Baby A Sleeps Through the Night!

On Friday morning, Jeff took the kids to school while I took Baby A to the CFT (child-family team meeting). Baby A looked super cute in a new outfit that her mom had sent home with her a couple weeks ago. Bio mom, however, did not show up to the meeting. As I've stated before, I can't go into details about the case for privacy reasons (hence the pseudonyms). I can say that the CPS caseworker and developmental coordinator from the Blake Foundation were not thrilled at the particular judge assigned to the case. They said that this particular judge is known for biasing the system for the bio families giving them extensions to "work the case plan" time and time again. In their opinion, he ignores the recommendations of CPS and likes to play father to the bio parents and thinks he can be their "savior." So the children involved cases assigned to his court room often are in the system a very long time. That's not good news for those of us who believe the system should be geared toward putting children first.

I took Baby A to work for a couple minutes as I had to pick up a form for a new key to my new office. Nancy and Tina commented on what a beautiful baby she is. And Baby A is truly a gorgeous child. She's got a beautiful head of hair and a stellar smile. Then, I took her to daycare.

In the afternoon, Jeff and I picked up The Twins early from daycare and took them to Toy Story 3. They liked it. Henry had his loud moments of course, but both he and Miss R were pretty good overall. After the movie, they wanted to see it again.

As we walked back through the mall to the car, Henry got whiny. He scrunched up his face and said in a pouty but demanding voice, "I Want Toys!" It was one of those frustrating parental moments. He pretty much gave the air of the quintessential spoiled American kid who is too preoccupied with objects, a product of consumer culture. As Jeff put it later when the kids were a sleep, it was the first time that Henry looked "ugly." While he is an incredibly good looking boy, with the attitude and the scrunched up face, I concurred. We love him so much. I have never been much of a shopper, but I do enjoy buying things for him and Miss R. But we are going to pull back the reigns on unnecessary consumption. Henry is going to have to wait for Christmas before he sees another present. I really don't want him to act spoiled.

We picked up Baby A and headed home. We had a nice dinner. I took Baby A for a walk with the dogs. Jeff got The Twins ready for bed. Baby A took her last bottle of the night before midnight.

Around 6AM on Saturday, I heard Baby A cry and Jeff got up and attended to her. I asked him when she had last fed and was surprised when he said midnight. At 3.5 months old, Baby A slept through the night (or at least pretty darn close!). Hoping that she does it again tonight!

In comparison to Henry, of course, her feeding and sleep needs have been a breeze, even if that meant holding her through the night for the first nine weeks or so. For the last couple weeks, her pattern has been that she has a bottle around 8 or 9PM, sleeps until 11PM and takes another smaller bottle. Sleeps until 1AM and has a bottle but goes back to sleep fairly quickly. Then has a bottle around 4AM and usually goes back to sleep OR has a bottle around 5AM but wants to play a little bit after her bottle. Then takes another nap.

Jeff got Baby A's bottle, but I fed her. He went back to bed. She was clearly in a playful mood after her bottle and ready to get started on the day. So she and I took the dogs for a morning walk. The kids got up shortly after we got back. They got Jeff up. We had a family breakfast, which included eggs at Henry's request. We thought about taking the kids somewhere, but realized that we very rarely just spend time at home. We let the kids play with their toys. They played in the ball pit and pretended that they were blowing bubbles under water. They played in their house.

After breakfast, the kids were playing in Lily's dog cage. Jeff heard an "Ouch!" coming from Henry and walked into the room finding Henry hitting Miss R. She wailed. I asked her what she'd done to Henry and she denied that she'd done anything wrong (which is her MO even when she has clearly been the initial aggressor). Meanwhile, Jeff put Henry in the timeout chair and he was upset. He called out for me, and I talked with him. He claimed that Miss R had bitten him. I got him out of the chair, and Jeff found a clear bit mark on his upper back. That landed Miss R in timeout for biting and lying about it.

