Baby Profiles: Part 2

Baby A
Age: 11 months

Weight: 8.190 kg

Nickname:  Smiley

Favorite Toy: the caps off the bottles or my phone

Favorite Food: Peaches

Favorite Sleep Item: Pink Giraffe Lovey

About Smiley:  Smiley is our little princess. She is a super cute kid and she knows it well. She thinks that means she can be super sneaky and get away with it. When I have to tell her no, she gives me a look that says “I cant believe you said no to me”  and does a fake little cry in protest. She is very much a girly girl and loves earrings, necklaces, and will find any glitter or sparkly thing on you. She loves finding cell phones, I think thats her gift in life. If I put my phone anywhere she could get it, she will find it, even if I hide it. She loves details. She is the kid that finds every pieces of whatever is on the floor and has to put it in her mouth. Some days that drives me crazy. I can officially say she is walking and not just taking steps. She is so steady and can walk across the room without falling. Something that she has been doing for the last couple weeks is to stand beside me while I’m sitting on the floor and lay her head on my shoulder. I feel like sometimes its her little reminder she needs to say hey I’m here and I love you, its so precious. Her nickname comes from her awesome gummy smile that takes up her whole face! The gummy smile however is more of a toothy smile now since her first tooth is coming in.

Walking like a Pro!

She loves playing in the door way

Baby T

Age: 6 months

Weight: 8.86 Kg

Nickname: Chubby Cheeks

Favorite Toy: Crab Rattle

Favorite Food: Sucking on her hands

Favorite Sleeping Item: Paci and Noise Maker (There is no sleeping without either)

About Cheeks:  Oh Chubby Cheeks or just cheeks as we sometimes call her... She is definitely special. She has a spit fire temper and an independent personality. I think being the youngest for so long, she definitely got the short end of the stick with being picked on. Not being mobile, she was always being attacked by her eldest brother. She definitely has the mentality, you touch me or look at me the wrong way I’m going to scream. She is so funny because the way that she comforts herself is to shove her whole fist into her mouth. This can be quite difficult because of her large cheeks that pretty much take over her face. This explains her nickname chubby cheeks that she has had since day one. Being 6 months now, her temper has improved a lot. Just the other day I heard her really laugh for the first time. Her laugh has alway been this smile with a hum, its hard to explain. Her big sister was being silly and it was making her chuckle. It is so rewarding to see her grow, learn and develop her awesome personality.

 Baby H

Age: 6 Months

Weight: 6.19 Kg

Nickname: My Sweet Girl

Favorite Activity: Singing You are my Sunshine while she takes a bath

Favorite Toy:  She is starting to discover her hands. She likes to sit in the jungle bouncy chair and reach for the toys hanging down.

New Skill: She is doing so well with her tummy time. Her muscles are getting stronger and she is able to push herself up for short amounts of time. She may be 6 months old but because she is a preemie she is developmentally on target for a 4 month old.

About Baby H: My Sweet girl has me wrapped around her little finger. She is so sweet and pretty even tempered. She smiles and talks all the time these days. My favorite time with her is right before bed and just has she gets up from nap. I can get lots of cuddles as she talks away and tells me about her day. There are so many things I love about my baby girl, her deep brown eyes, her sweet gummy smile, the little sigh she does after she yawns and the way she grabs my shirt as she drifts to sleep in my arms. I spoil her so and I just cant help it.

6 month Photo Shoot Pic

Being such a big girl! 

Making sure I'm close while she sleeps

Baby Profiles: Part 1

My wish is that everyone could come to South Africa and meet the babies and everyone who has touched my heart. I have so many stories, memories and people I have met there is no way I would be able to write it all down. Since those options are not realistic, I am going to post some baby profiles so you can get to know some of my precious children that I get to be with everyday.

