Little boys

Yesterday we met with CPS again and got good news. We will be ready to legally adopt them in late July. They are pleased with everything going on and feel like this is a good placement for the kids and us. Goober did well at the meeting, despite his not so good school day.....
Yup, another day without a sticker and this time he got sent to the Pre-Grammar School Head. He pushed a little girl but since he pushed her on the neck it turned into something bigger. Goober said he did it because the little girl was in his face saying "blah blah blah". When the little girl showed how Goober pushed her it was more of a strangle motion, Goober's story is just a push. Unfortunately his teacher had stepped across the hallway for a couple of minutes to help out another teacher with a VCR. She tooke some of the blame since she should have been in the room with them. Goober and the little girl both were sent to the office. As I got closer to Goober and could see that he knew he was in trouble, I asked God to give me the exact right words to say to him. As I reached him I just picked him up and squeezed him and said " I love you, regardless of what they are about to tell me, regardless of if you get a sticker or not, I love you". That seemed to calm him down and we got through the whole meeting without any tears from Goober or myself ;).
Well, I honestly think that God had a bigger purpose behind this whole scenario then just teaching Goober to keep his hands to himself. When the little girls parents were told what happened they said " well she is dramatic and she does get in people's faces". I thought "wow, I dont know if I would have reacted the same way if someone pushed Goob in the neck". It was great for me to see a parent not over react and give grace. In the end Goober prayed for forgiveness and knew that he was forgiven and that today would be a new day for him. He did get some things taken away from him though at home and for this weekend.

Some good news though to end with. This morning I got a call from my school, while sitting in my classroom so I first thought " great, its Goob's teacher telling me that he is back in the office". Well I should have thought better of my son because it was our Human Resources Staff. She said that she was checking into the new adoption benefit that our school just added and noted that I would qualify if our adoption happened after I had been here one full year....well by golly I will be here one full year as of August 1st!!! So, we will be getting a rather large chunk of money in August as an adoption benefit....and we definitely will need it!! It will help build back up our savings account after buying the element, it will supplement the fact that Adam won't be working for 6 weeks this summer and let's face it, it will buy Goober and Ribbit lots of lunchables, juices, bananas and cereal :) ( those are things we seem to just run through!!!)
Thank you Lord!!!!

Routines

One of my friends who also blogs about her daughter listed off their daily routine and I thought that maybe just maybe some might be interested in ours (if no one else, then grandparents). On weekdays:

6:15- Rise and shine for Mom

6:45-Rise and shine for Ribbit and Goober

6:45-7:ish Rise and shine for Dad

6:45-7:15 run around like crazy to get breakfast, purple folder, bookbag, dressed, things needed for after school activities and in the car....if all of this is completed without a meltdown then we deem it a miracle.

7:15-7:40ish- Mom and Goob ride to school, we talk, he watches cartoons on dvd player and we pray right before we reach school

7:45-Dad takes Ribbit to sitter's house -she stays here for different amounts on time on different days.

8-3 class, work

3:15-Mom and Goob head home, some days we stop and get Ribbit, others dad already has her

4-5: we do one of three things a) go to park b) take a walk up our street and into each cul-de-sac while Goob rides bike and Ribbit is in stroller or c)Goob rides four wheeler in the field by our house and mom and Ribbit either play with water and/or cat piano

5-5:30- get dinner ready which frustrates bre as she doesn't know why she can't have the food right then and there so this 30 minutes normally involves dad distracting Ribbit

5:30-6:15 eat dinner at the table ( we never used the table before kids and now we never eat anywhere else), Goob is normally the first one done so he reads his daily reading to us then

6:15-6:45- Kiddos both baths, we lay out clothes for next day, get lunches together for everyone and if Goober gets everything done he can pop in a movie or watch certain shows

7:30 Ribbit goes down and if Goober has eaten all of his dinner then he can have yogurt-he thinks it is ice cream so he calls it dessert. We buy the mini danimal yogurts so its like 3 spoonfuls but he is satisfied :)

7:30-8: Mom, Dad and Goob time-most of the time we finish a disney movie or we play the game where we pin Goober down and tickle him or kiss him. We also play trouble, guess who or uno.

8:00- Goober goes to bed, he normally picks out 2 bigger books or 3 smaller books for us to read. Then we all pray and he is normally out in 15-20 minutes.

8-10: Mom and Dad get ready for tomorrow, clean up kitchen, Dad normally does homework

10: Mom goes to bed

10-3: Dad comes to bed when homework is done

So that is that.......this routine is altered slightly on weekends but wake up and bed times are pretty consistent!

Ribbit has started giving everyone long kisses before bed and then walking herself into her bedroom for night night. She is also walking into the bathroom for bath. This is a big change from chasing her down for both. She's also getting better at not stuffing herself, she finishes her meal, signs "all done" and gives us her plate. She still shoves a whole banana in at once but we are working on that. She loves loves loves to sing along with me or the radio and just makes up words.

Goober is becoming pretty inventive as to why he sometimes has trouble going to bed...one night his neck hurt, one night he wanted to pray again ( how can you say no to that?, and another night he remembered that earlier in the day I said he could have two peanut butter cookies and he had only eaten one ;). His prayers are becoming more personal and he is praying longer. He used to just say " Dear Lord, help this food bless our bodies, HeyMan. " But now he is actually thinking through them and not saying the same prayer every time. He even volunteered to pray for us today at lunch when we went out with 4 other couples.

Enough of this, its almost bedtime. Good night!

My very funny kids

Four funny Gooberisms today--

1. While riding his back around seminary he yelled out " mom this bike seat is pushing really hard on my bladder".

2. Then he ran after a bunch of squirlels (how he says it) and told them to fly repeatedly and got really upset when they didnt!!!

3. He did well as his first therapy appointment but was in tears at the thought of having our last name, he kept saying that name doesn't make sense!!! :)

4. After drinking a sonic drink he told one of Adam's co-workers that he was tooting a bunch because he drank a bunch.

Right now he is playing Guess Who with his dad and has stripped down to his underwear b/c he says he feels most comfortable that way.

Also, after a looong talk with the therapist and a good talk on the way home we can now say the A word and not flinch!!!!! ADOPTION...Goober is on board with it and understands that it will be happening soon!!

They are both equally funny and to show you here are pictures of Ribbit loading Goob's smelly shoes into the dishwasher :)

Clapping for herself :)