Big Bad Wolf

The other night Brandon had Hunter on his lap with the book The Three Little Pigs. Brandon has been teaching Hunter different animal signs and he now understands Brandon when Brandon asks him where an animal is on the page, Hunter will point. Here's what happened:

Brandon signed "where's the wolf?"

Hunter's response: He points at me.

Just thought I would share.

Random Ramblings...

The boys will be awake soon, so I am typing this without much organized thought! (what else is new??)

As of late our lives have been pretty uneventful. I am one of those people that reads other people's blogs and thinks their lives are sure a lot more exciting than mine!

It has been cool to see the boys make some progress when it comes to their development since they have come in to our home! The baby is getting ready to crawl because he just can't stand having something just out of his reach. He gets up on all fours and rocks back and forth several times. He is as smiley as ever. He has toned down the high pitched squealing, for which I and my strained eardrums are so very grateful! He really enjoys being in the exer-saucer that my sister lent us. With our help in putting him in the sitting up position, he is sitting up much longer on his own now, hopefully enjoying that new perspective of the world. Being our little roly-poly is still his main method for exploring and getting around the house. He is a lot more vocal than he was when he first came to us as well. He is a delight to have around!

Hunter is doing really well too! He is signing SO much and is learning to understand when Brandon only signs and doesn't speak to him at all. I am starting to sign to him more as well. Hunter is pretty darn obedient for a 2 year old. He helps clean up his toys with out being asked, he gets things that I need if I ask him, and he knows when to throw his wrappers from snacks away, and puts his dishes in the sink when he is done eating as well without being asked! Hopefully this isn't just a phase! He is talking a lot more, and has started both signing to himself and singing to himself in the car. Most of the time it's just gibberish, but it's adorable too! He loves to sing songs with me in the car or just whenever.

Brandon and I are doing great as well. I haven't worked for a while because of not wanting to work during the holidays, and waiting for Brandon to figure out his schedule as a Deaf Mentor that will take up a couple of nights a week. I am still working out a few nights a week, so if I have to in order to keep up this habit, I will hire a babysitter to take care of the kids during the day while I go jog at the gym. Brandon's basketball team for the Deaf that he has been involved with since before we were even married started practices this week. They are all the way down in Salt Lake City, but it's an outlet for him which is great. He loves basketball and the association with others it brings him. He goes and plays when he can with my ward's men's basketball team, which means there are people that know him better than they know me.

I miss working full-time as an interpreter. What I miss most is the wonderful people that I worked for and with. I don't miss the commuting though. And I LOVE wearing jeans everyday instead of work clothes! It's a definite plus. Being a mom in any form or fashion is never boring or mundane. Even if this is just a temporary situation, or if it turns out to be a long term one I am grateful for these little boys. This is definitely one of the hardest things I have ever done, but also one of the most rewarding. I have just loved hearing Hunter call me "mommy" and see him learn and grow in just a short time. I enjoy hearing the baby laugh and coo. I can't stand the dirty diapers, the drooling, the tantrums, etc. But being a mother in any way is never easy or glamorous. (I would just love to see Hollywood moms do it full time without their nannies and servants to see how unglamorous it really is to them) I am thankful to have a wonderful and supportive husband that allows me to have the outlet of going out to the gym for not only my physical health but my mental health as well! He comes home from long days at work eats with the family, then helps get the boys ready for bed and supports me going to work out for a couple hours. Not every husband does that. I couldn't do this all by myself, and he is just my rock in so many respects!

Enough of the schmoozing on about the husband, but I am also grateful for comments received when looking for advice! Love to all y'all!

Any Advice?

For about the last 2 weeks, baby Riddick has developed a new hobby. He has decided that he likes to exercise his lungs. Whether he is perfectly content, frustrated, fighting a nap, or hungry he likes to listen to himself scream in the higher octaves for as long as his little lungs with let him. At first he only did this when he was frustrated, but now he does it while playing on the floor with toys, rolling around, or playing right side up in his exer-saucer. There have been times where it even startles Hunter. I wonder if the screaming gets so high the neighborhood dogs' ears are hurting. I already have to wear ear plugs at night to get ANY sleep with this little guy because he is such a restless little sleeper, but now do I have to during the day? Yesterday while I was cooking dinner in the kitchen, I lefft him in his exer-saucer and would check on him periodically, but my goodness his screams were terrible! I popped in the Ipod earphones and turned the Beyonce on as high as my ears could stand it, and enough to barely hear the screams. I don't know how much more I can take! Does anyone have any suggestions? It's so bad that even Brandon has to turn his hearing aid off completely, or it barely registers the high pitches of the screams! I am not exaggerating! Any help is greatly appreciated! If there is nothing I can do, hopefully this is just a phase!

