Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

One would think that holiday problems with foster children would be about their previous family(ies), traditions, or things of that nature. What we have run into is expectations. Specifically, amount expectations by Girl. This issue first appeared when she lost a tooth last summer. The previous foster mom warned me not to tell birth family right away, because not only did the tooth fairy visit foster family and left money for the tooth, but birth mom and birth grandma ALSO claimed to have been visited by the tooth fairy and brought *more* money. Obnoxious, point taken. But then, we found out that the tooth fairy at previous foster family brought waaaaay more $$ per tooth than ever would be brought to our house. Luckily Girl had never seen a gold dollar coin before, so that was unusual and distracting. Christmas was something else. Birth grandma seemed to spend an entire paycheck buying gifts for the kiddos - Girl specifically.  Doug and I early on decided to use the rhyme ...

Martha Stewart's "Chrismas Card Wreath" idea. My copy of Martha's idea. Of course, my cards aren't color-coordinated, but I think it turned out cool.

I have avoided listening to the radio station that play Christmas songs this year. I have stuck to the traditional favorite CDs that we have & am not disappointed to have missed "I want a hippopatamus for Christmas." In rotation has been Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas Attic," Roger Whittaker's Christmas Album , Domestic Problem's old Christmas CD, and tonight I broke out Bing Crosby & the Andrews Sisters . Oh yes, I was belting out the backup vocals with those ladies. Anyhoo, we've also been trying to focus more on the "Reason for the Season" with our advent calendar and general discussions. Of course, Santa Claus is very exciting to a 3-year-old so we had to go see him this afternoon. We thought Roman would take it more in stride, but he was just as excited as his brother. Charlie asked for candy & cars; Roman asked for the Lego Hogwart's Castle (no way, it's $130!), a DSi-XL (no way, he already has a DS!) and...

This Thanksgiving weekend has been a Godsend. We were running at breakneck speed, just keeping up with daily life - appointments, meetings, even our pleasure events felt like they were flying at us and speeding by. It's amazing what a few extra days does for one's sanity. Of course, it has helped that my boys have been AWESOME the past few days. I was home with them on Wednesday (no school for anyone) and it was a rough go, but we found our footing. Friday and today they have just been great - aside from the constant talking from not one, but both. Thursday evening Doug and I hopped online and bought all of Roman's, and almost all of Charlie's, Christmas gifts. Thank goodness for Amazon.com. Free shipping helps too. Then Friday I went out to Toys-R-Us and got all but one last gift for Charlie. Got my parents' gifts purchased too. I'm way ahead of where I usually am - hopefully I can keep this up! Christmas decor went up today too, and the boys were great with t...

Driving past the temporary Halloween store on Aug. 23: Roman: "Can we get my costume today?" me: No. R: "Why not?" me: Because you haven't truly decided what you want to be, and I don't want you to change your mind after we buy something. R: "I do know! I want to be a zombie ninja!" me: A zombie ninja? R: "Yes! Or, a Jedi. Or, anything else they have that I might like." So he hasn't decided yet, but at least we've narrowed it down, eh? Charlie, on the other hand, hooted for a Buzz Lightyear costume at Toys R Us and has worn it around the house already. Clearly he knows his own mind. By the way, I Googled it & there is an actual "zombie ninja" costume. Wow.

Some people call me Old Glory, others call me the Star-Spangled Banner, but whatever they call me, I am your flag; the flag of the United States of America. I remember some time ago people lined up on both sides of the street to watch the parade, and naturally, I was always there, proudly waving in the breeze. When your daddy saw me coming, he immediately removed his hat and placed it over his heart. Remember? And you, I remember you standing there straight as a soldier. You didn’t have a hat, but you were giving the right salute. Remember your little sister? Not to be outdone, she was saluting the same as you, with her hand over her heart. Remember? What happened? I’m still the same old flag. Oh, I have added a few more stars since your grandparents were children, and a lot more blood has been shed since those parades of long ago. But I don’t feel as proud as I used to. When I come down your street, you just stand there with your hands in your pockets. I may get a small glance, but t...

Roman was up first around 7am and found the note from the Easter Bunny, detailing which eggs were his and which were Charlie's. After a hunt which included shoes & the chandelier, Roman settled in to build his Lego tank the Bunny brought. Soon after, Charlie awoke & Roman was thrilled to assist him in finding his eggs. Charlie liked the hunt too, but was so excited about the ocean toys that the Bunny brought that he gave up after a few eggs, so Roman finished the hunt for him. Charlie likes dumping the jellybeans out of the plastic eggs and feeding them to the rest of us. His report on them is "yucky." Roman has done a good job of controlling his candy intake. We're preparing for church now, with ham, au gratin potatoes, & cake as our noonday "dinner." I think Doug will take Ro out later to see "How To Train Your Dragon" and otherwise it will be a stick at home day!

