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!

It was Alexei’s second Halloween. On the first Halloween he was just under 20 days old. Here is a picture of him on October 31, 2007.

My happy little pumpkin

Dressing up in Halloween clothes was the only holiday activity we did that day. A year later we were able to do much funner stuff!

First of all, we got Alexei a Winnie the Pooh costume at the Once Upon a Child second hand store. Its size is bigger than his actual size so that he can wear it next year too (I hope). If it is too small, we won’t be upset too much, because Alexei got to wear it more than once this year.

Second of all, Alexei got to wear the Pooh outfit four times. He wore it twice to the Takoma Park Library: for Circle Time and for Onesies program. Here he is:

My son brings his own water to the library

He wore it almost all day on Friday, October 31, 2008. He and I went to Grandmommy’s day care and participated in their costume parade. All the kids looked very cute and acted out their characters. Here they are:

Grandmommy’s day-time hooligans

And finally, in the evening Troy, Alexei and I went trick-or-treating. We decided to go to Central Avenue, since most of the people I know live there. Everybody loved the little Pooh bear! He liked the Halloween decorations and enjoyed looking at different lights.

I see the light, Daddy. Can I touch it?

Also, trick-or-treating was a learning experience for Alexei. He learned to receive candy from people and put it in his little pumpkin basket. This is the new skill he mastered that night!

When our Pooh got tired from meeting all the strange creatures outside and working hard on putting the goodies in his basket, we went home. Before his bed time we took couple of quick pictures of Alexei “counting” his candy:

I don’t know what I’ll do with all this stuff, but it shakes real nice

One of his favorite was the Play-Doh, which he still likes to play with. Of course his mom and dad got to enjoy the rest of the candy. Sorry, kid, maybe next year you’ll get to have what you earned!

While he was dosing off to sleep, we gave away almost all of our Milky Way and Twix candies to other trick-or-treaters. And one last thing: Alexei learned to point at the picture of Pooh on his costume when we ask him “Where is Winnie the Pooh?” (in English and Russian). It also looks like he is pointing at himself when we ask him “Who is Winnie the Pooh?", which is very cute, don’t you think so?

Who’s my little Pooh bear?