September, In Review, Part 1

1.  Zade turned 3.

2.  Thing 2 became potty trained.  He's had some issues, but been overall a pretty easy guy to potty train and even stays dry at night.  This event meant we were down to 1 child in diapers!  We have spent the last two years with 2-4 kids in diapers, so 1 is a very nice number.

3.  We got a Friday quittin' time call to pick up an 8th child from a nearby foster home...right then...without social workers accompanying us.  We'll call him Sir Smiles.  He was 15 months old at placement.   We had provided respite care for him for 10 days earlier in the summer, so our kids were all happy to see him return. Even though he is toddler age (4 months younger than Wee One), he is developmentally closer to an 8-10 month old, meaning we have a baby again.

Oh, yeah, we were back to 2 in diapers within days of getting down to 1.

Anyway, he is really, really sweet and smiley.  He adores balls and has a throwing arm better than any of my other 7 children!  He really has no interest in any toy that is not a ball.  His parents are the sweetest parents we have ever dealt with in the foster care system.  If all goes well, I would guess he will go back home in the next few months.

The problem with this new placement is that Sir Smiles has 3 family visits a week.  Add that to the 2 that Thing 1 and Thing 2 have on totally different days, and you have us running around all the stinkin' time.  I accept it, hoping that it will somehow be short-lived, as these things usually are, but it really is a little much.  We really only wanted to be responsible for one set of visits at a time.  We thought Smiles had visits on the same mornings as our other guys (like he did during the respite period), but, man, were we wrong!  This just adds to the out-of-control-of-our-own-life feeling that we have as foster parents.  We can have a really rough, tiring day, yet we cannot call everything else off and stay home, order pizza, and veg in front of the TV.  No, we have to get someone to a visit.  We cannot do circle time each morning at 9, followed by memory work and school for the older kids.  No, we have to get someone to a visit.  Giving up control of my own family's schedule is one of the hardest parts of foster parenting for me.  I'm someone who loves routine and structure, but the routine is dictated to me and can be changed at any time, and very few social workers care to check with me as to when I would prefer to have visits.

4.  We celebrated 3 years with our taekwondo school at a back-to-school picnic.  The little kids spent their time climbing slowly up this hill and then sprinting and falling all the way down.  Over.  And over.  And over again.  I have some of the cutest pictures, but you'll have to take my word for it.

I think we are in a bit of a rut with TKD, sadly.  Brishen hopes to test for his black belt this year, but he also prefers going to youth group at church on Tuesday nights.  Basia is really ready for a different sport, I think, but it's hard to walk away.  I'm just not able to sit and watch and cheer like I used to because I have a whole lotta kids to keep off the mats.  They also just started  a new schedule where Brishen and Basia go back to back, which is a whole lot of back and forth for Jon if he's going to be able to help with bedtime at all.  

5.  Basia turned the big 1-0!  She had her chosen meal of bean burritos (after getting to go to Red Lobster with Jon earlier in the week).  She also got to decorate her own cake for the 3rd time (I think) in 10 years.  She loves decorating her own cakes!  We are continuing the tradition we started earlier in the summer where birthdays are not one big party, but smaller events throughout the day to make the whole day special.  They get their favorite cereal wrapped up for breakfast (Cinnamon Life for Basia) and have their spot at the table, or bar area, decorated just for them.  The get to unwrap a new outfit to wear for the day.  They get to open their biggest gift right away so they can spend their whole birthday playing with it.  The other gifts are spread throughout the day at various times.  Family comes to eat and play.  It's all simple and has been a lot of fun.

6.  Grandma was offered a ride down from Colorado Springs, which made for a great treat during September.  She got to meet our newer three kids.  She got to see how our lives work these days.  A comment she made was, "Now I see why you can never finish your laundry."  All the kids loved having her around.  I'm pretty sure they all talked off her ear.  She brought a puzzle, a sorting toy, and some look and find books that the kids absolutely loved.  We still have to look through the books several times a day to find all those things they found on the first day!

7.  We tried gymnastics times six.  It was cute.  Except when it wasn't.  It mostly wasn't cute.  We quit.

8.  We tried the big boy bed thing with Wee One.  I was thinking that putting him in a toddler bed would free up our options of where to put Sir Smiles.  Brishen and Basia were each his age when they transitioned to a toddler bed.  Basia was a wild child and still transitioned well.  I went all Super Nanny on him and put him gently and non-interactively back in his bed 12,487 times the first couple nights.  One morning he was snuggled under the window on the floor.  By night three, I was ready to tell Super Nanny to come do it herself.  He never ever ever stopped getting out of bed.  He's back in his crib until he reaches high school.  At the rate he's (not) growing, I'm sure the crib will still fit him just fine.

9.  Homeschool PE began again.  I decided that the best way to keep the little ones out of the way was to let them bring their bikes to the park.  I didn't realize that the park would be so much more dangerous than riding bikes in our more cushioned back yard.  I was petrified of a serious injury occurring.  I ordered 5 helmets the first day they rode their bikes.  Luckily, the only big crash and burn was Zade.  Whew!  He's mine, so I didn't have to fill out an incident report.  Now they've discovered the skate park.  Wow.  They are good/scary/fast/brave/daring/wreckless at that place.  On the one hand, I pat myself on the back for being the kind of mom that lets her kids enjoy life without constant fear and overprotection.  My kids will be able to join the x games in a year or two.  On the other hand, I wonder if they would immediately strip my foster care license for allowing my kids to jump off things, bike down big ramps, and otherwise tempt the fates.  You should see them in their helmets, though!  The boys all got the same ones, so they look like a little biker gang!