As I took a shower, they played in our clothes closet and both took shirts of mine. Henry was in a nice white cotton blouse. Miss R chose one of my maternity shirts that I never really wore given Henry's early arrival. The way it hung on her reminded me of a Farrah Fawcett type outfit from the actress during the Charlie's Angels days. The shirt had straps that tie in the back. Henry used them instead as a leash. They pretended that Miss R was the puppy, and Henry was the dog walker.

Around noon, I took off for school. I was told on Tuesday that I'd be switching offices, but they had to do the move within a week. There are three offices involved in the move with the movers only coming on one day (this Tuesday). That means for the move to actually work, someone had to make the first move (that'd be me). So I spent a couple hours moving things from my cabinets and desk down to my new space. Jeff came around 3PM after dropping off the kids at my parents' house. He helped me move my three book cases and books, not a small feat given the new office is one flight down and the book cases are big. We are both going to be very sore tomorrow.

Apparently, Henry and Miss R refused to take naps. Henry bopped Miss R at the beginning of the nap and that didn't set a relaxing tone. Unlike Miss R who never claims to doing wrong to Henry, Henry was perfectly willing to admit to hitting Miss R when asked point blank. He hasn't developed a sense of shame. Not sure what his punishment for hitting was. Grammy told him that he wasn't allowed to watch TV unless he napped. Being super stubborn, he stuck to his guns.

Jeff took the kids swimming upon his return. Henry was as bold as ever. He went under water several times. Miss R begged Jeff to dunk her under water. After repeated requests, he obliged and she was upset about it. She still hasn't figure out how to blow bubbles out of her nose.

We had a nice dinner. Henry ate very well. Miss R ate pretty well. Then, it was homeward bound. Baby A fell asleep in the car.

Jeff has been putting the kids to bed without water cups. This is to cut down on the chances of them having an accident. Henry is having a hard time with this because he used to drink over a cup of "cold water" every night at bed. He got up about a half hour after being put to bed and wanted some. I let him have a couple sips. Hope that isn't his undoing.

Haircut

On Thursday, my mom met me at Gadabout. I had an appointment with Todd. Todd frequently gives Henry a quick haircut during my appointments. My mom watches Henry during my cuts b/c he has been known to get into trouble unless watched closely. While we waited for Todd, a person named Fitz was giving sample 5-minute massages in a chair. I sat down while my mom watched Henry run around the lobby area. Henry came over to Fitz and said "What are you doing to my Mommy?" My face was in the loop of the massage chair and Henry tried to poke his face through to see me. I told him I was getting a massage. Henry told Fitz, "That's my mommy! Not your mommy!" which made Fitz laugh. I'm pretty sure that Fitz was 10 years older than me. I could tell that Fitz knew pressure points and what he was doing, but I wasn't completely relaxed owing to Henry running around. It was fine though. Todd gave Henry a haircut while I had my hair washed. I gather that Henry didn't sit still very well. The back wasn't what Todd had intended, but his hair won't be in his eyes anymore at least. While I had my haircut, Henry tried to turn my chair. I wasn't thrilled about that. He also told Todd, "That's my mommy! Not your mommy!" Not sure what was up with Henry's possession of me today. Todd is incidentally my age.

Jeff had picked up Baby A and Miss R at daycare. Alison was at our house by the time Henry and I got back home. Can't say that there's a lot to report. She is extending our license to three kids in case circumstances arise where that would be needed. Miss R checked the house with Alison. Alison was impressed with Baby A's tummy time skills.

Henry polished off a big bowl of tomato soup for dinner. The Twins went to sleep without too much fuss. Baby A was a different story. She went to sleep around 8:30 but got up shortly after 10:45PM. Stayed up until 1AM or so. At one point, she clearly wanted to play and gave me some dazzling smiles. I wasn't in the mood for play. I let her co-sleep with me eventually b/c I was tired and really needed some sleep myself. She got up at 4:30AM. Jeff gave her a bottle. I walked the dogs.

