Saturday visits

We went for our morning visit and brought the groupa bananas. They all sat around the table nice and quietly and the caregivers passed out their plates. Peyton kept looking at us smiling. Another little boy waved at us. They waited patiently and then they were told they could eat and there they went. The banana was cut up on the plate, and they ate with their hands very carefully. Peyton ate with his right hand, though he has been coloring with his left. He was the first one finished (he was ready to go play with us), stood up, gently pushed in his chair and asked to wash his hands. He has such manners. After cleaning up, he excitingly went the the room where his train was that we gave him, grabbed my hand and headed for the door. We played outside with him alone for a while. After a while the groupa came out and played in a nearby area. We pulled out a new toy, a bulldozer type of truck hotwheel. He loved it, knew exactly what it was and started playing in the sandbox with it. Then he wanted to show his caregivers, so he ran to where they were and I followed him. As soon as we walked in the area another little boy came up and said hi and gave me a hug, it was so cute. Then another little boy came and grabbed my hand and stood there smiling at me. Then Peyton wanted to go off and play again so I ran after him. Every time we would play with something new he would do this, he wanted to show everyone what he had and say we brought it for him. He loves to run and he is pretty fast. It's so cute, he kind of hops on his toes as he runs. When we brought out the bubbles he played with those for a long time. He liked to blow them in our face. He could even blow one and then catch it back on the stick, you can tell he has had bubble experience.

We had two visits today. We get 2 hours twice a day. They actually go by pretty fast. He loves to find every toy possible and play. He was even trying to move wooden benches and stuff around. The stuff out in the shed they have to play with is very old, most are torn up, broken, missing parts, etc. They also have storage furniture that is falling apart and rusty nails poking out. He pulled out this big wooden box or whatever to try to play with it somehow and it was falling apart and I had to explain to him, no no, ouchy. (I need to learn the word for dangerous, not a toy). So I tucked the box back away under the desks. He has a great imagination and sense of play. Like a typical boy, he is crashing cars, running over monkeys, shooting bears, etc... at one point during the second visit he had a toy mouse (looked like a person with a mouse head) and I had a stuffed little teddybear (they were about the same size). We put them next to each other and I pretended to make the bear talk and then he said something for the mouse to the bear- which was “I love you” (our facilitator happened to be on this visit with us and told us that's what he said), then the animals hugged. I want to think that he was talking to us through the play animals. :) He loves to try to climb up the slide but his shoes are too slippery. So I helped him climb up, then he would roll his train, truck, and a little pony down the slide, then he would go down. He just loved this. He would turn around, stand there and say more, and I would help him back up the slide, give him the toys and the process would repeat. He would laugh throughout the process. He loves to giggle and laugh. Sometimes I would reach over and tickle him a little and he loves that. He was riding the toy horse thing at some point and I was occasionally tickling him, he is extremely ticklish it seems. He would crack up in joy. We got video. Another groupa came out while we were playing and we would want to show them things but then got jealous and mad when they wanted his stuff. He likes the fact that something is actually his, just for him.

When we left, Luda told us that throughout the visit Peyton would keep asking her if she (and us) would take him to the airplane. He is so ready to go home! When she told him we would come back tomorrow, he said "and you will take me to the plane?" She had to say yes but not tomorrow. So sweet.