A Good Start

We picked up the kids around 3PM. Suree said that the kids had had a great first day. No problems. She warned us that second days tend to be little bit harder than the first. The novelty begins to wear off, but the kids aren't yet in the comfort zone.

We went to Henry's room first. He was crying a little bit b/c he'd just gotten up from his nap and I think that he was confused about where he was. Waking up in a strange place can't be fun. His teacher Stephanie told us that he took a two hour nap, which is good. He ate "some" of the food offered to him, but he didn't eat a whole lot. He drank from the cups given to him. They weren't sure how much he drank but he didn't spill anything, like at home where he likes to turn cups over for fun. They said that he liked story time.

We then went to Miss R's room. She was eating her snack. Her teachers, Josie and Kristen, said that she only napped about 45 minutes. She was fighting it. They said that she was still up and closing her eyes at one point. She looked at the various toys in the room and watched the other kids. She didn't want to participate in the art project but maybe she'll be interested in it tomorrow.

All in all, it was a good first day. We decided to cancel our visit to Grammy and Poppy's house b/c we felt that the kids probably had enough stimulation for one day. We retreated to the comforts of our living room and let Henry watch TV. We watched The Jungle Book 2, which was a new purchase.

Miss R missed "Roger." She gave him a big hug and kiss when she got home. Her kiss was rather sloppy, and she ended up with some fur in her mouth.



Around 5:45PM, I took a nap. I worked on a project until late into the night, so I was beat. Jeff took the kids for the evening walk and ran into Hall, Swanee, and Yvonne. The kids ate some dinner for Jeff. We gave them a bath. It was one of the shorter baths in recent memory. Henry claimed that he had to go potty, but it ended up being a ploy to get out of the tub. After bath time, we read "Pinocchio" twice and then I read "Peek-A-Who?" twice to Miss R. We got the kids into bed shortly after 9PM, but they didn't truly fall asleep until 9:35PM or so. For the past couple weeks, Miss R has been getting giggly at night as she goes to sleep.

Tomorrow, we begin again. In the late afternoon, Carmen (from CPS) and Alison (from APTCH) will be doing a home visit. Carmen called Suree today, so we are all squared away on Miss R being identified as a DES child. Carmen told me that she'll be bringing some hair stuff that Miss R's mom had dropped off. She said that it isn't a problem for CPS to pick up Miss R from daycare on Tuesday but drop her off at our place after the visit. I think that this would be better for her, so that we can comfort her after her visit with her bio parents. It must be very confusing to be in foster care and have two families with whom one has contact plus CPS workers shuttling you are round. Our goal is to minimize her stress load. I appreciate that CPS is willing to accommodate my request on the drop off location.