Toddlers and Dustbunnies!

Don’t know what my bigger worry is today…..

• Raising a toddler at the age of 40 or How many dust bunnies live under my couch? Okay so let’s start with the first biggie I just brought up ….we (the spouse and I) decided about 2.5 years ago to start being a foster resource in our county with the intent to hopefully one day adopt. Now, when you start a journey like this you never intend that it will actually take as long as it really does ….and let me tell you good folks reading this …the struggle is real! So much goes into the entire process as a ‘foster to adopt” family that will totally zap your inner emotions! Your mind is never at rest for the child you are caring for no matter if you care for them a day, a month, or a year! You start to love and worry for them as if they are your own…. instantly! So, we have had a few fosters and now we have a little one that we call …..TaterTot! (for the sake for his privacy we cannot reveal his name on social media! “TaterTot” may in fact follow him as a nickname throughout his life) This little spitfire of life has taken our perfectly scheduled, never disrupted, always by the book family …..and he’s single-handedly turned our world up-side-down!!! Wanna know something else? Connor is totally fine with it!!!! It’s myself and the spouse that’s been defeated by the short stack running through the house causing havoc every where he turns!

In the beginning…..

• He came to us with no schedule, having been left to himself more or less and we had to start over with him as if he were a newborn! Not to mention he had terrible reflux that had to be addressed! But just like our prior foster(s) …you learn to adjust to their needs and then you will see them start to thrive! It takes time, you lose sleep, you lose track of current events going on in the world, you lose friends even. Your hair will gray a bit more but you won’t care because to be honest you cannot remember if you washed it that week or not….it’s all good! You start to eat whatever leftovers are sitting around and you mostly go out of the house only to go to the grocery store and back! But wait, what happened…..you did not give birth, but did you? It is just like that! And I’m not talking about just with having an infant to foster, I’m talking about how it  has felt every time we’ve had a new child to care for, no matter the age….. they ALL come with a new set of needs that has to be tended to and nurtured to correctly from the start, just like having a newborn!

TaterTot…….

• Will be the daredevil that rides his bike off the ramp that no other kid will try.
• Will run the fastest just because everybody said he couldn’t do it.
• Will be an athlete.
• Will stay out way past his curfew an be grounded a lot because of it.
• Will love his big brother unconditionally, just like he already does!

When I look around my once clean house (OCD use to keep me on my toes!) I no longer fight the mighty dust bunny battle, in fact I now look for those same “bunnies” and invite them to gather around and entertain our little tot when Momma needs a break! Word!

~He has taught us to come off our schedule and laugh a bit more, even if it is at silly piles of dust bunnies under my couch!!~ He fits our world perfectly ~