10 more days

Today I started my LAST week of therapy at the Haven. I cant believe we are already almost done with our trip! Time has FLOWNNNNNN by so fast! I am gonna be so sad to leave my babies! As of now, I am still sticking to my "plan"! haha. :)

This morning MYYY Ethel greeted me with a hug.... of course. Made my day as always. She is a little shy when you bust out the camera, but don't let her fool you. Shes quite the talker and SMILER.


While playing outside before our therapy session started, Ethel took her turn on the slide. But of course she sat at the top until I (aka "CEE")held her hand to go down. I think I have already spoiled her a tad too much! I cant help it though. Shes too cute!
How do you say no to this face?? She melts my heart! She is also showing MAJOR improvements as well! I have tons of video from this morning of her talking up a storm! Yay for MY Ethel.
This morning at Haven 2 we split the kiddos into two separate groups on opposite ends of the porch. This seemed to hold their attention a lot better and cut down on the behavioral issues. Since our resources are limited here in Zambia and our container of materials has not arrived yet....I incorporated a "slap it" game into therapy where the kids had to differentiate between certain animals, slap that animal with a fly swatter (compliments of Mrs. Hamby), say the name of the animal, and practice making the animal's sound. They loved it. Rachel also did an awesome activity using sidewalk chalk to draw trails on the porch which led to different beanie baby animals that were hidden under baseball caps. Kind of like a Safari hunt. We are definitely having to pull out our creative sides without having any materials available! Tomorrow, Jaimie plans to have a "musical chairs" activity, using her Ihome and music to have the kids work on animals and their sounds as well. Super cute ideas! We hope to receive the container before we leave for Livingstone this week in order to organize the materials and have them ready for next year's group. So sad we didn't get them here in time! After leaving Haven 2, we headed to Haven 1, where I was the group leader for the day. I was in charge of leading all the songs and activities for the session. It is amazing to see all the changes from week one to week 4. Since I have been doing feeding therapy, I was shocked to join language therapy again and see all the changes the children have made within such a short period of time! :) There is much much more talking, imitating, and interacting in just a few short weeks. so exciting! I was also in charge of leading all the little ones at Haven 3 this morning. They had just finished feeding therapy so they were all really tired and ready for their afternoon nap. I think all my singing put most of them straight to sleep! haha. It was so cute! After lunch we headed back to Havens 1 and 3. I think the kids must stolen some of the other girl's sugar cane from yesterday for lunch because they were bouncing off the walls! Talk about busy bees!

These three.... Nita, Ross, and Shawn (with poor little Jana crying on the side) were absolutely hysterical! They were all trying to sit in my lap at the same time and fighting over who got the best seat. Of course Nita, aka the trouble maker, ran the show and tried her hardest to push everyone else off my lap! She's something else!
Theres room for everyone Nita! :) haha.
Trying to keep them all in one crib for language therapy! best idea! :) haha.

Since Kaylee was doing feeding therapy today,I got to steal "her Shawn" for a little bit! haha. hes so stinkin cute and has really started coming out of his shell. He thinks that me blowing on his face is the funniest thing ever. I have awesome video of this little guy too! :) Can't wait for everyone at home to see just how cute all these little ones are!

We only have 10 more days left on our trip and then I will be home on the 25th! Still cant believe it! Pray that our last week here at the Haven continues to be successful! and that we have a safe trip to Livingstone!

Goodnight!