1. "Carson" had his 1st overnight visit tonight!
We prepared a detailed bed time routine outline for his parents to help make the transition as smooth as possible. We talked with Carson about having a 'night night' at Mama and Dada's then we let him help us pack his bag. He picked his blankie and stuffed animal and shoved them into his backpack. Overnight visits mean you drop him off in the morning and pick him up the evening of the day his visit ends. This one is a one-nighter but the future schedule is two-consecutive nights a week at his parents.
It kinda seemed like a regular visit when I dropped him off but I knew deep down I was about to go the longest time without being with him since he first stepped his wobbly legs into our home. My eyes teared up a bit as I drove home knowing that the distance between us only grows from here.
2. In addition to Carson having his overnight visit, today was the roughest day in Our Foster Parenting Journey. The details we'll leave for another post...(yay, a post besides "5 for Fridays"!) Up until this point, we have had difficult days learning to adjust, having to discipline and deal with tantrums and aggression after visits, sleepless nights, awkward interactions with parents, etc. but today was one of those days that you would rather not be a foster parent at all. Where you want to pull out the white flag and climb the highest mountain top and wave it fervently. A day you want to spend crying and venting to your compassionate and caring mom all your hurts and fears about foster parenting. A day that makes me so grateful for my husband who is even keel and can spend the entire afternoon talking with social workers and placement workers to deal with an angry birth parent and not allow it to affect his attitude or demeanor in a negative way. As I sit here and type all I can do is breath a sigh of relief and think, whew, I am just glad the day is over and a brand new day that history hasn't yet written and is filled with new mercies and graces...begins tomorrow.
3. Now, if you knew Paul you would know he doesn't usually come across as a guy who does cute things, but the wonderful thing is, he does cute things everyday. One cute thing he did this week is he picked out Carson's outfit for the day specifically to match his outfit for the day. (He doesn't even like to match me!) I usually pick Carson's outfit but with "Maggie" I sometimes get too busy to. So lately Paul has had the opportunity to change Carson out of his pajama's. One morning he was really excited because he came up with the brilliant plan to have them both match. And they spent the day together looking like this:
4. Maggie has learned to sit up from a laying down position! Each morning she has been sitting up saying "nay nay nay nay" intermixed with whines and occasional cries. One morning she was even sitting up facing our bed and waving both of her hands in the air while "nay naying". She likes to scoot everywhere and it's just a matter of time before she is crawling everywhere. She also learned the skill of eating solid foods without pushing the food back out with her tongue. This has helped meal time be a lot less messy and more worthwhile for all of us! ;)
5. We visited our county's Foster Parent Association this week. What an amazing resource! The president of the association was there and she has fostered over 300 kids! Talk about a source of knowledge and experience. We walked out of there with 4 pillow pets, pajama's and shoes for Carson, a "Welcome Bag" full of clothes, toys, and blankets, for Maggie and a new appreciation for our community.
BONUS FRIDAY!!!!!
Caution contains "Bathroom Talk"!
6. Carson used the toilet (potty) for the first time this week! He was telling us before he pooped that he had to poop, so we thought we mine as well use that to our advantage. As I was getting the bath ready I sat him on the toilet and he pee'd in the toilet like he does it everyday...well, he does pee everyday but not while on the toilet! He just sat there and didn't even tell me, he just waited until I was ready to put him in the tub. His potty plays a song when you use it and so the song kept playing over and over. He got really excited when I let him pick an M&M but I don't think he really knew why he was getting such a sweet treat.
7. Maggie cries....no she screams every time we give her a bath. It's a pretty miserable 10 minutes. Our niece who is almost a year old was in the bathroom with us as we were preparing the bath and it looked like she wanted to go in and her parents said it was okay if she went in, so Maggie and her foster cousin took a bath together and Maggie loved it! She even laughed and smiled, which is something we never thought we would see her do in a bath tub! Our bathtub secret weapon is our niece and it helps out our sister-and-brother-in-law because they get a "free clean kid pass". It's win-win-win all around!
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