For Unto Us a Child is Born :)

After peeling my eyelids open this morning and wandering to the lounge to check my mobile phone, there was a txt waiting to announce the arrival of Evie Lily at 2.05am this morning (28th September) weighing in at 8lb 11oz, mother and baby happy and healthy and she has dark hair.  So after two wonderful  grandsons  I now have a grand daughter which is awesome -  another great grand daughter for Mum with Evie being beaten to the punch by my brother's grand daughter Jazmin who is now a year old.  I will be getting to meet Evie in a months time so watch this space.

It has been a busy few days - I attended three days training with fellow work colleagues which focussed on a change management process and a way of working with traumatised children which has built on our previous training and will take our working with these children to a new level.  Part of the course involved learning trauma theory which is a huge and fascinating topic.  The impact of trauma on brain development can start in utero if the mother is in a violent or substance abuse life style so these children often operate in chaos with elevated behaviours, unable to learn as their bodies are perpetually geared in a state of  chemical response ready for flight or fight.  Children also often fail to thrive in these conditions so we also deal with children who have not met "normal" developmental stages physically, emotionally, with their ability to learn compromised  until they feel safe, so we have had toddles not yet crawling or walking for example. In one case we had a 9 month old who could not sit up or roll over even when we got her.  We have had 2 - 3 yr olds who have only be able to utter two or three words that are understandable as they have no other vocabulary and then there are the older children who struggle with writing, reading, numbers and social interactions with others.  We have learnt over the past three days several  new strategies as staff to manage our own behaviours and emotions when working with these children so that we can then keep calm and at base line so our behaviours do not escalate theirs.  Am working two twelve hour days over the weekend so will see how I go.  One of the good things about the course was  the affirmation of so much that we are already doing well so the coursewas  by way of fine tuning and going forward for most of us.

At the same time as I was doing the course and during my days off last weekend I have had a little visitor.  As of last Friday, I became an official respite carer for the department just in time to have the little lad I have been having now and then come and stay for a week with me this time.  His full time foster carer ended up in hospital with double pneumonia so I picked him up from after school care last Friday and he is now off to friend Donna and her lad in Perth for a few days while I work and his carer still recuperates.  It has been an interesting time - my kitchen/living space has been turned into an inside camping area with a couch turned alongside  facing several chairs with a double sheet over the top to make a cubby (hut for NZ crew, lol).  A sponge topper pad and the inner mattress out of my swag have been incorporated as flooring, with a small coffee table and other chairs with a small cardboard campfire make up the dining area.  Surrounding all this is various plastic farm animals, army bits and pieces and a construction crew.  I have now seen "Puss in Boots" with Anthony Banderas almost twice a day, lol as the lad was waking at 5.30am each morning ready for the day and so would watch it then,  and then would watch some again on return from his after school program.  I had one night with him waking at 11.30pm with a nightmare, and then he got up at 4.30am this  morning however thankfully he returned to bed after a toilet stop and then slept until 7am - so a veritable lie in, lol.  I have been to a school disco, spent several hours at the foreshore - me with a book lying in the sun while the lad played for hours at the playground and have  had to be organised to make breakfasts, lunches and cook again for dinner - no packets of chippies or choc biscuits at the end of a long day but meat and veg heh heh.  As this little lad is a creature of habit we still operate in most of the routines we had when he was in care which is a familiarity for him and gives some continuity when other changes occur. 

We scored last week when we called into Macca's after the disco - he wanted to leave early, it was a wet and miserable night and we had not had time for dinner beforehand - and when we got there Gerard was still at work.  Gerard shouted us our meal and came and said hello - the lad fascinated by the vampire toy in his happy meal with numerous questions about vampires for the rest of the evening. We then got rung the following night to share Chinese takeaways with the family and scored an immediate hit with the lad as they have Mindcraft - a computer game - on their computer.  No sooner than dinner was finished, he was off to play the game with help from one of the boys and has talked about it ever since.

We have had lots of rain this week with pockets of sunshine so I suppose pretty typical spring time weather.  The warm is getting nice and warm again and it was delicious lying on a rug at the park in part shade to read my book with the sun warming right through to my bones that day.  At least the rain has meant I have not had to water the garden this week.  I have eaten more spinach from the garden and the last lot of plants seem to be holding their own.  I will give them some liquid manure early next week on my next days off.

Today I visited my Italian workmates who over the past few days have emptied their flat prior to leaving Geraldton next Tuesday to return to Italy.  I had lent them some kitchen bits and pieces when they first set up their house so today they returned those bits and I have inherited all the things from their kitchen that they had not sold or been able to give away. With that they also cleaned out the rest of their pantry so have received a pile of ingredients that has restocked my pantry that I cleaned out last week.  I have scored some more exotic ingredients along the way - truffle oil, saffron, Italian pasta, and dry porcini mushrooms to mention a few.  I will be looking through the cookbooks over the weekend to extend my repertoire.  Once I have sorted through everything and decided what I can or cannot use, I will drop all the left over things down to the disaster relief people, the salvation army or St Vinnies - whichever has the easiest parking on the day, lol.

Have just got in the door from the ex workmates place after a game of canasta with Gerard and Hayden - which I won, heh heh.  Bronwyn's parents are over from NSW for a month so also had a catch up with them - will see more of them next week no doubt.  Am on the countdown to holidays home now about 18 sleeps to go - so will head off now and tick one more off the list - need to do a few more chores before work tomorrow so will go sort clothes and finish kitchen.  Will update news of grandchild as it comes to hand :).