6 Months and Counting

Here's a fairly recent photo of me taken when it occurred to us that we hadn't been doing a very good job of taking photos of my belly for each month of this pregnancy. The upside of a larger belly is that I don't get quite as many people saying, "Oh! Are you pregnant? I can't even tell!" The downside is that it feels like nothing fits anymore.

I'm desperately in need of maternity pants. The few pairs I have are almost all capris which means that the lower half of my legs are constantly freezing lately. Not today, though. Today it was supposed to be snowing, but instead it was so incredibly nice outside that we shut off the heat and opened all the windows in the house for the entire afternoon.

Going way off topic, it was really nice that we could air out the house since our pipes that travel outside to the main sewer line in the street got blocked and sewage was backing up into the basement. It flooded the laundry room and flowed up through the floor drain in the downstairs shower. Although we are very short on funds until Friday, God intervened again and sent someone who was able to recommend a plumber who could snake out the line for $125. That's about a third of what every other place was going to charge.

So, after picking up our food bank shipment this morning, Daniel got to spend time this afternoon scrubbing filth out of the downstairs bathroom and laundry room. He wouldn't let anyone else do it or even help after the plumber told him that the slightest cut on our hands could get infected and lead to serious disease or even paralysis. He's our hero.

Trick or Treat 2008

This was the nicest Halloween we've had in years. The weather was absolutely perfect. The kids looked adorable. We even had enough time to add a few finishing touches this year like glittery makeup for the girls. To encourage Miss Lady to dress up I decided to dress up a bit this year, too. Gloria was upset because the matching princess nightgowns she and Danya had planned to wear as costumes got changed when Danya decided to use her allowance money that she had saved to buy a new costume. She went as the Lady All in White from the lull-a-bye we sing to the kids every night. To make Gloria feel better I told her we could be Twinkies, wearing our matching feety pajamas and go as pajama girls.

Our Kids Costumes:
Miss Lady = Dorothy
Danya = The Lady All in White
Thumbelina = Tinkerbell
Gloria = Pajama Girl
Snow White = Snow White
Brother = Spiderman
Kevin = Indiana Jones

Daniel didn't dress up but I guess you could say he went as our beast of burden since he ended up carrying Kevin for half the night, being a source of warmth to huddle against between houses when Thumbelina got cold in her little outfit, and pulling the wagon full of kids for the second half of the evening after he decided he'd carried Kevin long enough.

While we were out we bumped into several people we knew in the neighborhood. One neighbor, Richard, scared the kids pretty badly when they were lured to his door by a bowl of candy sitting unattended on a table in front of his open garage with a dark black sheet as a back drop. He jumped out in an incredibly scary mask and Snow White gave him quite a scolding for scaring her. Later another neighbor stopped us to give us some of her daughter's outgrown clothing. One lady who said hello was the mother to a friend of Thumbelina's that we see at the bus stop every day. Then another one recognized us from the time we let her son play tennis with our family. Then another, when I recognized his dog by name, introduced us to his wife as "the family with all the kids". They asked if we were a foster family and then said that they were about to get approved through Adams' County to foster as well!

To top it all off, we even got stopped by the police! The kids were all nervous that the police officer who pulled his patrol car to a stop and headed towards us was going to give us a lecture about jay walking, but it turns out he just wanted to give them all candy and stickers. They were so excited... and relieved. What a night.

Our First Corn Maze

The kid and I have never been in a real corn maze before. We decided to try it this year since Brother and Kevin are still young enough to get in free. We took a picture of the map before we went in to help us find our way back out again. There was also a sort of treasure hunt game to play. They gave us cards numbered one through ten. As you travel through the maze you find numbered wooden posts with unique hole punches dangling from them.

The girls and I found all ten so they earned free mini pumpkins. The boys explored separately from us. Since they didn't have the handy map with them (I had the camera) and Kevin fell asleep half way through, they only found about half of the punches. It was a fun experience. I wish I'd remembered to use my camera to take more pictures instead of just using it to look at the map.

Pumpkin Patch Play

We had such a good time at the pumpkin patch this year. Some of our kids got to have school Halloween parties. Our other ones got to come with us to the pumpkin patch. Brother lucked out and got to do both because he doesn't have pre-school on Fridays.

We played in the corn box having corn fights and giggled up a storm as Danya decided to make herself look pregnant by stuffing her shirt full of corn. Then, of course, the other three had to try it. Brother ended up looking like a little round pumpkin. They took turns burying each other in the corn. Then we checked out the pumpkins and other gourds. The kids thought that the pumpkins made a great train, so they sat on them and yelled, "choo choo!" for a while. The other kids were a bit jealous when they came home, but I think it balanced out.

