So Long 2010!

Elise's first New Year's Eve! It's 11:45, and of course she's wide awake. Georgia and Henry are sleeping. Elise is always afraid that she'll miss something.

Shots

With the help of my sister, I took Henry and Georgia to the doctor's office today for the required just-put-into-foster-care check ups. Elise came along, of course. It was a big, stressful production. We were there for 3 1/2 hours. Blah.

While we were there, I found out that the only immunization that Georgia had ever received was one shot that she got right after she was born and while she was still in the hospital... I don't even know what it was for... and Henry had NEVER had any immunizations at all. I'm not surprised, but man oh man oh man. How can you have babies and just not take them to the doctor EVER? So Georgia and Henry both got the same immunizations that 2 month old babies get and now we have to play catch up. They'll be going back every month for more shots until they're on schedule.

Still no word from the case manager about whether the kids are moving soon.

No Word

Well, Henry and Georgia's case manager never got back to me today about whether the kids will be leaving soon to live with relatives. I guess nothing was decided yet.

One of the hardest parts of being a foster parent is the constant state of limbo you're in. Everything seems to happen suddenly, and as the foster parent you are always the last to know what's going on. You don't hear about anything until it's near a state of crisis. Sometimes it seems like the case managers forget that what happens with the foster children effects a lot of other peoples' lives, too, and one boring day-to-day decision for the case manager can send a foster family into a state of upheaval.

Ugh.

In her defense, I do really like Henry and Georgia's case manager. So far, anyway.

People have asked lately how we manage having the two foster kids along with Elise. And I say, "The kids are easy. It's the adults that we have to deal with in the foster care system that make it difficult." 100% true.

Will They Stay Or Will They Go?

Met with Georgia and Henry's case manager this evening. Apparently they're investigating possible relatives for the kids to go live with. They kind of have to do that-- family always has the first rights to step forward and claim the kids in foster care. It's best for kids to stay with their own family when possible. And also, it saves the state money because they don't have to provide as many services.

Of course, the case manager needs to make sure that the relatives have a suitable home for Georgia and Henry to live in. I guess we're supposed to find out more tomorrow. Judging from the tone of Case Manager's voice, she doesn't especially like any of these possible placements for the kids. But when it comes to parents and families, they don't have to be GOOD caregivers, just ADEQUATE caregivers. Will the kids starve or die of exposure to the elements while in your care? No? Then since you're related, you can take them.

Although I believe that Case Manager wants the kids to stay with us, it's not about her personal preference. So the kids may very well get moved to a relative's home soon. I'll let you know how it pans out.

Disappearing Act

I thought tonight that I had lost my wedding and engagement rings. I cried. I wouldn't have expected that to be my reaction, but there you have it. I cried.

I called my parents because we stayed at their house recently, and they started looking for the rings. My dad called back after a while and suggested that I look at pictures that we took over the holiday to see when the rings stopped appearing on my hand.

Here's the thing. I don't take my rings of that often. I'm not one of those take-my-rings-off-and-play-with-them people and I don't remove them to do dishes. There are a very limited number of circumstances that lead me to take my rings off. The most common one is to put lotion on the babies. So I felt pretty confident that was the reason WHY my rings were missing... but WHEN did they go missing?

In fact, I noticed that they were missing when I went to put lotion on Henry after his bath this evening. I reached to take my rings off and they weren't there. I was in shock. Then I cried.

Anyhow, Husband looked back at the pictures from yesterday and today and told me that I had the rings on at Sister's baby shower on Sunday but they weren't in the pictures from this afternoon. I decided to check my pants from yesterday and there they were. In the pocket of my jeans. Thank god. How I went from yesterday evening to this evening without noticing that I didn't have my rings on is a mystery.

No it's not. I'm tending to 3 kids under 2 years old. It's a miracle that I haven't left the house without a shirt on yet.

I'm just glad that I have my rings back.

Yeeeeouch!

Did something to my back. Lifting babies??? Oh, it hurts...

Baby's First Christmas

Elise's first Christmas (which actually started yesterday) was very wonderful indeed. Lots of love, lots of food, lots of presents.

Georgia and Henry had a good Christmas, too.

Happy babies.

