Patrick's world

Steven and I were talking about Patrick last night and really how bizarre it is that we are raising and loving for "someone else's child." I mean, he's ours, but isn't that kind of strange when you really think about it?

I noticed that he says a few words with a southern accent. Yes, we are raising him right.

Isn't that bizarre? He was born here and lives here. But, he is being raised by people from the south and Texas.(Texas isn't the south, according to my husband).

I started thinking about children who are adopted and raised in a culture that is different from there own. It's an amazing concept when you really think about it.

Not that being southern is exactly the same thing. But, don't worry, we are raising him well and true to his NorCal roots. Today, on the way to Sandee's house, we were looking for school buses and we passed an orchard. He said, "look, almond trees".

I was shocked. I mean, his vocabulary is coming along, but he doesn't use a lot of words that are clearly spoken. So, this was a big deal.

And he would never see almond trees in the south and he recognized them this morning. He will get to experience two worlds, actually. We go back at least once a year, so he will experience the Gulf of Mexico and southern hospitality and all the great things about the south. In fact, he will call adults Mr. and Miss even though it's not cool to do that here.

At the same time, he will live here and eat Tri Tip and play in the snow at Lake Tahoe and cough when they are shaking the almond trees.

But, don't worry, he will "grill" Tri Tip. Not BBQ it.

Christmas break

Maggie had a different break from school than the usual get out of school the week before Christmas and have the week after Christmas off this year. She got out of school on the Thursday before Christmas and doesn't go back until tomorrow.

I have really loved it. I had a week off of work before she got out of school so I could finish up lose ends and wrap presents and that was great. Then, during the week after Christmas, we were all at home. But, I didn't have to work and I just got to hang out with the kids without the looming feeling of "oh crap, I should be working right now". We all slept late and played and went to the Machado's house to jump on the trampoline.

This past week was Nikki and Jerry's wedding, which was one of the most fun receptions that I've been to. Patrick was a dancing machine and Maggie was beautiful. Then, Patrick started going back to Miss Sandee's house and I started back to work. Maggie has been joining me at Starbucks during these mornings. She plays on her phone and draws pictures.

She has today off from school and goes back tomorrow. It's been one of the best school breaks that we've had so far. Just enough time together. I got a break from work. Steven's been working from home some and we've just enjoyed being together and playing with Copper and watching tv.

I guess I'm ready to go back to the real world tomorrow of getting up on time and getting everyone dressed, but it's been nice to be in this bubble for the past few weeks.

One year ago!

One year ago, we adopted Patrick. It's been  a great year and I'm so glad that he is officially part of our family.

Tonight, Maggie and Patrick went to Raley's with me. I told Maggie that it was one year ago that we adopted Patrick.

Maggie said, "really, we adopted Patrick today last year?".

Patrick raised his hands and shouted, "yay me!".

Isn't he awesome?

Thanksgiving #19

Today, I'm thankful for Christine Curry taking our family pictures. I won't show you all of them, because we haven't officially picked out our Christmas card picture yet, but here are some of my favorites.

I mean, those eyes..seriously!

My cute goofball

Thank you, Christine. Your photography is amazing and I have a great reminder of my family this year. You rock!

Thanksgiving #7

On day #7, I'm thankful for Rochelle, David and Kayli coming to visit. They are on their way to a new home and have spent a few days with us. It's been so nice to have them here. Since we are so far away from family, I really appreciate seeing family out here and it's been way too long since we have seen them.

 

We had a nice, relaxing day yesterday and it was fun just catching up with them. Today, we did a tour of Sausalito and the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

 

Maggie has been so excited to see her cousin and had crafts and movies planned for their visit.

Family Fun Day

On Tuesday, we went to play putt putt at Boomer's in Modesto. Steven had just gotten back from Colorado the night before, but he wanted to spend the day with us before Maggie started school on Wednesday.

Little did we know the skills that our family has when it comes to putt putt. Maggie is on her way to becoming a pro. Do colleges give scholarships for putt putt?

Patrick was in heaven. I mean, come on...he had a golf club and a little ball. What could be better? He loved swinging the club and placing the ball in the hole with his hands. His favorite holes were the ones where you put the ball in a hole and it would go down a tunnel and come out on the other side of the hole.

Yes, I am a really good putt putt player!

Doesn't he make it look natural?

It was a fun last day of summer fun!

Why there isn't an Easter post...

So, Maggie was sick for 2 weeks straight before Easter. She finally got antibiotics for pneumonia and left the couch and I thought we were back to "normal".

