Bubblegum explosion

Parents of the year

2012-02-13T17:29:00.000-05:00

Yup, right here. Thank you very much! Long story short, we went ice skating with the kiddo on Saturday, and the fantastic attentive parents that we are, not only forgot her gloves, but also her jacket... Ok, maybe that wasn't such a long story after all: we buckled Sasha in, thankfully with her hat, grabbed her skates, jumped in the car, and we were off. We only realized our mistake when we arrived at the rink, sigh. But since we weren't going to leave without having skated (oh gosh, can you imagine the tantrum?), we just went in. She did surprisingly well and did not want to leave!

Baby shower

2012-02-09T21:56:00.000-05:00

So as I mentioned in the last post, my baby shower was on Sunday. I had such a wonderful time (thanks to my fabulous sister and mom who organized and hosted, and all my amazing guests)! We ate, played some games, my aunt made me one of those embarrassingly fabulous hats out of bows, and two of my girlfriends came up from DC!
Baby boy got so many wonderful thoughtful gifts! He is so so lucky to have so many people in his life who care about him (and he's not even here yet!)

My lovely Parisiennes

There was a belly-measuring contest - my 12-year-old niece Sarah won, her mom, Z's cousin Julie came in second place, but very very close!

Lucy showed off her "who's that baby" picture

My lovely sister and hostess, who made the most delicious cake pops

Z's mom made a yummy apple cake

Kristin snapped this picture of me on her phone, so it's a bit blurry, but yeah, I'm big!

We had a onesie-decorating contest, so much fun!!

With Honeydew's grandmas - Z's and my moms

Lucy and Marina made a onesie too

My aunt and my hat :)

With my sister, grandma, mom, and my belly

Silly auntie :)

How is it February already?

2012-02-07T22:40:00.000-05:00

So January is already over and February is here. You know what that means? That means, we've got another month to go before kiddo is here (give or take)... this is my freaking out rant, I suppose. Also, February just happens to be the shortest month in the year - what's that about? I don't think we've got enough time, I could definitely use a few more days!
Now, don't get me wrong, technically speaking, we're ready for this kid, in terms of stuff we need for his arrival: carseat, pack-n-play, sheets, bottles, clothes, blankets. But holy moly, am I not ready for him to get here! Still have a pretty long list of things that need to get done before he's here and I'm giving myself the deadline of March 1 to have everything finished. My mom asked me last Friday if I had my hospital bag packed and I was going to do it this weekend, but things got in the way (you know, sick husband and daughter, baby shower - more on that later!) It's Tuesday night and I still don't have a single thing packed... or even taken out of the closet; I do have a list though, lists make me feel better. I'm 34 weeks tomorrow, so technically we still have 6 weeks left, but man, that just sounds scary!
Ahem, on a lighter note: my baby shower was this weekend, and my wonderful sister and mom did such an amazing job with it, it was so much fun and so many friends and loved ones were able to be there. And boy, did we get a lot of stuff for our little guy - he's not even here yet and he has so many people who love him so much - definitely a lucky baby boy! I'm waiting for my sister to send me pictures from her camera and I'll share them then.

A preview of what's to come?

2012-02-02T17:52:00.000-05:00

I'll be honest, I've been feeling pretty good about having two kids (aside from attempting to breastfeed a newborn with a very affectionate 3-year-old, not getting any sleep again, going places with two, making sure both get enough one-on-one time... umm, I think you get it). I have completely ignored thinking about what would happen if both kiddos were sick at the same time. And you know why? Because just the thought of that makes me queasy, more so than sleepless nights, countless poopy diapers, fights over which toys are whose, getting two kids ready and in their carseats on time.
This week I got a little preview of what's to come. On Sunday (when, thankfully, kiddo was at my parents' house for the weekend), Z woke up with high fever and horribly sore throat. Then two days later, Sasha woke up from her nap with a gigantic (and scary) fever. To make matters worse, Z also has pink eye and Sasha's fever turned out to be stomach virus. So it's been a crazy few days here. I'm trying to keep the two separated and taken care of. My goal right now is to get Z and Sasha both well by Sunday, when I'm heading to my parents' for my baby shower (yippee!) Thankfully, we've got some good meds and lots of pedialyte in the house.

Gorgeous January day!

2012-01-31T21:26:00.001-05:00

This winter has been surprisingly mild (watch, just because I said this, tomorrow is going to snow like crazy and be something like 0F, I guarantee it): with the exception of the snowfall a couple of weeks ago, it's been really warm and pleasant! Yesterday was close to 55F when we went to the park to feed the birds and play on the swings!

My sweet girl found one injured bird with a broken leg and kept trying to feed it first before all the others!

She wanted me to go on the swing, so she could push me!

Little mommy

2012-01-30T12:29:00.000-05:00

Sasha just adores her baby dolls (and pretty much everything can be "her baby": like a stuffed penguin from Children's Place or our little stuffed Santa)

Mommy Sasha showed her doll a video on my camera (of herself!)

She likes to help in the kitchen!

And really takes care of her babies (she gave baby boy a bath!)

Let's just hope she's this good with baby brother when he's here!!

Cousins!!

2012-01-24T14:36:00.000-05:00

So as I said in the last post, we had some very exciting guests on Sunday: Sasha's cousin Emily (or second cousin, or maybe even third, I have no idea at this point). The girls had such a fun time playing together, and we adults did too!

