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.

Misha strips!

I was thinking of what kinda picture to post with this, but it didn't think I would risk doing a search for something along the theme while on a lunch break at work. So this one will be without an image.

The good news is that Misha is beginning to undress by himself with some verbal prompting. It's easiest with the pajamas. They are loose and stretchy and he manages to get them off without much problem. We are also working on getting dressed with some hand-over-hand help. He seems to enjoy this especially when it's his Elmo clothes.

I recently found Elmo's Adventures in Grouchland for a couple bucks and brought it home. Misha loves Elmo, but hasn't quite warmed up to this yet. He watches a bit, but then wanders off.

Misha is making progress in school. He is learning color sorting and puzzles, which he seems to enjoy doing according to their daily progress reports. The new school is a good thing.

Misha and Nikolai are still trying to work on their relationship. There is a bunch of toy sharing issues and book sitting issues (Nikolai sits on the books Misha is looking at), and parental attention issues. But Nikolai is also starting to see in Misha a playmate...or play thing. He has started grabbing Misha from behind and hanging on. It is certainly entertaining to watch.

Misha's bedtime routine includes me telling him that it's time for bed and him starting on a list of people he thinks should also be in bed. It goes something like this:
"Misha, time for sleep." (This is after putting him in bed and singing a song or something)
(Misha signs "sleep)
"Be-be."
"Nikolai is already in bed."
"Elmo."
"Elmo is in bed, too."
(Misha thinks for a minute)
"Baba." (Baba Liza)
"Baba will go to bed in a minute."
"Mama."
"Mama will go to be in a while."
"Ga-ga." (???imaginary friend???)
"Ga-ga is in bed already."
"Bya-bya." (???too???)
"Bya-bya is asleep."
(Misha starts again)

Updates, updates everwhere and not a thought to think

Well, it's been a bit. Have been busy. So, here are the updates.

Summer is over. Although not much has changed. Ira decided to home school the kids using a virtual elementary school. Our local district was out of places, so she signed them up (it uses the same K12.com curriculum) in a neighboring district. She likes it, though it makes her busy. She is going to be even busier when Dasha starts waldorf.

Ira -- Crazy Russian mom. Homeschooling the kids (her angle is that she gets to learn all this stuff too). She is going to be teaching 3 part days a week at the pseudo-waldorf school. I tell her she is going to be so busy she will drive either herself or me into the nuthouse but she doesn't believe me. Oh, why doesn't she believe me.

Asya -- Started home school. Math still takes her a million years, but she adores history. Can't get enough. Still reads like she is dying of thirst. Get's a kick out of Ira's faux paus when dictating ("singers??? of the Declaration of Independence").

Kiril -- Also started home school. Everyday he whines about how he hates it, whines when Ira makes him correct his mistakes, but still gets done in time to play half the day.

Dasha -- Enjoying life like only a 7 yr old can. She loves playing and can entertain herself for hours. Put her together with Kiril and they get silly really fast.

Bo-ba -- Nikolai is a normal 1 yr old. He is toddling all over the place. Ira finally decided she was tired of him waking up to snack in the middle of the night and got him to sleep through the night in just two or three evenings. He is also building a vocabulary: Mama, Papa, Baba, Allo (when the telephone rings), hamburger (he got that from Misha), Asya, Dasha, Aff-aff (dog, also from Misha), etc. He is a handful.

Misha -- Me-me started school this week. He seems to really enjoy it and is learning. The autism structured class seems to be a beneficial thing. He is learning to sit still, put his feet down, etc. A guy that served in Ukraine the same time as I is one of the asst instructors in his class. He is getting clever though. He can open the doors, if they are not deadbolted and escape, which he has tried. He took off from Baba the other day in the park and headed for a busy street on the far end of the park cause he wanted to see the cars. Baba finally caught up with him right at the street. We gave him a talking to and now he knows that cars can give him owies.

Me -- same ole same ole. Work, work, work.

Nightmares?

Off and on for the past few nights, minus the night we were "camping", Misha has been getting up a few hours after going to bed crying. I haven't quite figure out what it could be, unless he is having nightmares.

After he wakes up and tries to leave the room, which is bad enough cause he would certainly wake up Nikolai, and who needs two screaming kids in the middle of the night, he won't calm down unless someone is in the room with him close. One night I was trying to get to sleep (I don't get enough as it is), and he started screaming. So I put him back in bed and tried to go back my own. As soon as I closed the door he was crying again and trying to leave his room again. Finally I pulled Kiril off his bed and told him to sleep on Misha's bed with him.

