Wordless Wednesday

My Mother's Day in Pictures...

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!!!

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)

Favorite Foto Friday - My little musician

I wonder what else he inherited...

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.

Daniel Update

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.

Birthday Party

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...

....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

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!

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

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...

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: