Day Thirty-Four

My stomach wasn’t feeling good this morning from my antibiotics, so I decided to rest. The rest of the group went to the clinic, highlights include: a haircut for Alina, and Sammy walking all the way across the big playroom! After lunch it was gorgeous outside, in the sixties, so we were excited to take the kids outside. Dan said it was not quite warm enough to take them out on a blanket, but maybe next week if it stays warm. I took Mihaela out first while most of the others were still sleeping. We didn’t even need our fleeces, but the kids had their normal winter jackets/snowsuits, and hats. I put shoes on Mihaela too and she practiced walking a bit. After one trip around the hospital we looked for a bench to sit on. The only one fully in the sun was taken, so we went to a partially sunny one, which I figured would be better anyway since her eyes aren’t used to the bright sun. All of a sudden I looked up and an elderly female patient was walking up to us. She started talking to me in Romanian, and clearly I had no clue about what she was saying, so I tried to explain that I spoke English and was from America. Then she gestured to ask if Mihaela was my child. By that point a couple of her friends had come over. One of the other ladies pointed back to the clinic, and I was able to confirm that that was where she was from. Then they pulled her hood up over her jacket, I guess sixty degrees isn’t warm for them, and told me to move her to complete sun. I moved over, and then they spotted the group of aides and older kids across the driveway and told me to come with them over there.

They escorted me over there, and the aides looked a bit surprised to see us. We also walked by Jo An who seemed equally confused about my group of old ladies. The aides and older kids were having a grass fight, which Mihaela and I joined, and it was really funny. Maiastra was the only kid who really got the game, and she was throwing grass back at all of us. Then I went over to talk to Alex, and one of the old ladies came over and told me to have her sit in my lap, not on the ground, which she did not enjoy. After a little while the aides got up to leave, so I joined them. The old ladies stayed out to dry their laundry on the fence. We went inside for bottles (after helping Jo An and Alina chase a dog out of the playground). After bottles I held Maria for a bit, then took Ema outside. She just LOVES being outside. She gets the happiest look on her face. We walked around a bit, trying to avoid skeptical patients, then sat at the picnic table for a bit. We went back inside for diaper time, and saw Anna-Maria getting a massage in the pre-school room.