This should have been posted midday yesterday, but LJ was being stupid:
Oh man, am I tired. We took the little ones to the park this morning. A different park than last time and *much* further away. Most of the way there were not sidewalks and I nearly had a heart attack a couple times while trying to make sure the kids stayed out of the way of the speeding cars.
We had seven kids between the two of us, ranging in age from not quite 3 years to 8 years old. None of them really listen that well and I only know a few words anyway.
Don’t get me wrong, we all had fun. Diane and I took pictures of the kids, we picked flowers (swallow’s dress and poppies), exchanged words, and played games. The children adore having their pictures taken. I’ll post them later (but only for people on my flist as it’s not my place to put their images where anyone could see them)*.
One little boy is not quite 3 and doesn’t really speak. He doesn’t listen either, but if you decide to pick him up in order to keep him from doing something dangerous, he doesn’t cry or struggle… so that’s good. I suppose it helps that when I pick him up I usually give him a couple swings, which he finds a lot of fun. Like most of the kids, he has a disarmingly charming smile.
On the way back one boy obviously did something to annoy a passerby because I caught up to him and the man talking to him turned to me and said something in Romanian. He didn’t look happy. I just guided the boy away and said, “da, da” to the man. Since I didn’t understand, agreement seemed the smoothest way to go.
The oldest girl, M, got very into telling me words and having me repeat them as we walked back. I played along, though I didn’t always know what I was saying. Earlier, I had been pointing out things to A (a little boy about 6) and telling him the English word. He’d repeat and then I’d ask for the Romanian word. They still chatter to me in hopes I’ll understand, though I think the older ones are starting to get that my vocabulary is very mic (small).
*The pictures are now posted here for my online friends: http://pics.livejournal.com/bluwyngz/gallery/0000sfw3?page=2