Wildcats, Wildcats, Wildcats...

Friday (September 14^th) – Friday we made our 4^th and 5^th visits to the baby home. We spent a total of about 3 and a half hours with Veeka today. We get to visit her twice a day if our schedule allows. We plan to take advantage of it as much as possible. The morning visit she was very glad to see us. Her smile gets a little bigger each time we see her. She was so shy the first time we met her that we didn’t know if she was going to ever smile for us or not. Well, that’s not a problem anymore.

Let’s just say she loves to color. She likes to get all of the crayons out of our ziplock bag and hold them. (Which is not too easy when there are lots of crayons and only two small hands, but that doesn’t stop her.) Then she will draw 3 or 4 circles with each crayon one by one. After she finishes with each crayon she puts it back into the ziplock bag and repeats the pattern. When she finishes with all of the crayons, she picks them all back up again and starts over. She also tries to color in the lines, but circles are her favorites.

We also played the game where we held her hand out and we rub our finger in a circle on her palm while saying, “Around the house, around the house goes the little mouse. Up the stairs, up the stairs to his tiny house.” When we say the “Up the stairs” part, we use our two fingers to walk up her arm and tickle her neck. (Thanks Savannah for teaching us this one!) It was the first time we really saw her open up and smile. After we had done it a few times, she would put her hand into Heather’s hand so that Heather would do this to her.

After we left the baby home we walked to a small restaurant and got some pizza. We didn’t know exactly what we were ordering – and the girl who took our order didn’t know exactly what to make of us, but it ended up being some really good pizza.

Our afternoon visit was really fun. We played inside for about 20 minutes and then the other kids in Veeka’s group stated coming into the room where we were and getting their coats out of their cabinets. Before long, all 14 of the kids were in this 10 x 20 ft. room and it was crazy. We got to see Veeka interacting with all of those kids, and those kids were all very excited to talk to us – although we didn’t know what they were saying. For the first time we heard Veeka talk. (We had heard her whisper on our first visit, but we had not heard her talk yet.) All of the kids got their hats and coats on and we asked one of the caretakers if we could go outside too. She said yes, so we went with the group down the stairs and outside. Veeka insisted on holding Monty’s hand instead of walking with the group. We went outside and they told us we could play on the playground while the rest of the group walked around the building and then went back inside. We played on the swings, on a merry-go-round on a jungle-gym and on a slide. Caleb enjoyed getting to be outside and playing for a while. He has had to be inside and quiet for so much of our trip. We were glad that we were able to do this just so that he could play. Caleb and Veeka played so well together. They went down the slide a thousand times, and for the first time, we heard her laugh. She was smiling so big and giggling the whole time. She matched Caleb almost step for step.

One other thing that is pretty interesting…they have really dressed her up while we have been here. She is in a really pretty dress with nice shoes and her hair is done each day. We really didn’t notice that it was anything different than the rest of the kids until everyone came into the room with us today and we noticed that Veeka’s shoes are b

rand new and the other shoes that the kids are wearing are so old. (We really hadn’t seen her group too much until today.) She also got a different j

acket than her normal one to go outside with us. I think they are really trying to put their best foot forward each day as she spends time with us.

Saturday (September 15^th) – Saturday was a good day, like most. We really are enjoying getting into a schedule of things. From now until we bring Veeka to our hotel, our days shouldn’t have to vary much. We made our 6^th and 7^th visits to the baby home today. Everyday we are fortunate to spend at least 3 hours with Veeka. She definitely recognizes us everytime we come to visit. She is ok to leave and is very willing to play. No hesi

tations. Today has been a little cooler so we didn’t get to go play outside. The morning visit we got to play in special play room, similar to what we had with Caleb at his baby home. It is a room with lots of different kinds of toys. Some of the toys have definitely seen better days. It was nice to have a new place to play. Our afternoon visit went good as well. We played lots of hide and seek. Veeka just giggled and even started talking a little. Today we brought her an orange to have for a snack. She loved it, but we had it everywh

ere. When we came home to the hotel, we had to scrub the books to get rid of all of the sticky orange juice.

Recently Caleb and I work on school stuff most of the afternoon between visits. He is reading, writing, and doing math pages. He loves doing his work (most of the time.) He works much better between our visits instead of before bed and other odd times. Right now he has a great story about flying that he is working on during his writing time. After our schoolwork time we get to celebrate by watching some good ol’ Saturday morning cartoons.

Today has been interesting because it is the first Saturday that we have been here. There is a different security guard at the baby home, stores close much earlier, and weddings are all over the place. Our hotel was swamped with wedding parties and wedding pictures. One of the pictures that we assume is traditional here in the Ukraine is one of the wedding couple toasting, while others in the background chant “Vodka, vodka, vodka…” Caleb thinks that they are saying “Wildcats, Wildcats, Wildcats…” like they do from High School Musical. We just giggle and let him continue to think that. (It was very difficult to focus on our homework with “Wildcats, Wildcats, Wildcats…” going on all of the time.)