Another Kids Group

I'm sitting in the kitchen right now at 9am wondering why I volunteered to help Paddy collect the donation bags at 8.... I had a long sleep deprived weekend with the kids group, but it was worth it! I had my most interesting member so far. But let me back up a bit...

Thursday afternoon was filled with group prep and cleaning. As soon as it was over we all began getting ready to party for May's last night. It began with a trip to Gibney's with everyone, including Federico and Gio, and excepting Kate and Lisa. Lennart and Lisa were preparing a German meal for May's last night, and Kate offered to stay to help Lisa so that Lennart could come with us. (They were fighting like a married couple, and the fact that it was all in German made it even more entertaining.) It was Arthur's Day, which is a made up holiday to celebrate the birth of Arthur Guinness, and was a countrywide party because it is also the 250th anniversary of the opening of the factory. Most people were out because of the promised free pint of Guinness at 17:59, which was the year it opened. (Really dorky, but fun!) Anyways, we went to have our free pint and stayed for a little bit. We could barely fit in the door! After we all had our delicious pints, we headed back for the dinner. They made meatballs, sauerkraut, and some potato bread ball type things. It was all very delicious, but we rushed to clean up so that we could go out to Dublin for the third part of our party.

Once we got to town, we went straight for Temple Bar. May wanted to hear traditional Irish music. We walked into a place I've never been to, and I can't remember the name. But we could hear the music from the street, so we settled there. The drinks were overprices, and the place was very crowded, but the music was fun and people were dancing. When May wasn't looking, I asked one of the musicians to play "Galway Girl" because it's May's favorite song and it was her last night in Dublin. He told me that he had already played it that night, but they might be able to fit it in once more. After a sufficient amount of music and dancing, we were off again! Jonny told us about a bar that was under the DART station. They had cheap pints and fun music to dance to. Poor Lisa got an entire pint of beer spilled on her by Peter, who she already was irritated with. They closed at half twelve so we had to leave, even though the party had just begun! We decided to go to the Q Bar, as always, but they were PACKED! I can't believe how many people were out for Arthur's Day...it was a Thursday after all... Anyways, they let me and Fed in, but not everyone else, so we all left. We wandered around Temple Bar for a while, but we had no success. After a bit of arguing, most of us decided to head back by taxi, while Lennart, Peter, and May went back to Fed's house with Gio. It was half one at that point, and we had a kid's group the next day. I was ready to sleep!

The next day, we all got the house prepared for the kids group. Most of our time was to be spent at the Swords house, but because of the big number and the regulations for over night stays with children, we split up the group between houses for bedtime. We said goodbye to May, and then went to Swords to wait for the kids to arrive. Danielle was the first to show up. She was mine! She is 11 years old, and I honestly can't remember the title of her disability. She has very limited speech. She has a big sense of anticipation, so most of the day she'll ask about when she's going to bed and when her mom was coming back. She also has a hyper metabolism, so she eats constantly and moves around constantly. My job was to basically walk around with her and give her bites of food. I also had to watch her at all times because she has been known to jump out of windows and break glasses. There's no telling her "no" because she doesn't understand the concept. Aside from all of that, she is simply lovely. I really enjoyed spending the weekend with her, even if it was a big challenge. Bedtime was the worst part I think... Most of the kids sleep in separate rooms, but Danielle needed to be watched. So in spite of the fact that she spoke of bed all day long, she sure didn't want to sleep! I ended up sitting next to her in bed while she sang her nursery rhymes to insure that she wouldn't get up and bang on the door. It was midnight before she actually slept. She woke up during the night several times and I got up to sit by her until she went back to sleep. I woke up at 6:30am to her opening and slamming the door. We had a volunteer come that stayed the night to check on the kids every hour (part of the stupid regulations). She was very nice and told me to get a little more sleep and she'd watch her. I slept for a half hour and then took a shower while I had the chance! The rest of the day with Danielle was really good. We all went to the park and had a magician come to the house. He was very entertaining, and all of the kids sat for the whole thing, including Danielle to my surprise! We had a quick dinner and then got set up for Mass. Danielle really loves Mass and she does this thing where she puts her arms above her head and links her hands and gives a little squeal of excitement. It is incredibly adorable. When Mass was over, all the kids resumed to their playing and Danielle started to show signs of what was to come. She knew that a woman named Mary would be by the house later, and so she fixated on this until Mary came. She sat and waited by the window and started to freak out a little. When she gets upset she punches the couch and bites her hands to have some small kind of control. It's really sad because there was no way of explaining to her that Mary was coming soon. She has no concept of time, only that the person she wants is not there. The weirdest part is that when Mary did come, she had little interest in her. At that point she was just exhausted and ready for sleep. Unfortunately, she slept worse than the night before. Going to bed was easier however. We sang "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" and after I sang that He has Danielle in His hands, she pointed to me and said "Claire?" So we sang a verse about me too. :) I was woken up quite a bit that night, and she got up at 6am. I had no time for a shower, and I was lucky to simply brush my teeth! She had a mini meltdown that morning and I knew the rest of the day was not going to be easy. I had to leave her for the morning because I had a meeting for Lourdes that I couldn't miss. Apparently while I was gone, she had several more meltdowns and continued to bite her hands. Kate was with her during that time, and she definitely got the hardest part. When I came back she gave me a smile and Kate told me she asked for me, which was really sweet. After that, we walked around the house and bounced on the bouncy castle a bit. I took her for a walk outside to calm her down because she was really starting to melt down. Three days is a long time for her to be away from home. Her mom came a little early, which was a very good thing for poor little Danielle. I talked to her while she put Danielle in the car and she told me she is with her all the time, apart from school. She said that the weekend was so nice, and thanked me. I told her that I had a lot of fun with Danielle and I'd be happy to babysit any time. I hope she takes me up on that, but I doubt she will. It's hard for parents to let someone watch their child even when they have regular needs. We'll see...

After the group, we cleaned up and came home to relax. I caught up on emails and then I watched Twilight....yikes...

I'm going to Dublin today to do some shopping. I need white clothing to go with my white uniform for Lourdes. I am SO excited!!!

Love to you,
Claire