Christmas Trip - Day 4

We had a very low key Saturday after Christmas. We stayed in the whole day, and tried to enjoyed the last few hours with the family before we had to drive off. Unfortunately, Patrick and Laurin had to work, so we only saw them for a few minutes each. We spent the rest of the day packing and spending time with Grandmother, Mom, and Dad.

We took off at about 7pm again and it took us 12 hours to drive back. A storm rolled through Shreveport earlier in the day and we managed to catch up with it after a couple hours' drive. Unfortunately, Daniel woke up crying when the rain started pounding us. We stopped after a little while and burped him thinking that maybe his tummy was hurting. But soon after we got in the car he started crying again. I got into the back seat with him and tried to play and talk to him to try to calm him down. Nothing helped until, out of desperation, I started singing old Russian songs to him. He calmed down immediately! I was shocked! I did not realize that my crappy, out of tune singing, can have such an effect on him. But at that point I was ready to sing for the rest of the trip if that was necessary. I sang for about half an hour to him, and than we played his new favorite game: "through everything away and let mama get it". At the next stop (it was close to midnight) we fed him another bottle and he fell asleep and slept all the way home.

If I have not mentioned it before, Daniel is a very lucky little boy! He has 9 grandparents and great-grandparents still living. On Stephen's side they are: Great-grandmother Evelynn (or as Daniel will call her Gigi), Great-grandmother Ruby (Granny), and Grandparents John and Monnie. On my side they are: my maternal grandmother Lidia, my mother Nina, my paternal grandparents Emil and Inna, and my father Gregory. So I am on a quest to take pictures of Daniel with all the different predecessors. I am not sure if we will ever be able to get them all together to take a group picture... Well, here are pictures with Gigi:

And the four generations of the Cole clan:

This is it! The Christmas 2008 is over, it has been a very happy and busy time for us. We really enjoyed going over to Shreveport and seeing everybody there. Thank you Grandmother, Mom, and Dad for making us feel as welcome as ever! We hope that you will be able to come out and visit in March for Daniel's 1st Birthday and in April for Stephen's 40th Birthday and maybe even sooner :) We really appreciate everything and love you more then ever!

Christmas Trip - Day 3

The Friday after Christmas came and with it a much awaited visit to Jason, Krystal, Alli, Walker, and Griffin's. Jason is Stephen's first cousin on his mother's side. Stephen, Jason, and their cousin Mark used to hang out together when they were little. But as time went by, they all moved away from each other and ended up not hanging out as much. Stephen and I reconnected with Krystal and Jason in June when they came to visit New York. You can read all about it on Krystal's blog HERE.

I am posting this picture especially for you, Krystal. This is the reason Daniel was so good during our visit:

I was amazed at how well behaved and sweet Alli, Walker, and Griffin are. And they were so good to Daniel. Even Griffin gave Daniel a hug.

Daniel was not too sure about the group hug, he just wanted to watch everybody :) But he quickly warmed up and it was smiles all around as usual.

Three little cousins playing:

Griffin even delivered Daniel's gift:

This picture has no special significance, I just thought Daniel looked cool standing in his little shoes being supported by Chele. Chele was so sweet to Daniel, hanging out with him for a long time. Daniel really liked her. I think Chele wants another baby :)

I know this is not the most flattering picture of Danny, but I really liked the sky behind the boys

Daniel having a ball:

Two little buddies hanging out on top of the letter box:

Two happy mommies with their babies:

Our most gracious hosts:

I really wanted to take this picture. There are four generations of the Holt side of the family here. Granny Holt with two of her children, Monnie and Danny, three of her grandchildren, Jason, Michele, and Stephen, and five of her nine! great-grandchildren Hannah, Alli, Walker, Griffin, and Daniel.

Krystal and I have been joking around about who is the better icer (is that even a word?), Stephen or Jason. So Krystal put together a little icing-off competition. Just look at the concentration on those boys faces right before the countdown :)

And here they are, all done. And guess what!? Stephen won!!! Way to go, baby! You rock!

