A little lump of Cole

Saying goodbye to Blogger

2009-06-02T11:55:00.003-04:00

This blog is moving! I started a new blog http://sashastephen.wordpress.com/. I was able to transfer all my posts and comments to the new blog. I am still trying to figure out how to move my blogroll etc. I am going to be posting on the http://sashastephen.wordpress.com/ from now on. So please come visit and leave a comment!

Dillard House - More Pictures

2009-05-31T22:35:00.001-04:00

Believe it or not, I have more pictures to post from our trip. In fact, I have so many, that I decided to create collages, otherwise it would take me many more posts to finish our trip diary.

Here are some more views from around Dillard House:
I had to post this picture separately. Dillard House has a famous Southern restaurant. They serve food "family style" which means they bring EVERYTHING on the menu to the table. It is a little different from the Texas-style Southern food that I am used to eating at my in-laws house. But it was still great. The only disappointment for me was that they did not have mac-n-cheese :( I am a huge mac-n-cheese fan! :) (By the way Krystal, I do not remember if I ever told you, we LOVE your mac-n-cheese recipe, I make it all the time!)
There are stables and a petting zoo at the Dillard House. Daniel was not so sure about the animals. He was curious and would stay calm as long as one of us was holding him.
We came across this absolutely gorgeous waterfall that you can drive under! It was so beautiful! Click on the collage to see the pictures larger. The sky blew out in some of the pictures but you still can see water in some of them.
We rented a canoe. We bought a Body Glove for Daniel, he looked so funny in it with the huge body and skinny butt! He was a little nervous about all that water in the beginning but soon started trying to move around the boat, which was not OK with us since canoes are so tippy. So to keep him still, we fed him a whole banana, part of an apple and he ate almost the entire contents of his Snack Trap! That did the trick. I know you are getting tired of reading the same words over and over again, but it was absolutely, incredibly beautiful!
The last installment of our trip pictures to follow shortly...

Artistic Attempts - Flowers

2009-05-28T16:15:00.008-04:00

WARNING - Lots of pictures!

I have been trying to learn photography and flowers are my latest project. I got really excited when I saw many different flowers at the Dillard House, here are some of my more successful attempts of photographing flowers.

Dillard House - Our room and on the way to dinner

2009-05-28T13:47:00.004-04:00

The Dillard House in Dillard, Georgia has been open as a restaurant and hotel for almost 100 years. Many famous people, including a few presidents have stayed there in the past.

Our room was HUGE, Daniel had plenty of room to run around:
There were rocking chairs on the balcony out back, Daniel really enjoyed them:

View from our back balcony:

View from our front door:
On the way to dinner, Daniel was not sure about all the animals at the Dillard House. He wanted to look at them as long as Stephen or I were holding him :)

On the way to Dillard, Georgia

2009-05-27T15:38:00.009-04:00

We really wanted to get away for the long weekend. Stephen and I went on our last vacation when I was about 3 months pregnant with Daniel, so it has been almost 2 years. We needed to get away! I really wanted to go to the beach, but all the decent places that still had openings were ridiculously expensive.

Stephen, on the other hand, prefers mountains to the beach and somebody told us about a resort in the mountains only about 2 hours away from Atlanta. I was not too excited but decided that something is better than nothing and that a weekend away with my boys would be great no matter where we went. I loved it! I want to go back! It is so incredibly beautiful! If you guys ever have an opportunity to come to the Dillard, GA/Highlands, NC/Gatlinburg, TN area we highly recommend it! So breathtakingly, incredibly beautiful! But enough talking, here are pictures!

On the way we stopped at a little trading post at Tallulah Falls. Here are the views from there:

They had this chair on the porch, Daniel really seemed to enjoy it:

It was getting close to lunch, so we gave Daniel his Snack Trap to postpone feeding him for a little while. Here is what we saw after a few minutes. If you enlarge this picture, you will see his face, chest, and car sear covered in crumbs. Even after falling asleep he did not let go of his Snack Trap. Funny boy! :)

Vegetarian Moussaka

2009-05-27T15:24:00.003-04:00

My maternal grandfather was Bulgarian and I was raised eating Mediterranean food at home. I still like to cook it once in a while. So the other day I decided to make some Moussaka with Eggplant and found this great recipe. Stephen, Daniel and I all highly recommend it. It was a little labor intensive, but the result is totally worth it!

I am still sorting through almost 400 pictures that we took in the three days that we were upstate. Wow, this is not easy! I am uploading all of the pictures to our picture archive. I think I will have to separate the trip into a few posts! Coming soon...

The post in which I b*&%h and moan...

2009-05-26T22:38:00.001-04:00

There have been a few different posts recently that have struck a cord with me and I am going to moan and complain and b$tch about it here and now. Normally, I would probably skip this discussion, but I guess my hormones are making me less complacent right now. I have to get it out.

I read a post a few days ago by my cousin Krystal about potty training her son. She takes a great attitude about it. Her son is 23 months old and whether he decides that he is ready to go on the potty now or not, she will be fine with it. That is the attitude that I would love to take too. However, there are a few people in my life who will not let me rest until they make me feel absolutely horrible. Because, I was potty trained by the time I was 12 months and my son is 14 months already and still in diapers!!! Ohmygod, right!

What those people completely forget is this: 29 years ago when I was an infant there were NO disposable diapers available in the Soviet Union AND 99% of households did not have a washing machine. Which meant daily hand washing of stacks upon stacks of diapers, swaddling cloths, diaper covers, sheets, blankets, etc. You cannot even imagine what that washing was like. The water heater could not get the water hot enough to wash poopy diapers well enough. So before starting to wash the diapers by hand , they had to boil them. I mean we had a huge boiling pot, that covered the entire stove top and took all 4 ranges to warm up. They would put all the diapers, etc. and water in there and set it to boil with some chemicals that helped get rid of the poo stains. Then, they would transfer the diapers to a bucket and carry them to the tub and dump them in there to start the actual washing and rinsing. After that was done, they still had to be wrung out and hung. They used to hang all that stuff out around the apartment, balconies or between buildings. Plus, the doctors strongly suggested that everything needs to be sterilized, so after everything was dry, they ironed everything on BOTH sides! Grandparents visits were not to hang out with the babies, but to help with all the washing. We lived with my grandparents for a while when I was little and my grandma would come home from work and start on the diapers, etc., then wake up at 5am to iron them. Can you imagine such a life!!!

So it probably comes as no surprise that they started to stick babies on the potties as soon as the babies could sit up. I mean I would too, who would not!?! Plus, it was easy to tell how often the child pees since the diaper would get soaked right away. I still do not know how often my son pees, I am down to about 6 diapers a day now and he seems fine. Some people tell me that I am lazy and that is why I do not put him on the potty. I did put him on the potty a few times and he does not mind it, but he is NOT ready to tell me when he needs to go since he does not mind being wet or soiled. He never did. Some babies cry when they need to be changed, but not Daniel, his diaper does not bother him EVER! And never did.

Yesterday I went out for a dinner with my girlfriend and forgot to change Daniel's diaper on time. When I got him out of the high chair his pants and legs were soaked. But he did not care, in fact he objected to the diaper changing!

OK, I am actually gonna stop now. This post started with me complaining and turned into a cultural comparison of diapering babies. I have a few other things that I want to talk about but I am going to save all that for another post.

I need to go to bed now, we came back from Northern Georgia today after three nights in the foothills of Smoky Mountains. I have a million pictures, will post soon.

Wedding reception and 3 Months - 6 more to go!

2009-05-18T12:19:00.007-04:00

This Saturday Stephen and I went to a wedding reception of one of Stephen's oldest friends. Stephen met the guy on the second day of college in Auburn back when they were 17 or 18 years old. The guy and his wife both work in Antarctica for 6 Months out of the year and come back to US for the other 6. This was not their actual wedding, they got married in Antarctica back in December. So they were holding a reception here for all their family and friends. Unfortunately, I managed to forget my camera once again and so do not have any pictures of the reception. Hopefully, they will post some online and I can post some here.