A Few Random Things

* Double stroller rocks.

* Georgia has two teeth now. Have I mentioned that before?

* All three of the kids now say "Hi!" and wave. Everyone's first word was "hi." :)

* The gap between Elise's front teeth is the cutest space of nothingness that I've ever seen.

* Strangers in public keep saying to us, "Looks like you've got your hands full!" when they see all the kids. Yep. We sure do.

3 Babies is More Than 3 Times the Work for 1 Baby

Tired. I love these little guys, and I'm tired.

Dancing Machine

Elise has started dancing!!!

She's in love with this mechanical dancing Santa that wiggles its butt. Husband's mother showed it to her. She watches the Santa, smiles, and wiggles her butt, too. :)

Lots of New Foods

Elise has eaten lots of new foods lately. She had steamed broccoli the other day. Not a HUGE fan, but when I added a piece of cheese into her mouth she ate it just fine. Then today she had saltine crackers, beets,... and a french fry.

I wasn't planning on giving her fried food anytime in the even remotely near future. But we were at dinner at a restaurant, Husband was feeding Georgia on one side of the table, and I had Henry and Elise on either side of me on the opposite side of the table. As I was helping Henry and was turned away from Elise, she used her go-go-gadget arms to grab a fry off of a plate that I had deliberately pushed to the middle of the table, supposedly out of her reach.

I let her eat the fry. She looked superdy dooperdy cute. I couldn't take it away.

But that's the last french fry she'll get for, like, 12 years. Hope you enjoyed it, Baby Baby.

Lots of New Foods

Elise has eaten lots of new foods lately. She had steamed broccoli the other day. Not a HUGE fan, but when I added a piece of cheese into her mouth she ate it just fine. Then today she had saltine crackers, beets,... and a french fry.

I wasn't planning on giving her fried food anytime in the even remotely near future. But we were at dinner at a restaurant, Husband was feeding Georgia on one side of the table, and I had Henry and Elise on either side of me on the opposite side of the table. As I was helping Henry and was turned away from Elise, she used her go-go-gadget arms to grab a fry off of a plate that I had deliberately pushed to the middle of the table, supposedly out of her reach.

I let her eat the fry. She looked superdy dooperdy cute. I couldn't take it away.

But that's the last french fry she'll get for, like, 12 years. Hope you enjoyed it, Baby Baby.

Lots of New Foods

Elise has eaten lots of new foods lately. She had steamed broccoli the other day. Not a HUGE fan, but when I added a piece of cheese into her mouth she ate it just fine. Then today she had saltine crackers, beets,... and a french fry.

I wasn't planning on giving her fried food anytime in the even remotely near future. But we were at dinner at a restaurant, Husband was feeding Georgia on one side of the table, and I had Henry and Elise on either side of me on the opposite side of the table. As I was helping Henry and was turned away from Elise, she used her go-go-gadget arms to grab a fry off of a plate that I had deliberately pushed to the middle of the table, supposedly out of her reach.

I let her eat the fry. She looked superdy dooperdy cute. I couldn't take it away.

But that's the last french fry she'll get for, like, 12 years. Hope you enjoyed it, Baby Baby.

My Own Personal Double Rainbow

Having three kids under 2 years old can make going out very difficult. We bought a double stroller tonight. I'm giddy.

Hola, Roseola

Elise is getting over a case of what I presume is roseola. She had a fever for a couple of days, her fever broke, then she got a rash on her head and torso. The rash is going away now.

Elise was kind of cranky during her fever. The fever was never very high and I just assumed that it was related to teething. Then her fever went away and I thought she was all better. The afternoon that her fever broke, just as I was finishing up feeding her lunch I noticed a rash on her face. I thought that she must be having a reaction to something she ate (we'd recently given her peach yogurt for the first time), so I called her doctor's office to find out how much antihistamine to give her.

After I gave her the medicine, I noticed that the rash was on her scalp and her back and tummy. Not her arms or legs. Just her head and torso. That's a sign of roseola. Then I read about how with roseola kids get a fever that goes away and then they get the rash. Yep. Elise caught it for sure.

The rash didn't bother her. Not itchy or anything. She didn't seem to notice it at all.