Griffin really enjoyed the cupcakes afterwards!

We had such a nice time with you, Krystal and Jason. Thank you so much for everything! We really hope to see you soon, it is too bad that we live so far away from each other.

Christmas Trip - Day 2

Warning!!! Too many pictures!!!

Christmas Day finally came!!! We could open the presents! My awesome husband gave me the best present ever: a Nikon D40 camera with 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II AND 55-200mm f/4-5.6G ED lenses. PLUS Photography lessons! I've been wanting to learn photography for so-so long! My wonderful parents-in-law gave me a tripod and a 4GB card for the camera! Thank you so much baby, Mom, and Dad!

Stephen has been wanting some type of video game console for very-very long, but we always agreed that it would take up too much of our time. (Actually, I did not want to share my time with Stephen). Well, I decided to stop being selfish and I got Stephen a Wii this year. He really seems to enjoy it! I am so glad.

We got and gave lots of other presents and we are grateful for all the presents that we received! Thank you, Grandmother, Mom, Dad, Laurin, and Patrick! You guys are wonderful!

As you can imagine Daniel got lots of things too. Here is Daniel playing with his new Mega Blocks truck and a bag full of Mega Blocks:

After we were done opening the presents, I caught all the Cole boys hanging out together:

Patrick has two dogs, and Daniel LOVED them. Especially, the smaller one - Zouie. He would touch her with one finger and them squeal in delight!

We had a wonderful Christmas lunch complete with Turkey, Ham, Green Bean casserole, dressing, Ambrosia, and other tasty treats. Thank you Mom!

After everybody took a nap, we went to see Stephen's Aunt Judy and Granny. Here is Daniel with Granny:

Judy and her Granddaughter Danielle really seemed to enjoy the chocolates we brought them:

Stephen's cousin Dana did not let Daniel off her arms the whole time she was there. I think she misses the baby smell and feel (her children are 12 and 18).

I've never met Judy's husband Larry before, he is such a hoot! He is an avid hunter and an ex-hippie, he showed me bunch of pictures of him on his chopper years ago. He is too funny, he made me almost cry with laughter!

Christmas Trip - Day 1

OK, I've started a recount of our Christmas holidays a few times and every time I would put it off because I have so much to talk about. I am going to seperate the days so that the posts are not toooooooo long :) So here it goes:

This year we went to Shreveport, Louisiana for Christmas. After much deliberation and consideration we decided to drive through the night so that Daniel would sleep and make it a little easier on us. Well, Daniel did great on the trip there. We took off at about 7pm Eastern time on Tuesday night and Daniel fell asleep right away. He woke up when we stopped for the first time at about 8:30pm and we fed him dinner. As soon as we started driving again he fell asleep. He did wake up every time we stopped after that but never cried or fussed, just looked around. The drive was not bad at all, just so long! We were so tired! I felt so bad for Stephen, he had to work that Tuesday and he stayed up for the whole drive. It took us about 11 hours to do the 615 miles from our house to Stephen's Grandmother Cole's house in Shreveport. But we did it!

We spent the Christmas Eve together at Grandmother's house. Daniel spent the first half-an-hour after we got there just looking around and getting to know his surroundings and people. After a short while he became completely comfortable and started playing with everybody.

After a while Dad, Mom, Stephen, Daniel and I went to the Red River broadwalk mall for lunch and a little shopping.

Grandmother and Mom went above and beyond decorating the house and the outside for Christmas. The house looked wonderful! Thank you Mom and Grandmother!

Whew! First Christmas post down, just three more to go! Blogging is hard, but I want to keep the memories ;)

Boys being silly and Christmas preview

Yesterday evening I walked in on my boys playing around in the nursery. Daniel was LAUGHING at his Dada (and so was I):

We went to Babies R Us couple of days ago and got a set of Christmas PJs complete with this hat for Daniel to wear on Christmas morning. He was not too thrilled with the hat. I hope all the presents will distract him on Christmas morning.

