Archive for category Foster Kidz

Almost there!

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 23 November, 2011

It’s so incredibly surreal to me that we will have two new Baileys in 6 days! Yes, that’s right. On November 29th we’ll go before the judge and tell him we’d be more than happy to raise these sweet angels forever and ever and ever! Who wouldn’t??

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There’s a toilet in my dishwasher…

Posted by KK on Thursday, 24 February, 2011
jj-poops-picnik2

I do believe this is a hopeless cause. At least right now it is. Yes he just turned two on Christmas Eve but I have had boys potty trained before their 2nd birthday (especially those who were cloth diapered like this one) so why not at least begin introducing it, right? Of course, those early trainers of mine were not exposed to drugs in utero so they didn’t have the same challenges as this one. My JJ has sensory issues. Big time. He is terrified of everything. I’ve sat him on one of those fun little cushioned Diego potty inserts (that’s all my boys ever used….we never did the separate tiny little potty on the floor beside the real potty deal) and he freaked out so badly, dug his fingernails into my back, and I thought I may have done permanent damage to his heart and lungs from the intense palpitations and screaming.

So my sweet friend who happens to also be parenting drug babies suggested I buy one of these dreaded potty things that you have to clean out after each use. Gross. I have bought one before. It was my car potty but I always lined it with a plastic Wal*Mart bag or something with a folded up paper towl in the bottom (to absorb Le pee pee) so I could easily toss the contents and never had to clean it out. It is ugly and boring and was only used when my 20 month old River decided he needed to use the potty full time and so I bought an ugly $8 potty from Target to keep in my SUV so when he yelled “Pee Pee” every 10 minutes or when his potty watched beeped alarming him it was time to have a pee even if we were on the go we could easily “go” without me having to drag three little boys into a nasty public restroom somewhere. Yes, this was the best idea I ever had and maybe it wasn’t even my idea but I am claiming it as one of the highlights of my toddler parenting era.

So that ugly, boring potty is down in the garage somewhere and  I was eyeballing a real fancy potty at Target the other day, one that I was sure that if I owned then my 2 year old would definitely pee and poo in without any trouble just because it was so fancy but that fanciness came with a $30 price tag. The only problem was that I couldn’t find anywhere on that thing the hidden plumbing that surely came along with a piece of plastic that cost $30 that a baby poops in that is nothing more than a luxurious plastic bowl you’d otherwise eat popcorn out of. I passed.

A few days later I was in Wal*Mart again and a little unsupervised child had taken every single one of these froggy potties and had lined them up on the floor b*utt to n*ut (can I say that on my blog?) like a giant caterpillar made out of frogs and was jumping over them while his mother was two isles down looking at diapers or something. I thought those froggy potties were cute, too, but still didn’t want to even pay $15 for a piece of plastic that my baby would poo in.

I promise I am getting to my point here…

So the boys and I were out running a few errands yesterday and one was to Good*will (because Habitat for Humanity is closed on Wednesdays) and I had the entire back of my large SUV packed full of junk to give away. So we stopped by Good*will to drop off all my junk and I decided to pull around the front and pop in the store for just a second (which I NEVER do) and whaddya know….right there in the children’s section was a froggy potty which looked brand new like it never saw a drop of pee. I am sure it did but you know that nine times out of ten people buy those things and then never use them. That’s what I have always thought anyway which is why I never used them with my boys and only bought the little insert to prevent their tiny little buns from being flushed until their tiny buns got a little bigger. So I paid $3 and walked out of that store with a like-new froggy potty which will very likely never see a drop of pee but it is so incredibly cute to see my naked JJ sitting on it with those froggy eyes glaring out between his knees (that is once you get past the creepiness of those froggy eyes glaring out between his knees which I had to do). So what do you do with a potty that you bought second hand that may or may not have ever seen a drop of pee or poo? Why you run it through the high temp wash, tough scrub, sanitize, heated dry cycle in your dishwasher, that’s what!

JJ es dos.

