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!

Well, I get to catch up on what Alexei is up to now…. Tomorrow will be one week since my mom went back home after spending exactly four weeks with us. We all had a great time together for sure. I am so glad Alexei got to play, go for walks and make friends with her. My mom even got to feed him, give him a bath and put him to bed by herself a couple of times. Every day started with Alexei waking my mom up (and us too) by talking. When she got him out of his crib, he would always bring slippers for her to put on. And no day went by without drawing at least ten times a day. Thank goodness my mom did not mind it at all!

My mom and Alexei got to experience some good snow for the first time here in Takoma Park. We even got out Alexei’s own small snow shovel to clean the walkway to our front door. Yep, now he is a big boy and wants to do what mommy does and wants to help me all the time. I always give him something to do that is similar to what I am doing at that moment. This way he does not feel like I am ignoring him; instead, we do things together. Today I was washing the floor and gave him a wet sponge. I did not even have to teach him what to do - he just watched me and did the same thing. He was not in my way and it was the best help from him I could ever wish for right now.

An even bigger help from him is putting trash in a trash can. He has got that down really well. He also helps to set the spoons at the table before we eat and bring them back to the kitchen after the meal. Another of his growing-up achievements is getting on and off the couch without anybody’s help.

But I think the best one out of all of his new achievements is going to bed. I used to dread evenings and the time to put him to bed. I used to nurse him until he fell asleep, sometimes falling asleep with him. Then I would carefully put him in his crib and leave his room on tiptoes. If he happened to wake up, I had to start all over again. Sometimes it took up to two hours to put him to sleep. Now, it is a totally different story. I have a new strategy, a big part of which is that I have totally stopped breastfeeding him. I must have learned from Troy the magical skill of just putting him in his crib while he is still awake and leaving him there covered by his blanket, talking to his imaginary friends. Eventually he falls asleep on his own and it takes me absolutely no time to do this!

One thing I miss though is that now I can’t cuddle with him and rock him to sleep even for a minute. The thing is he is so big now and he doesn’t feel comfortable at all in the rocking chair with me or just in my hands. He even points at his bed telling me to put him there. And when I do, he lays very still while I cover him with a blanket and slowly drifts off into dreamland.

Well, it is not all that bad. I still get my share of hugs, slobber and even bites from him. When we were playing this evening, he suddenly stopped playing with his trains, asked me to sit on the floor and then our silly game began. He sat and laid on me, we rolled all over the floor, he would run away and than back and literally crash on me. And throughout the whole game he giggled and laughed. He especially likes to do that before bath when we let him run around in his diaper only.

After a bath, or any other time when he wants me to read books to him (before naps would be another time like that) he takes my hand and pulls me to the rocking chair. He takes a book or two, gives them to me, then taps me on my lap asking to get up. He loves it - sitting on my lap, looking at the books, asking “это?” which means “what is this?” Or I ask him “show me a dog” or any other animal in the book, or “what does the cow say?” (in Russian of course). I don’t always get the correct answer, or even any answer at all, but the times when I do, Alexei and I both are very happy.

Outside there are two of Alexei’s favorite things - swinging and throwing rocks and sticks into the creek. He loves to swing so much that if I didn’t take him out, he would stay there for ever. And no walk outside is complete without throwing stuff into the water. Long before we reach the water, Alexei collects sticks and rocks and then by the water he keeps throwing them. I have to find a really good reason to leave the throwing place and go do something else.

Well, here we are: bringing slippers, getting on/off the couch and going to bed easily (thanks in part to not breastfeeding anymore) - these are the new achievements of our growing son!

Alexei is very smart and a fast learner. Before I got him his second musical instrument (a drum was his first one), he already knew how to blow. He has been preparing himself, without even knowing, by blowing at different things, especially Christmas cards we taped on our hallway wall, for some recorder playing! He has already officially given his first performance New Year’s Eve at our friend’s home. Now, he practices and improves his recorder blowing skills every day (for the pleasure of his parents ).

Last Sunday he got his second haircut – the first buzz cut from Mommy. He looks awful cute, but I think I prefer him with longer hair. Troy says that he looks like he is ready for the Army. So, the next time I’ll try to just trim his hair. By the way, I cut my husband’s hair too. However, in his case I used scissors. The result is painful and I still have lots of practicing to do. But, I will keep trying. I hope one day I will be good at hair cutting.

And finally, one more thing that in this case makes me feel proud of myself and my child is that Alexei can now show how old he is. Last night as we were getting ready for bed, I knew it was the right time to teach him that. And after couple of tries he picked it up very easily. Now, when you ask him “skolko tebe let?” you will see his pointer-finger go up and he even tries to say it and then applauds to himself!

As usual, I was really looking forward to the upcoming holidays. I love Christmas. Right after Thanksgiving I get into the holiday spirit. I listen to radio stations that play Christmas music only, I decorate our home, I make my Christmas shopping list, my wish list for Santa (this year was the first time in my life I wrote it), I make cookies (this time I made butter cookies in different Christmas shapes with glaze and sprinkles and I took it to some of my former co-workers), and I make our family Christmas card. We also got a tree three days before Christmas, so, just like last year, it can stay mostly green till my Mom’s visit in the middle of January.

After I did my Christmas shopping and the wrapping of all our Christmas presents, I looked at the two huge bags of presents we had to load in our car and thought that we have been really blessed this year to be able to afford all this. It is so exciting to be able to get something that will make a person you love happy! With our car loaded with gifts, food for making and baking, clothes for five days and ourselves, we headed to spend an exciting couple of days at Alexei’s grandparents’.

