Coffee shop, words, potty

Semina and I have been taking Sonja and Mikica to a toddler gym class at my gym, and afterwards we would spend some time outside Starbucks where they would play by bringing back and forth all free real estate magazine copies from the bin to our table, counting the magazines (one, three, nine--Michael, and one, one, one--Sonja), then climb a little tree by the curb, eat their snack... and to top it all off, drink they hot chocolate! They would wait inside the coffee shop while their 'coffee' was being made, yelling 'moja kafa/vruca kafa!' (my coffee/hot coffee), and then yell even louder and more excitedly once the hot chocolate was finally in their hands. It's a treat for us to watch them get their treat!

Sonja speaks a lot these days: 'Sonja cita', Sonja knjiga' (Sonja reads, Sonja book)..., 'beba spava', 'beba budi' (baby sleeps, baby wakes), 'Ne Sonja spava' (Sonja won't sleep), 'moj red' (my turn)...She counts: 'jedan, jedan, jedan'.. (one, one, one...), 'Sonja kaki WC' (Sonja poops (in the) toilet)

Mikica says: seklo (svjetlo=light), picila kola (police car, accompanied with 'oo-oo-oo-oo...siren sound), vechicha (vjestica=witch), pisem (I write), makaze (scissors)... He actually speaks in full sentences, like 'Ja prvi!' (I got there first!) when he fights for the best seat in the van, or 'Hocu jos meka!' (I want more milk), 'Daj mi to!' (Give me that!)

All three shout 'Ljubi!' to give me a kiss as I leave the house alone or when I drop them off at the gym kids' center. They still kiss me on the lips--it will soon be time to change that for Nikolas, he is getting too big for it.

Recently Sonja decided that she would go to the bathroom instead of peeing in her diaper--only not just in the potty like Michael--she wanted to go straight to the real toilet! She will actually take off her pants and diaper, climb up, sit without help, climb back down, flush and put back both the diaper (sometimes front side back, which is when I realized she was doing all this by herself!), and her pants (sometimes inside out). Amazing! She will not only pee, but poo too, all by herself, and just until recently she wouldn't even sit on the potty when she was standing next to it undressed, needing to pee.

More expressions

Nikolas: 'Izvini, ali ja hocu da idem napolje.' (Pardon me, but I want to go play outside), 'Ja sam u pravu.' (I'm right.) , 'A-ha, prevario sam te!' (A-ha, I tricked you!)

Sonja: 'Tata ljut. Mama ljut. Mina ljuta.' (Daddy angry. Mommy angry. Mina (Semina) angry.)

Mikica: 'Sonja prica.' (Sonja is talking.) This last one was when Mikica was surprised every time Sonja said an actual word or a string of words, as she has been taking a looong time to start talking in a real language (she and Michael have one of their own.)

Mikica says 'umoran'

After a long day spent at a museum and at a gym, Mikica said he was 'umoran' (tired). Then he must have realized what he said, so he immediately added, 'Necu u kevet.' (I don't want to go to bed.)
I remember it took Nikolas until he was almost 4 to admit that he was tired.

Summer 2011: Pennsylvania, DE, MA, Cancun...

Sonja and Michael enjoyed playing at Nikolas's school playground during the end of school celebration:
Cancun
In June, mommy got to go to Cancun for a few days on her own (first trip without kids!).
Here is (pra)deko with his daughters:
Twins' words
Mikica has been learning words quickly.
At the start of the summer he began with maca, cuka, pica (ptica), pita, meko (mlijeko), 'necu meka', 'uuum meka' (I want milk, where 'I want' is replaced by 'uuum'), auto...
He progressed to: 'ocu meka' (hocu mlijeka), kevet (krevet)--he yells 'kevet' (bed!) to Sonja to tell he to go to bed as if he is not going at the same time.
Kisa pada/nema kisa pada (it's raining/not raining).
Oblak, grom (cloud, thunder).
Mama, uuum te volim (mama, ja te volim). I Sonju, I tatu, i baku, i deku... (Mommy, I love you).
Come here, go away, my turn, 'to you' (this means 'birthday cake', because of the 'Happy Birthday To You' song)

Sonja is still not putting sentences together, but she communicates better than before, and she still uses English words a lot.

