18 Months Old Adjusted!

On Tuesday afternoon, I pulled out some foam blocks from Christmas, hoping that Henry would be ready for them. Unfortunately, his need to chew on everything suggests that it will be another couple months before we can leave the blocks with him unattended.



Jeff pulled out the Pony. I bought the Pony a couple months ago. It can be used in conjunction with a video system for the TV. When baby jumps on the pony, things happen on the TV screen. We played with it maybe twice when we first got it, but Henry didn't get the cause-effect part, so we let it collect dusk in the area formerly known as the "bar area." Now it is the Henry toy storage zone. My how things change!

In the evening, Jeff gave Henry a bath. What's the difference between Mommy giving a bath and Daddy giving a bath? Well, as shown in Exhibit A, when Daddy gives bathes, apparently it becomes OK to bring the golf clubs into the tub with you!










Today (Wednesday), Henry turned 18 months adjusted! How's Henry doing for an 18 month old?

Speech: Verbally, he is incredibly advanced. Even if we didn't adjust for his age, he'd be considered very advanced. He probably can say and knows the meaning of 110+ words, probably more. Every day, it is a new word or several words that we didn't know that he knew. Last night, it was "shampoo." One of us said something like, "Let's wash your hair." Handed him the shampoo/body wash bottle. Henry said, "Shampoo."
Fine motor skills: I don't know. I'd guess about average for a boy. Cuyler called yesterday. She's going to visit us on Monday and do an OT evaluation.
Gross motor skills: He's doing very well. Still concerned about the toe walking, of course, but all in all, he's doing great.

This afternoon, Jeff brought out the Pony after Karina and Alicia left. Here's a clip of Henry demonstrating his understanding of the video system...




We had our foster/adopt class tonight. Barbara, the foster parent trainer, ran the class tonight. It was a good session. The gal who sits next to me (I'll refer to her as G) brought pictures of her mom's foster kids over the years. It was very nice to see. The more I talk with G, the more I like her. She strikes me as a person who a good heart.

Tonight, we discussed culture. The basic idea was that as a foster parent, one may be deal with children who are from different cultures than one's own. It is the hope of the agency that foster parents will be sensitive to the needs of the foster kids and keep them in touch with their culture to the best of one's abilities. I asked if the agency gives preference for matching foster parents to children from a similar culture. They looked kind of surprised that I'd ask that question. Apparently, they don't think that they are legally allowed to disclose race unless someone asks about it. I think that most people in the class have a "color doesn't matter" vision. While I hope that color doesn't matter, I'm reading studies that say it "does" matter to the children. And that's of course more important than what we future foster parents want. Basically, kids are getting thrown into different households. When they go to school, they may not want a visual sign to their peers that they are living lives that aren't typical. They may not want their peers to know that they are foster kids. If parents don't "look" like the foster kids, their peers will be more prone to ask questions that the foster kids find uncomfortable.

"How come your mom's skin is a different color?"
"That can't be your real dad. Why are you living with those people?"
"What happened to your 'real' parents?"
Etc.

As I've said before, we aren't putting racial/ethnic parameters on our screen. But I think that the agency and CPS should realize that all else being equal, placing a child with foster parents who look like them might be easier on the child. I suspect that if we get a child or sibling group who are of a different race or ethnicity, we'll probably be able to handle issues as well as anybody. But to take the approach that culture or racial/ethnic background doesn't matter at all strikes me as naive.

We wrote letters to future birth parents telling them about us and how we plan to raise our children and foster children. Barbara said that the letter will probably never be seen by any real birth parents. It is used to give the agency a sense of who we are. They will use it to create our profile.

When we went to pick up Henry, he didn't rush to greet us. He was too busy rolling around on the floor. Very good at it, I might add.

That's about all from here. Until tomorrow...