Pink eye

2012-01-24T10:28:00.000-05:00

Sasha woke up yesterday morning with goo coming out of her eye. It wasn't really even all that red at first, so I was holding out hope it wasn't that. But as soon as I pulled down her lower eyelid, there was no doubt that it was in fact pink eye (her first too!) We went to see the pediatrician and she's on antibiotics now, but this morning, her second eye was pink too, boo! She's in a great mood most of the time (except when she hears "It's bedtime" or "Dinner/lunch is ready", hehehe), acting like her normal happy self, so I'm hoping this thing is gone very very soon. Having sick kiddos is no fun!!
We did have Sasha's cousin Emily (and her parents, since six-year-olds aren't really allowed to drive) over on Sunday and we all had such a fantastic time hanging out... I don't know why we don't do it more often! I will do a separate post on that in a bit.

The first snow of the year!

2012-01-21T22:40:00.000-05:00

We had a beautiful snow day today! It snowed most of the night and morning and (while plowing wasn't all that much fun), we had a blast playing in the snow!

We bought Sasha her first sled for New Year's and were frankly a bit concerned that it wouldn't even snow this winter (with the crazy warm weather we've been having, it was entirely possible!)

My uncle (who lives about 10 minutes away) came out to play with us in the snow. Sasha wanted to take her "baby" for a ride in her sled too!

We made snow angels!

And acted silly!

Passing a test has never been more exciting!

2012-01-18T18:28:00.000-05:00

I had my bi-weekly (already!!) OB visit and found out that I passed the dreaded glucose tolerance test!! I was so excited and relieved: I can eat chocolate and strawberries, and most importantly, don't have to prick my finger three times a day to check my sugar. Yay!!
So I thought I'd do an update on this little guy while I'm at it.

I am 31 weeks pregnant and have a very very pointy belly! Feeling pretty good, just really big already. I get tired pretty easily, which is quite annoying, but really not the end of the world (just makes me wonder what it'll be like when I'm, say, 39 weeks pregnant!) Getting up to pee four times in the middle of the night is also starting to get to me, but I've decided it's my body's way of preparing me for not sleeping once the babe is here (and I've done such a good job trying to forget how painful those nights were, sigh)

I had another growth u/s a couple of weeks ago (at 29 weeks) and he was measuring right on track at 3lbs4oz (so 55th percentile), so he might not even be quite as big as the doctors were anticipating at first. I have another appointment in two weeks (at 33 weeks), so we'll see how he's growing then.

We did a tour of the hospital last weekend and it was a lovely (although smaller) facility. I'm starting to get really excited for him to get here!!

And no, still no name. We keep going over lists websites and reading up on names, and while we do have a few options, none of them seem to fit yet. A friend just sent me a few more websites I haven't seen yet, so I'm excited to check them out and see if anything stands out to us.

Funny things happen...

2012-01-16T16:18:00.001-05:00

... when papa is home. Now that I can't stand on my head, climb under the table, and pretend to be a frog, I'm afraid I've become the boring parent (but to be fair, I've never actually did any of the above mentioned things). We like to read together, play "quiet" (and not so quiet) games, practice writing letters and numbers, do puzzles, cook (and "cook") together.... you get the idea, things that don't involve me lifting or running (except up and down the stairs).
But when papa is home, all bets are off. Yes, they read books and pracitce writing together (and papa's favorite childhood movie was apparently Alladin), and do puzzles, but papa can do so much more!

Yup, still terrified of the sparklers - silly kid!

This one doesn't really need any explanation, does it?

Papa tried on the Moby wrap - he says it's super comfy (even with the 30lbs toddler) and Sasha wholeheartedly agrees

Planking baby - this could've been either Sasha's or papa's idea - your guess is as good as mine!

Ok, this was before papa came down - we were watching ice skating and this was Sasha's impression of the couple's skating

And then she made papa twirl her around - good times!

I need to go somewhere amazingly fun with her, and soon, or she'll think I was no fun at all when she looks back at these pictures in the future!!

Jonathan's birthday

2012-01-12T09:46:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, Sasha's cousin Jonathan celebrated his 5th birthday. All the kids had so much fun and Sasha had a blast running around with all the other kiddos.

Jonathan with his brother - the party was Pirate themed

My ice princess

2012-01-07T23:40:00.000-05:00

Sasha's fabulous auntie Anya and uncle Andrey (and no, I'm not biased because they're my sister and brother-in-law, I'm stating a simple fact) got Sasha skates that attach to her shoes. So today, we headed to our local skating rink to try them out. Kiddo had such an amazing time and didn't want to leave at all!!

And you know what's next? Sasha's been talking about Emily coming over and us going ice skating together and how they're going to hold hands and skate without their daddies! And then she found out that her cousin Jonathan also likes to skate and now she's expecting to go skating with him as well! Oh, and papa said that once I've had kiddo #2, he'll (graciously) allow me to go skating with our big girl (I kid, but I know he's worried about me getting on the ice right now). Big adventures await!

New Year's Day (and party #2)

2012-01-05T21:18:00.014-05:00

Our parents stayed at our house (it's so nice to have all this extra space now!) and we opened the presents from Grandfather Frost (our Russian version of Santa). Then we went for a nice walk in the park and in the evening, my sister, her husband, and his parents came over for a second day of celebration.

This post turned out pretty long, huh? Well, what can I say, I like to take lots of pictures ;)

New Year's party #1

2012-01-04T23:07:00.000-05:00

On New Year's Eve, we had our parents, my grandma, and my aunt and uncle (with my cousins and aunt's parents). It was crazy, but so much fun! Everybody brought something, so we weren't too busy preparing (which is quite good for this mama's back)

Happy New Year!