This morning, I'll be going to Baby A's CFT (child-family team meeting). It is the monthly meeting where the CPS caseworker meets with the developmental coordinator and bio parent(s) to make sure the case plan is being followed and determine what additional services might be needed. As bio mom hasn't seen Baby A in three weeks, I've decided that I'll bring Baby A along so that they can see each other. That means we have to leave the house rather early to get The Twins to school.

"Between the Pee and the Poop!"

On Tuesday afternoon, I finally got an email response from the CPS caseworker asking her assistant to call us in the future when bio mom cancels visits. I guess the one comfort is that bio mom wasn't sitting around waiting. Hopefully, CPS will inform us of schedule changes of which they are fully aware in the future.

At night, Jeff read a Curious George story to the kids. It involved Curious George going to the library, going down a ramp, hitting the encyclopedias, and landing between the O and the P. Henry decided to retell the story as Curious George going "up in the air and landing between the pee and the poop!" Obviously, Henry hasn't picked up on the idea of homonyms yet.

On Wednesday morning, the kids discovered some small baseball gloves and balls that I had picked up for them. The gloves have velcro in them for easy catching of the fuzzy "baseballs." They looked cute running around with them.



The Twins had a swim lesson in the afternoon. They continue to improve. Henry is getting a lot more confident, which Jeff repeatedly says isn't necessarily a good thing. He has been the first to volunteer for exercises. He has no hesitation getting into the water. He's pretty much the star student of the class, doing just about every task asked of him. BUT he is also quite willing to go off on his own when he isn't supposed to. I'm quite sure that "Henry" is the more frequently word used in class by his teacher. "Henry, stay put." "Henry, don't get out of the pool." "Henry, listen." "Henry, watch." "Henry, Henry, Henry." Kind of sounds like home to him, I'm sure. Miss R still isn't excited about getting her face wet. So the instructor is continuing to work on that. We haven't had her practice in the bathtub b/c she has been very excited about showers. I'll try to encourage a bath for her tonight.

After class, we went to my parents and swam with the kids. Henry was bold as usual. My parents have a 5' fence around the pool, which is a good thing. If Henry can get to the side of the pool, he can get himself out of the pool without problem. We worked with Miss R a little bit on blowing bubbles. I tried to show her how one could blow bubbles out of one's nose so that water doesn't go in it. While Jeff held her, I went underwater and put her hand near my nose and mouth so that she could feel how bubbles were coming out. I'm not sure how much she learned from it, but she found it hilarious. I guess she hadn't seen me go under water before; seeing me under the water was highly amusing. I performed several encores of Mommy Under Water b/c of her "again, again" requests. I then showed her how I could do sommersaults under the water too. She was also entertained by Jeff jumping of the diving board, which he did a couple times. The kids loved it.

Henry ate very well at dinner. Taco meat. Corn tortilla. Blue berries. And vanilla ice cream. Miss R wasn't as keen on dinner.

When we got home, Baby A was asleep. So I took Miss R to the rocking chair and held her for a long while b/c she just seemed like she needed some snuggle time. I ended up taking her to bed for additional snuggle time. I hadn't planned on me falling soundly asleep, so she stayed by my side throughout the night. At 4AM, I woke up b/c Baby A was crying and I figured that Jeff had done the previous shift (he had at 1AM). So I fed Baby A. Meanwhile, Henry got up b/c he'd wet his bed. Jeff got his wet clothes off, got a new nightgown for him, and let him join us in our bed with Miss R. Sounds cozy, but as Jeff put it, it pretty much amounted to a miserable night's sleep for him. I honestly slept pretty well. Probably had something to do with going to bed three hours earlier than I normally would have.

Today (Thursday), I have a hair appointment with Todd. I'm bringing Henry for a quick cut too. And then, Alison from A Place to Call Home has a monthly visit with us at 5:30PM.

Out of the House Before 8AM

On Tuesday, we somehow managed to get the crew into the car by 8AM. Henry was super unhappy at being awakened at 7AM instead of 7:45AM. Can't get frustrated at his whininess though because I am not a morning person either. He completely takes after me in that department.

