Vanya's walking; Nikita's smoking.

At the end of last week, I likened Vanya walking to spring in Boston: it comes in fits and starts. But since Friday, Vanya is walking more frequently, and for longer stretches. He's still tentative (literally taking baby steps compared to the strides he makes while crawling), and him walking while Nikita running around is like watching a movie (Philip Glass's "Powaqaatsi" comes to mind) of a person walking slowly in the midst of frenzied Wall Street at noon. But I think Vanya may safely be considered a toddler.

And that's not all! Sunday morning, Vanya figured out he can slide backwards into the baby bunk by the side of the bed, instead of diving in headfirst. And he can crawl out, too. In fact, he spent a fair amount of time going in and out, which involved a lot of turning around until he realized he didn't need to. I also taught him how to go up some stairs, which may not have been a smart thing to do. Finally, Vanya will drop whatever he is doing and crawl across the room if he wants someone else's food. This happened twice over the weekend with Igor (banana, bagel). We were shocked because we never saw Nikita do this. If anything, Nikita runs away from food.

Meanwhile, Nikita has somehow picked up the nasty habit of smoking - which he calls "steaming" (ah, the Russian language). Not real cigarettes, of course, but lollipop sticks. He claims that he "must" smoke (even while X-C skiing as we did on Saturday) because he has a "hard life". Of course, I have Igor's Russian movies to thank for this development. Nikita was particularly taken by a character who smokes, and he asked Igor why the guy smoked. Igor replied, "He has a hard life." I try to tell Nikita that his papa also has a hard life and doesn't smoke, but the logic is not catching.

Nicer habits Nikita has picked up recently is scrubbing the kitchen sink, and pretending to make me tea and an egg.

Music is big for both boys. Nikita currently listens to a promotional Mozart CD we received in the mail. Vanya sings along with the theme song of "Election Day" and even dances.

I'm still reading Everything is Illuminated. Not too crazy about the broken English (the syntax is fine, but the vocabulary seems forced. Makes me think the author doesn't really know Russian, and opted for creative use of the thesaurus instead). but am really enjoying the parts about Trachimbrod. I'm also flipping through The Best of Vogue Knitting Magazine - I will knit eventually, if only to teach Nikita. And I started reading from the Oxford Book of English Verse during Vanya's last nursing session of the day. I'm also trying out Mother Goose (Volland edition), but Vanya insists on turning the pages.