Many faces of Miss Sasha

We were just playing on the floor this morning and I grabbed the camera, because she was being just too cute!

"Hi, mom"


"I want that banana you're eating"


"Ah, mom, you're funny"


"Look, I have two teeth - can you see them?"


"What is THAT?"


Calling daddy - you're doing it wrong!

My dauhter, the musical genius

Check out my six(and a half)-months-old baby playing her little toy piano. Hehe, I think we may have a genius on our hands ;)

Miss Sasha's 6-months photos

We got Sasha's photos back. Here they are if you want to check them out, I think they came out very cute! Go to www.mcgrathphoto.com, then click on "Gallery", and "Yevgeny, Yuliya and Sasha". That's us! I love all the silly faces she was making during the photoshoot :) Enjoy!

Central Park Zoo

Wednesday afternoon, we met up with a fellow September baby girl Meredith and her mama Jennifer for a nice little get-together at the zoo. We all had a great time, but I have to admit, we the moms did enjoy it a bit more than the kiddos did. Nonetheless, it was a really fun outing!

All four of us - see the polar bear right behind Sasha?


She did not seem impressed with the penguins


This was a "children's zoo" part, so I reasoned that since I was with my child, I could crawl into one of these.


Miss Sasha insisted on standing holding onto the fence right next to sheep, whom she really liked


And then we met this very cool cow!

We also stopped by daddy's work to meet all his coworkers, who unanimously said that Miss Sasha looks just like him! She even got to program for a little bit.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I figure today everybody is Irish, right!? Ok, maybe not quite, but hey, it's a great excuse to make another cute little picture of my non-Irish baby and wish everyone a happy St. Patrick's day!

May 7th

I have an interview scheduled with the INS! This is pretty much the last step in becoming a citizen of the U.S.! Yippee! Now I have to brush up on my US history and figure out how to get to the interview.

Another tooth!

Sasha's second tooth broke through yesterday! So now we have two teeth!!
Yesterday, we went to get Miss Sasha's 6-month pro-pictures, I'll post some as soon as we get them. I thought it went very well. We had fun and got some really nice shots. A couple of times Sasha got a bit cranky, but it was easily fixed. I am really excited to see the finished pictures! Then we went to visit Z's uncle (who'se never met Sasha before) and aunt, which was such a great visit, they're both such sweethearts!

Uh-oh, we're in trouble!

Little Miss Sasha has figured out how to get on all fours! Yikes! She did this first on Tuesday, I totally thought it was a fluke. But nope, she's been doing it since then. At first, she'd stand like that for a split second and then flop right back on her tummy. Well, today, she started rocking back and forth! I'm scared! I told Z that babyproofing and mattress lowering are happening tonight. Gosh, I'm not ready for this yet...

Teething sucks!

I've always heard this, I've been warned. But up to this moment, I downplayed it. A lot. It's like when pregnant women complain about their lack of sleep due to frequent need to run to the bathroom in the middle of the night, backaches, leg cramps, being uncomfortable in any position being told "just wait till your baby is here and theeeen you won't sleep" (OK, I don't think I actually did that, but you get the picture). My mom kept telling me it would be bad, and yes, it is.
Thankfully, her night sleep hasn't suffered (and I now just jinxed myself, didn't I?), but her morning nap and her overall mood are miserable! She can't seem to fall asleep in the morning without wailing. Her morning nap is so much shorter. And she's just so much crankier. I miss my happy giggly baby girl sometimes. And the worst part is that I can't make it any better for her. All I can do is snuggle with her and try to comfort her. But until those teeth are out, we can only do so much. I *think* we saw another tooth way under her gum, there's a tiny white line there. Hopefully, it comes through soon.

Peas are green and fun!

At least my daughter thinks so. Here is the proof. She splattered it all over her face and looked delighted!

"No, please don't make meeee"


"What IS that???"


"Actually this is quite tasty"


"What do you mean, there's no more left??"

Happy international women's day!

March 8 is the International Women's Day. At least, in Europe it is. It is pretty much an equivalent of Mother's Day. Women get flowers and love all the attention. It is one of my favorite holidays. We went to the Philadelphia Flower Show today to celebrate, it was very pretty and there were millions of flowers. I just love going there every year. Here are some pictures:



















Miss Sasha with her own flowers!

Sasha says "Potatoes are boring" and I found a tooth!

Miss Sasha tried potatoes on Thursday. She was not impressed. Not in the least. In fact, she looked utterly bored...


And this morning... drum roll, please... I saw a tiny little tooth coming through Sasha's gum. A lower left tooth. Just sitting there. I was a little too excited perhaps, but it's so cool!
The weather was incredibly nice today (something like 62F) so we all went for a nice little walk int he park. Sasha was contemplating the fate of her new little tooth. And possibly telepathically telling mommy to go buy her very first toothbrush.

