Little Green Guy

A leprechaun arrived early at our house this morning. I'm going to try to keep him around until tomorrow. He's kinda slippery, though.

Drama at the Dentist

Over Spring Break all three kids had check-ups at the dentist. (Thanks to Aunt Kellie and Melissa, I stayed home and enjoyed some quiet time alone.) From what I understand, Joe was very cooperative during his examination, which didn't surprise me because he always earns praise from his doctor during medical visits. Dan was a little frightened, but followed directions and did a great job as well.

Then it was Kiki's turn. Dear little Kiki. Apparently she clamped her mouth shut and refused to open it. After the dentist pried it open, Kiki used her tongue to block the dentist from getting her fingers into her mouth.

The dentist said she had never seen a child do that before. And that doesn't really surprise me.

Waiting for Daddy to Come Home

500 Babies Spring Break Edition

Spring Break got started early, with a visit last week from Aunt Kellie and her friend Melissa from Michigan. We warned them ahead of time that our home is overrun with little kids and we couldn't guarantee a peaceful night's sleep, but they didn't seem to mind. We had a great time with them and the girls were so wonderful with the kids. For once, adults outnumbered the children and we were able to do a lot of sightseeing including a couple of trips downtown and a visit to the zoo. I felt like I was on vacation and felt more rested and relaxed than I have in a very long time.

So far this week has been filled with vet appointments and doctor's visits and now it looks like both of our vehicles need to be taken in for repairs. I'm just thankful it happened when Billy has a week off, kind of like when two weeks after we got the boys I got a kidney stone and had to drive myself to the hospital at 6 AM but didn't have to worry about the kids because Billy had already planned on taking the day off to take them to their own doctor's appointment. God is certainly taking care good care of us!

Snapshots From A Weekday Afternoon

Hanging out together.I wonder what she is thinking about.

Look at the li-li! (lizard)

Dan the acrobat.

Rash Wednesday

Just when I thought this house was finally rid of the various sicknesses that we've endured during the entire month of February, Joe has broken out into an ominous-looking rash. It started on his face a couple of days ago, but I thought it was just dry skin. We had ventured out to the rodeo last Friday night, where there was a chilly wind and dust blowing around, and I thought that probably caused the redness on his face. But today the ECI lady noticed Joe had little bumps all over his belly. She cancelled the visit and suggested we take him to the doctor. I can't get him in until tomorrow, and in the meantime I hope it doesn't spread to the others.

Fun at the Rodeo

Adoption Update

This isn't much of an update, but I realize it's been a while since I've shared any news about the progress of Kiki's adoption. We were told three weeks ago that we would be receiving a call from the adoption worker "any day" now, but we are still waiting. We were without a case worker from our agency for about six weeks because the previous one had left. When the new one visited us this week she said she understood that we were participating in the mass adoption ceremony this Friday. I'm not sure where she got that information, but clearly it was wrong. She said she would contact Kiki's case worker to find out what is going on. So, the waiting continues.

Listening To Her Conscience

Several weeks ago while we were visiting my parents, my mom observed Kiki reaching up to grab an object from the window sill and then quickly turning to see if the rest of us were watching. My mother remarked, "That little girl's got a conscience, but she's not listening to it!" It was a funny moment, and there have been many times since where Kiki deliberately does something she knows she's not supposed to do, looks at me, and then laughs deviously.

But recently Kiki has been showing signs that she's starting to listen to the voice in her head. The other day she became angry because Daniel had a toy she wanted. Kiki bit down hard on a pillow and raised her hand to hit Joe (the hapless victim who happened to be closer to her than Daniel). But instead of hitting him, Kiki hesitated, looked at me, and said, "No!". She then gave Joe a hug instead of a smack. Imagine that!

