Christmas Is All Around Us

And it won't stop.

Tomorrow will be the fourth of five stops in the Christmas Tour '12.  That's in addition to the Christmas that the kids had with their parents at visits last week.  We have now done Christmas with Leonard and Penny at The Wife's parents' house, Christmas morning (on the 27th) with Leonard, Penny and The Kid, Christmas with The Kid at The Wife's parents' house and tomorrow will be the next to last stop at The Wife's brother and sister-in-law's house for Christmas with all of the kids.  

As predicted, they got a lot of wildly inappropriate things for kids their ages from the parents.  No two and four year old should be given books of stickers... unless their parents (or foster parents in this case) would like the house decorated with Dora or trucks or whatever they happened to be.  But hey... at least they got toothbrushes and toothpaste.  And the toothpaste was the non-fluoride version, which for two kids that know how to brush their teeth already, is pretty useless.  Other things included eighteen packets of fruit snacks, books that neither of them can read yet, and some glittery gluesticks that they will not be decorating our walls or carpet with anytime soon.

Santa brought the kids two gifts each... including a trike for Leonard that he can actually pedal and some My Little Ponies for Penny.

After their Santa gifts were opened, we informed all of the children that they had more gifts, but they'd have to work for them.  We hid all of the other gifts throughout the kitchen, living room, playroom, dining room and bathroom.  Planning ahead for our eventual forgetting gifts, we had a list of where everything was located.  It took the kids about fifteen minutes to find everything, with The Kid leading the charge... or perhaps the only one actually grasping the idea.  They gathered the gifts, opened them and then we had some chocolate cinnamon rolls for breakfast.  The kids spent most of the rest of they day playing with all of the new toys and things that they received as gifts.

Oscar was at his grandparents' for Christmas, but he got to open his gifts, with help, after daycare Thursday evening.  The book was the best tasting gift that he received, as you can tell by the picture below.

Gifts Galore

The agency provides gifts, through donations, to kids for Christmas every year.  It's a pretty awesome thing really.  The list we gave Marty at the beginning of October had four things each for Leonard and Penny for Christmas.  We didn't have Oscar at the time, but apparently his last foster home submitted a list for him.  We were thoughtful in our lists, putting a game, a toy, something educational and something with art.  The Wife went by the agency today to pick up the gifts on her lunch hour.  She met Gloria, who presented her with four giant bags of gifts... both wrapped and unwrapped.  Tonight's project will be The Wife and I going through all of the gifts to both sort and wrap them.  Her estimation was at least ten gifts per kid.  Depending on how long that project takes, there may be another post later this evening with a few of the highlights from the bags.

Back In The Bloggin' Game

It's been quite a while since the last blog entry.  Not a lot has happened, but at the same time, a lot has happened.

I'll start with the kids.  They're all still here.

Oscar has been spending weekends with his grandparents, which has been a nice break for us from the screaming.  He's not an especially happy baby when he's not being held.  Good news is that he is now sleeping through the night and is generally still asleep when we go in to get him in the mornings.  I noticed last night that his bottom front teeth are breaking through his gums.  That could be the reason for his anger issues... but somehow I doubt it.  The next court date is on the 27th, but we have no idea what to expect from it.  The judge said that he prefers for Oscar to be placed with either his mom or dad, rather than just being placed with his grandparents as a kinship placement.  The problem with that approach is that his mom doesn't do anything in her plan and his dad is on disability for whatever reason, so he doesn't really have a reliable income.  So here's to hoping something gives two weeks from tomorrow.

Leonard and Penny were represented in court yesterday.  Not a whole lot happened... much like the court date in September... and the initial one in July.  Here are a couple of excerpts from the email that Gloria sent after court:

"A parent was not chosen for reintegration at this point.  A 6 month reintegration plan is being offered to both parents, I am hoping to have this completed next week.  A review hearing was set for February 13, 2013 at 11am to see what progress has been made.   

As of now, visits will be remaining the same.  The judge did authorize increased hours but they are to remain fully supervised.  Myself and the GAL will be looking into other resources to assist with the supervision of visits." 

So yeah... not really changing at all.  We're hoping that the six month mark that Gloria mentioned in her email is about the time they will be able to go back... as that will be just short of eleven months of being here.

In us related news... things have changed greatly....

LOOK!!! LOOK!!! IT'S A BABY!!!

The Wife is about eight weeks pregnant and we couldn't be happier about it.  We will be welcoming him/her around the end of July.  Obviously it's too early to know which way it will go, but the sonographer assured us that there was only one in there... so that's something.  As soon as the kids start leaving our care, we are going to start the re-configuring of the bedrooms to be a nursery, which will involve a switch for The Kid as well.  The news of a baby may, or may not, have created a need to make the annual Ikea run a little earlier in the year than normal.  We also found some things that we really like from the Land of Nod... and there just happens to be a location in Chicago.  The Wife, The Kid and myself will be road-tripping in the Spring to retrieve many necessary baby related items.  The next appointment for the baby is January 8th, where we will get to hear the heartbeat.  We assume the next sonogram won't be until it's time to find out the sex of the baby.  Either way, we're super excited and can't wait to start getting things ready for next summer's arrival.