The Fennec Fox Experience, A Very Late Birthday Gift

 I had the joy of taking Isaac and his buddy to the Animal World Snake Farm Zoo (I previously went with just the homeschooled boys in May) specifically to have an experience with his favorite animal, a fennec fox.  Genevieve babysat Roman for me.  It was a stress free day and we had a great time!

The moment we've all been waiting for!  Isaac got to hold the fennec fox, named Janet (my mom's name ironically.)  Janet was raised from birth to be tame and held throughout the day even though she is nocturnal and has to be woken up for these encounters.  Poor girl!  She has a buddy, named Jo, that she plays with all night long.

We all got a turn to pet Janet.

Janet was a timid little thing.  Look at those ears!

I fell in love with this cute little wart hog.  

Gibbons grooming each other.  They made they most insane noises when they swung across the top of the cage back and forth at top speed.  Apparently, they do it every day when the bison are getting fed.

These girls were fed with tongs on special blocks so they don't fight each other.

Hyena, we got to watch them be hand fed through the bars and hear them laugh.

Feisty goats, I told Isaac to show them who's boss.

Look at the micro mini cow!  She is a miniature cow with dwarfism.

A friendly Lemur

A very moody llama

The Nine Year Old Privilege: Holding a baby standing up

Judah's ninth birthday came upon us while we were visiting friends for a fortieth birthday party.  We ordered him an ice cream cake just like he wanted.  He got to choose dinner, and he chose a meatlover's pizza.  Judah, like Isaac, is sweet and easy to please.  

A fun trip to the park during our visit

The nine year old privileges involve a new book series that he can read, a special date with dad, and holding a baby while walking around.  The last couple boys really haven't had a baby around to carry, but Judah has Roman now and is so excited to carry him.  He is Genna's "mini me" and they are so much alike that I asked him if he could try to "beat" Genna by not dropping any of my babies.  Genna dropped Judah on his head when she was 8 or 9 from the couch.  She also fell hold Bobby and saved him, but broke her own arm in the process.  So we're hoping for Judah to have a better track record, but I have to admit he makes me nervous sometimes.

 I love this sweetheart!  He is my Bunny Twenty-one (This is from the book, The Country Bunny where her twenty-first bunny baby pulls out her chair for her at the table each day.) who makes my coffee in the morning and rubs my back when I am getting overwhelmed or sad.

  

Judah's done with his palatal expander, but now he has two front braces and a retainer expander.

On the Move

 Roman has seven therapies a month.  Four of them are all about movement.  He's practicing sitting and working towards crawling.  The last time his physical therapist came before she had her baby and went on maternity leave, she told me he was so close to crawling.  He was getting up on all fours like a bear. I had my doubts that he'd be crawling soon because he has plateaued so many times.  But sure enough she was right!

Within a week he was Army crawling.  In fact, I gave the boys the task of catching his bear pose on video while I was putting away his clothes, and instead he crawled on video for the very first time!

He also got his first tooth on the same day!

One Year Old in the House

More pictures of our resident cutie on his special day!  I love this boy more each day!  Yes, he takes more work and time than the other babies did, he has to work harder for every milestone, and his adoption isn't even finalized yet.  However, none of this matters to me one bit when I cuddle him up for bedtime snuggles and stories.  I look at him and wonder how I can possibly love him so much.  He is such a treasure that has already blessed our family beyond words.  I can only imagine how man more blessings are to come in the days and years ahead.

My green twins!

Sleeping with his hedgehog like always

A perfect background for a photo

 

Two Special Boys' Birthdays Back to Back

 Isaac's birthday fell on the day before school started and as our quarantine was ending from COVID.  I was not sick anymore, but I was still so run down.  I had no energy, and when I got out in the heat/sun I felt awful again.  Then I found out that Genevieve had a doctor's appointment that afternoon that we really needed to keep since it was so hard to get.  They made the appointment without even telling me which is strange.

Anyway, the point of all that is to say that Isaac's birthday plans all had to be postponed.  We were supposed to be going to the Snake Farm and Zoo to have a Fennec Fox Experience with a friend of his as his gift from us.  Isaac rarely asks for anything and when I saw this last spring I knew he would enjoy it.  Sadly it had to be postponed for several weeks.  As a whole the family didn't feel good enough even for his birthday dinner.  I felt really bad about the whole thing.  He is not a complainer and handled it like a champ.  I tried to squeeze in a few special things for him.  I got him a Smoothie King and the kids gave him his handmade cards.

I woke up and ran down stairs to get the first day photo, but I had to force them and they were worried about being late, so it's not a perfect picture.  It was Hannah's first day of her senior year though!

The next day was the first day of school and Roman's first birthday!  I had planned to make him a piano cake but i really couldn't muster the energy at all.  He, of course, hasn't eaten any kind of food other than purees at this point and there was no chance he would even put it in his mouth if given the chance.  So I told myself that we would have that cake as a celebration of his adoption being finalized instead since that day was coming sooner rather than later.  Alas, I still feel like a bad mom.  Mom guilt is real.

Both of my birthday boys are amazing, and I love them to pieces!

COVID finally got me.

The day after Bob's party was my nephew's birthday party.  Turned out to be the perfect COVID "Super Spreader" party.  My mom came down with it first and then I was next.  I really tried to keep Roman from getting it, but it was to no avail.

The next to fall were Bobby and Hannah, then Drew and Roman.  Last to get it in our household was Brian.  Brian and I hadn't gotten COVID ever before so that was a good run I guess.  The boys all just had a fever for 24-36 hours and then they were fine.  I took a long time to get my energy back, but not as long as my mother. 

A sweet cuddle between my oldest and youngest babies