The Mikhailov Family Journal

Alexander is now standing up right completely on his own way better than ever before. Over the last few days, all three of us here—Lena, her mom, and myself—independently witnessed how Alexander was standing up without holding on to anything, and he was standing for many seconds. Between the three of us, we saw him standing on the floor, in his crib, and even on a much softer larger bed. This evening we all saw him standing on the floor in the middle of the living room, among his toys, for probably 10 seconds or so, before he realized there was no support, and then he slowly bent his knees and sat down.

Alexander continues walking around on his own while holding on to the furniture. He seems to like that a lot. And we noticed he started moving faster and looks sturdier on his feet. And he is making noticeable progress walking with our help: he positions his feet better, seems to be more stable, and overall looks better than ever before. The boy is growing!

We’ve been training Alexander to wave us пока-пока (good bye) as we leave for work each morning. As we are getting dressed by the entrance door, we would wave one hand at him and repeat пока-пока. At first, he just stared back at us looking all surprised and confused. His grandma Luba would sometimes take his hand and wave back at us. Gradually, he started understanding what we expected him to do, and once in a while he would raise his hand and make a feeble motion with it. Today, on November 8, the moment Alexander saw me go towards the door and put my shoes on, he actually waved пока-пока to me completely on his own. I could not believe it! I felt as if he connected the dots and now consciously was saying good bye to me.

At the same time, I am sure he is not yet understanding the concept completely. There was one time when he waved пока to Lena, as she left the apartment for a few brief seconds to throw trash out… and we’ve seen him wave with both hands as one of us went into another room… sometimes he does not wave at all, no matter how hard we try to get him to wave, such as when we wrap up a Skype session with his grandparents on the other side of the pond. Oh well, I am certain all of that will come soon.

p.s. written post factum on November 13.

Our San’kin, who is still very small—he is only 11 months old—already knows what he wants and likes. When you think about it, how does he know? I guess, I am still getting used to the idea that such a small person can have his dislikes and preferences. By trial and error we found out that he loves vanilla yogurt, thank God for that, otherwise what would we do without it? San’kin will eat ANYTHING with vanilla yogurt, even things he hates. He clearly favors some foods over others. He certainty likes avocados, strawberries, grapes, hummus, cheese and figs….yes, yes, figs, fresh figs, especially with cheese (аристократия, понимаешь ли). He figured out that they taste really good from the very first bite he ever had, but it took us a little while to realize that they have a very unusual, gentle, and delicate flavor. Now we all love them. Will have to try them with prosciutto next time. Should be really tasty. Recently, after trying our various “feeding tricks,” we discovered that Sashka LOVES tomatoes. He favors them over anything, even vanilla yogurt! He gives us a big smile and attacks a tomato till he totally destroys it. How come he loves them so much? Maybe because he hangs out with his grandma Lyuba all the time, who is also really fond of tomatoes.

A day after the Halloween party at my work, we once again dressed up in our matching Halloween costumes of a sailor, sailor’s honey, and a cute monkey, and attended an annual costumed party at our friend’s place in Somerville, Mark and Nadya. The theme for their party this year was Comic Book Heroes, and I stole part of the title for this post from their blog. Not quite sure what comic the 3 of us came from—we don’t read or know comics well—I suppose I could have been Popeye, while Lena could have been Olive, but then it’s unclear where San’kin in his monkey outfit would fit in. Does not really matter, we liked our costumes, and the cute monkey is the super-est of the super heroes to us!

Everyone at the party, the heroes and the heroines, was with little kids, who were roughly San’kin’s age or a bit older. Unlike at my work party, Alexander had a chance to interact a bit more with other children. He didn’t really play with other kids, it was more parallel play (a term used here in the US to describe kids playing separately from each other but at the same time and at the same place). San’kin seemed to like an orange inflated balloon, which had some kind of Halloween-themed drawing in a black marker on it, and kept chasing after it. Of course he also tried licking it, getting some of the black marker on his lips. Oh, the good times.

