min’t min’t
Time is passing so fast. Katya and Vanya are growing in waves and bounds. It is quite amazing to be part of it.
At 16 months, Vanya has a driving determination to do everything his sister does regardless of the two year difference between them. Hence, he is climbing stairs by holding the hand rail and straightening one leg after the other. He is swinging on the big kid swings, climbing up ladders and sliding down any and every slide in the playground. He eats beautifully with a fork. He demands candy from the candy bag high up in the cupboard. He yells “mahhhmah, mahhhhmah” just like Katya. He likes to sit on big chairs and swing his legs. And now, he loves to brush his teeth (or tongue as it may be). If Katya get something he doesn’t or gets to do something he doesn’t, he forces his small little body into your face crying “me, me, me, me!”
Added to these things he is also developing a little repertoire of his own things. When it is time to go out, he often brings his shoes to someone to get help putting them on. When he is done with that, he brings the grown-ups their shoes so they can get ready. Today he brought his grandmother her sweater so she could get ready. When he has to go out of the room to get something (particularly at story reading time before bed) he holds up his pudgy little pointer finger, nods his head as if to say “you understand,” and says “min’t, min’t” (“be back in a minute”). Then he runs out of the room and back in again.
He is anxious to communicate with either signs or words and gets a thrill whenever anyone understands him. He routinely says “ta ga” (thank you) with a slow nod of his head if you give him something. A few days ago he asked me to change his shirt by doing the “change diaper” sign and tugging on his shirt. Tonight, he got me to push his chair in at the table by saying “puh me, mama, puh me.” Lately he has taken to muttering to himself “dubbahdubbahdubbahdubbah” over and over again and he gets a huge kick out of it if someone says it back to him. He has also developed the strange habit of liking to have his tongue cleaned. If he is eating something that he doesn’t quite finish swallowing, he’ll stick out his tongue until someone wipes it off with their finger.
Katya just started pre-school two days a week. The beginning was a little rough for all of us. Katya was fine the first day. Peter and I brought her to the classroom, stayed a few minutes and left. The second day, Katya cried and cried when I finally pulled myself out of the classroom. It was much harder to leave than I ever anticipated. The first several days that she was in school I involuntarily watched the clock wondering what they might be doing in school. Was it snack time? Was it roof time? Were they napping? When I would go pick her up or hear from my parents that all was well, all the anxiety and energy would drain from me and I would be left mostly useless for the rest of the day. It was hard. We didn’t know exactly what to do or what to say to Katya about why we were sending her to this place that was making her cry. I didn’t fully realize how difficult of a transition it was for Katya until her teacher commented on the fifth day she went to school, “today was the first time Katya ran around on the roof during play time, laughed and had a good time.” Oh, that was heart wrenching. But, after that things got better pretty fast. Now, instead of saying “Mama, I don’t want to go to school” every morning, Katya asks in the afternoons if she can go to school the next day. What a relief!
Peter and I are doing well, if a little tired. Peter has been preparing for a photo exhibit in Wels, Austria in a few weeks. Once that is over, he’ll attend another festival in Austria in December to take photos and then turn his attention to preparing for an exhibit in Oslo, Norway in January. I’ve been working on developing our training curriculum at OPTIONS and planning a whole string of grant-funded trainings around financial aid for college and working with immigrant students on the college process. Not a quiet moment most days.