There were couple of new and not so new things that happened in our little munchkin’s life this holiday season. On Christmas Eve and all the following family dinners, Alexei really liked sitting in his high chair and enjoyed a view of so many people eating, laughing and talking. He kept looking at everybody and once he caught somebody’s eyes he did a very cute nose thing, his trade mark smile, an Alexei original, which he has been doing since he was much younger.

On Christmas day Alexei was way overwhelmed with presents. After all, he is the baby of the family now. In spite of the amount of gifts, we managed to open all of them.

The next day we had a very nice walk with our Granddaddy. Alexei walked all by himself almost all the time. The same day we tried to put him back into his newly established, first-ever schedule! The main part of it is that Alexei has at least a three hour nap in the afternoon, usually from 1 to 4. It works every day now!!! And it makes his Mommy very happy. Alexei goes to bed around 9. Then he wakes up at 8 and takes his long afternoon nap, which is beautiful!

The next day was Sabbath and we went to church, had lunch and the usual nap. In the evening Alexei’s Grandmommy treated us all to a ride on the carousel at the mall. We all enjoyed riding the horses. There was one more fun surprise for Alexei after this – we went to the children’s play area at the mall. Alexei enjoyed exploring different rides and things there too!

On Sunday we had our big family get together. Thanks to Alexei’s faithful keeping of the schedule, his mommy and daddy got to enjoy it fully. We quietly sat down for a nice meal, played and finished our usual family Christmas game – White Elephant. Of course, when Alexei woke up everybody was happy to see him and he had a couple of new presents to open.

New Years Eve Alexei’s nap schedule changed a little, luckily for me! I got to cook from 3 to 6:30pm and Alexei was rested enough to stay up and meet the new year. We also played a couple of games and watched two movies that night.

New Years Day was fun. We went for a long walk, played different card games with our friends, learned a new card game - “Slaps” taught to us by card-wiz Yuri, and at the end of the day we went iceskating. It was “very nice!”

Since I spend all of my waking hours with Alexei, I have noticed a couple of new cool things my son does. No doubt he is a quick learner and amazes me every day by showing me something new he has mastered.

A couple of weeks ago Grandmommy showed Alexei how to sign “please” and “thank you". The next week he got it down very well. Now, if he wants anything he makes a circular motion with his hand on his chest and make a “mmm” sound. Sometimes, he just says “mmm” without a hand, which we know now also means “please". He says “thank you” only when you ask him to. However, he understands and does it when you ask him to say both phrases in Russian.

December 6^th our friend from California came who is in dental school. She gave us all a toothbrush as a present. Alexei got his with a super hero on it and with a thick handle for small hands for a better grip. I showed him with my toothbrush how to brush teeth. Well, the rest of the afternoon Alexei kept his toothbrush in his mouth. He was brushing his teeth all that time and drooling so much that the whole front of his shirt was wet. A good thing, we don’t have any problems brushing (without toothpaste yet) or washing his teeth with a wash cloth now . I did get him ready for starting to brush his teeth earlier. At circle time, the children’s librarian taught us a little song “You Brush Your Teeth", and sure enough we sang it almost every day and made a tooth brushing motion with our finger in front of our mouth. Alexei likes it a lot.

I think now he likes the circle time at the library even more. He seems to be more involved in all the activities and finger plays. He definitely knows the librarian and smiles and points at her when he sees her. During the program he gets up and walks towards her and then stands in front of her trying not to miss anything she says, sings, shows or does. He even tries to touch her. She became one of the people he recognizes now.

Our photographer is another person Alexei knows and recognizes. Like she said, she “did something good” for their relationship. Ever since Alexei was born, she came monthly to take pictures of him, besides many other times when she came over or we saw her somewhere.

Say cheese, little man

One of our uncles is another buddy of Alexei, besides Grandmommy and Granddaddy, who Alexei see almost every weekend. In addition to seeing Alexei almost every weekend, he made a point of coming to our place once a week to have dinner with us and to spend more time with his nephew. Alexei loves him and goes to him without a problem, which he does very rarely even with people he knows. He even gives him kisses! He actually can give a kiss to anybody he know if I ask him to. And naturally, he understands in both languages. Thus, if Grandmommy asks him - he kisses her!

I can feed myself, yes I can

Now, about three funny things he learned. First of all, he loves our bed. To be more correct, he loves to fool around in our bed. Every time we have a free moment, he takes my hand and pulls me into our bedroom asking me to put him on our bed. Then he starts giggling and rolling and laughing. Of course when I or Daddy get there with him the tickle time, airplane ride time and fun time starts! He loves to roll on top of me and kiss and even bite me a little. He likes to stand on his hands and feet and look at me between his legs. Then he he stretches his hand between his legs and shakes my hand!

One weekend after Troy took a shower, he decided to do his toenails. And Alexei was right there with him eager to learn how it is being done. So, a couple of days later, Alexei asked me to go to our bedroom and to put him on our bed - the usual. Then he started to take his socks off. Also the usual. I just thought he wanted me to tickle his toes. Then, he pointed at the bed side table. I opened it and there were toenail clippers there. I gave it to him and it made him so happy! He started to touch his toes with the clippers!

I am soooo big…I can even cut my own nails!

Another thing his Daddy taught him was to blow on the Christmas cards from our friends and family we taped to the wall in the hallway. He already knew how to blow after I started blowing on him after a diaper change. And plus, he sees us blow on hot food. So, he blows each time he sees some steam. But why would you blow on Christmas cards taped to the wall? Well, they move and sort of become alive when you do that. And it is fun! Maybe this is a simple explanation Alexei would give if he talked either English or Russian…

He is such a big blowing boy

Also, Alexei likes to wear his toolbelt, his Mickey Mouse hat and look at himself in the mirror and he loves his cell phone that actually work and has a battery in it. He can’t call anyone, except for 911, and he has not done it yet, but other than that he fully enjoys his cool toy!