raising willow… and dexter!

Someone keeps nagging me to update. I am trying to avoid doing something else, so now seems to be as good a time as any. Sooo… It’s been nearly 4 months since I updated, so some things have changed and some have stayed the same.

Dexie

Dexie is a stubborn little thing, he’s just a ball of muscle with a toddler tummy now. He’s less than two weeks away from being two years old and I am in some form of denial. He is still my baby! As he squirms away from my kisses and pretends his sister’s fairy wand is a spade, there is no doubt that he is a little boy.

Dexie is at Family Day Care. His regular FDCarers speak Mandarin and he is reported to understand it. His expressive language is coming along in leaps and bounds. I was a bit worried there, but now he has quite a few words he can say. His receptive language has always been quite good. At the moment I am concerned, in only the way a mother can be, about his gross motor skills. Like his sister, he falls over his feet. He can literally be standing still and all of a sudden he is on the floor.

Willow

Willow is becoming more eloquent and articulate. This past school term has seen her undergo speech therapy with a private speech pathologist at her school. While she has a minor lisp, she has some problems with word finding abilities. As an example, she couldn’t think of the word hose, so she called it a water-rope. She couldn’t think of the word Christmas, so she told me it was the time it snowed and people gave her presents. Anyway, she is utterly charming and learning so much at school.

At the moment she is attending Vacation Care at her school, but next week we all have a week off together. I am really looking forward to some time off.

Willow is a fantastic big sister, she is almost always kind and considerate of her little brother. Unfortunately I can’t say the same for him. I imagine that when he learns to use his words a bit more, there will be less hitting from him. He is good at taking two biscuits from the jar and giving one to Willow.

A

A has finally given up smoking. I am very proud of him. I can’t imagine (never having smoked) how difficult it has been for him. I know how difficult it has been for me though – only kidding!

Study

I am in the home stretch of Semester 2 Year 2 of my BSW. I am possibly going to get credit for my first placement, which will essentially save me a whole year of study. I have also started negotiations to do a paid placement in a different area at work.

I am also in the middle of my Certificate IV of Mental Health. I started in April, this is study that I’m undertaking through work, it is compulsory and quite frankly, it’s a step up the pay scale. I have done the last of four 2 days sessions, then I have some written work and 3 more 2 day modules. It seems that every time I do a two day session, more work is added. Today I found out that as well as the Alcohol & Other Drugs and Culturally and Linguistically Diverse modules, now we have to do a module called Promoting Co-operation or something like that. Apparently we might just keep doing these modules and end up with a Diploma of Mental Health. I think the training organisation are just making it up as they go along.

Work also offer Certificate IV in Workplace Training and Assessment. This is an essential criteria to lecture at TAFE, and for many interesting jobs. I figure that if it is offered at the same rate as the Certificate IV in Mental Health, I might as well keep going once I finish that.

Side note: One of the women at the training session looked familiar yesterday. She had interviewed me for a respite position about a year ago. I didn’t end up taking the job as it wasn’t really right for me. She told me that she was glad to see that I’d found a job that was the right fit for me and my skills would have been wasted in the position she offered me. That was a nice ego boost. Funnily enough, about 10 years ago, when I was working at the institution, her father was my boss. It is a small world.

Work

Work is great. Of course, there are minor issues, like the fact that we were meant to be in our new office in June. It’s October tomorrow and we are still not there. Apparently we are moving on Friday but I’ll believe it when I see it. Apart from that, it is probably one of the best organisations I’ve worked for, on so many different levels. I can certainly see the potential to move upwards or diagonally here. I’m not really into goal setting, but I’d like to be in a more senior role in 5 years time.

Failing that, I’d like to work for Families SA for some time. I would put a time limit on it, 2 years max. I know I couldn’t do it without burning out, but the experience would be priceless.

Home

What can I say? Very glad to have a regular cleaner now. A youngish couple come to do the floors, bathrooms and anything else they have time for every fortnight. Part of the benefit is that I spend the night before tidying up! Such an irony.

I have started making a quilt, but lost interest. I have also started making some reusable lunch bags with left over nappy making material. Not sure if I’m pleased with the beta version, but I’ll see how the next one turns out. A friend had a little girl recently and I made her 3 pairs of simple pants. Looking forward to seeing photos of her in them!

The menagerie are all still with us. Russ and Bear are 12 this year, Rani is 9 and Harley is 3. I worry every morning that I will go out and find a lifeless body. I guess it is inevitable, no-one lives for ever. When it does happen I will be a mess.

On that cheery note, I will finish. Tomorrow is my day off, as it is uni holidays I will be at uni finishing a case study. Yay.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 11:19 pm and is filed under Gratitude. You can follow responses to this entry through the Comments RSS Feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your site.