We took Annie to Zuma this afternoon for a friends’ birthday party. With all her sensory issues (and only 5 minutes of naps today), the sand, waves, and wind were pretty overwhelming. But at least we can say that she’s been to the beach!
Annie Meets the Pacific
Oct 10th, 2018 by ECM
A Cinderella Task
Oct 6th, 2018 by ECM
Turns out that washing the floor is not a Saturday morning burden at all when you’re told to pretend you’re Cinderella.
Introducing Annie
Sep 24th, 2018 by ECM
We are getting so close to fostering, and daughter #4 is here the fourth week in a row for respite visits. For those of you who haven’t heard, she was a micropreemie, born at 26 weeks and weighing one and a half pounds. She spent her first six months living at Children’s Hospital LA, then she went to a wonderful foster family up in Simi Valley who have been fostering medically fragile newborns for 30 years. They care for the babies until they’re sturdy enough to go to “normal” foster families. Our little one has all the medical and developmental complications with a micropreemie, most notably, a feeding tube because her horrible reflux (she threw up five times in the first three days she was at our house and averages about a vomit a day) has given her extreme aversions to eating and drinking orally. Fortunately, the kids are all on board for helping hold her food tube for hours on end (we have to give her 5 oz formula+1 oz pureed solids four times a day)! And to complicate matters, Elizabeth came down with strep throat over the first weekend and had to be quarantined, so Susie and Janie stepped up and helped feed her! It was a blessing to see them embrace the Mommy’s helper role that their big sister usually fills so well.
The second weekend, everyone was healthy and we did great, but our social worker wanted us to see how a school week would go. So the third week, we had her until Wednesday, and we managed school, even with friends in town all day, and dropped her off after physical therapy, miserable to be saying goodbye until I got her again on Saturday night. On this fourth visit, she’s totally comfortable in our house and even helped us welcome students Sunday night. And on Sunday we had our very first vomit-free day with her, so we’re making progress on the keeping foods down front! Meanwhile, Tommy and the little girls continue to entertain and play with her nonstop, and Elizabeth has gotten comfortable hooking up and disconnecting her feeding tube and cleaning it out, so we’ll be able to leave all five kids with our babysitter tonight for a dinner hour date night without too many worries.
We’ve been too busy to take many pictures, but I really will try to take more for the grandparents’ sake! We’re just waiting for our agency and her social worker to get their act together to transfer placement to us permanently so we don’t have to keep hauling her back and forth between her old foster family and us. She’ll be adoptable after a termination of parental rights hearing in October, so we are planning on having her forever. Of course there are still lots of hoops to jump through and apparently a 6 month foster requirement before we’re eligible to adopt her (even though we’re certified to adopt already), so we would appreciate prayers as we continue to figure things out. We’ll be calling her Annie, and that’s how we’ll refer to her on the blog, even though we’re hyphenating her old name-new name in speaking to her right now to help her adjust. I can’t express how much we love her already.
School Days…
Sep 23rd, 2018 by ECM
…look a lot like this. Note the progression of my bowl of breakfast over the course of the morning. Usually I get to lunchtime and realize I have a lukewarm half cup of tea and half a bowl of oatmeal left from breakfast.
Well Trained Mind Academy classes are going well!
A New School Year
Sep 6th, 2018 by ECM
This week has been quite busy, but we did officially start school on Tuesday!
Family Time in Detroit
Aug 30th, 2018 by ECM
Last week, we unexpectedly had a family reunion in Detroit as we gathered together for Nona’s funeral. I’m so glad that we were all able to go back and spend time together.
Grandma opened up her wedding dress box, and Elizabeth tried it on!
At the visitation, the kids mostly hung out downstairs. Janie loved coloring with Henry.
We are all in love with cousin Sterling!
After the funeral luncheon, we spent the afternoon at Debbie and Dale’s. The kids were in awe of all the grass.
It was Nicole’s first time with the whole Fam, since the Busses and Cobbs missed the wedding due to Nona’s illness and KK’s pregnancy.
After the internment, we honored Nona by eating at Picano’s, her favorite Italian restaurant. Note that Kaitlyn and Kelly bravely took on kid duty for four extra kids at one end of the table so we could eat a normal meal on the other end.
Now that Grandma and Grandpa have moved to Rochester, we’re super close to our favorite cider mill! And they have gluten-free doughnuts, with no added dairy or molasses, so it’s a treat Nicole, Jen, and Grandpa can all enjoy!
Tommy follows in his father’s footsteps by laughing harder around his uncles than at any other time. He’s Matthew and Jason’s number one fan.
I had to capture one picture of us traveling easily for the last time for a long while–with all the kids capable of carrying their own backpacks and suitcases around. It’s been glorious while it lasted.
These two are getting to be such pros on flights that I know they’ll be super helpful next time we fly with a baby sister (and accompanying toddler gear) along for the ride.
Stay tuned for an introduction of a new little Muller-to-be, joining us for her first visit this weekend!
The girls discovered the camera app on Grandpa’s old tablet
Aug 20th, 2018 by ECM
We inherited Grandpa’s old tablet and have mostly been using it for audiobooks, but when Susie got creative with her Calico Critters scenes and kept asking me to take pictures of them with my smartphone, we discovered that they could listen to All-of-a-Kind Family and take “artsy” pictures and videos (I’ll spare you the videos, which made Derek carsick) at the same time! The little girls are feeling super cool.
The End of Summer is Approaching
Aug 17th, 2018 by ECM
With Derek’s school year starting up on Monday and ours in just a couple more weeks, we’re trying to squeeze in some last summer activities… This week we went to the beach with some CBS homeschool friends (and Tommy fried his arms boogie boarding with Ross for hours). The kids on the pad have been out playing every evening until dark, so we’re letting our big kids run around with them past our normal bedtime. Janie has enjoyed some quiet evening hours in the house with Mommy and Daddy all to herself, playing games and reading!
Summer Family Photos
Aug 14th, 2018 by ECM
Skirball Center with the Whites
Aug 11th, 2018 by ECM
I’ve been hearing about the Skirball Center and their famous Noah’s Ark exhibit for the past seven years we’ve been out here, but Janelle finally motivated me to go this week! Thursdays are free, but you have to get in line to get timed entry tickets for the Noah’s Ark exhibit, and it is no joke. We got there at 11:58, two minutes before doors opened, and the lines were already crazy long. By the time we got to the front, it was down to the last slot of the day, 3:30. Despite the 104 degree weather, the kids enjoyed making musical instruments in the art studio and checking out the outdoor archeological dig section while we waited for our slot. (Actually, it was so hot and they were so delirious after excavating that we came in and promptly bought them their choice of orange pop, root beer, or chocolate milk. For White and Muller kids, this was even more rare than TV!) Fortunately, the Ark exhibit did not disappoint. They loved the animals made out of repurposed materials, the two by two games, the climbing catwalks, and all the pretend play centers in the ark. We could have easily stayed well past our allotted hour and a half.
When we got out at 5:00, we realized that we had seven starving kids on our hands and were about to get on the 405 at the height of rush hour. So instead, we took the back way over to the Sherman Oaks mall and picked up dinner together while we waited for traffic to calm down. To put an exclamation point on the day for the kids, moms got coffees to keep us awake on the drive home and everyone but Baby Silas got whipped cream cups! Never let it be said that Janelle and I don’t know how to give our kids a fun time. =)
