A Morning Filled with Love

On Sunday afternoon, Jeff got Miss R up from her "nap" and nebulized her b/c her cough was keeping her up. They ended up falling asleep on the couch. Around 5PM, I went into Henry's room and he popped up. He found the 3+ hour nap refreshing. We then got Jeff and Miss R up and went over to Grammy and Poppy's house for dinner.

Miss R was particularly funny telling Jeff "Daddy, get up butt" as she poked him in the backside and indicated that he was to get off the chair that she wanted. Henry ate A LOT of vegan meatballs and bread with a french cheese on it. He liked it so much that he stopped eating the bread and just licked the cheese off it. Miss R didn't eat much. After dinner, Henry announced that he didn't want to watch the penguins (March of the Penguins) but wanted to watch pirates (Pirates of the Caribbean). But it was getting late and we headed home (despite the kids being super cute together playing under the coffee table).

We played a little bit in the train room when we got home, but then it was time for bed. Unfortunately, Miss R's cough was back again. I ended up nebulizing her. She fell asleep on my chest. I noticed that she felt very warm. Jeff got the thermometer. Her temp was 101.8, so we gave her children's Tylenol, which brought the fever down. That meant that she couldn't go to school on Monday (24 hour no fever policy).

On Monday, Henry woke up wanted to know where I was. He came bounding into bed and snuggled with me. He insisted that Jeff lay in bed too and take his shoes off. He rolled into Jeff's side and said "I Love You!" then he rolled over to me and said "I Love You!" What a great way to start off a Monday morning.

Miss R woke up soon after. The kids had breakfast while I got ready. Then I took Henry to school. A little girl shared her playdough with him.

When I got home, Jeff was working with Miss R on his lap. A little while later, Aunt Jennifer called. Miss R talked to her for a little bit. While Jeff talked with his sister, Miss R went up to him and said "I Love You, Daddy!" It was a morning filled with *love* in our household.

I think that Miss R has been happy to have us to herself today. Jeff's working but she likes to check up on him. I let her watch a little bit of Mamma Mia! She didn't eat much lunch, but managed to persuade me to give her chocolate milk (Carnation instant breakfast). She didn't struggle too much at nap time, which is where she is now.

"Where's Batman's friend?"

On Sunday morning, we played in the train room for while. Henry was interested in his Batman playset. He asked me, "Where's Batman's friend?" I told him that Robin was on the table. He picked up Robin and had the duo go to Batman's cave to ride the elevator. I heard him have one of the action figures tell the other action figure "I love you!"

Jeff set up the kids' ESPN tee-ball set. I have to say that toys these days are much cooler than when we were kids. This one sets up the ball hanging from a mount with the touch of a button. Both kids took turns. The hardest part was making sure that they didn't stand behind each other while the other person was swinging the bat.

Before lunch, the kids carried a large plastic bin into the half-bathroom and decided to sit in it together. Miss R got irked at Henry for moving in and out of the container. I told her not to be so bossy. Henry then proceeded to say "You're bossy!" several times, which made her cry. I told him to stop it. He then told me that Daddy was bossy (which made me crack up). I told Henry that he (meaning Henry) was often quite bossy and demanding. The news didn't come as much of a shock to him, and I'm quite sure that he didn't internalize it as an insult. He seemed OK with being called bossy. The differences between Henry and Miss R are quite amazing. Henry is very confident and he's got a super thick hide. Miss R, on the other hand, is often overly sensitive. She is quite bossy, but any criticism or correction sends her into a funk. Whenever she does something inappropriate and I correct her, she then lashes out at Henry for the same infraction (whether or not he's actually doing it). For example, yesterday, I told her to get inside. She refused. She was standing near the outside wall. Henry was near the door under the patio. I told R that if she didn't march inside, she'd get put in timeout. She didn't move. I said, "OK. That's it. Timeout" at which point she runs under the patio and says "No, Henry, inside!"

After much coaxing, I got Henry to eat some of my ravioli for lunch. Croutons were also a big hit. The kids are now napping. Well, at least Henry is. Miss R is wiggling around and talking aloud.

"Where's his penis?"

After the kids got up from their nap on Saturday afternoon, Jeff got them a snack of poppyseed bread and orange juice. Henry didn't eat much. Miss R had some.

