Baby Update

Yesterday we got to hear the heartbeat of the baby.  The Wife has been a nervous wreck, but has made it to the second trimester and all is well.  The appointment wasn’t as fun and awesome as it could have been since her doctor was on call at the hospital and clearly in a rush, but the important thing was that we got to hear it.  It’s getting more real and this weekend, we’re starting the process of flipping the bedrooms.  The Kid will be moved to the smaller room that Leonard and Penny currently share, while they move to The Kid’s room.  That way, when the two little ones go back to their mom and/or dad, we can turn that room into the nursery and it will be plenty big for all of the necessary baby things.  We didn’t get any indication that we’d be having the next ultrasound before the 20 week mark, so that was kind of a letdown, since we’d really like to know what kind of baby we’re having… but we’ll survive.

He's Leaving

Not on a jet plane, but he's leaving all the same.

I got a call from Elaine, Oscar's original caseworker who just returned from maternity leave, to say that his grandparents were approved for something with some letters that I don't remember right now.  Whatever it was, it means that Oscar can go live with them now.  We have arranged for them to come pick him up this week after we get home from work one night, so we spent a little while last night going through his things and making sure we had everything ready to send with him.  After seeing it all again, we are quite certain that he won't be needing any clothes for the next several months.

The entire thing is still a surprise to us.  After the last court hearing, it sounded like there wouldn't be any decisions made until at least February, but apparently that was about as far from reality as possible.  We are 100% sure that Oscar's time in foster care will come to an end on Thursday and that he will never be back in the system.  His grandparents are such kind, loving people and are over the moon excited for him to be with them full time.  We were going to meet this weekend to make the switch, but his grandma said that they wanted him as soon as possible... so Thursday is the day.

LUDICROUS SPEED! GO!

Leonard and Penny's parents are something else.  I know I've documented these things before with the food and such.  In the last week, Gloria has relayed a few things to me from the parents, or at least their dad.  He wanted to know if they were taking any vitamins, so I told Gloria that they just took regular vitamins for kids... Flintstones or whatever was available.  Gloria then said, through just a hint of snark, "Well, he said something about fish oils or omega something or other"... I'm pretty sure she assured him that they were getting vitamins of some kind.  In the same conversation, I learned that their dad also wanted to know "why Penny isn't in preschool"... again, Gloria was kind enough to take this one on her own.  She went on the daycare's website and printed off all of the information they had available and gave it to him.  Not only did Penny move from the preschool to the Pre-K classroom about three months ago, but Leonard moved from the two year old room to the preschool classroom right after Thanksgiving.  So yeah... school is taken care of.

When Gloria called their parents to cancel visits for today, due to their illness, their dad once again questioned it.  He wanted to know if they had been to the doctor, what the doctor said and if they were on any medications.  She let him know that we had not been to the doctor yet, but that we were on our way there at the time.

All of the recent questions have come on the heels of being asked four days before Christmas if they had been taken to see Santa, at the location they go to every year.  If we hadn't been, it was requested that we take them.  Obviously we didn't have to take them, but we obliged and took them, since it was apparently a family tradition that they had and we didn't have anything else going on that weekend.

While these are mostly benign questions and requests, we've had the random things such as a request for a Lyme's Disease test and bags and bags of socks that have been sent from visits, that were just so far out there, it really makes us wonder about the mental stability of both parents.  I suppose they're just trying to be parents and do and say things that seem like something a parent would care about, but the timing of some things are just a little off.

A Plague On Our Only House

I'd like to say both of our houses... but we only have the one.

This one started on Wednesday afternoon.  I got a call from daycare at about 3:40pm to let me know that Penny had a temperature of 100.4°.  I asked what that meant, because the daycare director never told me that I needed to come get her.  She said that, as long as the temperature was under 101°, Penny would be able to stay.  I got off the phone with her and began the eighty minutes of hoping to not get another call.  It worked out and when I got to daycare after work, Penny was a little less than her normal cheerful self, but that also happens when she's really tired.  Before bed, I gave her a dose of Children's Tylenol and called it a night.  When we got up on Thursday morning, I fully expected to find two kids with temperatures of about 102°.  Luckily, hers had dropped into the 99s and his was completely normal.

The dreaded phone call came at noon.  Penny was great, but Leonard had thrown up and had a temperature of 102°, which I later found out was taken after he threw up.  But whatever... he had to leave either way.  I called the doctor on the way to get them and found out that the appointments for the afternoon were all booked, but I was welcome to bring them to the walk-in clinic that would be open until 7pm.  On that phone call, I learned that the current waiting time was about two hours.  Better than the emergency room (even though it wasn't an emergency), but less than ideal all the same.  When we got to the office, about a 45 minute venture, including coming home for their insurance and medical stuff, it was up to a three hour wait.  Luckily, she can sit still and he was still very groggy from being woken from his nap.  We ended up waiting about an hour and a half, which considering what we were told, wasn't bad at all.  As long as it wasn't the flu, we were going to call any diagnosis a win for our side.

It turns out, after the doctor examined both of them, that she suspected strep for Penny and strep with the added bonus of an ear infection for Leonard.  They were both given prescriptions to be filled, with his being the stronger of the two, since he had more ailments that needed curing.

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.