
Anюta learned how to ride a scooter a few days ago. She was really interested in scooters for a few months now. She enjoyed pushing it around the apartment and playground like a stroller, holding it backwards. She did try to ride it properly sometimes for short intervals, and during the last week she’s gotten pretty good at it. Now she can ride it around on different terrain. Of course, she is still not as good as older kids and when she needs to turn, she usually gets off the scooter, moves it in the right direction and gets back on, but still… A lot of people on playground are amused to see such a little girl riding a scooter. It’s like last summer all over again, when people kept asking me how old is she when she started to walk around at 8 months old.
Arosha really enjoys his scooter too. We bought him a two-wheeled Razor for his 4th birthday, but he still can’t keep the balance well. So in addition, we got him a Maxi Micro kick scooter at the end of January — it’s pretty much a bigger version of his old scooter, which was inherited by Anюta. Arosha’s best friend Alex has the same scooter and they ride around the playground together and do different tricks — ride with arms spread apart like wings, ride sitting on the scooters sideways, ride standing on one leg, while another one is wrapped around the bar, ride while playing some sort of soccer with the ball. They remind me of two figure skaters, gliding on asphalt in some elaborate dance.
Speaking about friends. I am very glad that Arosha and Alex like playing with each other so much. They can always entertain themselves and find fun things to do — from riding around to digging worms, to jumping from different structures on playgrounds, to devising imaginative games with rubber dinosaurs. The only time they don’t get along so well is when Simon, another one of their classmates, is present. Arosha and Simon both have a strong desire to be leaders in games, while Alex does not mind to follow their cues. Simon is a bit more aggressive than Arosha and they end up fighting a lot (while Arosha normally does not fight with other children unless they are provoking him). So when all three of them are on the playground, Simon wants Alex to play with him, and so does Arosha, and usually Alex follows Simon and Arosha is either left by himself, or they fight with Simon. So I am glad when it’s just the two of them.

Anюta’s language development is progressing nicely. She repeats everything she hears, and also uses language to communicate her needs. She does not tie words together in a sentence yet, but she definitely lets me know what she wants. For example, if she wants me to move a chair away from the table so she has a space to climb on it, she says “тульчик” (стульчик), or when she wants water she says “дичка” (водичка). She lets me know when her diaper needs changing (although we still have no luck with sitting on a potty) or when she needs my help in order to look out the window. She also asks for cartoons, specific food, her scooter, help with putting shoes on, etc. She can say her name pretty well, and she knows our names too, although obviously she still needs to work on pronouncing them, especially “Arosha” (which she pronounces as “Ауо”). She likes to point on objects and name them, like bus “тёбус”, stroller “аяска”, boy “мальчик”, apple “ябака”, etc. She calls Shublik “Шуба”, which is pretty funny.

Also, after vacation I gradually switched from cloth to disposable diapers. I was too afraid of eczema to switch before, but since we had zero issues with disposables on vacation, I started using them more and more after we came back home, and now I rarely use cloth diapers anymore. Which is a relief to be honest. As much as I like the environmental factor of it, doing laundry every other day for over a year (and prepping them for laundry by soaking and pre-washing in the tub) without having a washing machine at home is a pain in the neck. I am still keeping the cloth diapers just in case, but hopefully I won’t need them anymore.
And I forgot if I wrote about Anюta’s eczema, but after the course of steroid cream a while back, it’s pretty much gone. She does get a spot here of there from time to time, but I treat it right away with the same cream, and 1-2 applications are usually enough for it to go away and not reappear. I really hope it will not come back in the fall again. One time after eating mandarins she was starting to get eczema on her chin, and she actually was communicating it to me by scratching it and saying “тесеца, тесеца” (itching, itching).

Arosha gets sick pretty often. He was a little sick on vacation (runny nose, cough), and in the month following it he managed to get sick twice. Ones with a stomach virus, and another with some kind of cold (he is currently sick with it). He missed the second field trip with his class (missed 2 out of 3 total) this Friday. I just hope that next year he’ll get sick less often, since they’ll have to do more things in school.
Arosha started to enjoy cartoons in English finally. Well, not all cartoons, but just Curious George. He refused to watch any English language content before, and now he asks for George every day. I am glad that he understands much more now. The pre-K is to thank for it. He still does not want me to read books in English for him, but I am not insisting too much. I think any kid of reading is good, so as long as he listens, I am glad to read in Russian. We are currently finishing the last book in “Волшебник Изумрудного Города” series, which is called “Тайна заброшенного замка”. The writing in it is worse than in the earlier books from the series, but he still likes it. I have never read it myself when I was a child (my favorite one was “Урфин Джюс и его древянные солдаты”, which I read probably 10 times), so it is mildly interesting for me as well.

May 16, 2015 @ 17:18
Просто замечательно! Особенно катание на самокате
May 29, 2015 @ 11:45
One of the cutest things that Anюta is doing right now is saying “asiba” to a lot of things.
For example if I pick her up from the floor and give her a kiss on the cheek she will go: “asiba” in her high voice.
Asiba = spasibo = thank you.
May 30, 2015 @ 22:27
После повторного (!)
прочтения пост понравился мне еще больше!
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