Jeff took them over to Grammy and Poppy's house in the late afternoon. They raked leaves and were excited by finding a rattlesnake skin.

The kids discovered where their old toys were being kept. Apparently, there was a renewed interest in them, so Poppy got them all out. Henry had wooden panda bear among the old toys. Apparently, he pulled it out and examined it. He then asked Grammy "Where's his penis?" Grammy told him it was under his fur. Henry then asked him where the panda pooped.

Miss R was in a carnivorous mood, which is very unusual for her. She had 2.5 pieces of sausage at dinner. Henry ate fairly well too. He drank quite a bit of goat's milk.

Jeff and I have wondered if Henry's lack of weight gain and constant ear infections could be attributed to his drinking cow's milk recently. We allowed cow's milk and stopped buying goat's milk in June, I think. Henry's big ear infection (which we think was a first) happened in July. I was reading last night that cow's milk has been linked to ear infections in kids. So we are suspending cow's milk for now. I'm not sure how we are going to handle school. I think that we may have to tell them that he isn't allowed to have cow's milk, and we'll supply the goat's milk.

When the kids came home, we played in the train room. The kids played with the Batman set. They were fascinated with the cash registered. Miss R doesn't understand colors yet, but Henry was really doing well with them. He "gets" that certain colored coins have to go in certains slots, otherwise the cash register won't work. I put on one of the lion masks and chased the kids around the train room. Miss R put on the dog mask and looked very cute in it.

Then, it was teeth and bed. The kids didn't protest too much, although I did have to kiss Miss R's feet several times and her forehead too.

Batman and Tee-ball

On Christmas morning, Miss R was the first one up. She got us up around 8:15AM. I was thankful that she let us sleep b/c I didn't go to bed until 3AM. We got out of bed, excited for the kids. Jeff and I decided that we'd let them open the stockings before breakfast.

The big problem was getting Henry out of bed. He didn't want to get up. In fact, he ended up crawling under his bed and trying to nap under it.

It wasn't until 8:45AM before we headed out to the living room, having made our morning stop in the bathroom so that Henry could get ready for the day and his big boy underwear. The kids enjoyed the stockings, but we still don't think that they really "got" the concept of Christmas (spiritual or materalistic). Miss R especially enjoyed the Pez candy dispensers that I put in the kids' stockings. She managed to find Henry's and polish off his candy before anyone could notice.

After a breakfast of french toast, we opened presents. Miss R did catch onto the fact that there were toys to be had on top of the bar. In fact, she went over to the bar and put her arms up and said "Help! I can't reach it! I can't reach it!"

We took our time opening presents. Rather than opening everything at once, we let the kids look at their gifts and play with them for a bit before opening the next set of gifts. Henry really liked this ball and mallet set that I bought him. He and Miss R took turns hitting these balls that would roll down some ramps and out the side of a little tower. Then, one of the kids would replace the balls while the other one would hit them again with the mallet. Miss R seemed to like a shoe lace and wooden objects lacing set. Henry was thrilled that Santa gave me a Harry Potter DVD (the half-blood prince). We put Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (more kid appropriate), however, in the TV, which made Henry very happy.

The big hit was the shopping carts. My mom bought Miss R one (pink). I bought the last one at Toys R Us on Christmas Eve for Henry (blue). My mommy instincts told me that there was going to be pandemonium in the house if we only had one shopping cart. After the kids opened them (Henry immediate knew what they were), I managed to put Henry's together in less than 10 minutes. Jeff, on the other hand, put Miss R's together in about a 1/2 hour. It had A LOT of parts. The kids weren't very patient about it either.

Jeff was a bit disappointed that the kids didn't go crazy over the trikes. I'm not sure that they really understood what they were. Or perhaps nothing could compare to a shopping cart! During our unwrappings, we had visits from Yvonne and her dogs Chocolate and Banjo. The visit was cut short by Henry having an accident. But we are pleased at least that he seems to know when he's wet (unlike when he is in pull ups). Later, Hal stopped by with Annie and Luke. Annie tried to walk into the house. We would have let her wander, except that she hasn't been around cats before.

The kids didn't go down for a nap until the early afternoon. When they got up, it was time to head off to Grammy and Poppy's house for Christmas dinner.