Patrick promptly got sick. I think there was about 24 hours before he started getting sick. He struggles with allergies/asthma issues. He also stops eating, gags on everything and is in a REALLY bad mood. He screamed and said "NO" to everything. IT.WAS. AWESOME.

Saturday was the pinacle of it all. He was in the worst mood and really didn't feel good. It was pitiful and frustrating. He fell asleep at 6:30. He woke up at 8:30 and was back to his sweet self. He snuggled and watched cartoons and ate. He went back to sleep a little while later and I breathed a sigh of relief. i thought he was better.

I got everybody up on Easter Sunday and put on their cute Easter outfits. Maggie decided that her Easter shirt was too itchy, but we resolved it quickly and our family matched nicely.

We went to church to help with the Easter brunch and everyone was still happy.

At the brunch, he started getting fussy again, but I thought it was just a bad attitude. I was eating brunch and he ran towards the nursery with Jude. Donna came up and said, "Patrick is throwing up in the sanctuary."

Great.

You know you're a preacher's kid when.....

I picked him up and took him up and cleaned the throw up off of me and off of him and out of his shoes, etc. Steven and Mr. Tom got to clean up the sanctuary floor right before the service started.

Everyone came home later. Steven was sneezing and coughing, Tom looked miserable, Mom was coughing and sneezing, Maggie was pitiful, etc.

Steven went to our room to watch golf and I stayed in the living room with Patrick. Patrick promptly cut his lip and we finally got it to stop bleeding.

Therefore, I didn't get a cute picture of our family for Easter. I'm kinda bummed. I guess we can just pretend that our picture from last year is this year's picture.

He's cute, too

So everyone is looking a different way in this picture. But, it's all my cuties in one picture, which counts for something, right?

Right now

Tonight, I was walking through the dining room with a load of laundry that I needed to load. As I walked through the room, I normally see all the things that need to be fixed. The random toys on the floor and art crafts everywhere are usually what catch my eye.

Tonight, I felt like God was telling me to slow down and enjoy this time in my life. This is a great time in my life and the life of my family.

Maggie and Patrick were playing chase in the hall. They have recently really begun playing with each other and it's amazing to watch that relationship happen. He chases and she screams. Then, she chases and he screams. It's a blast!

My kids are so fun and so sweet. I'm becoming more and more aware of how fast this time flies by. Since Maggie began 1st grade, our time is more precious. She's so busy.

So,in a fleeting ordinary moment, I was reminded to be happy and content where we are.

Freeze time

I wish I could freeze days like today. I wish I could stop time and keep days like today on back up for those days that aren't that great.

I have 2 beautiful kids who look just like me and Steven. They are joyful and happy and LOVE each other so much. Our little boy lights up and smiles like crazy when Maggie comes in the room. I was sitting on the bed talking about something unpleasant when Maggie ran in my room. She jumped on me and started kissing me and tickling me.

Then, we went in the other room and our little boy smiled and cooed. I fed him his bottle until he snuggled in my arms and fell asleep. Maggie took pictures of everyone in our house and everything in our house while I was feeding him.

Amanda stopped by tonight and everyone rejoiced. Maggie was ecstatic to see her. Willie ran to the door and barked about seeing Bella before they even walked in. I was overjoyed for someone to hold our little boy so I could put finishing touches on our dinner.

We had bible study tonight. I feel like I get so much out of it. We have a great group that prays together and opens up about life. I'm thankful for Sandy and Tanya.

The weather is so nice. It's cooled off and it's fun walking to school in the morning. She loves going to school and has made some great friends. She has a friend who is her BESTEST friend. They are so much alike, but even get along and don't fight during playdates.

Wait, I'm off topic.

Today was a great day. I love my family. I'm thankful to Jesus for giving me many ordinary days like today.

San Francisco

I can't ever spell that word...

Yesterday we went to SF. We decided to take the cable car to get down to Pier 39.

Here are Maggie, Evan and Aiden waiting on the bench to get on the cable car. I love that they are all wearing hoods. Even though it's August, it's COLD there and very windy.

So, we waited and waited for the cable car. Guess what? We couldn't all get on the car together. So, when the next car came by, Steven and his mom got on the car to get down to Pier 39. So, we took the short jaunt downhill to Pier 39.

Well, it looked like a short jaunt. It wasn't. It was straight downhill for about 740 blocks. Literally. I know because I counted how many times our kids told us how tired they were and how sick they were of walking.

Luckily, it was a beautiful day. There was a lot of stuff to look at, too. We walked through Chinatown and stopped at a park to use the potty.

We got to Pier 39. We went to Hard Rock Cafe for lunch.

