growing baby

Roan had his first swim lesson today. Though he hid behind me at first and kept his eyes closed, his teacher gently lured him into the pools by playing with blowing bubbles with her bubble wand. From there it was blowing bubbles in the pool, kicking, starting to float, and playing with pool toys. Roan had lots of fun!

  
But his favorite part was opening Victor H. as his reward for being a great swimmer on his first day!  And here is the promised unboxing:

Roan and Mateo love unboxing videos. Roan also loves all things Cars. He wanted to bring those passions together, so voila. Stay tuned–there may be an actual unboxing on Tuesday when he’s allowed to open the first box!   (Roan wants to spell pt for petrov trunkov.)

Mateo: One Roan for sale! One Roan for sale!
Roan (indignantly): I’m not for sale!
Mateo (to Roan): Can I buy you for two dollars?
Roan: Sure!

Ro was being talkative and active at bedtime, so I told him (from my cozy position lying on the wood bedroom floor) that I was only staying to help him sleep if he did his part by closing his eyes and staying quiet. Roan responds that he is already sleeping and promptly begins snoring loudly. Oh silly boy! (And this is all in Spanish, yay!)

Oh! And Roan is in underwear as of last week! He’s doing beautifully–no accidents at school and hardly any accidents at home after the first few days. Go underwear!

Roey is generally an early riser.  He gets up, cuddles, asks for a song and his ever-important “agua azul”, eats (“I hungry!”), and then its time to wake up Mateo.  Roan loves waking up Mateo!  Roan climbs into Mateo’s bed right on top of Mateo and gently says, “wake up, sweetie.  Wake up, sweetie Mateo.”  Today, Roan also got to wake up his “sweetie papa.”

In other Ro news–because we haven’t had any in ages!–he is still singing galore.  His favorite songs are wheels on the bus, the abc song, and baby beluga, but he can sing many many others as well.  He has great pitch too and a lovely sweet voice.  Ro-ro, as his friends at school call him, also loves planes, fire trucks, ambulances, police cars, pick-up trucks, and, really, anything that moves.  Roan is also incredibly polite–he always says thank you, and quite often also uses please and you’re welcome.  He’s speaking English and Spanish beautifully–I rarely hear any Russian (other than paka to say bye to dede), but he seems to understand Russian just fine.  After a long period in which Roan primarily liked just a few books (a shapes book, a colors book, and Richard Scarry’s word book), Roan is expanding to books with actual storylines.  His favorite books these days are Yoko (Ick!  Green!  It’s seaweed!, says Roey) and Are You My Mother?

Roan and Mateo generally get along quite well, though, of course, they sometimes tussle over toys.  This morning before school, Roan and Mateo had a long hug–and Roan told Mateo “I love you” while Mateo showered Roan with kisses.  They’re good boys, sweet and wonderful.

I feel sad that we haven’t been updating the blog, so I’m trying out posting from my phone. Cute pic of the brothers hopefully coming up!

We couldn’t find it.  It was lost.  The Golden Note was lost.  It was the 16th note.  And then it got lost.  It was on a book.  And then it pushed out the book.  That’s it!

This is a guest post by Linda’s mom, Ana.

pickup

bus grande

chiquito

moto

Prius Abue

bicicleta

bus

Roan just adores music.  When he hears music he starts bouncing or turning in circles (a Roan-dance).  He also sings all day long to the tune of abc/twinkle twinkle.  In the last few days he started requesting songs by saying ay-ay-ay-ay (in pitch) for “Cielito Lindo” or baaa for “Baa Baa Black Sheep.”  Usually he’s super wiggly when I change his diaper, but if I sing to him, he’ll lay still for the diaper change.  In fact, if I tell him it’s time for a song while I change his diaper, he’ll just go and lie down in the diaper change area.  Good kid.