When we got home I realized that it was the 16th of May, which meant that I was exactly 3 months pregnant based on the first day of my last period. Woo-Hoo! Only 6 months and 1 week to go or as my ticker keeps reminding me - 189 days! :) Here is me at 3 months pregnant (please ignore the double chin and crazy half-smile, it was almost midnight and I had been on my feet, in those heels, for 6+ hours. Actually, I almost cropped my head out of the pictures :) )

Oh, and the number one ~~silly~~ reason I love being pregnant is....... boobs! Which any gal that has not been blessed with ample cleavage will tell you is ALWAYS a bonus! ;)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-05-13T11:36:00.001-04:00

My Mother's Day in Pictures...

2009-05-11T23:39:00.014-04:00

First thing in the morning, I got a beautiful card hand-delivered by this charming boy:

If you enlarge the picture, you can see "Mom" written on the envelope, that made me tear up :)

After a quick breakfast, we decided to head to the Atlanta Zoo. We went to the Petting Zoo first - Daniel was not too sure about the goats. He found the perfect hiding spot though:

He did come out a little bit, but still would not touch any animals.

Here I am in my super preggy dress. I love making myself looking even more pregnant than I am :) Anybody can relate? Or am I just crazy?

Daniel was fascinated by the giant pandas. This one was taking a nap

And this one too :)

And than my camera died :( I was not happy with myself! Nevertheless, we had a wonderful time seeing all the different animals. Daniel was so funny, when he would see an animal, he would point at it and then look up at one of us and make sure that we saw it too. We went ahead and got a year membership. We think Daniel is at the point where he can gain a lot from going to the Zoo often.

I loved my First Mother's day last year, it was so special, but Daniel was only 2 months old and really too young to participate (although he did give me a card). This year was so much more fun, Daniel is getting to be so interactive and fun, he even "signed" the card for me. Maybe next year he can draw me a picture! And next year I will be the mother of two, which will make the Mother's Day that much more special!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!

2009-05-09T23:14:00.006-04:00

As crazy as it sounds I am going to celebrate my second Mother's Day as a mother while being pregnant with our #2. Woo-Hoo. I never thought about it , but this is my second pregnancy in two years! Two years ago I was not even pregnant with Daniel!

I want to wish my Mother, grandmothers, Stephen's Mother and Grandmothers, our aunts and cousins a Happy Mother's day! May your day be filled with many pleasant surprises!

My Mother and I (Mom is 25 and I am 14 months old)

Mom and I (I am about 13 months old)

My Grandma Inna and I (about 2 years old)

My Grandma Inna, my Aunt Marina, and I

And here is the first picture of Daniel and I upon arriving from the hospital (Daniel is 3 days old)

I am still here

2009-05-06T23:54:00.004-04:00

Just wanted to let everybody know that everything is going fine here. This pregnancy is kicking my tushie :) I am constantly hungry and sleepy! I am at 11 weeks right now, and I am hoping that once I am done with my first trimester, I will feel more up to doing stuff, including updating this blog.

We are still taking pictures of our family, though and I did update our picture archive this past weekend. So, if you want to see some new pictures (including the Easter pics) please click here.

Favorite Foto Friday - My little musician

2009-04-23T22:02:00.003-04:00

Whose pictures are those?

2009-04-22T20:37:00.002-04:00

Here is a little game for you guys. Leave a comment and guess whose picture is where. Whoever answers right first will get a prize. I have no idea what it is yet, but I will come up with something neat for you, I promise!

Picture #1

Picture #2

I wonder what else he inherited...

2009-04-22T16:02:00.005-04:00

One of my mother's favorite stories about me is that I used to sleep on my knees with my bottom sticking up in the air all the time when I was little.! Well, guess what, apparently this is another characteristic that is genetic, who knew?

Sorry for the quality of the pictures, they were taken with a cell-phone this morning.

I guess the hormones are starting to kick in...

2009-04-21T22:45:00.004-04:00

I put a Lilipie.com pregnancy ticker on my sidebar on the left and now it is depressing me! According to the ticker I have 216 days to go. 216!!! Come on! Could not they use weeks instead? I know I have over 30 weeks left, but that just sounds so much better than 216 days.

Totally Worth It! - Chocolate Pudding

2009-04-21T17:32:00.003-04:00

Sorry for this post, Krystal, I know you are trying to eat healthier. :)

I usually do not do this, but I saw this recipe on the Today Show on NBC yesterday and I made it. OH MY GOD! It is SO-SO-SO good! Unfortunately, I did not take pictures of my version of the pudding, I whipped my own cream and put a lot more of it on top, plus I added strawberries. Stephen and the rest of my family were in hog haven! I really-really suggest it, plus it takes about 20 minutes to make, and NO BAKING!

Chocolate pudding recipe

P.S. Krystal, you can substitute no-fat milk and artificial sweetener to make this desert healthier.

Daniel Update

2009-04-20T00:03:00.000-04:00

I really should have made myself blog in the last month or so because now I have tons of pictures and stories to share. But first, I want to update on Daniel's accomplishments.

Shortly after his first Birthday Daniel decided that it is fun to walk on his own, but ONLY between Mommy and Daddy. He could do that the whole night!

About a week after he started walking by himself, Daniel started crawling. This kid does everything in his own order. Who said that most kids crawl first and walk later? That is not for Daniel, he makes his own schedule!

I am going a little crazy now. I have a VERY active toddler in my house now! And all I want to do is sleep! He answers to his name only when he feels like it and pretends not to hear me when it suits him. We got to buy a few more baby gates for our apartment next week! And cover some plugs, or I will go bold and gray-haired before my time!!! :) :)

Now is my turn to tell you what a good and compassionate mother I am. :) Since Daniel started walking holding on two or three months ago he has had multiple bumps and small boo-boos. Well, couple of days ago, Stephen, Daniel and I were outside on our apartment's playground and Daniel was climbing up and down the stairs of the play set when I decided that Daniel might enjoy going through a tunnel at the playground. So I put him on all-fours at the opening of the tunnel and started pushing him through the tunnel. And guess what happened? He did not move his arms forward and ended up falling on his face and busting his nose. When Stephen and I saw that blood was running out of his nose we grabbed Daniel and went home. By the time we got home Daniel stopped crying so I, being the good and compassionate mother that I am grabbed my camera and got a picture (or two :) ):

Also, a few days ago I asked Stephen to change Daniel's shirt because Daniel was hot. This is what Daniel looked like:

Oh, and I almost forgot, Daniel got his tooth #6 on 4/16/09.

Have you.....?

2009-04-18T22:53:00.002-04:00

I've seen this on another blog, so I lifted it! :) The things I've done are in bold.

1. Started your own blog (Here you are!)
2. Slept under the stars (Does camping count?)
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disney World (When I was 16 - in Paris)
8. Climbed a mountain (I took ski lifts to the mountain, does that count?)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo ( Don't remind me!)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris (my mum gave me a week-long trip as a gift for my sweet 16)
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea (with my dad on his sail boat when I was about 13 or 14)
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning (I am sure I did, just do not remember the circumstances, I think I blocked it out)
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables (my parents had a house in a village when I was little, I used to grow lots of different vegetables, we had fruit trees too)
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France (on my Birthday-gift trip when I was 16)
20. Slept on an overnight train (many-many times in Ukraine and a few times traveling from Ukraine to Bulgaria)
21. Had a pillow fight (doesn't every kid?)
22. Hitch hiked (I am not sure we called it that back then. When I was 15-16 years old, instead of calling a cab, I used to just hail a car and go places. Everybody did this! Now I am think of it in horror, can you imagine a 15-16 year-old girl doing this nowadays! And what could happen to her!)
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (ssshhhhhhhh)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (Again, I am sure I did it but no details)
26. Gone skinny dipping ( I'm not telling!)
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (who hasn't?)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (from Cyprus to Israel when I was 15)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (my grandfather was from Bulgaria and I went there many times, I also visited the village where he grew up)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language ( English!)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing (climbing over rocks, hee-hee)
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (God, please NEVER let me do this again!)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa (I visited Egypt in 2006 with my mother)
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight (many times!)
46. Been transported in an ambulance (yeah, I hailed an ambulance as a cab once, see #22 :) )
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris (when I was 16)
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling (When Stephen and I went to Dominican Republic couple of years ago)
52. Kissed in the rain (no comment...)
53. Played in the mud (mud-cakes, anyone? LOL)
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business (well, I am helping my mother start a business right now)
58. Taken a martial arts class (I have an orange belt and 3 medals in Judo, who would have thunk it!)
59. Visited Russia (let me see, when did I do this? hee-hee)
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies ( only I ate them before I delivered them! >GASP<) 62. Gone whale watching ( While in Hawaii! LOL) 63. Got flowers for no reason (I think so...)
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp (well, actually a Jewish World War II cemetery in Kiev, over a million Jews buried there, do not like to think about being there...)
67. Bounced a check (sadly, yes. A time or two!)
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial (In 2003, one semester before I finished college)
71. Eaten Caviar (I AM from Russia! In fact I have some Red Caviar in my fridge now)
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square (we lived in New York for 4 years!)
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job (from my first "real" job ever as a waitress)
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London (I went to boarding school in England for two years, visited London many times)
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle (just once in my life, scared me to death, will NEVER get on a motorcycle again)
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (last year! My brand new beautiful 2009 Toyota Camry!)
83. Walked in Jerusalem (when I was 15)
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible (but am not sure that I understood much of it, I went for one year of a Christian University in Kiev and the Bible teacher made us read multiple chapters from the Bible for each class. He got mad when we asked questions about what we read!)
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox (When I was four)
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one (my brother passed away two years ago)
94. Had a baby (No comment required)
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day (many a time, I read all the time)