The kids got free balloons.

More to follow....

hmmmm

I'm not sure what to say. I don't want to leave that downer post on my blog. We had a horrible experience in court. I don't want to post what is going to happen on a public forum, but if you don't know, just email me.

Things are slowly getting back to "normal". We are in the full swing of Christmasing in our house. The tree is up and R loves it. He is in awe of it. He also learned two new words this weekend. He learned please and cookie. He says it A LOT!

We went to the Christmas parade last night. It was very fun and I love those kind of things. Thankfully, Steven goes along with me. It's definitely not his thing at all.

We had a Christmas cookie swap tonight at church. So many yummy cookies. I ate so much sugar tonight that I was sick afterwards and I was craving meat! That never happens, I guess my body needed to counteract all of the sugar in me.

Tomorrow we have a visit with a family friend that wants the children. I am not really looking forward to it, but I think that Steven will stay at home with Maggie so I will have an hour to myself. How sad is my life that I'm looking forward to an hour sitting in a yucky, hard chair in a government building just cause I'll be by myself?

In good news, my mom will be here in 13 days. I can't wait. Maggie and I have been counting down the days. I wonder if Steven is counting them down,too? lol

today

Today, I took Maggie to see High School Musical 3. My friend. Laura, sent us free tickets to see it.

I have never seen someone so excited. She was sick from yesterday, but she was so excited. She was dancing and singing during the first half of the show. I didn't watch most of it because I was watching her watch it. She just danced and hit me on the arm because she was so happy.

There was a weird commercial for Jon and kate plus 8 before the movie started. Kind of weird. It's funny how Maggie noticed the product placement in the show. She was pointing all kinds of stuff in their show. Of course, she is a tv fan. Tonight, she told me that she had to watch the new Dora show because it was a prime time premiere episode on tonight.

R got a first haircut today. Let me tell you. He hated it with all of his heart. At the end of it, he threw himself on the floor in a gigantic fit. Lovely. All of his curls are gone and he looks like a little boy instead of a baby girl. It's a good look for him! He has gotten a little more 18 month lately. I told the SW today that it was pretty funny, because he was going to have to throw bigger fits than that to get us to notice. It's like little baby fits. Awww.....

Also, we heard today that it's almost certain that they will go to a grandmother. I am not happy at all about this. However, I have to be okay with it. It's just so sad that they will be leaving us and it's sad that they have to move again. Poor little guys. We are still just praying about the whole thing.

3

I'm being a good Christian mama tonight and plopped all 3 of them on the floor of the living room in front of Daniel in the Lion's den (veggie tales version). This was after dinner and a baths.

R woke up this morning and Steven said it looked like an alien landed on his head. He had so much green stuff coming out of every place in his head. He had the worst case of pink eye that I have ever seen. It was horrible.

I started calling numbers and finally got in touch with the doctor's office and made an appt. I called and cancelled the babysitter for today.

Loaded up the kids and headed to the doctor's office. It was a different doctor. I love her. She listened to me and thanked me for fostering. She said that it was important for me to pray. It was awesome. Got some medicine for R.

Headed home and attended to sick, whiny kids all day.

Steven's at a meeting and I bathed and fed the kids. I turned in Veggie Tales for them. They are relaxing and singing with Bob and Larry.

It was a good day, but I am really tired. I think I am getting sick. But, if I got sick, it would be all of us for Steven to take care of. And I don't wanna be sick on my birthday.

4

I love October. Steven teases me that I look at the whole month of October like it's my birthmonth not just Oct. the 24th being my birthday. But, I just love looking forward to and anticipating the 24th!

It's only 4 more days til my birthday and my life has been so crazy that I haven't even really counted down that much. I usually have countdowns and I'm dreaming up something fun to do on the big day. This year, life has been a bit wild.

In other exciting news, R has learned 5 new words since he got here. He says:

Mickey (the cat)
Gaggie (Maggie)
Uh-oh
Whee
Baby
and drum roll.............MeMe (Mommy)

He has started eating with a spoon and eats real food now. He was only eating applesauce and rice cereal when he came here. Amazing what 2 weeks will do!

We think he said "hot dog" and "daddy" tonight, too. He loves the hot dog song from Mickey Mouse clubhouse. Maggie turns it on and he starts dancing and stomping her foot in time to the music. It turns in to a big dance party! So, after every meal, he runs to the computer and screams something that sounds like "hot dog" at the computer.

With J, we have started doing "time in" instead of "time outs". Since she has bonding issues, we have been trying to hold her when she needs to be disciplined instead of sending her to her room. It seems to really work. My hip is getting pretty strong from holding her so much. She wants to be around us more and is doing much better. Every day is a little better.

