Day 3 Visit 2

This afternoon's visit was wonderfully sweet. When we arrived, my sweet little monkey was in my arms before Toni could press record on the video camera. We had come later than the day before, but they were running late and the children were just finishing getting dressed. They had not yet had their afternoon snack, so after a few minutes, Annie was called to go have snack with the rest of the children. Annie's groupa has three main rooms- a dining room, a play room, and a bedroom. They also have two other rooms off of the play room- a bathroom and a smaller room with two large "windows" into the dining room, where the caretakers prepare their meals. There are two round child sized tables that the children sit at. Both times I have seen Annie have snack in there, she has sat at the table closest to the play room. Today they had these long, thick wafer cookies, which Toni later told me are called waffles. Annie quickly ate hers, pushed back her bowl of liquid untouched and ran into the play room. She is always one of the first to be done and only once have I seen her not finish every moresel of food she is given. Lol. Toni told me the liquid that she has refused two days in a row is herbal tea.

At Annie's request, I got out the coloring book and crayons and we started to color together. She knew I had a bottle of water with me and she kept taking drinks of water. She learned quickly on our morning visit that Mama will share her water, but not her soda (I don't let the boys drink soda, either), but she was quite happy to have the water. I think drinking out of a bottle is a novelty, as she kept going into the play room to show off her water bottle to her groupa. A few of the girls followed us back into the bedroom and one of them was coloring a bit, too. They call me Annie's Mama. :) After awhile, the other children were taken outside to play. This upset Annie a bit and eventually she ran off to try and join them. Right outside the door to their dining room is the door leading outside. I didn't chase her at first because one of the doors is usually closed and locked. I guess because all of the children except Annie were outside, the doors were left open and she ran outside without a jacket on. One of the caregivers was standing right outside the front door and she caught Annie by the arm. She was telling her something and Annie broke down in tears and I could tell she was asking to go outside repeatedly.
I walked back into the groupa area with her still sobbing. She only calmed down once Toni promised her that she could go outside after Marty came back. We talked with her friends through the window and her favorite caretaker, too. He has such a heart for the kids, it is so obvious that this man just adores the kids and they adore him. Annie calls him Mama & Daddy. :) There are at least two groupas here and for the first time, we saw another groupa outside at the same time as Annie's. All of the children appeared to know each other well, so I am pretty sure this is something they do frequently. The children from both groupas appeared to be about the same size range, although I do not know their ages. It seemed to me that there were more boys than girls in the other groupa (there are more girls than boys in Annie's), although I don't know for certain because I didn't count them. At one point, Annie and another little girl from the other groupa got into a little disagreement through the window. The girl spoke to me and when I didn't answer, as I had no idea what she was saying, she asked Annie, "Who's this?" which I did understand. Annie told her I am her mom and the other girl said, "No. Who's this?" Annie kept insisting I was her mama and the other girl kept giving her funny looks and asking who I was. Annie grew very insistent that da, this is my mama. The funny thing was that I was able to understand them. :)

After awhile, Marty came back in, signaling the end of our visit. One of the caretakers took Annie to get her dressed to go outside while Toni, Marty and I waited outside to say goodbye. I could hear many of the children from Annie's groupa saying something about Annie's mama and children from the other group asking who I was. They didn't seem to believe the other children until they heard from an adult that I was really Annie's mama. A few minutes later, Annie came out with her caretaker. She had changed into pants and she had a warm jacket on. She ran to me, which surprised me, because normally when her favorite caretaker is around, she runs to him. Toni and her favorite caretaker were telling her to hug mama, and she did, and kiss mama, and she did, but when they told her to tell me goodbye, she started sobbing. She clung to me and yelled and I was not able to set her down. I tried offering her to her favorite caregiver, but she told me no and continued to sob and hold on tight to me. I was trying not to cry and I very much wanted to hold her tight and take her with me, but of course I couldn't. I wouldn't leave with her crying, though, so after I handed her to her favorite caregiver and she was told I would come back tomorrow, I smiled at her and told her ciao. She didn't smile back, but she was no longer crying and she did finally tell me ciao. She continued to watch me as we walked away and I kept looking back and waving and her caretaker was comforting her, and they were both waving. It was so hard to leave her. Toni said it was a very good sign that she is becoming attached to me. I am glad, but at the same time, I wish my little girl did not have to hurt at all of our goodbyes. I can't wait until she will come home with me for good. And now, since I know everyone really just wants to see pictures, I will try to upload pictures before I go to bed! ;)