Valentine's Day Fun

This time of year gets a bit tiresome. Billy has to teach Writing Camp at school every Saturday morning during February, and the rest of us are still battling various forms of sicknesses, so the days and weeks seem very long. Because one of the kids is always sick, we aren't getting out of the house very much, either. Plus the weather is just weird: bleak, yet too warm for February, and no rain. (For those of you who aren't from these parts, our area is enduring the worst drought in the country right now. And this drought began right around the time we put gutters on our house. I'm not kidding.)

Valentine's Day, however, was a bright spot in the midst of these doldrums. While at Writing Camp in the morning, Billy found an Olive Garden gift card he had overlooked in the flurry of candy and cards from his students on Friday. So we had a very nice dinner minus the crowds and the kids were in exceptionally good spirits despite being sick. I almost didn't want to put them to bed they were so mellow and happy. (Almost!)

A New Game

Since playing "Mystery Baby" was so outrageously fun, let's play "Mystery Substances on Daniel's Face"!

Ready? Let's begin.

Our first substance is a blue, somewhat trasparent material:

If you guessed "markers", give yourself one point. If you guessed "Crayola Beginnings Markers, Baby Blue" give yourself an extra bonus point.

Ok, on to substance #2: Pinkish chunks of color layered on top of the blue marker. Hint: The material is waxy.

The correct answer is: "crayon".

On to Substance #3: No hints on this one.

Yes, it's Play-Doh. Yes, it also ended up in Dan's mouth.

How'd you do? The point is to illustrate the hazards in doing arts and crafts with the kids. Dan and Kiki eat EVERYTHING. Joe loves to do "projects", and the other kids are old enough to want to join in, yet too little to handle the materials properly.

Finally, Dan asked that I include one more question in the game. It's not a mystery substance, but a mystery character. Who is he impersonating in this picture taken last year?

The correct answer is: Harry Potter. Thanks for playing!

Super Sick Sunday

Little Kiki developed a runny nose, cough, and fever this past Friday. We attempted to call her doctor Friday afternoon, but the phone number we had no longer worked and Information had no listing under the doctor's name or the clinic name. Weird. The acetaminophen we had been giving her finally started to work, but her temperature was over 103 again this morning. So at 8:30 Billy took her to the ER where she was evaluated and given medicine for her cough and congestion and an antibiotic.

For these past three days Kiki has wanted nothing but to rest and be held, until finally this evening she perked up and started to play. She even danced to the music during the Kitty Half Time Show of the Puppy Bowl (I am not a Bruce Springsteen Fan so I switched to Animal Planet during half time of the Super Bowl.)

It hasn't helped that I've been sick as well, mostly with a hacking cough that forces me to sleep sitting up at night. Not too fun. Fortunately God blessed me with a wonderful husband who not only took Kiki to the ER, but got up with her several times Friday and Saturday night, brought his sick grandmother soup and medicine on Saturday, made sure I had the medicine I needed, and took care of those other two little kids running around this house. I'm on my own tomorrow, but at least I've been able to get some rest this weekend.

Something I'm Sure You Other Moms Already Knew

One of the hardest jobs I have right now is dealing with the mess the kids make when they eat. Food ends up everywhere at meatimes and snacktimes, both by accident and on purpose, and it drives me nuts because I have to clean everything five times a day: faces, hands, chairs, the table and the floor. I try to at least pick non-messy snack foods to give myself a little break, but today I failed miserably. A giant Ziploc bag of Oreos appeared in our refrigerator the other day and for some reason I temporarily lost my mind this afternoon and gave them to the kids for a snack. I thought it would be a "fun" treat. But besides being completely non-healthy, Oreos simply do not mix with toddlers. I should have stopped after giving them the very first cookie, but I panicked after seeing their hands and faces covered in slimy black crumbs. So of course I did what makes no sense at all: I gave them another cookie. And then another one. And that's when I noticed the inside of Daniel's ears were caked with cookie mush and realized that now I would have to give everyone a bath in order to get them clean.

Thus ended the Oreo experiment.

New Skills

Yesterday I needed a quick distraction for the kids so I could get started on supper. So I tossed a doll and a diaper to each child and informed them their babies needed a diaper change. I've done this before with Joe and it's hilarious to watch him attempt to put the diaper on the doll.

