foster friends

One of the things that has kept us busy is respite foster care. Respite care is when other foster parents either go somewhere and can't take the children, or they just plain old need a day off. We have told the department we will ONLY do respite care right now. I'm just not ready to sign up for any more commitment than that at this moment. Usually we have been taking a brother and sister off and on about once a month. They play great with Ellie -- and it's nice that when they need respite they always call us first. The first time when they left to go back to the other foster family the little girl just cried and gave me a big hug and asked if I could be her babysitter again -- melts my heart! Anyway the boy is in soccer so we go to his games once in a while.

My favorite thing about respite care is that I don't have to take a big authoritarian parental role -- I can kinda be like a really cool aunt that everybody loves. Usually it's for a short enough period of time everyone is usually on their best behavior. I guess the exception is this last time. The department called us one afternoon and asked if we could take a three year old for thirteen days. That is a pretty long respite - and we don't know any of her background . . . but we said yes and we're glad we did. She and Ellie play so well together. Well, they were angelic for the first four days. Then the next four days they were crazy -- one determined to get the other in trouble; and the other determined to be jealous of the other girl about everything under the sun. Yikes. So this is what having twins is like, huh? They were acting like sisters and fighting lots. But since then they've both simmered down a bit. We are really glad to have the three year old, she is a sweetheart. Playing dress up in my old dresses from growing up.

We went to Arctic Circle -- I forgot how monstrous those ice cream cones were. Can you believe they finished them all (after a long period of time with help from Darik!)
Ellie loves ice cream as much as her momma.
The girls pretending to be kitties while the play outside. They spend almost 16 hours a day out there playing!
And here are the girls after brushing their teeth. They are so cute!

The one thing I've realized is that before I have thought about how having just one kid is hard. They have NO ONE to play with except the mom (and occasional playdates). They do a little bit of solo play time and a little bit of tv -- but by in large toddlers need tons of interaction -- and a majority of that requires me in Ellie's face. I've thought about how much easier it would be if she just had a sibling. So now she kinda has one . . . and in a way it's SO much easier. But it's hard in different ways. So kinda even-stevens either way. It's just interesting to be able to experience both!