We had to get out of the house early because Baby A had a weight check at 8:40AM. Miss R was fairly easy to get into her class. Henry was harder to coax but he liked that I had Baby A with us. He got to show her off to his friends. He told them, "Baby A has an appointment with Dr. Bianchi to get her weight checked."

The weight check was fine. Dr. Bianchi is happy with her weight gain. She's now 11 lbs 2 ozs. I confess that I had hoped that she would be closer to 12 lbs, though I'm not surprised at where she is. The last few days have been a struggle getting her to take more than 3 ozs in one sitting. Her reflux medication is helping, but I sensed that it wasn't helping enough. The doctor is going to try to get her Prevacid, but it make take some work to get that through "the system."

No word from CPS on their failure to pick Baby A up yesterday or contact us about schedule changes. Also no word on whether or not Miss R has a visit with her bio brothers today. I won't hold my breath.

Tinkerbell in Spanish

On Monday afternoon, I picked up The Twins around 3:40PM because they had swim lessons.

As I passed by the baby room, I was surprised to see Baby A on the floor. She was supposed to have a visitation with bio mom from 3-5PM. Once again, we weren't called about any changes to the schedule. As far as we knew, she should have been picked up at 2:30PM and returned to our place at 5:30PM. This same situation happened last week. CPS didn't bother calling us when the driving service didn't show up with the baby to the visitation.

Henry and Miss R did well at their swim lesson. Henry is getting pretty good at being dunked and getting his face in the water. Miss R still hasn't figured out how to hold her breath or blow bubbles, so the experience of going under water is not fun for her. But I think that she liked (or at least didn't mind) the other parts of the lesson. She does pretty well with floating on her back, although she doesn't like the feeling of water in her ears. I think that we'll be able to get Miss R more comfortable in water by having her practice in the bath tub. That won't work for Henry, unfortunately, because he isn't supposed to get bath tub water in his ears because of his tubes (chlorinated water is OK though). After class, the kids said goodbye to their classmate Amir, who also isn't terribly keen on the under water part of the lesson. I can't really blame them. I vaguely remember that feeling of going under water for the first few times. It wasn't always fun. But someday soon, it will be.

Jeff took The Twins home. I went to Sunflower for coconut milk and other essentials and then got Baby A who was smiley as usual. Jeff made dinner: grilled cheese sandwiches, tomato soup. and broccoli. Henry went crazy over the tomato soup, which was one of Jeff's favorites as a kid.

Henry and Miss R played a little bit. Henry angled for watching Tinkerbell. I let him but in Spanish (our new house rule). The kids seem OK these days with Spanish television, which is good. The movie is pretty short (probably a half-hour or 45 minutes). Jeff got Baby A to sleep. I got the kids' teeth brushed. Miss R is doing everything well by herself for the most part. She just has to be reminded about brushing each section of her mouth. Henry did really well, but he needs a bit more direction and help when it comes to manipulating the tooth brush. Then, Jeff read to the kids as they climbed into bed, and I headed off to Walmart to get Baby A's ready-made formula. The house is currently quiet.

Handful

On Sunday, my parents came to the house at 10:30AM to pick up Henry and Miss R and take them to Costco. My dad gave Jeff and me Diamondbacks tickets. We headed up to Phoenix to watch the D-backs play the Cardinals. We took Baby A with us. We dressed her in Henry's old D-backs outfit (back when the uniforms were a cool purple instead of their new drab red color). She looked cute. She was a perfect sweet heart the entire trip. She seemed to like watching the scene, drank her bottle, and snoozed. She was a bit perturbed at the cheers when Chris Young hit his second home run of the game in the 9th inning with two outs winning the game though.

We called Grammy from the stadium. She said that Henry had been a handful and refused to nap. Grammy told him that he wasn't allowed to watch TV until he napped, so he went to her room for 5 minutes then came back out claiming to have napped.

My second cousin John was in town. He'd spent the afternoon with my parents and The Twins. Jeff, Baby A, and I made it back in time for dinner with him and the family, which was nice.