The Belly-Bump-Fairy visits again

2009-04-14T21:56:00.006-04:00

It has been almost a month since I posted. I guess I went through a writer's block back in March and the longer I did not post, the harder it became to come back to posting. So much stuff has happened in the last four weeks. The most important of it being...

that Stephen and I are expecting our second child on November 23rd. We are super excited. We had our first doctor's appointment on Monday and everything looks great. The baby is exactly on target with the size and the heart beat looks very strong. Here is the first picture of our baby:

Stephen thought that the little pointy thing on the lower edge of the baby is a little wee-wee :) If you click on the picture, you will see that it is actually a measuring cursor :) So the sex of the baby is still in the air and will be for the next 8 to 12 weeks. I do not think that I would be able to wait until the delivery to find out if it is a boy or a girl.

Oh, my god! My body definitely remembers how to be pregnant! I am only 2 months pregnant and already look like I am 4 months:

[picture taken today]

Birthday Party

2009-03-20T23:50:00.000-04:00

On Sunday the 15th, we had a birthday party for Daniel. Sasha rented out a European restaurant and we invited family and friends to celebrate with us. My parents came over from Louisiana, Sasha's grandparents came over from Alabama, and we had friends come over from various places. Sasha bought Daniel a really cool birthday outfit. Here he is looking like one of the Sopranos.

Sasha and her mother made a poster full of photos of Daniel throughout his first year. It really turned out nice. Everybody loved it. (Click on the picture to see the pictures and captions on each of them)

Daniel is really coming along with his walking. Actually, it's all he wants to do anymore. Lately he has been holding onto only one hand and is getting his balance really well. He loves to dance too.

That smile gets me every time. You can't hear it, but he usually squeaks when he does it.

Finally, a picture with the three of us together. One of us is usually holding the camera.

This is a collage of our family and friends. We ordered about three times as much food as we needed, so everyone had plenty. I think we still have some leftovers in the refrigerator. The food was delicious.

We hired a clown named Tater to entertain the kids. She did some magic tricks and made hats and animals with balloons. At first, things were a little odd, but the kids quickly warmed up to her and ended up having a great time. Daniel was most interested in her suitcase which was decorated with all kinds of trinkets. He pulled a few off, but I don't think that she noticed. She made balloon hats for all the kids, but Daniel was not having any of it. So other people were made to wear it, like Sasha's Grandmother, cousin David and Sasha.

Just about the time we decided to give Daniel his cake, he started getting sleepy. We had a full-body bib to protect Daniel, but it was probably unnecessary. He didn't give us the show we expected, but it was funny anyway. I ended up getting more icing on me than Daniel did on himself, but Sasha took my clothes to the cleaners yesterday.

Happy Birthday, Baby Boy! We love you so-so much!

Written by Stephen

How many people does it take...

2009-03-19T21:53:00.005-04:00

....to cut a baby boy's nails?

Are you counting?

Still counting?

How about now?

Wait for it...

Wait for it...

If you counted FOUR, you are right! Mommy and Daddy to entertain and the two grandmothers to hold/cut. How does nail-cutting go in your house?

Stephen's Birthday Dinner

2009-03-17T19:29:00.001-04:00

It was Friday, the 13th. Are you scared yet? Well, you should be! Read on to find the horror :)

I know, I know these posts are supposed to be all about Daniel and his Birthday and Stephen's Birthday is not for another 3 weeks. However, his parents are not going to be able to come back and celebrate Stephen's BIG 4-0 with him, so they wanted to take him out. Plus I had an idea for a Birthday present for Stephen that I knew he wanted and needed. I suggested the idea to John, Monnie, and my mum and everybody agreed to chip in.

John, Monnie, and I selected a Persian Restaurant and made a reservation. The decor looked very authentic, they had both "beds" and tables. We chose to sit at a table, but I think we will try to sit on a bed when we go back, however my legs might not be able to handle sitting cross-legged for so long.

Ok, back to my story. Stephen just thought that his parents wanted to take us all for dinner, he had absolutely no suspicion that something different was going on. So he was completely shocked when his parents gave him a card and a small box. They told him to open the box first and there were Star Wars Lego figures there. Stephen started laughing, he used to ask for those when they first came out 30 years ago. He then opened the envelope and his eyes got HUGE when he saw a check there with a note "for Lasik surgery". He was so-so happy! It was amazing!

Stephen has been wearing glasses since he was 8 years old. He hates those things and his eyes are so sensitive that he cannot wear contact lenses. He has been talking about getting Lasik for as long as I have known him. But it was always put on the back burner, Stephen always had something more important to take care of. This year would have been no different since we are trying to save for a house. But now he has no excuse!

Warning! Do not read ahead if you are easily grossed out!

We had some great appetizers and entrees, and had just ordered a dessert when Daniel started getting a little cranky. So Stephen picked Daniel up and set Daniel on his lap facing away from him. About a second later Stephen exclaimed (and I am NOT being dramatic): "OMG, look at this, Daniel had a blow-out!" At this point I was really surprised what was causing Stephen to have such an extreme reaction since Daniel has a few diaper blow-outs a week and we just deal with it. So I just set in my seat (as did Monnie and John) and looked at Stephen. Stephen then said "isn't anybody going to help me?" So I walked around the table and saw it. Stephen was right: OH MY GOD! The poop was everywhere! All the way down Stephen's nice work shirt, on his sleeve and a little bit on his light slacks! This was one of the worst ever. I grabbed Daniel and Stephen proceeded to remove his shirt right in the middle of the restaurant. He got as much as he could off his pants. I did have a spare outfit for Daniel in the diaper bag, but, of course, that restaurant did not have a changing table in the bathroom. And it was raining outside. So we stuffed a bunch of napkins down the back of Daniel's pants, canceled our desert, lined Daniel's car seat with a bunch more napkins and drove home like mad people. Such a great ending to a wonderful dinner! :) Thank you Daniel for great memories! And the little horrors!

Daniel is One Year Old!

2009-03-16T21:06:00.006-04:00

Happy 1st Birthday, Daniel!

Yes, it is true, we have a toddler! Pretty crazy, isn't it? I am supposed to be a baby myself. :)

To say the least we had a crazy, busy, fun, and exciting weekend. This year my Birthday was not very exciting for me - you've heard this story before. Daniel's Birthday was completely different! I felt like a 6-years old on a Christmas morning! I had organized a few different events, parties and get-togethers. I am going to split them into a few different posts to make them simpler to read.

On Daniel's Birthday Stephen's parents John and Monnie drove in from Shreveport, Louisiana to visit and celebrate with us. We were so happy to see them. They have not seem Daniel since Christmas, and that is a long time at his age! Unfortunately, my mother was not able to be there when John and Monnie got here in the evening since she is taking English classes 5 times a week. Daniel did not remember his grandparents, but it did not take him long to warm up to them and start playing around. We had so much fun opening presents and hanging out.