Christmas is a week away...and counting!

I moved to the United States from Ukraine 10 years ago next Tuesday the 23rd. Growing up in Soviet Union, where all religion was prohibited, we did not celebrate Christmas. And even if we did, the Russian Orthodox Christmas is on January 7th. Plus, half of my family is Jewish (so now they celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year). All this amounts to the fact that we did not have Christmas or Hanukkah traditions in my household. Our big holiday was always New Year. That is when Father Frost would come with his Granddaughter to deliver presents for the kids. We would also put up a New Years tree, and have big late night family dinners to meet the New Year and toast with Champagne.

Over the years, especially since I met Stephen, Christmas has become more and more important to me. It is a time to see family, celebrate together, and of course exchange gifts :) I LOVE getting and giving gifts. I tend to think hard about gifts I get for different people, and get very excited for them to open the presents and see if they like the gifts as much as I though they would. In fact, I have been known to give the gift to the person ahead of time because I was so excited. I hate waiting.

Stephen just called me to tease me that he just bought my gift. And will have it with him when he gets home today. Although I do have a pretty good idea of what it is, I might have to sneak a peak at it, or maybe even play with it. If I do, I might post about it or I might not :) (Lets keep Stephen on his toes :) )

This year, the Christmas holiday is going to be extra special because we have Daniel now, and it is his First Christmas. I really did not think much about it, until I saw how excited Stephen and the rest of his family are. Stephen's grandmother has gone above and beyond with decorating her house and getting ready for us to arrive. Dad (Stephen's father) has sent us pictures of the outside and it looks so festive and beautiful. I think everybody in Shreveport has been ready to see us for weeks. I cannot wait to go!

Additionally, we are going to get to see lots of our cousins from Mom's (Stephen's mother's) side of the family. They are all so much fun. Let me just say that our visit will include a cookie icing-off competition. I will post more about that after we go see them.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy New Year everybody! I hope you have safe and joyful holidays with your loved ones!

Wordless Wednesday

Christmas party

Saturday was the third time since Daniel was born that Stephen and I went out without the baby. We went to a Christmas party thrown by the newly rediscovered friends that Stephen knew back in Auburn. There were about 50 people there. Stephen saw a lot of his close friends from years ago, he really enjoyed catching up and I think that we have a new group of friends now. Everybody was very nice, friendly, and interesting.

At the party we also played Secret Santa. I went and bought two $20 gifts so both Stephen and I could participate. The game was complete with Santa (all of us had to sit on his lap to open presents) and Elf - the man of the house himself, wearing tights and Christmas sweater and hat. It was too funny:

Here is Stephen with Santa and his "little helper"

And guess what Stephen won (plus a 70's compilation CD):

I tried and tried to get somebody to steal Stephen's present, but for some reason nobody would :(

I, of course, had to choose the BIGGEST gift there :)

It was a toy surfer with a remote control, it was awesome. And guess what? Somebody stole it! All in good fun and within the rules of the game, but I was still mad!!! I had to pick another, and got a set of Christmas candles: two snowmen, a Christmas tree, and a pine cone.

Santa is coming to town

Yesterday we took Daniel to see Santa. Daniel was not scared or nervous about Santa, just very interested. He really liked Santa's beard, especially pulling on it. The lady that was taking the pictures had really hard time making Daniel look at the camera. And he would NOT smile. He is always smiling, I think this is one of the first pictures we have with Daniel not smiling. Anyways, without further ado...

9 Months Birthday

Today Daniel turned 9 Months old. I cannot believe he has been with us that long. We did not really celebrate today or buy any presents for Daniel. Especially since we are going to Louisiana in less then two weeks and it sounds like our car will be PACKED on the way back.

Instead, my mother, Daniel, and I went out shopping. We spent most of the day out and about. I wanted to get something nice for Daniel to wear to go meet Santa (hopefully tomorrow) and an outfit for myself for a Christmas party tomorrow. I have not been shopping for myself in over 6 months and Stephen and I have not been out by ourselves since June, so a new dress was in order. Let me just say that 80's are back in town, and I will post some pictures on Sunday (if I like any of them).

