My babes
Just realized that I didn't post Hasik's well-baby visit results. Compared to Alishka, he still looks smallish, so when we went for his 12mo checkup and the doc said he's average height (down from somewhat above-average before) I figured his era of gigantism is over, and he's going to turn out a small-fry like the rest of us. Well, this time he was measured at above-average again, so perhaps he'll follow his maternal uncle to become the donut among the munchkins. The stats are: length 33in, weight 24.5lb, but that was after being sick for a while, so he's more like 25lb.
The boy talks now, not just says words. The reason we didn't realize it sooner is his enunciation isn't what we were used to with Ali - he usually skips the middle of a word, saying the first and last syllables, or even less. "Boi" for example, stands for "bol'shoi". Basically this means many, many words wind up as, say, kah-ka or thereabouts - kashka, kaka, kryshka, and a half-dozen others. He says them, means them, but we used to miss them. Not anymore, though, and it should accelerate his learning now that he'll get more feedback. He says "arbuz" in a funny way, though - "buz-arh" or even "buz-rah"!
His sister is doing very well lately too. Her English diction is improving, and we can now understand 80% of what she says. I'm wondering whether we should have an English-speaking day, because her vocab isn't improving as fast as it could if she got direct translation. Funny how immersion isn't working as well for her, probably because she plays by herself more often than not.
In Russian, though, she speaks in a very adult way, using phrases, and correctly, in a very mature manner. This, of course, makes us ROTFL. The last time she was standing in an area in the playroom that was sort of fenced off by the baby carriages, boxes, toy storage and such. She must have squeezed in between something to get there or crawled under the desk. She stood and played and blabbed there for a while, and then decided it was time for breakfast, finally. Looked around to leave and go to the kitchen, didn't see any, and said, "Вопрос: а как мне отсюда выбраться?".
Emotionally, she's fallen into a sweet streak for me. Maybe since she got sick the last time, and actually said she loved me (her fever was very high), it's not as much of an issue to show affection anymore. Or she doesn't feel as competitive with Hasik, who's taken to hugging me spontaneously.
Funny about the hugging - M. is over today, and after he hugged me, I asked him to hug her. He thought about it for a split second, and went for it, but M. wouldn't let him. He came after her several times, but she would walk away each time. I finally dissuaded him by telling him that she wasn't in a hugging mood. He was confused and possibly even mildly hurt :( He's going to break a lot of hearts, and likely get his broken often too...
The boy talks now, not just says words. The reason we didn't realize it sooner is his enunciation isn't what we were used to with Ali - he usually skips the middle of a word, saying the first and last syllables, or even less. "Boi" for example, stands for "bol'shoi". Basically this means many, many words wind up as, say, kah-ka or thereabouts - kashka, kaka, kryshka, and a half-dozen others. He says them, means them, but we used to miss them. Not anymore, though, and it should accelerate his learning now that he'll get more feedback. He says "arbuz" in a funny way, though - "buz-arh" or even "buz-rah"!
His sister is doing very well lately too. Her English diction is improving, and we can now understand 80% of what she says. I'm wondering whether we should have an English-speaking day, because her vocab isn't improving as fast as it could if she got direct translation. Funny how immersion isn't working as well for her, probably because she plays by herself more often than not.
In Russian, though, she speaks in a very adult way, using phrases, and correctly, in a very mature manner. This, of course, makes us ROTFL. The last time she was standing in an area in the playroom that was sort of fenced off by the baby carriages, boxes, toy storage and such. She must have squeezed in between something to get there or crawled under the desk. She stood and played and blabbed there for a while, and then decided it was time for breakfast, finally. Looked around to leave and go to the kitchen, didn't see any, and said, "Вопрос: а как мне отсюда выбраться?".
Emotionally, she's fallen into a sweet streak for me. Maybe since she got sick the last time, and actually said she loved me (her fever was very high), it's not as much of an issue to show affection anymore. Or she doesn't feel as competitive with Hasik, who's taken to hugging me spontaneously.
Funny about the hugging - M. is over today, and after he hugged me, I asked him to hug her. He thought about it for a split second, and went for it, but M. wouldn't let him. He came after her several times, but she would walk away each time. I finally dissuaded him by telling him that she wasn't in a hugging mood. He was confused and possibly even mildly hurt :( He's going to break a lot of hearts, and likely get his broken often too...