Update 2/12

Andrei and his mom

Alina in the baby carrier

Daniela

Marius

The last couple days have been busy around here. Children are in and out of isolation, but our numbers in the playrooms are growing, which is good. Ionut gave us a big scare the other day as when I went in to see him in the morning he was lying in a pool of blood. Luckily the nurses responded quickly, and it turned out it was from grinding his teeth so much, but it seems impossible to stop him. We are working to get him a pediatric mouthguard to help. Today we got all the isolated kids out in the hall walking or in walkers, which was great. I walked and ran with Sami for a while, then put him in a walker so I could play with Alina for a while. I found one of her new favorite activities! I put her facing out in the baby carrier, and ran up and down the hall so she bobbed up and down; she loved it! This morning Andrei had a visit from his mom, and she seemed very nice. We designated today "early valentine's day" since half our team is leaving tomorrow morning. So we dressed up the little babies (see below) and took lots of pictures. The aides have been dressing Petre in "big boy clothes" lately, and today he was modeling in all black. Daniela threw a wild tantrum tonight. Usually I can soothe her by holding her, and saying "mama" to her (which she repeats), but tonight nothing would work: walking in the hall, jumping in the jumperoo, being held, playing on the floor. She was just exhausted, so I put her to bed, but she got up soon after to eat. I spent a lot of time with Denisa today as she napped for about an hour in my arms/on my chest once I lay down. She is a cutie (the one with the big bow), and seems pretty advanced for being the youngest baby here. Petre, Cristi, Daniela, and Gabriela have all been getting practice standing and walking. Cristi and Daniela stand on their own (holding onto a toy or the wall)! Tomorrow Pat, Karen, and Cora leave for Bucharest, and we will then be a team of three. We will certainly miss their help with the kids next week!