Week In Review

Another week down in Gillispie town. It's going on 7 weeks since Kendi came home. She doesn't feel "new" at all anymore. She's just one of us, and I love it.

We had our first of three post placement visits today. I really didn't stress about it at all. I mean, what is there to fear? I've never heard of a post-placement visit going BADLY, have you? Our SW lives about 2 hours away from us so we met at a Cracker Barrel in her city. I was very glad that all of the kids were super good (mention of the possibility of a special thank you if behavior is very good helps with that)!

After we got home Taevy and I went to the mall--accessory and Christmas outfit shopping. I'm always on the hunt for cute bows/flowers to add to Kendi's headbands ($3 or less!). I have to thank The Children's Place once again for my kids' special Christmas outfits! This is a splurge every year, but I just love the pics of them all in coordinating outfits. This year the girls will be sporting very cute green polka dot jumper (Kendi) and skirt (Taevy. The boys will have matching red sweater vests paired with black turtle necks and jeans. We had a fashion show tonight and MAN do they look cute!


The kids' new homeschool program is working WONDERFULLY. It takes less than half the time, but they are learning just as much. Taevy said it is "easy." I asked her what she meant by "easy." What she meant by "easy" was that she isn't worried about getting XYZ done each day. I don't think that it's a coincidence that Taevy's long time love of playing school with her siblings has now returned with ferver! When we were doing the other program Taevy didn't play school at all. =-(


Kendi continues to provide much comic relief each day. Her personality is just so funny! She's very into helping with chores, and insists that she pulls more than her own weight (almost literally!). The other day I had the littles bringing in dirty clothes from mine and Eric's bedroom. Bright got a good arm load. Kendi picked up two queen sheets and 4 pillow cases! LOL! It was like seeing sheets walk through the living room. Kendi was so buried! But she got 'em there by golly!
Sleeping arrangements are ever-changing around here. Taevy and Samren are very happy to be sharing a room again, but that messes things up with Bright. Kendi is still sleeping in our room. Bright *HATES* to sleep by himself. It is really distressing to him. Poor baby cries at the door until he falls asleep on the floor. But if we leave the door open he gets up in the middle of the night and wreaks havoc in the house (empties bookshelves or raids the pantry). Eventually Kendi will bunk with Bright, but we're not ready for her to move. The short-term solution? Two kids sleeping in one pack-n-play! They actually asked to do this, and they sleep well together, all tangled up with each other. It is the sweetest thing. As you can see, before Kendi had Bright to cuddle with she was using her baby doll as a sleep mate. =-)

It seems like I don't talk about Samren quite as much on my blog. He is probably our easiest and quietest kid. I adore him, but maybe him being that middle child does play against him? Gosh, that's hard to admit because he is so special and so loved! Samren had what we thought was a mosquito bite "spread" across his face and turn into what is very clearly a ring worm. How do you get a ring worm on your face?! And it came on so fast. Weird. Hopefully his sweet little face will be absent the 1" ring worm before too long!

After dinner tonight the Gillispie kids got busy dancing. Is there anything more entertaining than watching your kids dance? Your own kids. Not so entertaining to watch other peoples' kids dancing, but I still post the video! Ha!

And there...is the week in review.

Anita