The Chosen One(s)

Cooper's 3!

2010-07-14T08:00:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it's Cooper's 3 today! Time flies by too fast. We gave the boys donuts before daycare to celebrate this morning. Cooper has chosen the "jumpy house" for tonight. I'm making cupcakes today. This being at home thing is great, so I can do things like have time to make cupcakes. I made them for Ken's birthday last week...they turned out okay. I'm also taking Tucker out to get Cooper's present today. He's getting a new comforter for his big boy bed, a puzzle (he loves them) and a Winnie the Pooh bean bag chair.

Vacation Bible School is this week, we are just going to skip it tonight, but the boys have had a good time. They sing the songs all the way home in the car, and tell me about the bible stories they learned. Cooper has a little separation anxiety at first. He knows I'm working registration in the lobby, so he's come out crying a few times, but he eventually gets back into class...he really likes doing the crafts. He was very proud of his telescope the first night.

Morning

2010-07-02T11:16:00.001-04:00

Great morning so far. Slept in with Tucker. Grilled some chicken for later tonight. Experimenting with dehydrating pineapple, getting laundry done, now Tucker is back asleep for a cat nap. He is TOO cute sleeping here next to me on his tummy (no worries, I'm watching him!) with his knees tucked up under him and his butt up in the air!

Tucker

2010-06-30T22:02:00.002-04:00

Tucker Jackson Moss was born April 29, 2010 at 8:29 pm, weighing 8 pds, 11 ounces. I certainly cannot recap the past 8 weeks, so I'll just start from here. I am out on maternity leave this summer. James is going to floyd knight summer program, and Nathanael and Cooper are at Abundant Life daycare while I stay home with Tucker. Of course he is not on any kind of schedule yet, so I didnt want to try and keep the older boys home, knowing I need to sleep when the baby does, and I would hate to keep the older boys from doing fun things bc Tucker is asleep or whatever. They are all having fun. Ken and I take all the boys swimming about 4 days a week over at his parents house in the evenings when Ken gets off work. I've taken Tucker for a little dip twice. He likes the water. James and Nathanael are good little swimmers! They can swim down to the bottom of the deep end, and Cooper wears floaties, but is not scared.
Tucker had his 2 month shots today. there is nothing more pitiful than seeing your little man in pain like that. The screaming hits me right in my soul. He was fussy for awhile right after, then he finally calmed down when I nursed him, then he's been asleep for about 4 hours, which means he'll most likely be up all night. Oh well! He is 8 weeks, 23 inches long, and 11 pounds, 14 ounces. He's at the 50th percentile for height and weight. I knew he was perfect! I try to remember back to when Cooper was just a few months old, and i can hardly remember...time goes by so fast, and they grow so fast. Cooper is potty training now...has't had an accident in over a week, so I'd say he's doing great!

BIG

2009-12-17T16:27:00.002-05:00

Lady at Work: "Are you SURE you are not having twins? I mean, you've just gotten SO big, SO fast. I mean, I've heard about people having twins when one baby was hiding behind another. What would you do? I mean, I don't mean to offend you, but really, you've just gotten big so fast..." and on and on she went.

Really?

Boy, oh boy, boy, boy!

2009-12-09T16:23:00.001-05:00

Can you belive we are having a boy?!

weekend

2009-11-23T22:21:00.000-05:00

A nice weekend. The boys have been asking to have a fire outside for some time. So we told them they would have to work really hard for it, which consisted of raking leaves and hauling them to the burn pile. They really did work hard…with lots of pile jumping fun throughout the day. The neighbor boys (Grant – 4 and Blake – 3) came over with their rakes and helped too. After it was all said and done, the boys got their fire (in a much smaller, contained wood burning grill) and marshmellows to roast. They ate an entire bag. We need a Sam’s Club membership.
Sunday was the Sanford parade. The boys enjoyed it, ,mostly the candy being thrown out. Nathanael and Cooper danced along with the Lee Senior band, which was pretty humorous.

a good morning

2009-11-14T09:58:00.003-05:00

a nice morning in the moss household. Ken had Nathanael help him make breakfast burritos for everyone while I helped James write his letters. Cooper kinda ran in between the 2 of us. Just relatively quiet and all boys got plenty of attention.

14 weeks and counting

2009-11-12T17:12:00.003-05:00

So if you don't already know, I am pregnant. Holy cow! How did that happen? Oh yeah... When we told the boys, Nathanael started crying and said "I don't want another baby", to which Ken replied "it's okay buddy, mommy and daddy had the same reaction". James followed with "is that why you're fat mommy?" Gotta love it.

Fair

2009-09-18T21:20:00.002-04:00

So, once again I have misplaced my camera, which has all the pictures from the summer on it. I have not seen it since we got back from the river. I just hope it didn't get thrown out with some of the fast food trash from the trip. I keep thinking it'll turn up... but until then, I'll have to chronicle the boys' days in words, which certainly don't do justice to those cuties. This week was the Lee County Fair..."not big like the West Virginia State Fair" according to James, but all the fun, just the same. Ken and I took James and Nathanael, leaving Cooper with his parents. He's too little to know he was missing something, and too little to ride most of the rides anyway. He got personal mawmaw and pawpaw time, which was equally as fun for him. We also took our neices, Elizabeth and Heather, which they were a HUGE help. They rode all the rides with the boys so I didn't have to get sick on them!! Typically, the boys are in bed around 8:30....9:15 at the latest on the weekends. Well, between the expense of the fair (we sure couldn't take them a second day!) and all the fun they were having, I couldn't stand to tell them we had to go....so it was 10:00 before they hit the sheets. They rode tons of rides - it really wasn't very crowded. They did the hall of mirrors at least 6 times, Nathanael rode a live pony while James rode one "bog boy" ride which scared him to death, they all had cotton candy, we listened to some music, and rounded the night out with watching a circle track dirtbike race. Could you really ask for more? What exhausted boys this morning!! They all took good naps at daycare/pre-K today.

The sensory-seeking child

2009-09-14T21:18:00.003-04:00

So you spend your evening entertaining and discipling your three little boys. You try to teach them to play nicely, share, be kind, and by the end of the night, you are yelling at them to speak nicely to eachother, don't talk so mean and "god-almighty, if you hit your brother one more time I'm gonna pop your hiney"!!! How exactly is that teaching tolerance? How does one teach 3 toddlers to play nicely? Whether it's a structured activity or a "free" play time...it always seems to result in disciplinary measures...or in some cases, hysterical laughter after they've repeated something you've said. Case in point:
Nathanael: "Mama, I wanna go ride bikes wit you!!! Why can't I go ride my bike wit you?!"
James: "Because Nate-Nate! Mommy's going to lower her blood pressure!"
10 minutes on a bike never felt so good. Even though I was pulling a 31 pound 2 year old behind me. At least he quietly enjoyed the ride!

Back from the River

2009-08-22T21:22:00.003-04:00

We spent the past week at my aunt Phyllis' "River House" in WV and had a great time. The boys had been anxiously awaiting a return trip to the river house, and it proved to be as fun as they remembered. The weather was great - much cooler than here. Some showers in the afternoon which made for great napping. My parents came and the boys love them to death, so that made it great, plus they were so much help that Ken and I felt like we really gotr a much needed break. The boys 100% are "river boys"....digging for worms, playing ball in the back field, walking on the Greenbrier River Trail, looking for bears, canoeing, and most importantly, swimming in the river until they were pruney, no matter how cold the water (it really was only cold one morning). Cooper thoroughly enjoyed it all, but definately liked the little floaty "boat" to sit in while James and Nathanael swam for long periods. I think he just gets too cold...but he wanted to be out there for sure, and he loved the canoe rides. His vocabulary blew up this week. He is repeated SO many words now! He can moo like a cow now (he also thinks dogs, cats, horses and snakes moo too, but that's okay!). My parents took us to the WV State Fair one day. I forgot how fun that was. Not too many people, but lots to do. The boys rode alot of rides, and there were several that Cooper got to do. They climbed on all the tractors and saw lots of animals. They smacked the big 'ol cows on their rumps and rubbed the big pigs' bellies. This is where Mimi (my mom) taught Cooper to moo like a cow and wiggle his nose like a rabbit. Overall, a great time had by all! Oh! And one of the best parts is that my friend from high school (Jill) brought her two boys + her sisters two boys one day. So we had 7 boys ages 4 and under. What a trip!

Successful Day

2009-08-09T21:49:00.002-04:00

I was so proud of our boys today. We went to church, and then directly down to visit with one of Ken's college friends who was in town visiting. This of course meant no nap for the two older boys. We went prepared with a pack-n-play, bc we knew Cooper would never make it, and he needs his crib or pack-n-play to sleep. Granted, we were at a lake, so the boys got to swim the whole time, which is absolutely thier favorite activity, but they were just really well behaved and I was so proud of them. There were alot of other kids there age 5 and under. We really kept an eye on Cooper (once he woke up) to keep him from injuring the other kids. He is really hitting and scratching HARD. Last night, my friend's 4 year old son wouldn't get off her lap bc Cooper had already whooped-up on him. I think our planning ahead helped everything too. At 6:00, after the boys had been swimming for 4 hours straight (literally), I made them get out and eat a hamburger, to avoid a starvation meltdown. And we gave them a 15 minute, and 5 minute warning that we were getting ready to leave. So, no major meltdown when it was time to go. We had only been in the car 10 minutes and Nathanael was completley conked out...and I mean this kid NEVER falls asleep in the car. They definately had a fun day. They had their first boat ride and loved it, so we will try to take them out on the Moss family boat before the summer is over.

Someone else understands

2009-08-05T21:25:00.002-04:00

For almost two years now (can you beleive it), we've dealt with Nathanael's ups and downs, and I've tried to verbalize what it's like and how I feel, but I never feel like anyone truly understands. Until now. A friend of mine adopted her son and birth and wrote the following post on her blog. He is older than Nathanael, but she so elequently put into words the feelings I so often have about the cotton-topped cutie at our house. Here it is:

Glimmers of grace
This summer has been stuffed with fun activities that you simply can't do during the school year. Mornings spent harvesting vegetables in the garden, sleepaway camp, educational and fun day camps, trips out for lunch, afternoons playing in the town fountain, and lazy days hanging around the house.But when your child has attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, those activities can be bookended with frustration and meltdowns like twin mountains that seem insurmountable. You want your child to have a fantastic summer that he'll remember forever. Instead, you feel like the biggest failure for pushing him out of his comfort zone and not being able to find your zen space when he pushes back at you.You want him to look forward to meeting new kids and experiencing the types of things you never had the chance to. You make plans and sign paperwork and make 18 copies of his medical record. You fill carts with flash lights, ponchos, sunscreen, water shoes, heavy drawing paper, watercolors, craft kits, sun hats, disposable cameras, and portable snacks. You lay ground work. You talk about the day's plans as though they include a rocket trip to the moon because they are just that fabulous.But inevitably, your child's brain is working against you. His chemical makeup is running the show and you can only shuck and jive for so long before those chemicals catch on to your ruse and slam shut any possibility that your child will walk into new situations willingly and with a good attitude.What you want: Bright eyes and a hopeful smile.What you get: Slammed doors, sucked teeth, tooth brushing that takes 10 minutes, hair brushing that takes longer, constant back talk, pillow fights with invisible enemies in place of getting dressed, streams of negative commentary from the back seat of the car, screwed and scrunched up faces, tears, jerking shoulders, stomping feet, arms and hands that wrench away from you.My son's attention disorder is somewhat controlled with 30 mg of Vyvanse every morning. Before that it was 30 mg of Concerta. But the behaviors above will never completely fade away. They are the good end of the spectrum. They are often the result of my poor planning as much as they are misfiring synapses.Because I know. I KNOW. Some of that could be avoided with careful orchestration. Rather than say we're going to the fountain and then find out the fountain is closed for some type of repair and face the resulting meltdown, I could say we're going for a drive and quietly shove a towel and swim trunks in my bag with my son never the wiser. Rather than say that today is the last day of camp and brave the inevitable tears and stomping when another day of camp rolls around on Monday (albeit for a whole new camp), I could say that today is the last day of THIS camp and Monday starts another.It's just ... hard. It's so incredibly hard to be "on" at all times and constantly weighing my words and actions and anticipating how a statement uttered on Wednesday can rip my morning apart by Monday. It's hard to take those deep breaths and stay calm in the face of an 8 year old storm of watery, angry brown eyes and too-thin lanky limbs.And it shreds us both when I wind up bellowing to the rafters: That's enough! Brush your teeth! Brush your hair! Put your clothes on! Eat your breakfast! WHY ARE YOU CRYING?Or when we're sitting in the rental car office and realize there's no way I can swing us by McDonald's for pancakes and get to camp by 9 am when it's 8:36 am and the rental staff is walking in circles. And I run through my arsenal of negotiations trying to convince him to eat something from his lunch bag and I promise (I promise!) to make it up to him tomorrow morning.But there is "You said!" and "I want pancakes!" and "I'm not eating if it's not pancakes!" and you know the child keeps losing weight and you'd strangle the rental staff if it wouldn't set a bad example and he has to eat something and maybe you can be late to camp but then he'll whimper and fret and worry himself to death over what time it is and why are we always late, Mama and this wouldn't be happening if you didn't make me go to camp, why can't I just stay home with you?! And everyone's watching and you're trying to whisper but it's not working and finally you have to be the bad mother who says: FINE! If you don't eat at least your granola, you won't get pancakes at all this week and you'll NEVER see a McDonald's pancake when I'm around.You know it's out of proportion. You know the people around you are giving each other The Look and shaking their heads because this woman clearly is allowing the tail to wag the dog.But you also know there are really good days. And that when it's over, when all is said and done, he'll emerge from the summer shining and happy. He'll boast to his friends about the time he went all week wearing the same pair of boxers at sleepaway camp, that he can identify compound and simple leaves, that he debuted in his first stage production, that he prefers watercolors to oils, and that king snakes aren't venomous but coral snakes are. He'll be condescending and authoritarian. He'll be decided and proud. He'll be grateful.So most days I just hold on, white knuckled, to that last day of summer when we look back and catch our breath. When we evaluate the past 90 days and wonder where the time went. When we reminisce about what we had and what we wanted and what we got. Most days I just hang in and pray for serenity, pray for tomorrow to be another chance to get it right.And then I have glimmers of grace. I have the precious rare comment, given lightly and likely then forgotten. I have the glimpse of what other parents hear more often. From his art teacher, with rain pouring down outside and my body steaming from trying to be in multiple places at once: He is a joy. He has tremendous talent. I am so impressed by him. You are so lucky.And so I blink back the tears and smile tightly and murmur thanks as I close my eyes and appreciate it. When I open them again, I try to fight back the doubt, the crushing, overwhelming doubt that I am not good enough for him. That I took him from a family who could handle him better and I was wrong. That things would be better for him without me as his mom.But I love him fiercely. And that has to be enough. I did take him. Willingly and with full understanding that our road would be rocky. I don't regret that decision for a minute. I pray for more grace. I pray that I will finally and for good get my shit together so that we have fewer meltdowns. I pray that we will soon learn to move frustration out of the way and allow the fear or nervous energy or excitement to present itself clearly so that we can welcome and work through it.Yes, I packed our summer. And most days our frolicking good time was clouded and marred by poor impulse control, inability to focus, inability to process and deal with a gamut of emotions, and the natural inclination of an extremely smart child to question and push and know. But those glimmers of hope and moments when someone sees past all of that straight into the heart of my child? They are what I'll remember

