Mother's Day 2016: First as a Forever Family

Today was my first "official" Mother's Day, the first after the adoption of Little Guy. I wish I could say that I felt different or it was an extra special day or something. But it wasn't! It was just a normal day for us.

Last night, my foster agency had a "foster parent appreciation night." I received a recognition award, which was nice of them. With the event being so late, we didn't get home until late and the boys went to sleep later than normal.

This morning, Little Guy was a little grump - not wanting to wake up! He's normally very happy, but he likes his 10-12 hours of sleep and he didn't get that. But he's so funny because he quickly snapped out of it and was in his happy-go-lucky mood before I knew it. I would have let him sleep in, but we had to leave for church.

We went to Mass with Little Guy's Ninong and her family, bright and early at 8am! Then we went to brunch with his Ninong and her daughters. It was a cute little breakfast place and the food was yummy. I love seeing Little Guy with his Ninong and her daughters. They love on him and he enjoys spending time with them. It makes my heart feel so wonderful seeing how many people love my son. By the time we got home, it was time for nap time. The boys were extra tired and went down for nap relatively quickly. They both slept for 3.5 hours!! Which meant I got to take a nap for 3.5 hours! Woohoo! LOL. Really... if I can't sleep in past 6am on Mother's Day, a 3.5 hour nap is the next best thing that I could ever ask for :)

The rest of the day was uneventful, did our normal stuff - play outside, dinner, bath time.

Today I decided to do their foot prints right before bath. I want to make Mother's Day cards for their birth mothers. Silly me, used archival ink ---!!! It's all I had. Eeek! With a toddler and an almost-toddler, the ink got everywhere in the bathroom. Little footprints all over the bathtub...!

How do you get archival ink out?

I tried alcohol pads. Those worked, but they were so small -- couldn't clean up the entire mess.
I tried nail polish remover = did not work.
I tried rubbing alcohol = did not work.
I tried dish soap = did not work.
I tried hair spray = did not work.

At this point I was convinced I would have little black ink footprints all over my bath tub forever. The clean freak in me was quietly freaking out.

Then I Googled some more and finally came across Toothpaste. Thought, what the heck - let me give it a try. Can you believe that the toothpaste worked???!!! I used an entire tube on the bathtub. It picked up most of it. There's still some ink marks that just wouldn't lift. I'll need to apply more toothpaste later and scrub some more.

I wish I would've figured out the toothpaste thing sooner, as the boys both have ink-marked feet!! LOL. Oh my. I guess I'll try putting toothpaste on their feet tomorrow and see if it comes off.

Well, good intentions and all - next time I'll be better about it and not use archival ink!

Not to mention, Little Guy went poopoo on the potty! This was officially his THIRD time. Yay!

Anways, that was my uneventful Mother's Day.

Truth be told, I'm grateful every day for my son and for Munchkin. Not to mention my other foster babies that have come and left throughout the years. Being a single mom, I don't get "breaks" unless I pay for a babysitter! It's not always "easy" and there are challenges, but I wouldn't trade it for the world. I'm so used to it and it's all I know, I'm not sure if I even think about the "no break single mom" thing anymore.

I love being a mom. I love being a foster mom. Not just on Mother's Day, but every single day. So, I don't get to sleep in past 6am ---ever. LOL. I don't get to be pampered or get breakfast in bed. Whatever. Those things don't matter to me. I look at my boys and I feel grateful. I think of all of my foster children and I feel grateful. Not to mention that I get to look into my son's eyes every single day and feel like the luckiest mama ever.

Highlights of the day: Brunch, 3.5 hour nap, spending time with my boys, Little Guy going poopoo on the potty, and the power of toothpaste! Can life get any better ;)

Happy Mother's Day to all the lucky Mama's out there!

Mother's Day 2015 Surprises

This was my 3rd Mother's Day as a single foster mom! 

Here's how I spent Mother's Day in the past: 

2012 - My First Mother's Day with my first two foster daughters. My 5 year old "made me" waffles by putting them in the toaster for me :) 

2013 - This year I had no foster kiddos, I was on a "break" from fostering. It felt so weird not to have any kids! 

2014 - My second Mother's Day was with Little Guy. He was only 5 months at the time. I don't really remember what we did that day! We did go to my friend's baby shower that weekend and then went to Austin, TX later that week.  

2015 - This year I have my two little ones, my Little Guy & Little Miss. Here's how Mother's Day has gone for me thus far:

Surprise #1

Received a nice card from my foster care agency. Having fostered with them for 4 years, this is the first Mother's Day card I received from them. I thought it was really nice and it made me tear up a bit. Very nice of them. 

Surprise #2 

Had a sleepless night being anxious for my Trigger Shot. Afterwards, right when I was about to fall back asleep - Little Guy decided that a 5:30am wake up time would be nice. Then, Little Miss decides to greet me with a very yucky morning bowl movement. Happy Mother's Day! Haha. 

Surprise #3

Decided I didn't want to cook breakfast and we headed to IHOP this morning. Which I guess is the thing to do on Mother's Day because it was packed! I swear, everyone in the town was there. The kids were pretty good and I'm getting better at managing two toddlers in public. I even allowed myself to have a coffee!!! I gave it up when I decided to TTC. One cup won't hurt, right? It was so yummy. 

There was a family sitting next to us that reminded me of my family from back home. Made me a little nostalgic. I haven't been in contact with my own birth mother since 2008 (long story - to be shared in another entry one of these days). I didn't grow up with my birth mother, my father raised my older brother and me. But it's weird having a mother out there that I haven't seen in such a long time and seeing 3 generations of mothers having breakfast next to us. Also add to that - I'm TTC my own birth child right now. Strange mix of emotions I didn't expect. 

After breakfast, we went to a nice park that's by the restaurant that we haven't been to before. Which leads to the next surprise... 

Surprise #4 

We were having a good time exploring this park when Little Guy falls and split his lip!!! Blood EVERYWHERE! Lips bleed so bad. When he fell, he bit his bottom lip -- it looked "meaty". I was surprised at how calm I was while he was screaming. I was also surprised at how calm Little Miss was while this was going on. It could've been a lot more chaotic than it was. His lip looked so bad, that I felt I needed to bring him to Urgent Care. The problem was, my normal Urgent Care wasn't open yet. I finally found one that was close and accepted his insurance. 

Turns out - it's not that bad. Can take up to 2 weeks to heal, just because of the location. No stitches needed. He was prescribed some ointment and Tylenol. He seems perfectly fine now! But it was a bit of a scare. This is his first real "accident". I'm actually surprised it's taken this long for him to fall and hurt himself - considering he's a toddler! Let's hope it doesn't start a trend. Now, the fun part -- completing the "Incident Report" for CPS. Ugh. 

Surprise #5 

I received a really nice text from my friend's teenage daughter: 

Happy Mother's Day Patty! You are such an amazing mother your kids are very lucky to have you as a mom! ❤️ hope you have an awesome Mother's Day!

Very sweet of her to think about me and it made me smile :)

It's not even Noon yet... Let's hope the rest of the day is uneventful! Planning to go to the splash pad after nap time... or maybe just chill at home the rest of the day! I'm a little tired out from all these surprises!

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mommy's out there -- the Foster Mommy's -- the Adoptive Mommy's -- the soon-to-be-Mommy's -- and all those that are Mommy's in their hearts, trying to conceive. May you have a blessed day with those you love.