2012-01-03T10:00:00.001-05:00

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that we go big for New Year's Eve. And this year, since we'd just moved and now have all this space in the house, it was our turn to host it (it was really Z's idea, but it turned out really fun!) We had a two-day celebration, first ringing in the New Year (we stayed till past 3, cleaning up) with some 15 people, then had a few more show up the next day (my sister and her husband, along with his parents). I'm still sorting through the pictures, but here's a little New Year cheer:

My funny girl

2011-12-29T16:10:00.000-05:00

Our little girl is becoming quite a comedian, I tell you. It's really great to see her sense of humor developing. She constantly cracks us up, and at the end of the day, we can't remember all her funny sayings to write them down.

Just the other day, as I was washing dishes, Sasha calls out to me "mama, you know what?" So I reply "What?" and she ever so sweetly says "I love you, mama". My heart just melts! Of course, she's learned to use the "I love you sooo much" when she is about to get in trouble for something, but you just can't resist it (trust me, I've tried!)

She is also ridiculously sweet and caring with her baby dolls (and her favorite Teddy, whose name is actually Teddy): always feeding them, bathing them, putting them down for a nap. When they "cry", she consoles them and rocks them. She lets me hold them sometimes too, cautioning me to hold their heads extra carefully. I hope this lasts till when her baby brother gets here (and at least until he starts stealing her toys, at which point all bets are off anyway ;))

Oh yeah, baby brother's carseat arrived last week and I'm so happy we have someone to test drive it for him!!

And the charger for my DSLR also came, so yay for decent quality, non-grainy photos!!

Pre-holiday fun

2011-12-26T21:49:00.000-05:00

We went to a "holiday circus" held in a local theater near my parents' house. It was a blast - Sasha was completely mesmerized by the contortionists - she couldn't take her eyes of them! And then last act was the cutest little puppies doing funny tricks, so that got a huge smile out of my girl.

We then went over to my grandma's by way of some Christmas lights:

And then we made a gingerbread house (which looked better than it tasted to be honest, but that may be because we made it too far in advance.... maybe)

Oh, and this is us at the Rockefeller Center a couple of weeks ago when my good friend was visiting from London:

Baby milestones

2011-12-23T23:15:00.000-05:00

Itty bitty baby milestone: I am now officially in the third trimester! You know what that means? That means I have about 3 more months to go, ahhhh! Slightly nervous, but not in full-out freaking out mode, which is good, considering how much of a worrier I generally am. We have most of the big things, some clothes for the kiddo, and ordered the carseat the other day. And we even have some diapers, so I feel pretty good about it.

Kiddo was in the 90th percentile, as of my last ultrasound a few weeks ago, so still measuring big (although they're mostly worried about him measuring small, which clearly isn't an issue with my kids!) Still no name, which is really bothering me, but I'm determined to go to the hospital with a name picked out, we'll see how that plan works out for us...

And in the big kid news: we had an appointment with Sasha's new pediatrician and she's a sweetheart, so yay! Sasha really liked her and was a chatterbox (and she's usually pretty shy around strangers). Big girl is now 30lbs and 37" tall (25th percentile for both) and everything looked perfect.

We found a pre-school for her which we really like and she's starting in January. She'll be going 3 days a week till at least July or August, and then start full-time in September. I'm really looking forward to her getting some new friends (that are real and her own age!)

Oh, and I broke the charger for my DSLR, so while I'm waiting for a replacement to arrive from Amazon, I'm saving the battery in my camera and using our old point and shoot (basically, I'm hoping the batteries last till New Year's Eve, in case the charger doesn't get here before then)

And speaking of New Year's Eve - we're hosting it this year, ick! We'll have a bunch of family over here, which will be fun, but it's only a week away and I'm busy planning and preparing.

Happy Hanukah!

2011-12-20T21:30:00.000-05:00

Today, we celebrated the Festival of Lights with delicious latkes (the yummiest greasy stuff there is out there!), lighting the menorah, and enjoying our kid's face light up when she opened her presents (we don't go crazy, so she got a Toby train for her collection and a couple of cars, which she was so excited about!)

Holiday crafts and cookies

2011-12-18T23:16:00.000-05:00

This time of year, I especially love making super obviously holidays-y crafts and baking cookies with my girl. I'm really tempted to venture out to our local Michael's for more crafts, but I might not get a chance to before the end of year, we'll see.
Today, we even got to make cookies with Sasha's cousin Emily (granted the girls got tired after 20 minutes, and us mamas had to finish making the cookies, but they had such a blast!)

Oh, and apparently, we need to buy this car-loving, Thomas-the-train-playing girly girl a tiara!

Feeling the holiday spirit

2011-12-13T15:19:00.002-05:00

So a few weeks ago, if you'd asked me if I was excited for the holidays, I'd have honestly told you that no, I wasn't quite feeling it yet. This happens every year more or less, but this year with the move and all the insanity that comes with it, it was even harder. Presents were not purchased, some weren't even finalized, the tree wasn't up, the decorations were somewhere in boxes, in our garage. But last weekend, it happened: the holiday spirit has landed on our doorstep and took over our house! And it all started with a walk across the street to buy the tree:

Oh, the kiddo picked out this skirt all by herself, telling me "It's pretty good!" which we assumed to mean "It's pretty"

Papa made us some ahh-mazing cocoa (which may or may not explain Sasha's crazy dancing and jumping around that night...)

