up his head. A developmental therapist and an occupational therapist from ECI each come out once a month to see him. He's got some high muscle tone (which Dan and Mikea also had so I told the ECI ladies I don't notice it because I don't know what "normal" tone is supposed to feel like.) We do some massages and are working on reaching out, getting ready to sit up, and getting ready to crawl.

A. is easy-going, content, and a charmer. He's got the biggest smile I've ever seen and is always ready to show it to you. He loves when his big sis and brothers talk to him and they love playing with him, holding him, and feeding him.

As far as his case goes, we received a little bit of bad news this week. After over 4 months, his birthmother finally contacted CPS to begin working services. Our caseworker thinks it's still unlikely that she will be successful (the family wouldn't let the worker into the house when she came to visit), but if nothing else this will delay an eventual adoption. We know normally we're supposed to be supportive of returning the baby to his bio family, but not in this case, not any more. We know too much history, his brothers are ours, and taking him away from us will break apart OUR family.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, he's NOT Chinese, or any other Asian nationality for that matter. Almost everyone who meets him says he looks Asian, which is kind of funny because we used to joke about needing to adopt an Asian child to complete our "set". So, you see, Baby A. fits in just perfectly with our diverse little tribe of children!

Toddler Art

I have to try extra-hard to walk the fine line between guiding and controlling whenever I do "projects" with the kids.

Last week we stuck fun foam stickers on Christmas trees, and when the kids finished way sooner than I wanted them to, I brought out sequins for them to glue on. Joe wanted to glue his on the back and at first I was like, no, they go on the front. Then I realized it doesn't matter and I let him do it.

I took great pains to show them how to just use a little dot of glue, but as you can see, most 2-year-olds would rather glob on as much glue as possible. It was messy, but in the end it dried clear so again, what does it matter?


Surprisingly, Dan was much more self-controlled with the glue and didn't make that much of a mess. He's always been a "less is more" kind of guy when it comes to art projects. I always have to encourage him to keep going, add a little more, etc. But maybe that's another way I'm being too controlling? Or maybe I'm overthinking this. Wouldn't be the first time!

In the end, everyone had fun and I need to remember it's the process that matters the most!

My Little Helpers

Mikea loves to help me in the kitchen. Whenever she sees me getting ready to make a meal, she grabs a chair and drags it over to the counter. I try to find little jobs that are safe enough for her to do, like dumping in ingredients and stirring. She just can't resist sticking her fingers in and tasting whatever's in the bowl. I let her set out the kids' plates and utensils on the table since they're plastic, and sometimes she puts the food on the plates. The other day I told her to give everyone three carrots, which she did until she got to her own plate and dumped out the whole bag.

The boys enjoy helping in the kitchen as well, and when I bake something like cookies or muffins, we'll gather round the island and take turns putting in ingredients and stirring. I always have to be especially careful around eggs, of course. Joe knows we don't eat "rotten" (raw) eggs, but I'm sure Dan and Mikea would eat them if they could!

Thanksgiving Crafts (Yes, I Know Thanksgiving is Over)

No one wants to read about Thanksgiving crafts on December 1, but since I never got around to posting this sooner, this is what you get for reading my blog. And no, this isn't turning into a craft blog. I wish I was talented enough for this to be a craft blog, but that's never gonna happen. I lack the skills and I lack the patience. But I don't lack the desire, and when the crafting bug hit me the week before Thanksgiving, this is what I made:

First we have "The Give Thanks Banner", one of my few original ideas:

I know, I know. It doesn't take a crafting genius to print letters off the computer and glue them to paper. And clearly the "I" is a different shade of brown. And the "H" and "S" are disproportionately smaller than the other letters. Ok, moving on . . .

"The Tree Pillow", inspired by this.

Clearly mine doesn't have quite the same stunning effect as the original, but I think that's because I made the leaves too big and couldn't fit very many on the pillow. Also, after ironing on the leaves I had no desire to sew them on like you were supposed to. But now they're starting to peel off, so I guess that's a shortcut that I shouldn't have taken. Oh well.

Here's the back:

Overall I really like how this turned out, considering the fact that the fabric I originally picked out for the front shrunk when I washed it and I had to go back out buy more (the one time I pre-washed the fabric because I was trying to do things the right way.)

Next up is "The Leaf Wreath", inspired by this:

This thing gave me the most headaches of any of the projects. I had to start over 3 times because I couldn't get the circle circular enough (even though I was following a traced line). Again, not as great as the original but good enough for me.

Finally, the best for last! May I present "The Butterfly Picture":

I know what you're thinking, isn't that just a piece of paper in a frame? Well, yes it is. But I love the way it looks and right now it's my favorite decoration in the house!