Book-It Buddies!

Some homeschool friends of ours asked us this year if we could make plans together to celebrate the kids reading success each month. Our kids and theirs are part of the Pizza Hut Book-It program. We set monthly reading goals for them. Then, when they meet their goals, they earn a certificate for a free Personal Pan Pizza. I think now that they've had their first pizza party together they will all be even more motivated to get their reading done faster for next month.

We're requiring a little more of the girls this year, especially Danya, because we feel like they should be reading much more difficult books. Danya exceeded my expectations by tackling a thick chapter book that I was afraid might be too difficult for her. She surprised me. We even timed her to find out how fast she reads each page. Her average is close to a page per minute. Which is my average, too! Not only that, but I tested her on some of the bigger words in the book. Not only does she comprehend their meanings, but she can spell them, too. We're encouraging Gloria to read more difficult books that are a bit longer. She's doing really well so far. Of course, I wouldn't expect her to be at Danya's level yet, but she's definitely far beyond the required reading level for a first grader, which is what she'd be if she were in public school. We're proud of them both for doing their best.

Because she's Aunt Jennie

The kids had been excited about our possible upcoming trip to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving, but disappointed that they probably wouldn't get to meet Aunt Jennie, Daniel's little sister. Whenever we talk about her it's always in glowing terms since she is considered among the top two coolest relatives we have. Our four newest kids were treated to a little bit of Aunt Jennie's greatness recently.

You see, she is the one family member that is absolutely guaranteed not only to remember every single birthday, holiday, and anniversary for every person she is related to or has ever known, but to also know their exact size, personal style, and usually even their favorite color. I'm thinking she missed her calling as a Personal Shopper. Anyway, the other day we received a large package in the mail from Aunt Jennie that had the kids so excited that I thought there might be bloodshed over who got to open it. We designated Gloria as the official opener and gift distributor since it was closest to her birthday.

Inside was a gift for every single kid in our house. Even baby Katie got her first gift before she's even born. We haven't been able to pry the new books out of Kevin and Brother's hands yet. Brother sleeps with his. They demand we read the books to them several times a day. All the kids enjoyed their gifts, but Miss Lady was the most impressed and surprised by hers. She was shocked that it was not only a very cool t-shirt, and fit perfectly, but that it was even purple which is her favorite color. All I can say is, "Yup. That's Aunt Jennie."

The Big Cheese

The younger kids were all pretty excited to get a chance to meet the "big cheese" himself and paused for a photo op. We went to a different Chuck E. Cheese location this time so that Snow White's 6th birthday would seem a little different from Thumbelina's.

She was a little sad that her best friend from church, Cole, came down with a case of strep the night before her party. Poor kid, he didn't even get to go trick or treating the night before. Snow White surprised me by turning into a bit of a social butterfly during her party. Every time I found her in the chaos so that I could take another picture, she was riding something or playing a game with another kid I'd never seen before.

For her birthday she got a Play Dough picnic set, arts and craft things, a princess puzzle, and new earrings among other things. She also got to stay up late and share Miss Lady's special time that night. Since then we've switched Miss Lady's day to Wednesdays. Tonight Daniel and I will be taking advantage of our suddenly free Saturday nights to bring our babysitter, Sarah, over so that we can go out on a much needed date.

Snow White's Cake

Snow White originally was so impressed by Gloria's castle cake that she wanted the exact same thing. Unfortunately, we needed a cake that was easier to transport since we were taking it with us to Chuck E. Cheese. So we looked up easy cake ideas again on line and found out how to make a heart shaped cake by combining a square cake pan and a round one.

We also received "birthday boxes" from Children and Family Services made by the Girl Scouts. In Snow White's box was a tiny fairy doll and a whole lot of Tinker Bell party items. Danya was quite jealous. Snow White was ecstatic to have a fairy party. The cake turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. Snow White was in charge of adding sprinkles.

Princess Gloria and Her Ladies in Waiting

We could have had a "12 Dancing Princesses" party since that turned out to be the exact number of girls in attendance at Gloria's 7th Birthday. It was a pretty good turn out considering we didn't get around to inviting anyone until three days before. The girls decorated little foam princess crowns, had their faces painted by me with flowers, hearts, rainbows and such, watched Beauty and the Beast, and each went home with a tiara, necklace, princess pencil, and a homemade candy lollipop rose.

