Summer Fun

Natalya is 17 months today. She is soooooooooo cute these days but, alas, growing big too fast. Now that she has walking down, her most exciting achievement is her talking. She doesn't have that many words yet, but she is saying a handful of words and starting to form sentences. Her repertoire is gradually increasing, to say the least, and within a month or two I expect her verbal explosion. Her single word utterances now include: cata (cat/ gata), mama, papa, uh uh, uh oh, mine, ball, baby, flower, car, shoe, book, outside, food, and "Bob" (for Spongebob)-- she's got many of her daily needs and interest covered. She now has some sentences to go along with these. "I want" is a big one, as in I want baby, I want food, I want outside, I want mama and I want that. She also asks basic questions: What's that? Where's mama? We're all quite impressed. The other day changing her diaper she touched by PJ top and said "flower." It had flowers on it. She loves looking at books; she reads Besos Cucu to herself even. Ricky and Alexander have her play a game where she points her tiny finger and coyly blurts out the word 'shoe' and laughs. Nati is an adorable mimic at this stage. Hope she doesn't fall off the bed while imitating big brother who decides it's fun to jump on it.


Alexander is all about Sponge Bob and his TV shows. If he doesn't like something in the way of food he'll say "Yuck, this tastes like Plankton." He knows all the characters. He'll be thrilled to meet Sponge Bob at the Nickelodeon resort in Orlando later this month. He's our little Linus, loves his thumb, pillow, and blankie. I love it when he says "Mommy, you're my best buddy." He's his dad's best buddy too, but he also challenges Ricky by not listening and ignoring orders. His insubordination leads to dad laying into him pretty hard-- doesn't seem to affect him much, but I wonder if I should be concerned. Our issue this summer is still potty training. Alexander knows what to do, where to go, and will occasionally just go by himself. My instincts tell me to just back off and let him decide when to potty train. Is this to lax an approach though? Also, what about preschool in the fall? If he's in a 3-6 yo classroom, he needs to be responsible for his own toileting. In other words, I could wait another several months for the sake of it being Alexander's own accomplishment, but will school wait?

Milena is 5 next week-- she's sharp and inquisitive as ever. We're working on her inner monster. Can she control it? She leads her siblings in all kinds of games and stories, including playdough bakery and school. This morning she thought she could teach Alexander to swim in the kiddie pool in the back yard. "Now first you do this, and then ..."