Miss R looked cute in her new sparkly dress and silver tennis shoes. She refused, however, to take off her pink jacket the entire time that she was there. She was also shy. In attendance were my parents, Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Erin & Uncle Brian, and my Aunt Gloria (my dad's sister). It took her a couple hours before she warmed up to people and would walk a couple feet from me.

Everyone got the kids wonderful gifts. The big hit of the evening was a Batman playset from Aunt Carolyn. I think that everyone was surprised at how Henry latched onto it. It is a neat toy. It is Batman's lair, with an evevator, windows, hook, ladder, ramp, etc. But it isn't as though we've ever shown Henry anything Batman related before (although I'm pretty sure that some kids at school have Batman shirts). The kids were very entertained with it. Henry was upset that we wouldn't open (in the house) the tee-ball set given to him by Grammy and Poppy. Silly Grammy wasn't comfortable with Henry playing tee-ball near her Waterford crystal. Henry hugged the tee-ball set box for several minutes, but distracted by the Batman set once again when Jeff opened up it so that they could play with it fully.

Henry claimed not to want dinner, but I coaxed several bites of ham, a bite of green beans, and a couple bites of mashed potatoes into him. Plus, he ate some of Aunt Erin's biscuits. At dessert time, he almost had a whole slice of pumpkin pie. Miss R just ate the whipped cream.

After dinner, the kids horsed around. Henry tried to get Miss R to dance with him. He came up to her and said "I want to dance with you, R." Alas, she rebuffed him and said "no" even though he asked politely.

I taught Henry how to do jumping jacks. I was hoping that it would tire him out, but I think that it only managed to tire me out.

When we neared our house, Henry said that he wanted to go to bed, which was probably a first. He did get distracted by the shopping carts on the way to the bathroom to brush teeth. Miss R was not sleepy. I had to rewind the lullaby machine several times before she finally went down.

This morning (Saturday), we went for a walk after breakfast. The kids rode their trikes while Jeff and I used handles that fit onto the trikes to push them. It worked out pretty well. We learned that Henry can climb the front wall that's about as tall as he is. We talked with Swanee for awhile. She returned Lily who had scampered out into the road. I took the kids outside to sprinkle bird seed. Henry powered through his. Miss R had fun sharing hers. She'd take out a handful and put it in Henry's cup and then he'd dump it out.

Then it was lunch time and nap. Miss R yammered for about an hour. Luckily, she didn't wake up Henry. I wish that they wouldn't fight sleep so much.

Waking Up the Neighborhood...Twas the Night Before Christmas

On Thursday (Christmas Eve) morning, Miss R got up before Henry did. She had her breakfast and then while I was checking on Henry, she decided it was time for him to get up. Turn about is fair play. Henry has woken her up enough times that he has had it coming. She crawled into his bed and hide under his sheets. I was pleased that Henry thought she was funny and wasn't grouchy about being awakened.

The kids were pleased to see Patti today. They don't see her as often because of going to daycare and they have fun when they see her. She lets them "help" with windows and vacuuming.

I took them over to Grammy and Poppy's house around 10:45AM. Henry ran over to Aunt Carolyn and gave her a big hug. Miss R was a bit shy at first. Upon leaving (I had errands to run), Miss R was upset at me leaving. Henry didn't bother to look up from watching The Fox & the Hound. Typical.

Poppy had to go to Trader Joe's. Henry wanted to go with him, so Aunt Carolyn went along to help. Henry announced that he wanted to go to Barnes & Noble, so Poppy and Carolyn took him there first before heading to TJ's. Miss R wanted to stay home with Grammy.

Henry spent almost all of the morning and a good part of the afternoon in his big boy underware with no accidents. Grammy made him put on his pull-ups, however, during nap time. The kids went down late for nap. Apparently, Miss R was up before Henry. My mom witnessed her bonk her own head against something while Henry was asleep. Miss R whimpered and claimed that Henry did it. Poor guy. Gets blamed for things even when he's sound asleep.

Jeff made dinner. His meat lasagne is now the official Christmas Eve dinner. He also made Carolyn and me a tofurkey. I spent the afternoon getting two last minute gifts for the kids. Sadly, the "big" present that was supposed to arrive yesterday did not arrive yesterday or today. So, I wanted to make sure that the kids had several gifts to open tomorrow. When I got home, I wrapped presents.

