Our First TANTRUM!

Ugh.... our honeymoon is over, better now than later! 

So, I took the day off and took the girls to the new "water park" in town.  Basically, it's a pool with a few slides and a play area for the little kids. 

Well, it went very well for the first hour.  Then came hour two where Sunshine the 4 year old, decided sliding head first was more fun than being on her butt.   So, Mommy put her in time out.  She didn't want to sit still for time out, but finally gave in.  Instead of allowing her back into the fun part of the pool, I allowed her to sit at the entrance so she wouldn't get over heated in the sun.  It was a different color bottom than the rest of the pool so I told her she could only stay on that color.  Of course, she tested and teetered that line, so finally, Mommy had enough and said, "Final warning, once more and we're leaving".  Once more occurred about 12 seconds later.  I picked her up, then came the full on tantrum...

Over the shoulder she went as she kicked and screamed, punched and slapped, told me she hated me... etc.  At first I was cool calm and collected and explained that was fine, she could hate me, I still loved her.  Then she really started the hitting, attempted to bite, and I was forced to put her down half way through the parking lot.  At first she sat on the scorching hot asphalt, then she got up to run.... and she ran, and ran with me screaming, pleading for her to stop before she got hit by a car... honestly, I was scared! 

I finally caught her, wrestled her into her car seat, buckled her in, and took off towards home as my blood pressure slowly came down to normal. 

Then we get home, and I have to wrestle her out of the car.   Put her in her room, she's now thrashing around like a fish out of water, goes and hides in the closet.  I had to take the doors off of the closet to avoid any finger pinching.   The second door she didn't want me to take so I literally drug the door with her wrapped around it into the hallway.  She then needed to stay in her room with nothing to hurt herself with, so I shut the door and held it shut as she banged on it like a maniac.  Hoping she would give up and lay down. 

Finally, she did...

I went in and said change your clothes and we will talk.  We talked... she cried, calmly.  I cried, calmly too.  I asked why she was having the tantrum, she said because she wanted to stay at the pool.  I explained why we couldn't stay if she acted like that.  Then I asked if there was anything else, and she said she just wanted to see me.  That is why she kept banging at the door because she wanted to see me. 

So I told her I love her, but I didn't like that behavior.  I told her I wasn't going to quit on her, and we would work on this.  About that time she jumped into my arms and said, "I'm sorry mommy, I love you, I just didn't know what to do because I thought you weren't letting me come back". 

So fingers crossed, this is the worst of it.  I know she is testing me, I think I can pass this test though.  I better start studying more!

A Few Days of Fun and Family!

This week end should be fun! The girls are coming tonight around 9:00 to spend a few nights with us. My dad is in town for about 48 hours to pick up my little sister and take her back to Florida. Tonight for dinner we’re all going out for sushi at our FAVORITE sushi restaurant. I can’t wait!


I took off work Thursday and Friday and that will begin my FMLA leave. Thursday we plan to spend the day with “Poppy” and go to the movies, shopping, and just hang out so the girls can get to know our family. Then Friday, my dad and sister fly out around noon, so weather permitting, I am planning to take the girls to the new “Water Park” in town. It’s basically a pool with a playground, slides, a current river, etc. So that should be fun!

I am going to take the girls home Friday night so that my husband and I can have our first weekend alone in the last two months! That should be nice, especially considering in a few weeks we will be full-time parents!

So, that is all for now. I can’t wait to see my little girls tonight!!!! :)

We Have a Move In Date!

Wow… where do I begin.


These girls are definitely our girls! Cinderella is really a dream child. Very laid back, well spoken, calm and gathered, and just goes with the flow. She listens very well, and is very smart!

Sunshine, well, she is just as bright as the sun in the sky! She’s bursting with energy, but she knows how to keep it in check and relax too.

For the first time since becoming foster parents, we had a very fun weekend! When I put the girls to bed, I wasn’t exhausted; I was actually excited to see them the next morning.

They slept 8-9 hours and eased themselves into the day instead of waking up ready to hit the ground running!

We just couldn’t be more pleased with these girls. They’re very well adjusted and they demonstrated healthy “normal” behaviors!

So the plan is that we will take them as we wish over the next few weeks. Their foster mom is amazing and is very much encouraging our relationship with the girls. Then August 7-14th they will be with us for a one week respite (which was already planned). As long as that week goes well (which we know it will) then the girls will be moving in fulltime August 17th!

We are SOOOOO excited!

Grandma is probably going to appeal for custody, but DFS seems confident that it would take a perfect storm for her to get the girls. G-MA has a CPS charge in Maryland that she went to court there and appealed and won because no one from DFS appeared in court. So MD is appealing that now, if the charge is re-instated, then this is a closed case and the girls can be adopted, otherwise we have to wait for appeals court here in VA.