Apparently, most babies get roseola at some point. It's just a little virus. No big deal. And now her rash is going away. She'll never even remember it happened.

Grey Poop-on

I thought that shit-up-the-back only happens to little babies. Tiny babies who are still mastering control of their digestive system.

Nope. It happens to 1 and 1/2 year olds, too, as Henry proved tonight.

It went all the way up to his shoulder blades. It happened while we were eating dinner. At a restaurant. And I didn't have a change of pants for him.

God. Damn. It.

It looked like spicy mustard.

Major Mommy Fail

Elise fell out of the bed last night. I will feel horrible about this for the rest of my natural life.

I had a really, really stressful day yesterday. I took Henry and Elise to get Henry's cast put on. They fussed and fussed. I took them to get some other stuff done for Henry that he needed. He fussed and fussed.

Then I got pulled over on the way home. Speeding. It was one of those stretches of a very busy road that for some godawful reason has a speed limit of 35. I was apparently going 50. Along with everyone else. But whatever. That's no excuse.

Officer Tall-And-Reasonably-Attractive informed me of my speed as the kids were in the back screaming. Screaming! That is why I was not paying attention, I guess. I just wanted to get them home and comfortable and NOT SCREAMING.

Officer Tall-And-Reasonably-Attractive noticed Henry's cast. "Did you break your arm, buddy?" I answered for Henry. "Well, he's my foster son. Somebody broke it for him." Then I realized that the only auto insurance card I had in my glove box was recently expired. By this point, given all of the screaming baby stress of the day, I was about ready to cry. But I didn't.

Anyway, the P.O. took pity on me or something and gave me a very teensy tiny ticket. No points on my license or anything. I just have to go present my current insurance card to the appropriate government office within the next 30 days. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Henry spent the rest of the evening fussing, occasionally scream crying, and being very clingy to me.

So that was my day. Then at night, Elise was crying, crying, crying and not sleeping. I was up so late with her. Teething? I don't know. But I was so tired. So drained, emotionally and physically. And then at 5:30 she fell out of the bed.

I was beside myself. "Help! My baby! Husband! My baby! She fell! It's my fault!" Tears, tears, tears. I think I was as upset as Elise. We have carpet in our bedrooms, so she wasn't hurt badly at all. She didn't fall in some awful way. There were no marks. She wasn't crying a pain cry. Just a what-the-hell-just-happened cry.

Now I'm committed to making sure that Elise doesn't sleep in our bed anymore. She's too mobile. And I'm a rotten mommy. Ugh. I can't believe that happened. I'm just glad she wasn't hurt.

Cast

Henry got a cast put on his arm today. While he was in the hospital, the doctors did a full body scan with x-rays since they suspected he'd been abused. Sure enough, they found he had a broken arm. He had a temporary cast on while he was in the hospital, and today we went and got him a real cast.

I took Elise with us. Me, Henry, and Elise.

Elise and Henry took turns fussing and whining in the waiting room. People were giving me annoyed looks. Whatever. Believe me, if babies came with off buttons, I'd have turned the noise off. Not an option, grumpy old lady who is glaring at me over the rims of her ugly glasses.

Then once we got in the back, Henry was scared of every person he met and everything that was going on. He had to get more x-rays done. Didn't like that. And once the doctor came in, he kind of lost it. The doctor had actually seen him while he was in the hospital and I think Henry remembered that and it stressed him out.

Henry ended up with a red cast. I've never broken an arm or a leg, so that was the first time I've seen a cast put on.

He's pretty annoyed by the cast. He keeps trying to pull it off. He should be getting it off in three weeks, though. I can't wait to see how they cut them off!

My Love

Before Husband and I moved in together, we lived far apart in different states. We could only visit each other on weekends. When I'd go to his apartment, I'd often wait until he was busy and then hide little love notes all over his house for him to find while I was gone. We were talking about this today.

This evening Husband said, "Do you know the most precious way you ever showed me you love me?" I thought he was going to bring the notes up again, but I shook my head no.

He smiled. "Elise!"

Under the Baby Weather

Elise has been sick today. Sleeping a lot. Fever. Poor little lady. She doesn't even want to play. Just wants me to hold her. I feel yucky, too. At least we're in it together.