The New Kids

Well it's been a while since my last post and I can't really remember if anything interesting happened before the group this past weekend. We had a kids group that started on Friday. I was really excited about it (although admittedly nervous) because it was a full group of new kids. I was paired with Perfect, a five year old with delayed development who sounded like a sweet little girl with a hard home life. Her parents think the devil touched her and with prayer and good behavior she will be healed. I can't imagine that in 2009 people still believe things like this. But I'll stop myself before I go into a rant. :P As the kids arrived, we were all quiet and slowly getting to know them. Kate was with a little boy named Donal who has a very rare disability called Ring 22 syndrome. He was such a beautiful little boy and he was so sweet and easy to be with. I was jealous! :) Lennart was with a boy named Sean with DS. After the weekend, Lennart was SO tired! Sean liked to jump on Lennart and kick him, etc. Lisa was with the cutest little girl of all time, Niamh (pronounced Neeve) who also has downs. I really loved her and I wanted to take her home! Erin was with Matthew who we've seen before. She was supposed to be with a boy named Brandon but he wasn't able to make it. A little boy named Phillip was paired with Jose. Phillip is the one that has the little brother Liam that I minded when we all met the new kids last week. Liam was so excited to come in and say hi, but when his dad told him he had to go home with them, Liam gave him the look of death and walked out. I was so sad I couldn't be with Liam all weekend! Kaitlyn had a boy named Cieran who's disability is unknown. Perfect didn't show up, and after a few hours we called her family to see what was up. Her dad said they weren't able to bring her that night and maybe not the next day. This sucked for several reasons. One being that I really wanted to meet Perfect and give her a good weekend away from home. The other being that they were taking a spot from another child who could use a break. We were able to get Danielle the next morning, however, and that was really good. Her mom was so excited to have a few days off, and I've been with Danielle before. Saturday morning we took the kids to Santa's Magical Forest of Dreams. It was just as amazing as it sounds! haha Danielle had a few meltdowns when we had to wait to go in and when we couldn't just walk all over the place, which is her favorite activity. But she did great, and the trip was a success. All of the kids really loved it, except for Sean. Danielle is a bad sleeper, but I knew that before we went to bed. Unfortunately she was worse than last time and I ended up getting about 4 hours of sleep between her waking up, screaming, kicking me, pulling my hair, and banging her head against the wall. She got up for good at about five that morning and for the rest of the day I was wrecked. Maybe I'm a baby, but I really have trouble functioning with little sleep. She was really having trouble being away from her mom and she really wanted to go home before we went to the cinema Sunday afternoon. In the past we have set it up so that in the cinema two volunteers would sit on the ends of an aisle and let her walk between them during the movie. I was so excited for an hour of sitting because Danielle is constantly walking around the house from room to room. About ten minutes into the movie, I see Danielle in the middle of the row giggling. This was a bad sign because she always does this when she's done something bad. I go over to her and I see that she took off her shoes, pants, and underwear! When I tried to put them back on, she pulled my hair. So I called Erin over and she held down Danielle's hands. This only made it worse because she starting screaming and kicking, including a straight shot to my eye. We finally got the underwear and pants on and I grabbed the shoes and pulled her out of the cinema. I was so tired and not happy at this point, but we went on the bus and she was perfectly happy walking around inside and exploring it, so that was fine with me. By the time her mom came to get her, we were all ready! I really like Danielle and I know how important it is for her to get the breaks, so I was happy to do it, but I can't imagine having her all the time. I definitely need to wait a few more years before I have kids. :P

My "weekend" was spent Christmas shopping and hanging out with the roommates. I'm getting a cold, which I blame on Phillip and his projectile sneezes. Today we had a meeting and our Secret Santa! I got a book and a DVD from Jose, and I gave Khadija a painting I got in Paris and some chocolate. I love presents! :D We're about to head out to Baldoyle to visit some members in a hospital over there. In the meantime I think I'll watch another episode of Glee. My friends back home told me I needed to watch it and I LOVE it!

I hope you're all enjoying the Christmas season! Love you!