Snips and Snails and Puppy-dog Tails

This is another post about having fun with my two little boys, who are growing up quite quickly. As Sebby himself says, “I am big now. I am like THIS (reaching up high). I am not like this, I am not baby. I'm bigger bigger bigger!”

We spend lots of time outside. Like my sister and me when we were little, Misha loves all kinds of critters in nature, from ants and ladybugs to beetles and worms. Last week in the park, we found a Boxelder bug that was content to crawl all over Misha's hand. “Mom, he likes me!” Misha told me happily. “He doesn't want to get off me. When I put him close to the ground he looks sad.” When I asked how the bug looked sad, Misha explained that his antennas drooped.

One day after a rain, we took a stroll in the sprinkles and came upon a snail. Misha was delighted. He scooped it up and carried it around, adding more and more snails to the club as he discovered them until he had about a dozen. Naturally, he wanted to bring them home. I let him choose four to keep in a jar for a few days, and then we let them go free again.

Meanwhile, our pupa, which hung patiently for about two weeks, hatched! Unfortunately, the boys were at school so they only got to see the photo of the brown moth. We've been out searching for more caterpillars, but maybe we're not looking on the right leaves.

Searching for caterpillars

Also, the seeds we planted several weeks back have been growing, much to the boys' satisfaction. After Sebby experimented with what happens when you pull a plant up by its roots, we still have five nice-looking plants on our window-sill. Some are zinnias and some are peppers.

The carrots we planted outside are sprouting too! It's a little hard to tell, though, because of all the weeds. :)

Misha loves to climb, and luckily for him, trees in Bishkek grow wild and unpruned, with wonderful branches for ascending into the leafy tops. Sebby climbs on the low forks in the trees, or on the playground equipment.

Another outdoor favorite: fun with squirt-guns! They love running around and spraying each other.

And of course, fun with wheels. Off they go, on scooter and bike.

Kid Talk

Before we move onto the next batch of pictures, I wanted to brag about Sebby's conversational skills in his mother tongue, English. A month away from his third birthday, he is getting very good at communicating. These are a few things I've written down in the past couple of months:

About his sandals: "I need to put these on. I broked these. I broked these out, mom."

Asking not to be pushed too high on the swing to make his stomach feel like it's dropping out: "Not my tummy!" 

"The fish runned away! Like this! Woosh, woosh!"

"I am not crashing, mom. I am walking the road, like this."

"I am not finished yet!"

"I go to school and I got a cracker. Member dat?" It's so cute how he sticks "Member dat?" on the end of sentences.

Watching me cut veggies: "Don't cut your finger, OK, mom?"

"My dinosaur is eating my cracker!"

About his Dr. Seuss match-up cards: "These are gramma give it to me! It's beautiful. I don't want it be brokened."

About playing Crazy Eights: "I wanna win, okay mom? Not you." I was impressed with how well he did matching the suits!

The next batch of pictures: Indoor Fun

I sent Sebby into his room to get dressed. Five minutes later, we heard him calling for help. When I walked into his room, I found him on the second-highest shelf in his closet!

Peanut Butter Cookie Time

Lego towers

Matching shirts and origami cranes. I love Sebby's idolizing gaze.

Three water-color painters

Boxers and sandals

Fix-it man

Helping with the dishes

Our home-made Sorry game turned out great!

Two super-heroes in my house!

Our days usually end something like this.

A sight to make all parents smile