Ottertober Fest at the Zoo

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We had such a great time at the Zoo. We got there early enough to get into the children's zoo for free. We weren't going to go because K wasn't feeling well but I needed to get out of the house. This was K's first time at the zoo and I'm so glad we did end up going because we had lots of fun.

K's New Trike

On Saturday we hit a few larger yard sales (most were playgroups that were hosting them), we weren't looking for anything specific, just thought it would be fun to be out and about. I have been looking for over a month now trying to find a trike that

1. That will fit K, most trikes are way too big

2. Don't cost so freakin' much

3. Has a parent handle so we can push.

The reason I have been looking so hard for one is because they said it will really help strengthen her hip muscles, along with her other leg muscles from peddling. I was amazed to find at the last yard sale one of the Top 2 Choices that I had made in my Trike research (which neither one in my top 2, I would pay full price for because they are super expensive).

Before I got way to excited I really wanted to check it over and make sure nothing was broken on it. It looks brand new, no chips, scratches, I really don't think the child played on it at all. The second was to look at the price, this trike is an import from Europe, it's super expensive (over $150 with the parent handle). I was shocked when it was priced under $10. Now the third test was to see if K would actually get on it, keep her feet on the peddles and ride it. The minute she got on it, it was like she had waited her whole life to ride a tricycle. All she does when she rides the trike is smile from ear to ear.

Friday & Saturday

I have to say I'm really enjoying my new work schedule. Getting to be home with K on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays are awesome. On Friday we just hung around the house, I put on a pair of the smallest pair of squeeky shoes I bought and she just squeeked all over the house. It was a blast to watch. On Saturday we spoke at an Adoption Conference at our homestudy agency. This is the 2nd time for me to do this and my Social Worker makes a point to tell me in advance because she likes my insight into not only into adoption by advocating for your childs special needs. The downside to this was we only could stay for a 1/2 hour because we had a Cousin's baby shower to go to but instead we ended up staying almost a good 45 minutes longer than we wanted too. We only arrived a 1/2 hr late to Cousin S baby shower. I really didn't want to go but my Mom basically forced me to. I'm 31 years old and my Mom still makes me do stuff I don't want to do. This branch of the family tree has basically snubbed us for as long as I can remember. I'm close to one Cousin D and his Partner S and that's because they moved far away from them and we stay close. Cousin S is Cousin D's baby sister. So I finally said fine I'll only go because it's Cousin D's little sister and this way I can send him some pictures. It went ok and luckily, two of my Great-Aunts where there and 1 Cousin who I get along with. So it wasn't bad after all. Plus we totally cleaned up on the baby shower games and we came home with almost all the prizes!!

Training Session - September 27, 2007

Well tonight was our training session. This week's session was on Adopting from Foster Care, Also how to deal with a child being returned to their biological parents and also How to support the Biological Parents. Of course my class had to act up like fools. We had a women there that had to make up a class and they were giving her dirty looks and everything. I really felt bad for the women. And then there comments and laughing got so out of hand that the Women Trainer actually stopped class and goes "is there a problem" Of course they all shut-up for about 5 minutes and then started again. I really didn't listen as well to this class because I already know all about adoption and it wasn't anything new that I didn't already know. Know I did listen to the part about supporting the Biological Parents because they were even suggesting that even if the child is returned, that if they didn't have a place to live, you could help them get an apartment or provide them with money to do so. Ummm, No I don't think so, my money is already tight that I'm sure enough not going to give the Biological Parents money especially when there are state aid programs out there like Sect. 8 and Food Stamps. Sorry its just I work very hard for my money and wish for it to go to my family (which includes future foster children). So I've got a ton of homework because since there's always the possibilty that I would adopt a foster child, I have to fill out 4 more sheets than if I was just going to be a foster parent, making it a total of 9 sheets of homework.

Last Home Game of the Season

Today we were lucky enough that J, J, & S had some extra tickets to our beloved MLB team. They were meant for another couple but they couldn't come, so we were lucky enough that we were free and could go. K & S had a great time playing together in the kids play area. I think K crawled through the baseball hat at least a 100 times. It's pretty cool that K & S recognize each other and like to play with each other. K even protected S when a bigger kid (she was probably about 2) started to hit S. And you have to think that my K is a little bit of nothing (not even 16 pounds yet). That 2 year old stayed far away from K & S the rest of the time. My K didn't hit the little girl at all, all she did was grab her arm when she when she was about to hit S. We didn't stay for the whole game because K was having some really wicked leg pains and was miserable. Uncle N was a little bummed out that we couldn't stay but he knew we were better off leaving when we did. K is in pink in the pictures and S has red socks on.

SATURDAY RAMBLINGS

We had a good Saturday, we had leftovers from Lotawatta Creek....MMMMM!! This place is amazing and if you are ever in my neck of the woods, make sure to visit this place. I decided to try something new on their menu "Rajun Cajun Catfish" It was amazing, blackend catfish with a creamy cheese and bell pepper sauce on top. It's not an expensive place to eat either and you get a ton of food that ends up lasting you for a couple of meals. We also got there stuffed mushrooms. Now these aren't any little stuffed mushrooms, these things are huge and so delicious, you get 10 of them in a order and they are all super big. Basically we get so much food we were able to eat Friday Supper, Saturday Lunch, Saturday Dinner and Sunday Lunch off of our meals. I got K a Chicken strip dinner with Green Beans. She wasn't too excited about the chicken strips but loved the Green Beans. I wish I knew what made their Green Beans so good because I don't like Green Beans otherwise but I love theirs.

This is a picture of one of the stuffed mushrooms with a normal size Hershey Kiss. They're Big Mushrooms aren't they!

Otherwise we spent this afternoon coloring, K is getting pretty good at staying within the lines. We also have been working on letter recognition and today 90% of the time she got the letter "R" correct when pointing it out in a book, paper, etc. If she got it wrong it was because she would pick out the letter "S" instead. Not sure why because they don't even look the same. I'm still worrying that she doesn't pronounce the words as plainly as I would like, I guess when we have to have another ISP evaluation (should be coming up soon) that I'm going to ask them again to look at her speech progress. I know she's on target but I guess I'm expecting more since she's so bright and tests at a 30+ month level in everything else.

6th Training Session - August 20, 2007

You would have never believe how well today's session went. There was no outburts, no comparing each other lives, and no stupid drawn out questions. I was in shock! And to top it all off, we finished class 10 minutes early. Tonight class was on discipline and the States policy on no corpal punishment. I already knew that because of K's adoption because I had to sign a paper for my homestudy. Plus I never saw spanking as an effect punishment tool anyway. I still have my homework to do, 4 pages of questions on how were you punished as a child and how do you punish your own children.