Physical Therapy

I reset the alarm for 7:24 this morning and only hit the 4-minute snooze twice. Breakfast was a repeat. Sergei picked us up on the street in front of the Billa. Daniel wasn’t wearing the braces today and they asked where we would be playing because he would have physical training (therapy) at 10 AM. Daniel emptied the entire carryall, and of course the only thing he wanted was Mama’s knitting needles: the only thing he wasn’t allowed to have. Pretty typical little kid, I’d say. He wasn’t at all interested in the cookie - maybe because they are the dry, almost tasteless ones. As 10:00 approached we repacked the carryall and tried to amuse him with just one thing at a time. He wasn’t easy to amuse. Walking up and down the corridor carrying him helped as usual. We looked at each orphanage worker expectantly as they passed by on this errand or that. Daniel wasn’t nearly as upset when other children passed by today. He paid more attention to staff but still didn’t cry. Sergei worked on his laptop sitting on a nearby couch. He was preparing our court petition and sought out some needed information from the doctor for that and for some papers for Kyiv (vaccination records).

At 11:30 (finally) they came for him and invited us to observe. We were delighted. They called it “physical training” and it lasted about 30 minutes. John got a video recording of nearly the whole session. It took place in a very nice room up near the director’s office. We all took off our shoes and she placed two low stools for us to sit on. She really put him through his paces in that 30 minutes, with lively children’s music in the background. Oh - think I forgot to mention that on the first day the psychologist told us Daniel likes to listen to Mozart and Beethoven. We will try to find out if he has favorite pieces and get those CDs for John’s trip home. She used a large therapy ball, rolling him back and forth on his tummy and then on his back so he could feel his feet touch the floor. She also bounced him up and down while he laid on top of the ball. He army-crawled across a mat for her while she encouraged him to also use his legs. She helped him up three foam steps from which he quickly pulled himself into large ball pit. He had a great time in there as she pulled him forwards and backwards, had him throw balls, etc. Out on the floor she also supported his body upright and we were surprised to see him move each leg in a walking motion, needing to get one foot out from behind the other (the tight muscles pull his legs together scissor-wise). He wouldn’t do that for us at all since Tuesday when he would bend his left knee a bit. She also had him kick balls loose from triangle supports where they were lodged. It was nearly lunch time when they finished, so we all got our shoes back on and took him back to his Group.

Just as the three of us were leaving for lunch, Sergei was once again accosted, I mean requested, to provide transportation to the hospital for doctor visits. Since there wouldn’t be room for us as well as the three women and child, he took us to the place we wanted to eat lunch first, then went back for them. Lunch started with cappuccino and a melt-in-your mouth chocolate-filled pastry at that French Pastry shop we grew to appreciate on our previous trip. The proprietors are the same. They smile, uncharacteristic in our experience of Ukrainians, and may even remember us. We’ll have to return because the croissants we remember as even better were not available in the display case today (but we saw them in the oven). Then we had soup and vegetables at the Ukrainian cafeteria. John had quite a headache so we headed straight back to the apartment. The cappuccino, Coke, Advil and a nap helped greatly.
Sergei stopped by with the court petition which he dutifully read/translated for us and we eagerly signed. We called and talked to the boys. Nick gave us another account of the Imax movie. Christine wrote in e-mail: “Dennis was so funny on the way home. He was talking about all the fish that swam into his coat at the 3D movie yesterday. They were still there and he was sharing them around and the all the kids joined the game.“ Dennis said he still had some fishes to share with us. While Sergei took care of paperwork we walked back to the orphanage.

This afternoon Daniel had his braces back on. We brought the rubbery plastic blocks this time, but they weren’t quite the hit we had expected. However, the advertising pamphlet inside the package did keep him occupied for a very long time. He did a bit of magnetic “fishing” but we were all a bit tired and bored this evening and took turns doing laps up and down the corridor. I was knitting while John carried Daniel, and one of the workers stopped to ask if the hat was for Daniel and seemed delighted to hear that it was so.
Daniel spent a long time looking at and paging through the First 100 Words in Russian book that we had. He was handling it without the roughness of earlier, concentrating very hard to turn the pages. When it seemed a reasonable time to return to Group we headed upstairs. The evening ended on a high note, because at the top of the stairs (far end of a long hallway from his room) he moved his legs to walk for us with much cheering and encouragement. It was definitely no reflex movements. He put deliberate effort into each step. John got some of that on video, as well. It was so cool! He was pretty happy, too. When we handed him off it was the first time he didn’t seem all that excited - maybe he is beginning to enjoy his time with us more. Maybe he was just tired. In any case we are definitely looking forward to tomorrow.

Sergei had a dental appointment so we walked home. This is no chore whatsoever. We both enjoy the little bit of exercise and fresh air. At the Billa we picked up another 5-liter jug of water, some hotdogs (how to choose from so many options?: we went with the most expensive), frozen breaded chicken filled with butter and chives, and potato chips (the problem with being hungry when shopping). When we got home we saw directions to cook the chicken in the oven (which we aren’t sure we can turn on) or on top of the stove. We it in the microwave and they turned out fine. It was time for a change from cheese and nuts.

It is possible that tomorrow Sergei will be able to tell us our court date. We are hoping it will be next week.