Here is a picture from one of the stores at the mall from today. I am collecting more and more bargaining chips for the future:

Mexican Jumping Bean

Let me just say that Daniel was NOT jumping like a Mexican Jumping Bean yesterday, or the day before, or the month before that. He acts like a completely different child after the surgery.

Daniel is well

Daniel is doing great after his surgery this morning to insert ear tubes. I am very impressed with the Children's Hospital here in Atlanta. They were very professional, thorough, and quick with everything. We arrived at the hospital at 6:30 this morning and were discharged a little after 8am. Daniel slept all the way home and took 2 hour nap once we got home (Stephen and I did too). When Daniel woke up around 11am he was ready to go. He behaves like a different child. He is so much more active and rambunctious. Even though he really did not seem to be in pain before his surgery, we can clearly see that he was and he was being careful not to hurt himself more. I am so happy we finally got this surgery. I know that it is too early to tell, but it seems to be working great for him. Also, after 48 hours we can resume all of his activities. I cannot wait to go back to the swimming pool and Gymboree with him. It will be so much fun to see him with kids again. He needs interaction with children, he loves to play and watch the other little ones. And I love watching him socialize.

We are talking LOOOOOOW

It seems like almost every day Daniel discovers something new. Yesterday he started talking in a much lower voice than usual. He had a very long conversation with Stephen while waving a remote. I thought it was really funny. He loves all remotes, phones, and laptops. Apparently, they make MUCH better toys than real ones ;-)

Daniel got his 3rd tooth

...and he can use it. Sasha has the teeth marks to prove it! Sunday morning we woke up to discover that Daniel's top, front, left tooth came in, which explains the recent increase in crankiness and drool. Since they usually come in pairs, we think the right one will be in soon.

Sasha is taking Daniel to an ENT this morning and we will learn whether or not ear tubes will be necessary to prevent any more ear infections. I hope that they are not necessary, but we'll do whatever it takes to make sure that Daniel's hearing is not affected. Apparently, it is more or less a routine procedure, but I always worry about general anesthesia.

I never posted after Thanksgiving, so I want to write a bit about the things that I am thankful for. First of all, I am thankful for my wonderful wife Sasha. You are the most amazing person I have ever met. Your mothering instincts are unsurpassed. You are graceful under stress, and always swift to rush in to rescue me when I am struggling with a dirty diaper. You are elegant and charming. You are brilliant and always patient in explaining abstract ideas to others. You have a clear sense of direction. I always turn to you when I am lost. I love you more than life itself. I am thankful to Daniel. I never knew how much happiness a little baby could bring into my life. He gives me purpose. I love that little guy. I am thankful for my friends and family. Every one of them has helped my become who I am today.

And, oh yes,... I am good with the icing.

Fun filled weekend

A few weeks ago Stephen registered with Facebook and discovered that many of his friends from Auburn live in Atlanta. Stephen, Daniel and I met with three of them on Friday night for some barbecue. I was a little apprehensive about being present when such old friends meet up since they usually talk about people they knew back then and little more. Luckily, my fears were completely unwarranted. We had a very nice time with friends. I will be happy to become closer with any one of them again. And they even offered to baby sit! As a plus, the barbecue was extremely delicious.

This is exactly what we wanted when we decided to move down south. When we lived in New York, we found it hard to establish a busy social life for ourselves. Our social life was pretty decent before Daniel was born but rapidly deteriorated after the birth of the baby, since it is so hard to travel around New York with a baby. Even before the baby, it was sometimes hard to work out the logistics of meeting up with people. For example, I had a girlfriend that lived less than five miles from me. By car, it would have taken me about 10 minutes to get to her place, but using the subway system I had to take 2 trains or buses and spend 30 minutes to an hour depending on the time of the year. In Atlanta it is so much easier. We pile up in a car and go. It does not matter if our friends live 2 miles or 20 miles from us, it is easy! And I am loving it, loving my car, and our growing social life.