They feel there is no need to wait 6-9 more months for court, when we could get our 6 month trial placement out of the way and be able to adopt next year. So yes, there is a legal risk, but we know these girls can experience a lot in the next 6-9 months with us that they wouldn’t get to in their current foster home due to there being many other kids with them.

I will keep everyone posted as things progress.

Watermelon Nails!

The girls are so much fun.  We love having them at our house.  We went grocery shopping this morning, and bought lots of yummy foods to take to the lake tomorrow.  We also finally got to paint our "Watermelon" Nails.  Now, I am not very good at painting, and they're not very good at sitting still, so it began as a recipe for disaster!   I think the final product wasn't half bad though!

Also in this pic is one of the "Glossy Bands" we made thanks to a fun activity book I won from http://housequeen.blogspot.com/  blog site!

So the weekend is going well, and I will post more details when I'm not tucking in the girls!  :)

Bursting With Excitement!

I am SO excited we get to see the girls again today!  3:30 can't come fast enough.   I am going to leave work at noon so that I can go home and straighten up the house a little bit.  Thankfully, there is not much to do!  I set up Sunshine's room last night, and today I just need to sweep and make the bed in Cinderella's room.  I (well my sister) washed all of their sheets and blankets.   We went shopping and bought them both outfits and panties last night.  You can't ever have too many pairs of panties! 

I can't wait for them to come!!!!  I also can't wait to meet their Case Worker.  She is meeting us at the house so that she can get to know both my husband and I.  

I hope the girls are as excited as we are!

The Meeting Was AWESOME!

Well, I know most people that follow this blog saw this info in message boards and/or e-mails, but I figured I should update everyone on the visit.




We had just the greatest time meeting the girls last night. We stayed almost three hours (that flew by). They did my hair, climbed all over us, hugged us, wanted us to pick them up and carry them. They we’re just too cute.



We enjoyed getting to meet their current foster parents too. They’re an older couple who have been at this point many times before. They’ve adopted many children, and fostered many more! They feel like these girls need a family of their own, where they have younger parents. We’re elated that they feel that way!

The girls are both very smart, well spoken, and adjusted. Many children in foster care are not as well adjusted as them.


So they picked their own nicknames and they are Cinderella (6 yr old) and Sunshine (4 yr old).



Cinderella loves to do girlie things like shop, have her hair done, painting her nails, and playing with dolls. She also enjoys basketball and getting dirty though. She is 6, but very tall for her age. I would guess she will get to about my height, I am 5’11. She wears 10’s in girl’s clothes!  She has a sweet round face, and a cute little smile with a few teeth coming and going! My husband took to her quickly. She will be in 1st Grade. Kindergarten went very well for her, but she is very talkative, which caused her to get in trouble here and there. (FYI, my mom would have NO IDEA what it is like to have a 1st grader that talks to much! LOL)



Sunshine has the most radiant smile I’ve ever seen on a four year old. She has beautiful big brown eyes. She is 100% girl. I can tell that she will be a mommy’s girl. She wanted to hug me and for me to carry her! She knows her ABC’s and a lot about animals. She will be in Pre-K this fall. She also loves clothes, dolls, shopping, and she LOVED doing my hair.





They did my hair for about two hours. Braids, wetting the comb to give me “highlights”, they even pretended to shampoo it. It was the best scalp massage I’ve ever had! 





All in all the evening went better than we could have imagined. They were ready to come home with us.



We gave them pictures of our dogs, and they treasured them. It was so sweet.



We know they will love the dogs, because their foster family has 13 dogs. Our four should seem like a breeze!



That’s all for today! More to come this weekend. If you want pics, I can email them. Just message me!

Guess What We're Doing Tonight???

WoW! What a morning. So I wrote the girls case worker last night to tell her we can’t wait to meet them, and to see what their educational needs were so that we could get that process going.




As I have found out, DFS is AWFUL with giving accurate ages. So the girls are actually 6 and 4. The oldest will be in First Grade this fall, and the youngest will be going to Pre-K. Technically, she could go to Kindergarten, but she isn’t ready yet.



They are girlie girls. They like to paint their nails, and do their hair, and wear cute clothes, which is just a delight for me to hear.



I SO wish I could put their names on my blog, but I can’t, so we will be coming up with a couple of very cute nicknames.





On to the exciting news…. WE GET TO MEET THEM TONIGHT!!!! They fostermom and CW want us to meet them before the weekend so they will know us and feel comfortable coming to our house. This makes me so happy because I am dying to see them!



Then they will come Friday afternoon to stay for the weekend. Hopefully it will be a good fit for everyone.



More news to come later tonight after we meet the girls.