On Monday morning, Henry was in a mood. Probably had to do with not enough sleep. He told me that "Daddy wasn't nice." I asked, "What did you do, Henry?" He said, "Daddy brushed my teeth!" Unfortunately, that wasn't enough evidence to get Daddy in trouble.

As I pulled up to daycare with the kids, Henry told me that he wanted to go on the "kids' playground." Basically, he is stuck on the 2 and under equipment until he gets into a 3 year old classroom. As I tried to get him into his class, he told me that he wanted to be in another class. So I'll have to talk to Jeff about it. Right now, he isn't fully potty trained...at least not at home. So I'm not sure what we can do about getting him into a 3 year old classroom. Sigh.

An Evening at Adelyn's

On Saturday morning, Baby A decided that 5AM was a good time for her bottle. She kicked around, looking ready to play, as I waited for her bottle to heat. Once she ate it, she fell asleep...but only if I was holding her. As soon as I put her in the crib, she woke up. I held her, and she fell asleep again. So I did a first with her, which was bring her to bed with me and co-sleep. That actually worked incredibly well. In fact, she and I slept an additional three hours, which was much longer than I had anticipated. I'm not planning to co-sleep as a regular thing. She actually doesn't quite well in her crib, so I think that we'll stick with that. But I may snuggle with her in bed on occasion.

It has been quite hot in our area. So playing outside was out of the question. I took the kids to the movies instead. I tried to make a 10:25 showing of Shrek in 3D, but the kids were too slow getting out the door. As we drove to the theater, I could hear Miss R taking off her shoes. I said in my stern voice, "R, if you take off your shoes, you will not get to see Shrek. It is naughty to take off your shoes when we are trying to get somewhere." Henry said in his stern voice, "You no say that to R. That's not nice." I told Henry that we were in a hurry. They knew we were in a hurry, so the shoes were a must. Otherwise, no movie. We ended up having to wait at the light for a train, so we went to the non-3D version of Shrek at 11:15AM instead. The kids held hands in the parking lot. Once instead the mall, I had to tell Henry not to point at people while shouting "You scruvy swabs!"

The kids liked the movie (again), and they very much enjoyed the popcorn. In fact, they wanted more in the middle of the movie, but I said that they had to wait for food until after the movie. After the movie, I got the kids a snack and then we picked up some food at Eegee's for lunch. After eating fries in the car, they both fell asleep.

In the early evening, we went to our friends Carolyn, Zak, Adelyn, and Spencer's house. We had an excellent meal, great conversation, and swimming. Their pool was a fantastic 93 degrees. Perfect for Henry who got to swim a long time b/c he didn't freeze in the water. Henry's swimming skills were coming through. He blew bubbles, dunked himself under water several times, did an excellent job kicking his feet, and was able to pull himself onto the cool deck from the side of the pool on his own. Miss R is still working on the blowing bubbles part. She enjoyed counting to 3 as if she was going to dunk herself under water. She didn't quite do it though. She seemed to like being in the pool, which is a great start for future swimming skills. We stayed at Adelyn's house until about 10:15AM when we decided it was time to come home...although I'm quite sure that Henry would have been content to stay a lot longer.

Sea Creatures

This morning, Henry was in a mood. He got upset because Miss R put her mermaid toy on the Tinkerbelle placemat. Why was this a problem? Only Henry knows. He was also upset because Miss R roared at him at the kitchen table.

It was "Bring your favorite sea creature" to school day. Miss R brought her mermaid to school, and Henry brought his deep sea book. That theme actually helped get the kids out of the car. Miss R wanted to show Miss Diana her mermaid, and Henry wanted to show her his book. I dropped off Baby A first, and then we spent some time in Miss R's classroom. Henry quite happily marched into his classroom. Miss Valerie was pleased to see Henry's book and promised him that they could read it as a class during reading time.

Henry has been great at school in terms of using his big boy underwear. We could probably make a request to get him into the three year old classroom in a week or two (the one that requires potty trained kids). With the move of three boys out of his current classroom and girls now in their places, the class has had a more balanced gender split and just seems a lot calmer. It's nice.

