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!

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...

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!

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

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

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!!!

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.