Allen starts sleeping

I must note that Allen has finally started to slleep better. Sleeps longer, doesn't seem to wake up at the lightest toussle and has an easier time falling asleep.

Andy and I used to joke that a fly landing on his window is loud enough to wake him up.

Ivan goes without Medic

Although Medic has been going to preschool every day--and God forbid we forget him in the morning--Ivan doesn't want to sleep with Medic at night. He's been doing this for the last week or so. I also realized that he's stopped sleeping with his blanket in the last few months, as well. I guess he's slowly growing up and no longer needs these comfort props. It saddens me a bit.

However, since for preschool he has to have a sheet and a blanked,  he chose to take that other baby blue blanket with animals on it, not the one he took to daycare (the one with the football.) I gave him a choice between the two.

Ivan's bunnies

"I can't use my outdoor voice inside because I'll wake up all my animals that live under the carpet," Ivan told me today.

"What animals?"

"I have little bunnies," he pointed with one hand and big bunnies he pointed with the other hand.

I was surprised that he still thinks about animals who live under the carpet. While he talked about them extensively in the spring, he hasn't mentioned them in the last few months. I didn't realize they're still part of his imaginary animal kingdom. He often surprises me with things he says and events he remembers from many months ago. His self-awareness and memory are much deeper than we think it is.

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'What you said, Andy?'

"What you said, Andy?" Ivan asked as Andy was trying to tell me something.

"Why you talked? I heard you . Why you talking?" Ivan asked.

'Ayvanization' begins

I guess it was inevitable that Ivan was eventually going to realize that not all people will be pronouncing his name correctly--including Andy's family--but will be tempted to pronounce it "Ayvan" not Ivan.

He told me the other day that he's Ayvan, not Ivan, but we corrected him and told him his name was Ivan.

I didn't think about that when we named him Ivan. I wanted a Croatian name that was pronouncable in English. (And Ivan is as Croatian as it gets. If I were in Croatian, I probably would've not named him Ivan since everyone is named Ivan.) I didn't think about the fact that once he gets to school that it will inevitable that people will start calling him Ayvan. I'm just hoping that in this multi-ethnic, multi-lingual ares where we live it will be less of an issue than it would've been in a more homogenous part of the country.

Along the same lines, Medic has suddenly become his "little bear." I assume that's how teachers in preschool refer to him. Because they obviously wouldn't know that Medic's name is Medic!

Then when I ask him to tell words in Croatian, which I test him on every once in a while when we read books, he seems to know some but not all. Or at least can't remember them at that moment. Or is just pulling my leg, because I know he understands me 100 percent. 
If I ask him "how do you say 'tree' in Croatian, and he doesn't respond, he'll stall.

"Treebranch," he'll say and crack up laughing because he knows that he didn't say it in Croatian.

It's a rather clever way to get around the answer, I must say, which always gets a giggle from me.

Visions of rotten teeth averted

Ivan went to the dentist this morning. Andy took him because I just couldn't deal with it, after the initial visit six months ago. I was afraid it was going to be a fiasco like last time.

Instead, I prepped him. I've been prepping him for weeks. So did mom.  I even got a few "going to the dentist books" of the library.

Andy said he did well. He allowed the dentist to do everything that he had to do. But this time, there was no technician and densist, just the dentist. Maybe that was the trick.

I was shocked. But most importantly, no cavities!

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