Front teeth, finally! Plus, James's spelling and reading (in two languages)

Stephen will soon stop looking like a baby vampire--now besides the two upper teeth, second from the front, and two little front bottom teeth (that have come out half way), he is finally showing his top front teeth. He'll finally have opposing teeth to bite the food.  He is already getting better working on chunks of banana and even little pieces of bread. He nurses less, but when I'm around he still likes to be in the nursing position most of the time, sitting in my lap facing me and holding on like I'm his favorite toy.

James continues to teach himself to read and write.  He's been spelling his friends' names in school since he was 3 1/2, and since then the school has been teaching him some sight words, which he learned quickly (I remember seeing words like he, she, it, is, not, door, sit, there, the, this, boy, girl, etc. at the beginning of the school year), but now he reads words from books at home on his own to show off to us and does an amazing job.  These are not the same words he learned at school.  He sounds out words in both English and Serbocroatian.  As I read a book to him, he'll stop me for a few moments to read a few words on his own.  I love it.
Then he'll grab a piece of paper and write some words of a sentence.  A couple of weeks ago he put a sticky note on our bedroom door that said 'Dad is ugle' (ugly), and later, 'Dad is kull' (cool), as a joke.
 He'll copy a sentence from some book, too, to practice, but then, the way James is, he'll remember those words and be able to write them on his own when asked.

March 18th, Training Wheel Come Off -- Go James! Also, James's concept of time...

James rode his bike without training wheels for the first time yesterday!
They actually came off by themselves (I've been hand-tightening them for a while, when I should have used a tool), and before he realized it, James was riding without extra support.  Once he saw what was happening, he didn't get scared but kept going.  Nikolas and Sonja would then help him sit and start pedaling, and he'd take off!  He had perfect control over direction, he'd go out of the driveway onto the street and turn around to come back with no wobbling.

James is still using yesterday and tomorrow as signal words for before and after.  Everything that happened in the past happened 'juce' (yesterday) and what is about to happen will be 'sutra' (tomorrow).  Sometimes he'll add 'juce, kad sam bio beba' '(yesterday, when I was a baby') to distinguish things that happened a long time ago (well, at least not in the last few days), or 'sutra kad budem veliki kao Nikolas' (tomorrow, when I'm as big as Nikolas').

Birthdays, etc.

We had very late birthday celebrations this year. Michael and Nikolas invited their friends to laser tag, and Sonja and James celebrated at home that same day.  I lost track of how many dozens of cupcakes I made...plus other preparations..... But it was worth it, everything came together perfectly.

We didn't take many pictures, here is just one:

Side note on James: he's been practicing some real acting in the car these past few months.  A few times when I picked him up from school, he acted mad and wouldn't talk.  I thought, because at times he really did look angry, simply from needing sleep or because I picked him up before snack time, it was just one of those days... but then a couple of times, the moment we would stop in the garage at home, he'd brighten up and say "Prevario sam te!" ("Tricked you!") and hop into the house as cheerfully as can be!  The photo below is from just recently, when he pretended to fall asleep in the car on the way to the baseball practice.  I thought he was actually asleep when I took the photo.  But when we parked at the park, he opened his eyes and exclaimed his "Tricked you again!"  He is able to not move his face while we are talking about him and wondering if he is faking... no smile, no movement at all.  He pretended to fall asleep in bed a couple of times while I was reading a bedtime story.  The first time he got me, the second time I tickled him all over to check.

Christmas time

This year we spent Christmas at home by ourselves, no trips, just us and free time :)

It was actually relaxing--we got to sleep in, not rush anywhere, not have to prepare kids' lunches every morning, not go to work... we (Robb and I) really appreciated the slow time.

Santa visited James's school and Stephen was the only one who got to sit in his lap.

James's first rollerblades--he is moving already!

Baby updates

Stephen:
Our nanny made a comment today that she had never seen a baby who gets so excited when he sees his mommy the way Stephen does.  Well, all my kids were excited to see mommy (not so excited now, because they always expect me to ask them to put something away, to clean their room, etc.).  Stephen's show of excitement is to stretch his arms out and wiggle the hands at his wrists, while his eyes shine focused on my me and his whole face turns into a big smile.  He gives these cute happy screeches, too.  If his is lying down, then he starts moving his entire body, pumps arms and legs at the same time with all of is energy and screeches with happiness.
He is sitting upright now.  He still falls over if he leans too far, but he is pretty stable.  He likes to nurse sitting up in my lap, too.  He'll alternate from one side to another until much after he had drunk all of the milk. It's his favorite spot to hang out :)
He also started rolling on the floor.  He's been doing this since the beginning of the year, actually, and now he started pulling himself forward with his hands (his hands and feet have grown a lot just recently!) and lifting his butt up and pushing a little with his legs.  Sometimes, when he is trying to reach something in front of him, he ends up rolling sideways instead of going forward, since he has already learned that rolling with take him places!