Stay tuned for Christmas Crafts, coming in mid- to late- March!

Detailing the Bike

One of the things the kids love to do is get a baby wipe and "clean" the house. They ask "one wipe?" "one wipe?" and I know this is what they want to do.

The other day we were outside when Joe became concerned that the wheels on his motorcycle were dirty. I tried to convince him that this was ok, but I could tell he wanted to clean them so I gave him a wipe. I was amazed at how engrossed in the task he became.
So if you need some detailing done, you know who to call . . .

Systems

Within the first day of moving into our new home, it was clear we were going to have to devise and implement new systems for getting things done. For example, the morning routine. Back at the old house we had all 3 kids in one room, with 2 of them confined to cribs. The kids would all wait patiently (ha) in their beds until I went in to get them. Here at the new house, everyone is now in a "big kid" bed. We didn't care for the idea of 3 toddlers roaming the house at 6 am, but we also knew we couldn't make them stay in their beds. So we allow them to get up and play, but they have to stay upstairs until I say they can come down. This is what my mom used to do, so I figured it must be good. For the first few days the kids tried to come downstairs before I was ready for them, but now it seems they've finally caught on.

Another system is laundry. I don't do well with laundry. At the old house, I could never seem to conquer the piles of laundry that covered every surface in our tiny laundry room. It would take an entire day just to get caught up. It wasn't until we moved to the new house that the light bulb finally came on. You ready for this? I wash, dry, and fold one load every day! Between the six of us, we dirty up enough clothes/towels/etc. for one load of laundry a day. So that's what I've been doing. It's so ridiculously simple, I don't know why I never figured it out before this.

As far as clothes storage, we decided the simplest solution is to keep the kids' clothes in the laundry room, like this: (thanks for the idea, Sarah!)
Until the kids are old enough to carry their clothes upstairs and put them away themselves, this is what we think will work for us. We don't have dressers for their rooms (except for the baby), but at this point we don't need them. I hang their nicer clothes up in the kids' closets, but everything else goes in the baskets, organized by kid and type of clothing.

You're impressed, aren't you? Well, don't be. 'Cause here's my system for socks:

And I don't see it changing anytime soon!

Rites of Passage

Today I completed another of the official rites of passage of motherhood. It's something that I hadn't experienced yet, a rather remarkable feat considering the multitude of young children that I care for. In fact, I thought perhaps my children were a little more refined than other kids, simply because I hadn't encountered this problem with them yet. But no, the sight (and smell) that greeted me when I walked into the boys' bedroom this morning confirmed that at least one of my children wasn't going to leave toddlerhood without putting his mark on the wall, so to speak.

I won't mention names. But it wasn't Joe. And it wasn't Mikea. And it wasn't fun to clean.

Later on in the morning Mikea colored the kitchen floor in five different places with black crayon. I don't know how she did it, because I was right there the whole time. Then a few minutes later she brought me a bar of soap she'd been gnawing on.

Between the antics of the two-year-olds and a baby who's becoming mobile, these little people run me ragged, I tell you. But I sure do love 'em, poop-painters and all!

What's Up with Baby A.

Baby A. is 4 months old already! He is such a content, happy little guy who brings so much joy into our lives. He loves to be talked to and will coo and gurgle right back at you. Last week he started rolling over from his back to his tummy. Now whenever I lay him on a blanket on the floor, I have to be more vigilant because he tends to roll halfway across the room.

I would love to share photos of his gorgeous blue eyes and his ginormous smile, but since he is still a foster child I have to respect his privacy. His caseworker has informed us that she plans to recommend termination of parental rights in two more months. (Birthmom has still not contacted CPS to work a service plan.) Once rights are terminated, we have to wait 90 days before we can adopt him. We are praying that this is God's plan for us! We want this little guy to be part of our family forever!

Adventures in the Backyard

I'm not the kind of person who can come up with great ideas on the spot. I need time to think, plan, and research. Unfortunately, unless I think, plan, and research the next day's activities the night before, I'm usually scrambling around trying to put together activities at the last minute. I have books filled with ideas, but they're still packed somewhere. Anyway, today I decided I wanted the kids' outside play to have some structure. But it also needed to be easy for me to put together. And easy to clean up. Hmmm...what to do. Then it hit me! Why not have the kids paint the backyard fence with water?

Look at the joy!
The concentration!

The . . . ??? (I'm not sure what Daniel is feeling here. )

All seemed well until I traded out the paintbrushes for sponge brushes. Then the flinging began.

And it wasn't long before they decided to fling water on each other.

Dan and Mikea had a pretty good battle going on before I ended it. It reminded me of yesterday when they were fighting over a truck:
They both raised their arms to hit each other but thought better of it when they realized I was watching. Needing some way to express their frustration, they began grabbing fistfulls of grass and throwing it at each other. Rather than stop them, I did what every good mom does and took pictures.