Fruit farm

2009-08-02T22:00:00.002-04:00

We totally didn't know we were buying a fruit farm when we bought our new house, but it has turned out to be really great. Ken and I picked figs for quite awhile this afternoon and just barely touched the surface of all the figs! Some of them are so high that we can't get to them. we don't have a ladder high enough. The crop we picked today we washed and froze. There will be more to come. Froze a couple of bags of blueberries today too. They are just about at the end of their peak. And now we have a new fruit! It's some type of grape. I don't know what they are...bigger than a concord grape, purple, with a think skin. You just squeeze the grape a little and the inside comes out and is delicious. Better than the conconrds, I think. the concords really just need to be made into jelly.

While we picked figs, our neighbor, Allen (he's the same age as Ken's parents) rode our boys and his grandsons (ages 2 and 3) around in his goft cart. Oh the boys had a blast. Allen lives next to us, and his grandsons live behind us. It has really been great having them as neighbors!

Napless in Sanford

2009-07-29T22:14:00.002-04:00

So James has decided that naps aren't for cool kids. So when we pick him up from daycare, his eyes are practically hanging down to his belly button bc he's so exhausted. So we've been having him lay down when he gets home...he completely crashes... therefore missing out on fun and then having to basically eat dinner, and the whole bedtime routine.

Cooper turned 2! Can you believe it?! I just can NOT believe he is TWO! He's really starting to immitate words really well. He is seriously the most precious child in the world. One of his favorite things is to have every pair of shoes put on and off a hundred times. I think it's because he can say "on" and "off" and he actaully gets the response he was looking for. The funniest thing he immitates is his mawmaw and pawpaw yelling at their dogs to hush. They have 2 yapping chiuauas (sp?). When he walks in their door he hollers "shriristomogo!" in a very demanding voice.

And if you can actually believe this...James and Nathanael are really and truly riding thier bikes without training wheels!!! At 3 1/2, Nathanael, our daredevil decides he's done with the pansey-ass training wheels. He took off across the yard like it was nothing. So then big brother James decides to try it and he could do it too! I'm seriously amazed. Don't get me wrong, they still fall, but they just hop right back up and go again!

2009-07-08T21:09:00.002-04:00

Sorry, sideways....Here's Nathanael at Deopt Park in downtown Sanford. It's one of the boys' favorite places. He's climbing on the train

When Mimi came to vistg last week, she brought really cool art supplies that the boys thouroughly enjoyed.

This is one of Cooper's favorite spots - sitting on his daddy's foot and getting a horsey ride.

Nathanael has done great at daycare the past 1 1/2 weeks. It could be several things...we've started back brushing him faithfully twice a day. He has a new teacher (we'll see when the newness wears off), we've taken him swimming several times a week - giving him lots of time to get his energy out, he sleeps under "Mimi's snuggly", the weighted blanket my mom got him, which he loves...so, just not sure what it is, but we sure are enjoying the good reports from daycare.

Some pics - finally!

2009-07-07T22:20:00.003-04:00

James is tall enough to ride the swings! Familu fun day at our church two weeks ago.

Cool dude Nathanael with daddy's sunglasses

Seriously? Is a little boy allowed to be this cute? Cooper will be 2 this month!

Blueberries

2009-06-22T21:59:00.003-04:00

Holy blueberries, batman!! So, we've moved to our new home. Life has been crazy hectic with packing and moving and unpacking and all that goes with it. The boys love the new house, they each have their own bedroom, a playroom, a big hallway to run up and down. And the back porch is wonderful. Actually, the whole propoerty is great. We have enough blueberry bushes for all of Sanford. Tonight we all went out to one bush that gets full sun and we picked for probably an hour...not a single blueberry made it back to the house. The boys ate them all. They were blue from ear to ear. I'll be making blueberry muffins, pancakes, syrup, anything I can come up with. We also have a huge tree we can eat straight off of, and the boys love those too. We have grape vines out the ying yang...they won't be ready to pick for awhile. And we have several pecan trees. I think we are going to make alot of great memories here!

What a weekend!

2009-04-26T20:54:00.002-04:00

How did I manage to get through this whole weekend with no pictures!! Please, anyone who took some...send my way! This weekend we had the boys celebration for the adoptions being final. Friends and family came in town for the shin-dig, and friends from Sanford too. Of course we had some of the boys' friends over, so we had a pinata and a bouncy house. It was hotter than you know what, so we added ice cream to the fun. I hope all the kids had fun - they seemed to. I know our boys had fun - they want another adoption party. Sorry guys! Then Sunday we had the boys dedicated at church, which was really nice. Ken's parents, bro, sister in law, aunt, neices and nephews came, as well as my mom and step-dad. The boys were sorely disappointed when all the excitement was over this afternoon. Back to the old grind...
Small world story...so my aewsome friend Jill from high school came with her kids, her mom, and her sister and her kids. Jill lives in TN, her mom in WV, and her sister Jenni lives in Winston-Salem. The night before they came, Jenni was telling her neighbor across the street that she was going to a party for this family down near Sanford that had adopted 3 boys..... and her neighbor says, "are you talking about Meg Galperin?" How crazy is that!? It was Caroline Barrett! Caroline is Robin's best friend from growing up.
So, if I get some pics (I know my step-mom took a bunch), I'll post asap.

Precious

2009-03-24T20:48:00.001-04:00

Nathanael proudly poses in front of daddy's freshly painted race car!

You go, James!

2009-03-11T21:57:00.002-04:00

Okay, so here's my chance to brag on my Jamsey-poo. He got into big boy school! There is a pre-K in Sanford that has 1/2 four-year olds with disabilities and 1/2 four-years olds who are developing typically. Kids "try out" (they call it screening, but what can they really know in a 30 minute screening?) and they try to determine who will be the best role models for the children with disabilities. James got picked! How cool is that! I guess he did use his "pleases and thank yous"! He'll start next school year, which is great because he and Nathanael would have had to be in the same class at daycare. This pre-K is a little more like kindergarten. He'll go to the cafeteria for lunch, have gym class and art class. But, he'll still get to take a nap, play on the playground alot, and other typical 4 year old stuff. Best of all, it's cheaper than daycare! And the child to teacher ratio is 1:5. The daycare regulations are 1:15 once they turn 3. Can you imagine having 15 three year olds by yourself all day! Augh!! Anyway, James is super excited and I'm super proud.

Tired

2009-03-10T11:42:00.002-04:00

Cooper has barely slept through the night since he had surgery. He is really hard to put down...used to hold him for a few mintues and then lay him down and he might cry for 5 minutes max. Now, you hold him till he's all the way asleep and as soon as you make a move for the crib he grabs onto you and starts screaming bloody murder, like "put me down and I'll just die!". This goes on for about 1/2 hour. Last night, he was so tired he fell asleep immediatley, no crying at all...but about 2:00 AM he woke up and the screaming commensed. Oh my gosh...did it commense. I finally gave in after an hour and put him in bed with us. I was too tired... I can't wait for his follow up visit.

Update

2009-03-01T22:07:00.002-05:00

Well, I finally signed up for Facebook and that thing is a little addicitive, so I haven't had time to Facebook and post on the blog! Things have been hectic around here. We just got finished with a big accreditation thing at work, thank the lord it is over! Cooper had tubes put in his ears last Thursday, as well as having his adnoids out. He's been pretty pitiful the last few days. He perked up a bit today, but is not eating/drinking much, so that concerns me a little - if you know Cooper, you know he loves his food!! Nathanael's Occupational Therapy is going really well. It's a matter of Ken and I making sure we keep up with his 'brushing' sessions. We have a brush that we briush his whole body with 3 times a day, and then we compress his major joints. The compressions are supposed to simulate gross motor (like jumping). I don't really understand the whole thing, I know it has to do with his problems with his sesnory delays, but all i know is...it is helping a lot! The first week, he was like a completley different child. So James is acting up a little...both his brothers are getting lots of attention, and it's so hard to even it all out, and make sure they all know that we love them the same. Cooper is wanting to do more and more things with his brothers, but still pulling their hair and grabbing at their faces, which makes them so mad! We can definately tell Cooper is hearing better since the surgery...no new words really, but he can hear for sure, and is trying to imitate some sounds, so that's all very promising.

Last few weeks

2009-01-27T21:12:00.003-05:00

We've had a busy few weeks. Last week, we had snow...not regular NC sprinkle snow, but like 6 inches!! Of course there was no work or daycare for 2 days, so we bundled up the boys and hit the slopes, uh, I mean, our back yard. They LOVED sledding! The 2nd day was even better bc the snow had packed down and was a little more wet, so they could go faster and further. Cooper enjoyed himself until snow got under his gloves and then he was miserable, so his snow adventure wasn't as long lived.

Of course, now all three boys are sick. I swear I bundled them up! Cooper has a double ear infection (again!) and James and Nathanael woke up about 2:00 this morning coughing, sneezing, etc. I ended up sleeping with James in the reecliner because he couldn't breathe. Thank the lord for my in-laws. They kept them today, I really couldn't miss work.

And, James turned 4 and Nathanael turned 3!! We just had the family over for dinner, cake and ice cream. Of course for the boys, cake was the whole point.

I think Cooper liked the cake the best!

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!

2009-01-14T16:24:00.002-05:00

The adoption decree was signed and sealed by the judge on January 12, 2009!!!!!!!
James Conrad, Nathanael Reid and Cooper Dawson are and alwyas will be a part of the Moss family!!!!

LUCK

2009-01-10T22:15:00.002-05:00

I guess you can call it that. Our house has been on the market less than 4 weeks. One person looked at it, and made an offer we accepted. How crazy is that! We expected it to take at least a year! We so totally have not found a house we like...we're probably going to rent somewhere. We definately don't want to settle on a house. We love our current house, just moving so we'll be in a school district closer to work/church/Ken's parents. Right now we are over the county line, which would mean lots of inconvenience once the boys start school. So, the mad house hunt begins. James wanted to know how we were going to take the pond with us. Oh, to be a kid again!

Catch Up

2009-01-08T22:19:00.002-05:00

Christmas was a whirlwind! The boys had a great time from beginning to end, with both sets of grandparents, bikes from Santa and chocolate to their hearts delight!

