On my own...

Molly left early this morning. Edward and Percy came to get her which was nice. They were not planning on coming back towards our guesthouse and so I said goodbye and she drove off. I will miss her as it was so wonderful to have your best friend with you to talk to. I did send her with my picture card from the camera and so my pictures are at least headed home! She took a video of when I first met Selina and I was so thankful as I watched it as it is so obvious she initially wanted nothing to do for me. Her body language could not be saying "go away" any clearer and now she will easily come to see me.

Last night she moved into the phase where she has decided that I belong to her and no other kid can sit on my lap. Thoroughout the evening, she came over and pulled four different kids off my lap. Sometimes it was so she could sit there and other times it was just so when she looked over from across the room, my lap was vacant. It was funny to see her face when she saw someone on my lap. She got this look like "watch out". They were watching a movie and sometimes she would come sit on my lap and point to the TV and I would tell her what we were looking at and she would try to say the words herself. Sometimes she would just lay back and I would sing the "Barney Song" and she would just move her head to the beat. I give her a kiss during the song and a few times, she would put her lips to my face immediately afterwards. She was eating a juicy fruit of some sort at the time and so I ended up with a sticky face with fruit pulp on it- it was beautiful! At other times, she was happy to sit across the room but she would look over to see what I was doing. TR- make sure we have a Dora DVD on hand as she really loves to look at Dora and that is a word that she can say pretty well!

Now that she has learned that the word "more" makes things happen, she loves to use it. I lift her up high to get closer to the fan and she leans her head back, laughs and says "more". That is a hard one as doing this about 20 times in five minutes gets a bit tiring!! It is neat as I remember when Kman and Cater were at this point in learning to communicate. I am looking forward to getting a few different words to stick. You can see that she is trying to learn and absorb so much that she will forget a word the next day that I had taught her previously.

Selina does still have her moments. She will get upset about something and start crying. Since people don't like to really see crying here, you can tell that the staff is a little distressed when she cries and tries to do whatever to make her happy. Molly and I found it interesting as she was tired last night and a bit weepy over little things. At one point she was crying because she could not have Molly's camera. She started crying. I tried to distract her with something else but it was not working. An auntie came over and basically pleaded with her to stop crying and then wiped the tears from her eyes with her hands. Selina stopped as instantly as the tears were wiped almost as if with the tears gone, it was over. Molly and I couldn't believe it. She came over and started talking to me like nothing had just happened! I told Molly that this will probably not work for me in the states but I sure will try!

It is a new adventure everyday going to see Selina. I am so thankful for the progress that we have made. She is at a point where sometimes she wants an auntie and sometimes she wants me. I did not know if that would happen prior to me leaving the home with her and so I am so encouraged!

Thursday was truely a beautiful day and so I look forward to see what today brings...

Jennine