Hot Dogs and Baked Beans

It is only 3:30 and we have already had a tough day.  Squirrel is losing sanity and needs to get back to work soon.  Sometimes I think our house becomes toddler hell.  Not right now though, as I have both of them sacked on the sofa.  We have until 5 for some quiet.  It has been just over a week, but we recognize what is coming and I could see the meltdown before it appeared and turned everything off in the house, put all the toys up, took away the sippy cup, and just put them on the sofa.  Within 5 they are out.

We have a favorite book, Sissy requests it every evening.  It is Dr. Seuss, My Many Colored Days.  I ask her what color she is during the day and she is able to tell me.  We are able to start talking about feelings.  Most of the time she says she is Orange and that about describes it... a bit excited, lots of movement.  She says that Bug is Blue and flying free.  I see the meltdowns coming when we jump from color to color, a manic phase, and then when she starts being grabby at everything it is all over. 

The tough part of the day was trying to go to our first family visit.  They had already given Squirrel a run for her money so I was home a few minutes earlier than planned.  I sat down with Sissy where Bug could watch and we talked very seriously (as much as you can with a 3 year old) and let her know that we had an "appointment" to go to an office to try to see Mommy.  After our appointment we would come back home and have hot dogs and beans.  Mommy had things to work on before they would be able to live with her again so she had to live safely with us.  What Sissy took away from the conversation.  "We are having beans"

Amazing.  We are so nonchalant about seeing Mommy, but we cry out for her every time there is a reason to cry. 

We went to our appointment (a tiny bit late as we rescued the neighbors' dog) and to our surprise, but not to our surprise... Mommy was a no-show.  She actually called late into our visit time stating that she couldn't get a ride.  This is where I rage inside on behalf of the girls.  How do you have your babies taken away from you to live with some complete strangers in a house that you have no clue about and you don't even bother to show up to see them?  These babies have not seen their Mommy in over a week.  We are supposed to have visits 3 times a week.  It took a full week for her to respond to the Girls' case worker and now a no-show.  We have another visit on Thursday.

To our relief we had the opportunity to visit the offices and check them out without the stress of seeing Mommy.  The girls enjoyed playing with all the toys.  Sissy was drawn to the dollhouse and of course the first thing Bug grabbed was a toy vacuum.  We also met Miss M who works there and when the girls are in "school" will be who transports them to and from their visit.  This will be great and allow us to maintain our work schedules and leave the flexibility for the court dates.  I guess another item on the bright side is that we didn't have to pull the girls from their Mommy and we don't have resurfacing feelings from a visit. 

They said in our foster class that you will have an idea how long the children will be with you by how the parent responds to visits.  I think we will be serving a lot of hot dogs and baked beans.