But really, I have to blog about our social butterfly Nathanael, who talks to anyone he sees. He usually starts with 'what's your name?' Normal. But oh no...he came out with a whopper in the line at the grocery store yesturday. Cooper was sitting in the seat facing me, and James and Nathanael were sitting in the "car" at the front of the cart, facing forward. In the line next to us was a teenage boy bagging groceries. And Nathanael looks at him directly in the eye and clear as a bell asks "Why you got worms on yo head?" How could I not bust out laughing!!! Luckily, the guy took it in good humor and just told him it was his hair (dreadlocks), not worms.

Nathanael...

2008-12-16T22:40:00.000-05:00

had a great day all around. Worth mentioning!

Anyone Else?

2008-12-12T14:47:00.002-05:00

Am I the only parent that blames themselves for everything? Cooper's evaluation came back from the CDSA (the Infant Toddler program in our area that deals with developmental delays) and it shows he has a 6-9 month delay in speach and 3-6 month delay in language comprehension. They seem to think there is an auditory processing problem more than a hearing issue. Basically, he can hear what we say, but it doesn't process correctly...so if I say "shoes", he hears something like "cumquats". They did not rule out a hearing problem though, so he has to have an audiologist exam. After the new year, he will start speach therapy once a week, and also community-based rehab services that focus more on object identification and sign language. I can't help but to feel like I should have call the CDSA earlier when we were worried about his lack of speach. We did have him evaluated at 3 months, but he tested normally. I just wonder if I should have spent more time trying to get him to say sounds and stuff if that would have helped. I just thought he would pick it up from his brothers. It's just really distressing.

And then Nathanael's "fits". Can he control them, or is it a lack of impulse control or what? The CDSA recommended he get a psychological evaluation and do to a sensory clinic for an eval. The sensory clinic will see if responds better to different things (I think). It's like...does he literally HAVE to scream in order to feel better...like a baby who can't console themselves without a pacifier.

At least we got alot of resource possibilities, and hopefully everything will work out well. In the meantime, my head hurts.

Bloggin

2008-12-08T21:06:00.003-05:00

So, I haven't blogged in awhile bc I haven't really had anything to blog about, and I still don't, but decided I'd at least write about what we've been up to. Our house is on the market. Anyone out there looking for a 3 bedroom double-wide on 8 acres of beauty, let me know. Don't let the double-wide scare you off...the wheels are no longer under the house...and you're only a redneck if you can actually drive your house off the lot!! It's hard to think about leaving this place, it is so peaceful and quiet and there's tons of room to play. But really the reasons we're wanting to move is so the boys will be in a school district closer to where we work/go to church/Ken's parents. But, we also want each boy to have their own room, and we are keeping hope alive that one day, Anna may get to be with us. We looked at several houses this weekend, but nothing we loved in our price range. There was this one house that reminded me alot of my aunt Phyllis' cabin in WV. It had this awesome screened in porch looking out in the woods, and just across the lot was access to a private lake where you can fish and swim and canoe. It also has a double garage that Ken really wants. Unfortunatley, it's about $30K out of our price range. Darn money... doesn't it grow on trees anymore? We'll keep looking.

Tonight was one of those totally spastic nights. I went to the grocery store after work and when I got home, the boys had just finished eating and Cooper was crying and crying and crying. The only time he would stop is if I picked him up. Ken and I were trying to put away groceries, and of course Nathanael and James want to help. So the boys are hollering "where does this go?!", Cooper is whailing for whatever reason, and I was just like "oh my god, someone turn it down!". A night in the life of the Moss family. Anyway, Ken got Cooper interested in listening to letter sounds (we're supposed to try and get himn to move his mouth/cheeks in different shapes), and I got James and Nathanael into the shower. We don't do showers real often, but it was already getting late, and it's just faster. After pajamas, a story, telling daddy goodnight, and tuck--ins, we moved on to getting Cooper's eardrops in. That's fun. Poor little guy has double ear infections again (maybe that was what all the crying was about?)

Thankful for five

2008-11-25T21:10:00.000-05:00

I had a total meltdown today. Last night, when we hadn’t even gotten a phone call from social services about Anna (court was yesterday), we knew we weren’t getting her. But it wasn’t until noon today that I finally got a hold of the social worker. She was very non-chalant about that whole thing, which I think just made it worse. She said the parents admitted to not providing adequate housing for Anna, but that they want to get her back. They did show up for the last 2 visits and passed a drug screen. The dad has a part time job. They told the judge they wanted to move to SANFORD because jobs were better there. Pile that on top of everything. Because of all that, Anna has to stay in foster care and see if the parents follow through. The next court date is in 90 days.
I was at work, so of course I had to hold it together. Then I went to pick up the boys, and I had to hold it together. I was holding back tears all day. When I got to the daycare, one of the teachers walked up to the car and said “oh you’re in for it today”…meaning Nathanael had one of his behaviorally challenged days. Then the fire alarm goes off. All the kids pile outside and the director said she was at her whits end at trying to control his rage, so she pulled the alarm, knowing Nathanael is scared to death of it. It calmed him down all right, till he saw me glaring down at him. Needless to say, we are also at a loss as to what to do with him. What sets him off? He goes from precious to pain in the butt in 0.2 seconds. Needless to say, I lost it in the car. I knew Ken was out doing a side job, so I just drove over to my in-laws to see if they could watch the boys for a few minutes while I sulked in my own patheticness. I know there are people who don’t have any children and would be so thankful for any kids…and I AM SOOO thankful for the boys. Even Nathanael on his bad days. My life has changed in so many ways and they bring so much to my life. I guess it’s the having your hopes up for another baby and then not getting her that’s so hard.

Evenings at the Moss household

2008-11-10T20:59:00.002-05:00

My Boyz....Fun with Hats...

Turns Dance Party...

Where did Nathanael learn that move?!

Long Day

2008-11-09T21:34:00.002-05:00

I have to say, this has been one of those days with a 3, 2 and 1 year old. James and Nathanael fought all day today, they simply could not share, could not play together...it was an exhausting day of enforcing turn-taking, 'organizing' playtime, go to your room to calm down, etc, etc...and on top of all that, little Cooper is teething like crazy. Fussy, crying, drooling, just pitiful. But dispite it all, at the end of the day when I put James and Nathanael to bed...we had our regular routine, and I lay down with each of them for about 5 or 10 minutes. Even though I felt like Ken and I had been fussing the boys out all day, James still wanted me to sing to him - Amazing Grace, the Good Night song, Jesus Loves Me, the pancake song, the sausage song, etc... And Nathanael babbled his random assortment of thoughts that only a mommy could understand. (How could a space ship, a man that fell off a ladder, a brain, fire ants and a monster all make sense in one story?) It was awfully sweet. Now they are asleep and it will start all over again tomorrow.

"Moss, Party of Six"

2008-11-05T09:16:00.003-05:00

So, we've decided to jump on in! The tentative plan is that Anna will come to our home in mid-December. Right now, she is with a foster family in Cumberland County that fosters infants until they find a placement. Ken and I wanted to wait until after the first court date to make a decision (wanted to make sure the court wasn't going to give anna right back). The parents did not show up for court, or have they shown up for a visit with her in the last 3 weeks. The first trial date is November 24th, where Social Services will switch Anna's placement to be with us, since we have the siblings. That's the time the parents will get their 'to do' list to regain visitiations with her. So...we have a long process in front of us. Of course, once we get her, we'll want to keep her, and I hope it all works out for the best. We've talked to the boys about it a little bit...I asked James and Nathanael how they would feel about another baby in the house, and James said "2 babies...?" Anna is only 11 months younger than Cooper, so yes, 2 babies. She will be 6 months on December 16th and Cooper will turn 17 months on December 14th. I don't know if we'll have to call her Anna (probably) or if we can go ahead and call her by a name of our choosing (which will be Katie Ann once we do get to choose!)... short for Katherine Ann. This is my Muzzy's name, exect with a K for my aunt Kathy. Also, my mom's name is Ann. If it were up to James and Nate, they want to call her Sally...well, the girl car in the Lighting McQueen movie is Sally, so why wouldn't they choose that name. It's hilarious bc that was my favorite name when I was little! i had a pet guinea pig that I named Sally after my cousin who I thought was SO cool.

I hadn't blogged about it yet, because I still felt a little unsure that this was all going to happen, but I talked to our social worker yesterday, and she is coming out to re-license our home for 4 children, and she said there is no way we won't get her since we have the siblings. I believe her words were "oh yeah, you'll get that baby. NC wants siblings together, that judge will be giving her to you." So, that made me feel better. Anna's social worker is, thank God, the same foster worker that the boys had. She said just to hold off on buying anything pink until the Nov 24th court date...that is SO hard to do!!!

Ouch

2008-10-30T22:12:00.002-04:00

Nathanael had a rough day! He was having a bit of a tantrum at daycare and swung a pretty heavy toy up overhead and the momentum threw him forward and he tripped and hit his head on the tile floor. Apparetnly it sounded just awful when he hit bc the teacher called for the director and was kinda freaked out. For the next hour, he sat pitifully on Betty Lou's lap crying for mommmy. Well, dumb mommy didn't charge her cell phone last night, so the daycare couldn't get ahold of me. Ken's cell doesn't work where he works, so it was a good hour before they got ahold of Ken. Anyway, I met Ken at the daycare and Nathanael looked terrible. Just pale and lethargic and crying. I picked him up and he was just limp. He couldn't keep his eyes open, I kept trying to rouse him. We decided to take him to the urgent care, but two minutes into the car ride (I was sitting in the back right next to him trying to keep him awake and not crying too much), he massively puked all over me. Ken whipped the car around and flew to the emergancy room instead. They took us right in and long story short - he has a mild concusion (sp?). Luckily, they said it was okay for him to go to sleep, which he immediately did once I stopped pestering him. They did a CAT scan, and thank goodness he was lathargic at that point, bc he would've been so scared. They let me kinda lay on top of him to hold his head still and they told me to tell him we were going in a space ship, which worked. He thought it was pretty cool. There was no bleeding in the brain - thank you God. Ken teased Nathanael saying it was so good to know that he DOES have a brain in there! So, he was just pitiful for several more hours. They told us to wake him up every 2 hours and to bring him back if he threw up again, which he thankfully didn't.
A day in the life of parents with three little boys.

Updates

2008-10-26T21:42:00.002-04:00

James at the Lee County Fair. He LOVED the rides.

Cooper with daddy. He has grown so much!!

I was trying to get a picture of the three boys together, but nothing worked, so Nathanael and James resorted to tickling their little man.

We took a trip to the River in WV a few months ago. Here is Nathanael and Mimi toasting marshmellows.

Sorry I have not posted in so long. Just a little update on the boys:

Cooper is growing SO much!!! I can't believe it. He is soooo cute and happy. He's walking a mile a minute - still falling alot. He's not talking yet - just dada. The day he said mama was a flute - he's never said it again. We are going to have him checked out for that. A lady at out church is some kind of oral specialist with at risk kids and she said that because he didn't swallow solids until late, and he's not talking yet, he may have underdeveloped oral muscles, which is also what his regular doctor said. The lady at church also said that as cute as his fat cheeks are, they really are "hangiing fat pads" that should not still be drooping so much. So, nothing major, he'll just be a late talker probably.

Nathanael is not really growing...well, he's grown about an inch up, but still wieghs 28 pounds. He's 2 years, 9 months and wears a size 24 monthss in pants. He's my itty bitty blondie - full of vivation, spunk, attitude and creativity.

James is getting to be a big boy! Physically and just in general. He rarely has toddler tantrums, he listens (for the most part), he helps his little brothers, etc. Even though he has recently started a little rebellious streak, he's still a mama's boy. Now though, he choses to go work on the race car with daddy instead of staying home with me.

As for baby Anna...I will leave that for another blog entry.

We have been house hunting for something with more than the 3 bedrooms we currently have. The boys LOVE to look at houses - it's so funny!

Dilemma

2008-09-29T22:54:00.003-04:00

This was the vocabulary word of the day on some cartoon we were watching...and boy, do we have one. Social Services called on Friday to let us know the boys' biolgoical sister, Anna, has been taken into custody, is in emergancy foster care, and can we take her? PS...want an answer by Monday. Ken and I kinda freaked over the weekend, so conflicted. Deep down, I want her so bad, but we do have to think about some realities - like how the boys would react mainly. I called the social worker today to tell her we really needed a little more time to make a decision, and she said it was fine, and maybe even better. She said Anna (3 months) is in a really good foster home, and that the bio parents will go to court again in 37 days. At that point, we will have a better gauge on whether or not the parents have even made an attempt to get a job/housing. It would be terrible to bring her in the house and her have to go back...bad for us, bad for the boys. In the meantime, we talked to our pastor about it and he gave us some good advice on decision making. According to the social worker, Anna has plumped up (she was 5 pounds at birth). She has a round face like Cooper, light skin (not as light as Nathanael), and light brown hair that is "crazy like Nathanael's".

