THE birthday girl had her VERY own cake! B.Weave gave us strict instructions that no one else was allowed to eat that cake. Leonard, of course, had made a separate cake for the rest of us to enjoy with ICE CREAM!
It never fails, we always have a fun time on our morning walks to the Haven. Today we walked right past a herd of cattle. I think the Zambians don't own lawn mowers thanks to these guys...who ate their way through the tall grass.
**Shout out to Bethany (aka: "my person")! I took this picture with you in mind and you also referred to the cow moment in my precious book you made me!
Once we all arrived at the Haven we began our individual therapy sessions at Haven 1. My first "client" of the day was miss Tegan, who I unfortunately had to wake up to participate in feeding therapy. She was not too thrilled about this. ..
It happened to be a cold morning in Zambia 11 Celsius which thanks to Rach (who googled it) is 50 degrees Fahrenheit. Hence! why Tegan is all bundled up. I thought the beanie was a nice touch :) Once I got her awake with our oral motor stretches she was ready to do some therapy. I worked more on getting her to crawl which was a SUCCESS! She was able to get into the "crawl position" and scoot her way to me. Yay for Teeger's!!
I was supposed to see Lush next, but he had an early morning visit to the clinic where he was given a shot. Caroline and I thought it best for him to rest so instead I saw Darcie, which was such a burden...NOT! I love LOVE this girl!! I worked with her on crawling, verbal imitations, and of course feeding. She is an eager eater. I believe on today's menu we had sweet potato baby food and rice milk.
Darcie's face during feeding time...
and mine! haha Apparently we like to mirror each other.
When we got over to Haven 3 my first individual session was with Shelby. I introduced her to the spoon and then we tried some baby food out as well as rice milk. She is a very happy baby so I got a lot of laughing and smiles out of this little one today. Shelby also sat up for 45 seconds independently...SUCCESS!
In the end she was ready for her bottle and had enough of the spoon.
Mr. Choolwe was my final individual session for the day. I managed to get through most of the oral motor exercises without any crying (woot-woot!). He rolled front to back and back to front; we're making some progress!
Choolwe sitting up all by himself!
When we came back for the afternoon we did auntie education time on the front porch of Haven 3. Catherine, Meghann, Caroline, and I designed educational flyers for changing time and checking bottles as well as a growing chart for each infant we see for feeding/swallowing difficulties. We will place a flyer next to the changing tables that say "When Changing Me..." and it has a list of interactive things for the aunties to do while they are changing each child; such as: talk to me, sing to me, rub by cheeks, etc. In the kitchen we will put a flyer that informs the aunties to check the nipples of each bottle to ensure that an infant does not receive a bottle that has a big hole which causes the liquid to flow too fast causing the infant more difficulty while swallowing. The growing charts are GENIUS! For girls we designed flowers and for the boys we did suns. Each infant at Haven's 1 and 3 will have one with their names written on it placed near their beds. On each petal/sun ray it has different milestones (i.e. roll over, smile, sit up independently, etc.) for the aunties to mark whenever that infant has met the milestone. We plan to have these finished and presented to the aunties by Friday so they are well informed before we leave.
Tonight we continued watching "Ladies No.1 Detective Agency" and we were treated with ROTEL and home made chips yummmmm! I was highly impressed as Sarah, Catherine, and Mrs. Tullos went to town on making these chips. Nicely done girls!!
Tomorrow is basically our last day of therapy :( We were given an assignment by B.Weave to spend time with one child on Friday to see if they are on target with their growth/language/feeding milestones. Then we are to write up a report with what we observed. My child of choice is...
SHAWN! Surprised? :)
Aww...Shawn is so cute!!! I will keep you all in my prayers as you prepare for your final days with the babies.
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