First Day of School Pictures

My kids all started school this week!  I'm so excited that they can all be back in person, 5 days a week!

Getting them out the door that first day is always a little crazy, and the busses always run super late, but we managed to make it all work:

Elementary school crowd leaves first (Bentley was still doing Zoom seminary and Kendra had barely stumbled out of bed).  We've got Ryder in 5th grade, Colton in 3rd, and Camille in 1st!  (Also, I wouldn't let C&C wear their new shoes until the first day-- look how shiny and clean those are!)

We were waiting so long for the bus, that I had Bentley and Kendra run down and join us and I LOVE this picture!

Finally!  Only 24 minutes late!

They didn't mean to match, but I love that they did!  (Bentley even brought his pink sweatshirt in case he got cold!)  Since they're at different schools and ride different busses, they didn't care.  Bentley is a sophomore now, and Kendra is a big 8th grader!

Muppet faces 😂

And here we have Kendra and her bestie Eliza, from three years ago (2018) and from this year.  How are they growing so fast???

I'm so happy school is slightly more normal this year!  Maybe some day we can even be finished with masks?

Farewell, Isaiah

Isaiah went to a new home yesterday and I have a lot of feelings about it, as you can imagine.  I was really struggling: the not sleeping was definitely taking its toll, and then he really needed to be supervised 24/7 because he was constantly climbing things (onto the tables and counters, and most recently scaling the bookshelves), getting into food, and if he had a poopy diaper, he would get a hand inside it and smear poop everywhere.  Which is pretty much the worst, grossest thing ever.  Even when he was asleep you never knew when he would suddenly wake up and get back to wreaking havoc.

Who, me?

So, yes, taking care of him was really hard.  And I knew it was only going to be harder once the kids went back to school and I was doing it all on my own.  I'd had high hopes of getting him into daycare or preschool, but DSS wouldn't cover daycare and the preschool options we found were either a long ways off from opening (one is hoping to open in the middle of September, if they can get their license ??? and the special education programs through the schools can easily take two months to get everything lined up and happening).  I just didn't think I could hold out that long.

And as if to prove me right, within ten minutes of my kids all leaving for their first day of school, he'd managed to get poop all over my kitchen floor and I was running around like a crazy person trying to do damage control and figure out how to clean him and the floor.  It was... kind of awful.

He'd get pretty snuggly once he was really tired, but even then, you HAD to be standing up or he wanted nothing to do with you

So when Kennedi called me and said that the Jonah's foster mom was willing to take Isaiah, too, it felt like a pretty perfect solution.  Craig and I still took time to discuss it and think about it a lot.  But it definitely felt like the best thing for everyone: I was off the hook without (exactly) quitting, and he could be with family.  And since he and his brother will be in the same location, it will make visits with parents and grandparents easier when they get to that point.  My kids were a little sad when I told them since they've grown to really love Isaiah, but they were also kind of happy to get their rooms back and no longer have to watch him for me every time I need to take a shower or use the bathroom.

Bentley got so good at schlepping Isaiah around!

So yesterday Savannah, his DSS worker, came and got him.  I had him all packed up with WAY more stuff than he came with.  It turns out I'm really good at soliciting donations, and had gotten him lots of clothes and toys and books.  Everything I could fit in his duffel bag and a Costco diaper box went with him.

He also was pretty difficult this week, including being up our last night from 2:30-6am (!!!) and, as I already wrote about, the poop incident (the 3rd one, despite us watching him like a hawk).  He'd also managed to dump out another box of Cheerios while I was on a zoom meeting trying to discuss if he'd qualify for special education services through the schools (99% sure he's autistic, so that's a resounding YES).  And he'd recently gotten interested in trying to splash in the toilet.  So all of these things made it easier to say good-bye.

Finally asleep in my arms after refusing to take a nap

But I still wanted to cry as I buckled him into the car and waved as they drove off.

I really tried my best, but this was so much more work (and so much LESS SLEEP) than I'd ever anticipated.  I hope I did more good than damage taking him in for these five weeks.

One of the best pictures I ever managed to take of him...