He still goes to bed easily.  I'll take him to his room and as soon as I put him on the bed and start packing him into his sleeping bag, he gets cozy in the softness of the bedding and with the face melting from joy, as if he is being tickled, he immediately turns over to his side like he is about to go to sleep at that moment, holding a piece of the sleeping bag in his hand close to his face for a soft touch.  I barely get to sing a song--I can tell he just wants to be put down in the crib--and then I just walk out and close the door behind me.  He might give one of two little cries, and that's it.  His morning naps are usually 10-11:30am, and in the afternoon 3-5pm, ideally.  Since we are often on the go, he might sleep in the car for a few minutes, and then I'll wait until 6 or 7pm to put him down for the night.
He's been babbling a-da, a-da, which recently turned into ay-da/ay-de that sounds like 'hajde' (come on, let's go).

And the latest: he tasted yogurt for the first time a couple of days ago.  So far, knock on wood, no allergies to anything...

 James:
Still sings beautifully.  Over Christmas he sang in English as well as in Spanish (Feliz Navidad).  In the car, he picked up on a bunch of ex-YU songs, and he cracked me up when he sang 'Suada, Suada, da li si ikad mene voljela?...' as 'da li sika mene boljela'.  You have to understand Serbocroatian to find it funny :)

Since New Year's he's been asking if he was cute.  I didn't know at first where that came from, until the nanny pointed at how often we called Stephen cute, so James wanted to make sure that we liked him just as much.  He would sometimes ask if his feet were cute, if his face was cute, etc.... a reminder to us not to dote on the baby more than on our older kids.

Nikolas:
He is a big kid now.  As much as he babbles at home--wants to know what everyone else is saying, has a comment for everything--he stays surprisingly quiet about his personal stuff, like girls.  Luckily, his friends like to talk, and I get to find out whom he likes from Logan, for example.  Turns out he is into sporty, not princessy girls.
He is so tall already, just a few inches shorter than me.  His shoe size is about the same as mine.  I've slipped on his flip flops when I needed to step outside for a few moments and my shoes were not in sight.
We just spent a month checking out middle schools for next year and writing application essays... I feel like I'm sending him to college, it has been stressful.  I have to keep reminding myself it's only for middle school, and that he'll do fine wherever he goes.

Michael:
Michael is getting stronger and meatier.  He is finally not a fragile little boy with thin shoulders.  Baseball has built him up.  He is still witty, with a crazy, silly, unexpected sense of humor.  Recently even one of the moms noticed what a funny guy he was during a playdate with a few of Nikolas's friends.  Michael suddenly got very good at math.  Mathnesium lessons last fall helped him reinforce some things the kids were about to drill into at school, before other kids got to them, which helped boost his self-confidence and develop his reputation for being the best in class, and since then he has stopped with the extra lessons but kept his focus and work habits.  Good job, Michaeal!
He is also doing noticeably well at piano.  Although Nikolas and Sonja both play impeccably and get top scores at annual festival/student day at UF, Michael is the one who plays with the most feeling for the music.

Michael being honored as a Champion of Character rep from his school at a UF basketball game. (in navy shirt and jeans)

Sonja:
Sonja is her reading teacher's favorite student of all!  Mrs. Thompson says that Sonja's happy, smiley face and cheerful attitude make her day.  The notes that she leaves about Sonja in a weekly report are always full of praise and she never skips saying wonderful things about Sonja when she runs into me at pick-up time.  Sonja is still a charmer.... Funny how when I assign work to the kids, they make faces at it and it's such a drag, but in Sonja's case, school work (at school) is the most exciting time of the day--Sonja's notes that she writes to her teachers (I don't know if she ever shows them to the teachers or she just writes them as her thoughts for herself!) say things like 'I love Mrs. X', 'I love reading...', talks about how pretty and nice her teachers are, draws cute little pictures with hearts and such for her teachers.....
She's been slacking a bit is soccer this season.  After all the excitement and good work last year, she moved up in age, and maybe because she is now surrounded with bigger and better girls so her confidence dropped, or because she didn't really exercise much over the summer so she gets tired more quickly, she hasn't been fighting for the fall during practice/games much.  We'll have to re-think sports, maybe try something more physically demanding to get her energy up, like swimming.