Been a while, my dear reader. It has been... interesting. A few things changed.
Mobility:
Benjamin now walks rather confidently now, attempts to run. Indeed he does, until his upper body gets ahead of the legs, at which point gravity takes over. So far he has not been discouraged. The stairs, on the other hand, puzzle Benjamin, which is a good thing. The two small steps in his room Ben can negotiate rather well, with only a 40% chance of falling. The main stairs he cannot navigate yet, but fortunately they give him pause. I've watched him try to reach for the handrail, look down, then walk away.
Zev went from not walking to walking rather well within about a week. He does not run, but walks nearly as well as Benjamin. On one occasion I tried to teach him to go down the stairs backwards. He got down two steps successfully, decided it was not fun and crawled back up.
Play:
Alla has been teaching the boys how to build things out of blocks. After the first two weeks (when they delighted in knocking down whatever mom built), the boys now can build towers two, maybe three blocks tall. Recently, Zev put a bottle with a square bottom on top of a block for a taller tower. Initiative. They boys also like to reproduce the sound a rocket makes (original sound effects by yours truly) and recognize a shape of a rocket easily.
Language and comprehension:
They do not say much more, but added a duck to their animal repertoire. Also, when recently Alla asked Ben to bring her his socks, to her shock he walked over to the sock box and brought her a pair. Go figure. Being chased and getting away when pursued continues to be one of the favorite games.
Competition and, dare I say, combat:
Competitions for control of the books get more serious. While Ben is usually more aggressive Zev has discovered a new tactic: sitting on a book that his brother is reading. Turns out, Benjamin's arsenal of responses is somewhat limited. On one occasion he went for a solid body tackle from a seated position and got his brother's back. With baited breath I watched to see if he would capitalize on this classic MMA opportunity. The result was that both fighters fell back, were puzzled by lack of tactical advantage, rolled into a crouch and disengaged.
Some days later Ben has discovered biting. One time he went for Zev's arm and got the sleeve. Later the same night he deliberately got Zev's fingers in his mouth and chomped down. I was expecting Zev to retaliate with a hair pull, but I guess he was not ready. For the deliberate and unprovoked infliction of pain Ben was punished by being ignored for the remainder of the night (about ten minutes), which he hated, and has not been seen biting since.
Somewhat interestingly, watching me practice a few Tae Kwon Do kicks causes the boys endless joy - they laugh their head off. One one hand, I am glad I can entertain them. On the other... I fully expect they will eventually find my attempts at martial prowess laughable; just did not expect they would develop such a discerning eye that early. Well, it was bound to happen sooner of later...