Last night when it started I put him back in bed, which of course didn't work cause he started screaming again. I finally decided to not let him leave, but not chase him back to bed. So I held the doorknob. He screamed and screamed and would run back to bed and then back to the door screaming and crying. After a couple minutes of that though, he gave up and went back to bed on his own.

So I am left wondering if he is having nightmares at night. Does he dream of a big bathtub of water and him behind a fence, or of me coming at him with a pair of hair clippers and some eye drops.

Misha and the haircut

We finally gave in and gave Misha a haircut yesterday. His hair was so long, it was getting in his eyes. Based upon the past couple times we have done this, I was expecting the worst.

Misha had been outside playing in the water and was all wet and probably dirty, so Ira put him in the tub with Nikolai. Then she called me upstairs to do the deed. When she told Misha that we were going to cut his hair, he began to get excited/agitated. It usually takes a presidential order and some physical force to get him out of the tub, but when she announced a haircut, Misha stood up, climbed out of the tub and made a run for it. I caught him before he made it out of the bathroom and have no idea where the streaker was planning on hiding, but he was determined to escape.

It actually didn't go so bad. He didn't like it, of course, but I didn't have to tie him in knots to get him to sit still enough to cut it. And it turned out fairly even.

Copycat!

This sibling rivalry thing is getting out of hand. Misha gets so upset when Nikolai get a diaper changed that one day recently, I just pulled him up on the couch, removed his shorts, un-velcro-ed his diaper, re-velcro-ed it, put his shorts back on and he was happy as a bug.

Misha gets jealous when I trim Nikolai's nails too. The funny thing is, when I get to Misha's nails, he doesn't even like getting them trimmed, but if Nikolai has them done....

Yesterday, I noticed an all NEW behavior. Nikolai, like all little kids is in a phase that he likes to swat you in the face if you get close. We are trying to teach him not to do it. So, yesterday, when he smacked Ira in the face, we said, "No-no, Nikolai, don't hit. Be nice. etc." And what does Misha do? He runs over and smacks Ira in the face. Earlier I had been playing the guitar while sitting on the floor. Nikolai had crawled over and was hampering my attempts to play by putting his hands on the strings. No sooner had I told him not to and removed his hands, Misha was there putting BOTH his hands on the strings.

I have yet to use this to my advantage. I really need to try the bed time thing. I am also thinking that it's time to potty train Nikolai.

The Farm and the War

A couple weeks ago, Ira talked her friend into going down to her friend's parent's farm in The-Farthest-Point-From-The-Bright-Center-Of-Civilization city again (It's right outside Capitol Reef National Park). The last time they went down, I had just started a new job, didn't have any PTO, so I drove them down and then picked them up. In the meantime, I managed to get raw milk poisoning and tear my meniscus. When Ira mentioned how fun it was, I reminded her that my memories were less than fond.

Anyway, this time around, there was too little warning and really a bad time to be absent from work, especially with our corporate taskmaster PHBs breathing down our necks. So, I drove them down Tuesday evening, spent the night, drove back to work Wednesday and then back Friday afternoon to pick them up. So much fun. Misha stayed home with Baba Liza cause Ira didn't think she could keep track of Misha and Nikolai at the same time. Misha and I did go swimming, which he absolutely loves. And we ate french fries. I think he really liked the 1-on-1 time with Baba and Me.

Friday when I went down, I drove quickly home from work and picked him up and he absolutely was thrilled to go on the 3 hr drive down there. So, coming back home, Nikolai was tired and he isn't as enthusiastic about road trips as Misha is, so he was crying and squawking nearly the entire ride back. Misha doesn't like it when Nikolai squawks, so Misha would belt out his own annoyed squawk every so often....I love going down to the farm!!! At least Ira and the kids had fun.

Church every week has turned into a battle. The older 3 monsters actually usually conduct themselves fairly well. The two youngest monsters have declared war. The Nikolai-Misha squawkfest continues there. Nikolai is just a one year old who doesn't want to sit on laps anymore. Misha doesn't like it particularly either, but if you let him go, he immediately goes for the accordian door seperation and starts pushing it back and forth. Even when you hold him, he start hooting, trying to get a good echo. He loves nursery though. Loves to go, loves to leave. He has even slipped out on occasion, from what they have told me. The only way to get both of them to somewhat calm down is to occupy them with animal crackers or other such goodies. I guess it's a blessing in disguise though, cause if I didn't have one or more worm on my lap, I am sure I would be dozing off.