And yes, Sasha and I are wearing matching headbands, which was totally accidental, but made my little girl very very happy!

Then I started pulling out holiday crafts (we now have a sparkly sand art menorah and a foam tree on our mantelpiece), but I'll post about that separately. Tonight, we're making cookies, and next week it's latke time (and possibly some more cookies, hehehe) The presents are almost all purchased/ordered (though I tend to leave the wrapping til the last minute) And while the outside of our house still doesn't look like it, if you ask me today, I'd definitely tell you that yes, I'm indeed feeling the spirit of the holidays!

Funny English

2011-12-12T15:22:00.000-05:00

Caught Sasha "helping" papa put together (yet another) shelf and attempting to speak English. Z and I were staring at each other, saying "Where did she get all this from?!" I'm starting to think we've underestimated this kid.
Oh, and this was today's English lesson:

Uh-oh, we're in trouble!

2011-12-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

It seems as though our little girl is growing up a little too fast! She got into my make-up last night and this was the result (and she was really quite proud of herself too!)

This was less than an hour after she'd painted her nails with her markers... We're not ready for nails and make-up yet!

It's Christmas time in the city...

2011-12-05T15:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, so we technically don't celebrate Christmas, but you've heard my spiel about New Year's Eve and that the way we celebrate is nearly identical to Christmas (except for reindeer, overdoing it with presents, and the whole "naughty or nice" thing - I can't even begin to wrap my head around that one to be honest). So we went to see the Christmas tree in the city last night. It was so much fun: Sasha had the best view from her papa's shoulders and didn't want to leave, we saw the Saks Fifth Avenue windows, the angels, people ice skating (now, naturally she wants to go ice skating herself), and even tasted some (overpriced) roasted chestnuts!

Big girl bed transition

2011-12-03T22:33:00.003-05:00

I've been dreading it for months. I've been preparing myself (and the kiddo) for months. She was so excited that she's not a little girl anymore and can sleep in her "big girl bed". In fact, before we moved, she wouldn't want to go in her crib for naps and bedtimes! The first night in the new house and in the new bed went so well:

She went to bed with some fussing and complaining, but slept so nicely! Nap the next day was a piece of cake! This continued for two weeks: cranky at bedtime, but slept great, easy naps; I was beginning to wonder why we put this off for so long. Then one morning, after Z left for work and I fell back asleep (instead of getting Sasha up), I woke up two hours later to a quite house: turns out kiddo was in her room, having changed out of her pull-ups and pj's, reading. Great!! Except that it wasn't. She refused to nap the next three days and made a giant mess out of her room. In the mornings, she's venture downstairs (oops forgot to lock the gate on her door), sing songs super loudly, or bang on her gate with her sunglasses. Bedtime continued to be hard. Then she napped (poor kiddo was exhausted by then). Then she didn't nap again.
Today, she ran around her room opening and closing closet doors for over an hour; then all was quiet - she was finally exhausted enough to fall asleep. And this, my friends, is how I found her when I went to wake her up:

Yup, she's on top of her comforter, wearing a swimsuit, flip flops, a hairbow in her hair, half covered with her baby blanket, and no pillowcase on the pillow (with her Teddy which her cousin Emily had given her)... I'm honestly waiting to walk in on her sleeping in her closet or half on her bed or under the bed or something. Sigh. I'm hoping it's just the excited of the new bed and she'll get used to it and stop climbing out/playing soon.

Update on baby Honeydew

2011-11-30T14:06:00.000-05:00

First off, I'm 24 weeks today. Which means viability. Which means the kiddo will likely do just fine if he were born at this point (not super duper, probably stay in the NICU, but the lungs are developed enough to survive! Yay!) I know it's a weird thing to get excited about, but it makes me feel relieved.
I saw the new OB (since I won't be delivering with my old one) and she was so nice! Sasha came with me and behaved like an angel (why couldn't she act like that at home, I wonder). She kept asking me what the dr. was doing and then listened to her little brother's heartbeat on the doppler with a giant smile on her face. It was so precious! I really can't wait for him to get here!!

See? I'm telling you she's excited!
Still no name for this kiddo (and don't even get me started on how badly I feel about it, with Sasha we had a name before we were even married!!) Going back and forth on a few alternatives, but none of them feel like our son's name, if that makes sense. So we're working on it; hopefully we'll decide before he's born!
The next big thing is the GD test in a month, when I get to drink some lovely sugary drink and get blook drawn to make sure I'm not developing gestational diabetes. Then after that nothing too exciting for a while.
I cannot wait for March to get here!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-25T23:50:00.000-05:00

So much to be thankful for this year! Wonderful family and friends (who have been nothing but amazing, especially during these past few months), our health, our perfectly healthy growing baby, not to mention our amazing "big girl" (her words, not mine), my husband. We spent Thanksgiving at Z's aunt and uncle's house with many of our loved ones and it was so much fun!

How we spent the first weekend in our new house

2011-11-21T12:43:00.000-05:00

We spent the entire weekend unpacking, washing windows, painting bathrooms, insulating the attic, vacuuming, ordering take-out, discovering a new park, and putting together a doll crib for Sasha. We even managed to squeeze in a swimming lesson at the Y for the kiddo! Oh, and we now own a leaf blower, yup, definitely the suburbs.

Pictures of the house to come later, once (at least) the boxes are unpacked. We still have a lot to do in terms of decorating and really making the place "ours", but with the holidays coming up, I think I might slack a little on that.

