Fun filled weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

Daniel is walking!!!

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



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

Holiday Raffle for CANON REBEL

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

Doctor's appointment

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

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

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

Bad idea!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Happy Thanksgiving!

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



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

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

Dinner with Ilana

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

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

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