Today starts a whole week of vacation. Our district gives a whole week for "mid-winter break," something I never grew up with on the west side of the state but apparently is quite common here on the east side. I have volunteered to chaperone a group of 80-some kids to DC (well, there's only 8 in my group) for a whirlwind tour. We report to the buses at 6am Sunday morning, do 2.5 days full of fun, and drive back all night Tuesday night to arrive home crack of dawn Wedn. morning. Pros and cons of this is I miss Roman's 2 days of break, but at the same time I will truly enjoy having W, T, & F to myself. And exploring the capital with kids seeing it for the first time will be fun. Speaking of... we took a field trip to Henry Ford Museum on Thursday. The kids say the funniest things, such as when we were looking at a camp bed used by Washington during the Revolution. We were looking through the glass and I said, "can you believe GW actually slept on that? Amazing...

Stating that Charlie will be two years old tomorrow doesn't sum up all the wonder the thought brings me. Having a second child has brought us so much more fun memories & happiness than we imagined. It's wonderful to see Roman interact with Charlie too, and how Charlie imitates everything Ro does. In fact, he doesn't play with his own toys a lot because he always wants whatever Roman has! Charlie is the opposite of Roman in every way, both good & bad. Which has made life interesting at times! But the best part about Charlie is his joy. He is almost always in a good mood (unless you are denying him something). He loves to smile, to be tickled, to make silly sounds, and shout out people's names. In fact, that's his favorite game - to call out our name & wait for us to call his back. He has been spicing it up by doing it in different voices or lengths, and we have to respond in the same way. (Example: "Mahhhmeee!" I respond "Chahhhhrleeee!...

I did it! I took a picture every day for a whole year. 365 days. Well, to be honest, there are 3 days that are missing pictures, and some days I took more than one to fill in the gaps… but really, I documented our life every day for a year. And it was good. Strangely, the year seems to have flown by. It feels like I just started Project 365 a couple months ago, and as Doug said “it feels like I was just laid off a month ago!” Funny how at times I can’t remember what last Spring was like, but yet it feels like a few days ago. That’s the trick of time, I suppose. I don’t have a great retrospective in pictures or anything. It would take too much time and the kids are getting along for now , but who knows when that will blow up. I’ve scrapped my P-365 pictures for the first 26 weeks but was getting bored with the elements & layout, so I spent the last couple nights making new templates with my own papers & stuff I downloaded from Shabby Princess . I also found a local picture deve...

The holidays were slightly different this year. With my grandma in heaven, it adjusted where families decided to be and who they spent it with. My brother's family and mine went to my parents' for Christmas Eve, first time I think since we both got married. It was great fun to have the cousins together. Santa was good to us, bringing a shopping cart for Charlie, clone blaster for Roman, and Doug & I knew what to get the family. We stopped at my aunt's on the way through Kalamazoo and had a short visit with extended family. Then home for the night to unpack, take baths, and repack to head to Doug's family! We arrived there Saturday for more visiting and another round of presents. A good time seeing those cousins as well, though the visit was too short. We got home Sunday evening ready to crash. I spent the day today getting the house back in order, all the piles put in their proper places, and taking Christmas decorations down. Have friends coming Thursday for New Y...

Sunday afternoon after Charlie's nap we ventured to the next-door town to see Santa. He has a little house in the park downtown. We had to wait almost an hour outside, and toes were getting mighty cold! The cool part was that each family got their own private time in Santa's house with him. Charlie was afraid at first, so he and Doug sat in a chair next to Santa while Roman made his requests. Then Santa pulled out a teddy bear to play with Charlie and C. just lit up! By the end of our visit he was willing to sit on Santa's lap. Roman did a lot of Santa-hand-holding. Roman asked for a clone commander blaster or dual-action lightsaber, and requested SpongeBob's 100 episode DVD for Charlie. We encouraged Santa that Charlie would like a toy instead!

I listened to an interview on NPR today with an author who wrote a new book about Arlington Cemetery. It was interesting to hear more details. I knew that it was Lee's estate, that it was made into a cemetery during the Civil War, but he discussed how it's a reflection of our own history. 42% of the dead from the Civil War were never identified. The government was so horrified by that number that they began a national cemetery "system" for the war dead, and now no other nation on earth matches America in the honoring of them. As it should be. I'm not sure we can wish people "happy" Veterans' Day, but we can certainly thank them for our freedoms.