Home sweet home!

2011-11-14T23:23:00.000-05:00

Just a quick update: we're all moved in, as of this afternoon. Still have a few things in the car and boxes, boxes everywhere (will this ever end?) Sasha's room is bright and blue with light pink curtains and butterflies on her comforter (which she picked out herself) and is the only room in the house which is unpacked. Baby boy's room might just be the last to be unpacked, sigh. Master bedroom is cozy and warm with a king-size bed and many boxes (but if you close your eyes and imagine the boxes aren't there, it's really cozy and warm, I promise!)
I do have a few pictures, but, alas, not the camera cord, so whenever I locate it, I'll be able to upload some. Tomorrow, Z is going back to work, and Sasha and I will explore our new neighborhood a bit. More on the house to come, I'm sure!

Las Vegas in pictures

2011-11-09T23:02:00.000-05:00

OMG, we really needed that break! I came back feeling refreshed and ready for more packing (but don't even get me started on that!) Vegas was a bit chilly, but we made the best of it and had an amazing time. Went to see the Grand Canyon, gambled (and lost a lot of money, sigh), ate at wonderfully delicious restaurants, walked around, and, yes, shopped. It was great!

Half baked!

2011-11-08T21:28:00.000-05:00

I am officially half baked, as of last Wednesday. I'm feeling pretty good, just really big (I'm pretty sure I looked like this at 24 weeks with Sasha).

I had another anatomy scan today and I took my mom, since she's never seen one before. I swear, she was sitting there smiling the entire time, it was wonderful!

How cute is that little kiddo? He's got the same little button nose that Sasha had too! Can you see how he's sticking out his pinky as if drinking tea? Ahh, I love it! Kiddo weighs approximately 1lb right now, measuring about 5 days ahead. The doctor said he wanted to see me in a month to monitor his growth (he said they were mostly concerned about slower growth with the meds I'm on though, so so far so good).
As for the name, we're still very much undecided. Discussing a bunch of different names, all of which are really nice names, but none of which seem to feel like our son's name quite yet. I just hope we come to a decision before we're at the hospital!!

Vegas bound!

2011-11-02T00:14:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow morning, bright and early, I'll be on my way to Las Vegas! Z is there for a conference right now, and I'm joining him (well, I'm not going there for the conference). I am so excited for a chance to get away from all the craziness of the past few weeks and recharge before our final week here!
November is looking to be quite busy: Vegas this week, then packing all of next week (with a little break for an anatomy scan to which I am sooo excited to take my mom!), moving all our stuff that weekend, and closing on our current apartment on the 14th. It's a good thing November ends with loads of family and food (Thanksgiving and our niece's 6th birthday), or else I think I'd go crazy!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T23:10:00.000-04:00

Our little miss was Angelina Ballerina for Halloween today. Unfortunately, her teacher at school mixed up the cameras and didn't take any pictures of her, but we made up for it when we got home.

And we pretend-trick-or-treated (because there aren't many places to trick-or-treat in our area... and this kiddo does not need any more candy!)

Sasha's first haircut!

2011-10-29T22:26:00.001-04:00

Today, Sasha got her first real haircut (let's not talk about what happened when mama tried to give her bangs a trim two weeks before her 1st birthday, ok?) She did so well, and seemed to really enjoy it, as manifested by "I want to get another haircut" the minute we stepped out of the salon.
I didn't really get a "before" shot, but here's Sasha with her hair down a couple of weeks ago:

This is the "almost before" shot from today:

Do you see how long her hair has gotten?

And here she is getting her haircut:

We bought a house!

2011-10-27T14:14:00.000-04:00

Oh. My. God. What have we gotten ourselves into? Yesterday afternoon, we closed on our new house. This was the easiest, fastest closing in the history of closings, ever! Ok, maybe not, I'm not sure, but compared to our first closing with our current condo, where the two partners selling it to us had a fight smack in the middle of it, and where we sat stupidly for hours on end, this one was super fast and easy!
I've started packing (and panicking). Tomorrow, an electrician is coming to put in the overhead lights in the bedrooms, then tapers this weekend, then we're in Vegas all next week, and then finally painters the week after that. And guess what happens after painters? We move in! So that leaves us a little over two weeks to pack and sell our condo. Panic mode!
But here's motivation:

Was she really ever this tiny?

2011-10-24T12:07:00.000-04:00

I'm going through Sasha's baby clothes right now (and giving them to a friend's brother who's expecting a little girl soon) and found this little white dress she wore when she was 3 months old. Naturally, she wanted to try it on.
OMG, how is this possible?! How did my little baby girl get so big and grown-up??

Sasha at 3 months old

Sasha at 3 years and (almost) 2 months old

I'm so looking forward to having another little baby to cuddle and hug and squeeze and love on!

Family fun day!

2011-10-22T23:01:00.000-04:00

We went to the Bronx Zoo today! And you know what's better than going to the Bronx Zoo with your family on a beautiful October Saturday? Going for free! Z's company had their yearly Family Fun Day there and all the tickets (and parking, and the food) were included. Plus, Sasha got to see giraffes, ride a bug carousel, and get her face painted! Such a fun day!

Later in the evening, we headed to Z's grandma's birthday and had a blast (mostly dancing)!

Four years!

2011-10-20T23:57:00.000-04:00

Today, we're celebrating our fourth wedding anniversary. It's been a pretty crazy ride, with its highs and lows, but filled with so much love and happiness. We're watching our wedding video (as we do each year) and I gotta say I'm tearing up a little... but that could just be the crazy hormones!

