Monday, March 16, 2009

Better late than never!


We got an update on E. from the orphanage today!  It was so fun to read another person's perception of his personality.  It was right on!  I am so thankful for the volunteers and caregivers that took the time to get to know and love Elijah when we were not able to be there.

Elijah loves food; he’ll eat and eat and eat. I’ve been trying to encourage him to take smaller bites at meal times but Elijah doesn’t seem too interested at that, he has mastered the art of getting as much as possible onto his spoon and into his mouth! Before meal and snack times all of the kids are encouraged to pray, they usually thank God for the food they are about to eat, for the people who gave them the food, for their nannies and for the people who come on the tap-tap and need help. Elijah is always very eager to pray as he knows he can eat as soon as his prayer is over so often he’ll pray “Merci Bondye, Amen”, (“thanks God, amen”)!! The other day I found him licking his bowl after he had finished eating and when I told him he wasn’t allowed to do that he said “mais, li dou” (but it’s good), all the nannies started to laugh at Elijah’s innocent remark.

He is such a sweet boy and loves to give hugs and snuggle up to my legs when I’m standing in the hallway. He also watches out for his friends which is really good to see. D is a new boy in Elijah’s room that isn’t very mobile yet. Elijah sat with him in the hallway yesterday morning and kept breaking off pieces of his peanut butter sandwich to share with D. Elijah was so eager to share his food that he hardly waited for D to finish what he had in his mouth before trying to put more bread in there!

During school Elijah loves playing with containers; he likes to put things in and take them out of tubs. Elijah really enjoys being in control of his toys, he likes when/what he holds is his own thing and if is busy playing with his bucket and different shapes he doesn’t like when others interrupt him and want to play too. He busies himself with his little containers yet still listens to what the teachers are saying; if he isn’t interested in partaking in the activity that they are doing then he’ll continue to play with his bucket of toys but if he is interested he’ll jump right into it! Sometimes the teachers will specifically ask Elijah to do an activity with them and he’ll often say “no” and continue to play by himself but he’ll watch his friends do the activity instead and clap and cheer for them and will then join in!

Elijah loves to sing and he sings loudly for everyone to hear. As soon as he starts to sing Elijah starts dancing; he places his hands on his hips and sways from side to side. He loves movie time and is always one of the first to shout “merci Maria, thank you, you’re welcome” when I put a movie on, Elijah’s favourite movies are ones with kids singing in them. I was able to travel from PAP to Cap with Elijah once; he wasn’t a big fan of the plane and didn’t enjoy taking off or landing but was really easily distracted with treats. He had a little can of Pringles that he loved; I think he enjoyed popping the lid off and putting other things into the can as much as he enjoyed eating the Pringles! 
Elijah is 34 inches tall and weighs 28 pounds 14 ounces.