My parents and Carolyn brought the kids over around 6:45PM. We spent some time in the train room watching the kids play and then had dinner in the living room as our dining room table currently resides in the RV garage. It was a nice, relaxing meal. Miss R refused dinner completely. She spent her time in the train room looking at books. Henry didn't want his dinner. He wanted my carrots that had been cooked with the tofurkey. How on earth are we going to fatten up a kid who chooses cooked carrots over meat lasagne?

Henry never looks behind the bar area. This is where Jeff was hiding the trikes. At 9:30PM, not far off from bedtime, Henry decides to poke his head there. I think that he has my gift hunting skills. I was one for finding my parents' Christmas stashes as a toddler.

Around 9:45-10PM, my parents and Carolyn headed home. We walked them to the cars. Henry yelled his goodbye to Aunt Carolyn. Jeff said under his breath something about waking up the neighborhood. So Henry yelled at the top of his lungs "Wake up the neighborhood! Wake up the neighborhood!" Luckily, the homes in our neighborhood are fairly spaced out.

When we came back inside, Jeff got the kids to brush their teeth but then Henry announced that he wanted dinner. So we got him some cheese and a breakfast bar. Henry, Miss R, and I sat on the couch reading a Christmas book while the kids snacked.

My attempt at getting the kids to leave cookies for Santa didn't work out too well. They wanted the cookies for themselves and ended up leaving Santa some licked cookies.

Jeff and I are still getting the place ready for tomorrow morning. We have some neighbor gifts to complete (our dogs exchange gifts with Yvonne's and Hal and Swanee's dogs every year...it's a tradition). And then, bed.

When the kids wake up, we've decided that we'll let them open their stockings before breakfast. But, the main gifts will be after breakfast. We'll see how that goes! This morning, Henry was talking about bikes and visiting the kids across the street from my parents who have a bike. I think that he is going to be thrilled at his gifts. We have a trike for Miss R too, but I suspect that she is going to be most excited about a pair of silver sneakers that we've gotten her. We also bought her a sparkly dress for tomorrow night.

"Booty & the Beast"

On Tuesday night, Henry and Miss R had a good time at the grandparents' house watching Beauty & the Beast, which Henry calls "Booty & the Beast."

Miss R was excited about the new potty seat that I bought, which is a Dora the Explorer themed seat. Miss R was thrilled to sit on it. As usual, however, she didn't do anything while on the seat (except smile and look happy at being on Dora). She called out to Henry so that he could try it, but he was too irked at me not letting him watch YouTube videos on my computer (b/c the connection has been super slow). When Jeff got her off the potty at her request, she threw a HUGE tantrum when Jeff hung up the seat on a hook and wouldn't let her play with it. Meanwhile, Henry got mad at me a second time when I wouldn't let him climb the ladder that Jeff has in the dining room. Jeff is setting up Henry's birthday train (the Hogwarts Express) so that it travels around the lighted edge near the ceiling.

It was a night filled with tears caused by mean parents who also had the audacity to expect teeth brushing (as if we don't expect this twice a day).

In the morning, I get the fun task of taking Miss R to the dentist. Henry is probably going to stay home tomorrow, which means we'll be keeping Miss R home too. Both Jeff and I have work to do (Jeff's job and for me, cleaning the house). I'm guessing Henry will be having a happy day as I'll probably let him watch a little more TV than usual. Miss R doesn't seem particularly fascinated with the TV, but she sometimes likes her personal time for self-driven play (usually involving tons of toys on the floor).

I forgot to mention on my last post that on Tuesday morning during breakfast, I asked Henry who Mommy's handsome baby was. I was informed by Henry that "I'm not your baby, I'm a big boy." He's growing up way too fast.

Blood Work

On Tuesday morning, Henry and Miss R both had coughs. Miss R's was short-lived, but she wheezed. We decided to call Dr. Bianchi's office and get an appointment. They called us back and asked us when we wanted to come. Guess it wasn't a busy day there.

