on Court and Hair Cuts

Mom did show up at the courthouse. She did not, of course, sign the voluntary termination paperwork. This does not surprise anyone involved. It did, however, tick a whole bunch of people off, including the judge. None of this, of course, is Mom's fault. It is the social worker's fault, the judge's fault, her lawyer's fault, her tribal representive's fault, etc. She demanded everyone be replaced and that she get better services. She has, of course, had every opportunity for every kind of service available to her from the state and from the tribe. She has yet to follow through on any apect of any one of her service plans throughout the years. Most certainly she has not complied with the service plan that was created to give her every opportunity to get her life together and regain custody of the boys.

The termination will continue and visitations with the boys are no longer going to happen. Mom will, however, have a month's worth of counseling (per her request for more help) and she can write letters to the boys that she will send to the social worker who will then pass them on to us.

As for the haircuts, I assure all of you that if her refusal to let the boys' hair be cut was a cultural one, I would be more than happy to take care of their hair, put it in braids, or maintain it in whatever traditional hair style was requested. The issue is not that their hair is particularily long, it is that their hair is long in some places and chopped short in others. Random places, mind you, not in any sort of style but rather as if someone (i.e. mom) clipped random locks of hair off as the boys ran (or rather tottered) by here while she sat at the kitchen table. Mom is not against haircuts for cultural reasons, but for bizarre control reasons- keep in mind that mom is decidedly not mentally healthy and has a real penchant for making up bizarre stories to garner attention and pity. She is convinced that nothing is wrong with the boys, that this is all the state and the tribe's fault. haircuts are one of the few areas of control she has over the boys' lives at this point and she is not going to budge one inch on that issue.

In other news, Hoss is really getting a hang of potty training and M&M's are a great motivator for him. He is also walking around the house singing "the Muffin Man" song and running up to us at random moments for hugs and declaring that "I happy." He has not bitten in while. [although he did pitch a collosal fit over a toy the other day, threw himself on the floor, and when I tried to step over him grabbed at my leg and then pushed me so that I fell into the wall, onto the floor, and tore my bad knee up something fierce. causing R to miss a day of work to take me to the doctor and to get xrays and my mother to come over to sit with the boys..ouch. ouch. and ouch.]

Little Joe is doing fine. Still no language and a lot of temper tantrums over seemingly NOTHING, but he is seeking out positive attention and cuddles from both of us and is starting to use some basic sign as opposed to screaming his head off when he wants/needs something. He was not at all bothered by the drama involved in my knee injury, he thought it was grand excitement and, upon my falling to the floor climbed up on my bad knee and, in Little Jo-ese, said "Giddy up." No way, cowboy. No giddy ups. No giddy ups ever again, if this knee doesn't stop hurting.

Let's hope that surgery is not in the cards, as I have no idea how I will do that and take care of these two kiddos. Not that I am doing that great of a job right now, limping around here with a swollen knee. ha.