Hello Out There

I'm sorry I haven't been blogging lately. I don't want anyone to worry about us. I've just been very busy and, for some reason, blogging hasn't risen to the top of the priority list. Here's an update:

Josh is having trouble in the mornings, dinnertime, bathtime, bedtime...playtime...you name it. In the mornings he wakes up in a bad mood. He whines and cries and generally acts like he's two years old. Last Friday evening I sat down with him and we talked about what we could do to help him in the mornings. He said that he doesn't like being rushed so waking up earlier seemed like a good idea to him. Yesterday and today I woke him up 10-15 min earlier so he wouldn't be as rushed. So far he just sits at the breakfast table crying that he's tired and not eating so he still ends up rushed when he finally moves. I don't think he is really tired. I think he's just cranky. At dinnertime, he rarely eats his food within a reasonable amount of time. I used to give him 30 min and then I'd take the food away, but I've stopped doing that because he wasn't getting enough food.
I assume that most of the nastiness is to get attention, so I've tried to massively increase the attention I give to him when he's behaving and ignore him when he's misbehaving so that I can get more of the behaving. It's hard because there's so little time that he's actually behaving. I feel so bad for him because it must be just miserable to be him right now. I've been in bad moods before, but I don't remember it ever lasting for so long.

We are trying to schedule the adoption for March 8, 9, or 10 in San Antonio. He's said that getting the adoption over with is something he's anxious about and maybe it's drawing out too long for him. Or maybe kids just go through phases like this and I need to get used to it. I also need to continue to reiterate to him that he needs to eat. He's tired because he's not getting enough to eat and he's not growing because he's not getting enough to eat. He says he's not hungry, but the more he'll eat, the more he'll be able to eat. We need to stretch out his stomach so more can fit in and he gets hungry more often.
Joey is really doing well. He's excited about things and having fun. He misbehaves rarely and gets over it pretty fast when he does. Honestly, Joey's happiness may actually be a factor in Josh's misery. They definitely tend to trade off.