Alexander also spent a bit of time with Nadya and Mark whom, regrettably, we do not see as often as we would like. Just like at the office party a day earlier, Sashka looked reserved and quiet most of the time. Mark, however, made quite an effort trying to elicit a smile out of Alexander and eventually succeeded! He is pretty good with kids.

It was nice to see Mark, Nadya, and Andrei again. We live so close to each other and ought to make an effort to get together more often. Thanks to Nadya for posting the photos that she took. I need to post ours as well.

In a recent post I had already talked about the upcoming Halloween celebration at my work. This year all 3 of us attended the event, and we had themed costumes: I went as a sailor, Lena as a sailor’s honey, and Alexander as a monkey whom we brought from our exotic travels. We looked awesome!

At first, Alexander didn’t like his monkey hat, and we really could not try it on at home, because he just would not let us put it on. We figured we’d put it on somehow once we get to the party and, if he completely refuses to wear it, we’d leave him alone. He did express some disagreement with respect to the hat at the office as well, but once we put it on, he happily wore it the entire time we were there. He kept extremely quiet for close to two hours, and just observed everyone and everything with great curiosity. He played a bit with the horns of the blue monster costume that one of my co-workers, Kevin, wore, and also liked a glow-in-the-dark stick that he got from Kevin (Kevin distributed them to all kids). Towards the end of the party, Alexander became a bit more relaxed and visibly more comfortable with his new and such unusual surroundings.

Even though all employees seemed to enjoy the Halloween party last year, this time around fewer people decorated their cubes. Most decorations went up the day before the party or in the morning right before families with kids came over. Some folks took their decorations down immediately after the party. Overall, I personally felt the office was less decorated than last year and there were fewer games and activities for the kids. It was still fun though. Not sure if the company will be organizing a similar event next year, but if they do, San’kin may enjoy and appreciate it much more since he will be almost 2 years old by then!

p.s. I still have to post photos which I took on that day, have a bunch that came our really well.

Today Alexander turned 11 months! Only 1 month away from his first birthday! Over the last month, Alexander has polished his standing-upright skills. He loves standing, and can sometimes stand without holding on to anything. If his attention is distracted by something, he may stand all by himself for many seconds, but the moment he realizes he isn’t holding on to anything, he very carefully bends his knees and sits down.

This October we went on two short hikes, one in Blue Hills and the other in Leominster forest, and Alexander actively participated… by being carried in a child carrier backpack. San’kin started talking a lot more, and figured out how to say papa, which certainly made me very happy. At the same time, Lena, Alexander’s grandma Luba, and even myself enjoy quite a bit when he says Bu-Dya-Bu-Dya!

Alexander received many new gifts from his grandma Tanya and grandfather Sergey, including a few really nice and colorful books with Russian fairy tales. He likes playing with them, though I am not sure he pays that much attention when we read these stories to him. Hopefully, some learning happens subconsciously.

Happy 11 months, Alexander! Grow healthy, strong, and smart!

The moment I saw Sankin this evening when I came home from work, I noticed he was wearing something I have not seen before. Little knit booties! With little cute ties! His grandma Luba made those for him. They looked so cute, I instantly knew I had material for a blog post. The challenge of course was to take a decent picture of them while Alexander was wearing them. I tried a few times, unsuccessfully, and eventually Sankin’s grandma helped me out by taking them off. Man, they look really cute!

Alexander said his first, and most important word: mama, exactly one month ago today. Since then, I’ve been coaching him to say another, almost equally important word: papa, but he’s been resistant… he’d make all kinds of noises, sometimes even resembling complete and elaborate sentences, spoken in some secret language, but nothing that would even remotely sound like p-a-p-a. Now we know that he must have been timing it just right, so that he would surprise me a month to the day after he made his mama so happy. I came home from work, and Lena told me that earlier in the evening, San’kin finally said “papa”! Of course, I was a bit suspicious and really wanted to hear it for myself. Later that evening, he did say it couple more times, though the words didn’t sound 100% like “papa”, but pretty close… can we count it?

Edited on October 17: the next day, on Saturday, October 13, and over the subsequent few days, San’kin said p-a-p-a many, many, many times, and said it clearly, without a hint of a doubt. That’s my boy!