Posted by KK on Sunday, 26 December, 2010

Our little JJ turned two on Friday, Christmas eve. Yep. You read that correctly. He’s a Christmas eve baby. Mine is two days after Christmas and I gave birth to my eldest son, Wheaton, the day after my birthday in 2000. So counting Jesus (because WE definitely count Him), we celebrate 4 birthdays in 5 days here. I wouldn’t trade it for anything, though. So if we are blessed with the gift of adopting our little JJ I will have yet another little guy to make sure he gets celebrated individually every year amidst the hustle and the bustle of Jesus’ big day. JJ came to live with us when he was barely 15 months old so I am not sure what sort of 1st birthday party he had if any so I let him do the tearing up a cupcake ordeal (which is so hard for me as you can imagine) and he loved it. It took him no less than 15 minutes to realize that I was indeed planning to let him eat the cupcake himself (he has chewing/food issues due to an oral motor delay so I have always fed him to ensure he doesn’t take in too much and properly chews his food) but when he did finally get going he helped himself. He did a great job and asked to get down before finishing his carrot cupcake. Who doesn’t finish a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting?? My JJ doesn’t. And I was glad. About 30 minutes later he was bouncing off the walls. Later when the sugar high faded he just sat in his mamaw’s lap staring into space. Poor guy. Perhaps I should give him sweets more often. …. Nah.

We taught him to say ‘two’ and to hold up two fingers although after we spent a great deal of time trying to show him how to hold up two fingers we finally held up his two pointer fingers and that was doable. So when he shows you how old he is he holds up two hands. It’s too cute. After his treat when it was time to open gifts he was again unsure of whether he was actually allowed to tear paper. Again, it took him a while but he got the hang of it and had his new toys unwrapped in a matter of minutes. He loves animals SO much and got a big red barn with several new animals and a couple puzzle boards to go along with it. He played and he played and he played. He’s such an angel.

Jason’s parents were in town as well and his mom brought us all a birthday cake. She is so sweet to think of us all each year and always brings a cake no matter what. It’s her thing. I like it! I failed to snap a photo before the cake was cut but it read ‘Happy Birthday Wheat, JJ & Kayce”. It was yummy!

Busy Baileys.

Posted by KK on Friday, 10 December, 2010

We have been so busy here. It’s been a good busy, the kind that makes you feel good and that warms your heart. I love that kind of busy. We’ve not been shopping for Christmas one time and it’s already the 10th but I don’t care. I am so ready for things to slow down but when I say ‘slow down’ I mean fill our days with family fun like baking cookies, painting our nativity set I bought at the craft store for my boys to paint for me and finishing the decorating. We have our tree up but that’s about it. I am not complaining at all, really. I’m just sayin’.

So what have we been up to? Well, a couple of weeks ago our JJ started having visits with his birth mother. JJ has been in our custody for eight months and had not seen his birth mom in six full months to the day when DCS decided she could begin her visitations again. When JJ came to live with us he was a terrified, incoherent little baby who had been living his 15 months of  life in a drug induced, secluded run down hotel environment where he spent most of his days either sleeping all day or laying in his crib with a bottle. We learned this as we began realizing that at nearly a year and a half of age he had never experience a bath before (because he screamed uncontrollably every time we bathed him because it terrified him so badly), he had never eaten solid foods before (because he gagged every time I offered him a banana or cheerios) so I introduced him to baby food at 15 months of age and then began transitioning to solids, and because sunlight and loud noises were too much for him and he couldn’t take a lot of it. He wasn’t speaking one word. Despite the mound of age appropriate toys within his reach in his bedroom, he wouldn’t play with anything. For more than a month, I carried him everywhere I went. Fast forward eight months and you wouldn’t ever know he was that little boy. He has speech therapy twice a week where he now recites parts of his favorite books with his teacher, where he repeats almost any word on command and is now using words to try and communicate with us (such as ‘stop’ when we are tickling him and ‘wah-wah’ when he wants his cup of water). He will be two years old this month and has yet to use more than two words at a time and only uses a handful of words appropriately. He loves baths and calls them ‘tub tub’ instead of bath tub. He loves the outdoors and the sunshine. He is no longer afraid of loud noises but still has a lot of fear of abandonment and will not let me out of his sight for too long. He eats everything. I mean everything. And he eats so fast that he nearly chokes at every meal because he wants it in his tummy so fast he forgets to chew his food. He eats the same thing we eat at every meal. Along with speech therapy twice a week he attends a ‘Birth to Three’ program taught by Little Tennessee Valley Education Coop at Lenoir City Elementary School on Mondays and loves his teachers. He no longer cries when I drop him off but instead runs toward the mound of activities they have waiting for him. The child we have now is nothing like the child we received in April.

