Sibling swimming

Today it was a bit cloudier outside. Just right to start the day with a long walk. We strolled along the harbor and took a look around Ocean Bay Drive.

After nap time, it was back to IDC (Island Dolphin Care) at 2 p.m. Mila was looking forward to another meeting with the dolphins and Daniel (therapist). Today, Mila picked out magnetic letters from a bowl of slimy beads and stuck them on a magnetic board - her siblings took turns participating. Afterwards, Mila chose a color again - this time by focusing on the joyous blue bottle. Mila's body language clearly showed that she was enjoying herself. Then everyone decorated their wooden animals with glittering stones. Mila had to gather all her strength to push the glue bottle and use her fine motor skills to place the stones.

Within the therapy, there is always a change between tension and relaxation. After the first challenging creative activity, we sang a song - Mila turned on an adapted cuddly toy for musical support.

Then Daniel placed a large pillowcase on the table. Each child now had a bowl of water in front of them - and a pot of powdered lye. Now everyone had to use a measuring spoon to add the powder to the water bowl. Mila was so excited that she spilled half of the bowl and was soaking wet. Afterwards, the children were allowed to choose a liquid food coloring and it was also added to the soap solution. Levi and Romy vigorously stirred in the bowl with a straw until foam formed.

For Mila, a BigMac (blue switch) was connected to a compressor, which blew air into Mila's bowl to produce colorful foam. Now she had to operate and hold down the switch (button) with her hand to start the compressor. It was good that Mila already knew how to do this from daycare and knew exactly what to do. The children produced colorful foam and spread it on the pillowcase. Beautiful color gradients were created on the pillow, representing the water in green and blue.

When the "classroom lesson" was over, we took the elevator back down to the dolphins. Today, Levi was allowed to go into the water with Mila. Both were very happy and you could tell how much Mila enjoyed having Levi with her.

It was so brave of Levi to step into the pool with these big animals. 2 days ago, we were sitting down at the dock and he didn't want to give the dolphin a kiss. So in just 3 days, he has already developed a tremendous amount of courage and self-confidence. It's simply beautiful to see the development happening here. I helped Levi translate the English instructions so he knew what to do.