I'm so glad I picked this man to be my partner and the father of my kids (yeah, I'm getting used to using the plural too!) Happy anniversary, honey, and as you like to say "Here's to many more". Love you!

Family fun at the aquarium

2011-10-17T22:21:00.000-04:00

On Sunday morning, we headed to the aquarium. We love love love that place (we do not love paying $40 just to get in and then another $30 for the pretty crappy food, but what are you going to do!)

I will get a dance at a wedding!!!

2011-10-14T11:16:00.002-04:00

We're having a little boy!!! We had an appointment yesterday and took a look at our baby Honeydew and the little one is definitely a he! The baby looks perfectly healthy and measuring a bit ahead (but my dr. doesn't want to move my due date, so we might just end up with a large baby again - Sasha was 8lbs1oz when she was born). When we told Sasha she was going to get a little brother, she looked at us, disappointed, and said "But I asked for a sister"... and yes, we do have this on camera!

The poor kid might remain nameless until he's here, because we're having a hard time coming up with a boy's name, so for right now he will be known as baby Honeydew (Sasha is Watermelon, don't ask, a very long story!)

Oh, and p.s. I've been asked a few times if I was showing yet, so here's a picture of me from yesterday, 17 weeks pregnant (yes, in a Target fitting room):

Beach day!

2011-10-11T22:35:00.000-04:00

A beach day in October? Well, why not? I'll take all the sunshine I can get! It was in the mid-eighties yesterday, so kiddo and I headed to the beach to hang out.

Tumbling class with papa

2011-10-06T23:22:00.000-04:00

Papa and Sasha had a little tumbling class the other night before dinner. These are too cute not to share!

And here's a little video too:

Sasha's 3-year pediatrician visit

2011-10-04T22:30:00.000-04:00

We went to see Sasha's pediatrician on Sunday to get a flu shot and a blood draw (funny side story: we walk in, the doctor asks us if we want to get the blood test and we look at each other and think "Want? Who would want blood drawn?"; turns out we can do it in half a year!) The flu shot was a mist, so that was easy peasy. Sasha weighed in at 30lbs even and is 37" tall (so that's roughly 5lbs and 3" in the past year). She's pretty petite for her age, apparently my sister was very similarly proportioned when she was a kid, go figure!

Dublin

2011-10-02T21:39:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures from Dublin (I thought this deserved a post of its own... plus Blogger was giving me a giant headache with uploading pictures, so I thought I'd split them up into two)

I owe you some pictures, huh?

2011-10-02T21:24:00.000-04:00

So I completely forgot about posting our Ireland pictures, oops. To make up for the delay, I will post a zillion pictures. And a separate post on Dublin! Aren't I so generous?

Little Picasso

2011-09-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

We've been doing a lot of cuddling (and hanging out, and reading, and playing, and some tv watching) since we got back - I'm also on an insane soup kick from having had soup literally every day in Ireland, although the kiddo doesn't seem quite as excited as me about that (but I'm going on a tangent here) We also did some drawing over the past week (taking out the paints now too) and here's what Sasha came up with - she calls these her presents for me!

This one is the sun (albeit a mean looking sun) and butterflies all around it

This one is by far my absolutely most favorite picture ever - it's Sasha and myself, holding hands! And I'm totally digging the hair on both of us ;)

Oh, and check out how she "signs" her name - the scribbles above her head and all over (and near) the butterflies - yup, that says "Sasha".

Love her!

Sasha's 3-year-old photoshoot

2011-09-27T13:45:00.000-04:00

Believe it or not, this year I did not forget to schedule and have a photoshoot for the kiddo (I know it's not that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things, but I really want to get them done yearly, they're so much fun to look back at and compare)

Too many? Yeah, I know, but they are so cute I couldn't pick just a few to share. I'm sure I'll hear all about it when the hubby sees the length of this post ;)

We're back!

2011-09-26T21:41:00.000-04:00

... but I've got no pictures to share yet, because as usual I took way too many thus subjecting myself to having to sort through and edit them all. Sigh. Will post them soon.
We had an amazing trip though, the weather was icky, but you kind of expect it going to Ireland. We had so much fun, Z was so amused by the insane amounts of sheep and cows that were grazing at literally every turn of the road. Oh, and speaking of the roads, holy moly, I was scared! These are the narrowest tiniest roads ever, with a crazy speed limit of 80 km an hour (which Z joked was probably a record somebody set driving there). By day 2, my amazing husband was used to driving on the "wrong" side of the road and was passing other cars like noone's business. The history of Ireland is just amazing though and seeing it all first hand was mind blowing (one of the guides at the Newgrange tombs used the word "fab" to describe the place, which made me squeal with joy and fall in love with that place so much more!) Five-thousand-year old passage tombs, 800-year old abandoned monasteries, 300-million-year old cliffs! Green pastures as far as the eye can see, delicious and hearty dinners (complete with some sort of potatoes, naturally), and the beer (which I didn't try, but judging by Z's giddiness which each beautiful pint of Guinness, it was good). Oh, and we totally stayed in two castles on our trip, yeah, we're badass!

More pictures later, I promise. Oh, and we got a disc with Sasha's professional pictures in the mail, so I'll be sharing those as well, they came out so cute!

It's vacation time!!!