Nikolas's swim lessons
This year he is doing better than last. Although he still complains that he is sleepy or hungry as we drive to the pool, he doesn't cry for me while he is at the pool. Of all organized sports that we tried, this is where he fusses least.

Pennsylvania and Delaware (June)
We visited Scot and Michelle in Pittsburgh. Here are Nikolas and Szilvia in the tram from which we got a good view of the city:
Sonja and Szilvia at a restaurant:
Szilvia and our kids at a neighborhood park:
Here is baka with Nikolas at Longwood Gardens in Delaware:
Miscellaneous
Sonja is not a fan of going to bed, so she winds up falling asleep in all corners of the room, including floor, Mikica's bed, half-way up her bed (like in the picture here)....
Sonja is a very meticulous writer, and I never even had to show her how to hold a pencil:
Building
Nikolas has been in his building mode all summer. This is one of his less extravagant creations:
At a kiddy birthday party:
July 4th
Mikica was the only brave one to hold a firecracker!
Sunglasses are IN this summer :)
Park activities
Nikolas keeps his eyes out for frogs and lizards every time we go to a park. He and Mikica would collect the animals and play with them and try to take them home in a bucket.
Sonja prefers climbing the playground structures.
Yes, that's some kind of animal in his hands:Holding a frog (above) and lizard (below):
Nikolas and Audrey (AJ) (picture says it all):
At a farm:
Petting a 5-day-old baby rabbit:Boston: Grandparents' 50th wedding anniversary
Grandpa and Grandpa celebrated their 50 wedding anniversary and we flew to Boston to attend the huge family reunion:
First bus ride for the twins, to get to the party location:
Grandsons:
Granddaughters:
Grandma and grandpa's opening dance:

Shaved Sonja's hair

I've been meaning to do it for a while now for two reasons:
1. To check if it's true that thin hair comes back thicker after it's been shaved. Now she looks a little... funny.... but it will grow out soon! Her beautiful face is accentuated, especially her eyes :)
2. To stop her habit of pulling her hair just so she could have a strand of hair in her hand while sucking on her thumb (a strange habit that she has recently started spreading to Michael too).
She is definitely already kicking it!

Mikica's first poop in the potty!

He did it! And he said 'Gotov sam!' (I'm done!) when he was done, the same way Nikolas says it. Then Sonja decided she wanted to do it too, so she sat on the potty and chatted with me as I kept her company, made all sorts of facial expressions at me, but left nothing in the potty. She got up, continued playing (we just came back from the swimming pool and I let the kids run around without diapers/underwear before their bath), and then I saw her storm towards the bathroom again--however, she ended up peeing next to the potty and crying because she got the floor and her legs dirty (she says 'dirty' perfectly in English).

Nikolas's first pay

Nikolas got his first job and first pay: he gets a quarter every time he cleans up the toys in the living room. He's been doing such a great job! This week he'll get a new toy from hard-earned money. Just until a couple of months ago when I began asking him to clean up the room, he would ask me to help him. I'd end up putting away much more than him--he'd try, but he'd get distracted by toys and start playing, or he'd put a few things away and ask, 'Mama, je li volis sad?' (Mom, do you like it now?), even though there were a ton of toys right in front of him still. Now, every toys gets put away and the living room looks completely neat! Great job, Nikolas!

Nikolas has been enrolled in soccer at YMCA. He hasn't played a single game though... he doesn't like the idea of a team and a coach other than his dad. On the way to the practice he regularly complains that he is tired and/or hungry no matter how much he napped and ate before. I'd even pack bread with his favorite chocolate hazelnut spread that works like a charm in improving his mood and concentration during piano lessons; however, it produces zero effect at soccer.

Nikolas continues to hone his lawyer-like skills. He would propose what he would like to do and finish the sentence with jasno? or dogovoreno? (understood? or agreed?).

On a different subject, he just got conjunctivitis for the second time in one month. He got horrible bags under his eyes both times, really scary looking...

Gentle, caring Nikolas!

