Meet the babies

Just got back to the hotel Giani (the new hotel in town is still not ready yet) after a great first day at the clinic. I am working with the non mobiles along with fellow volunteers Evan and Liz. We have about twice as many in the group as we did last time -16 babies, four of whom cannot come out of their bedrooms. Let me introduce you to our group:

Mihaela- our youngest baby at only 2 weeks old. She must stay in the "isolation" room until they are finished running tests on her to make sure she won't spread anything to the others.

Larisa and Denisa- 5 month old twins. they are both overly content to sit quietly and need to learn to assert themselves so that they will not be neglected.

Paula -6 months old, also in the isolation room. Is very cute, very small for her age, and has the biggest ears of any baby at the clinic.

Crina -7 months old, little sister of Andreea Romila -Lorna's special princess from our group last time. She looks very much like her sister but without the chubby cheeks. She is the only one in our group who is actually developmentally on target. She rolls over, scoots, is not quite sitting all by herself yet but is getting close. She responds very well to interaction and gives you the greatest smile and giggles when you toss her in the air.

Daniella -I'm not sure how old she is yet, it wasn't marked on her file so I will have to ask Mihaela. She is a real cutie but has very little muscle control -we have already nicknamed her "Flopsy". We will be working with her on developing neck control and strengthening her muscles.

Bogdan and Vasile -Twin boys, 1 year old, progressing toward crawling.

Florin -also unsure of his age, a real cutie though, big round cheeks.

Beatrice -21 months though you would guess she was closer to Crina's age. She doesn't sit up or crawl yet and she is much smaller than your average 21 month old. She is progressing though -scoots, rolls over, and is very interactive.

Ramona -2 1/2 years. She was my little favorite from last time. She has sever kidney problems so is developmentally behind. I was glad to see she has progressed since last time and now has much better neck control, can roll over and scoot about, and while she will topple over if sitting on her own she sits quite well in your lap.

Andreea -don't remember her age. She is very stiff though and is unable to role over sit up or even lift her head up when on her tummy.

Sammy -almost 2 years but looks much younger. He has down syndrome but is fairly high functioning. He lights up when you talk to him.

Stefan -2 months, also in the isolation room. (as you can see the "isolation" room does not provide much isolation as there are 3 babies currently residing there)

Adrian - don't recall his age but he is very small. He has a cleft palate and thus cannot be brought into the playroom with the other babies. He is the cutest little guy though and we try to go spend time with him whenever we get a chance as we don't like to leave him all alone in there.

And lastly, Alexandra -She is 4 1/2 years old but is still in our group because she has brittle bone disease (as well as dwarfism) and would not be safe among the toddlers. She still does not speak but she does communicate very well through her movements. She is much more mobile than last time, crawling all over the other babies as if they were part of the floor. Luckily most of them don't seem to mind (or even notice) when she does this, as she is very light weight.

They are a beautiful group of babies and look forward to spending more time with them. It will be much easier to learn everyone's names this time as, aside from my group (whose names I pretty much have down already) most of the babies were here last time so I already know there names. I will have more updates on the rest of them later, but now it is time for dinner so I must go.