Happy One Year Anniversary to the Expanded Moss Family

2008-09-10T20:38:00.003-04:00

Let's take a look back one year....Sept 9, 2007...I'd had a good night sleep, woke up around 7...slothed through the morning, had a full day at work, headed to the gym for about an hour, came home and had a bowl of ceral for dinner, watched tv on the couch...then the next day...Sept 10, 2007...my stomach was in knots knowing the boys were coming that day. I left work early to come home and make sure everything was ready. I cooked an actual dinner, and Ken and I welcomed James and Nathanael home. Dinner mostly ended up on the floor, and bath time was more like 'soak the entire bathroom' time, and bedtime, well, I rocked, sang, re-tucked in, etc for at least an hour. Then I held Nate, walked him, bounced him (remembering he was 19 months at this point), gave him a 2nd bottle, tryed to console his blood curdling screams, and finally collapsed at almost midnight. About 2 am I was back up bc James woke up and was scared to death...I ran into the bedroom and he was on his knees sobbing. I held him and rocked him back to sleep.
Fast forward a year...Sept 10, 2008. Cooper wakes at 5:30 with a little whine, I give him a bottle. James and Nathanael crawl into our bed about 6:00 to wake me up. We go through the morning routine of dressing, teeth brushing, getting into the van and to daycare, then me off to work. After work, I came right home and daddy cooked dinner while I built block castles with the 3 boys. Other than the regular reminders toddlers need, dinner was quiet. The boys sat in their seats, didn't try to eat off the floor, said prayers before they started eating, and even asked to be excused. Bed time was us reading books, taking baths (James first, then Nathanael and Cooper), tuck ins, I sang my round of: "Good Night (from camp alleghany), Amazing Grace and Jesus Loves Me. Gave James and Nathanael their good night hugs and kisses. Meanwhile, Cooper fell asleep in the playpin. All is quiet at 8:45 pm.
Don't get me wrong, I now have to get sippy cups and bottles ready for tomorrow, pick out 4 outfits and pack the diaper bag, but that's just part of daily life!
What a difference a year makes!!

Update

2008-09-04T09:35:00.002-04:00

The Lord knows just when you need a little lift. When I dropped the boys off at daycare, I got to talking to Betty Lou, who is the director. She told me about the last time the social worker came to visit and how they talked about what a compassionate child Nathanael is. She said he's just so loving and caring and he really worries about things...like if someone's boo-boo is okay. She said they talked about the problems he has now, but that he'll turn out to be just fine.

On James' hand, they said he's a good boy - he listens and does what is told, etc, no behavior problems, but he is not as compassionate or outwardly loving as Nathanael, and it may (or may not) be because James may have memories of his early childhood...maybe not specific memories, but just "feelings" he remembers or associates with certain situations.

Anyway, it was nice to hear Betty Lou's thoughts on Nathanael.

Lord, grant us the patience...

2008-09-03T20:19:00.002-04:00

Nothing major to report...just the same ol routine around the Moss circus. But I tell you what, God must have invented 2 year olds so that for the REST OF THEIR LIFE, you can say to yourself, "well, at least he's not two anymore." Our Nate Reid is precious, oh so precious with his giggles and smiles. We've ruled out deafness, so it's definately a case of "I'm not gonna listen, I don't care if I lose my pride, I will do it MYSELF!!"

On the brighter side of life, Cooper is ALMOST walking. He's taken a few steps here and there, but he gets too excited and starts laughin and falls down. It's too cute! James is starting to learn to trace lines, I'm so proud of him, I didn't realize how hard that is when you're 3. Nathanael is definatley picking up on colors. He gets them right about 75% of the time now. The first time he told me the ball was pink, I practically threw myself on him with hugs and kisses and "mommy is so proud of yous". Everytime any of the boys learns something new, I get so excited! It's amazing how much they learn in such a short time.

So, despite the blonde monster ruling the house, we are all hanging in there. Nathanael makes Cooper laugh so hard. Cooper can be fussing about whatever, and Nate will put his face up to Coop's, and laugh, or scream, or just make a funny face, and Cooper will start belly rolling. Those are the moments to live for.

Ma Ma

2008-08-21T21:38:00.002-04:00

He said it - for real...not just a fluke, Cooper really called me ma ma ma ma ma!!!! How cute! And he waved for the first time tonight. Like the "bye-bye" wave. He's never done that before either. He's growing up so much. Cooper absolutely HATES to have his diaper and clothes changed and HATES to have his face wiped off. He screams bloody murder and wiggles and flips over and throws his head back...anything but to have his clothes put on in the morning. Makes things a little difficult. But as soon as the last button is done, he's a happy camper. He's trying to play more and more with his big brothers, who have been really good about it - except when Cooper grabs their hair.

James is just a good boy (as good a s a 3 year old can be). He's just very sweet. I love getting his hugs when Ken gets him home from daycare, or when I get home from work...he makes me feel so special because he runs to me to get his hugs and kisses. He's recently been voicing his concern about the monsters at his granny's house - not sure what that's about. I'm always worried about what he might remember, and if he's confused. I love when I have alone time with him, like if I take him to the grocery store - just the two of us.

After about 2 weeks of daycare madness for Nathanael, things are calming down a little. It's inevitable, no one will ever love him like I do. He is so very hyper, I can totally understand any daycare worker getting frustrated and exhausted with him. But like I told him, when he hits and kicks people, they can't see all the sugary sweetness that Jesus put in him. At church, Nathanael sings, claps and raises his hands in praise...not that he knows the words, mind you, he's singing his own tune, but he knows he's singing to Jesus. We've had so many people comment to us about how precious he is during praise and worship. Maybe I should ask them to help me put him down for a nap in the afternoon!! But truly, he IS precious.

Numbers

2008-08-15T13:41:00.002-04:00

# of diapers a week: 60
# of pull-ups a week: 7
# of bottles Cooper drinks in a week: 35
# of sippy cups filled per week: 14 (2 kids x 7 days)
# of times those sippy cups are filled a week: 48
# of "tuck me in again"'s a week: 14-20
# of baths given a week: 21
# of loads of laundry per week: 10
# of times I say "how do you ask nicely?": 4,000,000,000,000
# of boo-boos kissed a week: 500 - 1,000
# of times I tell my boys I love them so much and that they are precious: countless

Just a Nice Night

2008-08-14T20:11:00.002-04:00

The weather was great tonight - finally a break from the heat. James suggested we have a picnic for dinner, but we have ants in the yard, so we sat outside on the back porch and had a nice relaxing dinner - no, really - the boys provided a nice relaxing dinner. Then a tractor went by our house and the boys were dying of excitement, so we started walking down to the end of our road so they could see it. Turns out it was a guy who owns land way at the end, so we had a LONG walk, and i was holding Cooper! Man, he's heavy! The boys were so well mannered and said "can I please look at your tractor?" What a difference 11 months can make! I have to pat Ken and I on the back...by no means are we perfect, and we lose our patience, and we let the boys go to bed without brushing their teeth sometimes, andwe let them drink too much chocolate milk, but overall, I think we have perserveared and done a good job at 'civilizing the farrel cats' as Ms Reed put it. They are the most precious babes anyone could ask for.

Poor Cooper

2008-08-14T11:59:00.002-04:00

He's been a sick little fella. Started Monday night with a fever, which I thought was from getting a new tooth. Tuesday morning - still a fever and very lethargic. Daycare called at about 11:00 saying he had slept all morning (NOT Cooper) and now his hands and feet were very dark blue. I told them I was on the way, and I called 911 to get an ambulance there because if he was deprived of oxygen, I didn't want to wait at our sorry a-- emergancy room. By the time I got there, his coloring was fine, he was just lethargic still. Oxygen levels were normal. EMT suggested he may have had a seizure, and to take him to his regular doc. Spent several hours there - testing blood, urine, etc. Couldn't find a thing (still lethargic and sleeping). Said it was probably a virus that would last a few days. Call back if fever goes back up. Ken took him to his mom's for the remainder of the day so we could go back to work. He woke up at 5:30 with a temp of 104. Called doc. Give Tylenol and a cold bath. If that doesn't help - take to emergancy. Needless to say, we ended up at urgent care and turns out he has double ear infections. My poor little baby. They gave him 2 shots of antibiotic to get it in his system quickly. He had a terrible night of sleep last night, but seemed his bubbly self this morning, thank goodness.

In other news...the boys' biological grandmother and grandfather (not the great g-ma that took care of them...the crack head ones) were in a terrible drunk driving accident and the g-ma is in critical condition. Ken saw it in the newspaper. I talked to aunt Beth about it and she said their daugther's 19 year old boyfriend was driving them on a 'crack run' and they were all drunk. Crazy. Aunt Beth also told me the baby's name is Anna, not Gracie Lynn. Huh....? Who knows? Beth saw the boys' bio parents at the hospital and when she asked where the baby was, she wouldn't answer her.

weekend wrap up

2008-08-10T21:53:00.002-04:00

I few things from the weekend:
Friday night, we all went to Lowe's Hardware to buy paint and then went to eat at Andy's, where the boys get thier food served to them in a car, and they get stickers at the end.
Saturday, Ken, the boys and I painted the dog house...well, the boys painted - themselves, the grass, and a little paint got on the dog house, but they had fun, so that's all that matters. We followed up painting with playin in the water hose (to clean them off!). Saturday afternoon I took the boys to ride thier bikes in a church parking lot near us. We took Cooper's little riding car and he got the hang of pushing forward! It was so cute! Nathanael got another bonk on the head...his accidents always look so bad, I think beacuse he's so little, it just looks like a rag doll flying through the air, but he comes out with minor scrapes. This time, I was putting Cooper in the baby swing and Nathanael started towards the playground on his bike. I saw that he was picking up speed, so I started screaming "hit your brakes!!!" I ran toward him, but there was no way to make it...he headed down the stairs (luckily only 4 of them). He held on till the end, and then went over the handlebars. He got a scrape on his head, but nothing more than a few tears. He may be little, but he's mighty!!
Today was relatively low key. We went to church, and played around the house this afternoon.
Personally, I am psyched the Olympics are on.

Depot Park

2008-08-07T21:45:00.002-04:00

Still no pictures since I washed the camera...

Tonight was a total picture taking night...so I'll just have to remember it fondly! I took the boys to Depot Park, which is a little park in downtown Sanford where there is a train engine the boys can play on and on Thursday nights in the summer, they have live music. Tonight was bluegrass. So I loaded the boys up, we drove to town, stopped in Gregg's restaurant (my friend I ride bikes with) and got the boys smoothies, and walked over to the park. We met my friend Kelly and her son Javi there. And it was just a fun evening. Nathanael and James danced and clapped their hands and were the hit of the show...alot of older people in lawn chairs. Another little girl from the daycare was there, so she joined in the fun. I had the boys in matching outfits. It's the first time I've done that, and I have to say, it was totally adorable. After playing on the train for awhile, it was already past bedtime, so Kelly helped me pack up the crew and we headed home. All babes asleep within 10 minutes of hitting the sheets!

Over the weekend

2008-08-03T16:11:00.002-04:00

Nothing overly exciting to report, just updating you on the boys. Let's see - Nathanael had a great week overall with his potty training. He went to daycare and all evening activities in underware. He had an an accident at daycare twice. And that's it. I thought that was pretty good for his first week! Don't want to jinx myself though!

Friday morning, I was getting the boys dressed, and I swear James is growing out of things like crazy! I put on 3 different pairs of socks that were too small. I said "you are grwoing like a weed!" almost immediately, James relpied with "I need my own lawnmower." I thought that was pretty clever of him to think of - so I cracked up of course and so he added that he also needed his own weedwacker...the sillly little things in life are sometimes the funniest.

Yesturday (Saturday), Ken was working, so I took the boys to San-Lee Park. Their favorite (and my least favorite) part was looking at the snakes - yuck! Nathanael had a pretty rough fall and had a quarter-sized goose-egg on his forehead. He got running down a steep hill and his body was going faster than his feet and he just flew forward and practically bounced off his head. Good thing he's strong-willed. After a little crying, we stayed and hiked the trails a little more until it was too hot to stay. We left and went to the Sanford Flea Market and met my friend Bev there. We got some fresh fruit - the boys nawed on peaches, and then they played on the "real life choochoo", followed by running around in the water fountain. THat was the most fun - it was HOT. Then we went over to Cafe 121 that my friend Gregg owns and we got fruit smoothies - then home for a long nap!!

And lastly, Cooper is officially eating solids. Not everything of course, but peaches, crackers, french fries, cookies. He didn't like scrambled eggs or peas, but we'll try them again.

Get in the Kitchen and Bake Me a Pie

2008-07-29T09:21:00.002-04:00

After dinner last night, I was sitting on the floor in the living room, facing James and Nathanael, who were waiting for the Elmo tape to remind. I was trying to chat with them and James said I was in his way, he couldn't see. I told him there was nothing to see bc it was rewinding and just be patient...

My sweet baby James says to me "I want you to go in the kitchen and clean."

