There are a couple of new things that Alexei does now. His two new obsessions are balls and trains.

He loves to play with all of his balls and any other balls that he sees. He plays at home – when I come from work I become his ball partner, he gives me a ball and we bounce them on the wall; in front of our house - our neighbor gave us a basket ball hoop just Alexei’s size and he throws his green ball into the hoop by himself; in the park – on the way to the park he points at all the basketball hoops, it seems like he knows all the hoops in the neighborhood, and when we get to the park we play basketball with an invisible ball; even at church after Sabbath school he can’t miss the gym and a round of invisible basketball game.

Trains – it all started with the Russian cartoon Паровозик из Ромашково. Alexei could watch it all day long non-stop. Of course we don’t let him, but we show it to him at least once or twice a day. Now he’s seen it enough times so he knows and comments on every part of the movie. When…

• the clock is on the screen - he says “часы” (clock),
• the dog appears – he barks,
• the flowers dance – he smells,
• the horse gallops – he makes the horse sound,
• the bird falls out of the nest – he says “kaaa!”

If he has not seen the movie in some time or if I go to the office to use my computer, he starts asking to play the movie for him by saying: “чусь-чусь!” (choo-choo in English) It is such a cute and sweet sound, Troy and I just love hearing it. Now that he knows what the train looks like, he can point at any train he sees and say his “чусь-чусь!”

Well, Alexei finally got to ride on one of the trains. On Father’s Day we decided to go to Wheaton Regional Park. They have very good playgrounds there, a carousel and train rides! So we dressed Alexei in an outfit with a train on it and we all wore orange and orange bandanas to match. Once we got to the park Alexei was saying his legendary “чусь-чусь!” non-stop, because he’s been to the park before and knew about the train. He rode a bike with his Papa there once before and watched the train go by while they had a picnic. So, to keep his excitement going, we first got on the carousel, then we went to the playground (in which he had very little interest), and then we went to the lake and saw turtles and geese. Alexei actually found the turtles very interesting and he clapped at the geese and yelled “kaaa!” Then we took another carousel ride – he enjoyed it too – riding on a horse he kept saying “eeeeee!” Next up was a picnic lunch while watching a couple of trains pass by. And then finally WE got on a train. Alexei couldn’t believe it. He sat between Troy and me very quietly during the whole ride, partially because he was trying not to miss anything, and partially because he got tired too. After the train ride was over we went on a final carousel ride, said bye to the horses and choo-choo and went home. Of course, it took seconds for him to fall asleep in the car and then he continued to sleep at home dreaming about another train ride, I’m sure!

New words: ball, car, walk and turtle. Most of them he just started saying on his own. All of a sudden we heard him say ball and car. On June 16, when I came from work and after we had dinner, Troy was sitting on the floor with Alexei. We usually go for a walk after that, and sure enough, we heard Alexei say “walk, walk?” And you guessed it – his first verbal request to go for a walk was fulfilled! On June 20, when Alexei was sitting on grandmommy’s lap at church, she pointed at a picture of a turtle and said “turtle”. Alexei immediately repeated the word. Since then we’ve been hearing his cute little turtle word every day!

And his final new thing is his new sleep schedule. It is actually very convenient for all three of us. Alexei goes to sleep at 9pm. So, when I come from work, I get to play with him, go to the park, give him a bath, read and put him to bed. I decided to read in Russian to him every night, so he hears the language a little more. His saying more English than Russian words concerns me a little. So, I think reading in Russian should help a little. I read to him a chapter of Pooh stories a day. It is hard, because he likes companionship, meaning – he likes doing what you are doing while you are doing it. So, I need to give him a book to read also and we both read at the same time. Trying to purposefully read a little louder than he is a little exhausting for me. Troy says it’s ok. Then Alexei sleeps until 10 or 10:30am, which is very good for Troy. He works late and needs to sleep in. And sometimes when he works through the night, he also needs to nap during the day. And Alexei usually naps for 2-3 hours. So, we got ourselves a very cooperative little boy with a schedule that works for everyone!