Homestudy Visit Date Set

So a social worker (a moonlighter, actually, on contract with the agency)will be coming out to the house on Monday to check us out. Good thing we still have the smoke detectors and fire extinguishers from last time (requirements). It should not be too big of a deal–she’s swinging by late in the afternoon after work (for all adults involved) and my guess is that we’ll do most of our chatting in the driveway while MAM zooms around on her bike!

Speaking of MAM (I can really only go about 5 minutes without bringing her up, have you noticed?), today I had to explain the concept of “dirty” underwear. See, she actually managed to keep the same pair of Snow White panties (thanks, Grandma) dry for 24 hours (she wears them over her pull-up at nap and bedtime), and so this morning she took them off, tossed her pull up and was ready to put them back on again.

“Honey, those are dirty. Put them in the hamper.”

“They not dirty! They not wet! They dry!”

“When you wake up in the morning, you put your panties in the hamper and put on clean ones.”

“They clean! See? They dry!”

“MAM, after you wear them all day, and then sleep in them, even though they are dry, they go in the wash.”

“Oh. Ok. I get Ariel?”

Could I make this up????

Playing Catch Up

I never intended to go on hiatus last Sunday–it just sort of happened. The weather got super-warm, we spend every waking minute outside that we could, and by the time I sat down I was too tired to blog. Really. When have I ever been too tired to blog??

The highlights, that would have all been separate posts had I had the wherewithall:

MAM is really potty training now. Didn’t I say that in the fall? Yes, I did, but then the faux scabies hit and she lost all momentum, and she spent the winter, and part of the spring just doing her business in pull ups (dumb and a waste of money, but I was holding out hope). So two weeks ago I asked her the question, “do you want to go potty before mama or after?” and she said, “after”, and so commenced round two of toilet learning. Throw in a little candy, a LOT of stickers, and panties in the mail from Grandma, and we have a dry, dry girl who practically prances to the potty with delight. I think this is the real thing.

Friday night we started deep cleaning all of our carpets. We spent the entire weekend spring cleaning and removing invisible sludge from our carpets. Seriously, SO GROSS. But things are lovely now.

We went on a family bike ride this weekend, totaling 16 miles. It was a lovely day and a lot of fun.

Hopefully we’ll be going on many more rides…until June 25th. That’s the anticipated delivery date of McBaby. There will be no more ultrasounds, so we’ll just have to be patient to discover if it will be pink or blue. J and I have been having some really good conversations lately. More on that soon–that really does warrant it’s own post.

Since we won’t be knowing gender, any room-theme makeovers will have to be put on hold. The room is pretty simple–just a few girly accents at the moment. I’m thinking some matching dressers, a crib (!), a twin bed….and the kiddos will be all set.

The Home Study Update

One of the first things you need to do when you are preparing for an adoption is to get a home study done. The first time we went through the process, it was all rather nerve wracking. I’m sure I cleaned for days. I filled out the forms carefully, in pencil first, then over in ink.

Last week we started updating our home study. I filled out the paperwork while watching The Office. I don’t know if they will actually have to come out to the house again or not.

A lot of it is information that’s exactly the same–our employers, listing references, brief family history…and information like a recent physical. We have to resubmit our birth certificates (and MAM’s) and marriage license. A new thing this time around is fingerprinting.

Last Friday afternoon we journeyed downtown as a family of three to the “background check office” to get our prints done. Guess what? There was no ink involved! It was all done on a scanner type machine with a few squirts of water. $56.50 later, and we were on our way (it was a really fancy machine–I suppose they have to pay for it some how). Apparently, our prints will be sent to the FBI of all places. Since I’ve never been fingerprinted before, I don’t think anything will turn up.

This week BgK was scheduled for a physical anyway (how’s that for timing?) and I just needed to get a TB test. Phew. No TB for me. There was even a form for MAM-basically asking if she was in good health, and if she’d be OK with a sibling in the home. While I’m sure it will rock her world, medically speaking, I think she’ll be fine.

We’ve been asking her if she’d like a brother or a sister–her consistent answer has been, “A brudda”. The other night BgK asked her what we should name a brother. Her answer? “Baby Mc–” Clever girl!