Here he is with some of his presents, I am not going to enumerate all of them here, there were a LOT! Thank you Mom, Dad, and Gigi for all of your thoughtful and beautiful gifts. I am sure that Daniel will enjoy playing with the presents for a long time and will keep the keep-sakes that you got him for a long-long time!

My Grandmother Lida got Daniel this amazing slide, Daniel wants to keep sliding down it NON-STOP! He is wearing us out!

We kept Daniel up a little too late and he was NOT in the mood for the apple cake I made. We did manage to get a few cute pictures:

Daniel's Stats at 1 year

2009-03-16T19:35:00.000-04:00

I am still working on all those pictures from Daniel's Birthday weekend (we took close to 400), so I thought that I would post the results of Daniel's one-year check-up on 3/13/09. His stats are as follows:

Weight: 30 9 1/2" - off the charts
Height: 31 7/8" - 95%ile
Head Circumference: 50cm - off the charts

As I keep on saying, a teeny-tiny baby, oups toddler boy :)

The doctor also checked him out thoroughly and said: "remarkably healthy baby". Which made me very proud, of course. Daniel had a little runny nose and doctor said that it was no big deal. So, over the course of the weekend, Daniel managed to get a little worse, so now we have a very runny nose and a cough. We will see how he progresses, I might have to take him back to the doctor.

Here is a teaser for the upcoming Birthday posts, Daniel in his First Birthday Party Outfit:

A year ago...

2009-03-16T19:30:00.000-04:00

In the days before Daniel's Birthday I found myself reminiscing about what was happening exactly a year ago. Funnily enough, I used to listen to my grandparents reminisce and thought that only old people did this. I guess I am getting old :)

I am posting a few of my favorite pictures from the first three days of Daniel's life. Please disregard my swollen face :)

Daniel at a few minutes of life:

Drugged up and happy mommy with her new baby (by the way, I am not sure if I was high on drugs or on Daniel, see the picture of Stephen and Daniel below. Stephen was definitely not taking anything!):

Happy grandma, Daniel about 6 hours old:

I think those newborn toes are too funny!

New Daddy with his baby-drug:

Day 3 of life, on the way home:

First day at home, sleeping peacefully in Mommy's arms:

Auburn Reunion

2009-03-16T11:42:00.007-04:00

I am so behind on my posting! Again! We were so busy this past weekend. Daniel turned one on Thursday, we had lots of visitors, parties and fun. But about this later...

First, I want to write about a wonderful party we went to a little over a week ago. When we moved to Atlanta, Stephen reconnected with his friends from Auburn. On March 7th Candice and Eric had a party at their house for the Auburn friends and their families. There were so many nice pictures from the party, that I decided to create collages. (You can click on each collage to enlarge it and see the pictures in more detail.)

Candice and Eric have a beautiful house with an UNBELIEVABLE deck. If they ever want to sell their house, I would buy it right away just for the deck! The deck has many different levels with recessed hot tub, fire pit area, dining area, hammock, play area, etc. It is huge! And perfect for parties.

Eric built a zip-line for his children, Stephen and I wanted to play around on it too :
Here are we around the fire pit table making s'mores, drinking beer and hanging out. Daniel was a perfect baby the whole day. He got tired, so he took a little nap on his dad's chest. He woke up after a little while and was so cuddly and warm. He does not usually let us cuddle him for a long time, but during that evening he was content with just sitting on our laps and flirting with all the ladies (of course ;) ).
Candice set up a Chocolate Fountain for all to enjoy. Kids definitely went to town on it. I am not sure if any of them slept that night :)

F-R-E-E (with a catch!)

2009-03-13T22:59:00.001-04:00

F-R-E-E (with a catch!)

to the first 5 people who comment on this post will get something made by me! Lucky you!

My choice. For you.

This offer does have some restrictions and limitations:

I make no guarantees that you will like what I make!
What I create will be just for you.
It'll be done this year.
You have no clue what it's going to be. It may be a joke or a book. It may be poetry or an article on cleaning your home. I may do you a favor. I may bake you something and mail it to you. Who knows? Not you, that's for sure!
I reserve the right to do something extremely strange.

The catch? Oh, the catch is that you must re-post this on your blog and offer the same to the first 5 people who do the same on your blog. Oh, and be sure to post a picture of what you win when you get it!

Little fish

2009-03-08T13:06:00.013-04:00

In the Fall I looked and looked for a good swimming program for Daniel. We tried a few before settling on Atlanta Swim Academy. If you live in Roswell or Marietta, I highly recommend it. Unfortunately, we were able to take only one lesson before Daniel's chronic ear infection started. And after he got the tubes, he had a sinus infection. So it was not until last week that I was able to go to the pool and get our lessons restarted. I took Daniel by myself for our first class, and it was wonderful (no picture from that one since I was in the water with Daniel and I do not want anybody to see me in my swim suit anyway ;-) ).

My mother is an avid swimmer, she is one of the best swimmers I know. Even before Daniel was born she talked about the importance of swimming for babies. She emailed me a bunch of articles advocating early introduction of babies to water. So I thought it was only fair to let her take Daniel swimming. Our swimming pool has a "one child - one parent only in the water" policy, so I stayed on the edge of the pool and took about a hundred pictures. I am going to have to restrain myself from posting too many :)

Our little boy is just like his mommy - loves the water:

"I want to jump in again, but first I need to get out":

"Here I go":

"I can swim AND check all the girls out":

Another attempt at getting out of the pool:

My mum grabbed a noodle from the side of the pool and Daniel would swim around without being supported, it just might be that we have a Michael Phelps in the making :) (I wish!)

It's nap time

2009-03-08T12:52:00.004-04:00

A few days ago I left Daniel in his room just before his nap time. I went to get his pre-nap bottle ready. When I walked back in I saw this (I put the blanket on him). He slept like this for over 2 hours. Silly boy! I guess when it is time to sleep, it is time to sleep!

Atlanta Aquarium

2009-03-05T21:20:00.017-05:00

WARNING! Way too many pictures!

OK, I am finally coming to the end of my posts about my Birthday Weekend. As my friend Lera was staying through Tuesday, I decided to take her to downtown Atlanta and show her some of the local sights.

After taking a quick tour of CNN and walking through the Beautiful Olympic Park, we went to the Atlanta Aquarium. And everybody if you are ever in Atlanta, make it a point to go to the Aquarium. It is HUGE and so beautiful. And Daniel really liked it. He was smiling and pointing at all the different fish the whole time.

These first couple pictures are dear to me because they are the first I have of Daniel standing all by himself (leaning on the glass)

These jelly fish were magnificent!

These were some type of eels, they grow to be 16-18 inches long and live like this:

Daniel was not sure about this giant fish at first, but warmed up pretty quickly:

This tank is either the largest or one of the largest in the world, it holds 6.3 MILLION gallons of water. Visitors can take scuba diving or snorkeling excursions in it. I want to do it so bad! A group was taking a tour of the tank when we were there. This is one of the instructors, I guess he was taking a rest ;-)

This tank was huge too, I liked this picture because there are reflections of two of the beluga whales on the surface:

They had a few petting pools, here is the one with sea anemones. They felt rubbery:

The piranhas looked suspended in the air:

This was a small tank with some of the most beautiful plants and a few small fish:

Daniel was fascinated with these alligators:

There seemed to be a million of multi-colored small fish in there:

I like the reflection of the rocks in the surface

My brother, Vladimir

2009-03-04T23:20:00.000-05:00

OK, I have started this post and abandoned it many times. I am going to try to finish and post it today finally.

January 5, 2009 marked two years anniversary of my younger brother Vladimir's death. We celebrated his memory with a dinner at my mother's apartment. This post is very hard for me as I never really was able to grieve fully or express my thoughts about my brother.

My brother had a terminal disease from birth. It occurred because of a gene mutation in utero. If non of the parents are carriers (and mine are not), there is about 1 in 36,000 chance that a child will be born with that disease. The disease ended up causing cancer and taking my brother's life at 24 years of age. Unfortunately, up until a few years ago I was not aware of his disease, and when I was little I did not understand and was very jealous of the preferential treatment that I felt he was getting from my parents and grandparents. I am slowly trying to forgive myself for teasing and picking at him when we were little. I just did not understand! I do not know if it would have been any different if my parents would have explained his condition to me. In Russia, up until this day, the doctors do not speak to patients directly, they speak to the closest relatives first, and the relatives decide how much to tell or not to tell the patients and other people. In fact, my brother himself did not know about his disease or the cancer as it started and progressed.

