Monday Aug 10th

Today is the last Monday at the clinic. It was a beautiful day too. The kids were all in a good mood when we got there. Even Miaestera. Dan went camping this last weekend and has not returned yet, and since Mihaela usually goes to the school with the teachers we were on our own in the morning. We walked over and got down to business. We are now down to 6.5 volunteers at the clinic. Trevor goes to the school in the mornings and comes over in the afternoons to help. We decided to split the team into 4 and 2. 4 of us with the non-mobiles since there are more of them and they need more help and 2 with the mobiles. We got all the bottles fed and decided to go outside since it was so beautiful out. We set up and the one remaining puppy decided to try and join us. Some of the kids were fine with that but Ionella and Lea-Celene were not the biggest fan of the puppy. All of a sudden the aides swept up the majority of the mobiles. We were a little worried because they hadn't done that before. They were just taking them all for a walk- Whew!!

We fed the kids their snacks and all of them ate easily- even Miaestera, she would tap on the jar when she was ready for more food. Susan wanted a picture taken of her with Alex for the Global blog and as I was taking the pictures Alex leaned in and planted a kiss on her cheek! Amazing! We fed bottles and changed diapers and put them all down for naps. The ones that have been taking early morning naps stayed up until almost bottle time so it was easier to put them down. Maria-Cleopatra refused both morning bottles which is so not like her, it got us a little worried.

After a lunch of tomatoes and cucumbers and a chicken stew we were treated to watermelon that Stan and Carol brought back from their weekend trip.

We went back to the clinic and and Mihaela gave us the option of just staying at the clinic through 6 PM instead of doing the evening shift thing. We agreed- it meant the kids would be out of their cribs for a longer period of time. I think they all enjoyed it as well. Apparently because it is cooler today the aides started dressing the kids in pyjamas (over their clothes.) We lined up all of the little ones for a group shot and soon it was time to feed them and put them to bed. Maria took her 3 o'clock bottle but refused her 6 o'clock one.

Dinner tonight was an unusual one- We were served all of our courses within 15 minutes of each other. We felt very rushed. The best part of dinner was the dessert- Finally chocolate crepes. No prune surprise inside! We usually sit down to dinner at 6:30 and it is typically an hour ordeal. Today we were done before 7 PM. We were joking that Bogdan #1 must have had a show on TV he wanted to watch! This extra time allowed Amy and I to get our showers done and come sit outside to catch up on the computer.

Lea-Celene Riding a horsey

Alexandra giving a surprised Susan a Kiss

Little Andreea and the only puppy left making friends

Ema enjoying some quiet time after nap

Each room has the kids' bathtubs mounted on the wall

Most of the non-mobiles in their pyjamas

AmyStretch with Maria and "big" Andreea


"little" Andreea in her crib

Marius in his crib