I forgot I knew that

Now to the missing Hannah story. I wasn't really worried about her being missing because she only goes to one of her three friend's houses when she disappears, all within a couple of blocks of our house. I just realized today, though, that I ran off to the vet and left Shauna home alone. She didn't want to go to the vet with us, she was too afraid the dog would die, I think, and insisted on staying home. She is 10 going on 25 and more than capable on staying home by herself for a short time, but I would have been a little nervous about it, had I realized she was alone!

Anyway, back to the real story. When we got back from the vet, Hannah was home and I took her into my bedroom for a talk. I asked why she had gone out when she was grounded. She said that she was sorry, but she only went out to go jogging and she didn't know she couldn't do that when she was grounded. It is true that in the past I have let her go out jogging once in a while because she gets so hyper when she doesn't exercise. So I said well you know that leaving the house without permission is not allowed, so what about that. She said, with all sincerity, "I knew that was a rule, but I forgot I knew that." Wow, that just screams FAS to me! I have to admit that even with all the research I've done on FAS, the fact that these kids can actually forget a rule just like that, even though they've been told a thousand times, was hard for me to grasp. It wasn't until I recently started reading the blogs of other foster/adoptive parents with kids with FAS, who are doing the same thing, that it really hit home for me. This also was the first time that Hannah phrased it like that. She usually just says "I forgot", which always strikes me as just an excuse. I'm impressed that she realized that she did now the rule, but forgot that. Since she was honest with me and didn't scream or yell, I only gave her an extra chore as punishment and didn't add to her grounding. Today, she asked if she could go jogging!

History

I went through some posts on a Yahoo group that I started many, many years ago. I realized that I had some interesting things posted there, mostly funny things the kids said or did when they were little. I thought I would post them here, to preserve them.

This one was posted in 2001, but actually happened in late 1996 or early 1997.

I was laughing when I saw this post because you
said your daughter is anxious to get another "brown
baby". Before we got our daughter, Hannah, I was talking
about getting a new foster baby soon and my son, Luke,
who was four at that time, kept insisting that we
only get a baby boy. He told me that if we got a girl,
he wouldn't hold it or kiss it or even love it! Soon
after, 8 day old Hannah was placed with us and he fell
head over heels in love with her. He treated and still
treats her like she is his little glass princess! When
she was about a month old and he was holding and
kissing her constantly, I said, "Hey Luke, I thought you
said you didn't want any baby girls, and you wouldn't
hold, or kiss, or love them". He looked at me very
seriously and said, "Moooooooom, I meant I didn't want any
white baby girls, I only love brown ones!". And now
that we have two brown baby girls, he still wants
more.