"My" Kids

I just thought I'd take a moment to update the blog with how the kids are doing!

Madi is not doing so well.  She is back to being super super jealous and selfish.  Its soooo tough to see, because she is such a sweet lovely girl, and right now she is just generally being mean!!  This is my beautiful, loving, big-hearted, hyper girl, and the only part of that she is living up to right now is hyper.  It makes me sad to see her lke this becuase I know its becuase these new siblings that she prayed so long for arent what she expected.  She expected a sister to play with and talk with and go outside and play with, but unfortunatly, Dee Dee isnt like that.  Dee Dee's conversational skills are very limited and she mostly just answers yes to everything she is asked and tends to lie about stuff too.  Madi tries to talk to her, but its very one-sided.  She is having a hard time sharing toys, even toys that arent hers.  She is having a hard time sharing people too.  Last night she through one prolonged "fit" from about 6 until 9:30. (She waseven put to bed at 7...) becuase she didnt want to share my mom, Mimi.  It was soo stressful to the other kids.  We really need to figure out a way to help her with all of this, but Mike and I are just at our wits end.  Any suggestions?  Every thursday night while the other 2 have visits with birth mom, we take Madi out to eat and spend an hour with just her.  I would love to make it more time... but thats tough!! :o)  Madi is doing very well in school and is hardly ever getting into trouble!! YAY!!  She is making friends and learning stuff, and remember stuff from last year.  She is reading soooo well!!  I love that... she seriously has devolped some awesome reading skills!  And she is able to work on homework alone!  Its so cool.
Dee Dee is making progress.  We are working on lying and stealing and hoarding things.  She is receiving counseling, physchiatry, learning support, and will be getting 25 hours of TSS time in school and 5 in the home, and other mobil therapies starting in the next 2 weeks.  The mobile therapies may include Occupational therapy and possibly physical therapy.  Whew.  This poor kid needs all of it.... and maybe even more!!  We are still learning about her and all she needs.  On the school front, they have decided to keep her in 1st grade, in learning support for the morning and then put her in an afternoon kindergarten program.  Yes, she "passed" kindergarten, but she did not master it... and has almost no skills she should have learned there.  So she will be in both, which i think is great!  In the morning, she will get a lot of hands on, one on one teaching and will really focus on 123's and ABC's and shapes and other things and then the afternoon will be fun kindergarten time!  She has really bonded to Mike... but is working on the bond with me.  Visits with mom really mess her up with me tho.  Afterwards, she just refuses to listen to me.  Sigh.  But the agency we work with has decided to bump up her status with us and that will enable us to get her more services if she needs it (yay!), but it will require a little more paperwork (boo!)!!  But, if more paperwork means more help for her, Ill do it. 
Bubba is my little man!  Oh my!! I love this boy so much.  We have bonded a lot... mostly becuase he is home here with me all day.  He has an Early Intervention appointment coming up soon, becuase his speech is a little behind and he is super clumsy and has not mastered the steps yet.  But, he is talking... its just very very hard to understand.  But he has words that I can understand and he said banana super clearly yesterday!!  YAY! :o)  Im confident he will be speaking clearly soon and he will prove he is smart!! He is also my little cuddle bug.  After a nap or in the morning when he gets up, if we have time, we lay down in my bed and cuddle for a while, and then I will turn the tv on and he will lay with me and watch tv for a while.  Its sooooo nice.  He loves Mike too... he gets very excited and happy when Daddy gets home and always runs to him and gives him hugs... its super cute. 
My kids.  Its so nice to be a family of 5.  It makes us feel so much more complete.... although we know we arent complete... we are just closer to it!!