Unfortunately, once again, my camera remained in the bag for the whole evening, so I have no pictures to share. Luckily, one of the girls we met with is having a Christmas party at her house next weekend. Hopefully, I will not forget to bust out my camera then.

Let me get back to our weekend. On Saturday, we invited my mother and grandmother over and we built our very first Gingerbread house. It was a fun experience for all of us. I think it will become our new family tradition. This year Daniel was just trying to grab everything within his reach (and beyond). Hopefully, next year he will be able to help us decorate. Oh, let me tell you a big secret, Stephen is really good at decorating with icing. I was so surprised, please do not tell him I told you :)

On Sunday, we decorated our Christmas tree and I finished wrapping up presents. I am pretty impressed with myself as I am almost finished with my Christmas shopping. In fact, I have only three presents to buy now (I have nine of them wrapped already). And guess who is left on my list - Stephen and Daniel. You would think that I would buy those presents first, would not you? I just see so many different options of presents, and it is so hard to decide, especially for Daniel. I guess I should just go ahead and buy him a toy and be done with it. I think I just might do it.

I will leave you with a crappy picture of our Christmas tree. I promise our tree looks much more beautiful in real life. I really got to figure out my camera. Most of my pictures come out blurry or out of focus or with the colors all wrong. Any suggestions?

Daniel is walking!!!

I am very-very happy to announce that Daniel started walking today. Of course he needs us to hold him below his armpits to help him with his balance, but he is moving his feet! He looks so cute when he does it and looks so proud of himself. Even funnier is the fact that he will only walk when one person is holding him and another is calling him. I tried to get him to walk when nobody else was home and he would not do it! Too funny!!! He really dislikes being on his stomach or when we place him on all fours, he always tries to stand up or wiggle his way to a sitting position. He loves to stand though!!! And now to walk!!! He just might be one of those babies that never crawl.



Sorry for the quality of the video - it was taken with a cell phone.

Holiday Raffle for CANON REBEL

I do not usually do these things but this one struck pretty close to my heart. MckMama at My Charming Kids is raffling away an amazing Canon Rebel camera package for a cause. All proceeds go to three charities (String of Pearls, No Hands But Ours, and Elison Project) and we get a chance to win a very cool camera and accessories. Just click on the Rebel for A Cause button that I placed on my sidebar and you can read more about it. Wish we luck as I have been drooling over this camera for a long-long time!!!

Doctor's appointment

I have not posted this before, but Daniel has been battling an ear infection for the past month or so. I was very nervous about leaving to New York and having Stephen deal with a sick baby. However, he seemed to be doing a little better by the middle of last week. I decided that they will be fine. Guess what, he did not do very well on Thursday night and, after taking me to the airport, Stephen took Daniel to the doctor. Daniel's ears did not look like they've been treated at all! That is after THREE courses of antibiotics. The doctor prescribed a new antibiotic and some numbing ear drops. We will have to go for another checkup on Wednesday or Thursday of this week, and if his ears do not look any better we will have to go to an ENT and maybe have tubes placed in Daniel's ears. Daniel does seem to be doing better now. So I hope that this medicine is working.

On the brighter note, Stephen asked the doctor to go ahead and do the 9 months check up (even though Daniel is only 8.5 months right now). Well, Daniel is 26.5lbs and almost 30" as of last Friday. He is off the charts for weight, in 90% for height, and 95% for head circumference. Way to go baby! He is rapidly growing out of 12-months and even 18-months clothes. This is crazy! The doctor does not seem too worried though, since Daniel is so big in all his measurements.

I really need to start taking more pictures. Right now my picture-taking is sporadic. I take a lot of pictures one day and then none for a while. I really want to include more pictures in my posts. I think I need to put post-it notes around the house, in my diaper bag (I mean Daniel's of course), wallet, etc. just to remind myself. Mumnesia - what can I do?!? :)

Bad idea!

