August 13th, 2011

8/8 – I went to my first meeting with Mikayla this week.  It was for the “aunties” on staff in child care.  It was nice to meet them each and start really learning names.  Mikayla did wonderfully.  She immediately jumped right in and played with the handful of kids who were not at school today.  She grabbed their hands and walked over to the slide to play.  She only came over and interrupted the meeting a couple of times and even that was to tell me something really quick and then ran back over to her friends.  She is starting to get the hang of telling them what she wants and doesn’t want.  She even marched into the kitchen at the hostile today to ask for a piece of bread like the other kids had. 

8/12 – The twins moved in today (Friday).  I actually managed to get all three kids to sleep at the same time!  Ben took an extra long lunch so he was around to help me out.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if this trend continued??  The boys name is Simo (See-mo) and the girls is Nosipho (No-see-po).  They are precious but so quiet and super still.  Maybe Mikayla’s activeness will rub off a little and they will start moving and talking during their stay. 

They slept really well their first night and it only took about 20 or 30 minutes to get them both drifted off.  We didn’t rock or anything just laid them in their crib and rubbed Nosipho’s belly for a few minutes.  Simo fell right to sleep.  They look much better than they did this time last week.  They are eating really well and gaining personality.  Nosipho is now responding to her name and both babies are waving goodbye.  Simo even muttered and utterance that sounded like goodbye when people were leaving the house last night.  They are semi-feeding themselves independently.  Nosipho is crawling, she drags one leg behind her and crawls up on the other.  She will walk if you hold her hands, but her legs are still not very strong.  Simo hates standing up and will cry if you try to make him.

The electricity went out a few nights ago for a couple of hours so we got to cook and eat dinner by candlelight.  Mikayla has been asking to eat with the candles since then.  I am not sure she understands that losing electricity isn’t a good thing!

The plan is for me to drive into town on my own on Saturday to check email while Ben hangs out with the kids.  I am nervous about doing it on my own, but also excited about getting away from home for a few hours.  Ben heads into town at least once a week for work and I haven’t been away for over two weeks! (Update – made it into town okay!)

interviews and staff 023

Just munching on some sugar cane we found on the side of the road!

interviews and staff 053

interviews and staff 079

I put Mikayla’s hair in pigtail braids the other day.  This isn’t a very good picture, but isn’t she just too cute!

twins day 1 007

Simo on the left and Nosipho on the right!

Tags: , ,