Rain and insomnia in NYC

Igor, Nikita, and I came down to NYC last Friday for my mother's birthday, and Nikita and I are staying down here for a week, on my parents' request. They forgot, however, to ask for good weather. We've been having rain since Saturday. So much for the sand toys I've brought. At least it's been warm; the warmest things I packed for Nikita are a pair of socks, jeans, and a light cotton sweater.

Seemingly in preparation for the NYC trip, I cleared out my bookshelf and knitting: finished Moby Dick, Jane Jacobs, AND the main knitting for the socks on the first day of summer (okay, I stayed up until 1.30 to finish the last one, and I still have to weave in the ends). Will post reviews of the books when I get back to Boston. Since I've been down here, I've also finished Stephen Mitchell's version of Gilgamesh; will review that during the next bout of insomnia.

About the insomnia: I'm sharing a bed with Nikita, and he tosses and turns like crazy. At least he's stopped crying out for his pacifier (he can find it in his sleep).

Nikita's currently going through a verbal growth spurt, which started about two weeks ago. Just on this trip alone, he's picked up the following words:

uncle (unka)
grandpa (gam-pa)
grandma (gam-ma)
Lolo (Tagalog for grandpa, but Nikita's version sounds more like "Roro")
Thank you (tan-ke)

And more. Unlike other word acquisitions, you only have to say the word once, and he tries to repeat it. I hope this trend continues when we get back to Boston, and he hears Russian regularly again!

I'll end this post with a link to a very interesting article a friend just sent to me, What Shamu taught me about a happy marriage. I think I already use some of the techniques to train Nikita.

Good night!