In other family news, I am kind of sad to report that Maggie's imaginary friends are on a vacation. I haven't heard from Johnny, Logan and Sleeping Beauter in a couple of weeks. I asked about them and Maggie reported that they are in Ok-a-homa visiting Johnny's parents. I am actually a little sad about this. I miss them and their adventures.

update

Maggie has 2 ear infections. It just keeps getting better!

Our crazy house

* R is teething. He didn't sleep last night unless I was holding him.

* Maggie's ear is hurting now. What is going on?!

* Steven came home tonight. I am so happy.

* My birthday is in 6 days. Guess what I get to do on my birthday? That's right, go to WIC. How exciting.

* It rained today for about a minute. It made me happy.

* J and Maggie played happily in her room for about 30 minutes without getting mad at each other. They played restaurant and hairdresser. I was the audience for the fashion show.

It's almost funny!

Maggie came home from school with pink eye. yipp-freaking-ee!

what a day

7 a.m. I took J on a breakfast date. I have a hard time connecting to her so I thought it would be fun to do something by ourselves. It was so nice. We colored and read books and ate waffles together. I think she hugged me 10 times at least. It was so nice.

8a.m. We came home before Maggie left for preschool. Within 2.5 (gotcha, Laura) seconds, she picked a fight with Maggie. And was teasing Maggie about how she got to go to breakfast by herself with me. Thankfully, Maggie was about to go to school. shew.

9a.m. The kids played nicely together while I folded 7 (really) loads of laundry that I have been putting off. While I bemoaned the fact that I have to sort thru 5 different people's socks, I told Steven that I think a lot of her issues are from competing with Maggie over stuff. About 2.5 seconds later (again, Laura), she picked a fight with R over a toy.

10 a.m. Went to Wal*Mart to get a few things that I wrote on my hand so I wouldn't forget them. Guess what? I got everything but those things. D'OH! I did find 3 matching pairs of Halloween crocs for the kids. So stinking cute.

10:30 a.m. On the way home, I called my mom. J heard her voice on my bluetooth that is a speaker phone and shouted "memaw"! I melted a little. She loves to talk to Memaw on the phone. She told Memaw that she wants a pink birthday party and for Memaw to make the cake for her.

11 a.m. Realizing that something is wrong with R. On Monday, he got shots. On Tuesday, he had a fever and a snotty nose. Today, he was super clingy. Even for R. What was going on? Almost had him to sleep and realized that I had to schlep across the street to pick up Maggie. Steven called at that moment and offered to go get Maggie before I asked. Yay, steven!

11:30 a.m. Realized that R is cutting molars.yay. The only way he will stop crying is if I am holding him. Not Steven. Only me. Yay.

12 p.m. Feed the kids and Maggie goes to play in her room for a little while. Steven offers to work from home during nap time so I can go back to the store. Get the kids to sleep very easily.

1 p.m. Maggie and I head to Target. To mix it up a little. She begs for some more pink reading glasses and a bible verse book. She quoted "to everything there is a season under heaven" and sings this little song about what God made during creation. How could I resist?

2 p.m. (are you still with me?) Nothing much until around 5 p.m. Steven leaves for Jesse's bachelor party.

Oh wait, my mom called. Not bad news, but not great news on my stepdad.http://bugslife-memaw.blogspot.com/

5 p.m. Check my email. Kids have a different social worker than our SW. Kids' SW writes me an email that I have to take the kids to another visitation next week in addition to the one that I am already going on with another family member. So, 2 visitations next week. Yipp-freaking-ee. This also makes me realize that the chances that the kids will be without forever is slim. I mean, we knew it, but now it looks more and more likely that they will go somewhere else. Ugh. I lost it. They drive me insance, but I don't want them to leave our family.

7p.m. Kids all go to sleep. 30 minutes later, R cries. He doesn't cry usually if he is asleep. As I am walking to his room, the smell of poop hits me. He is about to explode. I change his diaper and get him back to sleep on me. Then, he goes back to sleep. Maybe it's the fever or the teeth or something.

Every 15 minutes, J starts whimpering again. She is just crying in her sleep. I can't figure out what is going on unless it's because Steven didn't put her to sleep. She doesn't sleep well if I put her to bed.

Lovely. Now, I am mindlessly surfing the web and snuggling with Maggie.

Just like "real" sisters

2 nights ago, I was putting Maggie to sleep. We were talking and I asked her what she liked about J. She said, "ummmm.........(long pause). I like it when she goes to bed at night."