We picked up the kids after going to the bank. Then, we headed for Grammy and Poppy's house, where we went swimming and had a nice dinner. As soon as the pool gate was openned, he marched right to the step and hopped in. No reservations. He had a good time swimming, but once again, his lack of body fat meant that he has difficult staying in the water for more than 10-15 minutes. Miss R had a wonderful time in the water. She really loves it.

My mom made a great dinner. Henry was stubborn about eating until I said "Fine. I'll eat your bread." I did that several times with the result of Henry eating because he didn't want me to have it. Miss R didn't eat particularly well. She doesn't jump at the chance to not let me eat her food, so I don't bother trying that technique with her. The one thing that she did OK on eating was her salad surprisingly enough.

The kids went to bed shortly after we got home. Miss R and I had the following conversation:

KATE: Who do I love more than peaches?
MISS R: Me!
KATE: Who do I love more than pizza?
MISS R: Me!
KATE: Who do I love more than...
MISS R: Snakes?
KATE: OK. Who do I love more than snakes?
MISS R: Bad snakes?
KATE: Who do I love more than bad snakes?
MISS R: Very bad snakes?
KATE: Who do I love more than very bad snakes?
MISS R: Very bad snakes over there? [Pointing off in the distance.]
KATE: Who do I love more than very bad snakes over there?
MISS R: Dangerous. Don't step on the snakes over there.
KATE: Who do I love more then very bad snakes over there who I won't step on because they are dangerous?
MISS R: Me!

That was an unexpected twist in the conversation.

The Many Faces of Henry

On Thursday afternoon, I headed 29 miles south to Sahuarita to buy a triple stroller that someone was selling on Craiglist list. It looked like a good stroller. I said that I'd buy it if it fit in the car. Sadly, it didn't fit in the car. So our hopes and dreams of a reasonably priced triple stroller were dashed.

I picked up the kids who were in good moods. I got Miss R first, Henry second, and then Baby A last. Henry was excited to see a couple other babies in Baby A's room. He met one boy and said "Hi, Baby!"

Henry ate well at dinner. Very well. Yvonne had made him beans the other day, so we had those, which were tasty. Henry and Miss R also had tacquitos. Henry had 5 halves. Then, he "helped" me make fresh whipped cream for the ginger bread that Jeff had baked late this afternoon. Henry enjoyed making and tasting the whipped cream via the beaters. He licked his dollops of cream off his ginger bread, so I gave him additional whipped cream. He finally ate the ginger bread too. Miss R did well too. She spent a good part of her time trying to eat the ginger bread without a utensil and without using her hands. Not sure why she abandon her hands and the utensils, but she ate a notable amount.

Baby A slept from the time she came home until 11PM. We're assuming that she is having a growth spurt OR being on reflux medications is finally helping her to relax.

After Henry ate his dessert, we played the faces game. I call out an emotion and the kids try to convey it with their faces. Sometimes I just call out an action. Below is a mix:

Henry giving a kissy face

Henry looking mad

Henry looking happy

Henry with air in his cheeks

Henry pretending to be scared

Henry looking shocked



Miss R played the game too. I have many pictures of her. Can't wait until July when I can post pictures of her as well.

Sweetness

On Thursday morning, The Twins were being extraordinarily cute. I witnessed one of those sweet moments when one's heart melts, the highlight of being a parent.

Henry and Miss R were playing in our bed after breakfast. They pretty much think that Jeff's and my bed is a trampoline. I had just gotten out of the shower when I heard fits of giggles coming from the bed. Henry and Miss R were lying next to one another laughing when one would put their feet on the other. Under other circumstances, this might have caused tears, but this morning it caused giggles so loud that Jeff could hear them in the kitchen. Then, the kids had the following conversation:

HENRY: I love you, R!
MISS R: You're so cute, Henry.

We tell the kids that we love them a hundred times a day. I also tell them how cute, beautiful, and handsome they are. I love it when they give each other joy and can see the beauty in each other.