Nikolas turns 3 today

Our big boy is 3! We already had our party over the weekend, but why not blow candles again, for real?

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.

Sonja blows her nose

I tried to wipe Sonja's nose with a cloth when she blew into it, grabbed it from me and blew into it several more times!

Sonja's first steps!

Sonja stands up by herself!

Sonja just stood up in the middle of the living room! She was holding on to a little toy that gave her confidence--I wonder if she even realized what she did.


As he played at his workbench, Nikolas said he was making bagels and pizza, actually pizza with bagel: 'To je jako fino.' ('That's very good', meaning pizza with bagel.)
Then: (Nikolas:) Nikolas pravi tortu za tebe, grije tortu da bude topla. (Me:) A od cega je tvoja torta? (Nikolas:) Od cokolade--sa svijecama--za tebe i Nikolasa i daddyja i druge djece... (Me:) A ko ce da puse svijece? (Nikolas:) Nikolas. Nikolas je puhnuo jako i pokvario svijece. (Nikolas is making a cake for you, he is heating the cake so it's warm. And what's your cake made of? Chocolate--with candles for you and Nikolas and daddy and other kids... And who will blow the candles? Nikolas. Nikolas blew hard and ruined the candles.)

Michael's new teeth (#3, #4)

A couple of days ago Michael's upper right tooth protruded, and today I saw just the tip of his upper left tooth as well!
This morning Nikolas got his way overdue haircut (the curls are gone again until his hair grows back :( ), and Michael got his first haircut too! It makes him look older but his beautiful blue eyes are even more prominent now :)
Sonja is almost walking; she likes to play by herself a lot now, with little blocks--she holds them, puts them in containers, bangs them against the table, etc. Here is Sonja after she settled on the edge of a toy box and played by putting some little toys inside an empty cereal box (twins' favorite toy at the moment, makes a lot of noise when you put objects inside--yay, says mommy).

Grandparents' visit

Grandma and grandpa came to visit us for a few days. That was fun, as always. They got to experience Gainesville's lowest winter temperatures!
We were sure that we'd see Sonja walk before they left, but the big moment didn't happen although she is very stable on her feet.
Both Sonja and Michael love to clap their hands (for a month already). As soon as I begin the song 'Tasi, tasi, tanana' they start clapping, usually Mike first. They also look too cute when they nod their heads 'yes' and 'no', they still do that a lot as a way of communicating with us in ways other than giggling, saying 'dadada' etc.

Both immediately storm Nikolas's tray as soon as Nikolas sits down with his food! I can't have them crawling around while Nikolas is eating. Since they are so interested in feeding themselves, I got them some baby puffs and they LOVE them.

Nikolas started pretending that he is making cakes and pizza with pepperoni and bread (he says he is toasting his bread, 'hljeb stavi da se tostira').