Sonja, Michael and Nikolas's birthday!

Thursday, Feb. 12th
Our twins were born!
Sonja Marie (7lbs 2oz) and Michael Thomas (6lb 11oz) joined us 8:40am. They were amazingly healthy and big babies. It took them no time to nurse like pros and sleep for 3 hours at a time, which mommy especially appreciated. I've had a quick recovery and stopped taking painkillers by the time I left the hospital on Sunday. Not bad for delivering twins.
The next day baka Biljana came from LA to visit us just in time to see the newborns, and to be there for Nikolas's and my birthday. Perfect timing. Grandma, grandpa, Lisa and the boys came up from Naples as well.
Nikolas came to see his little brother and sister at the hospital. He kept reaching for them to kiss them on their faces and heads and to hug them--we had to watch him nonstop to make sure he didn't hurt them accidentally although he was being very gentle. He has a soft spot for babies, it's very cute. However, soon he realized that mommy wouldn't (couldn't) lift him up when he asked for it but that she kept holding these cute little babies, so his expression changed to puzzlement about what happened to mommy's 100% attention to him.
The following week we spent at home. The babies sleep and eat well and within a week they are back their birth weight. Sonja has outgrown all her newborn clothes. At the 2-week doctor's appointment, they each gained exactly a pound from their birth weight and are both 20 inches long.
I'm more comfortable handling them, burping them while supporting them by the jaw only, etc. They are better at latching on than Nikolas was. There is something to say about second and subsequent babies, it gets much easier.

Michael (L) and Sonja (R):
Sonja:Michael:February 23rd: Nikolas's birthday!
We celebrated it at home, with the entire afternoon devoted to opening the presents. Nikolas even ignored the cake that baka made for him and asked to get out of high chair to continue playing with his new toys.
Baka and the kids:
Here is Nikolas and baka at the butterfly museum, one of the two Nikolas's favorite places (along with the zoo).
Baka and our nanny Divna who is about to save our lives with her wonderful help!
Our expanded family:

Bundled up for cold weather; zoo

Over the past couple of weeks we've had some unusually cold weather here. Of course, that would not deter Nikolas from insisting to go outside to the park. On more than one occasion he was the only kid in the park--the cold couldn't stop Grandpa from fulfilling his grandson's wishes :)
Back at the house Grandma and Grandpa are his best friends now. Mommy is only there to feed him (besides 'hi mommy', his most common words to me are 'num-nummy'='I want to eat.')
Grandma is Nikolas's favorite book reader (Grandpa is high up there too), and Grandpa does 'ridey-ridey' best (bouncing Nikolas as he sits on Grandpa's ankle like a horse).

Spending time with his grandparents has significantly improved Nikolas's English--he now manages full sentences in English and even speaks English to me most of the time. He'll say things like, I want to sit on that chair; it's delicious :); butterflies up in the sky; daddy go to work; Nikolas go to park; see you later alligator; monkeys in the zoo, etc. Speaking of the zoo, he's been to the local one twice already and loved it both times. His favorite animals were monkeys, parrots and porcupines.

Grandma and grandpa's visit

Grandma and grandpa Moore are here to stay with us until the babies are born.
It's either the extra attention or the beginning of 'terrible twos' that give him this extra energy--he doesn't stop for a moment--constantly talking, running around, riding his tricycle, throwing balls and other toys all over the place.... I have to give him credit for cleaning up the mess too: when we ask him to put the toys back in the bin at the end of the day, he takes it quite literally :)

We enjoyed having our first Christmas tree at this house this year. Nikolas was the first to start decorating it with trains, legos, puzzle pieces, etc. And when the time came to open the presents, that was a special treat. After a few boxes, he realized what was going on: every box had a new toy for him. He'd open one, play with the new toys for a while, then move on to the next, and this lasted the whole Christmas day (while the rest of us had to be extra careful walking on the floor that was completely covered with trains and all sorts of building blocks!). Nikolas's favorite 'toys' seemed to be stickers, such as labels on new clothes, labels on packaging boxes, etc. It's nice to have a kids with low demands, haha :) Next came the battery-operated trains that he kept running all day until he finally did some magic to break them. That was sad, he had such a great time playing with the trains after the initial fear of the ones that moved on their own. Oh, and then there was Walli that sings the Red Sox cheer song. Nikolas quickly learned Walli's name and we still listen to his song over and over again!