I know, not even Thanksgiving! But I took Roman to Toys-R-Us the other day so we could "get ideas" and the boy had no problem showing me more than enough stuff. Just have to decide what's going on Santa's list, what we're going to get him, so we can give others some suggested ideas. Charlie - he's a different story. He's quite pleased to play with Roman's things. In fact, he loves to put helmets on and off the Lego guys. We figure we're just going to wrap a bunch of Roman's old toys that are in storage and give them to him - he won't know any better! There are some cool things I think he'd like, but it's hard when he hasn't shown an obsession like Roman did at this age (for Thomas trains). Plus I don't take him to the store like I did Roman. The other problem - I do all my "shopping" online now, and many things I know about (Playmobil) have the best selections there. Or, it's a rare cool idea that only this ...

So I'm a couple days behind with my pictures, but you'll forgive me when you see how adorable the kids were. We went trick-or-treating in my old stomping grounds with my niece & nephew. The 3 bigger kids ran ahead and I stayed with Charlie, doing less houses but having no less fun! He was a hit at one house, cooing at their dog until the owners came out on the steps with the dog to let Charlie pet him. Very nice. He got compliments at many houses, and one elderly gentleman just kept chuckling as Charlie waved & said "bye!" in his cutest voice. Reports from Doug state that the big kids just ran from house to house, intent on getting all the candy they dreamed of! Roman was Anakin Skywalker (from the Clone Wars) and Charlie was a dragon/dinosaur, whatever people wanted to call him. I hated being "that mom" but oh yes, he did wear his coat over his costume. Thank goodness he'll never remember. Roman ended up putting his coat on under his costume. A ...

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America." Here's to securing the Blessings of Liberty!

Tomorrow is Roman's birthday. He will be 6! Since he was almost 10 months when we brought him home, I'm one of those rare parents who doesn't say "where did the time go?" We've had some long days & weeks with this boy, so yes - it feels like we have had him for as long as he is old. He is out of his mind with excitement. Having his birthday right when school gets out is a curse and blessing, I think. For him, he was experiencing so many emotions today he could hardly stand it, one minute begging to stay home with me and the next impatient to get to school, only to flip back around and wrap his arms around my legs in line for class and plead with me to take him home. Same thing with karate tonight - he wants to go, he doesn't want to go... poor boy must be exhausted. Exhausting for me, too - I'm trying to wrap up the school year, move (yet again) my desk and files, and to come home and relax... but I had a cake to bake, presents to wrap (Doug did t...

(whisper!) We're going camping this weekend, but don't tell anyone! Especially Doug's parents. They think we're just visiting for a Sunday picnic, but we actually got the site next to them for the whole weekend! (*end whisper!) Should be cool. Of course, I'll be doing some grad project work here and there, but that's okay. It has a bathwater-like heated pool from what we can remember, and for those chilly nights we have a new camping space heater for our camper. We just hope and pray that Charlie sleeps past 6:30am. 7am would be fine, really. What do you do with a cranky baby at 6 in the morning in a campground?! We're bringing the DVD player and Baby Einsteins just in case. And on this Memorial weekend, take more than a moment to honor the fallen heroes.

I awoke at 6am - thank you, Charlie, for sleeping in! Birthday call from my parents. I played a game of Top-It (War) with Roman before school. I graded a bunch of projects and am now actually ahead of my self-imposed schedule. I ate a lot of lasagna for lunch. Leftovers, but it was sooo good. I taught. As always, fun and trying at the same time. Picked up Ro and played a game of Cooties after school. I love playing games with him. Got Wendy's for dinner. Again. Second year in a row. Next year, we're going out. Hopefully not to Wendy's. Had a Wendy's Frosty w/M&Ms for dessert. That was nice. Half is still in the freezer. Birthday call from my brother. Birthday call from my in-laws. Charlie was in a fabulous mood, all smiles & jabbering. Got a gift from my boys - a digital photo frame! Very exciting. Doug and I coordinated schedules & to-do lists. Going to order clothing from Land's End after I blog. Then I will go to bed & peruse a scrapbooking maga...

This morning we were pleased because there was nowhere to go in a rush. Which is why Charlie decided that 5:30am was a good time to start fussing. Luckily with a little head-rubbing, he went back until 6:45am. The joys of parenting. We got up and started packing (and blogging) right away, and finally checked out at 9:30am. Headed to Riverside for some last-minute fun before the airport. We had an hour, and darnit I was going to go fishing. We all headed over to the Fishin' Hole and got a couple cane poles and a cup of worms for a half-hour period. Ro grew bored quickly (no surprise) and when Daddy caught 2, and he caught none, Ro decided to go to the playscape with Charlie and Grandpa. I took over his pole and had my worm stripped but then caught a little one. We figured that was good fishin' for 20 minutes, and so turned in our poles & extra worms and headed in for lunch. Off to the airport after lunch, and while our flight was pushed back about 30 min., it was no big deal...