Oh, hell no. I didn't know whether to crack up laughing or beat the kid. I calmly stood up, and told him that I was not his maid, and that if he wanted the kitchen clean, he should clean it. He, of course, wanted to watch Elmo and started to cry. Uh-uh. I had that boy load the dishwasher one dish at a time, showing him what direction they should go in. I had him put boxes, etc back in the cupboard, and had him wipe off the dinner table. I thanked him for cleaning, and he asked "now can I watch Elmo?" "Sure" I replied, "but remember, the next time you want the kitchen clean, do it yourself or keep your mouth shut." "Yes, ma'am"

I told Ken about that last night and he just busted out laughing!!! Very funny!

Potty Trainng

2008-07-28T20:38:00.002-04:00

Strange computer malfulnction...some of the letters dont work and I switched leyboards, and it's intermittent. Weird. Seems to be working right now.

So...today was a victory!! Nathanael went to daycare with big boy underware and did not have a single accident!! Saturday was literally his first day in big boy underware, and he had no accidents. Sunday, he did well until the babysitter came (1st time leaving the boys with a babysitter!), and he had several accidents, so I was going to have him wear pull ups this morning, but he was not into that idea. I took extra clothes for him, but when Ken brought the kids home, he was in the same outfit! I hope it lasts, we'll see. The only thing that triggered it is that he had a physical on Thursday and the doctor asked if he was potty training yet. I lied and said yes...but then later I said to Nathanael - 'did you hear the doctor say you should be going in the potty?' He takes great stake in what 'the doctor' says. Whatever works... I'm so proud of him!

Last Visit

2008-07-23T20:51:00.003-04:00

Tonight, Ms Reed came to make her last official visit as the boys' social worker. She is now transferring our case to Jim, the adoption social worker. It was a fun visit, the boys love her to death. I had the boys tell them their 'new' names (they are so excited about them!!), and she cried when Nathanael told her his middle name. It was real sweet. Nathanael has self-proclaimed himself "Nate Reid" at daycare. He walks around saying "I Nate Reid I Nate Reid".

I decided I need to start recording some of the funny things the boys say. Here's a recent one...Ken and I had been talking about giving Cooper Tylenol because his teeth were hurting him. So, James has a real big, hard stinky. When he got off the potty and pulled up his shorts, he grabbed his butt and said "my hiney hurts, I need some Tylenol". He said it so matter-of-factly, I had to laugh!

Vacation

2008-07-18T22:19:00.002-04:00

I will soon post pictures from the week, but wanted to post a quick note about our week at the River. We had a great time! For those of you who do not know about the river...it is a long-standing love of my family. My aunt Phyllis has a cabin there in WV and it is peaceful and beautiful beyond description. Ken and I took the boys and my mom and step dad (Jim) stayed the week with us. My aunts Phyllis, Kathy, Suzanne and uncle Mike came on Sunday to celebrate Taylor's 1st birthday!! It is hard to believe he is one! I'm so glad the boys got to spend some time with my aunts and uncle. Now Kathy is more than just the lady who "gave us the carrot cookies at Easter." Later in the week, aunt Betsy came and spent the night and met the boys fir the first time. They thought Betsy and her dog Angus were great. They are now completely spoiled and getting them back into the 'real world' sans Mimi and PapPap is gonna be tough.

Some adventures of the week: swimming in the river, canoeing (our dog's name is Canoe, and this was the boys' first canoing experience, so they were a little confused!), fishing, taking a bath and washing their hair in the river, walks and a picnic on the river trail, lots of bike rides, frisbee/baseball/soccer/waterbombs in the backyard, long naps, and general river activities. Although amazingly fun, taking the boys to the river was such a hugely different experience from adult only trips. I am used to waking up in the morning at my leisure and drinking coffee in the rocking chairs on the porch and just enjoying the peace and quiet. THIS week, the rocking chairs were all turned sideways to form a choo-choo train...James as the engineer and mommy as the caboose. As a non-parent, I never thought about the dangers of the river either, but we were constantly keeping an eye on each child. I was so scared one would fall off the 2nd story deck. The only real injury was James falling down the full flight of indoor stairs and rug-burning the right hand side of his face. It was a nasty fall, but no blood or broken bones.

The most exciting (I think) thing about the trip was we told the boys their new names...bc of where we are in the adoption process, we can start calling them by what we will change their names too. James and Nathanael will keep their first names - we just couldn't change them (Although James' name was actually Junior when we got the boys). Anyway....here they are:

James Conrad. Conrad is Ken's middle name and his mom's maiden name.
Nathanael Reid. 1. like the name 2. the boys' social worker's name is Ms Reed and if it were not for her we probably wouldn't even have the boys 3. their is a family at our church who has the name Reid running through it and they have been incredibly good to us and the boys.
Taylor is now Cooper Dawson. Yes. We are officially calling him Cooper as of his first birthday. He already responds to it. James and Nathanael were totally fine about us changing his name, although they are having a little trouble remembering. Dawson is my mom's middle name. Cooper is a name we liked, and well...for those of you who know the significance of this name, there's no need to explain, but the name Cooper Dawson just sounds right and feels right. (Robin - I saw Sarah Reem at Wolfcreek and she just laughed hysterically about his name).

Relief

2008-07-08T21:23:00.002-04:00

The 7 days of waiting are over!! As of midnight last night, the parent's rights were ended! We have our meeting to finalize the foster care paperwork in 2 weeks (we're going to WV next week), which will transfer us over to an adoption social worker. So, really the boys are sortof in limbo....not adopted yet, and still have their last name, but now we don't have to worry about any visits with any of the biological family, and don't have to worry about the parents really at all.

STRANGELY enough, the parents showed up at social services today. Our SW was like "what in the world?! They better not try and change their mind now!" Although legally, it was too late, they could've fought it. But no, they were there to show our social worker their new baby. How totally random. The only thing they asked about the boys was whether or not Ken and I knew they had relinguished their rights. Random...

But such a RELIEF. When I tucked in James and Nathanael tonight, I told them how much mommy and daddy loved them and how happy we were to be their parents and how proud we were of them. I think it was the first time I actually called them "my sons". I almost sounded weird to me, but good!

It will still be approx 6 months until the adoption is final, but we are well on our way!!

4th weekend

2008-07-05T20:47:00.003-04:00

Nathanael playing hide and seek at the pool.
He's not scared of the water anymore!

James prepares to be thrown "weally high!"
Mommy tosses James off her sholders.
He loves every second!
How adorable is our little snuggle bug! (That's our neice Heather in the pic)
James and Nathanael (red shorts) had a great time playing in the main water fountain at Depot Park in Sanford on the 4th.

We've had a fun 4th weekend so far! We swam for quite a while at Ken's parents with our neices and the boys. Ken's dad took a bunch of pics. Perfect weather. The afternoon of the 4th, we went to Sanford's "old fashioned 4th" celebration. Playing in the fountain was the highlight. We also went into the historical railraod museum, where according to James, they have "stuff from a loooong time ago."

We had yet another intersting phone call from the boys' aunt Friday night. Long story short, apparently the parents left the 2 week old baby girl with the mom's 17 year old sister (who also has an infant) and didn't return when they said they would (don't know details, but it must have been a long time after), so the sister and g-ma called the police to get social services to come get the baby. In the meantime, the parents returned, hell broke loose and the parents said they were leaving the county... we thought they would've laid low for awhile. They clearly hadn't "abandonded" the baby since the police left the baby with them.

knot in my stomach

2008-06-26T21:21:00.002-04:00

The boys LOVE to swim! We swim at Ken's parents house one or two days a week.
Nathanael, who is totally NOT potty trained, wanted to be like his big bro and pee in the bushes. His arm floaties are almost as big as he is!
Trying to get a shot of Taylor's 5 teeth...but he keeps crawling towards me!

Today was interesting, to say the least. We had gotten a letter from social services saying there was a Permanancy Planning Meeting today. The social worker said we didn't have to come, but it would be a good time to ask questions about the process from here, etc...and they were at the point of setting a court date to have the TPR (termination of parental rights) signed. So, of course we went to the meeting. The SW said the parents had been invited, bt had not shown up to one yet, so told me not to worry about it. When we arrived (this is at the social services in cmberland county - about an hour from us)...the receptionist asked if we were the Mosses. We said yes, and she said the sw worker had been trying to reach us to tell us the parents were there! The sw pulled us to the side and said they were in the conference room signing papers to relinguish their rights to the boys. They had the little girl last sunday, and apparently just want social services to stay away from them and the baby, so signing over the boys is their best way of doing that (this is what the sw (and Ken and I) feel is the reason). The sw said she had not told the parents that we were there, and asked if we wanted to meet them. We told her no, we didn't, unless they wanted to meet us to make sure they went through with the paperwork this time. The sw said they didn't even know we were there, so not to worry about it. So we went ahead with the Perm. meeting...which was us, the sw, her supervisor, and the GAL. They basically went over the plan, which WAS TPR, followed by adoption by the Mosses. The parents DO have 7 business days to change thier mind (they DID follow through and sign everything today)...but, if they don't - we will move to an adoption social worker. The sw said we should start thinking about names...how fun!!! Ken and I agreed not to talk about names until the 7 days is over. Ironically, the seven days is over on Ken's birthday. So we may have a mighty celebration on July 7th! If they do change thier mind, the plan is still to terminate rights, it will just add about 8 months or so to the process. Keep your fingers crossed - and please pray for the boys' baby sister - that she is safe and healthy.

Ready?

2008-06-13T20:32:00.002-04:00

Well, we've had the boys for 9 months now! The length of a regular pregnancy - should we be ready for them yet?

"Don't Cry Mommy"

2008-06-07T17:23:00.003-04:00

It's 100 degress down here (literally) so we took the boys swimming at Ken's parents' house. Opposite of most situations, James is the daredevil and Nathanael is the scared one. Nathanael likes being in the water, but needs to feel very secure that hes' not going to go under.

James, on the other hand is a little water bug with no fear - he did a front flip off the diving board today. He has to wear "floaties", but he's not scared at all.

Taylor loves the water - splashing around. He was in his little baby tube and I looked over and his head was down on the tube, he was out cold...pacifer floating away and all. I took him up to the house for a nap! It was too funny though.

The strangest thing happened with me though. I jumped into the pool, going down to the bottom of the deep end and all of a sudden it felt like my ear had exploded. I got to the top and out and I felt like i was going to vomit. Long story short - I ended up in urgent care and I cracked my eardrum. The pressure was just right to "blow" it out. So, I can't take a shower, swim, or blow my nose for a week. Now it just feels like I have alot of water in my ear. Nathanael was too cute though. I was sitting by the pool crying and he came over and gave me his toy fish to make me feel better.

So....after that saga, we had the boys at home and were playing outside in the waterhose and james got sting by a bee and was screaming bloody murder. Once we got him calmed down, our last resort for water fun in the 100 degree sun was.... BUBBLE BATH!!! Big boy Taylor even got into the fun.

Drag Strip

2008-05-30T21:18:00.002-04:00

Here are a few shots from our trip down to the Rockingham Drag strip a couple weekends ago. Our friends Tiffany and Jason had their camper there, so we enjoyed the day playing with their kids. tiffany came prepared with bags of sand for the kids to play in! Her husband had been racing for years, so she's got it down to a science.
I LOVE this picture!

Taylor had fun crawling around in the sand. It was SO hot that day, his haid was slicked up from sunscreen and sweat.

Updates

2008-05-29T08:15:00.002-04:00

Nothing really major to report, I just realized that I need to be recording milestones. I never thought I'd forget how old Taylor was when he first started crawling, but then it occured to me this morning that I couldn't remember exactly how old he was (lucky for me, I have this blog to help me remember!). So, Taylor officially has 2 bottom teeth - they aren't all the way in, but you can definatley see them. He is crawling like a mad man, and can pull up to stand up. he pulls up against the couch, chairs, etc, and can mokve sideways along the couch. He can balance himself with one hand on the couch, but is definately not standing on his own. He's still eating stage 2 foods (he chokes on anything solid). He still smiles and giggles all the time, but has gotten to where he wants to be held alot. If Ken or I walk past him without acknowledgin him, he screams! It's too funny!

Nathanael is getting so "mature". He's not putting as many marbles and other little peices in his mouth - crayons are still a battle. He's hitting less and less, and his vocabulary is growing. He's much better about going to bed at night (thank goodness!). He loves for you to pat his back while he's getting settled down for sleep. He's so cute - he'll flip over on his belly and say "pat me". He looks so content.

James is getting so grown up I can hardly stand it. When he wakes up from his nap on the weekends and just before bed are about the only times he's real cuddly. We're having a little trouble with him talking back, but are getting that slowly under control. On tuesday at daycare, his teacher reported that he was "exceptionally good". We were too excited about that!

