Wednesday Night

Molly and I returned from a seven hour visit to the Eban House, it was wonderful. We got to spend some time with some of the children and get to learn more about them and so that was really nice. The most rewarding thing was that Selina and I had a fabulous day. Here are some of the highlights:

*She now says "more" she wanted some of my water and I gave it to her and would not give her more until she said more. She learned this quickly and now walks around saying more when she wants something instead of pointing and making nonsense verbalizations.

*She raised her hands for me to pick her up and so I did and held her. She put her head down and fell asleep on my shoulder. It was so sweet and so I sat down on the couch with her this way for about an hour. I can't believe how easily she fell asleep-truely amazing. Neither Kman or Cater did this at that age.

*She let me carry her several times. I taught the kids the electric slide holding her the entire time.

*She learned that the "fan" is above her and so if I say fan she looks up. I said "van" when they came back from a trip out and she immediately looked at the fan.

*Taught her to say "Dora" she showed me the video and within a few minutes she was able to say Dora.

*At lunch she ate holding the fork herself (it is usually held for her). I fed her lunch and dinner by scooping it for her at lunch and allowing her to put it in her own mouth. They were having banku and a thicker soup and so the banku stayed on the spoon well (banku is a kind of almost raw doughy bread) which made it a good choice to practice on. The red/orange soup was another matter. Basically she needed a bath and to be changed by the end of the meal which probably did not excite the staff but what can you say when I say "Look how fabulous is this, Selina used the spoon on her own. What a great accomplishment. She got a little dirtied but wow, how great is this?" So we cleaned her up. For dinner we scooped food together and I helped focus on how she held the fork. It was a success. She also ran out of water. Molly offered to get her more as she was getting some for Ishi. I said, "no, Selina will ask when she wants some." About a minute later, Selina noticed her water was gone and tossed her cup. Then she looked at me and said "more". I said "Go get the cup and I will get more". She got the cup, I got her more water.

*I went in with her to bathe twice and we learned the word light, played "this little piggy", and said "honk" when I squeezed her nose and she squeezed mine. I changed her and put her shoes on.

She is really loving to learn more words and looks to me now to teach her what things mean. She is not remembering all of the words day to day but is loving to hear the words for things. She can produce a lot of the sounds and that is great. She has some crying spells when she has a need and can't get it met but they don't get worse, she calms down within a minute or so. I am not used to that!

It was a really nice day!

Edward stopped by to see us and I think all is well regarding us leaving early. He is taking us to make a donation tomorrow at a local orphanage and then we are going to the Accra market. It is Molly's last day as she leaves early Friday morning so we want to get these two things done. I will really miss her but I have been lucky to have her with me as long as she has been!