August: Sebastian, cycling, PSY

The beginning of August found us bearing the 90-degree heat with kvass and evening sessions at the pool. Ivan was getting quite strong, at one point only stopping twice during the 25-yard length.

Another highlight was a visit from my NYC family, including my 7-month nephew, Sebastian. It was cool watching Sebastian eat (unlike my boys, he loves food) and roll all over the floor instead of crawl. The boys were particularly fascinated by him:

Preparing dinner.

We spent the middle of August in Maine. Although we had a few day trips (Bar Harbor, Schoodic Peninsula, Calais - where we found a Marden-replacement in Label Shopper), our days were generally spent gathering berries and mushrooms (right), and swimming at nearby lakes. Nikita was quite the forager, at one point looking for mushrooms before breakfast. Another time, he collected mussels, but Igor scared him off from eating them (they were fine). Nikita also surprised me in the water by trying out the backstroke. He used to have trouble floating on his back, but practicing the underwater dolphin with Igor has paid off.

Ivan preferred shooting to walking. Here he is dressed as a sniper, with camouflage accoutrements (leaves, markings on face, green Crocs), a bulletproof vest made by Nikita, and one of the many toy guns we bought:
Ivan's true accomplishment was learning how to bike - like Nikita, in Maine. Once Ivan had the confidence to go straight, he quickly mastered the other skills (start, turn, stop):


It was also wonderful to just hang out at the house, despite a mouse problem; we caught a total of 7. The boys kept themselves busy building on the grounds of the house, practicing fencing moves (even with ice cream), and shooting with cap pistols they can't buy in Boston. Evenings were spent reading (Tom Sawyer or Old Man Coyote for Nikita; Winnie the Pooh or P.D. Eastman for Ivan), watching Russian videos (Мне не больно and the 2010 serial, Покушение), and baking (blueberry pie, Heath Bar cookies). In sum, a very relaxing vacation. We even got a decent family portrait:

When we got back from Maine, I started preparing for the fall semester, retaught Nikita how to knit, and dealt with my own knitting projects. I am the victim of my own success: after three years working on Nikita's fair isle hat, Ivan asked for an intarsia hat. What didn't happen to me was getting sick (fever and nausea) like half of the household; poor Ivan had to miss his beloved fencing class.

Finally, I will remember the end of August for rediscovering TAL (listen to this wonderful story about Special Education) and discovering BNL's ABC song and PSY's viral video. PSY's song reminded me of the James Brown is Dead Dance Marathon I helped plan - and Igor insists he won - in grad school; the dancing in the video reminded the boys of Bollywood movies. Regardless, I will finish the post with my favorite response video, a brilliant mash-up created by a Fil-Am in Chino: