A whole new world - transitioning to unsupervised visits

UNSUPERVISED VISIT NUMBER ONE!

You can't even imagine how exciting today's visit with J was. K and I went to pick up J and the three of us went to the library (more on that later) then to Publix to get food to grill for dinner. We went swimming and just hung out at home.  Can't you just feel the excitement? No - well maybe it is just us. Unfortunately R is away at Youth Camp this week and she gave us strict instructions "not to do anything fun" while she is at camp this week. She was particularly concerned that we not do anything on our Summer Bucket List with J while she is away.

FaceTime with Grammie Susan, Grampy Terry and Uncle Ian was fun. We all got to see a new side to our sweet mannerly boy - competition on the Wii!!!! He likes to win! Of course so does everyone here so he is in good company and has stiff competition.

So allow me to elaborate on the visit in more detail. J's Guardian ad litem gave him a Rays flier the other day about their summer reading incentives, so I took him to the library - we spend a lot of time there and I figured he should have his own library card. Brace yourselves, guess what you need to get a library card for a child?  A BIRTH CERTIFICATE OR A PASSPORT!!! I could have died right there. For any of you who have been following along you know that we have been trying to obtain a passport for J since our May disclosure meeting with the intent to bring him on vacation to Canada in August. So now I can't even get my sweet son a library card let alone flying across international borders - the boy just wants to borrow a book or two. That was like a slap in the face to start the visit but we moved on and went shopping - grocery shopping but shopping none the less.

Just an FYI to our local Publix shoppers, Publix has not instituted a new sound track for your listening pleasure that is my son walking skipping around Publix singing "Mom, Mom, Mom, do we need chips mom? What time is dad getting home mom? Mom, let sis pick out which salad we get, mom." All the while grinning from ear to ear. He looked at me at one point and said. "I'm getting used to this mom" referring to using the family words he was trying to wear out. :-)

At home we waited for T & Michael to get home from work. J snacked on some grapes and then got to see his new bedding.  He liked it! Time being short we fired up the grill right away and hit the pool - well the kids hit the pool and Michael fired up the grill I just smiled a lot at each one of them. Now let me tell you, this boy may be small for his age but he can eat!!! Two burgers, one hot dog and a good helping of barbque chips washed down with a huge glass of milk. Vanilla ice cream came later for dessert. I think the size 8 swim trunks I bought him will fit a little better by the end of the summer if he continues eatting like this. :-)

We played on the Wii for a few games of baseball. J obviously had to create a Mii profile before he could play. That was interesting. Watching him design how he sees himself. Also he named his profile JJ -  he only has one J in his name but this made me think of you Jana. I didn't mind that he wanted to be creative with his name because when we first got the Wii the girls created all kinds of Mii's with all kinds of names, Oprah, Dr Phil, Simon Baker, Archie comic characters you get the picture so JJ isn't a stretch by any means. This was obviously more involved than I thought though. On the drive to his foster home J started a conversation about "What should my new first name be?" That was interesting. He tossed around a few possibilities. Jay, Ben, Michael (wonder where he got that one?) In MAPP classes we heard about children sometimes wanting to change their names to signify their new start in life. I really didn't see this coming and we really like his given name but if he wants to change his name we will support him. I'll keep you posted on this, I'm anxious to see how it turns out.