Nikolas was the first to get up this morning, as usual, and found daddy asleep on the couch after one of his work all-nighters. He grabbed a blanket that was sitting folded in the living room and covered him. Robb thought I did it and mentioned how nice of me it was to cover him, and that's when we realized it was Nikolas's doing! Very impressive!

Family reunion in Clearwater Beach

One beautiful week in Clearwater... together with baka and deko and, later, Sanja, Mia and Darko, we packed a lot of fun and relaxing beach time and family time in a few days. Even the one day it rained was a blessing in disguise as we otherwise wouldn't have peeled away from the ocean to visit the aquarium where Nikolas, Michael and Sonja went crazy for the fish, sting rays, snails... they screeched as they followed the fish along glass enclosures, like little cats chasing fish in the aquarium. Nikolas later pretended to be a dolphin at the beach, and he is still in the dolphin-mode during baths and when we go to the swimming pool.

The cottages were walking distance from the main pier, playground, cafes, and restaurants, convenient to take the kids out to play, to go for gelato (mandarin gelato for Nikolas!), to see the performers at the pier in the evening--they weren't too much into a guy dressed as a pirate but they had fun at the playground nearby. Speaking of pirates, there was a pirate boat that shot cannonballs just off of our beach every afternoon. The first time it happened, Nikolas was terrified. He ran to me and baka screaming and asking to be picked up, but the same day he kept talking about it ('Je li se sjecas onog piratskog broda sto je pucao topovske kugle? ('Do you remember the pirate ship that shot cannonballs?)) Whenever something impresses him and sticks in his memory, that's the standard question that he'll keep asking for days, weeks, months... ('Do you remember....?)
Finally when Mia showed up, she and Nikolas became best friends--they played together in the sand, built sand castles, ran in the shallow ocean, even took a nap together once, and actually slept (passed exhausting themselves on the beach in the morning). Every morning Nikolas woke up around 6:30am, noticed sunlight through the shades and whispered to me: 'Mama, napolju je dan, mogu li da izadjem u dnevni boravak?' (Mom, it's day outside, can I go out into the living room?). He whispered as if he didn't want to wake me up but, of course, wouldn't stop repeating himself until I opened my eyes and told him that he could go out.
Mikica is coming out of his shell, turning from a quiet little boy into a babbling and involved kid. He repeats our words like a parrot now, with the cutest accent that sound like baby Italian, accenting the first syllable a little stronger than the rest: ba-ka, sa-ca (grandma, Sanja-nickname, de-ka....). At the beach, he happily played with sand toys, imitated Nikolas and Mia, even, like those two, went up to his waist into the water and then ran back in front of a wave, while Sonja spent a good chunk of the time screaming for attention and asking to be held.Consequently, baka and I spent the corresponding portion of our beach time holding her, standing in the shallow water since she didn't want to be near the waves. I had a surprise in the ocean: while I swam I noticed people on the beach gathering close to the water and looking in my direction. I swam as fast as I could to the beach and asked if they saw a shark or what, and it turned out it was a couple of manatees they were looking at, and just then they happened to be right next to me--I would have swam over them without even noticing them!

Mikica and deko:
Sonja with her happy hat on:
And another happy hat (ok, I think it was deko who made her happy this time):
Mikica and Sonja managed to lock themselves in the room. After talking to Mikica for a couple of minutes to get him to turn the lock, he did it. Then it happened again the next day, and again the kids unlocked themselves.

Deko, with all great-grandchildren:
On our last night we had a nice dinner to celebrate this year's big birthdays, deko's 90th and baka's 60th. After dinner the kids went dancing to the live music--Mia and Sonja were dancing away on the floor and Michael wanted me to hold him and dance with him. I watched Sonja in amazement the whole time, not believing this was her! She was spinning, jumping, waving her arms and her head, going crazy on the dance floor as I never quite saw her at home! Wow!
Nikolas, after a fancy dinner, wanted to be taken to the gelato place to have his mandarin gelato once again before we left for home the next day.

Sonja, Mikica, Nikolas, Andrei and Mia, all together:

Daddy with the twins: