Little Trash Can Helper

Sam is fascinated with trash cans.  He will point them out wherever we go, he loves to watch the garbage truck collect trash, and he loves putting things into the trash cans.  When we are out at a park and Sam sees some trash on the ground, he picks it up and immediately starts looking for a trash can to put it in.  At home Sam likes to help throw away his diapers and anything else that can go in the garbage.  He especially likes helping Daddy collect all the trash bags from the restrooms and dump them into the big trash bin to take out to the curb for garbage collection day. 

The other day Sam found a small plastic bag on the floor and brought it to me saying "trash can".  I happened to be feeding David a bottle at that moment, so I told him we would put it in the trash after David was done with his bottle.  Next thing I know Sam disappears for a little while to return with the full small bathroom trash bag.  I end up helping him throw that away, and later when I return to my bathroom, I see he has stuffed the plastic bag he found inside the bathroom trash can.  What a good little helper!  Too cute!

Chopped Liver

Sometimes I feel like my older boys are considered chopped liver to other people around us.  Now granted, if you were to ask these people if they felt that way, they would assure you up and down that depiction is inaccurate; however, actions speak louder than words.  Just be grateful James and Sam are not old enough (although they may be getting there) to understand the whole measure of affection and love poured out on baby David and how little they are getting in terms of attention.  I am well aware there are times when David requires more assistance (feeding a bottle, changing a diaper, etc.), and sure, most people love to hold an adorable little baby who smiles, coos, giggles and snuggles you.  There is nothing wrong with that.  I am not asking you to stop loving on David...of course not!  I am asking for you to create more of a balance between the affection you pour out so willing to baby David and the attention you begrudgingly (or so it seems to me) give to my sweet older boys.

It is okay to put the baby down and spend some time with the older boys.  David enjoys watching his brothers play from the bouncer or swing, and he also enjoys spending time on his tummy watching the world and rolling over.  If nothing else, hold David while interacting with the older boys...take the baby outside to watch James and Sam dig in the dirt.  Show them you do care about them...I know you do, but I also know sometimes you get too wrapped up in the newness of a precious baby and you forget about the two whom you have already formed bonds with.  If David falls asleep on you, hold him for awhile and then set him down, so you can love on James and Sam.  They also desire your attention.  They ask for you to play with them.  They ask you to give the baby to Mommy or to put him down and play.  They ask because they care and they want to spend time with you. 

If you always turn them down, eventually they will stop asking, and there will come a time you truly regret that.  I honestly believe so.

Living Room Forts

This morning after playing outside for awhile, the boys and I came in and built a couple forts in the living room.  One is an extremely basic drape sheets over the train table and call it a fort.  The other one was given to us by a neighbor with older kids, and it is a magnetic fort...kind of hard to explain...basically there are foam poles with magnetic ends that stick to this directional balls and bases to form a maze like fort with some clips to attach colored sheets as walls or pass-throughs.  The boys had a blast making and destroying the magnetic fort a few times.  We also read some stories together under the train table fort.  A rewarding bit of time with my two older boys (David was napping during most of this fun).

Cheddar Bacon Scones

My husband had to do another early morning firewall change this weekend.  Poor guy had to be at his office at 4 a.m.  He asked me to make something for him to take in and share...well, technically it was more like "Would you like to send something in to work with me?" which can be translated into "I really want you to make something for me to take in."  One of his coworkers had mentioned bringing in donuts (although I don't know any donut place open that early personally), so I decided to go with a savory item instead, so it wasn't just a bunch of sweets.

I found these Cheddar Bacon Scones on Annies Eats and thought they looked and sounded tasty, so I gave them a try.  This was my first time ever making scones in general, but the recipe was a breeze to follow.  I used nitrate-free bacon and fresh green onions in my scones.  The scones were delicious!  I am not saying they are healthy considering you crumble ten pieces of bacon into the batch, and you get eight scones out of the recipe...putting the count of bacon at over 1 piece per scone, but they tasted wonderful.  Next time I will cook the bacon a little longer making it more crispy because it looses a lot of that in the scone.  I am also thinking this would make a terrific addition to a nice corn chowder or other similar soups during the summer.

Now that I have successfully made these savory scones, I am excited to start testing out some sweet scone recipes...especially since I have a read a tip that scones can be frozen before they are baked, and you pull them out the morning of and bake them a few additional minutes.  That sounds convenient, but it does take some prep work, so we will see if I get that ambitious. 

