Conversations with Nikita

Nikita: Mama.
Me: Yes, zayets (Russian for "bunny rabbit").
Nikita: Mama.
Me: Yes, zayets.
Nikita: Mama.
Me: Yes, zayets.

Nikita: Mama (looking at Igor).
Me: Eta papa (Russian for "That's Papa").
Nikita: Mama.
Me: Eta papa.
Nikita: Mama.
Me: Eta papa.

That was late last week. Over the weekend, Nikita finally started calling Igor "Bapa" but he used it for me and Galina as well. Nikita can't quite get the hang of "Papa", or perhaps he's confusing it with "Baba" for "Babushka" (Russian for grandmother). Regardless, it's really cool to see Nikita finally trying to figure out the proper use of words!.

Nikita's sleep adventures kept us entertained over the weekend. Saturday morning, Galina opened his bedroom door to discover a puddle of urine on the floor, while he was standing up naked, sucking on his pacifier.

Sunday morning, I woke up at about 5, looked into his room, and he was standing, alert, smiling and sucking on his pacifier. I told him, "Nikita, it's too early to get up." He obviously understood because when I walked in, he settle back in his crib to sleep. I couldn't help smiling at how sweet he looked lying down, and he giggled in reply. A few minutes later, I said "good night", and left the room. No problems.

But Nikita spent part of last night sleeping with Galina because he woke up in the middle of the night, and couldn't get back to sleep. Galina told me that he wanted to look at the window, and just clung to her when she tried to put him in his crib. So, into her bed he went, and they fell asleep. But then she woke up a little later to find him standing at the foot of her bed, looking over the edge, trying to figure out how he could get down!

Thank goodness she found him in time. Nikita only recently can go down the (carpeted) stairs by himself, but he can't or won't start stairs backwards by himself. I have to position him because he still thinks he can go down forward. I shudder at the thought of him trying get off of Galina's bed.

An otherwise uneventful weekend. No outings, but Igor repainted part of the entryway and some of the windows. The fresh coat of white paint looks great. I started to assemble the pieces of Nikita's sweater together, but discovered that I unevenly sewed on the sleeves, so am doing them over. An excellent reason to try to knit future garments in one piece: no seaming!