I can't imagine he'll remember us at all, but I know we will always remember him. 💝

End of Summer Fun

We've been keeping busy!  Isaiah's sleep tends to be incredibly erratic, so every night when we go to bed, we have NO IDEA what to expect.  That's been very frustrating-- I thought after being here a month we would have this under control a little better.  But no-- last night he was awake from 11pm until 4:15am!  Fun!

They had an AWESOME primary activity a few weeks ago-- someone arranged for an owl handler to come and show off the birds that they can't reintroduce back into the wild!  How are owls so cool???

A great horned owl

Okay, this is actually some sort of hawk.  It was hit by a car and its eyes were damaged so it couldn't survive in the wild.  But it's still so regal!

For being a screech owl, this little guy was surprisingly quiet and cute!

Craig caught this impressive shot as the barn owl flapped its wings

Everyone got to take a picture with the owls at the end!  (And yes, we brought Sydney and Beth-- who wouldn't want to come to such a cool activity?)

We also had the swim team awards banquet.  Usually this is a pancake dinner and everyone gets a trophy, but this year it was bring-your-own-food at an outdoor park and the coaches had painted rocks for all the kids?  I have no idea why they didn't just do the trophies-- the rocks were a TON of work and I just can't imagine the trophies are all that expensive, but no one asked me.  Anyway, Bentley and Kendra had to leave for YM/YWs but the other kids picked up their rocks awards for them, so that was nice.

Ryder got "Best Debater"

Colton's was "Most Published Swimmer" (he's still telling everyone about his Christmas book!)

Camille's whole group got the "Knock knock joke" award because that was they loved telling jokes all during practice

This was Kendra's rock-- yay for her!

And Bentley's, because his goggles fell off during a race once, and he just kept swimming and didn't bother trying to put them back on.

Isaiah snuggling with Camille

Camille and Sydney having fun playing Outfoxed together

Of course I blinked here, but this is Craig and I celebrating our 16th anniversary at Maggiano's!  (Much thanks to Grandma and Grandpa for watching the five kids and further thanks to Chris and Julie for watching Isaiah-- we really needed a night off!)

This is what happens when you don't sleep at night, kid!!!

He LOVES the slide!

...and the neighbor's flowers!

Bentley continues to take excellent care of Isaiah

He even introduced him to the trampoline, which was a HUGE success!!!  (Zoom in-- can you SEE Isaiah's enormous smile?)

And Ryder is just plain cool!

Camille is losing teeth faster than the Tooth Fairy can fly!  I'm not even sure how she eats any more...

And I finally got bored with my hair and chopped it off again!  It feels a lot cooler and Isaiah can't pull it as easily, so I'm a big fan!

And last but not least, TWO videos for your viewing pleasure!  First of all, Craig finds something Isaiah LOVES:

And, we learn a trick Colton can do that we hadn't known about:

School starts on Monday.  I'd been looking forward to that day for many many years now, but suddenly I'm dreading it because I have NO IDEA how I'm going to survive without all my wonderful helpers!  What do I do with a 2-year-old all by myself?  😬

More Isaiah (and a little bit of Jonah!)

As planned, we got Isaiah together with his big brother last week and it was... disappointing.  They honestly didn't acknowledge each other at all.  They didn't even seem to notice each other, let alone interact in any way.  And it made me really sad.  I also learned that Jonah's foster mom was asking for him to be moved, so he's now a couple hours away from us and in his third home, the poor guy.  I found it all very defeating-- I felt like if his mom could quit, then maybe I was an idiot for continuing on.  (Can someone be a sympathy quitter?  Like, if you and I are running buddies and you want to walk for a bit, I will stop jogging the SECOND you slow down.  No question.  Probably not my most impressive trait...)

It was super hard to even get them in the same frame.  Props to Jonah's mom for managing to get his hair out of his face!!!

They definitely LOOK like brothers!

Anyway, I haven't quit.  Yet.  Although part of me finds it that much harder because in the back of my mind, I know it's an option.  You just don't have that choice with your biological kids!  But yes, we still have Isaiah.  We're still struggling with ups and downs and trying to figure out how to get him to sleep better.  When his pediatrician gave us the go ahead to try melatonin at night and he promptly slept 11 hours straight, we thought we'd cracked it, but the next night he was up from midnight to 4:45 and we despaired.  Just a little bit.