2011-09-16T18:56:00.000-04:00

In just a few minutes, we'll be getting into the car to go to the airport. Ireland, here we come. We're so excited about this long-awaited and much anticipated vacation!! Although I know we'll miss our little girl so so much, this time spent together is always so good for Z and me. Not to mention that I know she'll be well taken care of with her grandparents!
Will share *some* pictures when we get back! Have a wonderful week!!

Feeling sad today

2011-09-15T22:25:00.000-04:00

My aunt and uncle left for Russia yesterday. My cousin and her husband left last week. And now I'm feeling so sad about them not being around (or us not being around?) more often. We had such a blast over the couple of weeks they were here. It makes me really sad to know that Sasha (and Honeydew) won't grow up knowing that side of her family. Of course, we're going to try our best to go visit often, but realistically it's not going to happen even ever other year, sigh.

Big news!

2011-09-13T10:39:00.001-04:00

We've got some really exciting news to share:

Baby #2 (codename honeydew) is due in March (although the due date is still being debated by the doctors as the kiddo was measuring 6 whole days ahead at our last ultrasound). We are so so excited and cant' wait to meet this little one. And yes, we'll be finding out what we're having, for two reasons: I'm too impatient to wait till March and I'm way too type-A with needing to prepare (i.e. picking out names, buying things, preparing the nursery, etc.)

Apple picking

2011-09-12T18:37:00.000-04:00

We went apple picking yesterday for the first time and it was so much fun! Sasha enjoyed riding in the little wagon and eating (who know how many) apples more than actually picking them... but let me tell you she enjoyed apple pie we baked last night very very much! We got so many apples that I was literally forced to make a pie (two actually), apple jam, and there's still a ton left.

Totally age appropriate, right?

2011-09-10T21:47:00.000-04:00

So here's the deal: when it's too quiet in our house for a while (and it's not after 9pm or naptime), that means trouble. I'm pretty sure that's true for any house with young kids really, and there are very few exceptions here. Today, I heard Sasha running suspiciously fast into her room after being awfully quiet for a while and that's when I found her like this:

She apparently found my eye shadow pencil and used it on her lips. Her reasoning? So that the mosquitoes won't bite her. Love that kid!

Sasha's super fun birthday party

2011-09-07T23:10:00.000-04:00

We had a really fun birthday party for our special birthday girl. Buzz and Woody and Jessie and all of her Toy Story friends were there and she was so excited! She also had her special "birthday princess tiara" (because honestly, one minute she wants nothing but her cars and the next she's dancing around in a tutu).

Sasha had such a wonderful time with her family and got so many presents, this little girl is truly lucky!! I think so far, her favorites are a little piano book and a doll carrier (presents from us), hopscotch (from grandma and grandpa L.), and a book in which she can write and then erase numbers (from my aunt and uncle). But we honestly haven't even opened all her presents yet, so ask me again in a few weeks ;)

Three

2011-09-05T22:47:00.002-04:00

Today, Sasha turns three years old. Today, we're celebrating our big little girl. Today, we're singing "happy birthday" very loudly to very enthusiastic clapping from our daughter. Today, we're excited and thrilled about the fabulous independent (yet very attached) young girl she's turning into. Today, we reminisce about the tiny little bundle she was just 3 short years ago. And today, we look forward to the person she's going to become, the person we're responsible for shaping.

Our funny and loud, yet sometimes shy and quiet, girl, who said to me the other day "Oh, I talk so much!" Our little joy, who sometimes shows her rebellious side with her tantrums and fits, who will pick up the thrown toy or apologize for not listening or hurting someone's feelings. Our little singer and dancer. Our sweet Sasha. We're so lucky to have you as our daughter, to teach us to look at things through naive and curious eyes, to show us perspective on what's really important, to make us laugh even after a very long hard day, to teach you all that we know, and to go through this wonderful journey with. We are the luckiest people in the entire world because of you. We love you so very much!
Your mama and papa.

P.S. How did you go from this...

... to this....

... to this...

... to this?

My sister gets married

2011-09-04T22:33:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, my little sister got married. To this awesome guy she's been dating since junior high. They're a perfect couple and they had a perfect wedding. I have over 600 pictures (since I like to run around with my camera and pretend I'm a photographer, you know) and that's after sifting through all the pictures I took and throwing out the really bad ones. So here are just a few, I'm sure I'll add some more later.

My parents, sister and I - I am a bit of a giant in our family

World's cutest flower girls - Sasha and her cousin Emily

Happy newlyweds :)

Father-daughter dance

The theme of the wedding was obviously "silly faces" ;)

Anna and Andrey are off to their honeymoon in Greece and Turkey (and we're all super jealous!). May you guys have a long and happy life ahead of you, with nothing but good memories, wonderful family, and loyal friends; a life filled with love, cheer, laughter, and above all togetherness. We love you!!

September is here!

2011-09-01T09:26:00.000-04:00

I can't believe September is here already! When did that happen? Where I come from, fall starts promptly on September 1st - first day of school, chilly fall-y weather (although it starts getting chilly a good couple of weeks before that). Here in the states, summer lasts a few more weeks and I like it that way.
This month is going to be absolutely nuts for our family and I'm sure it'll fly by. In just two days, my "little" sister is getting married!!

Then two days after that, kiddo turns three whole years old (although I'm quite alright with that and really excited about her party... and hey, this year, I even remembered to make an appointment to get her pictures taken!)

Our family is sticking around for another week or so, which means more playing tourist in NY - and I just love that.

And then to cap off this fabulously exciting month, we're heading to Ireland, just hubby and me!!

