One day as we were driving back from school I asked him what he did there and he mentioned 'jelen' (deer). I thought maybe they read Christmas stories already so I asked him about that topic, but he seemed to have run out of words and said 'Nikolas je zaboravio da prica.' (Nikolas forgot how to talk.). I never figured out if he couldn't find Serbocroatian words for something they did in school or what....? It made me so sad and helpless....But at least I don't have to worry that he feels different in school because he speaks another language, and every time I pick him up I can see that he communicates with other boys. He hasn't told me any other names except for his old friends, Kyle and Aagneya. When I ask him what he did at school he usually just says 'drank water and ate pretzels', like that was the event of the day, and of course 'played with the firetrucks' (he is 100% into trucks--fire and garbage trucks top the list--and books that depict them).
The teacher told me that she was impressed that he knew how to blow his nose. Apparently other kids in class can't do it yet.
At home, Pepi sometimes talks to Nikolas in Spanish and he is picking it up. One time she told him 'ven' (come, pronounced 'ben' for all of us non-Spanish-speaking), and Nikolas responded: 'I'm banging!' We died laughing!
When we read, he likes to point at letters, and he has a few favorite ones. W is high up on the list. The funny thing is that when he sees letter M, he turns the book upside down and says it's a W and he absolutely rejects the correction :)
Mike loves to nod his head and say 'dadada'. He nods both 'yes' and 'no' and he exaggerates it so much that we can't help laughing every time, it's too cute. He listens to sounds and watches our mouth as we speak very intently. As soon as he hears music, he bounces. Sonja is very physical: she is not into climbing everything. She really enjoys standing on her feet, but she hasn't let go with her hands yet. She also likes to 'attack' with wide-open mouth as if she is going to bite your face off, especially when she gets giddy, so Mike is most often her nearest victim (she really just leans her mouth against one's face, maybe licks a bit, and doesn't really bite)! Today she actually bit my nipple while I nursed her, stopped, looked a little surprised, and then giggled and continued nursing (it wasn't that funny to me since she has all four front teeth now!)
Jyoti and Aagneya came over during the Indian Diwali holiday and brought an extra outfit for Nikolas to wear in school and around the house while we took pictures. The boys had a great time:
At the same time Pepi and I sat with the babies on the blanket. Everybody is happy... and then Sonja goes for Pepi's nose :)
Our beautiful blue eyes:
