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Thursday, July 8, 2010

Days 12 & 13

The week is starting to wind down, and pretty soon, I’ll be the only volunteer at the clinic for a week. I’ve spent much of the past two days in the isolation room, helping Robin to NOT go stir-crazy. Cristi, Paula, and Roxana have been in isolation for most/all of the time we’ve been here, and Andreea (Roxana’s twin) is in there now, as well. So I’ve spent a good bit of time in that room, as well as going between all the other rooms (especially Raul’s, as I think Robin and I may be the only volunteers who visit him).

Oh, before I forget, I had said that Alexandra was going to Iasi for scans, and I guess it is assumed that they will go ahead and do surgery. She may be gone for a month or so, which means I probably won’t see her before I leave. Sad. :-(

Yesterday, the pair of Jeans (haha) stayed in the bedroom with Daria, Ionut, Maria, and Gabriella instead of taking the first three to the nonmobile playroom (Gabi, having just returned from the hospital, is in a form of isolation for a while…which doesn’t make much sense, as they put her in a room with healthy kids who might get sick if she has anything). The Jeans did some work with Gabi on standing, something she might do for a couple seconds when she doesn’t realize it (such as when she wants to be picked up from her crib) but that she hates doing when she’s being MADE to and realizes it’s work. Gabi stood on the floor, holding onto the edge of the cribs. I got the cutest picture when she was standing at Maria’s crib, which held both Maria and Daria! Gabi was also introduced to the beach ball, which we sometimes use as an exercise ball, and explored it with kisses. She did the same with Mihaela’s skirt.

Some big news from today and yesterday (that’s not really that huge, but noteworthy):

*Little Miss Paula, who is severely autistic, allowed me to kiss her hand.

*Cristi looks like Charlie Chaplin with his indigo/violet moustache, and the snowman narrator from Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer when he smiles. He also stood up in his crib, all by himself, and stayed standing for about five minutes.

*Roxana (whom I’ve nicknamed Roxie) has discovered her shadow, and she loves to sit in front of the fan.

*Andreea (twin) was Little Miss Crankypants today and demanded to be held almost every single moment. I didn’t indulge her every time, as I don’t want her to be spoiled, but I did get several cuddles in. I’m trying to teach her not to hit, too. When she’s excited, she kind of slaps her hands on my arms and chest. It hurts. So I’m trying to get her to NOT do that.

*Daria got to play with the big kids today when we went to visit the mobile playroom. Big Andreea gave her a kiss, and Petre tried to pet her hair gently, saying “mai mai” (I'm sure I spelled that wrong, but it's an equivalent of “be nice”). Unfortunately, Petre didn’t know his own strength and, therefore, wasn’t particularly gentle, but Daria didn’t mind. I thought it was adorable, how interested Petre was in the baby. He walked over to us, tentatively, with a huge smile on his face.

*Maria-Cleopatra seemed to be having a conversation with some angels today. I was on the other side of the room, feeding Daria, and Maria was just babbling and cooing up a storm. Love it. She has come so far in the last year. Last summer, everyone thought it was just a matter of time until she was going to pass away; we didn’t know if she knew we were there with her, if her rare smiles were reflex, or what. Now we know how to make her smile and laugh out loud, and she is a recognized presence in the room—not because of her disability but because of her personality.

*Raul…let out a huge burp today. It was the loudest belch I’ve ever heard from anyone under the age of 5. Completely random incident, as he was just sitting on the changing table, looking out the window. I’m a bit immature, but it was kind of hilarious.

*Ion practiced eating with a spoon yesterday morning. He’s very good at the motion of bringing the spoon from the bowl to his mouth, but he hasn’t quite gotten the hang of scooping up the food to actually put INTO his mouth. So I let him hold the spoon, but I held it with him—very lightly—to help with the scooping.

*The toddlers who were in isolation (Ion, Petre, Lea-Celine, and Andreea) have recovered and are free, in case you didn’t get that from my note about Daria!

*Alina, Mihaela and Daniela are all over the place. Enough said.

*Ionut is an angel and I love to cuddle him. He has been working on head control, mostly. As a side note, I’m surprised that he doesn’t bite. He has a full set of baby teeth (which he grinds a lot), but when I hold him with his head on my shoulder, he just sucks on my shirt or my arm. He never bites.

*Marius is doing great at practicing walking! I expect that he’ll be walking completely on his own within the next week or two, as long as he gets to practice (which might be hard next week, but I’ll try!)

*My glasses were grabbed off of my face a grand total of three times today. They only got to them because I was holding Daria, though. They usually can’t get them otherwise; I’m too quick for them.

Our dinner in Barlad was postponed until tomorrow. Five volunteers (four from the clinic) will be leaving on Saturday. I’m nervous about being there on my own next week, but I’ll try to make the best of it.

Andreea & Robin have a chat

Roxie discovers her shadow

Cristi snores

Paula

Lea-Celine

Raul gets a visit from an angel bear

Ionut

Party at Maria's crib

1 comment:

  1. I love how you show their personalities with your comments! I feel like I know them.

    ReplyDelete