Arañita y besitos

This little man is Luciano. I've mentioned him before. He is the son of Ale, and I can still remember seeing him again when they moved back into the institute. He saw me and the rest of us, screamed NOOOOOOOOO and ran off.

He was a hitter, and a screamer.

He still is a cryer.

And when we finished our visits, he never wanted to give us kisses, as is the tradition for greetings of hello and goodbye.

To be honest, today I was very tired. We had an almost all-nighter due to today being a day off from school (Happy Flag Day, Argentina). I didn't sleep well, and had a major headache all morning. Worse, when I arrived, my stomach was killing me.

This is included to also say that I hadn't prepared anything. I brought the game Uno and Jenga, some string to make bracelets if they wanted.. and some mate. Naturally.

But as it turns out, I got to see some beautiful things. Despite the pain; despite the unpreparedness.

Sidebar. I don't want to undermine preparation. I believe it is very necessary, but it is not the end goal. And while I am usually much better at preparing for my time with the gals, I don't let unpreparedness stop me from going all together.

We had a fantastic time. It began slow as all the girls looked at me with my two options. But as we started, everyone got into it, laughing at the fall of the tower. Getting excited about winning a round of Uno.

At one point however, I had to go to the bathroom. Let me make it clear that I HAD TO GO TO THE BATHROOM.

It was not pretty, and I apologize for the probable mental image just then.

So Nieves took my place in the card game, which left me to return to taking care of the kiddos Luciano and Maria Luz (ML has returned! Hooray!!). Luciano was using the blocks from Jenga to make a domino effect. Maria Luz built a couple of little towers on her own, only to knock them down. Oh how we laughed and laughed. And what surprised me most was watching Luciano share the blocks with Maria Luz. Or maybe it was to hear Maria Luz say, "'Ca 'ta!" when she built her little tower.

I began to play "Arañita" with the two, which means I made my hand act like a spider and it would crawl up their arms to tickle their necks. Which of course, is most fun when you don't even touch the kid and he or she are laughing any way. While I was making the silly noises that accompanied this, I realized that everyone was staring at me.. laughing.

hehe.

The girls asked us to stay for merienda. Which means our normal hour and a half, stretched out to 2 and a half. It's such a privilege to be wanted by them. That they actually enjoy our presence, because sometimes that's all we can give them.

When we made our way home, Luciano jumped on the back of my bike. He has made it a tradition to ride on the back from the front door to the gate. It's adorable. He has also made it a tradition to give me kisses. Besos he yells.. such a contrast to what we had first known.

Chau!