6-10-2010

Jhonatan and Lemar´t singing "Los Alimentos" (The Food) and playing the instruments.

Jhonatan finished the hula hoops.

Jhonatan tried to swing the hula hoop.

Jhonatan was fascinated by the spiderman toy.

Jhonatan looking curious with the toy.

It has been really busy because I have been spending a lot of time with the kids, and also my therapy sessions have increased since Noelia´s gone. But it has been really rewarding as I got to spend a lot of quality time with the kids, younger and older. They all love therapy, and always ask if it´s their turn to have therapy. In fact it is so much easier now to do therapy as I have all the space and time slot to do them. But one thing I have realized is that therapy here is so much more difficult than what I had done in the past 10 years. The reason is being that I am here not only as a therapist, but also as their parent figure. As now we have spent a good nine months together, our bonding has increased, but at the same time sometimes it´s more difficult to implement behavioral modification stuff because they would become really vulnerable at time. It´s quite difficult to keep that balance, but it´s definitely a good experience for me. Now I always get kisses and hugs whenever I see the little ones. When I had to leave them sometimes to do work or chores, Jhonatan, José Luis and Lemar´t always ask for "besito" (kiss) before I took off. Separation is super hard! Even Francesco is really attached sometimes. Today he jumped on me, so I carried him around as if he´s a baby. He loved it, and he even said that he´s my baby! He probably missed a lot of these things when he was younger. Now when you look at him, he probably looks really rough and rugged, but inside of him he is just a little kid who wants to be loved.