My daughter, the bag lady

Dasha is a well known bag lady. Wherever she goes, she tends to drag with her at least one of her several bags. Whether its the fuzzy russian one that Baba Liza sent, or the Victoria's Secret bag that Ira gave her (left over from a gift on Ira's birthday), she stuffs them full of odds and ends and drags them around with her.

I think this in in preparation for when she becomes a teenager. It is well known that women tend to carry a lot of odd things in their purses. I should know. I spent a year rummaging through them at the US Embassy. C'mon, do you really need to drag squid with you to your visa interview?

Speaking of which, Dasha just turned five years old. It's staggering to thing that our littlest girl...she really was our smallest child, born at 5 1/2 lbs...is 5. She will start school next year. I remember being able to hold her with one hand. She is quite an individual. You can never tell with her what mood she will be in next. Whether she is being cuddly, goofy, ornery, pouty, whiny, giggly, introspective or good, she will turn on a dime and try a different tactic on you. All in all, she has grown fairly independent at home. Whereas Kiril needs someone to entertain him, Dasha can play for hours by herself. She will play dolls or just sit there reading a book and making up songs. Dasha is fun.

It's hard to say no.

For a long time, Misha hated the word "no". When you said it to him, he would get upset and do his pouty face. But, it was an effective method of getting him to not do something. Teaching him to sign it was a problem too. His fine motor skills are still lacking, so fine finger movements like that are difficult. Finally, about a couple weeks ago, I started to teach him by moving his fingers for him. Then one day I asked him a yes or no question and he signed no. Never mind that it looks more like 'bird' than 'no', we both understood what he was doing. Now I just have to teach him to use it independently...like 'cheese'. That is his current favorite word.

Misha was ill this morning. I think it's the first time I have seen him really sick. When I got him out of bed this morning he was more sedate than usual. Usually when I change his diaper in the morning, he is trying to crawl away to attack Ira or signing 'food', but this morning, he just lay there. Didn't even respond when I tickled him. Then I left him to help Kiril find a shirt. While I was down there, I put the wet clothes drying and more dirty clothes washing. By the time I got back upstairs, Misha was just barely walking down the hall when usually he would have followed us downstairs or gone to find something to play. When I passed him to put the hamper back in the bathroom, he just sat down and whined quietly. By that time it had gotten through my head that maybe he wasn't feeling well, so to test it, I picked him up and put him on the couch. He just sat there, lying against a throw pillow, poking his belly button. I wish I would have had a camera. He stayed there while I made breakfast. He ate a good breakfast and that seemed to cure him, cause a little while later he was starting to play.

It's tough when I can't communicate very effectively with Misha to know what he needs. Guess I need to study more signing and teach him some more.