They quickly resolved their differences, however, and all was peaceful again.

THE END!

Messy Morning

Ever since we started getting our old house ready to put on the market this past June I've felt like I've slacked off in the arts/crafts/learning activities with the kids. But now I'm trying to get back into a regular schedule of activities (based somewhat on the curriculum at Hubbard's Cupboard), so those unpacked boxes in the garage are just going to have to wait a while longer.

We can normally get at least one activity completed while Baby A. takes a morning nap. But today he kept sleeping and sleeping so I kept on going with activity after activity.

We started with a couple of painting projects. In the first one, you paint over dried glue, place a piece of white paper on top, and then make a rubbing. I thought we were supposed to wait for the paint to dry first, but apparently not because when we did the rubbings this afternoon, nothing showed up on the white paper. Oops.

As usual, Mikea chose to interpret the activity in her own way, this time by painting her tongue. I just cannot keep this child from putting everything that she touches into her mouth. (And please forgive the condition of hair. I really should have brushed it before taking pictures, but in a morning routine that includes changing 3 diapers, giving 2 nebulizer treatments, feeding 3 toddlers, feeding 1 infant, drinking 2 lukewarm cups of coffee and feeding 2 dogs, hair brushing just doesn't always fit in.)
Next we painted some fall scenes, and then got dressed and made "Clean Mud" out of toilet paper, Ivory soap, and water. If you look towards the left in the picture, you can see that true to form, Daniel had no interest in getting messy. He preferred to stand on his head while Joe and Mikea played in the mush.
Here's a close-up of the mush. The activity was somewhat disappointing because Joe and Mikea only played with it for about 5 minutes before they lost interest. We probably won't be repeating this one.

Next we went outside to play and I took the kids into the garden to pick carrots. I'd been putting this off because the garden's been muddy, but I knew it would be such a great experience for them that I didn't want to wait any longer. We needed to wash the carrots, and I knew I could either be a micromanager of that task, or just stand back and let the kids figure it out themselves.

I decided that the entertainment value of watching 3 toddlers in charge of a water spigot was too good to not pass up. Plus, it was loads of fun for them!

All 3 kids were soaked by the time they finished. I had them strip down and dry off before going inside. All in all it was an exciting morning, and the best part was that they took the longest naps they've had in weeks. Amen to that!

Nebulizers Anyone?

The two-year-olds went to the doctor today because they've had coughs, congestion, and a bit of fever for the past few days. Turns out they have breathing issues so the doctor prescribed nebulizer treatments for both of them:

The doctor said Daniel especially had really bad lungs, and that it wasn't because he was sick. He wondered if we had mold in our house but clearly that's not the problem because this house is only 2 years old and it was just inspected. Apparently it could be the dogs, it could be the change in weather, we don't really know. Both kids are going back in a few days for check-ups so maybe we can get some more answers.

Right now I just need to figure out how I'm going to give these guys their treatments in the midst of the chaos that is our daily lives. Daniel's are supposed to be every 4-6 hours and Mikea's every 6-8 hours. The treatments take about 10 minutes each, but I NEVER have 10 uninterrupted minutes to focus on doing one thing. (For example, today I reheated the same cup of coffee at least 4 times because I could never finish it in one sitting.) Maybe I can train them to hold the mask on by themselves. Poor little guys. They're troopers, though, and did really great for their first treatments tonight.

Devine Acres

Saturday morning we packed up the 500 Babies and took a drive south of town to visit Devine Acres, a Christmas Tree farm that has a Pumpkin Extravaganza in October. (Thanks, Aunt Deb, for the tickets!) Uncle A.C., Aunt Beck, and Cousins Lydia and Ruth joined us for the fun.

There were cute goats:

A couple of mazes:

A hayride: (Had I known the expression on my face, I would have demanded a retake.)

Bouncy thing-a-ma-roos: (You didn't know that's what they're called?)

More cute goats (and a cute kid):

A playground with a sand area:

And a fishing pond:

We didn't have time to get to the sack races, pumpkin painting, dress-a-farmer, or marshmallow roasting. We'll definitely be back next year!

Trick or Treat!

This was the first year we took the kids out trick-or-treating. It was a good chance to walk around our neighborhood for the first time and get to know some of our neighbors. We had to distract Joe a few times when we had to walk past houses that had too-scary sound effects and decorations. That's going to be harder to do as they get older, so we'll probably have to figure out a new plan. I think the kids had fun, especially when we got home and allowed them to eat 4 pieces of candy each. Fortunately the sugar highs didn't last too long and we were still able to get them to bed at a decent time.