Babies' 6-wk hump

Sonja and Michael aren't tiny helpless babies anymore--they've gotten so much bigger and stronger. They now observe us from a distance, consciously smile at us, purse their mouths as about to coo and lift their heads during belly-time. Just before they turned 6 weeks they had a couple of episodes of inconsolable crying in the evening, 9pm-1am. It looked like it was caused by gas although I've been extremely careful what I ate for their sake. Then, all of a sudden, they started sleeping a bit better (they didn't have to be held most of the night, or they would fall asleep on me or Robb and stay asleep for 2-3 hours at a time). It seems like around 6 weeks they had undergone through a growth spurt, which now I vaguely remember was the case with Nikolas too, that started with fussiness and was followed by better sleep habits and growth.

Here is Nikolas burping the babies:
Michael, holding his sister's hand even in sleep (his cheeks have filled in by now too):
Michael patiently and curiously watches his sister as she probably grunts and cycles with her legs while the picture is taken:

Nikolas's language

Nikolas's vocabulary and grammar are improving quickly these days. All of a sudden he speaks sentences. Besides reciting poems and songs, he now expresses himself in daily speech using full sentences, such as 'Mama, pusti bebu tu, dodji u sobu/Mommy, put the baby down and come to the room'. There are some funny constructs, of course, such as 'nece moze' (won't can), etc. He says 'ima/nema mlijeka itd.' when he wants/doesn't want to eat something on his tray. Also, when he doesn't want something on his tray, he'll send it back to the fridge, 'Ne, brokoli u frizider!' It's pretty funny the way he uses the demanding, matter-of-fact tone, and points to the fridge without even looking at it. He properly says 'thank you' and 'please'. We haven't yet taught him to use pronouns.
He can count to 20 (10-20 numbers are not necessarily in the right order, but he knows there is life beyond 10!)

A list of poems that he knows by heart (it's been a few months that he's known some of them):
Ala j' lep ovaj svet
Leptiricu sarenicu
Ima dete u selu, ime mu je Laza
Zima, zima e pa sta je
Eci, peci, pec
Sedi zaba sama na listu lokvanja
ABC song
Itsy, bitsy spider (he is working on that one now)
...

Nikolas and his 3-week old siblings

Nikolas is avoiding his daily naps. Maybe it's from too much excitement around babies and visitors at home or he is growing out of the need for extra sleep, anyway, he finds ways to entertain himself closed in his room for a couple of hours. When someone walks in to check on him, he just freezes where he is and pretends to be asleep with his eyes closed--be in spread on the floor or standing against a shelf of his toy cabinet, or wherever.... Here he is on his way down from the bed as baka caught him (on the cushion around his bed):
Sonja and Michael had their 2-week doctor's appointment: they gained a pound each compared to their birth weight and Sonja is only half a pound heavier although it feels like it's more than that! They are 20" long each.

The babies are already lifting their heads, Sonja especially. She looks like a parachuter when she lifts both her head and her legs at the same time. Also, she holds hers pretty still when she is carried upright too, it almost feels like she doesn't need neck support at all.
Here is mommy taking Sonja for her first walk outside (we are having the most beautiful weather here at the moment):
Michael must have been mad at me for not taking him first, so this is what I get:
Michael:
Sonja:

Nikolas's first haircut

Someone is in a desperate need for a haircut:

Mommy cut off the curls while Nikolas was distracted with food in his high chair, and here is the result (here is Nikolas blowing soap bubbles for the first time):

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.