Selective Coloring

Yesterday I went to my doctor appointment and then did some grocery shopping without kids in tow while my husband stayed home with the boys.  Both James and Sam play nicely in James' room together quite often.  Well...my husband had run to the restroom and returned to the kitchen to begin dinner prep, and the boys were playing in James' room, so he didn't think anything of it.  It turns out they had grabbed a couple markers out of the junk drawer (I use them to mark items on our calendar...just regular Crayola washable markers) and had colored on items.  We lucked out that the entire walls were not decorated...instead they were very selective in their coloring.  They colored on their wooden play kitchen, their dresser, and the door to their bedroom.  James came out and said to my husband "Come see my drawing.", so in a way he actually tattled on himself.  He was proud that he drew on the door "like Daddy" (because my husband marks James's height on the inside of the door).  My husband handled the situation well...having them help wash off all the marker and then have a time out.  Later on we found a little marker on our bedroom door and some writing on the top of our toilet seat.  Like I said, we are extremely lucky they didn't mark up everything in sight.  Everywhere they colored was easy to wash, so that was a nice relief.

As we were getting ready for bed, we noticed there was also marker on the sliding glass door, but it is on the outside.  It must have happened under my watch when I was letting the boys color outside earlier in the day.  So both my husband and I were fooled by selective coloring.

Another Dr. Visit

I have a doctor appointment scheduled for myself this afternoon.  I am having some intense abdominal pain, and my doctor would like me to come in to be seen.  I had this problem a few months ago (maybe 3 or 4), but this time it is different as the pain isn't so centrally located.  Last time I had a CT scan and an ultrasound performed, and I have an MRI scheduled for next week.  I almost didn't schedule the MRI since I have been doing so well without any issues for awhile.  It took me a little while to get the appointment scheduled because baby David joined our family and life has been pretty busy.  I called a couple weeks ago and finally set up the MRI.  Now I am glad I did because hopefully it will shed some light on what is happening with my body.

I don't really know what to think...all I know is this is not pleasant, and I will be happy when it is resolved.  I am also hoping whatever is going on doesn't require any surgery as I already did that recently for my appendix, and I would rather not repeat the process.

David's First Camping Trip

This weekend we went on an overnight camping trip.  We couldn't have asked for better weather, and we had a wonderful time.  We were concerned that David's nighttime bottle feedings would wake up the older two, but that wasn't an issue at all.  We used our larger tent which allowed us to set up a play pen for David to sleep in.  The rest of the family slept on sleeping pads on the ground like we normally would when we go camping.  The older boys had a tough time initially falling to sleep because they were so excited to be in the tent and wired off their smores.  : )  My husband did have to get up and put the rain fly on the tent in the early, early morning hours because it was sprinkling, and we were worried about the possibility of good rainfall getting us all wet.  We didn't need to worry about that either, but if he hadn't gotten up and put the rain fly on, it probably would have poured.  The bug shelter was most helpful during our lunch before packing up camp because all the bees came to investigate.

Some lessons learned:

1) Toddlers and fires are unpredictable, and you must be right on them at all times.  I hadn't thought it through, so I didn't have David in the Bjorn but was instead carrying him around while the fire was prepared....meaning I only had one available arm.  When my husband made our little fire (only big enough to roast some marshmallows before bed), the older boys sat in their camping chairs, but then they started moving around, and we tag teamed them.  It was getting dark, and Sam tripped over a stump and almost landed in the fire pit.  Thankfully his nose just scraped against a rock, and that was the worst damage done.  That could have been a horribly terrifying situation.

2) Lighters and BBQs are not friends.  In the morning we had a simple breakfast of bagels and cream cheese.  My husband heats the bagels up on the bbq to make them more enjoyable.  He accidentally left the lighter underneath the bbq while we were eating, and we got a small show of a fireball during our meal.  Thankfully no one was hurt and no serious damage was done...we are just minus one lighter which is easily replaced.

I thought there was more, but right now my brain is not pulling any other lessons out.  If I remember something, I will add it to this post.

Another Court Update

A trial has been set for Sept. because birth dad wants services to be offered, and the court is going with the county's recommendation not to offer services.  With Sam's case, the same thing had happened, and the trial did not change the ruling not to offer services.  We are hoping the same will prove true in David's case.

