Following yesterday's nap we headed out for our family visit. I am looking forward to next week when I am not at them (our agency will pick the kids up from school and return them to school).
Just a gentle warning on this post... I'm in a mood.
Our visit was held at a park that is local to the biomom's house because she doesn't have a vehicle. The kids and I got there and this park is nothing like the other parks we have been at. It is run down, has broken items, a sandbox with who knows what in it and I'm scared of what is lurking in the grass that has not been cut in weeks.
As I'm unbuckling the kids a car pulls up. Yes, a car pulls up. Biomom is driving. What the? You mean I'm at this park for your convenience (only 2 or 3 blocks from her home) and you drive (I'm censoring myself here folks). We are supposed to be meeting at our agency's office so that it is fair to all parties however biomom has yet to produce her lice free letter.
Here I am. I didn't get a shower this morning because your baby was up with a fever for much of the night and then your 3 year old decided she was getting up at 7. Coffee... yeah, I forgot to drink my coffee as I was feeding your kids.
Nice to see you had time to put on a pretty sparkling shirt. I'm wearing yesterday's shorts since they were still mostly clean and I did put on a clean t-shirt. I combed my hair and brushed my teeth. Oh, and I did that for your kids as well. Nice make-up... did you realize you were going to the park? Where did you manage to get the clothes because it isn't like you have been working or that you bothered to clothe your own kids. Yeap, out of all the items you sent your kids with I was able to use none of them.
I take my book and find a corner to sit in. Biomom plays in the sandbox with the kids, or rather sits on the side as they play. Sissy sits right in front of her to get her attention. Pictures with her fancy phone are taken. (I have a solution, get a cheap burner phone and instead of your fancy phone pay your water bill)
Bug is a bit under the weather so I let biomom know that she is a bit slower going today as she is running a fever. She doesn't ask about her care or what I have been doing to work on this... her response is "yeah, I've been in and out of the hospital for the past few weeks". Really, um... no. Little secret here honey, we have been keeping up a bit from the caseworkers, DHS, and the other foster mom. We know that your caseworker told you literally TEN times about court that you then skipped. It has been 3 weeks since we last saw you. Frankly, I'm starting to think you just don't care. If that is the reason you missed visits you should be prepared with some paperwork.
At one point during our hour visit the employee from the agency asked if biomom brought any snacks or items for the kids. Of course she hadn't. It is an expectation of our agency that bioparents use this time to work on their parenting skills and one of those things is to do things like snacks. Of course I had grapes, crackers, and ice water waiting in the car for immediately following the visit. When the visit ended biomom also handed me Bug and said, I think she pooped. Yes, kids poop, and don't you think you could have tried to maybe ask if I had a diaper and change her? My poor bug.
Well, at least she showed up, right? Two visits in four weeks... boy, these are some lucky kids.
Gloat moment though. Sissy told her mom all about her bedroom, that I ride a "big motorcycle", what their new nicknames are, how they visited school.
Post-visit went fine. Kids were happy that I was going to make chicken. We had a good dinner and then had watermelon outside. Bug was very clingy and later that night her fever broke, but the poor kid ended up with soaked PJs. Today she is definitely feeling better, but tired. Sissy had one of her best behaved days and even was doing well for toilet training.
This morning has been an okay one. The kids were up at seven which then prompted an early breakfast. At least the getting up part will be good for next week. Around 10 we were starting to get demanding of a snack. We have been battling the food insecurity and the demanding items so I pulled out two cookbooks and I sat with Sissy and talked about baking a snack. I wanted something a bit difficult, but not impossible, and not out of a box. We didn't get anything as difficult as I would like as I don't have a lot of flour in the house (for bread), but I did find a recipe for Peanut Butter Oat Muffins (we could have done cookies, but I'm not going to have them know those talents yet). I pulled out the step stool (Squirrel is going to hate how disorganized the pantry is) and had Sissy hop up. Bug became interested so I brought a chair out and she hopped up as well. We have been avoiding having them up on items in the kitchen, but I have to get across to Sissy that food isn't instantaneous. Out came a metal mixing bowl and a spoon. I measured the ingredients by the quarter cup so we did some counting practice (up to 5 for 1 1/4 cups of flour). Sissy had to get all the brown sugar lumps out of the dry ingredients. Bug and I worked on the liquids (milk, eggs, peanut butter). We put the wet in the dry, Sissy mixed. Into mini muffin tin they went and then we learned about waiting for the oven to beep. Sissy was able to see the muffins "grow" in the oven and was actually quite patient. I made a production of pulling the muffins out of the hot oven and waiting for them to cool. All in all, it was a good lesson and we were more patient when it came to lunch. Sissy did, however, eat nearly a whole pan of mini-muffins (20 to a pan). The rest are being saved for Squirrel and our visit with Big Sister this evening.
Lunch went well, we made fish sticks and tater tots in the oven (to practice our patience waiting for the beep). Once again I made only enough for one serving (also watching the over eating). Sissy was okay with it and Bug... well, I have a great picture of her falling asleep in her high chair.
It is now almost the end of nap time, the dishes are almost done, the laundry ready to be brought up, and I need to get the snack ready. I think I'm going to be brave and serve watermelon since it is already cut up from last night.
Four weeks down... many, many more to go.
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