Last time I posted, I promised I'd answer any questions you had, in celebration of the Ultimate Blog Party Well, so far, I've gotten four questions, so I figured I'd answer them here!
Were you
scared to death when you first found out that you were pregnant (the
first time)? If so, when did you stop being scared?
LOL... Well, I've actually never been pregnant! Monkeyboy, Little Bear and Pufferfish, although I love them as much as if they were sprung from my own body, are my nephew and nieces. I've never been pregnant, but I'm sure if I ever am, I'll be terrified... mostly because I hate going to doctors and I hate strangers touching me, and pregnancy seems to involve a whole lot of both!
What is your favorite memory so far in life?
Its hard to be sure because I have a lot of great memories! Some of my best memories are of when I was a little kid, when we used to go up to the north woods in the summer. It was Heaven to me! We stayed in a log cabin. We would go swiming, fishing, boating, hiking, etc! We would rent a little fishing boat thingy and drive it all over the lake. We would have picnics on this one island that we found, and my dad made a little sign for it that said Mann Island. One year when my aunt and cousin also came, we rented a pontoon boat and jumped overboard in the middle of the lake! We'd go hiking to the quarry and find fool's gold and other cool rocks, we'd have cookouts, etc, etc, etc. My dad had spent summers at that same place when he was a kid, so he was in Heaven there too! Every year, at the end of the week, I would cry all the way home, and I'd be depressed for about a week afterwards. My mom would always try to comfort me by saying, "You know we always go back!" But one year we didn't go anymore, and it broke my heart! I can still picture that place like it was yesterday! I wish I could bring Monkeyboy, Little Bear and Pufferfish there someday... but my dad says it probably looks a lot different now.
Where do you see yourself 10 years from now?
I really don't know. I really, really, really hope to be a foster parent within the next few years. My dream would be able to somehow start my own school for kids who learn differently... a very small school, in the style of homeschooling. I'm in school to be a special education teacher, but with all the NCLB stuff and beauracracy taking over the schools, I'm not sure I'll even be happy doing that... because these days being a teacher seems to require teaching in a certain, pre-determined way. Even for kids with special needs, they're expected to learn in a certain way. I'm a big believer in individualizing kids' educations, and I feel that kids who are happy anmd excited about what they are learning learn best. You can somehow force a kid with ADHD, or a kid with dyslexia, or a kid with autism, to memorize what you want him to memorize. But they'd certainly do more actual learning if they were happy, learning things that interest them, and being able to use their talents and bright spots as much as possible.
Which one of my kids is your favorite?
(Uh, that one is from Diana, obviously!) I love them all, I don't have favorites! ;) A lot of the time I'm closest to Pufferfish, which is mostly because she's the one who's always with me. Until recently, even when I'd take them places, Little Bear could go off and play with other kids, and Pufferfish would have to be right there with me. Now she's getting more independent though, but I still spend the most time with her! Also because she reminds me so much of Monkeyboy when he was little. When Monkeyboy was a toddler, he was Up-My-Butt Boy! Of course he was up Diana's butt too, but he was the first little kid who'd ever been close to me like that. I'd never been loved that much by anyone before. He would wake me up in the morning wanting to play, and he was always yelling my name. It was a totally new experience to me to have someone who loved me and needed me that much, who would get rip-roaring mad at me for making him take a bath, and be kicking and screaming and punching me, and then come back to me five minutes later with a hug and a kiss because he still loved me, unconditionally, and he still needed me, and he knew that. Before I knew Monkeyboy, I had spent time doing things like babysitting
kids or playing with my little foster sister for an hour, but I'd never
felt that kind of closeness. Where you play some silly game with a kid,
and he remembers it and wants to do it over and over for days and days.
Or you start noticing the kid copying your mannerisms and saying the
things you say. He was my first baby. Pufferfish reminds me of him because she acts the same way as he did, a lot of the time, and plays the same way that he did. And she's such an awesome baby on her own, too!
Little Bear is a whole 'nother story. She tends to bring out the best and the worst of people, including me. She is so incredibly smart, its scary. She catches on to everything. When Little Bear is happy she is full of spirit, dancing and singing and making jokes that really are funny! But when she is angry, or not getting her way, she's like a banshee, screaming in your face and arguing with you until you're ready to shake her! You can tell her to put away her Barbies, and she'll scream full throttle for half an hour and then forget what you told her to do, and then you tell her to do it again and it starts all over! I can go to sleep fuming at Little Bear because she drives me crazy... and then I'll wake up in the middle of the night, and she'll be leaning over me giving me a kiss on my forhead, with her too-big pajama T-shirt on and her blond hair glowing in the light of the TV, and I'll suddenly realize she's an angel.
So really... I don't have a favorite among them.
Any other questions? Ask away!