The more worrisome issue is the courts want the department to assess placing the brothers together, David and Luke.  We are concerned they will decide to pull David out of our home and place him in a home with Luke in order to keep them together because we are unable to take Luke into our home...at this point in time it would be too much.  We already have three little ones who require plenty of attention, and adding a fourth that may have some behavioral issues is not going to be fair to any of the children. 

However, we do have a full sibling in our home, and we are willing to maintain contact with Luke, so hopefully that will sway the decision.  After all Luke and David have never met each other and have no relationship whatsoever; whereas James and David have developed an attachment (at least James to David).  James will randomly tell me throughout the day either "I like him." or "I love him." as he points to baby David. James is so loving with David and will purposefully lay next to him and admire him.  It is so sweet.

I would hate to see what would happen to our family if David is removed.  Both James and Sam are attached to the little guy as are my husband and me, of course.  I will tell you one thing with absolute confidence.  If the county removes David from our home, we are completely done with the world of foster adoption.  We will close up our home and not take another child regardless if siblings come into care or not.  It will be too devastating of a loss.  We already love David as our own and losing him will be unbearable.

If you are the praying type, please pray for our family as we await this decision.

David's 2 Month Check Up

David had his two month check up this morning.  I dropped James and Sam off at a friend's house while I took David to his appointment.  This worked out perfectly as the boys had a blast, and the mom said she would be willing to watch them anytime because they were so good and did such a wonderful job playing together.  I am always happy to hear good recounts from those who watch my little ones.

Here are the measurements from David's appointment:

Weight: 13 lbs. 9 oz. (79th percentile)
Height: 23.5 in. (73rd percentile)
Head: 39.75 cm. (70th percentile)

If you compare Sam's two month appointment to David's, you will see that David is aiming to be the biggest child of all three.  However, things may change over time.  It would be funny to have the youngest be the tallest, and it is not unheard of...after all my younger brother is taller my brother and me.

David's belly button is still oozing, so I asked the doctor about that.  Technically it should not be oozing still at this stage of the game.  There is a little bit of tissue left from the umbilical cord, and that is causing the oozing, so the doctor put some ointment on it to dry it all up.  The ointment will stain David's belly button skin black for a couple weeks.  That was good information because I would be pretty concerned otherwise.

Also I asked about David's cough and wheezing.  The doctor listened to his lungs and everything sounded good.  He agreed David must still be recovering from his cold.  If the coughing spells get worse or David develops a fever, the doctor wants me to bring him back in.  Otherwise it just needs to run its course.

David got his liquid vaccination which he was not fond of drinking.  Then the poor baby got five shots...usually it would have been three (there is a combo one that does three in one, but they are out of that at the moment).  He handled himself like a champ...screamed bloody murder during the shots and calmed down fairly quickly afterward.

The doctor is happy with David's growth charts and his overall health.  : )

Offering Comfort

The other morning Sam was upset because he had fallen down while he and James were playing.  James walked over to Sam, rubbed his back and said "It's okay.  Daddy will be home in a little bit.  You will be so happy!"  This was a totally unprompted and sweet interaction between them.  I had to email my husband at work about the encounter because I knew it would make him feel loved.

We have been requiring James to say sorry and do something nice for his brother after his time outs (the ones related to being mean to his brother), but we have also been encouraging James to help his brother feel better when he is sad, and apparently James has grasped that because he so lovingly reached out to offer his brother comfort...and it touched my heart.

Update on David's Court

Well...court was continued once again last week, but only until this week, so that is not too bad.  The reason behind this is so both David and his two year old brother, Luke, can have their cases combined since they are only in care a month apart from each other, and the plan for both is not to offer services and push for adoption.  My worker thinks birth dad will contest the decision not to offer services and will therefore push for a trial date which will just add more time to the process.

Birth dad has also recently (as in last week) requested visits with David.  My worker thinks he just got the results back from the paternity test, and since he is the father, he would like to start his visits.  The county worker is supposed to give birth dad the phone number for my agency worker, so visits can be set up.  So far I have informed my worker (this was all told to me on Friday), and so far we haven't heard from the birth dad, but I imagine we might by the end of the week.  The visits will be twice a week for an hour each visit, but birth dad will have to call and confirm otherwise I do not need to show up with the baby.

