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.

The Results Are In

And it looks like Oscar may be hanging around until March or so.  I talked to his grandma for a while last night and she filled me in on the stuff they covered at court.  The judge pointed out that his goal is to reunify Oscar with either his mom or dad (obviously), but that the grandparents would be the next option.  The next court date was set for December 27th, so maybe we'll be surprised by a late Christmas gift for everyone in the form of Oscar getting to go be with his family forever.

In related news, we have already discussed that Oscar will spend from noon on Saturday until sometime Sunday with his family.  And then next week, for Thanksgiving, he will be over there from Wednesday evening through Sunday afternoon/evening.  Ultimately, Oscar is going to end up with that side of the family, which is something we are at least 99.9% sure of, so the relationship we have built with the family is ideal.  He gets a chance to be around his grandparents, as well as his dad and aunt and other little kids.  Things can always change, but we're definitely heading in the right direction for a positive outcome in his life.

Their Day in Court

Court for Oscar is less than two hours from now.  The Wife and I are unable to attend... due to this whole "work" thing getting in the way.  Oscar's grandma said that she would let me know what all happens at court once they are out.  We're really hoping that he gets to go there sooner rather than later, but who knows.  I seriously doubt that his mom will both show up and care what happens to him (as long as he's taken care of).  She has made it to two out of three visits since he came to us, but that's apparently way above her average, according to Elaine.  Last week, in separate instances, she referred to me as "dad" and to The Wife as "mom" to Oscar.  Sure, he's not quite eight months old, so he doesn't understand, but still... who would refer to other people as "mom" and "dad" to their own child?  She's super nice, but she's a little off.  We should know in a few hours what is going to be asked of his grandparents (and dad) to get him to their house, so here's to hoping for the best.

Things... and Other Things

Oscar ended up staying at his grandparents' house through Sunday night and his grandpa even dropped him off at daycare for us.  When The Wife picked him up after work yesterday, he was all smiles.  He was even super happy once he got home.  Of course, he didn't want to be put down... but he was smiling and laughing all evening.  Bedtime wasn't as rough as we had thought it would be, but he did wake up about thirty minutes later, only to fall back asleep pretty much instantly once I picked him up and he let out a burp.  The middle of the night was a completely different story.  When Oscar woke up for his 2am bottle, it went very smoothly... and he was back asleep in about twenty minutes.  Unfortunately, a little before 4am, he was up again because his butt had exploded into his diaper.  There's no other way to say it.  It was really bad.  After a new diaper and new pajamas and about an hour of rocking and holding him (which must be why they say nothing good happens after 2am), he fell back asleep for the last couple of hours of the morning.

Court for Oscar is on Thursday.  We are relatively certain that the judge will begin the arrangements for him to be moved to his grandparents' house full-time.  They already have everything done, as they were a kinship placement previously, so, in theory, that should mean that all we need to get done is some paperwork for Oscar to make the move.  We will know more on Thursday, but we would really like to see him make the transition to be with them full-time for the holidays, so he isn't being carted around town between different houses.

Potty training for Leonard is still going strong.  He's really good about his number ones... but the twosies get him almost every time.  Sunday went the same as Saturday, with a completely successful day.  Yesterday at daycare, he had one accident, which is several less than any day last week.  We are tentatively calling it a success for now.

Potty Training is a Go

We decided that Leonard was ready for the real potty training and that we were ready to go to underwear and not look back.  He had told us a few times in the week leading up to our decision that he had to go potty... one way or another.  Daycare has told us on multiple occasions that they would be willing to help and do whatever we needed to get him out of diapers.  Apparently, that means sending him to the bathroom every fifteen minutes... which isn't really potty training at all.  He has had a few accidents at daycare, but those are somewhat understandable in the beginning of this process.   You may notice on the sheets below that he was sent to the bathroom 13 times... and that was with leaving over an hour early.  Today, he went three times.  On his own.  He even took a nap for over two hours and woke up dry.  Pretty sure daycare may be a little trigger happy on sending him to go to the bathroom.

Side Note:  They wrote that he "had a very good day".  How could he have possibly had a very good day when he obviously spent the majority of it walking to and from the bathroom?