Gloria received an odd assortment of gifts from a toy telephone to a monkey shaped bath towel (she loves monkeys). She really wanted a Sleeping Beauty Barbie, but I got her the less expensive bathtub version that has a swimsuit under her short skirt. Fortunately, my mom ("Granny Jo") called tonight to tell us that she was sending Gloria a belated birthday card with enough money in it to get the actual doll she wants.

We made sure that Glory got to be extra special on her day. Besides having her hair curled I also applied pink roll on glitter eye makeup and hot pink nail polish for her. She looked beautiful and wanted to show her nails in every posed photo. Tomorrow is her actual birthday. We plan to go to the mall and pick up the new Tinkerbell movie that Danya pre-ordered with her allowance money weeks ago. We'll watch it tomorrow night after all the kids are home from school. It's still just so hard to believe that my baby girl is seven!

Our Princesses

Saturday was Gloria's 7th birthday and her second Princess Party. Last year she had princesses and knights, but this year there were no boys allowed according to her highness... not even Daddy. So Daniel took the boys over to the park to play. We spent the morning decorating the kitchen with long swaths of gauzy material in two shades of purple (the color of royalty, of course) and various Disney princess decorations.

A large chunk of time was taken up in washing, blow drying, and curling hair for five little princesses. I'm so glad that I don't have to do that for them on a regular basis. We also worked on the cake, which I actually googled that very morning and then ran to the store to buy the necessary ingredients and things. Have I mentioned that I love the internet? The "R" made out of marshmallows on the cake is supposed to stand for "Rose" as in Briar Rose, Gloria's favorite Disney princess and also Gloria's middle name.

Tennis: Fun but Dangerous

Daniel took the kids out to play tennis the other day after Thumbelina's birthday party was over. First he worked with Miss Lady while I kept the other kids inside. It turns out that she has a natural talent for tennis. She picked it up fast and within 30 minutes was able to actually play. Then I passed out rackets and brought the kids out. I spent most of my time taking pictures and sending gentle practice shots over the net for the younger girls.

Kevin had to be reminded that tennis rackets are not clubs to beat your brother over the head with when he grabs the ball you wanted, nor are they intended to be used to pound the ground while yelling, "Pam! Pam!" They did enjoy our crazy game of "Clean Up Your Own Backyard" where we dump out the entire basket of tennis balls on both sides of the net and then race to knock the balls across to the other side. Miss Lady's team lost and we explained to them that you don't send the two oldest players on the team out to fetch the balls that fly over the fence and leave the four and five year old to defend your side of the court. I'm sure they'll strategize better next time.

Caramelized and Exhausted

In this month's discounted food items we received through the foster parent food bank co-op were several bags of caramel that can be melted. However, other than caramel apples we haven't got a clue what to do with all of it. The kids had fun dipping the apples and twisting the sticks to fully coat them with caramel. The difficulty came later when we tried to eat them. We ended up slicing them. I think next time we might just melt some caramel and dip some slices in to eat while it's still warm. I'm also debating whether we should give a bunch of bags away to the kids in our AWANA groups this Wednesday night so that they can make some caramel apples with their families before Halloween.

Actually, starting this week I will no longer be a leader in AWANA. Another homeschooling mom friend of mine, Kathy, has agreed to take over my group. I'm attempting as best I can to obey my OB doctor who has ordered me to take it easy and cut back as much as possible. That's easier said than done. This past week we had four dentist appointments, one WIC appointment, one baby doc (OB) checkup, and Gloria's birthday party, too, among many other things we typically do.

I've been at the school so many times recently that the staff, teachers, and classmates of my kids are starting to recognize me by sight and tell me where my kids are before I can ask. Then Saturday the battery in our huge van died and I had to help Daniel push it down the drive way and then up hill into the street so that we could connect it via jumper cables to the car. By Sunday morning my lower back was screaming at me and I could barely hobble around the house. Maybe I can start taking it easy after the baby comes?

Thumbelina Growing Up

We celebrated Thumbelina's 8th birthday two Saturdays ago on the 18th. She had never been to Chuck E. Cheese before. We invited some of her school friends at the last minute but they weren't able to come. She helped bake cupcakes and her big sister, Miss Lady, helped wrap all the gifts. The kids had an absolute blast running from game to game. They all got lots of prizes at the end and two of them even hit jackpots on some of the games.

Thumbelina and Miss Lady told us that their family doesn't make a big deal of birthdays. Usually extended family members give Miss Lady some money to go buy gifts for her little sister and that's it. Although, sadly, sometimes they don't even get that. I hope that this year will be a birthday that Thumbelina remembers for years to come!

