Tuesday, August 4, 2009

(Skip down to 7/31 post and read first or these first posts will make no sense at all!! : ) )

I told Janette that I wanted to visit Alina every other day and she agreed. Actually, she had suggested that on Monday but my mind was so flustered about the money situation I wasn’t really paying attention to her. Then, when I talked to my parents last night, Dad had suggested it too. I, of course, was listening and then, it sunk in. When I told Janette this morning about my decision, I played it off as if I was agreeing with her and that I thought her idea of seeing Alina every other day would be better. And, in effect, it is a better idea but I wanted her to think I thought about it and agreed with her idea of every other day. Is there something brown on my nose?
My poor baby has yet another cold. She had one when I got here and now she has another one. Runny nose, itchy eyes, a cough, and I think a sore throat but she seems to feel ok for now. She didn’t have a fever today. I just hope it doesn’t get worse. On Friday when I visited her, I heard a couple of kids in her group coughing. It’s no surprise that she has another cold. If one has it, the whole baby house will get it. I just hope they will give her some medicine for it.
Today’s visit was good. We actually got to the baby house early so we had about a half and hour longer visit than usual. My little munchkin is so cute. She was whispering to me today and just telling me a story that was so important to her that she wanted to share it with me. After she finished whispering, I looked at her and said, “Really?”, not knowing one word of what she said, and she said, “Yeah!”. I almost lost my breath laughing! She did this a few more times during our visit. I would just nod my head and say, “yeah” or “uh ha” or something to that effect. It must be the right answer because she keeps on talking. Man is she a chatterbox! The second I pick her up she starts talking to me and really doesn’t stop until we say goodbye. I love it!!! (for now at least : ) )
Alina got a haircut yesterday! It looks like everybody in the orphanage got one. I so can’t wait to get her home and have it grow out so we can have some pig tails. It’s ok for now and I understand why they keep everybody’s hair short…once more thing the caretakers do not have to deal with…totally understandable.
I’ve been thinking about Alina’s physical and developmental delays. It is said that for every three months that a child spends in an institutional setting, they will be one month behind physically and developmentally. I added up all the numbers; 48 months she’s been in the orphanage (she just turned five a couple of weeks ago so I’m not counting those weeks) divided by 3 = 13.67 months that she is behind. Let’s round that off to 14 months. So, instead of really being 5 years old physically and developmentally, she is actually more like 3 years and 10 months…almost 4. I can see that physically. She is still a little shaky on her feet like a 3, almost 4, year old would be. And, of course, her statue is more of a 3 year old than a 5 year old. She’s probably only about 32” to 34” tall. She’s probably pretty much on par in the weight category I bet. My baby has the cutest little pot belly ever but skinny legs and small feet. Everything is in proportion though.
Developmentally, in some areas, she is on par for a 5 year old. She has good hand to eye coordination and she loves to stack her cups in the order that they are suppose to be stacked. I have toys in the care package that will tell me more about her ability to match shapes, etc. There are some things that Alina does that are more like a 3 year old but then there are other things that I have seen Gili (who is 5 years old) do that Alina does as well. Alina does not know her colors or shapes but that’s because no one has ever worked with her on them. She does not know how to hold a pencil or crayon and she is not interested in coloring. Yet again, they do not do those kinds of activities in the orphanage so she’s never been exposed to them. She is one smart cookie though. I have no doubt that she will catch on very quickly when we get back home especially since she will be surrounded by kids who can do these kinds of things. She has already learned a few English words in just a few weeks. If I would work with her more, she would probably be speaking in English by the time we got home. But, I’m not pushing that issue just yet. One baby step at a time and that’s not the baby step we need to be taking right now.
I will not be seeing Alina tomorrow as we will start every other day this week. I will see her on Thursday and then it will be Monday before I see her again. Three days without seeing her is going to kill me but I’ll keep myself busy to try to keep my mind off of it (yeah…right!!!). We’ll get into a routine next week and it will be better. On the days I don’t see her, I will not be posting because there really is nothing to tell. I usually sit in my room and watch movies, crochet, knit, or sleep. When my sewing machine gets here, I will be sewing. Sometimes I will go to the park to people watch and I am working on a post about that which I will publish later. Therefore, you will not hear from me until Thursday. Thanks to all for joining in our journey. Until Thursday……

Love,
Kim and Alina