Fighting me over nap time.  (YES, I'm wearing a muumuu.  So sue me.)

Literally five minutes later.  This kid needs so much more sleep than what he's getting!

In our training, they warned us that foster kids love to try and hoard food.  Because they've often had spells with no food in the house, anything they can find, they'll try and hide it under their beds or in weird places for later.  Isaiah isn't really old enough to do that, but I think his version of this is to grab whatever food he can find and eat it immediately.  Or if he's in his high chair and I'm actively giving him food, he'll throw it all on the floor for later.  It's not that weird for a 2-year-old, but that doesn't mean it isn't really frustrating.  For now, all we can do is try to be better about keeping food out of his reach, but it's a tough habit to form now!  And clean up all the mess...

This is what happened when we left a box of Cheerios within his reach.  And he'd just eaten!!!

Who sleeps like that???  How exhausted do you have to be to finally fall asleep like this?

A rare picture where you can see his face and he's awake!  I'm really hoping we can get permission from his father to cut his hair so he can actually SEE.

The kids have continued to be WONDERFUL with Isaiah.  Their love for him is the one of the best parts of this whole adventure.

I love that protective arm around him

Another best part is watching him just casually playing with toys like a normal 2-year-old.  He didn't do that the first couple days and it's just so healthy and great!

This is still really hard.  But we're not giving up yet!

And Everything Else from Last Week, Too!

In what proved to be remarkably bad timing, I'd managed to sign my little kids up for summer school the same week that Bentley and Kendra were going to their various church camps.  This would have been AWESOME if not for Isaiah's sudden appearance in our lives.  That messed everything up.  Because when you're trying to make sure a 2-year-old doesn't get into too much trouble, the more eyes on him, the better.  But suddenly I was all alone for the bulk of the day with no helpers at all!  So that was kind of lame.

But I was still excited for Bentley and Kendra to get to do outdoor camp, since it didn't happen last year!

He could barely lift this-- fun!

Kendra didn't have to carry quite so much

And in a completely jerky move, Bentley grew taller than me right before leaving!  I don't think it's right that TWO of my kids passed me by in the SAME YEAR.  Aren't there rules against this???

All this to say, I was very excited to get my kids back at the end of the week!  And each afternoon, I'd just be waiting until I could pick up the little kids from school.  I totally missed them!  They'd beg to get to stay the whole time and I'd be like, "I'll just pick you up an hour or so early..."  

Collecting my kids again after a week of camping!

We got home and Bentley and Kendra were both understandably anxious to take showers.  So we let them stay home and relax while the rest of us went to Adam's house to make pizzas!

We started out with him showing us his beehives and explaining how the bees live to the kids.  Can you see them all clustered on the outside of the hive?  That's because it was a hot day, so they were cooling off there!  (Craig took this picture while he let Isaiah wander a bit further away from the hive.

Next, Adam let the kids pick tomatoes to put on our pizzas!

And then Adam showed them how to roll out the dough!  (At this point, I think I was outside wrangling Isaiah, who kept finding dirt to throw in his hair.  Also fun!)

Adam had this awesome pizza oven that heated up to like 900℉ or something, so the pizzas would cook in about a minute-- it was so cool to watch!

Everyone had a great time (even Isaiah, once we gave him graham crackers and let him run around on the lawn with a very long leash!) and the pizzas were delicious!  And as we traded off holding Isaiah's leash, Craig and I were able to make ourselves some pretty amazing pizzas, too.  (I'd forgotten how much I LOOOOOOVE roasted garlic!)

Adam had made a trip to Lynchburg that day, so he'd also picked up cinnamon rolls from Mrs. Joy's for us!  Notice Camille making herself right at home!

As we drove home, the kids said, "Adam's house is so much fun!  Let's go there every day!"  Watch out, Adam-- you were too good of a host! 😂

So July ended on a high note!  It was a wonderful month, even if it was all a little insane!