She likes to color

N

Age: 2 1/2

Nickname: Big Girl

Favorite Toy: Baby Dolls

Favorite Food: Anything with Cheese on it

Favorite Book: I Love you Through and Through

Favorite Topics: N’s Favorite thing to talk about it is the monkey’s and balloons

About Big Girl:  She is such a sweet big sister. She loves to kiss her brothers and sisters feet and helping during bottle time. She is definitely 3 because everything is why, why, why! She just moved to a big girl bed and works so hard to
get stickers on her sticker chart! N loves to be a big helper.
She always is telling me “Auntie Whitney I helping you”

Lunch Date with Auntie Whitney

Going to School

 Baby P
Age: 1 year

Weight: 8.865 Kg

Nickname: Rockstar

Favorite Toy: Ring

Favorite Food: Spinach 

Favorite Activity: Reading the books especially “Roadworks”  (lots of trucks)

About Rockstar: Rockstar is such a great kid! He is very determined and can be very impatient sometimes. He likes to be the center of attention and is the typical oldest and wants to be first for everything! He is such a clever boy and pays very close attention to details. He loves to copy our hand movements and different noises. He loves to read books even at such a young age. He will sit down for quite a while and just look through all the different stories. P definitely has his cuddle moments too. Right before bedtime I know I can always get some good cuddles where he likes to lay his head on my shoulder or sit on my lap while we sing. 

Watching the Construction Guys

Someone fell Asleep before nap time

Baby S

Age:   He will be 1 in a week!

Weight: 9.965 kg

Nickname:  Giggles

Favorite Toy: water filled teething ring

Favorite Food: Everything

Favorite Activity: Giggling and Clapping

Fun Story:
Giggles is such a sweet boy. He is very content in life which can also be on the border line of lazy. He isnt mobile yet but has learned to almost get around that. He is very clever, he has taught himself to pull the blanket that he sits on towards him to get toys closer. Giggles is working on crawling, right now its more of a spin in circles movement but we are getting closer. He really enjoys sitting on an aunties lap and touching our face or our hands. Giggles is such a good nickname for him because his laugh is about the cutest thing. If I can really get him laughing its this deep laugh and lots of snorts which is so contagious you cant help but laugh with him.

He really Loves the Water filled Rings Exhibit A ↑

Working on the leg muscles so he can eventually stand on his own

Community Visits

The last couple days have been AMAZING!!!!!!!! Megan, my roommate, and I went up to the clinic on Monday to join Maria and Joyce as they walked around Joe Slovo. They are a beautiful and kind women called caregivers that work for the local free clinic and do home check ins and ask about the needs in the particular community. Joe Slovo is very close to my heart and my home. It is a township that has been built on government property and consists of tin and brick homes. They’re about 200+ people who live there. Joe Slovo is located right behind Refilwe so there is a lot of interactions between our two communities.
We visited 5 people all soo sweet and not feeling well plus chatted with people as we were walking though. We helped a women who lives in the community, her name is Elizabeth, she was born in 1915!!!!! I cant even imagine all the things she has seen! I wish she spoke english so I could talk with her and learn all about her life. We had to bring her down to the clinic because of her leg. When Sister Didi (doctor) saw her, she made her get up and they started dancing!!!! Haha so funny and such a cool thing to witness.
Megs was asking a lot of good questions about the community as we walked and about some of the biggest needs. The two biggest Joe Slovo needs were running water and Electricity in the Homes. There is one large light that sits in the middle of the community and lights it at night because there is no individual lights in the houses. Maria was saying that that was more a want and a lot of people were “content” without those things. I guess its more of a they’re more important things that needs to be addressed first.  Joyce was saying that when they ask about more personal needs and biggest issues it was actually food!  That would explain why gardens have recently been popping up a lot.
 What was brought to my mind was Lunch that kids club provides. Every Saturday a group of us volunteers get together and go up to Joe Slovo and gather all the kids (around 70) and bring them to Refilwe. They are able to play on the playground, we sing songs and then talk about a Bible story. At the end we feed them a nutritious lunch before bringing them back home. It was encouraging to know that we are filling that need already on a small scale.

