Finding Her Voice

Monday afternoon was rainy again, so to the hallway we went.

Vera rocked on this little rocking horse for a few minutes...

and then we went down and played in the house for awhile.

The snack we brought Vera got her a little messy,

so she took us to the bathroom

where she washed herself very thoroughly,

and then decided we were messy too.

She soaped up both of our arms and hands,

and even tried to clean our faces.

Then she rinsed us really well.

And she loves playing in the water!

Yesterday it was sunny again, so we got to be outside.

Vera got to pet the resident cat, which she obviously never gets to do.

She was very excited about the 'koshka', and I was very

surprised that koshka never hissed or tried to bite Vera.

She does not know what the word 'gentle' means.

But she'll learn. I believe Phoebe (our cat) will teach her.

Then it was on to bubbles.

Although Vera likes the bubbles a lot, we've decided not to bring them anymore.

Yesterday they caused problems when her group came out.

I think Vera was showing off what she could do and her friends couldn't.

She got a bit silly and was on the verge of craziness,

so we removed her from the situation.

She would also put the wand in her mouth and eat the bubble solution.

I don't think she enjoyed the flavor.

I do think she enjoyed getting a reaction from us.

We always get sticky with the bubbles and need to find a faucet to clean up.

This is also something Vera obviously never gets to do,

and she never wants to leave the faucet once we're there.

Yesterday I had a sneaking suspicion that Vera was falling on purpose

(in the dirtiest places she could find)

because she knew we'd take her to the faucet to rinse her off.

She really enjoys getting dirty.

I don't think she has the opportunity very often.

We always return her to her group completely filthy.

They probably hate us. :)

We also got to eat more blackberries yesterday.

Jon and Vera both LOVE eating the blackberries that are perfectly ripe right now.

Vera loved dropping them into Jon's mouth and hearing him go, "mmmmmm."

And then they were all purple and had to clean up...again.

One other incident that happened yesterday afternoon...

towards the end of our visit, we had gone to the playground and

Jon and Vera were picking and eating more blackberries.

There was a group on the playground and a few boys came over.

They started saying, "Papa, pazhalsta," to Jon and holding out their hands.

Precious.

So we were picking berries and putting them in their hands.

At one point, Vera and the boys were talking and

we heard one of them say the Russian word for 'love.'

We think they were saying how much they loved the berries.

Jon took the opportunity to tell Vera he loves her.

She did not react at all...just wanted to pick more berries.

The boys' group left right after this.

And Vera went over to the sandbox, grabbed a handful of sand,

and put it in her mouth.

Disgusting.

I don't think she's ever had a mouthful of sand.

And I don't think she enjoyed it (who would?).

It didn't take much prodding to get her to spit it out.

But isn't it interesting that it was just moments after

Jon told her he loves her?

Then it was time to take her back to her group.

She did NOT want to go.

We managed to get her to the door to enter her building without a lot of resistance,

but she wanted to wash her hands in the faucet nearby.

We told her 'no' and said that it was time for groupa.

She started shaking her head and saying 'nyet'.

She had that look on her face that says, "I'm about to scream my head off!"

Then two of her caregivers came over and were unloading

little ones from strollers to take them in.

We were glad they were there to tell Vera what we were trying to tell her.

We hadn't seen Vera argue with her caregivers. Until then.

She clearly wanted to play in the water and did not want to go upstairs.

The caregivers were clearly telling her she could NOT play in the water

and that she needed to come inside with Mama and Papa.

We made it to her room...very slowly, with much resistance and 10 minutes late.

We decided that from now on we'll start making the trek

back to her room 15 minutes before it's time.

It's beginning to take at least that long to get her to cooperate about it.

I think that Vera is discovering her voice,

and that when she's with us she has a little freedom.

She gets to do things with us that she's probably always wanted to do.

I can't blame her for not wanting to go back to her group.

Where every minute of every day is planned for her.

She's told when to eat, what to eat, when to go outside, what to play with when,

when to watch TV, when to sleep, when to potty, etc.

She has no choices.

She's probably never been asked,

Vera, what would YOU like to do today?

What would YOU like to eat?

What would YOU like to wear?

What would YOU like to play with?

What book would YOU like to read?

We can't wait to get her outta there and help her find her voice.

And let her experience a little freedom. And give her some choices.

But what about the others?

Who will give a voice to all the others?