So take a child who was awakened to the world around him with a loving, caring family and who had not seen his birth mother in six months and try handing him over to her who he sees as nothing more than a complete stranger and this is what he and us have been subjected to the last two weeks. The first week, he screamed. He didn’t recognize any of the people trying to take him from me, who he knows as his mommy, and wasn’t in any way shape or form going to be left with them. I had no choice but to hand him to someone, tell him I loved him and would be back shortly, and walk out while he screamed with his arms outstretched towards me and crying ‘mommy’. Talk about heartbreaking. That day, when I returned to pick him up, he was overjoyed to see me and nearly jumped out of his birth mother’s arms and shouted very loudly “MOMMY!!” to me. What an odd position I was in but glowing on the inside. The second week it wasn’t much different although he didn’t cry much. As we entered the DCS office and he saw his birth mom and the visitation supervisor he quickly whipped around and laid his head on my shoulder gripping his fingers into my back very intensely.  His birth mom kept trying to take him from me and he wouldn’t have it. I was finally able to set him down on the floor and he walked toward the playroom when he recognized a DCS employee who had visited him several times in our home. Again, when I returned to pick him up, he was overjoyed to see me and jumped in my arms. To him, it is no different than dropping him off in the nursery at church. He doesn’t like it but knows he doesn’t have a choice and also knows I will return shortly and he is reassured by that. I hate this for him and I will admit that I hate it for myself, too. The system is broken. We know that. But this is the first time we have witnessed the system begin to fail a child and I have already made everyone at DCS aware that if they fail this child we are done. In the last year we have had seven children come through our home and six have returned. Successfully. The system worked for those children. This time it is different. I can’t be a part of it knowing there are children out there in other less fortunate countries who do not have government systems in place to protect them, clothe them and feed them and who possibly need us more than the children in our country who at all times are being taken care of by someone. So that’s that. We’ll see what the future holds. “Be STILL and know that I am God.” I chant it all day every day. It’s all I can do.

So aside from this addition to our already very busy schedule, I have with a friend been planning a Christmas party for CAPA, our foster parent association for Loudon and Monroe Counties. We have approximately thirty homes in these two counties and in each home is anywhere from 1 to 5 foster children at all times. We had about 70 folks RSVP. With money raised through our two fundraisers, we had a total of $868. How were we going to pull this off AND buy each child a gift that wasn’t just a piece of crap!?!? That’s when God stepped in. The vice principal at a local elementary school learned we were looking for a location and being an adoptive parent herself said she would let us use their gymnasium for FREE. which included basketball goals, a giant area for a bunch of wild kiddos to run for two hours, tables, trash cans…absolutely everything we needed! Also, the supervisor at our local DCS office attends a large church here in town who owned their very own bounce house and he arranged for us to borrow it for FREE. We received a $100 gift card donation from Wal-Mart to use toward the purchase of gifts and were able to spend $20 on each child….all 41 of them!! My friend Charity’s youngest adopted son, Mason, just had his first birthday party about a week ago and received way more gifts than he needed and two of some things so she provided gifts for about six of the very young children on our list by donating things he received at his party. This saved us so much money! Papa John’s gave us a great deal on 20 pizzas. Food City donated two dozen cupcakes leaving us to only have to pay for six out of the eight dozen I ordered. All the paper products and wrapping paper needed we purchased from Dollar Tree and saved a ton. Lastly, Charity’s father came wearing a borrowed santa suit and personally gave each child his/her gift. I stood beside santa for a little while and heard the children telling him things they wanted. One little boy said, “Do you remember seeing me at my school the other day?” It was precious. All in all, we fed and entertained about 70 people for little to nothing. We are in fact broke with only maybe $20 left in our account but we made a lot of kids really happy. To beat it all, because they are technically still in state custody although living with their grandmother for the last nine months, our three boys we had last winter (A, T & J) were able to come with their grandmother so our boys were so happy they got to play with them again. These boys all love each other so much. They’ll be brothers forever. I am attaching as many photos as I can without showing too many faces (I am not legally allowed to show faces). The faces you see are of those already adopted like my friend Charity’s blonde headed angel, Mason. I didn’t get one photo of her Kaden. For those of you who loved on our three boys last winter, you’ll enjoy seeing them almost a year later….perfect, happy and well cared for by their grandma. They’re amazing, smart, healthy & SO well behaved! Thank you to all who helped us sell tickets to our pancake breakfast and who helped in any other way make this a very successful and joyous event for so many children in distress.

