When I was little and stupid - then I fell off.
- Nikita's reply to Galina's warning not to fall off the bed
I realized last week that I've barely talked about Nikita. So, here's the major update: his Russian vocabulary is bigger than mine. This started around the last week or so of our Maine trip, and has since only gotten worse (or better, depending upon your point of view). Just look at the quote above - not bad for a 2 yr 5 month-old.
Nikita's also started attending a Russian preschool music class. He still takes a while to warm up to new things that are going on, but he doesn't seem to be afraid of the teacher (a plus) and generally enjoys himself, to the point of reenacting some of the activities at home. Currently, his favorite reenactments are moving like a robot (which he calls "lobot" - he constantly mixes up his l's and r's) and playing the drums loudly (gromka), softly (ticha), but then pausing ("opat, pawza" - "again, pause"). At the last session, the teacher seemed impressed by his reacting to the electronic version of "Fur Elise" she played on the tape recorder while the children ate their snack. She says he has talent, but I think she says that because her son shares the same name as he.
Despite Nikita's verbal and perhaps musical advances, Nikita continues to sleep with us. Although it is very sweet of him to urge us to continue sleeping when we have to go to work in the morning, I don't know why we bother keeping the crib attached to our bed. He only sleeps in the crib during the day, and at night, I only have a 1' wide corridor to get out of the bed. Must move the crib before I get bigger, or else nighttime bathroom trips are NOT going to be fun.
Nikita also still refuses to use the potty. Actually, a couple of weeks ago, Igor said that Nikita pissed in the potty, but it was probably by accident. It happened in the morning, and Nikita was, as usual, using "potty time" to avoid eating his morning oatmeal. Nikita has yet to repeat the potty event, or willingly come to the table to eat breakfast.