For Keeps

We found out some great news this week. Snow White and Brother's mom and dad have both told their caseworker that they want to sign over their parental rights so that we can adopt the kids! Of course, nothing is ever fast when the government is involved, but the court hearing is at the end of this month to start the ball rolling to make the kids legally free. It's exciting and nerve racking all at the same time, worrying that something will happen to change things.

I explained everything to Snow White yesterday. She's very happy that she gets to be part of our family forever, but also sad about the idea of losing her first family. We're not explaining things to Brother because we don't think he'd understand what it means really. He comes up to me constantly and lays his head on my shoulder saying, "Mom" and I get a real sense that even though he may not understand all the concepts involved, he has adopted us as his parents already. We're hoping and praying that everything can be finalized right around the same time that baby Katie arrives in February. Even though I've misplaced my camera card so can't post any photos, I wanted to let everyone know the big news!

Stranded

I can't post a picture of our car right now because it is currently broken down at the top of the on ramp at 104th and I-36 with Daniel sitting inside it freezing and waiting for a tow truck to arrive.

After the tow truck hauls it to the repair shop then Daniel will wait for our friend, Ron (yes, the trombone guy again), to come help us once again. He agreed to give Daniel a ride home. Daniel had been on his way to work when the car died. He's coming home because there is simply no way we can accomplish everything we need to tomorrow plus get the car fixed if Daniel doesn't get some sleep tonight.

Tomorrow is Foster Parent Food Bank delivery day. I won't be able to go anymore because of the multiple school bus schedule I'm dealing with, so Daniel was supposed to sleep from 7am to 11am and then again in the afternoon. Adding car trouble into the mix makes it simply impossible. Did I mention that the van is making a funny sound, too, and replacing all the tires didn't fix the problem? We'd appreciate any and all prayers for our transportation needs right now. I'm just so incredibly grateful that Daniel is okay tonight.

Bevy of Buses

Tomorrow will be rather crazy. We will officially begin having four kids all attending school. There will be buses to meet at 7am, 7:30, 11:00, 11:30, 2:40pm, 3:26, and 3:35. In the midst of all that I'll be attempting to conduct school with Danya, Gloria, and a little bit with Kevin. Since tomorrow is Miss Lady's first day in her new school I'll be driving her in to meet with the person who outlines the rules and gives a brief overview of what's expected of every student.

Last week we had to deal with some craziness involving Miss Lady's school situation. I'd already filled out the enrollment paperwork to get her set to start school here locally. We had decided to drive Miss Lady to her old school Wednesday through Friday so she could have a chance to say good-bye and transition somewhat. Then Daniel gets a call from the caseworker saying that Miss Lady's school councilor wants to drive her to school and back everyday so that Miss Lady doesn't have to change schools. But it seemed that nobody wanted to make a decision or consider the complications that would cause. So first I had a talk with the caseworker to explain why it was a terrible idea. Then I spoke to Miss Lady's school councilor and principal to explain it to them.

It was agreed that the councilor would subject the school to potential liability if there was an accident and could not be available to pick up and drop off Miss Lady for all her medical, family, and court appointments. They asked if she could ride a public bus if they gave her bus tokens, but I pointed out that the bus wouldn't always be available at a moment's notice for all her appointments either. There was also the complication of family members who attended the same school basically giving direct access to the parents. The main confusion was that the school personnel (who all adore Miss Lady) thought that she would be going home or to a relative placement in a week or two. That's just not likely to happen. Once I explained that Miss Lady and Thumbelina may be in foster placement for at least a month, maybe longer, they realized that the best idea would be for her to attend a local school until she leaves foster care. I'm just glad I could get it all settled on Friday.

In a final note, we also took Miss Lady and Thumbelina for eye doctor visits on Friday. They are both near sighted and will be getting glasses sometime in the next two weeks.

Staying a While

Just a quick update. The assessment worker called today to say that the parents were much more helpful yesterday at the court hearing. There isn't a suitable relative that lives far enough away from the parents for the kids to live with. So they'll be staying with us at least for now. He told us to go ahead and enroll them in school. So I did that today. The neat thing is that Miss Lady, Thumbelina, and Snow White will all be attending school in the same building. There are three schools that share a huge building. Thumbelina and Snow White will actually be in the same school and will get to ride the bus home together starting tomorrow.

