Another funny day

The snow was pretty crazy today, so we stayed in watching the snow fall from our window. We played and danced and sang and read some books. And ate yogurt.... or put on lotion (depends on how you choose to look at it):

 

Then I tried putting Sasha down for a nap, but instead of falling asleep, she talked and played with her dolls and stuffed animals for a good hour (yelling "kuka" - doll, "mama", "tuda" - over there). She finally fell asleep, but woke up only 30 minutes later. And I knew why as soon as I walked into her room:

That is all her dolls and stuffed animals... as well as her jammies and diaper on the floor. And of course she peed on the newly changed sheets! 

After her nap, Sasha found my lip liner and yes, used it. On her cheeks :)

 Silly girl :)

Some funny for you :)

This post isn't really about anything particular, just wanted to show off the cuteness that I get to witness every day :) Hope you enjoy!

Wearing grandma's slippers (yes, she found and put them on by herself, on her own free will)

We sent this picture to my uncle on his birthday - to spoof him

Time to help mama put away clean laundry!

Our future Carnegie Mellon geek?

Sasha with the giant bear papa got her for Valentine's day :)

And this video was taken today and it makes me laugh so hard! Y is asking Sasha to say "banana" - he's been trying to get her to say it for a while. I love the expression on her face - "come on guys, I just said it!"

Weekend recap

On Saturday, my husband and I went out for our friend Marina's birthday party (ma, thanks again for coming over to stay with Sasha!) It was so great to go out and have a "night off" (let's not mention what we both looked and felt like on Sunday morning, when Sasha decided to wake up extra early at 6am)

 

On Sunday (after we both napped), we headed out to Long Island to Sands Point preserve to walk around, but I think we forgot that the snow has not been plowed quite as it has been here, so we pretty much walked around in circles on the few paved trails while Sasha napped in her stroller. It was such a beautiful warm day though that it didn't matter. When we got back home, we both felt like we got hit by a truck, while Sasha was running around and dancing of course. Sigh, I wish I had half as much energy as that kid does, our house would be so much cleaner, hehe.

We're going to Mexico!

Remember a few days ago when I was whining and complaining about wanting to go on vacation? Well, we booked our vacation last night! Yay! We're going to Mexico for a week in April. We found an absolutely amazing deal at this gorgeous resort called Ocean Coral and Turquesa. Now it's time to kick up exercising up a notch ;)

I am completely freaked out about flying with Miss Sasha though. We're looking at different things that can help keep her occupied and (hopefully) not crying and screaming on the flight. We found flights that are convenient sleep- and nap-wise, so hopefully she'll be well-rested and happy. I guess we won't know until we try, huh? Yay for vacation!!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We had a wonderful day today, though not really *celebrating* Valentine's Day. We're not that into it, although it's always nice getting flowers (I admit, that's my weakness). We went out to see From Paris With Love last night (and got some delicious Cold Stone ice cream - see here for a close-up). We had heart-shaped pancakes for breakfast this morning and went to see old family friends in the afternoon.
Here's Sasha wishing everyone a happy love-filled Valentine's Day (at 17 months and 5 months old, just because):

We need a vacation

Ok, so bear with me, this is going to be a (possibly long) whiny post. I love the snow, it's absolutely beautiful. But, I severely despise the cold (and yes, dear relatives reading from cold cold St. Petersburg, I'm cold in NY where it is barely 32F, or 0C for the most part this winter) I am so ready for spring to get here. And I'm ready for another vacation. And yes, I realize how lucky we've been to be able to take two vacations last year (given the state of the economy), but I just need to be somewhere warm and relaxing. Where I don't have to think about cleaning/cooking/laundry/nap schedules all day long.
This whine is mostly brought on by our lack of luck with actually finding good vacation deals. We've been looking online and finding decent deals, but the problem comes up when we want to go with Sasha as a "lap child" - not buy her a separate seat on the plane (she won't sit in it for more than 10 minutes and children under 2 fly for free). I guess I'm just frustrated with the whole process, because we need to call numerous travel agents to try to figure this out (and of course, they're all pushing their own things on us). Ok, vent over, I feel better now. Will call more people once Sasha wakes up.
And I leave you with a sunny picture from our cruise last October (just don't scroll down for our snow pictures!)

Another snow day!

Wow, we've had a lot of snow this winter! We went up to the roof today again (Y got out of work early) and played some more. We even built a snowman. Needless to say, Sasha was once again very disappointed in us when we said it was time to leave, who knew the kiddo would love snow so much!

 

And this morning, Sasha fed her doll at breakfast!

Snow day fun!

We had some snow last night/this morning (you know, the craaazy blizzard everyone on the East coast was so afraid of - yeah, we got maybe an inch of snow here!), so we went up to the roof today for a little to play in it. Remembering how horribly last visit with snow went for our little girl, we thought we'd be out there for 15 minutes at most. Yeah, not so much. She loved it this time around and refused to leave (we're talking crying and kicking while papa was carrying her back in). We had a bit of a snowball fight, which Sasha utterly enjoyed.

17 months old today

Sasha is 17 months old today, she is such a big girl! I was looking at pictures from her birthday (taken a mere 5 months ago) and she's changed so much. She now says a total of 23 words (I am probably slightly overcounting, as I include her animal sounds). Her latest word is "kuka" - her way of saying kukla (doll) - she says it over and over again to her dolls. She also started saying "da" when I ask her something and she means it! She puts things into the garbage cans (usually things that are garbage, I've caught her a couple of times trying to put her toys in there). She now tries to wipe the floor and her high chair tray when she spills something. She absolutely loves kissing everybody and everything! We are still working on her sleep issues though, we're so ready for her to stop waking up multiple times a night for no reason!
Here are some pictures from today (I'd like to point out the sudden disgust my kid seems to have towards the poor dog... and I'm not a fan of how our new couch looks in these)

 

And yes, I'm including one of her from a year ago: what a difference!

After nearly 17 months....

I am finally done pumping! This is a huge deal to me: to be honest, I didn't think I'd ever last this long! I started pumping when Sasha was a week old or so, because our little girl was having major issues latching on. My first goal was 2 months, then 6 months, and once I've gotten there, I set my long-term goal at 1 year. Then I just kept going, but with the flu season starting, I decided to stick with it for a little longer (I still have a couple of months worth of breast milk in the freezer) So last Tuesday, I pumped for the last time: I've taken a while to wean and did it very slowly, but I've had no engorgement or pain so far!
I have to admit, I am very proud of myself for sticking to it this long. But at the same time, whenever we have another kid (kids?), I want to try harder to actually breastfeed.