My mom and stepdad (Mimi and PapPap) came and visited for the long Memorial Day weekend. The boys were spoiled rotten and had a great time. They went down to the pond alot and fed the cows. On Monday, we went for the first swim of the season. Those boys LOVE to swim! James and Nathanael can doggy paddle with floaties on.

Guess those are the updates for now!

Random events

2008-05-17T21:10:00.002-04:00

We took the boys to the New Hope Valley Railway where they got to ride on a REAL choo-choo-train! It was an open air style train and the ride lasted about an hour.
Here, James and Nathanael investigate by looking through the cracks in the floor to make sure we are staying on the track.
Mother's Day! Mommy and my boys.
Relay for Life to raise $$ for cancer. Ms. Kelly paints faces. (James LOVES Ms Kelly)
James rounds the corner of the Scooby-Doo bouncy house.

How cute am I? Look at my chubby knees!
Swinging at mawmaw and pawpaws

Taylor singing into the mic.

Happy Mother's Day!

2008-05-12T07:24:00.002-04:00

Today was a good day. Ken cooked breakfast while I slept in, and then he had the boys wake me up. We went to church, and the sermon was about non-biological moms, so it was really cool. Then the Moss family came over for a Mother's Day dinner. Ken had the boys give me flowers, which was very sweet. James picked off one of the flower buds from the pot and said "here, I picked you one!". He was quite proud of himself - it was pretty funny. If anyone watches Jon&Kate+8...I agree with Kate, Mother's day should be once a month!

No TPR YET

2008-04-29T20:10:00.002-04:00

James snuggles with his blankie and thumb while Nathanael encourages Taylor to stand up.
He did it! He is so precious!
Even though he can't pedal yet, Nathanael loves to 'ride' his 'motorcycle'. Doesn't he have a great smile?

Well, today was court. We were really hoping the TPR was going to be signed today. It wasn't, but actually, things are working in our favor anyway. The TPR was not completed by the legal department at social services in time for court because of staff illnesses. However, the parents did NOT show up for court today. They had been living with the mom's grandmother (not the Granny the boys visit) for the past few months, but on Friday, there was a 'blow out' and the grandmother kicked them out, so they are homeless again. The dad has not gone to substance abuse counseling, nor has he taken a drug test. The mom has taken some parenting classes, and has passed 2 drug screens. She is in fact pregnant, but our sw feels she will not go to the hospital in Cumberland County, which means she'll probably go to Harnett County, so social servies may not even get involved. If the baby is drug negative, the hospital won't even call social services. If the baby is born in Cumberland County, then social services has them in the hospital 'system' and will then decide about taking her. Back to today...so the TPR was not signed, but our sw feels it will be completed in about 3 weeks. At that point, the judge will sign it. She feels absolutley certain that he will sign it. She said that at court today, he spelled out everything that has happened (the parents wanting to relinguish rights a few months ago, the drugs, the non-compliance, etc) and had the paralegal record all of it so that when the TPR came to him, there would be no question about it becasue it's all on record. Now, the problem is that the signed TPR has to be delivered to the parents, and now no one knows where they are as of this past Friday. If they can't be found, they have to post a legal ad in the paper for 60 days to give them a chance to appeal. Even with the appeal, our sw said that even though it would slow down the process, Jesus Himself would have to return to Earth and touch the parents for the judge to reverse the decision. So, she said that essentially we are the boys' parents, it's just a matter of time for the legality. So, not exactly what we were hoping for, but God has had his hand in all of this, and His timing is always perfect, so we'll just ride it out. As reassuring as she is, until we sign on the dotted line, we still have that little fear in the back of our minds. Oh, and the judge did stop ALL visitation with ANY biological family members (including Granny), so that is GREAT to not have to worry about that. THANK YOU to everyone who is praying for us!!

Taylor's First Hair Cut

2008-04-20T21:38:00.002-04:00

Pre-cut
Post-cut. Cruisin' in the walker (he scratched his nose during the night!)
I'm a crawling fool!
One day I was a beached whale stuck on my tummy and now I'm keeping mommy and daddy running!

Crawling

2008-04-17T17:13:00.002-04:00

Taylor is crawling! He officially made three moves forward on hands and knees yesturday!

Working Hard

2008-04-10T21:31:00.003-04:00

Taylor is trying so hard to crawl! He gets on his hands and knees and just rocks back and forth. But he has officially gotten the army crawl, so he can scoot himself forward on his forearms. It's hilarious.
It was a beautiful day out, so I took Taylor for a walk (it was so nice to get some exercise!) and then after dinner, I took all the boys down to the pond. James and Nathanael wanted to practice peeing outside (thanks Pap), so James peed in the pond and Nathanael (who is still fully in daipers, mind you) insisted he pee in the pond too. So there I stand with Nat's diaper in my hand, his pants around his ankles, he's bending his knees, all the while looking down trying to see his little weiner and he's making grunting sounds like he's trying to poop. If he actually could've peed, it probably woud've shot a stream right into his eye! It would've been a $100,000 video!

The Important Things

2008-04-07T21:23:00.003-04:00

The boys often remind me of the important things in life - God, and family. I was running late at work. I usually pick the boys up at daycare around 5:00. They close at 5:45. Today, I rushed in the door at 5:40 and found my boys huddled around one of the workers. I said "Oh my gosh! Are my babies the last three here?" James just looked at me with his mesmerizing eyes and said "I scared." I asked why he was scared and he said "you not come get me." My poor baby thought he was being left...again. It about tore me up. I didn't know it was possible to love like this. Our pastor once told me that God gives us children to give us some understanding of how much He loves us. Knowing that God loves us more than we can humanly love our children, I cannot imagine how much He does love us.

yes, they can

2008-03-31T21:57:00.001-04:00

A lot of people have been asking me about the new baby, and whether the parents can keep her. And the sad answer is yes, they can. If the baby is born drug-free, they can keep her.

Enough Said

2008-03-30T16:46:00.002-04:00

Why a picture of toy dart guns and handcuffs?

Why would you give these to a 2 and 3 year old at a visitation with the social worker? Logical decision making does not run in their family. These are the toys the boys grandparents brought for them. In addition to the fact that they are guns, the box is clearly marked as a choking hazard for children under three. Smart.

And we found out why the parents took the parenting classes (we think). Oh yeah - you won't beleive this one - bio mom is 5 months pregnant. I guess they want to see if they can keep this one.

Visitation

2008-03-28T21:24:00.002-04:00

Well, the boys had a supervised visit with their granny today. The social worker took them, so we really only know what she told us. The visit was supposed to be granny, gracie and adell (the boys 2 female cousins that they lived with, along with granny) and uncle johnie (a 21 year old who has mental retardation and loves the boys to death). We're cool with all 4 of them. Granny's a little tricky though - she called the social worker Wednesday to tell her that the bio mom's parents were coming too. And then 1/2 way through the visit another aunt and 2 more cousins showed up. The social worker was really mad and told granny that if she did that again, she would stop any visits at all. On top of that, they brought the boys presents - toy guns and handcuffs. Right on.

The boys' aunt beth, who originally got us with the boys called tonight and said that the parents had gone to the parenting classes, but that the dad quit his job this week, and they are still living with the mom's grandmother, so they aren't in compliance with court orders even though they took the classes. The next court date is April 29th. I hope the judge doesn't extend things just bc they took those classes. It scares me to death sometimes.

Finally

2008-03-26T20:37:00.007-04:00

I got the official 'get off your arse and post' message from a friend...so here I am! I did finally get a new camera and you won't beleive how much they've grown! Taylor can sit on his own...he still gets too excited and flaps his arms really hard which make him fall over, but he's got the hang of it! James has a great memory - he remembers every somg from daycare. He is a mama's boy, that is for sure. And Nathanael is doing so well. He's going through a really cute stage, and I don't want to speak too soon, but he has not been having fits at all. While at home and on thier regular schedule, James and Nathanael go to bed easily. We recently took 2 trips - both times bedtime was an issue - but it just goes to show how important the schedule is. First, we took the boys to the beach!

James watis patiently on the deck as we get Taylor and Nathanael ready for the trek down to the sand.

nathanael was hilarious! He was determined he was going to catch a bird - he chased them, squeeling and cracking himself up the whole time.

The water was ice cold - but they didn't care!

They were so cute, very excited to see the ocean and all the sand. They swam for hours in the indoor pool. By swimming, I mean jumping in to us. Ken was able to teach James to doggy paddle with his floaties on. James was so excited to be swimming without holding on. Our next trip was to WV to visit my mom and stepdad for Easter.

Lil' Nate under mom's piano finding eggs

James shows off his eggs too.

Everyday life is still overwhelming at times. But in general, I can hardly remember life without the boys. Taylor is the the most beautiful baby. He is full of smiles and giggles all the time. His daycare worker always says I cant take him at the end of the day bc he's the only one not crying. He rolls over both ways (his prefered mode of transportation). Not crawling, and no teeth, but his gummy smiles makes me weak in the knees. I practically suck off his fat cheeks everyday and I love to cuddle with him in bed. He does sleep in his crib until about 4 or 5 am. He wakes up and I put him in bed with us. I know a bad habit, but one I'm not ready to break.

Why buy expensive toys? The boys' favorite evening activity (after I make them come inside!) is to take apart the couch and build forts and tents.

Taylor hanging out in his Bumbo...the greatest baby seat!

Taylor loves playing his bongos!

As for the adoption process.Basically, there is nothing to report. The parents go back to court sometime in April. Usually there is 30 days between court dates, but this has been a 60 day lull - I'm not sure why. We don't really get told very much. Supposedly, the TPR (termination of parental rights) process is being put into effect, but our social worker says it gets turned over to the legal department of social services at that point. I don't have alot of faith that it will be a quick process. The boys have not seen their granny in 2 1/2 months - fine with us, but she called the social worker last week wanting a visit. So that is happening this friday. It is supervised, but it will be a setback for sure.

no more sickness!

2008-02-25T15:02:00.002-05:00

Seriously, I'm going to have to break down and buy a new camera. I don't know if the boys flushed it down the toilet or what, but Taylor is getting so big, and I haven't taken a picture of him in weeks! He is soooo cute! He has discovered his voice big time and babbling dadadadadada.... I keep telling him to say mamamamamam, but he's not listening! He now sticks his tongue out too - it's adorable. He's into 6-9 month clothes and size 3 diapers. Stop growing, boy! 18 pounds.

Last week was insane at the Moss household. Ken got the flu. Then Nathanael got the flu. Then James fell and cracked his head on the coffee table and I had to take him for stitches. He ended up just needing dermabond (they basically hot glued his head together), but still a rush to the hospital, followed finally by a call to poison control because Nathanael ate a pellet of rat poison. Oh, yes, the ambulance got to come and everything. What fun. What's more funny is that I was in the car with James and Taylor when Ken called me and frantically asked the number for poison control. I held in the laughter and replied "I don't know. Hang up and call 911!"

Saturday was relatively uneventful based on the rest of the week, but fun. The boys rode their powerwheels outside for a long time, and I took them down to the pond to go "fishing", we visited the cows in the next field over...mommy got blasted for not bringing the cow food like PapPap does...James went down our new cork-screw slide a hundred times (nathanael is too scared!). We topped the day off with a long bath using bathtub crayons to decorate. What a great day!

He rolls

2008-02-07T15:25:00.001-05:00

Taylor is officially rolling over! At age 6 1/2 months, he can go front to back and vise versa. He's soooo cute!

Nathanael turned 2. I have managed to lose my camera, so sorry I don't have pictures. We had a joint b-day party for him and James. Thomas the Train was the theme and we were joined by friends and family. Luckily, it was a nice day outside, so the kids played in the yard for about an hour before we had hotdgos, cake, and opened presents. James keeps telling me he wants to have his birthday again!

James turns 3!!

2008-01-24T21:28:00.000-05:00

Seriously, is this the cutest little boy you've ever seen, or what?

Daddy brings on the birthday cake!

Taylor and PawPaw get into the action!

We had a fun day. I took cupcakes to the daycare and Nathanael got to come to James' big boy class with us. Tonight, we had McDonals chicken Mcnuggets (James' choice), french fries and birthday cake for dinner. Ken's parents and our 2 neices came over. We'll have a joint b-day party for James and Nathanael next weekend.

Firsts

2008-01-21T14:12:00.000-05:00

The boys got to enjoy their first snowfall...and we got to enjoy them enjoying it! James and Nathanael sat and watched out the window for a long time...they just kept saying they wanted to go outside. We told them they had to wait until it stuck to the ground a little more bc it was so muddy. That night, we bundled them all up, put them in their new snow boots, and went out on the back porch. We had a fun snowball fight until their fingers were so cold they could hardly move them. They kept pulling their mittens off to make a better snowball!

The next morning we actually took a long walk on our property in the 1/2 inch of snow. It was really pretty. We pulled the boys on their sled and they loved it.

Another first for us...Nathanael cut in FIVE teeth yesterday. Seriously. Five in one day.He had his front 8, plus 4 in the very back. But his 4 pointy teeth plus 1 other just punctured his gums yesterday. He was a little whiny, but not too bad. I couldn't beleive it! Poor little guy.