The good news was that Henry's lungs sounded clear, despite the cough. The bad news was that Dr. Bianchi is concerned about his growth. He's lost about 3/4 of a pound since April. He was at an all-time percentile high then (apparently 40th approximately, when he was usually 25th). Now, he's at the 15th percentile. He's also gone from the 75th percentile in height to the 50th. He thought his head circ was fine, but I'm not so sure. I don't think Henry's grown in that department. I think the gal doing it has been taking low readings. She ended up re-doing the first one she took today. I think that last time, she was lower than I thought the neurologist had said it was, but I didn't correct it at the time b/c we'd just seen the neurologist and at that time, everything seemed OK. In short, she underestimated it last time, so once she corrected it this time, it looked like there was a little growth.

Dr. Bianchi wanted blood work done (electrolytes, CBC, thyroid T4). We ended up going to a different SonoraQuest than our usual place. We liked this one better. They were fairly quick anyway. It was not a pleasant experience though. Henry was very upset at the sensation of having his arm squeezed with the rubber band (a couple times as they tried to figure out where the best vein was). He was terribly upset at the needle. Plus, he must have low pressure like I used to, because it took a really long time to fill up two small vials. He cried and begged for us to make it stop.

We stopped by Burger King on the way home and went to Basha's. The kids liked sitting in the "car" cart. They could pretend that they were stirring.

I went shopping while they napped. I ended up calling Jeff from the Toys R Us parking lot b/c I locked my keys in the car. Jeff woke up the kids as they'd been sleeping a long time and got me a spare set of keys on his way to drop the kids off at my parents. He talked to Dr. Bianchi before he left. Dr. Bianchi didn't have the thyroid results back yet, but Henry's electrolytes and blood count looked fine.

All in all, not a great day.

A Day Around the House

On Monday, we had a family day at home. Last night, we were a little concerned because Henry's temperature went from about 101.5 before bed to about 96 degrees within a couple hours. Jeff had given him a children's motrin. I stayed up and checked on him. Henry felt cold and a little damp to me. I put an extra blanket on him and took him temp (about 96). I then got Jeff up to double check. There was nothing in the parent books about what to do when a child's temperature drops suddenly.

Henry had a low grade temperature today. Cough and runny nose.

Jeff played with the kids in the morning, while I cleaned up several months of cardboard box build up in the garage. Managed to get a lot of old newspapers and such out to the curb before the recycling truck came. I guess that's the silverlining of not going to Disneyland...doing a couple things around the house that just never seem to get done.

The kids took a long nap after lunch. When they got up, we had a picnic on the kitchen floor. They liked playing picnic. I played with them while Jeff went grocery shopping. We read books. We played with the trains. Henry and Miss R did some self-contained play, which pretty much involved emptying half their toys onto the floor. They played in the ball pit and threw balls at me. I asked Henry to throw balls of certain colors to see how well he knew his colors. He did very well. I was thrilled that Henry found his missing pair of classes in the ball pit.

I took Henry's temperature at one point and told him that we were playing doctor. He was the patient, and I was Dr. Mommy. He told me that he wanted to be Dr. Henry. After I took his temperature, he took mine. He was still running a low grade temp. Not enough to give medication. He later told me that he was a "Joseph Anicker."

Henry, Miss R, and Jeff had Trader Joe's chicken and rice for dinner. The kids decided to help themselves to my mushroom and garlic pizza as well. They both really liked it (much to Jeff's dismay as he is anti-mushroom).

After dinner, we let the kids watch a movie. We gave them the choice of several Christmas videos that Jeff bought last week. They wanted to watch "Mickey's A Christmas Carol." They liked it. They also liked the Disney cartoons that followed.

Then it was teeth and bed. The kids are putting up a fight. Lots of tears over going to bed.

Hide and Seek

On Sunday morning, Henry's cough remained. Jeff fed the kids breakfast and tried to let me sleep in. Last night, I went to bed feeling feverish, woke up several times with chills, but seemed OK in the morning. After breakfast, Henry gave Jeff the slip and came bounding into bed. Miss R followed. They had fun hiding under my sheets and jumping up and down.

On our walk with the dogs, we took the kids part way down one of the washes. Henry and Roger enjoyed that. Miss R was irked b/c I made her walk. She tries to get me to hold her and screams if I don't. When we are in public, I usually don't let her scream b/c I don't want her to bother other people. But as we were in the middle of nowhere, I let her cry it out.

