Happy Birthday to me!

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!

Danielspeak - a New Language!

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:

New Puppy!

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!