1-5-2010

The kids were dancing during Claudia´s birthday party. Above was a thing called ´piñata´, which is a traditional Peruvian celebration for children, who would break it open with a stick and there are tons of treats in it!

Carlos Abel wearing his school string and badge during the Mother´s Day celebration.

Renzo at school on Mother´s Day´s celebration. He´s one of the boys I have therapy with

The most authentic taco!

Tia Catalina and Tio Alfredo (left) demostrated how to eat taco the Mexican way and served the food for us respectively.

When I passed the baby's room this morning, I heard a loud voice saying "Tio!", and it was Julio who said it! Then he did his classic pose by putting his arms up which meant that he wanted me to carry him. So I did, and Alondra came to greet me as well. They were so sweet, and I took them to play in the swing area for a little bit. First they hopped on the see-saw, and they giggled so much! Then they played on the swing set and I was really busy pushing both of them at the same time! But we had so much fun together. It was a really good time to get them talking more too, which is very important to their development.

After lunch, we celebrated Claudia's birthday, and I went to play with the kids for a bit before a therapy session with the boys. We began with dancing, and all the kids were very happy with all the fun things like dancing, candies, pops and cakes. A handful of kids came to hug me and tried to hold my hands. Lemar't naturally was the first and most insistent one, and he even tried to push away the other kids with an annoyed face! Jhonatan, Jenny, Alondra and Julio either wanted me to hug or carry them, or hold their hands to dance! Since I couldn't carry them all at the same time, I suggested that we held each other's hands in a circle and danced that way. They had done many cute little things and every single one melt my heart!

Today I started therapy with the 6-9 year-old boys, and there were six of them. They were so eager that they waited for me outside the party! Awwwwww. Anyway, the therapy itself was quite chaotic, as if they were released from prison and were so hyper and jumpy! There are a whole lot of good values and behaviors they have yet to learn. And their level of cognition is still very low, so there are lots of room for improvement!

At dinner, the kids told me that the tios will eat in the library later, and I thought they were joking. But soon I realized that it's true because today's Labor Day, and we had a special meal together. In Hong Kong, we never really celebrate it, so I had no idea. But it's cool as it's the first time in my life to celebrate Labor Day for real! Just before the meal started, I was chatting with Tia Sonia outside, and suddenly we heard Lemar't crying, so we went in to see what's going on. He fell off the bed, and his body was all wet! I figured he had a bad dream or something, and so we comforted him and helped him change his clothes. After changing, he finally calmed down and showed his beautiful smile again. We put him to bed again and gave him kisses, and he looked so sleepy but innocently happy! It was the most beautiful and precious moment ever! Soon he fell asleep again. When we were about to leave the room, Franklin fell off the bed too when he was moving around! But Tia Sonia put him back to bed and he was fine.

Dinner was served around 9pm, and it was traditional Mexican food prepared by Tia Catalina and helped by Tio Alfredo, both native Mexicans. We had a soup made with corn and pork, and then served with avocado, lettuce, onion and lemon juice. And of course, a Mexican meal wouldn't be completed without Taco. It was very delicious, and we all left with a very full stomach!