Big Sister's Ten

I haven't had to write a list of ten in ages. Which is fine by me. But these girls are easy to do. The hard part will be stopping at ten.

10. Once screamed from the back of the car: "MOOOOM!!!! LOOK!!!! There are HORSES on the playground!!!" She was mildly disappointed when I explained that they were dogs called Great Danes.
9.  Thought it was so cool, "so super awesome" actually, that she could walk backward. As a four year old.
8 1/2. Did not like thin mint cookies. Which worked to my advantage, obviously.
8.  Never really mastered the art of using her index finger to point.
7.  Was 2012's Punky Brewster. NOTHING matched and the more patterns one mixed together, the better.
6 1/2. Still thinks that God is the guy who hands out communion, and was so disappointed the day before she moved when she figured out she wouldn't get to go to church again.
6.  Could not pronounce the word "lasagna". Which was mildly entertaining till one day at dinner she exclaimed: "Mom, I LOVE veggie vagina!"
5.  Was sure to announce to anyone walking their dog near our house that dogs "kinda freak me out so I'll stay back here."
4 1/2. If someone was crying, she'd go up to them, give them a little back rub and say: "It's ok, GG, you can be my sad friend."
4.  Was the world's worst back seat driver...to the point of questioning right turns on red and speed limits. This was the main reason that she was the kid in the 3rd row of the car.
3.  Did some pretty crazy stuff while sleepwalking.
2.  Went up to every single kid in her class on the last day of school and said, every single time, "Let me give you a big hug because you are never going to see me again."
1.  Spoke from her heart so often that sometimes it killed me.  She is loving and appreciative and I can only hope that she takes that lifeskill to her grave. It was not uncommon for her to say something like "Thank you for thinking to tell me that my sausage might be too hot to eat." or "I just love you so so much, Mama."

The good news here is that we already have a date that we'll get to see each other again. It's way too far in the future for me, even though really it's not that far away. Until then, Sister, I'll be missing you like crazy.
I love you, Baby Girl.

4-2=2

We disbanded the Fab Four today.  I watched in the middle of a driveway as two sets of best friends gave hugs, at least two of them completely unaware of the significance. I have heard Tiny ask for Big and Little no fewer than 50 times today and have kept GG busy enough that the magnitude of change has not completely set in. Big Sister planned out almost 24 hours of celebrating including Stacy Park, Phil's (which she pronounces Feeeeeels), ice cream, breakfast out, and a playground stop on the way to her final destination. It was an awesome 24 hours. And a wonderful 15 months.

Our Songs

Every kid in the house, even the cats, have their own "song." I am not sure what made each one the official song of that child, but they know their songs, they ask for their songs, and bless their little hearts, they even ask me to sing their songs. Over and over again.

Big Sister decided this was her song one day.  She calls it "When I was a little girl, you loved me". If we hear this song in the car, it is not unusual for either of us to interrupt whatever anyone is saying to yell: HEEEEEEYYYY Mommy! Do I love you???

My oh my.

GG's song was hard to come by. She's a bit picky and requested that I give her some choices for her love song.  This is the one she finally ended up with. She calls it "The apple in my eye song." The rest of us call it "GG's Home Song". She likes this video in particular because there's a little girl in it.

Tiny has a couple.  Actually, several made up ones regarding having a dirty diaper, though I have spared YouTube from my renditions of those songs.  Most often though, his love song is this one.  Everyone calls it something different, but mostly Tiny's Love Song, from a lullaby CD the girls listen to at night.

Little Sister's love song remains to this day the Pete's Dragon Song she used to sing when she was about 1 1/2. She sings it less now but makes me sing it every day.  I am not a very good sounding dragon.  She also has her "bouncing song" that we all love.  It's title came from Big Sister, who loved to watch Little dance as a 15 month old. All she did was bounce her diaper up and down.  She still does it on demand. (As an aside, the videos of this song seem really creepy to me.  The kids have never seen them, but here's the one with just the lyrics shown).

Her last song is the refrain from this one.  For those of you who know her real name, it's clear where it came from.  For those of you who know her personality, even clearer!

Let's Go Potty Now...

...everybody's learning how, come on and go potty with me."

I am not sure what the definition of fully potty trained is, but I am calling us finished.  Little Sister stays mostly dry, except for at the playground (in which case, who cares if there's pee in the sand?).  I will admit to actually enjoying potty training her.  We had fun. We have songs and dances and chants and cheers. Tiny claps every time I say: Little Sister went potty! We have a "hurrrrrrrrry, Sister needs to go pottyyyyyyyyy!" run that we do around the kitchen table. Do I think we are in the pee free zone? Nope. Poop free, maybe (and thankfully). But I actually am going to miss the time spent sitting in the tiny bathroom with her, making up stories about poop and pee, waving goodbye to them as they go "down the hole", and singing our handwashing song.

Next time I have to potty train someone, maybe I won't approach it with such trepidation.

Can I Test Out?

On our way to get five of us to three different places by 9am today, the girls asked me what I was doing today. I was off to do my annual training for behavior issues/restraining kids. "I have to go to a class so I can learn to be a good foster mom." I said.

Big Sis, damn I love this kid, did not miss a beat: "But you already ARE a good foster mom!"

Thank you, Baby Girl, I needed that today!

Don't Blink

They'll be walking out the door before you know it.

February 2011

April 2011

July 2011

September 2011

November 2011

February 2012

A Wish

I found this in a draft of a blog from November 2010. Written the day after I dropped Little Guy off at his relatives.  I can only hope that this really did happen. And that the kids in the house now should have the same future:

As I was leaving, Little Guy's relative walked me to the door and said: We as a family want you to know that he will grow up knowing you were his second mother. We will not erase these months from his life.