When Stephen proposed to me in January 2006, I knew that my brother was getting sicker so I pushed to have the wedding as soon as possible so that he would be able to be there. He was sick at the time of the wedding, but he was there and him and his wife were a part of our wedding party. He passed away about 7 months after the wedding. It was very special to me to have him around and help us celebrate my wedding.

Unfortunately, since I left home in 1995 (I was 15 at the time, my brother was 13), we did not keep in close contact with Vladimir. We saw each other and hung out some when I came home for vacations, spoke on the phone once a month or so, but we did not communicate often. The though of that makes me very sad. I lost so many years with my brother, and I cannot change that. I am trying to forgive myself for this too.

Vladimir was a very kind soul, I do not think that he ever harmed anybody or caused any pain. He was lucky enough to meet a girl that he fell in love with and marry her. They had 2.5 happy years together. I went to their wedding and he was on top of the world.

I just reread the above and it all feels so dry and unemotional, I feel like I did not express even tenth of my feelings in what I wrote. I am just not good with describing what I feel I guess. I might have to write another post about this, or maybe at least attempt it. I will leave you with this picture, taken at my wedding. I think it depicts how we felt towards each other. This is one of my most precious memories...

First Haircut

2009-03-01T20:40:00.008-05:00

About 10 days ago, I decided to trim Daniel's bangs. I figured how hard can it be. I just needed to trim a few hairs that were getting in his eyes. So Stephen sat Daniel on his lap and i got the baby scissors that came in the baby grooming kit and a little comb. I thought that I could do a quick snip before Daniel would notice anything. Not so fast, Sasha! :) Scissors were NOT cutting the hair and Daniel was NOT having any of it. Stephen and I were both surprised at the strength in that little body!

OK, take a break. Entertain Daniel and try to make him forget what just happened. I ran and got the adult scissors and Stephen decided to hold Daniel's head this time. Here we go again. The minute Daniel saw the scissors he started screaming as if we were slowly cutting his skin off. He was NOT NOT NOT happy! So while Stephen was trying to hold his head, I grabbed some hair and cut. To say that the result was horrible is to say nothing at all. I grabbed too much hair and cut it too short. One side was much longer than the other and crooked all over. At this point Daniel was screaming like we slowly cut off all his skin and now were putting some salt on it. I do not think I heard him scream like that EVER. So we decided just to let it rest and see what it looks like the next day.

When I went to get him the next day, I almost cried. My poor baby, momma butchered his hair! I tried to get out the scissors again but at the mere sight of them Daniel would start going into hysterics. So we decided to take him to a barber shop to get his hair cut. I figured that they are professionals and would know what to do with a baby. And to my surprise, Daniel behaved like a perfect baby, he never cried for a second, just sat and played with the toys that the lady gave him and looked around like he knew what he was doing.

Checking out his surroundings before the hair cut.

(Look at those rolls and dimples)

In the process, oh, so serious

Faux-hawk:

Doesn't he look like Elvis?

Daniel, Momma would like to promise you something. I will NEVER-EVER try to cut your hair ever again. The $17.99 is so worth your hair looking nice and me not having to torture you!

Favorite Foto Friday

2009-02-27T13:43:00.008-05:00

Anyone has an insight into what he was thinking? Please share!

Baby Shower

2009-02-27T12:43:00.010-05:00

I am still trying to catch up with all the things we did during my Birthday weekend. I think it will take couple more posts after this one to talk about all we did.

On Sunday, we went to a Baby Shower for our old friends Kelly and Tom. I've never been to a coed Baby Shower and it was a lot of fun. Kelly is due to have their firstborn son Bodi on March 23 and she looks too cute with the 8 Months big belly. Three of Kelly's best friends organized the shower and they did a very good job.

Here is Kelly (and Baby Bodi) and me:

Daniel, of course, could not miss a meal :) Stephen was trying to tease Daniel, but he was not paying attention, he had to eat. Did any of you, ladies, notice that you open your mouth when you feed your babies? Apparently, I do, my friend Lera caught it on film :)
They had a baby bottle drinking competition for the guys only. I tried to tell them to give a bottle to Daniel, but they did not, I guess they thought he is over-qualified. (The bottle was filled with water, by the way) Kelly and Tom had lots of baby-related gifts. We brought a baby grooming and emergency kit. I decided to bring a gag gift too. I brought a pink translucent negligee with feathers. Kelly and especially Tom loved it! And yes, Tom did wear Kelly's Mother-to-be tiara :)

I think Tom was more than excited, just look at his face - I think he is

thinking about starting on the second baby :)

Lera shot this beautiful picture of Stephen, I think it is awesome:

We had a blast:

And Daniel had to walk around constantly, being his precious self and flirting with all the ladies:

Happy Birthday to me!

2009-02-25T21:01:00.000-05:00

This year there are a lot of big Birthdays in my family. First one, of course, is Daniel turning one next month, and second - Stephen turning 40 in April. Since Christmas I've been thinking and making plans for those two Birthdays. This year my Birthday was really not that important to me. I turned 29 on the 21st of February. The older I get the less excited I am about my Birthdays. Plus 29 is almost 30, and I do not know anybody who looks forward to turning 30. :) It seems like when somebody turns 30, she really becomes an adult, does that make any sense? I am confusing myself, HA!

I guess because I did not have any expectations, I had the best Birthday! A few months ago Lera, my roommate and best friend from college in Kiev moved to New York to pursue a career in broadcasting. Unfortunately, she moved to New York about a month after we moved to Atlanta. We have been exchanging phone calls pretty regularly in the last three months. And suddenly she said that she wanted to come visit, see Stephen and me, and meet Daniel for the first time. So a few days before my Birthday she bought a ticket and in the morning on Saturday we went to meet her at the airport. It is so crazy sometimes how the connection with some people just never seems to go away. We saw each other maybe 2 or 3 times in the past 10 years since I left Ukraine. But, we still communicate as as we did back when we were 17. It was so great to see her!

Mom cooked an awesome lunch for us:

And Julie danced wearing her pink dress:
Stephen invited a bunch of people for dinner and a drink at a restaurant/bar called "Book House". There were some of my oldest friends and some of Stephen's co-workers that I never met before. I had a wonderful time!

I was tagged

2009-02-25T12:41:00.017-05:00

My bloggy friend Candice tagged all of her readers to play along and go to their Picture folder and open the fourth folder and post the fourth picture. I went to the fourth folder and it holds the pictures from Stephen's and mine Graduation from University of Alabama at Birmingham almost 5 years ago. So I decided to play along and post about it.

As fate would have it, Stephen and I graduated from UAB at the same time in May of 2004. His parents, grandmother and brother decided to come out and visit, and all of our friends were happy to come celebrate with us, so we decided to have a party. After the graduation ceremony everybody came over to a club-house at the apartment complex where Stephen lived. There were about 60 people at the party. It was such a special time for us, seeing our friends, family, some of the teachers, and co-workers all together.

Here is the fourth picture, my friend Olga made this beautiful cake for us:

And here is some more of the food we served:

Stephen and I in our robes at the ceremony:
Can you find us? ;-)

Stephen and one of his professors

Toast at the party:

My grandfather Emil and I

My Grandmother Inna and I

Somebody brought us these beautiful flowers:

This tag brought back so many memories, thank you Candice! Maybe I will go back and post some about our pre-baby life and adventures, we have tons of pictures, which you can always find at our picture archive.

Oh, and by the way, I tag everybody who reads this too. If you do not have a blog of your own, just email me the fourth picture from the fourth picture folder, I hope it is funny!!! ;)

Valentines Day (better late...)

2009-02-24T17:08:00.006-05:00

I am so behind on my blogging. The last few weeks have been very busy and fun. I guess I should post in chronological order.