Imagine my surprise when about 5 minutes later Joe brings his doll to me with the diaper put on correctly, sticky tabs and all!

Other than pinning the doll's arms to her body with the diaper, everything else was positioned correctly. I will be sure to tuck this memory away to let Joe's future wife know he mastered this skill at age 2 and will have no excuse for not helping to change his own children's diapers.

The Nurturers

Kids 1, Mom 0

A "Normal" Life

Life almost seems normal around here these days. My memories of life a year ago are a blur, not only because of the day-to-day care of a 16-month-old and two infants, but because of the endless doctor visits (for shots, sickness, and pink eye), ECI visits for Joe and Daniel, CPS case worker visits for all three, CASA worker visits for Kiki, visits from our case manager, and taking Kiki to see her mother. We still have people coming over every week, but not nearly as often as before.

So now you are wondering, "What do they do with the extra time?"

Well, we wear bowls on our heads:

We help make coffee:

We clean the floor:

We dance on the table:

And sometimes we have to go to Time-Out:

All perfectly normal, typical activities in our household.

Hairdo and Hair-don't

Kiki's hair continues to be a challenge for me. I've been very lazy lately, just putting it up in a single ponytail. But because I need to start practicing other styles and because Kiki needs to get used to sitting in her chair while I do her hair, Sunday morning I attempted five twists:

It's still a fairly basic style and the parts aren't very neat, but I was satisfied with the results. It took about 45 minutes. The hair on the very back of her head is still several inches shorter than the rest, so that part is a little hard to do. But it was all worth it just to watch her smile and shake her head to feel the twists and barrettes hitting her head.

This is what happened recently when I washed Kiki's hair and didn't comb it out until the next morning:

I love the little corkscrew spirals! But I definitely won't let this happen again!

Adjustments

It's been a bit of a rough adjustment for me this week after two weeks of having Billy home to help out. Monday morning I realized that once again I was responsible for changing every diaper, filling every drink cup, cleaning up every mess, and settling every argument. For the first few days this week I became so weary of saying "no" and "stop" and "share" and "be nice". I was starting to lose my mind, but now I've regrouped and I'm using these strategies to help:

1. "Ignore". I asked Joe's therapist today if it's better to ignore him or tell him to stop when he throws a tantrum and kicks his legs. She said to help him label his feelings and then just ignore the behavior if he's not hurting anyone. I've started applying it to other situations and it's very freeing.

2. Sitting with the kids when they eat lunch. Meals were just becoming ridiculous with plates flipped over, forks flung across the table, and food thrown. Today I found that when I sit at the table with them I can intervene more quickly and model correct behavior.

3. Perspective. There's always someone else out there who has a bigger parenting challenge then I do. Yesterday I watched a show about a family that has 5 daughters: a 12-year-old and 2-year-old quadruplets and another program that featured a family with 6 children ages 5 and under: a set of twins, a set of triplets, and one single. That's just crazy, I thought. I know many people think that what I'm doing is crazy. But really, it's all about perspective.

4. Nap time. Somehow over Christmas break all three kids transitioned to one single nap time all together in the afternoon, which means two hours of peace for me.

Finally, I am reminding myself what a tremendous BLESSING it is to have been given these three beautiful children to raise. Somewhere, somehow my little babies have turned into toddlers, and my little toddler is starting to look and act more like a "kid". (You know what I mean!) The future excites me: I can't wait to see the little people they will become, but I am also enjoying who they are right now, this day, this moment.

Texas Winter Garden Fun

Our tomato plants from last spring are still producing fruit. We never got rid of them because the plants never completely dried up and we were curious to see how long they would grow.

The other day we were playing in the back yard when I noticed a green tomato with a bite missing. Could it be the work of another caterpiller-zilla? Somehow I don't think so . . .

A-ha! It's a Kiki-zilla caught in the act. At least this time she's eating a ripe one.

Happy New Year!