Grandma and Grandpa took Nikolas to one of his favorite places, the Butterfly Exhibit. They saw live butterfly release and had some land on them. Nikolas was happy to see butterflies land on others, but scared to see them land on his own shirt! In the past few months he has been scared of dogs too.
Sonja and Michael like to sit on my legs on the floor. This morning Sonja settled on my leg and leaned her head against my chest with her finger in her mouth. Then Michael came over and sat on my other leg, but he wanted to be closer to me than Sonja so he literally climbed over her and sat on the leg she was sitting on, in front of her. She got mad. She yelled, they shuffled a little, and she ended up pushing Michael and sitting back in the same spot with the thumb back in her mouth, calmly leaning against my chest.
Later we played outside. Just like the other day on the lawn, Michael went all the way down the slope in the backyard where he found sand and an old tree trunk that he climbed like it was a car and ate pieces of, got dirty, while Sonja stayed up with me, completely clean (the other day when the grass was damp, I had to change Michael twice in an hour and Sonja's butt never got wet). She thought it was fun to stomp her feet on the stepping stones. And she blew kisses to me and kissed my face too. She is the cuddliest little creature in the world when she wants to be (when he has full attention).
Dancing is her latest favorite thing. She taps her right foot on the floor as she bounces up and down.
Kissing on the face is her other favorite thing (on the mouth mostly). Sometimes she'll stick the entire tongue out and give a little lick, but now she mostly makes normal smacking kisses. She loves blowing kisses to us too. Michael learned give real kisses just days after Sonja did. Today, as I sat on the floor with Nikolas and Michael I kissed Nikolas on the cheek, and immediately afterward Michael literally pulled me to his face and gave me his first kiss on the cheek, a real kiss!
Nikolas is our 'big bad wolf'. He run after his friends howling and roaring. But he is not aggressive and never hurts other kids. He tries to be funny to me while I change his diaper saying, 'Ja cu da se popisam na tebe,' or 'Ja cu da se pokakim na tebe.' (I'll pee on you, or, I'll poop on you.)
Lately he also often says, 'Mama, dodji da ti pokazem nesto (Mommy, come here, let me show you something), and it would be some toy hidden from his reach or cake on the counter that he is not supposed to have until after dinner, etc., so it's like he is letting me see something important and in return I should give it to him :)
He reads his name on the wall, letter by letter correctly. He can read other short words like 'mama', 'baka', 'daddy'... When we walk around the neighborhood, he finds marks and scratches in the road and says, Here is an 'I', Here is an 'O', Here is an 'S', etc.
We had our first water fun this year. At Veronica's kiddy pool, Sonja, Michael and Nikolas wouldn't come out of the water! Michael gets most excited about water. Even when I sit him at the sink to wash his hands, he LOVES touching the water as it comes out of the faucet and doesn't mind when I pour water over his face when I give him a bath. Sonja, on the other hand, has a shocked expression when I pour water over her face. She freezes. As long as it's not bath water, she'll have fun in it though.