Grr..

2008-01-09T15:24:00.001-05:00

At about 11:30, the Social Worker called and told me they did not sign the papers. Once at social services, they told the SW that they wouldn't sign without the agreement to see the boys. The SW reminded them that they HAD had multiple (like, over 20 at least) opportunities to see the boys, for which they did not show up. The SW also reminded them that social services is not an open adoption agency, and whether they signed the papers or not, their parental rights would be terminated based on their non-compliance. So regarless of whether we adopt the boys, or someone else, they are not going to have visitation. The parents said they were going to the car to confir with granny before deciding anything, and they just never came back.

I called the SW again about 1:30 and they had still not returned. Obviously not going to.

So, it's really not about the visits, it's about them wanting to be in control and saying "I'll show you...we won't sign anything". Whatever. It'll just be 7 months instead of 7 days. Life goes on...

I called granny and she said that the mom came to the car and said she wasn't signing without getting visits, so granny just took her home. Lord knows what alll she told granny.

Hourly Update

2008-01-09T10:32:00.000-05:00

The parents did show up at court and told the judge they wanted to reliquish their rights to the boys. The SW called me from the car saying they were on the way to Social Services to sign the paperwork. The parents had two requests: to see the boys 3 times/year and for us to not change their last names. I said NO to both requests. The SW completley agreed with me and told the parents that those were unreasonable requests, but that she would ask me anyway. I told her I would send granny a letter twice a year with an update on how the boys were/what they were doing. Fingers crossed...!

Keep your fingers crossed

2008-01-09T08:44:00.000-05:00

The boys visited with Granny, Gracie, Adell (cousins) and uncle Johnie (we're cool with him) on Saturday. It was supervised (by me) in a public place (Imagination Station...a play place). The visit was really fun. They played like crazy and we did Christmas presents. Granny really does love the boys and wants what is best for them, she just makes some dumb decisions. For example, she gave the boys a framed picture of their biological parents. James opened it and said "a picture". He had no clue who it was. Gracie chimed in "those are your other parents." I gently took the frame and said "let's put it away for later so we don't break it." I was a little peeved, but what can you do...?

So, I talked to the social worker this morning. Today is the court date to change the boys' plan from reunification with bio parents to adoption. The SW told me to NOT get my hopes up, but that bio mom had called her yesterday and told her they were really thinking about just signing the boys over at court today. Granny told bio parents that the boys were happy and loved and it wasn't fair to put the boys through all this mess, and to just give them up. So, IF they actually do it, we will not have to go through the termination of parental rights. That's what takes many months. So instead of adoption them in 6-8 months, it would be more like 1-2 months. Now, even if they do sign them over, they have 7 days to change their mind. I'm trying not to be excited, because honestly, if they got high last night, they may change their mind today.

Keep your fingers crossed!

Christmas

2007-12-30T20:47:00.000-05:00

Wow! What a week it's been. I have to back up and start with the Friday before Christmas. I took Taylor to the doctor Friday morning for his shots, but I asked the doc to see if there wasn't something they could give Taylor because he had really been coughing for like 3 days. I am not kidding, once she listened to him breath, she had another doctor and 2 nurses in the room. They took him to xray to see if he had pneumonia, which he did not, then tested him for RSV, which he did have. It's a respiratoty virus. His oxygen level was at 80%. It should be 95 or above. They sent him immediately to the hospital, where he was taken straight up to a room and put on oxygen. He got breathing treatments every 4 hours, and had several fevers over the 4 days he was there. Scared us to death. But our prayers were answered in 2 ways: 1. He got better! 2. He got to come home Christmas Eve. I was so upset that our first christmas with the boys was going to be messed up, but it all worked out. Ken and his parents stayed with Taylor at the hospital Christmas Eve day until he came home in the early evening. Meanwhile, James, Nathanael and I baked cookies for santa, and had your basic hyper-active day of toddler play. They needed lots of mommy lovin' since they had stayed with their grandparents the 3 days before while Ken and I stayed with Taylor. Here's a picture of our little man.Christmas was GREAT! The boys got power wheels. Here are a few pictures of the big day:

Unfortunately, we did not get to go to Charleston for Christmas because Taylor can't travel yet. But mom and Jim came down, and my aunts and uncles were so great to send great presents. The picture above is James "surprising" us from inside his new play tent/tunnel/basketball hoop = bigger than the living room adventure center from Aunt Kathy.

TPR and Granny's downfall

2007-12-21T09:12:00.000-05:00

We got some good news on Wednesday. The boys' social worker called and said that they had court that day. Social Services asked the judge to relieve them of their duty of trying to reunify the boys with their biological parents due to non-compliance of the parents, and the judge said yes! So on January 9th, they go to court to change the boys' "plan" from reunification, to adoption. This starts the TPR (termination of parental rights) process. The TPR process takes many months though. She said we are probably looking at the end of May. The parents have to be served with papers to notify them of the TPR, and since the parents don't have an address, it will be hard to serve them with papers. If that is the case, social services is required to post it in the legal section of the newspaper and they have a time period (I think 90 days) to respond. Once TPR happens, the Social Worker said the adoption can happen within a month, so that is good. She said the only thing that could possibly reverse the TPR is if the parents do a total turnaround, get into a grug rehab program, get a job and a place to live. Doubtful that would happen by May.

So Granny, with whom we have had a great relationship, has ticked us off. We were making arrangements for a Christmas visit. The social worker said Granny would like it if we dropped the boys off at Aunt Beth's house for 4 hours. We were fine with that, as Granny has been realy easy to work with and get along with. So I called Granny to confirm. She told me that during those 4 hours, she was going to take the boys' to their aunt Robin's to see her and exchange gifts with the other great-grandma. Oh...H--L NO! She had already told the Social Worker that the parents had been hanging around Robin's house. I told Granny I was not comfortable with that at all. She said "I promise I won't anyone take them." I told her that I did not want the boys to even see the parents - one, because it will totally mess them up, and two, the court order says NO visitation, especially not unsupervised! I called the Social Worker is a tizzy. She was so mad at granny for lying to her. She said there was no way, and that if she tries to pull anything like that, she will take away granny's unsupervised visitation. She said she was going to call granny and tell her she can NOT do that. When we get to aunt Beth's house, I am going in and looking in all the rooms, bathrooms, and closets to make sure the parents are not hiding anywhere, and then Ken and I will park our car across the end of the driveway so they cannot leave. Granny will soon learn that we are not parents that she should tick off if she still wants a relationship with the boys. The social worker has already warned her about losing her visits, and I won't be unhappy if she does. I wanted to boys to be able to keep a relationship with her, but not if it's constant drama.

5 months

2007-12-14T08:50:00.000-05:00

I can hardly believe Taylor turned 5 months today. It hardly seems possible! He's a whopping 14 1/2 pounds. He still wears mostly 0-3 month clothes, except for his sleepers...he's too long for them. His head and neck are definately strong, and he enjoys tummy time, but he hasn't rolled over. He was evaluated by the Children's Developmental Serivces, last week, and his test scores came out that he is at 4 months, so he's on track! He giggles all the time, I mean, he just starts laughing and doesn't stop. It's hilarious!

Last night we got a phone call from the boys' aunt (the one who hooked us up with them in the first place) and told us that the social worker had called the great-grandmother (so this is 3rd hand information) and told her that Social Services was going to request that the judge dismiss Social Services from having to continue to attempt reunification, and to start the process of terminating parental rights. If all that's true, and if the judge says yes, that's great for us. It would still be AT LEAST 6 months down the road (3 months for the TPR and 3 months before we could legally adopt), but it would be nice to have some sense of security about the boys.

TGIF

Farrell Cats

2007-12-10T20:36:00.000-05:00

The boys social worker came to the house along with 2 other workers to evaluate Nathanael and Taylor for early intervention services. Neither of them are eligible because neither of them have any developmental delay - which of course is great.

But Nathanael's behavioral problems are really an issue. The three women told me that he really needed mental health play therapy, NOT developmental play therapy like James had. James thrived from it, and doesn't even qualify for it anymore. Problem is...they don't know of any psychologists who work with kids under 3. The social worker says his anger and rebellion is probably mainly related to the structure we are setting.

She described James and Nathanael as "farrell cats that we are now trying to domesticate". That is the best way to describe it I think. I really don't know how they survived. But I'm so glad they did. Just over the past few weeks, I've really seen James mature and 'settle' in with us a little better. And even though Nathanael is still our "troubled child", he is clearly better than when he came. Taylor - well, he's just a perfect, happy little boy. We really are lucky.

The most exciting things in their lives right now are: "Santa Clause is coming to town" and their "big boy" beds.

Pictures

2007-12-08T15:59:00.000-05:00

James and Nathanael making cookies
James' first haricut! (with us)
Ken cracks Taylor up
Nathanael - post cooking, trying to clean
Papap feeding the boys peanuts

4 Pink Eyes

2007-11-26T21:18:00.001-05:00

Augh! All three boys + myself have pink eye and strep!! There is so much medicine to try and keep straight and times and dosages and trying to keep sippy cups separated. Thank the good Lord my mother was in town. She helped Ken and I take the whole crew to the doctor. A waiting room with three little ones is seriously rough.

Ken and I need parenting HELP!! We are consistent, we back eachother up, we punish immediately - which consists of going to the corner, or being sent to their room, or having their bike taken away. But if we are not actively engaging them in an activity at every moment, they are instantly in trouble....climbing up on the kitchen stools, climbing up on the coffee table, hitting and biting. It is endless. How do we stop the insanity?!

Ten Ways

2007-11-12T13:53:00.000-05:00

http://www.familylife.com/hopefororphans/TenWays_inside.pdf

This is a link to a pdf file that lists 10 ways you can help a child in need of a home. God's calling is different for everyone, and He may reveal to you His calling for you through this website. I'm not saying everyone's calling is to be a foster or adoptive parent, but of course it is close to my heart, and if nothing else, you can always pray for the kids that need homes.

The boys, as wild as they are, are such a blessing to us. Nathanael, with his temper tantroms, is a blessing. He will scream and kick and wail and flail....but another adoptive mom told us how her son did this too. He has post traumatic stress disorder, and she was told to hold on to him during these rants, and rythmically repeat a phrase "it's okay", or "i love you", whatever, even as he fights it. We've done this with Nathanael a couple of times. Yesturday, I held him till my arms ached, rocking back and forth, saying 'it's okay it's okay' for about 15 minutes. His screams eventually turned to weeping, and he went from kicking and flailing to holding me arnound my neck and laying his head on my shoulder. He finally had let it all out and I rocked him in a chair for awhile, and then he got down and played by my feet for awhile. Then it was all over. Does it make me ANGRY at his biologocial parents? Of course! But do I feel BLESSED that God has given ME the opportunity to help change the course of Nathanael's life? Yes!

It's so hard because when Nate is like this, I basically cannot pay attn to Talyor and James, so if there is no other adult around, I have to just let Nate have a fit. Luckily, yesturday, we were over at Ken' s parents, and I was able to spend that time with Nathanael and I hope that he will learn that he can trust us and feel safe with us.

Testing

2007-11-09T10:10:00.000-05:00

I tell you what, I think James is in the mode of testing us to see how far we'll let him go. Yesterday, he kicked me twice and spit in the car (which we have been over many times). I talked to another foster mom who told me their 'transition' with their foster daughter really took a good year. We're only 2 months into, so I don't feel too bad. Plus, I guess he's still adjusting to daycare and me being at work.

For the most part, I got to have a fun day with James. He had a doctor's appointment, so afterwards I let him run up and down the stairs at the building (he's in love with stairs..?), and then there were wheelchair accessible vans outside, so we stood and watched them ramps go up and down (very cool, apparently). Then we stooped at the hardware store where a foster dad works, so he let James play on a bunch of the equipment.

Later on the in the evening, MawMaw, PawPaw, Heather and Elizabeth came over to play, so Nathanael and Taylor had their fair share of fun.

Sweet Baby James

2007-11-04T21:21:00.000-05:00

My poor baby...sportin' his bandaids! He had a rough weekend. First, Nathanael took a running leap onto the rocker, knocking it over onto James and it cracked him right on the check bone. He's got a nice shiner. A few hours later, he took a tumble off the trampoline and his head landed on the kickstand of his cousin's bike. Ouch! He's a real trooper though.

Otherwise, we had a really nice weekend. We spent Saturday morning at San-Lee park, it was beautiful outside. The boys ran and played and climbed the rocks and splashed in the frreezin' codl water.

Daycare question

2007-10-31T07:33:00.000-04:00

Taylor chills out in his brother's Spiderman chair.

I love this picture!