Holiday Recap

It amazes me how fast time goes by when the holidays are passing and the focus of taking care of two boys is on the forefront of my mind (what's left of it anyway).

The holidays at our house were pretty laid back, even taking into consideration there were two little extra people with our family this year. Our original plans were to drive up to Cambridge, Idaho where Brandon is from, but since we got the boys so last minute our plans had to change. Luckily things worked out for my in-laws to drive down and spend Christmas with us. And what an incredibly white Christmas it was for us! We couldn't believe all the snow we got!

Preparing for Christmas was especially fun this year. Brandon and I got a night away from the kids to go spend some extra money that was sent by my parents and grandparents in order to buy some toys for the boys. It was fun opening gifts with Hunter our 2 year old because he loved the toys he got. He wanted to open them all completely before moving on to the next toy. The baby could have cared less what was going on of course!

The Friday after Christmas my in-laws, my bro in-law, Brandon and Hunter rode the Front Runner down to Salt Lake to go to Temple Square to see the lights. I stayed home with the baby since he had been fighting a cold, and I knew that the weather was going to be freezing. It gave me the opportunity to write a talk for church, and to just spend some time and energy on the baby! It was a relaxing evening for me, but a little eventful for everyone else. They went to a restaurant down in Salt Lake City where Hunter wasn't acting like himself during dinner. I am kind of glad I wasn't there because he threw up in the restaurant several times. I would have wanted to die. The finger painting scenario was enough for me (see below entry).

New Years came and went without much excitement. We stayed up late enough to watch Robbie Maddison and Rhys Millen do their death defying stunts to ring in the New Year, and then we went straight to bed!

On a side note, it was December 31 when a member of the Deaf Branch sent an email out offering a free TV and cabinet to go with it. Brandon drove over to take a look at it and decided it could be ours. He was so excited to bring it home and get it set up because it's much larger than the rinky dink TV we have. Not to mention he was really looking forward to having it set up for the Utah vs Alabama game everyone has been talking about. Well we got the TV in with some difficulty (it weighs a ton!) and got everything plugged in and much to Brandon's chagrin, the satelite service quit on us. He even called their customer service to see if they could help, but it didn't. The funny thing about this whole situation is that right after the game ended, the service started working again. So at least we got to see the highlights! But we were both pretty bummed because I wanted to watch it as much as I could with the boys needing attention. But we are really excited about this new TV! It's 13 inches bigger than our older one! After the boys were in bed, we watched Black Sheep (good old Chris Farley!) and laughed until our sides hurt.

I hope that everyone had a fantastic and safe holiday season! Love y'all!

Hunter's "Finger Painting"

I haven't had a chance to blog about this until now! We have been crazy busy with last minute Christmas shopping, and other stuff going on.

Friday morning started like any other morning at our house meaning it was pretty uneventful. We have a routine of getting up and eating breakfast, changing the boys into their day clothes, having some tummy time for the baby while I clean the kitchen, and then me putting the baby down for his mid morning nap while I take a shower and Hunter watches cartoons or plays with toys. Hunter gets in some good play time and movie time with "Mommy" as he calls me, and then the baby usually wakes up and we eat lunch. Then we have some more awake time, and then we ALL go down for naps in the afternoon (by this time I am in serious need of one!)

Well Friday Hunter decided that a nap was too boring. Instead he stayed awake while I came upstairs and slept on our couch. Little did I know that Hunter had an inner artist side to him. He decided to do some "unconventional" fingerpainting in his crib. He took off his pants and decided that he was going to fingerpaint with his own poo all over the wall, his crib, the sheets, his stuffed animals, blankets, and himself! When I walked in, the smell nearly made me throw up. It was like I had run in to a brick wall of it! So needless to say I ended up spending a good hour calling my mom crying and complaining about what a mess it was, and cleaning it up at the same time. I had to throw Hunter in the tub, then clean the tub, and then disinfect the crib, the wall, and throw away his favorite stuffed animal because it was too far gone to wash. I had the strip the bed of everything and wash it twice on the hottest water I could muster with the washing machine. I think I was in shock of the entire thing. I was so mad at Hunter, I was ready to mount his bum to the wall! I mean it's one thing when they poop in the tub, but this was everywhere and it was a massive undertaking to clean everything off even washing Hunter and the tub!