Stephen and I do not usually go out on Valentines Day, it is such a hustle to go out and fight the crowds and slow service in restaurants. This year, however, Stephen decided to take me out for lunch, not dinner and a movie. My mum had Daniel and we went to Melting Pot. OMG!!! It was so-so-so good! We had a 5-course meal that was just unbelievable. We did not make it to the movies, but went home and took a 3-hour nap with Daniel :) I felt like a giant python! Even Stephen did not want much of a dinner that night. :)

Professional Pictures

2009-02-19T17:47:00.008-05:00

About three weeks ago we went and had professional portraits done. Daniel was not too happy with us for putting a shirt and a vest on him. And then the photographer scared him. I do not understand those guys, they work with kids all the time. Don't they know not to attack the babies right away, tickling and pinching them. I think the guy was trying to make Daniel smile, instead he got a big boo-hoo cry, and it took us forever to calm Daniel. You can see the tears a little bit on the first picture. Daniel did better when one of us was next to the photographer as Stephen and I jumped, made silly faces, and behaved like the total nuts that we are :).

I think Daniel's feet turned out the best :)

I guess we are back in high-school, and it is prom night:

I do not have a sarcastic comment about this one,

I think it is the best picture of the lot! Stephen looks about 10 years younger,

I guess I should get him some hats like that one :)
I am actually glad we got this kiss on film. Daniel is so over kisses now. He pushes me away with his fists every time I try to hug and kiss him, and he is not even a year old yet

Daniel kind of dancing!!! and where is the baby??

2009-02-18T10:31:00.004-05:00

About a week ago Daniel surprised us by dancing any time he hears "Head, shoulders, knees and toes". He will not dance to any other tune:

I was sitting on the couch on my laptop and Daniel was playing on the floor by my feet. He was trying to remove my slippers from my feet. The slippers have become one of his favorite toys. Daniel and my mum's pup Julie like to chew on them equally, it seems :). Back to the point. I was looking up a store on Google and called them to find out whether they had an item that I needed in stock. When I looked up a minute later Daniel was GONE. I started running around the apartment calling his name. All sorts of crazy ideas started running through my head, I did not know whether I should call the police or Stephen or my mother or what else to do. Finally after searching for Daniel for what seemed like forever I heard a small noise from the kitchen. And guess what? Daniel was on the floor there, trying to pick up a minuscule piece of trash (I swept the floor yesterday) and smiling up at me. I have never been so happy to see him! He is not even crawling or walking yet - he rolls instead. I cannot even imagine what is going to happen when he finds a more efficient way of moving around. I am sure I will end up with a heart attack one day!

2009-02-17T20:15:00.004-05:00

It's been a little while since I've posted. I've been reading a blog by a lady who is smart, witty, and very honest. She writes not only about the good in her life but the bad and the average. I looked back at my blog and found that I write only about the good in my life (there are some not so awesome moments around here, HA!). If I want to have a true diary of my life right now, I cannot keep it this way. So for the last few days I've been working on a couple of posts, one of which I started over a month ago but just could not bring myself to finish. More about this later.

For now, I've been trying to play with my camera some more, and here is the result:

Day at the Park

2009-02-11T17:40:00.014-05:00

This Sunday Stephen, Daniel and I went to Mid-town Atlanta to Piedmont park to meet my dear friend Ilana for a walk.

This is my attempt at an artistic shot of the gazebo and its reflection in the water. I know I should have gotten a lot more water, the picture would have been better.

Here is the same picture with less zoom:

I've been trying to figure out how to blur the background

and just focus on the people and it finally worked

Daniel had a BIG blow out when we got him out of his stroller.
You know what I am talking about :)

No comment required:

Stephen played with the D40 too, look at the moon on top:

Daniel's hair never seems to want to cooperate,

it is always sticking out in all different directions :)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-02-11T15:26:00.001-05:00

Daniel's Birthday Ideas - Help!!!!

2009-02-05T22:43:00.005-05:00

I am calling to you, more experienced moms and dads, please help me figure out what to do for Daniel's First Birthday. It is still about 5 weeks away, so I have time left for the preparations. As per the latest count we have about 8-10 kids and 25-30 adults coming. I really like the Chuck E Cheese's but what are so many adults going to do there? Our apartment is not nearly big enough to accommodate this many people and we cannot rent out our club house. I am not sure where/how to celebrate in an adult- and kid-friendly fashion. Especially, since the ages of the kids range from baby (Daniel) to 11 year-old. Any advise will be greatly appreciated!

Almost on the move

2009-02-05T20:34:00.007-05:00

All the books that I read about baby development usually say that babies start crawling, then pulling up, then walking. Well, Daniel is not going according to the books. Up until couple of days ago he did not even attempt crawling. He started walking with support about a month ago and wants to do it all the time (which kills my back). Now he is trying to crawl, he is not crawling yet, but does get on all fours and rocks back and forth. He usually ends up on his stomach and rolls around the room. This is his fastest way of moving. Today he pulled himself up to full standing position all by himself. I am so proud of my little (big) boy!

Getting on all fours:

Rolling around:

Getting closer to the couch and all the wires (he LOVES wires):

There are bubbles everywhere, everywhere...

2009-02-04T22:53:00.004-05:00

there are bubbles in the air, in the air... Since Daniel was born I ALWAYS have a baby song stuck in my head and the bubbles song is the latest one. I guess this happens to everybody but that does not make it any less annoying If any of you are not familiar with it, it comes from the Gymboree class that Daniel and I go to.

And here is Daniel taking his first bubble bath:

Doesn't he look EXACTLY like his Grandmother Monnie in this picture?

All is well!

2009-02-02T18:16:00.007-05:00

Today I took Daniel for his 8 week post-operative check-up with the ENT. Daniel got his ear-tubes back in early December. His ears look good, the tubes are in place, and his hearing is back to normal. This means that we can go back to the swimming pool. I signed Daniel up for swimming lessons in October and we managed to go for only one lesson before Daniel got 5-weeks long ear infection(s) which culminated in the surgery. Daniel loves the water! He loves baths and he enjoyed the swimming pool very much. Here are a couple of videos that were taken in October. Sorry for the quality - they were taken with a cell phone.

We have curls!

2009-01-29T23:27:00.006-05:00

Picture Archive

2009-01-28T20:09:00.002-05:00

Ok, this is the third post of the day, what is going on with me? I updated our picture archive over this weekend. We have pictures going all the way back to 2002. I also have a link to it on my side bar. Check it out here, there are tons more pictures.

Wordless Wednesday - Static Time

2009-01-28T18:15:00.003-05:00

Can I get some sleep, please?!?!

2009-01-28T18:13:00.002-05:00

Daniel's sleep schedule started changing about two weeks ago. He used to take two naps a day, one from about 11am to 12:30pm and second from about 3:30pm to 5pm, and then go bed at about 8:30pm and sleep till 8:30-9am. Now, if he takes two naps a day he wants to stay up till 11pm, which does not leave any relaxation time for Stephen and I. So I have been trying to only allow Daniel to take one nap a day. But that means that he becomes VERY cranky around 7pm. We do not know what to do anymore, somebody help!

In addition to the little issue above, Daniel started to wake up at 3 am on the dot every night, hungry and ready to play. It takes us almost an hour every night to put him back to sleep. Daniel has always been a great sleeper, he slept 5-6 hours at night since birth and started sleeping 10-11 hours at 6 weeks. It is impossible to put him back to sleep in his crib, we have to rock him to sleep in his stroller. We are at our wits end! What did we do wrong? How can we change all this? He just got over a sinus infection, so maybe that was the cause. Did anybody else have similar problems? We need help!

Quiz

2009-01-27T00:07:00.004-05:00

Today I was playing around on the internet and found this website. That website has a lot of silly little quizes. One of the quizes that I took was about what kind of bumper sticker should be on my car. Check out the result

What if the hokey pokey really is what it's all about?

What Bumper Sticker Should Be On Your Car?

I know that bumper sticker may seem a little crude, but it still made me laugh since somebody gave Daniel a dancing Elmo doll that sings the Hokey Pokey song. I did not grow up in USA and the first time I heard that song I asked Stephen what the song was all about. It does seem a little inappropriate for children, don't you think? He-he-he

Horrible License Plates

2009-01-25T10:11:00.003-05:00

A couple of months ago I came across the Horrible License Plates blog. Mr. and Mrs. HLP (Horrible License Plates) post pictures of funny, silly, and plain stupid license plates. I really liked the idea and became one of the platerazzi, snapping pictures of vanity license plates and sending them to Mrs. HLP. Today, my first submission is up and silly me is excited! So check it out and join the platerazzi!

