Today our little Kiki turns 1! We are planning on have a quick celebration as soon as Billy gets home from school and then we are heading back to school for the Fall Festival.
During the almost entire year now that we've been parents, I've never gotten sick. Oh a minor cold here, a kidney stone there. But nothing that has really limited by ability to care for the children.
Until yesterday. Until an evil stomach bug descended upon our household. We've gone down in this order: first Dan, then Joe, then me, then Billy. So far Kiki is the only one who hasn't had any issues and I'm praying she escapes it.
Things got pretty hairy around here yesterday afternoon before Billy made it home from school. Fortunately he was able to take care of everyone and get them to bed before he started to get really sick.
So we'll see what happens today.
No, no, I'm not talking about a solution for Kiki's hair. Some days we just let her go with the wild look because that's just what we do. The problem is Dan and Kiki are relentless in their attempts to climb onto the coffee table. After pulling them down about 53 times in a row, I usually give up and flip the table over. But that is never easy because they're always clamoring to get back on while I'm trying to turn it over. Telling them "no" or distracting them with something else only works part of the time. 
So far the babies are definitely winning this one.
We are halfway through the 90-day waiting period in which Kiki's relatives can intervene to try to obtain custody of her. During this time I have stopped dwelling on how awful it will be to lose her because it's too painful.
But nothing is certain, of course. Last weekend Billy and I took a CPR class with another foster-adopt couple who had gone through 8 foster children and had so far only been able to adopt two of them. They lost one little girl after two entire years of parenting her. In most of their cases relatives came out of the woodwork at the last moment to take custody. This frightens us.
A little over a week will be one year since Kiki came to live with us and that means we will then have legal standing and if we have to fight to keep her, we will. Ultimately we know that God has a plan for our family and whether Kiki is a temporary or permanent part of it is in His hands. That is a comfort.
Carefully carrying the pizza to the oven
The finished product
As you can clearly see, Joe takes pizza-making very seriously. (I really have no idea why he looks so somber.)
Dan and Kiki have outgrown their "baby" car seats. Technically Kiki still has 2 1/2 weeks before she's old enough to be forward-facing, but I don't think we could have gone another day forcing her into her old seat. Plus it wouldn't be fair to switch Dan and not her, now would it?
A few moments ago I heard Joe squealing excitedly in response to something he saw on TV. The news was on, so I wasn't sure what would be making him so excited. But I had a hunch. Sure enough, it was John McCain. 
I taught Joe who John McCain is the day McCain announced Palin as his running mate. Ever since then, whenever Joe sees him on TV he gets very excited. Now I just hope I will have the opportunity to teach him "President McCain".
Apparently going to school for the first time today wasn't enough for Joe. Tonight he had one more first up his sleeve and it involved the potty chair. I'll spare the details, except to say Billy noticed the signs and I immediately whisked Joe off to his potty seat. It's only about the 4th time we've tried it and I know we've got a long way to go but we are proud of his success!
Joe looks grumpy in the picture because it's a reenactment and it's hard to get him to smile on command. (Please ignore the fact that his supper is still smeared all over his face.) He really was happy and excited about the whole event.
Which one of the 500 Babies had their first day of school today???
Up until about 9 months ago, we used kennels for Bradley and Darcy at ni
ght and whenever we would go out. So a common phrase in our home was, "Go to your kennel." But with all the baby equipment taking over our house, there just wasn't room for them anymore so we switched to plain old dog beds. But we still used the phrase "Go to your kennel" when we wanted the dogs to go to their beds. Well one day for fun I told Joe to "Go to your kennel" to see what he would do and of course he walked over to one of the dog beds and sat down. (This was last January or so.)
Today Billy was home sick with Whaler's Disease so we all went out to the library. Ok, it's not really called Whaler's Disease, but it sounds something like that. (We're not exactly sure what it's called.) But it has something to do with asthma and allergies and the doctor said he shouldn't go to school today in order to rest his voice. So we rounded up 18 of the 19 books we had checked out and corralled all 500 Babies and hit the road.
Here are some pictures from the play area near the library:
Kiki trying to stop Daniel from running off with the camera case.
Daniel reveling in the wonders of a rock.
Joe loving his little sister.
Today I took the boys to the doctor for their 1-year and 2-year check-ups. We had had to switch doctors earlier in the year because the Medicaid for children in Foster Care switched to something called STAR Health and the doctor we had been going to wasn't in the network. (It was quite an ordeal finding a new doctor, but that's another story.) Now that we've adopted them, they still qualify for Medicaid because they are a sibling group, but they revert back to traditional Medicaid and we can go back to Dr. Lopez (who we preferred). I waited to schedule Joe's 2-year check-up until now for two reasons - so he could go back to Dr. Lopez and so I could schedule Daniel's appointment at the same time. Well, the problem is that Joe's September Medicaid card doesn't say he's due for a check-up, and the receptionist at the doctor's office told me he couldn't get one if the card didn't say he was due for it (because he already turned 2 in August). I explained the situation, but she said there was nothing they could do except schedule Joe for a consult instead of a check-up. Fortunately Dr. Lopez gave Joe a check-up anyway and gave him his vaccinations, but it's enough to make me seriously consider putting the boys on our own insurance. We'll have to do it anyway for Kiki if we adopt her because she won't qualify for Medicaid anymore. I don't need the government telling me when I can take my children to the doctor.
Today I took Kiki to see her mother for the last time. I started to get a little emotional when I handed her over because her mother was so excited to see her and yet knowing this was the last time she would hold her little girl my heart was breaking for her. Kiki's mother is very young and although she has made some poor choices she has also had some tough obstacles to overcome. I know she loves her little girl and wants her to have a good life. I hope we have the privilege of giving Kiki that life.
