My life has been dominated by acronyms recently:
- BFing. Thankfully, breastfeeding has been going well. There were a couple of weeks when I was in conflict with Vanya's pediatrician about how much Vanya should be gaining (0.5 oz/day? 1.5 oz/day?), and I dutifully supplemented Vanya's 2 bottles/week (of expressed breastmilk) with formula. But in the end, the pediatrician was happy with Vanya's weightgain, and Vanya is back to being an exclusively breastfed baby. Yeah!
- ECing. I started practicing elimination communication (EC) or infant potty training a few weeks ago. I basically hold him over a sink after he nurses. Getting mostly poops. And sometimes, I miss. But, it's okay.
- FEEing. I just handed in my comments on MIT's Freshman Evaluation Essays. These essays determine what type of writing class incoming frosh need to take. This is the first time I did this work (for money, of course!), and it took quite a bit of effort (and I did it at home, with the two boys. Thank goodness for Galina). I learned a lot, though, and the experience will probably improve my comments during the school year.
- Sleeping in his own bed. Shortly after Nikita turned three, Igor and I bought a bunkbed for the boys. About half the nights, Nikita will start out sleeping in his own bed (usually with Igor), Igor will leave at midnight, then Nikita will wake up around three, and look for Igor. The rest of the week, Nikita will sleep with Galina or me and Vanya. Amazingly, Nikita doesn't wake up when Vanya cries during the night (which is not that often anyway, as I get to him pretty quickly).
- Speaking English. Much better now that I can talk to him more, but his Russian is still better. He still makes some Russian-like constructions, though. For example, "I not want to eat."
- Toilet training. Took advantage of the heatwave last week to have Nikita run around without his diaper. He's making progress: one day, he actually went to the bathroom himself to pee (which he insists on doing standing up). Poops are are still an issue, and he's likely to ask for a diaper rather than sit on the toilet. Part of it is because he's so used to being in a diaper; part of it is because he's used to pooping standing up (I think).
- Biking. We recently bought Nikita a bike with training wheels. He has a tricycle which he never got the hang of (probably because he can simply move the cycle with his feet on the ground). Igor thought a real bike would be better, but it's going to take a while for Nikita to get the hang of it. After all, why pedal when Igor can push him instead?
- Birthdays: Nikita's third birthday went really well. Ordered take-out from a Vietnamese restaurant, and had an ice-cream cake. Galina's close friend was in town. They hadn't seen each other in years. I hadn't seen Galina so happy in a while. And Igor's birthday was less jovial, but still nice. Off the top of my head, I can't remember what we did, but I'm pretty sure we went for an outing (which we've been doing a lot - to justify the SUV) instead of having a special meal.
- BJ's: Vanya's arrival has made us "true" Americans. Not only do we have an SUV, we now go shopping at a warehouse club.
- Books. I was reading quite a bit during the night while nursing Vanya. Since my last post, I've read The Magic Pudding (REALLY funny, and fantastic drawings, too), The Baron in the Trees, The Compleat Moonshadow (a graphic novel, illustrated by Jon Muth. I've had this book since sophomore year of college, bought it for the artwork. Story is quite good. Nikita likes Muth's book, Zen Shorts - also lovely). I finally started Stendhal's The Red and The Black, but found the protagonist completely boring, so didn't finish the book. I've been too tired to read in the middle of the night lately, though (except for when I had to do the FEE essays). I've got the Fagles translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey still waiting for me.
