Nikolas chooses clothes, 'zaboravio da prica', Diwali

Nikolas is starting to ask what he wants to wear for the first time: 'surprisingly', it's the Red Sox shirt! Sometimes he'll ask for a Patriots shirt as well, but if he asks it will most likely be one of his Red Sox shirts.
One day as we were driving back from school I asked him what he did there and he mentioned 'jelen' (deer). I thought maybe they read Christmas stories already so I asked him about that topic, but he seemed to have run out of words and said 'Nikolas je zaboravio da prica.' (Nikolas forgot how to talk.). I never figured out if he couldn't find Serbocroatian words for something they did in school or what....? It made me so sad and helpless....But at least I don't have to worry that he feels different in school because he speaks another language, and every time I pick him up I can see that he communicates with other boys. He hasn't told me any other names except for his old friends, Kyle and Aagneya. When I ask him what he did at school he usually just says 'drank water and ate pretzels', like that was the event of the day, and of course 'played with the firetrucks' (he is 100% into trucks--fire and garbage trucks top the list--and books that depict them).
The teacher told me that she was impressed that he knew how to blow his nose. Apparently other kids in class can't do it yet.
At home, Pepi sometimes talks to Nikolas in Spanish and he is picking it up. One time she told him 'ven' (come, pronounced 'ben' for all of us non-Spanish-speaking), and Nikolas responded: 'I'm banging!' We died laughing!
When we read, he likes to point at letters, and he has a few favorite ones. W is high up on the list. The funny thing is that when he sees letter M, he turns the book upside down and says it's a W and he absolutely rejects the correction :)
Mike loves to nod his head and say 'dadada'. He nods both 'yes' and 'no' and he exaggerates it so much that we can't help laughing every time, it's too cute. He listens to sounds and watches our mouth as we speak very intently. As soon as he hears music, he bounces. Sonja is very physical: she is not into climbing everything. She really enjoys standing on her feet, but she hasn't let go with her hands yet. She also likes to 'attack' with wide-open mouth as if she is going to bite your face off, especially when she gets giddy, so Mike is most often her nearest victim (she really just leans her mouth against one's face, maybe licks a bit, and doesn't really bite)! Today she actually bit my nipple while I nursed her, stopped, looked a little surprised, and then giggled and continued nursing (it wasn't that funny to me since she has all four front teeth now!)
Jyoti and Aagneya came over during the Indian Diwali holiday and brought an extra outfit for Nikolas to wear in school and around the house while we took pictures. The boys had a great time:
At the same time Pepi and I sat with the babies on the blanket. Everybody is happy... and then Sonja goes for Pepi's nose :)
Our beautiful blue eyes:

Grandparents' visit; Nikolas got stuck under the bed; teaches the twins

I heard Nikolas yelling after he woke up after his nap. As I ran into the room to see what happened I found him stuck under his bed. His head was peaking out but he couldn't get it through the opening, so I pulled him out. He never did it again!
The big brother is telling his little siblings what to do: he warned Michael not to put dirty toys in his mouth or he'd get spanked (with this serious tone and nodding his head as he spoke :)
He also showed Mike how to play the keyboard ('Sviraj brzo, ovako! ('Play fast, like this!)). With Sonja, he just likes to pull her onto his lap (or rather, pin her down) like he is holding a baby. Ok, I guess sometimes he settles himself in her lap like on the picture below...she apparently doesn't mind, she can take a lot from Nikolas before she starts to complain!
Grandma and grandpa came to visit us for a few days. Of course we couldn't skip the butterfly museum:
And the other place where Nikolas always gets to go with grandma and granpa is the zoo!
Granpa is reading to Nikolas:
Baseball is on TV and in our house:
Nikolas still goes to bed at 8pm sharp but I have to enter the room at least once and warn him to stop getting out of the bed and playing. Here I found him asleep after he pulled a bunch of toys as well as the changing pad onto his bed!

Sonja's second tooth, Polo horse

Now Sonja has her bottom left and upper right tooth, so funny!
One night after I put Nikolas in bed he kept turning the light on. I came in to check on him at least 3 times and every time he did the same thing: he sat on his bed where he brought his t-shirt with the Polo sign along with a big picture of baka and deda where deda is wearing the same t-shirt. He had them spread on the bed next to each other and just sat there analyzing them: 'Deda ima konja isto kao Nikolas!' (Deda has a horse just like Nikolas's.)
The twins love Nikolas's room, I guess they like to go on a treasure hunt among his numerous toys!

Sonja stands up

Monday, 9/28
Sonja stood up in the crib after her afternoon nap! She just waited there until Penelope showed up and then gave her a huge smile, 'Look at me!'

Michael crawls as fast as Sonja, still like a caterpillar. He is just starting to take a couple of 'steps' on hands and knees before he lowers on his belly.
They both follow me around the house like a tail. If I go to Nikolas's room, they show up at the door within a few minutes, both of them peaking in. When I gave Nikolas a bath, they came to the bathroom. I carried them both back to the living room 2-3 times and they would immediately head back to the bathroom, so cute! And of course, when I'm standing in the kitchen they both crawl to the gate. Sonja now climbs up the gate and holds on to the rails looking at me. She hasn't figured out how to lower herself, which is when she cries, both in her crib in the morning after she's been standing for a while (signaling to me to get up from the bed and head over to the babies' room) and at the kitchen gate.
Posing for a picture:

Sonja's first tooth

Sonja got her first tooth: bottom right:
Michael's new hairstyle:

Little rugrats

For the past week, as soon as the babies touch the floor they disperse in different directions all over the living room. Little rugrats! Sonja does the military crawl, and Michael looks like a little caterpillar--gets up on all four, pushes forward and lies down, and so on.

Babies share a ball (1) and then Sonja smacks Michael (2):


Our caterpillar and the alligator:

on all fours, plus Sonja sits up by herself

Mike, bouncing back and forth on his hands and knees:
Sonja on all fours:
It took only another week before Sonja was able to get up on tippy toes and hands in a triangle pose :)

Mike says mama and dada, while Sonja says mamamama and motions her mouth as if she is saying dadada and then also smacks her tongue against her gums as if she is eating something delicious.




We have to watch these two carefully now since they've become extremely mobile on the floor and they like to put everything in their mouths right now. Nikolas is trying to help them by offering them a teether, except that his generosity looks pretty painful: he'll shove a teether in their mouth saying, 'Nikolas daje bebama da grickaju' (Nikolas is giving something to babies to nibble on'), and he'd just hold it there pushing it in! Poor things would bend backward to get this huge teether out of their mouth...