Another big milestone

And this time, for me. Yesterday marked not only Miss Sasha turning 6 months, but also my breastfeeding for 6 months. This has probably been the hardest thing about having a baby; I knew it isn't easy for every mom to breastfeed, but didn't really expect it'd be that difficult for me. In the beginning, we had problems with Sasha's latch, for the first week or so, she didn't get enough milk, not gaining enough weight. So I switched to pumping and giving her breastmilk in a bottle. Now looking back, I do wish I've stuck to trying to breastfeed more, there are organizations and nurses at the Lenox Hill I could've gotten in touch with more to really help out, but I think I was just very stressed out and upset. It was hard for me and it was very painful. And I think Z being able to feed her also came into the equation. With our next (whenever that is), I am determined to try harder.
But with such a rough start, I first set 2 months as a mini-goal for myself, then 3 months. Then 6 months. And I've gotten here. I feel like I'm giving my daughter the best start that I can. Now my big goal is 1 year, we'll see how that goes. I'm pretty determined about it, but I have to admit I have moments where I say to Z "I'm tired of constant pumping and depending on being near my pump at all times. And I want my old body back." - which let's be honest isn't very realistic anyway. Then I suddenly realize that I'm being selfish thinking that way. So here's to another six months!

6 months today

Today, Miss Sasha is 6 months old! She's getting so big and learning to do all these fun new things every day. She now almost sits on her own, but would still fall over after a few minutes; she's definitely trying though. She is enjoying all sorts of new veggies and fruits we're giving her, she's even grabbing the spoon out of my hands and tries to put it in her mouth. Sasha is really so much fun to watch. She's such a joy.
We had her 6-month checkup and got some more vaccinations. It makes me sad watching her get the shots and cry, but then I pick her up, she looks around at all the pictures on the walls and quiets down. Her sleeping is now all messed up because of the shots, but she'll get back to her normal routine quickly, I hope. She now weighs 17lbs4oz (now in the 76th percentile) and is 26.5" long (85th percentile). Her growth was a little slower than before, but her doctor was not at all worried about it, so neither are we.
So here's my birthday girl:





She always makes this face at us, that's her latest favorite thing to do with her tongue.


Our happy little baby (even after the shots)


I think I may have annoyed her a bit with the sign, hehe.




Happy half-birthday, baby girl!

Swimming classes for Miss Sasha!

I just signed Sasha up for swimming classes. I am so excited. She starts in a month, and goes on for almost 4 months. I've been trying to find a place earlier, but most places only take babies 6 months and older. So yay! I'll try to get Z to come with us and snap some pictures and post them when we go. I have a feeling she's going to have a blast, she enjoys being in the water at bath time so much!

Bananas were a hit!

As if anybody really doubted it, hehe. I love love love bananas. Anyway, she just attacked the spoon, she really enjoyed it.



It was pretty much the dirtiest food so far, but she had a blast!


A shout out to Auntie Anna! Who clearly rocks!

And for those who asked about Z, thank you for your concern, he is feeling a lot better. The meds definitely worked, and he's back to his normal self!

Sasha's first snow

We got some snow last night here in NY and it's so very pretty (even in March, I absolutely adore snow), so I decided to take Miss Sasha out to see snow for the first time. Granted, we didn't go far, just out on our balcony, but really, what's the point of having one if you aren't going to use it? I snapped some photos of her in her snowsuit; she wasn't nearly as excited as I was, but how cute is she?!

What a crazy weekend!

This weekend has been quite crazy. On Friday, Zhenia was working from home since he's been feeling sick (in fact, he's been sick for the past three weeks working from home once every few days). It was nice having him home (although he claims that he barely gets any work done at home, oops). That night, baby Sasha tasted butternut squash and it was quite a hit! I was actually very excited, although she wasn't as thrilled about it as the apples, she was opening up her mouth for more (I have to admit, it was quite tasty - I ate a spoonfull and wondered why hubby and I had not made it before).
Saturday morning, I was all set to go to our Y to sign Sasha up for swimming classes, but as we woke up at 6am, we realized that Zhenia had some nasty allergy to the latest antibiotic he's been prescribed (the first one didn't work, so the dr. had to switch it up): he got a rash (although nothing more serious, thankfully), so instead of Y, we ended up at the ER to get it all checked out. My dad came to stay with Miss Sasha until we came back (at 6:30am, the guy's awesome!!) Zhenia got some anti-allergy medication at the ER, some blood work done, and got prescriptions for more stuff. He's been feeling a bit better since then, the rash seems to be fading away, and his fever is gone (it may be a temporary side effect from the anti-allergy meds, but it's making him feel human at least). Hopefully, this will be all over soon!

It'a a bit hard to read what our t-shirts say, but they're all from Boston University where I went to school: my dad, Miss Sasha and I.

Thanks, aunt Emmie, for this awesome onesie, I love it!

Today, we stayed in for most of the day and just hung out. We went out to Outback for dinner though - and yes, took Miss Sasha with us. And she did pretty good! We were a bit nervous about how she'd behave, since this was her first ever restaurant visit, but we were very pleasantly surprised. She was very happy most of the evening (that is until daddy took away the coaster she's been chewing on). All in all, a good experience!

She giggled...


...checked out the drinks menu...


...snacked on mommy's elbow...


...considered eating mommy's dinner...


...and played with daddy.