Our Foster Family 5 for Friday! Vol. 1

In an effort to help us blog on a more regular basis we came up with 'Our Foster Family 5 for Friday' posts. "Carson" likes to give High-5's and so we thought it would be fun to feature five things that we experienced as a foster family for the week.

1. Carson is really into "owies" and any slight bump or knock to any body part is an instant owie that requires a kiss and a "boo boo owl," a kid-friendly ice pack that looks like this:

Well, on Sunday, Carson being the adventurous boy he is had 3 real owie accidents! Two of which left evidence on his face and the third was a surprise fall from his crib when he climbed out for the first time, only five minutes after we put him in bed. This required pictures taken and emails sent to his social worker and our licensing worker to inform them of the incidents. It also required us to take him to the doctor for a check-up as per the licensing worker (who was just trying to make sure we were protected in case there was a complaint by one of his parents.) Reporting owies and doctor appointments for rather harmless owies are some of the things that remind us that while in our eyes these are our kids, in the eyes of the law they aren't.

2. Due to Carson's adventurous spirit we spent Monday morning (rather, Paul spent Monday morning) changing Carson's crib into a toddler bed. The fall was from a decent height and left him uninjured but pretty shaken up. Paul heard a thump and rushed in to see Carson standing in the middle of his room screaming. We don't want any more accident reports or doctor visits so we decided the trade off would be worth it to try to transition him into a toddler bed. And to our great surprise, he has had the smoothest transition from crib to toddler bed in toddler history. If only those darn nightmares would cease we might be able to get a good night's sleep!

3. Since we are on the topic of sleeping, "Maggie" is having difficulty falling asleep when it's time for bed. The solution: a couple of nights this week Paul offered to put her in the Ergo Baby Carrier and walk around the neighborhood until she fell asleep. It looks similar to this (only Paul is much more cuter than Orlando Bloom!):

Sometimes their walks began at 9:30pm! But nevertheless, Paul is the Ergo-whisperer and he has been able to get her to sleep for the night. Did I mention he is my favorite foster dad ever? Getting babies to fall asleep is by no means just a foster parent problem, but what makes us think twice before allowing Maggie or Carson to cry themselves to sleep is the fact that when they first arrive here this isn't their "home." At some point they do need to learn to put themselves to sleep, but we have not had the chance to bond with them from birth, so we try to use as many opportunities to hold and cuddle (and ergo) to build our attachment with these kids. Sometimes we do let them cry it out, but I guess there's a different wrinkle when it comes to foster kids.

4. Maybe the most significant thing that happened this week was Grandma and Grandpa moved away for the unforeseeable future. Their last night was filled with hugs and tears. Carson seemed to know something was happening, the first thing he said when he woke up the next morning was, "Gramma?" and put his hands up to ask "where?"

5. Thankfully, Grandma and Grandpa recorded their voices reading books for the grandkids and gave them as gifts before they left. This is a life-saver because Maggie LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Grandpa's voice. She is so content in his arms when he is talking, she just looks up in admiration and awe. It is the sweetest thing. So these books come in handy when her bottle is taking a lot longer to prepare than expected and she gets fussy. We just pop open the book and Grandpa's voice ceases the crying in an instant. It's kind of fun to think about why she's so attracted to his voice. Maybe she has a great relationship with a biological grandpa or some family friend, or maybe it's just a random coincidence. Whatever the case, we are carefully trying to preserve this weapon of comfort only for emergencies.