Merry Christmas!

I have finished sulking.

Posted by KK on Thursday, 11 November, 2010

I was a mess yesterday. That isn’t good for me or my family. When I am down, everyone suffers. It was just a bad day. I wish I handled disappointing news better but I haven’t found a way to just yet. So late in the afternoon I began picking myself up and decided to go to The Well. The Well is my church’s Wednesday night service. I have been attending Two Rivers Church for more than 8 years and have never been to The Well (although in fairness it was only started a few years ago, I think). I love it. It is largely 2 or more hours of worship through song, dance & prayer. Childcare isn’t available so my kids go with me. They love it, too, and I love seeing them get a different taste of all the many ways we can worship our God. River & Lake especially love waving the banners.

So last night I went in prepared to just try and relax and to clear my head of all my frustrations and worry I had been moping in all day. After the worship team glorified God through some amazing song we entered into a time of prayer and listening. I found myself sitting on the floor reading my Bible. I ended up in the book of Matthew, chapter 6. It was for me. Especially for the day I’d had.

I journaled a lot that I wanted to read over the coming weeks to remind me once again that every detail of my life is in His hands and that He is in control. I forget this every day.

I KNOW that the same God who created life in me can be trusted with the details of my life.

I KNOW that worrying about the future hampers my efforts for today.

I KNOW that worrying is more harmful than helpful.

I KNOW that God does not ignore those who depend on Him.

I KNOW that my worry shows a lack of faith in and understanding of God.

I KNOW that there are real challenges that God wants me to pursue and that worrying keeps me from them.

I KNOW that living one day at a time keeps me from being consumed with worry.


Lord, help me to trust You,
the same God who created my life,
with all the details of my life.
I know You will not ignore me
if I depend on You.
Give me a stronger faith
and understanding of who You are.
Help me to focus on today
and worry less about tomorrow,
living one day at a time.
Amen.

Oh crappy day…

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 10 November, 2010

Yes. I said that. It has been one crappy day. But when I feel like this because of mediocre crap that I am going through (because, selfishly, I do not like to have to go through crap. Ever.) I stumble upon words like this written by those who have really had a crappy day…and this author is a mother to 14 young girls in Uganda, all adopted.

And every single day, it is worth it. Because ADOPTION IS GOD’S HEART. He sets the lonely in families. Adoption is the reason that I can come before God’s throne and beg Him for mercy, because He predestined me to be adopted as His child through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.

My family, adopting these children, it is not optional. It is not my good deed for the day, it is not what I am doing to “help these poor kids out.” I adopt because God commands me to care for the orphans and the widows in their distress. I adopt because to whom much has been given, much will be demanded. I adopt because whoever finds his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for HIS sake will find it.

Some days, my friends, it is not easy. Today, it is not easy. The HURT in my daughters’ hearts is big and real and as their mother, I want to fix it and know that I CAN’T. So I lay it at the feet of my Father and rejoice to know that if we are children, then we are heirs – of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in His sufferings – in order that we may also share in His glory. And I call out to the Holy Spirit knowing that He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, because He always lives to intercede for us.

A sweet friend pointed me yesterday to Genesis Chapter 33. Esau and Jacob are meeting for the first time in a long time. As Jacob approaches Esau, with his many children following close behind, Esau asks, “ And who are these with you?”

Jacob’s reply: “These are the children that the Lord saw fit to bless me with.”

We get all the questions. “Why do you do it?” “Why so many?” “How in the world…” “Why these specific girls?” “Why the number 14?” “Do you think its ok to adopt as a single Mother? Don’t they need a father too?” “Do you think they will have issues since you are not the same race?” We also get the compliments. “I don’t know how you do it!” “Good job!” “You must be so responsible!” “Your girls must be so well behaved.” We get crazy stares and huge smiles and every look in between.

Adoption is beautiful. Adoption is hard. Adoption is the Gospel of Christ and the promise of God’s love and redemption lived out in our lives. So I ask for your prayers. Prayers for understanding and peace and trust and the power of God that is more than all I can ask or imagine. And to the questions and the comments and the compliments, this is my reply: “These are the children that the Lord saw fit to bless me with.”

