AJUNGE PENTRU STELE: Day 48 (not even halfway yet!)

i absolutely love refreshingly clever ideas.. here are some photos that i really enjoy

So I decided that when I get home I want to look into getting my scuba diving license. Scuba diving seems like it would be the experience of a life time. I mean, look at these photos! : http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/23fRfI/www.abelic.net/

I must have slept pretty poorly last night because I woke up absolutely exhausted at 8:40 am and had to run out the door by 8:45 am. A felt a migraine coming on on the way to the orphanage but luckily it did not kick in until after the orphanage. What a blessing. So I am staying home from the hospital which is better than staying home from the orphanage because I feel like I have more responsibilities there. Maria was working in my room today, and I have not seen her in a couple weeks. She is pretty confrontational and drills me with romanian questions but today she was typically busy doing other things and I only had a run in a couple times. I realized today that I am really starting to get attached to my kids. I realized that I had missed them over the weekend so even though everyone was a little rambunctious today, it was endearing.

Maria does not seem to like me much though.. she knows I do not speak romanian so she will talk about me openly to the other workers. The name "Ashley" sticks out like a sore thumb when speaking romanian. Today I was trying to tidy up the playroom while Maria was putting the younger kids to bed. Every time I put a toy away, "Jr" would climb up on a chair, grab the toy and throw it back onto the floor. I would say 'Jr! noei voie' or you are not allowed.. and lift him off the chair only for him to run back and climb back onto the chair. Any time I try and discipline him, he giggles like crazy. After this had happened 5 or 6 times, Maria came out all ablaze, grabbed Jr, snapped him into one of the high chairs and put him in the back room. He was screaming bloody murder. Another worker poked her head in the room to ask what was going on. Maria reenacted the story, including an imitation of me, to the other woman. I mean, you just have to take these things with a grain of salt. Yes, the kids laugh at me when I discipline them which frustrates the workers as well as myself. Firstly though, I do not speak romanian so it makes communication difficult. Secondly, my discipline methods do not include screaming and force and thirdly, I am not here to enforce strict discipline with the children. I am here to play with them and love them. They get their fair share of discipline from the workers.

The computer lab with AU went really well today. I was worried that we would not be able to come because Maria yelled something at AU when he was trying to ask her if we could go to the computer lab. By 11:30 though we were able to go and he was just shrieking with joy. He did not push my buttons or push any boundaries today which was so great.. in fact, he wanted to do the more instructional games today! He asked (with his eyes) once if we could play the music game and I only had to say no once! There is one game called Labyrinth which he loves. He leads a snail through a maze by clicking on the numbers 1-10 in successive order. He always does really well with this game so I assumed that he knew his numbers. We then played a counting game and he kept asking for my help in identifying the numbers. This leads me to believe that he may know the numbers in successive order really well, but needs more practice identifying the numbers by themselves. A goal for this week is to work with him to practice counting in his head. I know that he can do it, I think that he just needs more enforcement. The computer lab is the perfect place for this enforcement because he absolutely loves the computer lab.

Tonight the plan is FHE (if my migraine gets feeling better) and homework. For the first time in my experience I cannot wait to go to the hospital tomorrow so that I can check up on Adelina. I want to make sure that she is doing ok and maybe bring a flower to the Mom Dana and her daughter Ana Maria!