On top of that, sibling visits between the two year old, Luke, and David will need to be started as well.  I am not sure how often those will take place, but it will be interesting since David is 2 months old, and Luke is 2 years old.  Oh well!  We have done it before with Sam, so at least I have an idea of what to expect.

The good news is...we heard that Luke is doing extremely well in the family he was placed with.  He is the youngest one in the home, and the remaining kids are much older.  The family feels they would be willing to adopt if his case goes to adoption.  Both my husband and I were happy to hear this news, and it makes us feel much better about our decision because even to this day I don't think our home would be a good place for Luke because of all our young ones.

Cantaloupe & Blue Corn

Today at lunch I served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with cantaloupe, and James also got the last half ear of corn left over from last night's dinner.  Sam went to town on the cantaloupe!  He kept asking for more, and once James saw Sam eating away at his third piece of cantaloupe, James decided he must be missing out on something incredibly tasty, so James gobbled up his piece and requested a second.  I ended up cutting Sam off at five pieces of cantaloupe because that is a lot of melon (between the two boys, they almost consumed an entire half of a cantaloupe), and I was a little concerned about how his stomach might handle that much melon.  I am glad they liked the cantaloupe so much.  I will have to make sure to buy it more often for them.  I cannot eat it myself...my throat gets all itchy and dry feeling after just a bite or two, but I don't mind getting it for my family to enjoy...especially if they enjoy it that much.

When James cleared his plate, I noticed his corn on the cob (which he ate very well) was blue, and I was a bit perplexed until I remembered James and Sam colored earlier in the morning with some markers.  James failed to just color paper and painted himself a little blue, so his blue hand had transferred to his corn.  James thought that was pretty cool, and who can blame him.  : )

Rolling Over

Yesterday afternoon, during tummy time, David rolled from his stomach to his back, not once but twice.  Granted, rolling over was a lot of work for the little guy.  First David leaned his upper body to the side, and with some extra effort, he was able to get his legs to push himself the rest of the way over.  I say extra effort because the legs did not instantaneously push David's body...instead it took David a little time to get his lower body to roll.  The second time was a little quicker than the first.  It was adorable to watch!  I sat on the sidelines cheering David on as did James who had just woken up from his nap.

David is rolling over a little earlier than expected.  Sam was the same way as a baby...in fact he first rolled from his tummy to back at almost the exact same age as David did.  What little troopers!

SOLD!

Today is a sad day in our household.  My husband sold his Jeep, and a part of him fears he also sold his hopes and dreams in regards to experiences he wanted to have with his sons.  This is not the first recreational vehicle my husband has had to sell, but it hits a little harder this time because there is not an immediate plan to buy a new fun vehicle.  Realistically the Jeep is not practical for our family now that we have grown, but I did try to convince my husband to hold onto it longer...just like I had the Bronco he sold years ago. However, his mind was made up because the money will help allow us to hopefully pay down enough of our house payment enabling us to refinance at a much lower interest rate.  The plan is to refinance and in about a year buy a larger home and use our current house as a rental.  We will see how those plans go.

James was sad about my husband selling the Jeep, and I think that broke my husband's heart even more.  My husband and James have special memories together in that Jeep.  That is always the hard part...letting go of something that holds such loving, special times.  I really feel bad for my husband this time around...you can just tell he is so incredibly bummed.  He reassures himself by saying he is doing it to make things better for our family, and I am sure that helps him, but not enough to cover the immediate pain of losing the Jeep.

After all of this sacrifice, I hope we can manage to refinance without any major hindrances.  If not, my husband will be crushed all the more for the loss of our fun Jeep.

Menu Plans

I used to do a decent job creating a weekly dinner menu which helped with planning and prepping said dinners.  Lately our meals have been more fly by the seat of your pants...mostly meaning I forgot to take something out or I didn't put any advance thought into our meals.  This makes life more crazy, so I am gearing up to restart weekly menus beginning today.  I checked the weather, and it will be HOT, HOT, HOT all week, so I used that to create a grilling dinner menu plan for the week.

Here is our plan for this week covering tonight through Friday:

Monday

Hamburgers
Corn on the Cob


**I already made the from scratch hamburger buns, so they could bake while it is cooler.  The corn on the cob was freshly purchased from the farmer's market this weekend.  I will add some fruit to our meal as well.