So I think I’ll go fold some laundry or something and get myself out of this pathetic pool of tears that I have been swimming in all day…

Orphan Sunday

Posted by KK on Friday, 5 November, 2010

This Sunday is Orphan Sunday. Fellow Christians, it is a mandate that we look after the fatherless. Not an option. Pray about adopting and/or fostering a child or financially supporting those who are willing to do so themselves.

To learn more about Orphan Sunday, click HERE.

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1: 27


Perfect words…

Posted by KK on Wednesday, 27 October, 2010

I stole the below text from a blog I read frequently (Every. Single. Day.). The author of the blog is a friend of my very good friend, Janice. She has eleven children, one of which is already in the arms of Jesus. All are adopted. I read these words on her blog this morning, which she reposted from an online devotional. This IS what I have been praying for weeks now, especially when I wake up in the middle of the night and can’t go back to sleep, although her prayer is so much more elegant. I may just read this to God eery day from now on. He won’t mind.


Prayer of Release

I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return. 2 Timothy 1:12 NLT


Heavenly Father, I release to You the burdens that I have been carrying, burdens that You never intended for me to carry. I cast all my cares upon You—all my worries, all my fears. You have told me not be anxious about anything, but rather to bring everything to You in prayer with thankfulness.

Father, calm my restless spirit, quiet my anxious heart, still my troubling thoughts with the assurance that You are in control. I let go of my grip upon the things I have been hanging onto, with opened hands I come to You. I release to Your will all that I am trying to manipulate; I release to Your authority all that I am trying to control; I release to Your timing all that I have been striving to make happen.

I thank You for Your promise to sustain me, preserve me, and guard all that I have entrusted to Your keeping. Protect my heart and mind with Your peace, the peace that passes all understanding. Father, may Your will be done in my life, in Your time, and in Your way.

Scriptures: Psalm 55:22, 1 Peter 5:7, Philippians 4:6, Matthew 6, Isaiah 26:3, Luke 11:2

If you are interested in reading her blog, click HERE

So as the story goes…

Posted by KK on Monday, 25 October, 2010

And then there were six. We’re down to four kids again. Just our three boys along with our little ‘J’…still. Our little 3 year old girl who we referred to as “big J” and her 1 1/2 year old little brother “E” went home to their parents this past Thursday after a judge awarded them a 90 day trial home pass and gave them back full custody of their kids. We knew it was coming so it wasn’t a surprise. It was what everyone was working towards for many weeks and they gladly did every single thing they were asked to do by the judge, DCS and even myself. So if anyone deserves their kids back, it’s people like them who realize they have to submit to authority and do whatever it takes to get them back. And that they did. Big J and little E came in to custody the very same day our little J did and they are now back home with their mom and dad. And I know they are happy.

Our little J, however….he’s still here. In fact, DCS has now filed a termination or parental rights to take before a judge in the upcoming months to try and terminate her rights as his mother. Her child, like big J and little E, has been in custody six months and she has yet to do even the most minuscule of tasks she is required to do in order to get her son back. She also lost visitations five months ago and has not done what she has needed to do in order to even obtain supervised visits with him. He has forgotten her. I believe it. He has begun talking while with us, with extensive speech therapy and other help, and calls us mommy and daddy. There is so much I could say about this but I am afraid to let my mind wander there again for the hundredth time today. I pray all day, every day, whenever I feel the panic setting in for God to just take it away. I wish He could take away the feelings I have for this child because just feeding and changing a diaper on a child would be so much easier but doing that with the love I have for him and fear of losing him is so heartbreaking. His situation is not good and his future if he went back to his mother would be so bleak. Yet it is a possibility. The odds are against her but it happens every day that parents with her odds or worse get their kids back. We have now taken in, parented, and let go of six children and all were doable. But all were very different than him. I am terrified. I don’t want to wish away the next six months but I wish there were a drug I could take to put me in a coma like state so it would just be over quickly, either way. If he goes home, I need to feel the peace I feel about the other six and I can’t even imagine feeling that at this point or ever with what I know to be true about his mother and what his life will be like with her. He has been transformed with us. He is so polar opposite than the child we took in six months ago. He still has a long road ahead but with our love and what we can give him he could be normal. This placement could very well break me and it be the end of our stint in foster care. We’ll just have to see.