We visited the horses on our way back home. After looking at the horses, Henry left me to walk up the path to Nick and Janice's door. I asked him what he was doing. He said, "I'm getting cookies for me and R." Nick and Janice had given them cookies on Halloween, and Henry apparently thought that they were a cookie supply source.

When we got home, we attempted to play hide and seek. Jeff and Miss R counted, while Henry and I hid. It didn't work quite as well as I had hoped b/c Henry had a hard time staying quiet (go figure). We tried it a second time with Henry, Miss R, and I counting and Jeff hiding. It took awhile, but we finally found Jeff under Henry's bed.

We had lunch. Or at least Jeff and I did. The kids didn't eat much. At nap time, Miss R got up long before Henry. She climbed on Jeff while he watched football and seemed quite content. Henry slept 3.5 hours.

We went to Grammy and Poppy's to set up the Christmas tree. My parents usually get live trees, but this year they bought an artificial tree. Jeff and Grammy did the set up (no ornaments yet). Henry, Miss R, and I set up the manger, and I told them about Baby Jesus. Then, the kids had fun playing piano with Poppy.

We went to Swensons for dinner. Henry ate quite a bit (grilled cheese, hamburger, fries, and ice cream). Miss R ate french fries and ice cream. As usual, Henry didn't want his ice cream, he wanted Jeff's sundae. He likes the whipped cream. Unfortunately, Miss R was acting silly and ended up banging her forehead into the table. It made a thump. Part of the problem in dealing with her is that it is hard to tell when she's really hurt and when she's being hypersensitive. She seemed OK after she quieted down.

We gave the kids a bath when we came home. We read several books. Then it was teeth and bed. Miss R zonked out quickly. Henry, on the other hand, was singing and talking to himself for a long time.

Disneyland Cancelled - boo hoo

Thursday and Friday the kids went to their grandparents in the afternoon. They were not expecting to see them for a few days and so wanted to get some extra time in while allowing Kate and I to get things ready for our trip to Disneyland. One day they went to Barnes and Noble. Henry enjoyed the trains as usual. He almost gave Grammy and Poppy the slip. He followed Poppy who didn't realize Henry was following him. Poppy then ended up going down the escalator and seeing Henry going up it by himself. He loves the escalator.

There have been no further reports of behavior problems from daycare. That is a relief.

Today we were supposed to go to a holiday party put on by our foster care agency and then head off to Disneyland for a few days. Unfortunately Henry has been coughing and sneezing for the last couple days and today he had a low fever. Despite really wanting to go we decided it would be best to hold off for now. We didn't want to get all the way there and end up spending a few days sitting in a hotel room with a sick kid. Also, when one kid gets sick the other is generally not far behind. Miss R shows no signs yet.

Henry is doing pretty well. He still has a low grade fever but his demeanor is normal. We didn't take him to the Holiday party because we didn't want him spreading whatever he has. He would have had a really good time.

Miss R did ok but it wasn't really her thing. She clung to Kate the entire time and even took an hour nap on her. She wouldn't sit with Santa which wasn't surprising. The big treat for her was that she ate a candy cane. She loooves candy.

We spent most of the time talking with a family we went to training with. We only saw one other person from our training class. We think our class is down to about 4 active families, including ourselves. It's an extremely low retention rate.

While we were at the party Henry hung out with Grammy. They strung chili Christmas lights and worked outside. They also watched Garfield, "Babes and Bulletts." It's a funny one where Garfield plays Sam Spayed.

We did some shopping after the party. I think Miss R enjoyed having both parents to herself. We had her pick out some wrapping paper and tried to get her to pick a stocking for herself but she wouldn't do it. In the grocery store she decided she wanted to push the cart. I was helping her but then got distracted. When I looked back she was going full speed and rammed into the dairy case. Another customer, an older lady, saw this and jokingly said to her, "You're going to lose your license!" Miss R seemed to take that news badly and buried her face in my legs. She recovered quickly.

We picked up Henry and headed home. We let the kids open a couple presents they received from the holiday party. Miss R seems to really like her Elmo jack in the box. It's likely to drive me bonkers with it's limited vocabulary that repeats endlessly, some of which I can't even understand. Henry received a Thomas the Tank Engine track set and a book. The track is a nice addition and he like the book about giving a moose a muffin.

Kate is now running a low fever herself and is off to bed. Hopefully I'll get to sit this one out.