"He won't open his mouth otherwise, he's so used to eating," Natalia Ivanovna defended Fedya.

"If he wants to eat, he will open his mouth!" Father said firmly. "And I don't want to see such a swamp again.

In the next feeding, one-year-old Fedya slapped his hands on the oilcloth for a long time, showing us that we had forgotten to put water. But I said that you have to listen to your father. Natalia Ivanovna almost cried with grief. Of course, Fedya began to eat without water, but Natalia Ivanovna began to leave for her Perlovka more and more often. "I bless you to go and take a break from us," Father Vladimir said to her affectionately. Natalia Ivanovna submitted, but she could not live long without Fedya. A week or two later, she came again (by car), and brought Fedya new expensive toys, shoes, etc.

Fedyusha's childhood

The younger brother Fedya was always a joy for all family members, an object of love and care. Once Rivva Borisovna began (of course, as a joke) to ask four-year-old Lyubochka to give her a brother. She spoke for a long, serious and convincing time:

"Lyubochka, why do you need Fedenka?" He cries, does not let you sleep at night, takes a lot of time from his mother... Give it to me!

"We need Fedya ourselves," the little girl replied firmly.

"No, tell me, why do you need Fedya?" Dad and mom have four guys without him," Rivva Borisovna could not stop talking.

"We have degenerated it for ourselves, so we need it!" Lyubochka snapped. "We won't."

Yes, the children actually considered themselves participants in the acquisition of a younger brother. How many times have they heard from their father the words: "Bend down, pick up everything yourself, it's hard for mom." When leaving, my father always said: "Help your mother as much as you can. Mom needs to be protected, she has a child inside," and the children vied with each other, not waiting for my orders. And when Fedya was brought home, the children considered it happiness to serve him in some way: to hold the bottle while he sucked, to hold the baby's head while bathing, to remove diapers from the rope, etc. When Fedya was sitting in his crib at seven months, the elders were instructed to make sure that he did not fall, lift the baby, cover him with pillows, entertain Fedya with his games. One day the boys shouted to me from above (the kitchen was downstairs):

"Mom, Fedya seems to want to come to you, he's crying. He misses us, he doesn't look at our games, we'll bring him to you now!

"No," I said, "don't carry it, it's dangerous for you to walk up the stairs with Fedya: if you fall, you'll drop it..." In twenty minutes I'll be free from the kitchen and come up to you myself, amuse him with something for now.

I hear laughter, rumble... And when I went up to the nursery, I gasped: the blankets were on the floor, and the guys were wet with sweat.