I'm going to drive Thumbelina to school tomorrow so that we can find out who her new teacher is and she can get a quick tour to see where everything is located. I don't want to just stick her on the bus and hope someone meets her there and knows what to do with her. Miss Lady is sad that she has to say goodbye to friends over the next two days. Her new school sounds fun, though. It's a charter school with a focus on the arts like painting, music, and drama. Another bonus is that she'll be getting out of school an hour earlier every day and her bus stop is right in front of our house. Well, it's ten o'clock at night and I'm just now going to start on all the paperwork that I have to turn in to her school tomorrow.

Waiting to Exhale

We're all holding our breaths waiting to find out what's going to happen with Miss Lady and Thumbelina. The court hearing with their parents was this morning. The assessment worker called just as it started to give us an update. He said that he's spoken to the girls' parents and they don't seem to be very helpful. They didn't provide a list of possible relative's contact info. He's supposed to let us know by tomorrow if there is a safe relative that they can go to live with. He asked if we were willing to let them stay with us if there isn't any suitable family and of course we said we'd love for them to stay.

He also said it was up to us to decide if we wanted to enroll them in a local school or drive them to their previous school. We talked to the girls about it and decided to go ahead and drive Miss Lady to her middle school for the next couple of days until we know if they're going to be moved or not. Thumbelina's school was too far for us to try and drive, so we'll just hold off until we know if she's staying. If they stay then we'll enroll them both in a local school. Miss Lady was very happy to go back to school today and see all her friends and teachers. Apparently, today was a special day called "connect the dots day" and she was relieved that she didn't miss it. I also learned that she needs special help with reading and her school's "literacy class" teacher is encouraging her to "guess" at words. She has no idea of what phonics is about. So we're going to start working together with Snow White at the beginning. As she helps me teach Snow White, hopefully she'll start picking it up, too.

Speech Therapy?

So today was Brother's big evaluation through our local "Child Find" at a pre-K and K center that is anything but "local" to us. The speech therapist, a lady named Sara, determined that everything I told her was correct. He is normal in all areas except for speech/communication in which he scored a zero rating.

She wants me to register him to attend the school four days a week so that he can receive "speech therapy" that turns out to be nothing like what I thought it would be. I asked if there would be special equipment and techniques, if he'd be given individualized attention, pulled out of the classroom so that he could focus on the new sounds he's being taught, basically anything critical to his speech development that I simply can't provide for him. The answer is: none of the above. He will attend regular pre-K, but during "center time" as he wanders around to whatever area catches his interest a speech assistant will follow him. She will say the names of things that he's playing with and encourage him to say them, too. They'll also emphasize getting him to ask for the specific things he wants at snack time like "juice" and "cookie".

I'm pretty much stunned. They want me to take him to and from the nearest bus stop (a mile away) four times a week in the afternoons so that he can miss his nap, disrupt a class full of kids, and get the exact same help he's already getting at home. If he was in the terrible home situation that he was pulled out of originally, I could see how that would be beneficial to him. I asked about getting him speech therapy in our home and Sara said that legally they have to do the "least restrictive" method. In home therapy is considered "more restrictive" because then Brother wouldn't get all that beneficial social interaction with his "peer group" meaning that he'll learn better speech from a class full of 3 and 4 year olds than he would from a home environment with older (and younger) kids and adults who all speak clearly already. Somehow, I don't see how spending three hours a day hearing only one adult and 15 other pre-K age kids speak is better, but then again, I'm not a speech therapist, so what do I know? He's supposed to start school on Monday.

Pioneer Dioramas

Since we're finishing up the book "The Cabin Faced West" I decided to let the kids do a project with all the shoe boxes we collected last Friday. They started work today on prairie dioramas. They painted the backgrounds and started building "log cabins" out of Popsicle sticks. Tomorrow we'll all brain storm to see what else we'd like to add to the scenes. Most of them did pretty good. Snow White didn't listen to the directions I gave and ended up painting her sky green. Daniel says that her cabin will just be on a very big hill.

Tonight was also Snow White's "special day" and she was kind enough to share it with Thumbelina since poor Thumbelina slept through her time last night. We stayed up late reading the end of a different chapter book and she fell asleep just before the ending. I think it's great that they all get so excited to find out what happens next in the story and beg me all day long to finish the book. Anyway, tonight Snow White and Thumbelina played Candy Land with me and then made foam animal puppets on Popsicle sticks. Thumbelina was just amazed at the concept of a mom wanting to sit down and play a board game with her. She and Miss Lady have started calling Daniel and I "Daddy" and "Mommy" in the last two days. It really surprised me coming from Miss Lady, but she says it's just easier since that's what everyone else calls us. I sure don't mind!