In our species, children grow very quickly during their early years.
Sasha wasn’t as small as she appeared at first glance. She might have been three and a half months old, but by our standards her development was closer to that of a seven-month-old baby. At any moment in the coming weeks, her teeth would begin cutting through her gums. During her first year and a half of life, my daughter would grow and evolve at an astonishing pace. It had been the same with Andre.
The problem was that the girl, even in her advanced stage, missed her mother—and her mother’s milk—and there was nothing I could do to fix that.
She drank very little from her bottle and slept terribly that night. She screamed every time I tried to comfort her. Andre managed to calm her by speaking to her in Russian, since