I had to spray half a can of aerosol spray in his room to get rid of the smell. I was just so mortified at the whole situation. Of course my family just laughed at this after the fact, but geez, it certainly wasn't funny at the time! Luckily Friday night we left the kids with some friends of ours in order to get away for an evening to ourselves and to get some Christmast shopping accomplished! I SOOOO needed a night away after that nightmare!

Has anyone else ever had something awful like this happen? If so, please share! And I hope I didn't gross anyone out!

The "Honeymoon" period is SO over!

In foster care classes, they warned us about what they call the "Honeymoon'" period. This is the time when children are first placed in your home, and they obey everything you say, behave themselves, etc. Well as of last Friday night for our 2 year old, we found that that was totally over! Brandon had text me earlier in the day asking if I wanted to go out to dinner with him and the kids. I text him back and was wondering if he was smoking something. But we went ahead with the plans anyway. That afternoon Hunter was incredibly moody and defiant. His favorite word is definitely the ever popular "NO!" you get from 2 year olds. I put him down (stupidly) for a very late nap. When he woke up he was even worse. We tried to explain to him that we were going to go bye bye and get something to eat. He absolutely didn't understand and this lead to the worst fit I have ever seen from any 2 year old in my life! He got on the kitchen floor and started wailing, kicking, and then came the first wave of blood-curdling screams! I couldn't believe what I was hearing. He had been so good up to that point. All Brandon had to do was look at me and say that he refused to take Hunter anywhere in that condition. I decided to go ahead and feed Hunter dinner, and then coerced him into going out for ice cream at the restaurant we went to. Let's just say that between keeping him happy, as well as the baby, there wasn't much adult conversation happening between Brandon and I. But nonetheless it was good to get out and not have to stay at home and cook.

Saturday morning, the baby woke up with a cold. And he has still been pretty happy, but yesterday and today were a little rough for the little guy. I felt so bad for him. When he breathes through his nose, he sounds like a little kitty cat purring. I am learning through what sometimes feels like mistake after mistake when it comes to parenting. I often realize that I really have no idea what I am doing sometimes. I am just grateful that some things are starting to become routine for us.

Another little accomplishment that Brandon and I are pretty proud of is that with Hunter's speech delays, we have taught him a bunch of signs! This has helped tremendously with the frustrations of communication! He is so dang cute when he signs! We are excited for this!

New Foster Boys!

It has been 5 days since I went and picked up our new foster boys. It has been a little crazy at our house since then. I went last Wednesday and picked up 2 year old Hunter, and his 6 month old baby brother Riddick. They look nothing alike, except for their eyes! They are absolutely adorable and very good kids. They have been through some tough times that I can not really go in to detail about, but they are sweethearts. Hunter is pretty polite for a 2 year old and has a little bit of a speech delay, but that is no indicator of his intelligence for sure! He always asks me what things are, and tries so hard to repeat my answers. He says thank you in his own little way saying "day day" for everything you do for him, and everything you give him.

Baby Riddick, or affectionately called bubba, or buddy by us, is a smiley and happy-go-lucky little baby. He has huge blue eyes and a smile the size of Texas! He is just delightful to have around. We couldn't have asked for more precious boys to take care of for the next while! We aren't for sure how long we will have them, but we of course will love and adore them all the same!

It has been nuts at our house mainly because we aren't used to having little ones around! It has and is continuing to be quite the adjustment having two little boys in diapers and bathing two boys that aren't the biggest fans of the tub. We call it the chamber of torture, not only for them, but for us as the ones bathing them while they scream and cry!

Church today was definitely interesting, but went a little better than I thought it would. We have a reversed schedule at the hearing ward I attend. It is Relief Society then Sunday School, then Sacrament meeting! It was kind of nice to drop Hunter off in nursery giving me a little break, though I did worry about the nursery leaders and how he would do. It ended up with him being an angel for them, and the baby giving me heck during my meetings! I had predicted the exact opposite! I spent 2/3 of the day in the foyer on the couch with an ornery baby! Sacrament meeting came, and Hunter was so good just sitting on the pew and coloring with another little boy his age, but the baby didn't want anything to do with me sitting down and holding him. I had to take him out but stay close enough for Hunter to see me. So it ended up that I had two tired and hungry boys that I brought home to a surprised Brandon after sacrament, because I was too exhausted to handle on my own any longer!

That's about it for now, other than the fact that Lexi our dog is exhausted by the end of the day because it has been just as big of an adjustment for her as it has been for us or maybe even more so because she is used to the quiet and being the spoiled center of attention!