Late 2019

Summer 2019

Stephen barely speaks actual words, but he has almost has outgrown his playpen for out-of-town trips.  I remember at this age Nikolas had a whole little vocabulary.
Speaking of trips....

We headed north to Boston and Wilmington to visit grandparents.
On the way up, we stopped and spent a week in the mountains of Georgia, at the beginning of the Appalachian Trail.  It was relaxing without electronics and with nature all around us - a perfect time off.


Stephen did a great job hiking, too!





 


Boston, Red Sox game at the Fenway Park:

 


 With baka we took a few trips to Philadelphia to see museums and the city:


Our weather forecaster Sonja with her sidekick James:

Halloween: Stephen went trick-or-treating with us sitting in the wagon that we use for moving baseball equipment.  He got out and went for candy at most stops.  He loves sugary candy more than chocolate, of course....

November
Stephen is talking to his teachers now. Ms. Pam is just 'Pam' and he doesn't call Ms. Leslie anything yet.  By January he started calling her Ms. Sassy.  On Fridays when the kids who have signed up for it get school lunch, usually pizza or chicken nuggets, he closes his lunch container,  pushes it away or puts it neatly back in the lunch box and follows Ms.Pam around repeating Pam-pizza, Pam-pizza....or Pam-chicken, Pam-chicken.....She gave in the first time, but later refused, and it was a torture, I imagine,  because he's been incredibly persistent!!!  During fall he's been noticeably nice to other kids in class, helping them up the slide, sharing toys, etc. The kids love him, and so do teachers, as well as the principal who came up to me and said he was the cutest and nicest kid to have at school and that he'd always be loved by teachers in general because of his character.
On one occasion the teacher mentioned that he might grow up to be a doctor or a psychologist because of the way he observes and tries to help others: there was a girl who had a meltdown in class one day and no one was able to calm her down.   Stephen watched her carefully while she screamed, then offered her a toy which she tossed, then offered her a book (tossed again), then he stood next to her silently and just observed her, then started copying her and tossing the same things she was (still) tossing around. At that point she noticed him and stopped screaming and finally calmed down so they played for a bit (tossed a few more things, but cheerfully this time) and things went back to normal.
November/December:
Stephen is becoming more vocal: he speaks more and is louder in general.  Speaking of loud, over the last couple of months on the drives back from sports when he is already sleepy,  he starts screaming for fun, just to scream, just for entertainment. It's very distracting and loud, makes my ears bleed!
But now he says a lot of words and phrases:
'Kick-on' for 'click on', when he wants to be the one to turn the lights onn/off (he's been saying this since the summer at school)
No nigh-nigh (no bedtime)
'Conch' is still water, although when I say 'voda' he'll repeat it for that moment.
'Book' or 'zeko' (referring  to a song about a bunny) before bedtime
'Wuke', for 'ruke' (hands), asking  to wash his hands
'Mama-tata'  (mom-dad) is what he calls the cartoon in Serbocroatian on YouTube with mom, dad, a boy and their dog, with kids techno music and dance. And yes, he loves to dance.  He bounces at his knees and his head follows the rhythm up and down, very cute. His arms often go up, too, elbows up at chin height or so, like he is clubbing like a big boy!
He sings 'baby shark', which sounds more like 'baby shuck', and does all the motions from the video.
'Fokolala' (cokolada=chocolate)
And the things he does: tries to clip his own nails with clippers when they break, tries to sneak a Qtip to clean his own ears, grabs a clean cup and reaches water from the fridge dispenser, even pulls out the bottom freezer open to look for ice cream or to look for an ice pack if he gets hurt (he immediately asks for 'ice' if anything hurts!)
He's been able to turn on TV for months and now lights on the Christmas tree, too.
His version of 'Sonja' is 'Honja', and James is 'James-u'.  Mikica is Mikica.  Nikolas is just Nik, but he will call him Nikolas, slowly broken down into syllables Ni-ko-las.

Two brothers getting along in a shopping cart

Pictures from school:



Thanksgiving 2019:
My cousin Neila, who is near Atlanta as an exchange student from Germany, came for a visit during Thanksgiving, and so did baka and Frone.  Robb smoked the turkey (it was delicious, as last time!), and the weather was so nice that we had the actual Thanksgiving dinner outside.

Digging into a whole panettone for breakfast... why not?