2009-01-22T13:00:00.005-05:00

Daniel made me laugh so hard yesterday. I have been trying to make him hold his bottle and sippy cup but he DOES NOT WANT TO!!! I bring one of his hands up and position it and when I try to get the other one, the first one does back down. So yesterday, after a few failed attempts, I finally positioned his hands and he was holding his bottle and drinking. I was about to go grab my camera to commemorate such an occasion! My 10-Months old is finally holding his bottle! Well, after a few sucks he pulled the bottle out of his mouth and stretched his arm towards me trying to give me the bottle. I took the bottle and asked him if he has had enough milk. He shook his head no and opened his mouth. Such a funny boy. He knows how to hold his bottle but why bother if it is so much easier to have momma feed it to you! :) Here are a couple picture of Daniel holding his bottle when he was around 1 month old.

You see, he was not that lazy back then!

Ladies - Take Notice!

2009-01-20T22:15:00.003-05:00

Married ladies, read this!! This article just may save your marriage. And unmarried ones can benefit from this in the future. It definitely can teach you all you needed to know about marriage circa 1955!!! My husband showed me this article from Housekeeping Monthly today, now I KNOW he must be a VERY UNHAPPY man! Poor Babe! (You can click on the article to see it in bigger size).

Warning! Mature audiences only!

Love-quiz ... For Married Folks Only

Another awesome tip how to please your husband!

OMG! Lysol! Really?!?!

Fifth Tooth is Here!

2009-01-19T21:51:00.001-05:00

Yeah! That is right! Daniel has another tooth! Just couple of days after the last one! And he is not afraid to use the teeth, he bit me a few times today!

I was going to mention something else that I thought was funny, but I do not remember what it was. OOPS! Another case of momnesia.

I am going to leave you with a couple pictures of Daniel from a few days ago. These were taken during a dinner at my mom's apartment. And NO, Daniel was not drinking the wine.

Change of plans

2009-01-18T19:57:00.003-05:00

I started Project 365 on Flicker at the beginning of January. I found it very hard to remember to take a picture and post it everyday. So instead I started another blog to be able to post pictures at my own pace. I am trying to learn to be a better photographer this year and I will appreciate and and all of your comments, suggestions, and criticisms. I will take it all! (I also added a link to the new blog on my side-bar). Check it out:

Sasha's Project 365

2009-01-17T22:12:00.006-05:00

I have not posted in a few days - our life has been pretty uneventful. Daniel still has a runny nose but seems to be doing well otherwise. Stephen cought the bug a couple days after Daniel and has been feeling crappy. Today I woke up not feeling a 100%. I guess the bug is making its rounds in our family. I ended up taking a 3+ hour nap in the afternoon today. I do not usually take naps and I never nap for over three hours. I do feel better though. Maybe I was just tired. Well, enough complaining!

Daniel got his fourth tooth yesterday!!! He has been a three-touth pirate for a month now, and has been grinding the top one tooth on the two bottom ones all the time. I really hope that the addition of the new tooth will stop him from grinding and making that horrible noise.

I posted about Daniel LOVING to take baths with his Daddy, he will run to the bathroom when he hears the magical word "bath". If you want to watch him run, you can check it out here. I took the pictures below yesterday. I am still experimenting with my camera. The first one was taken with the flash, the second one without.

Danielspeak - a New Language!

2009-01-15T21:41:00.000-05:00

Following the example of my friend and cousin Krystal, I added a new gadget to my side bar - DanielSpeak. He is starting to say different words and I want to remember when he said what. It is going to be very interesting to see what combination of Russian and English he is going to start speaking. I've read time and time again that children that are exposed to two or more different languages start to speak much later then their counterparts raised in a single-language home. I am not sure if that will apply to Daniel since he is saying five or six words already.

I also started showing Daniel the Baby Signing Time DVD about two months ago. He really did not seem very interested so I decided to put it off for a while. We started watching the DVD again three or four days ago and Daniel is very interested. I did not expect to use any of the signs for a while, but today, while eating lunch, he signed "all done". I asked him if he was full and he nodded his head yes and said da (Russian for yes). I was so surprised! I am one proud momma!

Finally, here are a few pictures of Daniel with Julie:

This and that...

2009-01-13T17:48:00.006-05:00

Daniel has been cranky for the last couple of days. He woke up two days ago with his nose running, I spend most of the days wiping his nose, especially after sneezes :). We gave him a warm bath at night and his nose seemed better afterwards. He has been waking up all stuffy and slightly cranky.

The whammy came when Daniel somehow managed to bite his tongue while sitting in a shopping cart as we were leaving Babies R Us. This was his first boo-boo accompanied by blood, so it was a big deal for me. If Stephen's genes prevail in Daniel, he is going to have a million more boo-boos by the time he grows up :)

I have to leave you with this picture of Daniel. Sorry for the bad quality, I took is with my phone. The pink bow belongs to my mom's new puppy Julie. Wouldn't he make a VERY cute girl? (Just another piece of insurance for the future) hahahahaha

Daniel is 10 Months old today!

2009-01-12T16:34:00.008-05:00

Yes, it has been 10 months, and Stephen and I still say every day: "We have a baby!" in complete disbelief. It does sound funny, does it not? We are still amazed with this little guy and how fast he is growing and developing.

Warning! Read on only if you want to hear lots of bragging from a proud mommy! :) I want to share an interesting story from yesterday about his development. He was standing next to the couch (my mom was holding him between her legs) and trying to reach for a cable on the floor. My mum would not let him lean down to grab it. So he reached for it with his little foot and dragged it with the foot closer to him. Then he hooked the other foot under the cable and raised it up so that he could grab it with his hand. It went in the mouth after that of course :) We were all amazed at how he could think through and accomplish a line of actions that lead to a desired effect. I never saw this before from Daniel and I am such a proud mommy!

Here are a few pictures from last week:

Daniel has learned to stand unassisted in his crib and pack-n-play. He is not pulling up by himself yet, but if I help him stand up, he will stand forever. Actually, he ONLY wants to stand and walk now, he is not happy when I try to sit him down. He sticks his stomach forward and stiffens his legs. I almost have to lay him down to sit him down!

Some pictures from Birmingham

2009-01-10T14:56:00.008-05:00

My paternal grandparents and my aunt with her family live in Birmingham, Alabama. Here are a few pictures of our recent trip to Birmingham:

My Grandfather Emil, Daniel, and my Aunt Marina

Daniel in the piano room at my aunts house. Daniel listened for a VERY long time to my cousin's David's music lesson

My Grandma Inna, me, Daniel, and my Grandfather Emil

National De-Lurking Week

2009-01-09T16:37:00.002-05:00

I just read that a "National De-Lurking Week" is going on right now. So if you are reading my blog, please go ahead and leave a comment. I would like to "meet" all my readers, and maybe find some more cool blogs to read (and lurk) :)

Daniel is RUNNING!!!

2009-01-08T22:58:00.005-05:00

Daniel LOVES taking baths!!! And couple of days ago we found out that he will RUN (holding on to my hands) to the bathroom to take his bath. We think that he is too funny! Sorry for the quality - it was taken with Stephen's cellphone.

Daniel update

2009-01-06T19:06:00.005-05:00

Daniel has been putting his finger in his right ear for the last week, so Stephen and I decided to take Daniel in to the pediatrician just to be safe. Well, Daniel's ears look great, "pretty as a picture" as the doctor said. The tubes are in place and doing their job. His chest sounds great and overall he is absolutely healthy right now. This was great to hear, I guess he is just discovering his body. I mean the little boy has been known to play with his "thing" during diaper changes :o)

Daniel also got weight during the visit and he is 28 3/4 lbs. as of yesterday (he will be 10 months in less than a week). This means that he managed to gain 2 1/4 lbs. in the last month and a half. Our tiny little baby! I hope he starts walking VERY soon or my back will go out!!!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-01-06T14:54:00.005-05:00

Ok, it is Tuesday, but I had to post these photos taken after Daniel's bath yesterday.

