"Happy Valentine's Day!"

The kids woke up Sunday morning to large heart balloons at the feet of their beds. Jeff said that Miss R asked him, "Is that my balloon?" They were very happy with them.

Jeff made the kids desert animal and cacti shaped pancakes. Apparently, we have cookie cutters in the shapes of coyote, javelina, prickly pear, and saguaro but no hearts. The shapes turned out pretty well. I made the kids eggs, but they weren't really interested in eating.

We went to a park in Marana. The kids had a great time. Henry wanted to go on the big kids equipment of course. A very nice boy (probably junior high age) made sure Henry didn't get trampled. I pulled Henry out of the thick, much to his dismay. He likes being in the thick of things. I was proud of Miss R because she was much more active than I have ever seen her. She was truly enjoying moving around. She learned how to do the arm hang. And wanted to practice it, and practice it, and practice it.

Then, we went to CVS to pick up several household items. I told Henry that he needed to pick out a present for Jeff. I vetoed the Sponge Bob coloring items. I also vetoed the travel version of Battleship that Henry really wanted. But I let him get Jeff a mini basketball and hoop. Henry spilled the beans about the gift as soon as Jeff took him outside.

When we got home, Henry wanted "my basketball"...apparently he forgot that it was for Daddy. He was quite interested in "the hoot." He has never had problems saying hoop before, but his mind was set on the word "hoot." Jeff read the directions out aloud. One line said something about sliding a piece against the backboard. So Henry wanted to slide on the backboard but it wasn't quite meant for Henry sized objects.

The big event of the day was that we did "respite" for the very first time. Respite is essentially babysitting for kids in foster care. We've never done respite before. Technically, we can get 8 hours of respite a month for Miss R, but we've never made use of it. The child who we took care of this evening is 19 months old. She has been with her foster family since she was two days old. Her case was recently transferred to St. Nick's, and her foster family will be adopting her. She was lovely. An easy introduction to respite. Henry wanted to go to dinner with the foster parents, but they had planned a kid-free evening. He said "Happy Valentine's Day!" to the foster mom several times. Miss A (keeping name anonymous per foster care rules) had tons of fun on the slide and in the ball pit. She gave me a hug as soon as her parents left. She enjoyed the playhouse. She and Miss R had fun with the shopping carts. Henry was interested at first. Then, he retreated to his train room.

We had pizza for dinner. Miss A had a HUGE appetite. She had three slices of pizza, 1/4 cup of apple sauce, dried strawberries, and a couple servings of goat's milk. She seemed to inspire Miss R on the food front. Miss R actually had TWO SLICES of pizza and a whole cup of mandarin oranges. Henry didn't finish his slice of pizza and he had a couple bites of apple sauce. My theory on Miss R's eating is that she is models her food intake off kids around her. Henry doesn't eat much, so she doesn't eat much at home but she eats pretty well at school. Miss R was sitting next to Miss A, so she ate well.

After dinner, we played. We also called Grammy and said "Happy Valentine's Day!" Henry got Grammy to promise to take him to Barnes & Noble and Costco.

Then I tucked Miss A into bed on the toddler bed (formerly the crib) in our bedroom, while Jeff got Miss R and Henry's teeth brushed. Henry said good night to Miss A twice. I think that he liked her. Miss R also said good night. She liked Miss A too. It took awhile for Miss A to settle into unfamiliar surroundings, but she did settle down eventually. It took a long time for our kids to settle down. Miss R landed in timeout. She almost has a compulsion to get herself into timeout so that she can have a big cry and then be OK about going to bed. It is a frustrating cycle. Henry is his father's son. As a child, it would take Jeff hours to get to sleep. He was a head banger to boot. Luckily, Henry isn't a head banger (at least not intentionally). But he is a difficult sleeper. Once he falls asleep, he's fine. It's getting there that's the problem.

We were excited about the evening because we've been tinkering with the idea of getting another foster child. We know the need is great. We know that we "could" do it. But we want to make sure that adding someone new into the family would be right for us. I can't say that the evening resolved our feelings one way or the other, but it has given us some things to think about. I don't see us making an decisions right away. Perhaps we'll do a little more "respite."

For anyone who doesn't want to make a long-term commitment to do foster care, I just wanted to put out the word that "respite" is a very much needed community service. To do respite, one has to go through some training (not as intense as foster care training). One can stipulate the kinds of respite that one is willing to do. Some people are cool with taking kids for a couple days, others can just do a few hours here or there. Both services are needed. It gives foster parents some breaks. While we've been very fortunate with not needing to utilize respite services because my parents love taking care of Miss R, other foster parents don't have such loving grandparents in their lives. And if taking care of kids isn't one's thing, respite services are also needed for adults with long-term disabilities. Just wanted to let people know about it in case they had never heard of it before.