I am begging anybody and everybody who considers me their friend, to NEVER let me drive long distances on a holiday weekend. This is the WORST idea ever. Let me fill you in. A few weeks ago my mother, her husband, and my grandmother finally decided to move to Atlanta from New York. I will spare you most of the details. Let me just say that my family decided that the Thanksgiving weekend is the best time for them to move. Stephen usually does not discourage me or my mother from doing anything but this time he STRONGLY suggested that we pick a different weekend to move. And boy was he right!!!! (My new mantra is: "I should listen to my husband! I should listen to my husband!" :) )

I flew up to New York on Friday after the Thanksgiving. The flight was easy and non-eventful. My mother and step-dad came to pick me up at JFK airport. The 20 mile drive to their apartment took almost 2 hours. We really should have taken that as the sign of things to come.

I had a wonderful night Friday hanging out with my aunt Eda, who is the sweetest and most genuine person I know. I love her so much and appreciate her putting me up for the night.

On Saturday my mother and I went to pick up the truck and couple of movers showed up to load. The loading was done by about 12 noon and we were on the road. It is about 875 miles from Brooklyn, NY to Roswell, GA. It should take about 14 to 16 hours to drive that distance at a leisurely pace, stopping for bathroom breaks and to eat. We were going to take our time and stop at a hotel somewhere along the way. I am not going to describe the whole trip here, let me just say that it took over 10 hours to drive 300 miles on the first day!!! It was absolutely horrible!!! We got a hotel on the other side of Richmond, VA and had a decent night sleep. We really thought that since most of the bigger cities were behind us, we would have no problem the rest of the way. Well, guess what - it took us over 12 hours to drive the remaining 500-some miles!!!!

However, I do have a sense of accomplishment and some muscle pains today - I drove the 17' truck all the way from New York to Atlanta BY MYSELF!!!! My mum was in the cab with me but it was me who did all the driving! I am so proud of myself! And I did not realize that driving can cause muscle pain. I guess truck drivers have very strong shoulder muscles.

Bad, bad idea!!!! And guess what, we will be doing this again over Christmas! We are going to go see Stephen's side of the family in Shreveport, LA. However, we will be driving at night since Daniel will be with us and he does not do too good on long journeys so we are hoping that he will sleep through most of it.

Well, I am done complaining. We dropped off the truck today and I can relax now. I forgot to take a picture with the truck, I wish I did.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! This is a very special Thanksgiving for us! It is the first time that we are celebrating the Holidays as a family of three. I am very thankful for our beautiful son, who brings us joy and laughter everyday. I am thankful for my wonderful husband, who is the most caring person I know. I am thankful to him for providing so well for Daniel and me, and for being such an amazing father to our son. I am thankful that my whole family lives in the US now, I love you all! I am also thankful for all my friends who helped me survive the first few months after my son's birth with almost all my sanity intact :)



This year we did not go to visit our family so I wanted to cook a true American Thanksgiving meal. I made Brined and Roasted Turkey, ham, scalloped potatoes, mac-and-cheese, salad, rolls, and gravy. To finish off we had Russian style apple cake (I just had to throw something Russian in there) and ice cream with strawberries. This is my first attempt ever at cooking turkey and it is good!!! I know it is tasty as my biggest critic really enjoyed the turkey. I was going to put a picture of Daniel eating my turkey here, but all the pictures we took today turned out crappy :(

I have got to sign off now, as it is time to go wash off that turkey of Daniel's face and hair. Happy Thanksgiving everybody!!!

Dinner with Ilana

Couple of days ago Daniel and I went to an early dinner with my friend Ilana. Ilana was the Made of Honor at my wedding and is my dear friend from college. We had a great time catching up without her fiance and my husband :). Daniel behaved like a little gentleman, I think he really likes Ilana:

He also really enjoyed eating his favorite baby cookies and trying Mexican food:

Actually, he seems to like any and all food right now and I hope this lasts. More about that at a later time.