Monthly Archives: February 2010

Quiet House

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Things can change overnight…obviously. We went from leaving work one Monday morning just me and Jonathan and by the time we got home from work we had two extra little ones in the house. How life can change in an instant. Well yesterday life changed again for us, but this time not unexpectedly. We left work yesterday morning with two little boys that were going to daycare and came home last evening just Jonathan and myself. For those of you who are lost…the boys were placed in another home yesterday. There were spots that opened up in a group home with children their age and the foster mom has more experience with that age group/discipline issues. Its what is best for the boys. We will miss them, they are really sweet kids! We are now back to waiting for a new placement. This time we expect to be waiting longer because we are asking for such a younger age (8 months or younger) and only 1, no siblings this time.

Here are some things I learned from being a “mom” to two little toddlers!

* Your time is no longer your time
* You are constantly on the go
* Sleep….what’s that
* Expect 4 to 5 tantrums a day
* Bedtime is my favorite time of day
* Expect to have toys, diapers, clothes, shoes, juice cups and such EVERYWHERE
* Its hard to have your house ready to show for selling purposes all the time with two toddlers
* It’s easier just to eat at home
* Our schedule revolves around nap time…give or take 2 hours
* They will often mimic each others behavior – good or bad – especially when they see it gets an adults attention
* They don’t need a lot to be content
* They can be content with the basics- a blanket and a few toys-until they see someone else has something different.
* The best way to avoid meltdowns/tantrums is to redirect their attention–but sometimes no amount of redirecting will help.
* It’s difficult when you only have 2 people that can watch your kids and they live 45 minutes away.

But we also learned that having two little ones in the house can be fun, enjoyable and exciting. It was nice to see how, even for a short time, we changed their lives and their behavior. Knowing we had an impact in their lives and hopefully that will affect them throughout the rest of their life. We are excited to get a baby and have a whole new set of challenges! We’ll keep you all updated.

Update

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For those of you who have the password, you can pretty much disregard this post.

For those of you who don’t, I’m sure your wondering why a password? Monday afternoon we got a call that CPS had two little boys that needed emergency placement. They are ages 1 and 2 and the sweetest kids ever. We told CPS we would take the boys and by Monday night our lives changed dramatically. Because the boys are in foster care, I have made any posts/pictures about them private with a required password due to safety reasons and to protects the kids. I also won’t refer to them with their names unless its in a private post.

We have had the boys for about 4 days and have enjoyed having them in our home. We don’t know how long they will be with us, it could be for a month, 6 months, or it could even be permanently. There have been some meltdowns with the boys but nothing out of the ordinary from a normal toddler. I’m pretty sure they have never been told no before and always got what they wanted. They are only about a year apart and because they are so close in age, they tend to fight over toys a lot. If any of you have little boys and know of a way to keep them from fighting over the toys and then melting down because we told them no or to share, please advise! we are going to have to start using time outs for the oldest one, that’s not going to be fun but it needs to be done, something needs to be done. It does just break my heart though because, not only are these people they hardly know telling them no and putting them in time out but their whole environment has changed, they smells, the food they eat, the people that are around them, how they are responded to, etc.

They do sleep pretty well at night, the last few nights they have slept about 10 hours a night. We actually have to wake them up in the mornings, they won’t like it when we have to start waking them up 2 hours earlier than we are now for daycare. As I type this, the little one just woke up and the oldest is still sleeping. He fought it and fought it for about 30 minutes before finally crashing, he needed a nap. He has been cranky all day and clingy. I sat in the rocker with him just holding him as he fell asleep for about 45 minutes. then once I put him in his bed he woke up and wanted me to hold him again…that’s when he started crying for a a while. I went in to get the youngest when he woke up and the oldest had curled up in the chair with his blanket and fell asleep. I don’t think the oldest feels that well so that’s probably why he’s been cranky today. Like I said earlier, my heart breaks for these kids, when they cry, I have no clue what’s going through their heads…even though they are 1 and 2 yrs old.

It will be interesting when we start them in daycare, to see how they handle it. We are having issues with getting their immunizations, what they have had and what they need and so forth, and we need them to start daycare, so we’ll have to stay home a few days next week before we can put them in daycare.

I’m sure in another week or so I’ll post another update about the boys.