Nikolas is now putting entire sentences together. He even gets the cases in Serbocroatian right a lot of times. Some examples:

'Mommy/daddy kuci' (mommy/daddy home, when we walk into the house)
'Bless you', when someone sneezes
'Thank you, mommy/daddy/grandma/grandpa'
'Good morning'
'Laku noc' (good night)
'Nikolas dva konja' (Nikolas is riding two horses--two foot stools that he flipped on their sides and rode their bars)
'I don't know' (when questioned where some object is)
'See you later, alligator'
'Kisa pada, trava raste, gora zelena' (correct beginning of a song)
'Sjedi zaba sama na listu lokvanja' (beginning of a poem)
'Ninaj, nanaj, cedo moje malo' (song)
'Laku noc', 'night night' (good night)
'Nova pelena' (new diaper)
'Boli rana' (wound hurts); then he kisses it and says 'Ne boli rana!'
'Novi krevet za bebe' (New bed for the babies)

He counts up to 5 in both languages, and if I keep him going he'll get some of the next 5 numbers right in Serbocroatian.

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving in Orlando at aunt Anne and uncle Butch's place, like last year. We had a wonderful time with the Flinns, aunt Theresa, aunt Lucky and Kevin, and in the end everyone thanked us for bringing Nikolas along--he was the life of the party! He was constantly running around the house, playing with cars and balls and trying to sneak out to the pool area that was strictly forbidden. In his room he figured out how to turn on the TV and even found the 'play' button for the DVD player to watch Bambi. And of course he chatted with everyone. The usual Thanksgiving meal didn't appeal to him too much until ice cream appeared--then he stuffed himself beyond belief.

On the drive back, Robb sang him a song and when it was over Nikolas said, 'Good job, daddy.' He is a comedy... A few days later, after he had fun feeding me some apples and cheese from his tray that he didn't want anymore, he said, 'Good job, mommy'!

Counting and reciting (and going down the slide)

Nikolas said, 'I love you mommy' and 'I love you daddy' (daddy taught him)!
He is stringing words together now: 'daddy auto' (daddy's car, when he sees it in the garage),
'daddy kuci' (daddy at home), 'daddy kapa' (daddy's hat), 'necu bobe' (I don't want blueberries),...

He is finishing lines of songs and poems. I tested him with about 5 poems that I often recite to him, and he finished every line! Yesterday I pointed to each finger on my hand waiting for him to count to 5, and he did it. That was the first time I heard him count in Serbocroatian. He's already been saying 'four, five' in English to denote counting, and usually for multiples he would use what sounds like the French ' deux'.

As for any boy, it's not all about academics. Here is Nikolas loving the slide at his friend Kyle's house:

trains, legos, music...

All of a sudden, Nikolas started acting older than I've been used to during summer. He rediscovered Lego blocks and now loves stacking them (he has a few Lego cars on which he stacks blocks as high as possible and calls them trains or trucks). He also enjoys stacking wooden blocks that have been sitting in the living room for the past 6 months and he is finally playing with them now. The train tracks that he wasn't all that interested in when I bought them a month ago are now his regular game first thing every morning: he'll put them together and then push little trains along them.






Today he went down a slide completely on his own. He didn't even wait for me to stand next to the slide. He used to be afraid before and I had to hold his hand as he slid (he'd always smile at the end!), but now he is brave enough to go alone. He even went down a longer slide in Jyoti's apartment complex where I absolutely didn't expect him to go even in my presence.

He finally says 'lopta' when he refers to a ball. He's been saying 'ball' forever now and just wouldn't use the Serbocroatian version. Yeay :)

Now the best part: he started singing and dancing (ok, turning in a circle) to the 'ABC' song. He will sing a few parts correctly too, like 'HIJK', 'QRS' (though he says 'cute' for Q), 'W'. He refers to the song as 'HIJK'.


And then there is the 'Old McDonald Had a Farm' song. He has a toy that sings this song and makes different animal sounds. He'll never skip singing 'E-I-E-I-O', and he also repeats all of the animal noices, making me laugh every time, it's too cute! We recently started going to a music class where he listens to songs, taps, plays little rhythm instruments, dance.... the first couple of times were not very successful as he wouldn't participate (he still wants me to dance with him in my arms when the music comes on, with the exception of the 'ABC' song), but now he relaxed a bit and he will listen to the stories and songs attentively, and even tap, clap, and play the kids' instruments.


We both got a cold these last few days and have runny noses :( But the important part is that Nikolas just learned how to blow his nose so I could wipe it. I put a pillow in his crib for the first time to elevate his head and let him breathe more easily, but he still seems confused about what it's doing there and won't sleep on it.

Halloween

Our little Thomas the Train on the way to the faculty kids Halloween party at UF:

With so many people and so much happening at the event, Nikolas was a bit dazzled, but he enjoyed the games and especially his outfit (this is the first hat that he didn't even try to take off).Back in our neighborhood we went trick-or-treating for the first time!
Although he doesn't know what candy is, he grabbed handfulls and put them into his pouch.