Meanwhile, I am praying for peace in my heart for now while we wait and already thinking about the next little beating heart that will sleep on the fresh sheets I have dressed the empty beds with to occupy my mind. I have been cleaning and nesting, getting things organized and ready for winter. If you had asked me a few weeks ago if we were going to take in any more kids I would have said no. Now that we actually have empty beds that could be filled I find myself carrying around my phone all day in anticipation of a call. It is addictive and I have an addictive personality so better this than booze, eh?

Here’s a photo of all the angels in our growth group. My closest friends happen to all be in our growth group and we have the absolute best bunch of kids and they all love each other so well! I love how colorful this photo is. A rainbow of colors built through foster care and adoption.


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Bring on the chocolate…

Posted by KK on Tuesday, 27 July, 2010

If you’ve ever wondered how many footsteps a 19 month old active little boy can take in less than two minutes….I think I have the answer. It’s easy to know when you’re on your hands and knees on hard, bamboo floors with Chlorox wipes scrubbing up every one of those footprints. More on this in a moment…


Let me begin this post by talking for a second about how uncanny it is that nearly every single time I try to stop and eat a meal it gets interrupted. Each day, on average, I probably sit down to eat a meal a full hour after everyone else. That’s because I begin preparing a meal and kids begin eating and then I feed the little ones because most of the things we eat they cannot feed themselves and they have a habit of cramming too much into their mouths the things that they could eat independently thus getting choked so I still end up feeding them the finger foods. So by the time they all finish and I clean up the table it is at least an hour later. Ironically, this is also when little babies like to poop….shortly after a meal.


So today I sat down with my sandwich and iced tea at my computer hoping to upload some photos. I hadn’t taken two bites of my sandwich before hearing “MOM…POOP!!!” So I assumed one of the boys just picked up on the odor but not today….River pointed out to me that there was actual poop on the floor. So I stood up and looked, quickly spotted the little drop of poo, and then began noticing all the little drops, smudges and smears of poop in circles all over the living room & dining room floor. Apparently, a little bit of poo plopped out of little J’s diaper, he stepped in it, and proceeded to carry on as usual running around doing this or that.


So bring about the panic. I hate poop. To me, it represents everything bad in the world. And not only that but it smells like crap, too. I plucked the culprit up and took him into the empty bathtub and sat him in it and handed him a bath toy. I came back out and grabbed the other baby, inspected him, and placed him in a secure place where he couldn’t get into any poo since he passed his inspection. I instructed the three others in the living room not to dare get off the couch lest they end up in a bleach bath and then grounded. I yell down the hall to the remainder of the kids (I have lost count by now) playing Legos in their room that they are hereby quarantined until further notice. I go back to the bathroom, lay the boy down in the still empty tub and give him a “pre-bath” using wipes and then run a bubble bath. While he plays, I go back and check on the living room and make sure no one has left their assigned spot. All is well so I returned to the bathroom, scrubbed the child, got him out, diapered him, dressed him, tossed him into the bed for a nap and returned to the living room. I spent no less than 30 minutes on my hands and knees with a full container of Chlorox wipes scrubbing up now dried poop footprints off the floor, one by one, until it shined.


Incidentally, I am and have always been a largely conservative person when it comes to laundry. If we aren’t leaving the house, my little ones will be running around in nothing but diapers most of the day. In the last couple of months I have learned that if there is any “spillage” out of the diaper, it is less likely to end up on the furniture, or your lap, or any other surface when they have clothes on. Yes, it will end up on the clothes, but that is as far as it will go by the time you smell it. Needless to say, I’ve been clothing them a lot more as of late but apparently fell short today. He was only wearing a t-shirt and a diaper when all this went down. Shame on me.


So back to the footprints. How many do you think a little one can make in under two minutes? About 50. And that’s only with one foot. Today I am thankful for the blessing of hard wood flooring and Chlorox wipes, clumpy poop instead of diarrhea, chocolate, tired little ones who have now been asleep for an hour and 45 minutes and a mom who is never so grossed out that she can’t ultimately return to her sandwich and eat it without thinking about what her hands have been doing. And more chocolate.