Tuesday

Crock Pot Roast (Mexican flavored)
Refried beans
Roasted Corn


**I will need to soak the dry pintos tonight, so I can cook them tomorrow morning, so we just have to heat up and smash them up.  Also I need to pull out the frozen roast we have.  Fruit or salad will be added to this meal.

Wednesday

Grilled Salmon
Grilled Zucchini
Rice

**Our neighbor went to Alaska, and he brought us back some fresh line caught salmon fillets, so my husband plans to grill them on a cedar plank.  The zucchini is from the farmer's market, and the rice is the microwaveable brown rice from Trader Joe's.

Thursday

Asian Chicken
Asian Rice

**This is our last meal my MIL prepared for us when baby David came into our house.  It is a good cook on the grill meal.

Friday

Grilled Pizzas

**Since it has been a few weeks since we have had pizza, and James loves to help prepare pizza, it will be a fun Friday night dinner.  I will make our pizza dough, and we will have to figure out what toppings we would like on top.

Now moving forward, I need to continue to plan our meals in advance to make the evenings run smoother.  It also helps with grocery shopping too.

Trying to Improve

After taking assessment of myself as a wife, a mother, and a Christian, I see huge areas of potential improvement.  My goal in life is not to be average, mediocre or just barely skating by.  I desire to have a strong marital relationship rooted in Jesus, children who grow up knowing the unconditional love of a mom which then directs their attention to Jesus, and a more intimate and personal relationship with Jesus myself.  Boy, do I have a lot of growing to do!  Here are just a few changes I plan on implementing in these life categories.

My Marriage
**Prepare little notes to include in husband's lunch more often (this has pretty much blown by the wayside with the arrival of David)
**Devote more time to cleaning the house, when possible, because a clean kitchen makes for a happy husband (aka...better time management)
**Initiate more loving touch such as shoulder rubs while my husband eats breakfast or mini back rubs while we watch television together
**Shower my husband with praise and words of encouragement
**Work hard at not letting a stressed husband get me all out of sorts, but instead take those moments and try to create a more relaxed state
**Pray for my husband more

My Children
**Get down and play more often...other things can wait until later...my kids will grow up too fast and I will have missed out on amazing activities and memories
**Be more consistent
**Shower my boys with praise and words of encouragement
**Practice using a lower voice when things get escalated
**Talk about God more
**Find ways to have individual time with each child
**Get James in the kitchen helping more frequently...he loves being included, and it would give him some individual attention while giving my husband time with just two
**Feed David his bottles without multitasking, when possible
**Pray for and with my children more

My Faith
**Make time for personal devotions and be consistent
**Read the Bible more
**Pray more...pray throughout the day
**Sing praise and worship throughout the week
**Try harder to give to those in need, when it is possible...for example people holding signs outside of stores, I can buy a bag of groceries for...practice generosity
**Act on what I know to be right

Adoption Announcements

Commonly a family will send out adorable announcements when they give birth to their new baby.  In fact I always look forward to receiving the baby announcement containing pictures of the newest addition in the mail.  Things are a little different in the world of adoption through foster care.  Technically the new child in our home is not ours until the court adoption day has taken place, and it is not until that point that announcements can be prepared and sent out to family and friends.

Right now we are preparing Sam's adoption announcements.  My husband and I picked out the layout we liked best this evening, and I began setting aside possible pictures of Sam to use.  Hopefully the pictures we choose will highlight Sam's personality.  Within the next couple days, the announcements will be completed and ordered.  I look forward to sending them out to our friends and family. 


As adoptive families we have to wait a little longer to send out announcements, but it is still important news we want to share with everyone.  It means a lot to us, and hopefully when our sons see the adoption announcements in their baby books, it will mean a lot to them as well.

Long Night

It is turning into a long night.  Of course David is waking up for his bottles, but on top of that Sam is not sleeping well at all...combine teething with a cold, and you have a pretty miserable Sam.  Literally I will have gone into the room, calmed Sam down and headed back to my bed only to get woken up fifteen to thirty minutes later by more crying from Sam.  Thankfully David is not having issues sleeping through Sam's wails of despair...although I am not sure how David is managing that.

I am sure to be exhausted when we all finally wake up.  Hopefully I will manage to nap with the boys tomorrow (or technically later today).  We will see how that goes.