I'm not 100% sure how I'm feeling about daycare. The good thing is that it tuckers them out! Also, by the end of my work day, I just can't wait to see them and play with them and love on 'em. I think working is good for me. I know they are getting socialization and all that, but my only concern is that there is a little too much free time. Any thoughts? They are at a montesorri, so I know they have a different phylosophy, but for those of you with kids in day care - how 'scheduled' is their day?

PRE-CIOUS!

2007-10-26T22:05:00.000-04:00

Look at that smile!!
James and Nathanael closely examine their new baby brother and try decide if they want to keep him!

J and N have gotten used to the idea of the baby, and even ask what Taylor is doing (standard answers: sleeping or eating). When James sings 'patty cake', he now includes Talyor as part of the family, marking his cakes for "daddy, mommy, nate-nate, james, and taylor". A big step, I think.

I took Taylor for his daycare physcial yesturday, and he is 23 1/2 inches long and 12 pounds (at 13 weeks). He's catching up just fine!

Smile

2007-10-24T22:05:00.001-04:00

Taylor's smile...really, is it just me, or does your baby's smile just melt your heart? He is so precious. I was reading today about babies his age and realized I should be having him 'play' with objects of multiple colors. I do hav a playmat he lays on and there are these animals that hang above him, but I just want to make sure I am stimulating his brain properly. With him being cocaine positive, I was told that orchestral music would be good to help order his brain functions. I must admit I've been delinguent in that. It's difficult. taylor is on the total opposite schedule of the other 2. James and Nathanael go to bed at 8, and Taylor is wide eyed and raring to go from 8 to about 11 at night, by which point I am so tired. The good thing is though, that when James and Nathanael are the most needy of attention (dinner, bedtime), Taylor is not a distraction from them. Hmmm.... Any suggestions?

Day 2 at daycare went well, and they are obviously keeping them on the go, because James and Nathanael both went to bed right at 8:00, no fussing or anything. They must have been really tired!

Day Care

2007-10-24T10:48:00.000-04:00

The boys started daycare yesturday. I go back to work next week, so I wanted to get them settled at the daycare and not try to do work/daycare all in the same week. Although there were tears at the initial "mommy's leaving", they did great. Okay, I admit, I lost it when I was holding Nathanael and had to hand him over. I was pititful. The staff is in love with Taylor of course, the sweetest baby with the biggest smile ever! James brought home art for the refrigerator, so that was very fun.

Today I took James and Nathanael for thier physicals for daycare, and I've found a nurse practitioner that I really like. She's great with them, so they had fun going to the doctor and getting stickers. My plan for today is to CLEAN MY HOUSE!!

Thr first 5 weeks

2007-10-22T13:58:00.000-04:00

Wow! What a wild ride! I think the boys have adapted better than expected, and better than Ken and I! We are exhausted! They are energetic, they crave knowledge (what's that?) and stability...even though they 'buck' the rules, they know what their schedule is, and remind us when we've gone astray!

James and Nathanael love to go for stroller walks, which has me wearing Taylor on my front and pushing them in a double stroller - quite the workout. One of our biggest trials has been bedtime, and naptime. the boys have alot of trouble unwinding. We've had to try out several sleeping arrangements. Nighttime has worked out better than nap. We have their beds pushed together, and although we put them down in separate beds, they usually end up sharing one by the time morning comes.

The boys had three scheduled visits with their bio parents. After the first one, James did not talk for over an hour, followed by screaming and kicking. He was fine by the next day. So, the next week, I tried to prepare him to let him know he was going to see his parents. They did not show up, and once again, James stopped talking for awhile. Third visit - again, the parents did not show up. Can you imagine? So the visits have been suspended until at least the court date in November. The boys have been in the 'system' for 9 months, and the state wants to determine a permanent plan within a year, so we'll see what they do. taylor is a separate case, so they may reinstate visits for him. It's a crazy system. So legally, where are we as far as possible adoption? Not really sure. The next court date may shed some light.

Taylor is such s a good baby. Really. And thank God, because nathanael is our wild child. Taylor smiles all the time, and rarely cries. Nathanael however, has alot of temper tantrums, and just plain tests us. But then he turns around with a sweet little grin and you just have to hug him!

When James came to us, he tested as having a 65% speech delay. We had him retested last week, and he tested AT age level! We are so proud of him! He has really come out of his shell and is friendly to people in stores, church, etc. This is the same boy who ran and hid when knew people came to the house. What 5 weeks can do!

We did do a visit with their great grandmother, who had kept J&N for 8 months before coming to us. she is a very sweet lady, and the boys were really happy to see her, but quite confused for a few days afterwards...asking where was granny, and whose house was she at. Poor little thing, James is the only one who I think really understands just enough to be confused.

Gosh, there are so many things that have happened, I guess I'll just leave it at that for now.

Precious children

2007-09-24T22:27:00.000-04:00

Our first sight of baby Taylor. Born 7-14-2007, in this picture, he is 7 1/2 weeks and 7 1/2 pounds. He comes home with us this Thursday!!

James and Nathanael are each other's comfort, and "Nate-Nate" wants to do everything his big brother does!

2007-09-24T22:22:00.000-04:00

Pictures

2007-09-17T13:15:00.001-04:00

I forgot I had a few pictures from our church shower. The hobby horse is a HUGE hit at the house! Top picture is Nathanael with his MawMaw (Ken's mom)

A Moment

2007-09-17T12:58:00.000-04:00

Finally! A moment to stop, smell the roses, and post to the blog!
James and Nathanael came to us on Monday, September 10th at 5:30 pm. They are wide open! They are full of fun and laughter! James is going through the 'terrible 2's" and Nathanael is just a grumpy little soul. His personality, and the facial expressions he makes just crack us up! They are so precious! James likes to be my 'helper' - push the cart at the grocery store (Amy - thanks for the "one finger touch' rule - it works!), wash dishes, mop, etc. He makes more of a mess, but I let him know how good of a helper he is! He's getting better on the potty too! I can't tell you how many times a day I say things like "good boy!", "good listening", "awesome!", blah, blah...We are slowly getting into a routine. These boys love to eat, that is for sure! They eat tomatoes and peas, cantaloupe, green beans, and most of all..."I want Chicken Nuggets!!!" James whales, with a tiny, barely audible "peeeease (please)". Ken's parents are loving them to pieces. Today they bought a swing set for the front yard. They have been a huge help! We've gone on a few outings - to Imagination Station, the playground, mommy's work, grocery store, and of course church. The first outing, it took me 2 hours to get everyone up, fed, and dressed!! I'll get better! I'll post pictures as soon as I get some downloaded. They are truly beautiful, a gift from God. They are teaching me patience by the second.

2007-09-04T21:49:00.000-04:00

My baby James
How cute are you, blondie?! (Nathanael)
Mmmm...spaghetti-O's!!
Posin' like a rock star!
Conked out!

Just a quick glimpse of the weekend. I’ll post more details tomorrow. James and Nathanael got to spend Sunday day and night with us, and we took them back Monday morning. It was wonderful. Yes, they are rambunctious little boys, but the most precious things you’ve ever seen. Nathanael is a daddy’s boy! I think it was love at first site! They adapted so quickly. The only rough point was bedtime, but when they finally fell asleep, sucking their thumbs and holding their blankies all curled up in my arms in the rocker…it was all worth it. Ken was amazing with them. We were exhausted after we dropped them off – and it was only 24 hours!! I can’t wait for more!!

Age correction!

2007-08-31T17:54:00.000-04:00

Thanks, Kelly! The boys are not 6 months apart! Hehe! Nathanael is 21 months, not 27!! And we're gonna weigh them this weekend. James is a hoss (future NFL player, I am sure), so he can't possibly be below the 5th percentile for his age/height!!

2007-08-30T20:49:00.000-04:00

http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1202971/

In case you want to see the bio parents.

Who Invented Our Judicial System??

2007-08-30T20:31:00.000-04:00

Wouldn't you know it...our visitation got put off again. May I remind you the boys have no water at where they are staying? The sw called at 4:15 saying that they had been in court all day (didn't even know they were going to be in court today) and the boys were cranky. So, totally understandable. I told her we could do it anytime tomorrow. I asked her what happened in court, and basically the bio parents would not admit to abandoning James and Nathanael. They tried to do a 'plea bargin' type of thing, but they didn't take it bc they knew it meant jail time. I'm not exactly sure what they admitted to about Taylor and the cocaine, but the hospital will be able to prove that. Since they would not admit to anything, the judge said they'd all have to come back in the morning and they would have a trial. Now this is not the criminal trial, but just the child protective services part of it. The sw is not available tomorrow or Saturday, so now she's saying she'll tell the g-ma to bring them to us Sunday for an unsupervised visit. This is so crazy. Okay..so we know the bio mom was on crack at the time she gave birth - shouldn't there be drug charges? The bio parents told the sw they wanted to meet us. Negative Ghost Rider. I know I can't change anything, or make anything go a certain way, but I still have a stomach ache, can't concentrate, can't think about anything but the boys. I felt so convicted last night that instead of hoping the parents would just disappear, I should be praying for them to be saved, but I just can't bring myself to it. I do believe in second chances for people...but this is ridiculous!!

G-ma reported that James, age 21/2 (33 months), is 36 inches tall and 32 pounds.
Nathanael is 27 months old, 34 inches tall and 23 pounds.
Can someone please help me here...I've found several growth charts on-line that are showing me different percentages. Where are they? We bought car seats today (thanks dad!) based on g-ma's weight reports.

Dried Up

2007-08-29T21:21:00.000-04:00

The boys' great grandmother (who has been keeping them) called me today to tell me not go get the boys any clothes because she was going to send them. The SW had asked us if we wanted their clothes, and we told her to do whatever would make the grandmother feel the least crappy. The sw said that if she did send the clothes, we would probably want to just box them up, and then if we're going to see the grandmother, put them in one of the outfits so that the g-ma doesn't think that we think we're better than her. Make sense...?

Anyway, while I was on the phone with her, I asked if she wouldn't mind bringing a piece of clothing form each boy to the visitation tomorrow night. We want our dogs to smell them and get used to their scent so that maybe they won't totally go spasctic. She said that was fine, and then added that she had plenty of dirty clothes they'd worn because they don't have any water to wash right now. What!?@?

She said their well dried up. I asked her what she was doing for drinking water and she said the neighbor was letting them come over.

When we hung up, of course I called the sw, who slightly freaked and asked if she could bring the boys to us tonight bc the state can't have kids in custody staying without water or electricity. I told her that was fine, of course (uh...do I have time to stop at Wally World for some diapers and wipes?). Anyway, the sw called me back about an hour later and said her supervisor said it was fine to leave them there because the neighbor is giving them water and they have a plan of getting them out in the near future.

So Ken and I went to the grocery store tonight and bought 4 jugs of water to give her tomorrow night when we see her at visitation. We have to give it to her without the sw around though, bc I don't want g-ma to know I told.

Our first order of business when they come this weekend...a bath. I can just picture a ring of dirt around their socks. I want my babies.

I have to take a quick second to thank God for the life I have, and ask forgiveness for taking things for granted. He is my provider.

Getting Ready

2007-08-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

Here are the bunk beds. James will sleep on the bottom (we'll put up rails). For now, the top will be vacant. Ken's brother Joe gave these to us, his girls didn't need them anymore.

Toy storage. Elisabeth Galperin was so great to come down this weekend and help me organize!! Too bad I dont have 'before' photos. I had piles of toys and clothes of all sizes and had no clue how to get it all together. She did in one day what would have taken me 3 months! The room looks great now. It's a big room - 15 ft x 15 ft, so plenty of room.

This picture just makes me laugh! Typical "Man Preparing for Baby" shot! Ken was so great in assembling the crib, and toy storage! We're going to try to have Nathanael sleep here. Ken swears he'll climb out. We'll see! We have a Winnie the Pooh bassinet for Taylor. Painting the bedroom. The top is a light sage green, and the bottom a darker shade of the same. Ken's dad was great to come over and put up chair rail molding. It looks awesome.
We bought this credenza a few years ago for about $20. It was a dark stained wood, and pretty beat up. I sanded it down and painted in a shiny white. We'll use it for a changing table.

This weekend, Ken's parents hit the yard sales before 7 am! They did a fantastic job. They showed up with things for the boys that looked like they'd hardly been touched! A great highchair, enough toys to last a year, including a lot of VTech toys, which are educational, and I am a huge fan of, and TONS of adorable clothes. Honestly, it was probably over $1,000 worth of stuff if it had been bought new. They are the yard sale king and queen. They had fun shopping and we had fun looking through all the toys and clothes!

Tonight (Sunday), the VO girls had a little shower for us. the VO girls are a group of girls that get together for dinner once a month. They are a great source of information, advice, and laughs! They are strong women who support us when we make stupid decisions, and let us cry when we realize we were stupid! I am so thankful for all the support people have given us.

I'm so excited for the visitaiton on Thursday, but I'm nervous too. The SW and the great grandmother will be there - I feel like they'll just be watching us interact with the boys, and I think it'll be kinda akward. But i can't wait to see them!