New Puppy!

2009-01-05T23:43:00.003-05:00

My mother bought this baby poodle on Sunday. She is just adorable. She is a 3.5 months old apricot poodle, born September 17th, 2008. We decided to call her Julie. She really does not like the leash, but will follow mum around when she is off the leash. She seems to be very smart already. Mom tried to clip her hair yesterday and she would not sit still. Today mom promised her a slice of cheese and she set still for a few minutes so that mom could clip her face and tail (to make her look like a true poodle).

We have been wanting to have a dog around for so long, but were not sure if I could handle the responsibility in addition to Daniel. I am so glad mom did, Julie is a wonderful addition to our family!

Flickr

2009-01-05T00:11:00.001-05:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-04T22:00:00.000-05:00

What a busy holiday season we have this year! We are celebrating 2 Christmases (sp?) and the New Year. Why two Christmases, well, let me explain. Before the Communist Revolution in 1917, the Russian calendar was shifted by 13 days as compared to the calendar in other countries. So after the Revolution the government of the Soviet Union decided to shift the calendar to correspond with the rest of the world. However, the Russian Orthodox Church leaders resisted the change and declared that the change in the calendar does not change the date of birth of the Christ. So since then Christmas is celebrated on January 7th.

In the Soviet Union religion was prohibited so people did not celebrate Christmas. Instead, a lot of Christmas traditions were transposed onto the New Year, such as, Father Frost (Santa Claus) comes and gives out presents at midnight on the 1st, fancy dinner gets cooked complete with a turkey or a duck, families get together to celebrate and exchange presents. Since the Soviet Union collapsed, many people returned to churches and started celebrating Christmas, but the New Year traditions remain. Nowadays, Christmas is celebrated on January 7th and no presents get exchanged, instead people go to church and get together for lunch or dinner.

You can read about our December Christmas in previous posts. Stephen, Daniel and I celebrated the New Year with my side of the family. We prepared lots of gifts for each member of the family, and, of course, Daniel received tons more gifts. My Mum and Grandmother went crazy! After this Christmas and New Year, we can open a toy store out of our apartment. Stephen and I really do not know what to do with all these toys, we do not have that much storage. And he still likes his old ones. Plus we wanted to keep the ones he does not play with anymore for the next baby. Thanks to the tip from Krystal, I learned how to do collages, here is our New Year in one picture:

Project 365

2009-01-02T00:03:00.001-05:00

If you read my long Christmas posts, you probably remember that I got a Nikon D40 and photography lessons for Christmas this year. A couple of days ago I read about Project 365, and found that there is a group devoted to it on Flickr. To participate in Project 365 you have to take one picture every day, preferably something that will remind you about that day, but it does not have to. You can go on my new Flickr account and check out the group. I only have one picture there right now since it is January 1st today :) Hopefully, with the new camera and lessons there will be some real progress in my pictures this year. Wish me luck!

By the way, I am adding the link to my Flickr account to my side bar so if you ever want to look at the progress, feel free to visit it.

Amazing Artist

2009-01-01T21:30:00.003-05:00

One of my friends forwarded me the following link. This artist is amazing! He cannot read or write but can create sculptures inside an eye of a needle. Check it out here.

Christmas Trip - Day 4

2008-12-30T21:59:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-30T16:41:00.024-05:00

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

2008-12-30T14:49:00.018-05:00

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

2008-12-28T20:56:00.017-05:00

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

2008-12-22T10:26:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-12-18T13:03:00.009-05:00

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

2008-12-17T19:03:00.002-05:00

Christmas party

2008-12-14T18:32:00.013-05:00

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

2008-12-14T17:29:00.003-05:00

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

2008-12-11T14:09:00.006-05:00

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

2008-12-09T18:45:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-09T14:40:00.002-05:00

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

2008-12-08T23:08:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-08T12:19:00.002-05:00

...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

2008-12-07T22:38:00.013-05:00

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!!!

2008-12-04T21:23:00.005-05:00

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

2008-12-02T07:12:00.004-05:00

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

2008-12-01T22:05:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-12-01T08:35:00.002-05:00

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!

2008-11-27T13:26:00.005-05:00

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

2008-11-19T20:51:00.008-05:00

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.

Daniel's Growth

2008-11-18T13:10:00.003-05:00

I would like to have a more permanent record of Daniel's weight/length. Right now I have most of the info written on a piece of paper and I KNOW I will lose it eventually. So here it goes

Birth - 3/12/08 - 8lbs & 20.5"
3 days - 3/15/08 - 7lbs 10oz
10 days - 3/22/08 - 8lbs
1 month - 4/12/08 - 11lbs & 21.5"
2 months - 5/13/08 - 14lbs & 23.5"
3 months - 6/17/08 - 16lbs 4oz & 25"
4 months - 7/15/08 - 17lbs 12oz & 26.5"
5 months - 8/12/08 - 20lbs 13oz & 27"
6 months - 9/14/08 - 21lbs 4oz & 27"
7 months - 10/14/08 - 23lbs
7.5 months - 10/27/08 - 23lbs 13oz
8 months - 11/14/08 - 25lbs & 29"

So as you can see we have a little tiny baby :) He is in 97 percentile for weight and 87 percentile for height. I really hope that he starts crawling or walking soon since I am not sure how much more my back can handle.

Disco Christmas

2008-11-17T21:43:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Country Christmas

2008-11-17T21:41:00.001-05:00

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Hi again

2008-11-15T13:40:00.001-05:00

Well, it has been almost six months since I started this blog and I have not posted since. I really do want to blog, but most of the time when I see the window in front of me I get a writer's bloc and it is very hard to push through. So I am setting up a reminder on my phone to blog at least twice a week :)

A lot has happened during the last few months and it is hard to remember it all. I hope that I can talk some about all the things we did in the next posts. For now, here is a picture of our growing boy as a turkey on Halloween:

Memorial Day Weekend - by Sasha

2008-05-27T17:25:00.000-04:00

This was the first long weekend since Daniel was born and it was wonderful to have Stephen around for three days straight. At first we were planning to go to New Hope, PA on Sunday but than decided that 2 hour drive each way was too long for a two-months old to handle. We spent Saturday at a neighborhood park. Here is Stephen with the baby:

Daniel was sleepy at that point, combination of oxygen and food does it every time. We also did a little bit of shopping at Babies R Us and went for a slice of pizza, which we try not to do too often because we end up with heart-burn usually :)

Sunday was a very slow day for us, we lounged around and did not do much at all. I did go a little crazy with the camera and took about 50 pictures of Daniel laying on our bed. Here are a couple examples. I thought this one was too funny:

What I really dislike about living in an apartment building in NYC is that we do not have a place to grill out. I do not think the fire officials would be very happy if we put a grill on the fire escape :) My in-laws in Louisiana send me pictures like the one below every time they grill out, and it makes me so jealous!!

by Sasha

2008-05-19T14:16:00.000-04:00

Today I decided to start my own blog. I hope in the future it will be interesting to look back and read what I was thinking each day and what was happening in our lives. It is too bad that I did not start blogging while I was pregnant and when my son Daniel was born 10 weeks ago. There is so much that goes through a woman's mind when she is pregnant. And after giving birth it is SO easy to forget - Mumnesia :)

My life right now is centered around one thing and one thing only - my baby son Daniel Alexander Cole who was born March 12th, on his due date. He was 8lbs exactly and 20.5 inches. Here he is at 3 days of age, one of the first pictures we took when we got home:

However, he managed to gain 3 lbs each month since birth, so he was 14lbs a week ago at his 2-months check-up. My mum says that I am a good milk cow :) He is a very good baby - sleeps 9-10 hours at night which made me human again :) But during the day it is sometimes hard to put him down for a nap inside. So I have to take him for couple of walks a day in the neighborhood park and he sleeps there wonderfully. The walks have actually been good for me as I am down to my prepregnancy weight already. Also, he is extremely talkative and funny, I enjoy him very much! In the mornings he does not cry when he wakes up, he just talks very loudly and smiles when I come to him and undo his swaddling cloth. And he smells so good!!! When do they stop smelling like that? I hope not for a while... because I am seriously addicted :)