Wednesday, July 21, 2010

toddler havoc

Our foster baby seems to be becoming a cheeky toddler - as soon as she feels really safe she is off exploring everywhere. She can't quite walk but crawls very fast - she made it all the way up our stairs as I was answering the phone yesterday. She has managed to work the photocopier and screw up lots of photocopier paper. I thought our house was baby proofed but she showing me what's lacking.
This morning I was dressing her on the bed in the spare room, turned my back to find her a cardigan, heard a crash and she'd fallen off the bed onto Hannah's "Ab circle pro" (if you are thinking of buying one of these be warned they take up lots of space and are very inconvenient!). She screamed and immediately developed an egg on her forehead - this is of course an access day so it has to be explained to her social worker and mum.
She'd recovered in a minute or two so it obviously looks worse than it is.
Heidi's security is very fragile though, as soon as the situation changes at all she's on high alert, people coming into the room frighten her and she's still very wary of Paul. She let him hold her for a few seconds yesterday but today was back to crying and running to me if he came near. He even had her bottle to offer her today but she just cried when he offered it to her. Every foster child we've had has been a bit wary of men but not to this extent.
Isaac is just beginning to come round a bit, he stroked rather than scratched Heidi this morning and even offered her a half chewed cheese ball!
Noah is rather taken with her especially as he fed her half her bottle yesterday. She finds him quite a novelty as a male who's not frightening.
Heidi likes Hannah too as her voice is similar to mine. Hannah moves out on Sunday though so we'll have to get used to life without all the support she offers the family.
She is only moving to the centre of town and intends to come back for quite a few meals and to care for the kids to get their carer support money (In NZ children with disabilities tend to get around 21 days a year of 'carer support' this is basically babysitting money of $64 a day - 24 hour day it's not great pay - which is paid to a carer so mum can get a little time off) So I hope we'll still see a lot of her.

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