Evan and the Babies: Time flies

Somehow this visit seems to be going much more quickly than my other times here. We've had less free time for some reason.

Here are some highlights from the last two days:

Maria has decided to take some steps, holding on to our hands of course. Maybe she sees Ilinca doing it and figures she can do it to! I got her to eat some banana this afternoon. She can be a picky eater at times.

Ilinca actually took one step entirely on her own. Ken and I were trying to get her to walk from one of us to the other. I think she let go by mistake. Unfortunately, she has been sick. She was running a fever yesterday and hadn't been eating. They ended up giving her an IV glucose yesterday afternoon. Today her fever was down or gone but she had a croupy sounding cough. She finally broker her 2 day fast and ate yogurt this morning but not much else. Hope she is better tomorrow. She is such a serious little girl. It is great to get a smile out of her. She looks at me like, "who are you?"

Coca put little socks on Ilinca's hands to try and keep her from sucking in her fingers so much. She actually did pretty well with it today, wasn't trying to suck them much and wasn't fussing about it. Hopefully they can break that habit as her poor little finger are taking a beating.

Lavinia decided she could pick up and eat a poofelet on her own. They are these corn snacks, kind of like Cheetos without the covering. No nutritional value I'm sure but the kids love them. Lavinia has also been sitting on her own a bit and smiling a lot. Apparently this is a real difference from how she is at the placement center.

While we are on the subject of food, the last two days Mihaela has ordered schnitzel and mashed potatoes for Liviu and Luciana when we have our lunch. We give it to them when we go back at 3 and you should see them eat it. They are so happy. Marian enjoyed some of the mashed potatoes.

Liviu continues to monopolize Lisa and she is great with him. He has climbed the wall again and tries to walk when Dan takes him from the playroom to the sleeping room when we leave in the evening. He was especially excited today when Laura printed a picture for him that she had taken off the tv. It was of his favorite teenage mutant ninja turtles. He is smiling a lot these days which is great to see.

Laura has this little Polaroid printer and it has been fun seeing the kids enjoy the pictures. Luciana requested pictures of Alina, Delia, Coca and I can't remember who else. (Alina and Delia aren't with us but Laura had pictures from prior trips on her phone.) She LOVES Coca, which isn't surprising because Coca is wonderful. Luciana is our little mother. Not only does she play mother to her baby doll, she also plays mother with the other children at times. Too cute.

Marian continues to enjoy Ken feeding him, walking him, playing with his hair and pretty much anything associated with Ken. He sobs when we leave.

Elvis is eating better and loves cuddling. We all try to give him as much lap time as possible. I've never once heard him cry. Occasionally, he makes little noises but not often. Hard to believe he is 5 years old. He looks like he is less than 2 years old.

Delia is still on the second floor of the hospital. We wish she could be with us. We try and get down to see her. I took a picture of her down to her this afternoon and she was quite impressed. She also asked me where Coca is. I'm sure she associates being at the hospital with Coca. The first thing Delia asked when I saw her today was where was my telephone?! They love the electronics. I've listened to Itsy Bitsy Spider about a million times this trip.

We visited the placement center today. For the first time, I saw the physical therapy and other rooms being used. It seems like they are mostly a day program for children in the community. They look great but I'm not sure that "our" kids benefit from them.

We saw Alina, Luca, Paul, Sami, Carmen, Elena and Christian. I may be missing someone. Marius is now in the house with Ion and Anna Maria. Alina immediately put her hands up to play patty cake. We also did a few rounds of the chicken dance that my niece Shannon taught her two years ago.

I'm sad to say that Sami isn't doing very well. I remember him walking and throwing a ball and pulling hair. He seems to have lost weight and wasn't alert at all. I hear that he isn't walking anymore. Ken, Laura and I had a hard time seeing him like this. It's bad enough when a child doesn't seem to be improving but when they are significantly worse that is truly heartbreaking.

After work today, Laura, Lisa and I went to visit the House of Roses, the group home that Lauren and I visited last week. They were equally impressed by it. It sounds to me like these young adults were in a Tutova like program up until age 7. One then went to a foster family before coming to the House of Roses. The others were in places that don't sound great. One had 170 people. I hope there are more places like House of Roses by the time "our" children are adults.

I haven't talent too many pictures the last few days. Here are a few:

Luciana enjoying her banana