Updates

It's been fun with Misha recently...well, it's always fun with Misha. But it's been lots of fun to watch his progress.

--Misha is picking up new words. The other night he picked up a new favorite word "nachos" and repeated it all night long. He really gets a kick out of the "ch" sound in words. He is more willing to try new words. The Nikolai factor has given him a competitive edge.
--I finally saw something specific that Misha has been practicing in school. A couple days ago, he entertained himself, and me, by walking backwards then running forwards across the length of the room. Over and over.
--He is finally getting the knack of hugs and kisses. Before, he would just lean his head in for a kiss whenever you asked for either. He has started giving hugs and kisses spontaneously. Especially to Mama, Baba Cindy, and his favorite Aunt Christy. His small cousins also retain his favor.
--Misha has become an avid artist. Whenever he can find a scrap of paper and a pen/pencil/marker/crayon/improvised writing implement, he will spend a lot of time scribbling.
--We moved the boys back upstairs and now Misha doesn't like to go to bed alone. He always asks for "Iggy" who generally goes to bed later, and will cry at his door, open/shut the door, leave his room until Iggy goes to bed or we chase him back in several times.

Asya -- still enjoying school. We have to get after her for reading when she should be doing something else. English, Russian, it doesn't matter. She reads as if she is starving for the words. Like her old man, I suppose.
Kiril -- Turning 9 this weekend. Tends to make things up when writing school articles. According to Kiril, grizzly bears weigh as much as an elephant, have needle-sharp claws, sharp metal fangs, and strong bones to tackle their prey.
Dasha -- Her reading has taken off. She reads to Misha and Nikolai, or Ira or I.
Nikolai -- Talking up a storm. Usually gibberish, but he is also picking up words. Whether the kids, the parents, or Misha. Very much a mommy's boy.

2009 wrap-up short list

--Successful Russian New Year's party, one 2.5 families.
--Kiril gets baptized.
--Ira battles the system and gets Misha into Giant Steps. (It's been great for him).
--Another farm trip to Lyman, UT. Skipped this one too (had to work, whew). Kids loved it.
--Start Baba Liza's green card process.
--Misha and Nikolai in competition. Lots of progress for both.
--Did round 1 on the HCG diet. Lost some weight.
--Misha starts hugging and kissing people.
--Started temple work for Ira's family (got her crotchety ole dad baptized finally).
--Get Baba Liza's green card.
--Successful Russian New Year's party, 60 people, no accidents.

After the wife picked me up from work yesterday, we were riding home and she was explaining that she has Misha try different sounds while they ride around in the car.

With a bit of prompting, Misha proudly pronounced "Sh-sh-sh-kol-ya" (russian word for school is shkola). Then she asked him who was in his class. He replied, "de-ti" (deti = children). For the rest of the ride home, he continued spouting out those words. Of course by bed time, he would only say, "kol-ya".

While I brush Misha's teeth in the evening, we sing the "ABC song". He does fairly well alternating letters with me. He still gets hung up on "L-M-N-O-P" though.

Misha updates

Couple of quick Misha updates.

Misha has strung two words together finally. He began recently to say "Baba Cindy". That is a great leap for him. He doesn't even sign two words in a row generally. He surprised the nursery workers the other day when he told them "on" for some toy he was playing with.

Misha is also more receptive to new books. He occasionally will bring a new one over.

Praying is still going strong. I need to look up some more signs for him to expand his prayer repertoire.

He and Nikolai are quite the odd couple. They can be seen playing the piano together, or sitting at a table playing with stuff at the same time, but then they start taking toys away from each other and smacking each other (Nikolai hits harder than Misha does). Typical sibling relationships. And when Misha is getting changed or going to bed, he never fails to remind one that he thinks that Nikolai should go too.

20 Questions, Part II

My interrogating Misha on his day has started to pay off. It's quite exciting, actually.

Yesterday, I picked Misha up from nursery. He was happy to go, of course. Really a good thing. He is happy to go to nursery and happy to leave. No complaining, either way. Anyway, I digress.

As we were leaving nursery, walking down the hall to the room where Ira teaches, Misha pulled his hand out of mine and stopped. I stopped as well. Misha then started signing to me. He signed "play", so I confirmed/asked him if he played in nursery. He responded verbally with "ball". Then he signed food, so I asked him what he had for snack. He usually doesn't respond to this one without prompting, but this time he signed "crackers" and said "nana". That is marked improvement.

This is unique in that he is not asking for something. He is volunteering information without prompting. This is great.

Monkey see, monkey do

As an aficionado of music, Misha will jump through hoops to listen to music he likes. Alisa reported the other day that Misha had tried to play a CD in the stereo. He must have observed Kiril doing this cause the downstairs is often turned into a discotheque.

Evidently, he procured a CD from one of the disc books hanging around. He walked over to the stereo "blowing" on the CD. Misha is working on blowing and so far puts his upper-lip over his lower and blows down. We are still working on that. Then he pushed the Open/close button, and put the disc in . It wasn't in correctly so it didn't close all the way, so he further attempts at getting it to play were foiled. But it's just another case at how observant Misha really is.

20 questions

Misha is enjoying his school experience. He is progressing steadily in their curriculum and that is nice to see. So when I get home from work, I try to get some interaction going by questioning him on his day. There is kind of a format on getting Misha started with these kind of things. This usually involves prompting him with pointed questions that I generally know the answers to.

So it started out with something like "Misha, did you play at school today?" And Misha would then sign "play". Then we continued on to the next question.

Now I ask Misha what he did and he will sign "play". I can then ask him what else he did and he will answer. I am still prompting him about doing puzzles and color sorting but since neither of us know the signs for those, it's hard to get him to do that one. But I will ask him about his lunch and what he ate.

The same tactic I approached when teaching him to pray. Sometimes I would/will ask the kids who would like to pray. Misha started answering "Yah!" (russian for 'me'). So I started verbally "assisting" him to pray. Then I thought, "Wait a minute, he can sign!" and so I started trying to teach him some signs for praying. At first, it was all prompt, but lately he has got a hold of the concept and is doing stuff on his own. This usually cracks the kids up. For instance, last night he was in the "thanking" part of his prayer. He signed "thank you" then "food", then "mama", "food", and then said "Baba" (grandma), said "Mama", "Bya-bya", and "Ga-ga" (see last blog). Then we bless the food and he signs "Jesus" and said "Amin'".

So now I need to work on my signing vocab, so that I can teach him some more school and prayer words.