deko's visit and 4 birthdays!

Deko is visiting us for 3 weeks, overlapping a week with Robb's trip to Antarctica. We are having so much fun and entertainment with the kids that days fly by, shocking us both by how fast! As we could expect, Sonja was a bit standoffish at first while Michael loved deko from the start. It wasn't long before Sonja warmed up to him too.
Most of the time we spent at the house, deko took Nikolas out to play by the pond by the clubhouse while I took the babies out in the stroller. We made it to a few park playgrounds too. At a park, deko put Sonja and Michael in the baby swing. This was their first time. They both cried as soon as the swing started swinging. Nikolas was like that too when we first started putting him in the swing, and soon after he wouldn't get off of it!And then there were birthday parties.
The first was for the babies, on my birthday, at our house.
Sonja dug into the cake frosting before we gave her a slice. Even though she had it for the first time, she instinctively knew that a big rectangular thing covered with white mushy layer had to be tasty, and she kept digging her fingers into a corner that was closest to her to reach from her high chair and licking her fingers. Nikolas's birthday we celebrated at the park. He had fun playing at the playground, and at the end, after everyone left, he wanted me to push him on the swing which I did for about 45 min straight smack in the middle of his naptime. Special treat for his special day.
His favorite presents are still trucks (he has a whole collection of police, garbage and fire trucks), but he also likes to draw on magnetic pads (draw and erase). I'd like him to use his new electronic toy that teaches him to draw letters, but he is not too interested yet. He recognizes and sounds all alphabet letters, so that's good for now. If, while do doodles, he happens to draw what looks like an 'O' or an 'I' or na 'W', he'll point it out to me.

When deko left, he asked 'Where is deko? To je grozno kad nema deke.' (Where is deko? It's terrible when deko is not here.) It's so empty without deko, all of us expect him to walk out of his room...

On a different subject, Michael ate a cockroach today. Sonja actually ate one a month or two ago. Yum....

Here are 3 hilarious videos in a row (chopped up larger video to fit in the blog) of twin love. Sonja loves to cuddle and kiss (lick), and her trademark show of love and banging her forehead against a person's head. Micheal looks like he is trying to escape her, but at other times he'll just lie prostrate on the floor and let her lick him or hit him with her head (or with her hands too sometimes too). Kissing he won't mind, only when she gets aggressive with her hands, he'll complain loudly.