Joe Slovo

Path to Joe Slovo along the Refilwe fence

Joe Slovo At Night

On Tuesday Rachel and I went out again with Joyce and Maria to some more communities along Malibongwe, which is a main road in Johannesburg. It was cool to see up close other communities away from Refilwe. We visited three different areas all on foot. The first family wasn’t home but we were able to talk to the mans’ neighbors a bit. The second area was a super small community of wooden and tin houses. Maria and Joyce talked with different families about the variety needs in the area. We visited a super sweet old man who sat in a chair in his hut for most of the day. Then we saw an older couple who were called “the lovers” in Tswana by the caregivers because they loved each other after so many years of marriage. They really were just too cute : ) Our last couple that we visited suffered from aids and were being vacated from their house and were temporarily living in their employers broken garage.
It was so incredibly eye-opening to see such absolute poverty up close. Now I have to find the balance of looking at all the needs and being overwhelmed with wanting to help all of it and then becoming callous to the hurt and not letting it affect the deepest parts of the heart.

Rachel and I heading to the Clinic

Add caption

First house 

2nd Community

Their Community is under these beautiful trees

Walking to our third community

↑ Maria and Joyce ↑

Crossing Malibongwe to get back Home

Rachel, Maria, Joyce and Myself

Winter Reflection

I am Sorry that I haven’t blogged in a while. Weeks go by so fast and days go by even faster.  I will try to highlight as much as possible.  Winter is gone and spring is here! The weather is already getting so warm during the day!

Carnivore menu

 A group of us went to a restaurant called Carnivore. I ate things like chicken liver, zebra,  and crocodile!

 I am trying to be as adventurous as I can, I dont want leave with any regrets. One of my biggest accomplishments so far is that I finally drove! It wasnt on a main road but I drove a stick-shift on the other side of the car! Baby Steps, Baby steps

 I got the opportunity to go to the Rhino and Lion Park a couple miles away from Refilwe.  I was able to pet baby white lions and a cheetah named Eddie.

White Lions

Petting Eddie with the guys

Back in July, Nicole put on a Christmas in July party. We all wanted to capture a cold Christmas since it will be so hot when the real Christmas arrives. For a couple hours it really did seem like we were home and in the midst of the Christmas season.

Christmas in July!

Nicole, Andy and I

The babies are growing soo Fast! I have 2 crawlers now, baby P and baby A, they are constantly keeping me on my toes. Our rockstar, baby P,  will turn 1 in just a few short weeks! He was the first baby here at El Roi. I am so privileged to be apart of his little life and so excited to see him be untied with his Forever Family.

P on the left A on the Right

Baby S is working so hard to be mobile, he just isnt there quite yet. Baby T is getting so big! She cant wait to join her brothers and Sister as a big baby. We are currently teaching her to be content on her own. She has a cry that seems to radiate through the house.

S on the Left T on the Right

And baby H is so sweet. I love my cuddle times with her in the morning and afternoon. She is still so small even at 5 months old but is growing stronger and bigger everyday. My favorite thing that she does right now is when she yawns she does a little sigh at the end. Melts my heart every time.

Baby H and I at her Dr Check-up

My 2 1/2 year old is doing so well. She loves going to preschool and being with Auntie Nicole and myself. I painted her nails a couple weeks back and it is now a constant question if I will paint her nails again. Her new thing that she has been doing is to come up and say “Auntie Whitney I like your hair and your shoes.” and also to say “Aunties Whitney I Love you.” And when I reply I love you too she says “yes”. She loves to take pictures on my phone. A couple hundred pictures and a few days later I found some funny ones.

Painting her Nails

N's Pictures

N's Pictures

N's Pictures

N's Pictures

On my days off, as much as I want to sit and veg out, I really want to invest in something greater than add to my movie collection. Since back at home I am a preschool teacher I thought maybe I could use those skills in Africa as well. On my days off I go to the preschool and assist the teachers where I can and love the 50 kids at the Refilwe Preschool. I realized how much i miss teaching and enjoy 4 year olds too. I miss my kids back at home and I want to give a shout out to all of them, They have all moved up class rooms for the new school year! I am so Proud!

Baby H and I

Baby P

Sunrise as I walk to work

Monkey's hanging around while I do laundry

Since A learned to crawl she always tries to escape her crib

Fashion babies

Morning Bottle

They Love to play by the door and get some fresh air!

Baby S looking good!

A and I having morning play time