Udate on the Gang at Our House

I was telling someone that when the kids came came to live with us we can expect some of the regular colds and flues to accompany them to our house. We've been pretty much sickness free for the last two years. We had some sickness in Africa, but at home we have had very little. We try to live healthfully and take our vit D and epicore, etc... Well, I was expecting that bringing little people into the house might change that a bit - at first anyway, but I was not expecting it to happen in the first week! Guess what? The tw*ns are completely fine. They'll get it from us if anything! Christina is sick, Steve is fighting and I'm a balloon head.

As they settle in the tw*ns are sleeping better and better each night. The first night was a restless, tossing and turning and much sleep talking kind of night. After that each night has been a little calmer and last night I never once heard any sleep talking and the creaky bed was silent. The children have been playing hard all day outside in the nice weather and that helps to promote healthy sleep.


There are a few other things to work on with the kids. They have no appetite for breakfast and by lunch they are starved, and by supper they really want to eat. Breakfast should be the bigger meal for health's sake. One should fuel up in the morning and eat lightly at night so the stomach can rest at night, too. I'm learning, how to get the little guy to eat vegetables and fruit. Basically, I have found that one dish meals with no variety facilitates good eating right now. A bowl of vegetable soup means he's getting onions and carrots, yams, potatoes and whatever else I include. I put nothing but that and plain homemade bread on the table and he's hungry enough to eat it without complaining. If there are choices, he'll only eat what he prefers. It's not like he hates and gags on anything really. The girl on the other hand will eat everything. We can't leave anything on the counter and I have to watch that she doesn't just help herself to whatever suits her fancy in between meals.


The kids have been really good, but I have been really firm right from the start. When I say no to something they want she has sometimes responded with "WHY!" a little louder than necessary and with some real irritation in her voice. I absolutely won't allow that kind of disrespectful response to me. I call her name and I have her come right close to me and I explain that she cannot talk to me like that. So far she has nodded her head and has let it go. In time that might not be enough - but for now...


On the other hand, he just cries when he's been crossed. Yesterday I called for lunch and he was down at the bottom of the driveway with his bike with the girls and a few other kids. He immediately started crying. Vanessa tried to figure out why and all that. I just ran down and asked the rest of the kids to go up to the house to prepare for lunch. Since he could not or would not tell me why he was crying, and it's usually that he just doesn't want to stop playing, I told him we would just wait there until he stopped. He stopped immediately. Ten steps up the road he started again and I halted our progress and made it clear we would not be going anywhere until he was done. He decided it wasn't worth it and by the time we were at the top he was chatting happily. I know we are in the honeymoon stage of the transition so I am making it very clear at the outset who is in charge and what I expect.


The "grandpa" (foster parent) asked if the honeymoon stage was over yet. I told him that it wasn't . He said, "Well, don't worry, there's lots of misery coming up yet!" In his late 70's, the poor guy doesn't have a lot of patience for "misery". I laughed and thanked him for all that they did for the kids in the past year. He said, "I do have to admit they didn't know a thing before they came here!" And I believe him. From what I hear, they have come a LONG ways in the last year.


We've decided to call the girl Anna-Joy. It just means taking off the first three letters of her name and hyphening on her middle name. She doesn't quite get it. In her mind she's Brianna Joy and the other gal is Brianna Grace. It will take time. It's kind of sad because the poor kid worked so hard to learn to write her name. She is left handed and writes her name completely backwards from from right to left and the letters turned around. She's very cuddly and has completely accepted us as "mommy and daddy". Her brother will take more time. He's more affected by the bio-family shenanigans. Someone said something to him about me being his mom and he had a little trouble with that, however the next day he was verbally sorting it out with Vanessa. She had said something about "my mom and dad" and he said, "They are my mom and dad, too, right?


That's all I have time for.... until next time.