That's Cliffs of Moher right there and we're going. We're also staying in various castles the entire time... I'm not bragging or anything (we did get a killer deal on this trip though)

So yeah, I think I'm excited about this September. Really excited. Let the fun month begin!

The Bronx Zoo

2011-08-31T23:20:00.000-04:00

Another fun day with the family. No words necessary really. But here are some pictures:

A long day in the city

2011-08-31T08:33:00.005-04:00

Yesterday, while Sasha was at school we had a very very long day of walking around the city - it was such a blast (even though, my feet hurt quite a bit at night). We first checked out the Highline (love love love this place) and then headed to the Intrepid Museum. Later that night, we all went out to celebrate my cousin's wedding, which we weren't able to attend back in April.

Today, we're off to the Bronx Zoo, so prepare yourselves for more picture-heavy posts!

We survived!

2011-08-30T09:18:00.002-04:00

We survived our first hurricane last weekend! We were all somewhat panicked, but luckily, it wasn't as bad as we all anticipated here. We had a couple of leaks, lots of fallen branches, but nothing too serious. We even drove to the city on Sunday afternoon.

Preparing for Irene!

2011-08-26T23:01:00.000-04:00

All of East Coast is getting ready for the hurricane Irene heading our way. People have started evacuating. We've decided to at least stay here tonight and then reevaluate situation tomorrow morning: if we do decide to get out of the city, we'd need to do it very early in the morning, as the bridges are supposed to be closed at 5pm, creating hours and hours of traffic. We've stocked up on canned food, bread, flashlights, candles, water, so hopefully we'll be ok in the next few days. The only thing that's pissing me off about this Irene business is that our family from Russia is in town for my sister's wedding next weekend and we had major plans and wanted to go out and enjoy the city (I love playing tourist with out of town visitors), but we'll have to make the best of it and hang out here.

My fabulous aunt with Sasha at the beach yesterday (to where I drove by the way, not bragging or anything, but yeah...)

My cousin and her husband at the beach, being silly

We saw this from our balcony a couple of nights ago as we were finishing our dinner. I'll think good thoughts of clear blue skies and beautiful sunsets in hopes that Irene decides to pass us by.

Good night. Stay safe!

Party planning!!

2011-08-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

It's party planning time in our house: Sasha's birthday is now officially less than two weeks away. I'm so excited!! I remember when she was turning one (and even two) I was very sentimental about "how did this happen so fast?!" This time around, I'm just so excited! She's still our little kiddo and will be for a while (although some days I do wish the "treacherous threes" would go by faster) and this is really such a fun age! I can have actual conversations with her (not about anything serious of course, but man, how fun is it to talk to your kid about what another kid at school said, whose birthday it was, that she's going to be the flower girl at her aunt's wedding and practicing walking and throwing petals around!) So this year, I'm not getting all sentimental, I'm excited for what this next chapter is going to bring!
And how can you plan a birthday party for this one-day-girly-and-the-next-a-Thomas-loving-tomboy girl without her besties, Woody and Buzz? Yeah, the kid is a bit obsessed, but they're super fun, and really easy to find party supplies for, so it's a win-win.

Got my package #1 out of a few in the mail yesterday and was giddy like a little girl! I think kiddo will LOVE it!

Coney Island

2011-08-20T11:53:00.000-04:00

I love love love Coney island with all its fun rides, excited people, yummy (but so bad for you) food. Sasha and I headed there yesterday for an impromptu fun date. Seeing my shy little girl point at rides and actually going on them and enjoying them made my day, heck, week!

Fun day at the zoo!

2011-08-17T21:15:00.000-04:00

Sasha and I had a super fun day at the zoo today! I gave her the choice of the Botanic Gardens or the zoo and (logically) she picked the latter - so I'm still hoping to go look at pretty flowers next week.

The many faces of Sasha

2011-08-11T22:24:00.000-04:00

I was playing with Sasha's hair yesterday (in preparation for my sister's wedding) and she made so many hilarious and adorable faces that I just had to share!

Wordless, picture-full post

2011-08-10T16:20:00.001-04:00

Cookies!

2011-08-10T09:06:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Sasha and I made some cookies!

Yum!

House hunting

2011-08-08T17:26:00.000-04:00

Why, oh why, is house hunting so stressful and complicated?? We saw probably 10 houses yesterday (I know, I know, it's an insane number of houses, but we figured if we were to drive an hour each way, we might as well see a whole bunch of houses). And what did we get out of this trip? Two houses that we like. One smaller and less expensive which I love and one larger spacious more expensive which Z loves. Oh, and a fixer-upper beautiful house which is a short sale, which we both love, but not sure we can deal with all the repairs... Sigh. And we're still having to sell our current condo. Fun times! I'm stressed and dreaming about rooms, basements, and houses.
I haven't updated in a while, I have some cute pictures on my cameras, just need to get them onto my computer and then will share with you.

New York aquarium last Sunday

2011-08-02T18:55:00.001-04:00

We really like going to the aquarium. It's so much fun. Kiddo loves all the fishies and I love spending mornings together. It's a very special trip to the aquarium (or anywhere else really) when papa comes with us!

Last birthday in July

2011-07-31T22:44:00.000-04:00

So our summers are crazy busy with birthdays. Crazy! But we all love getting together and celebrating every one of our family members. The last birthday of the month is my father-in-law's.

Yeah, I forgot that I had flash off from our trip to the aquarium that morning! Oops!

Sasha practiced writing numbers with grandma and grandpa

My mother-in-law forgot the "6" candle, so instead of 56, my father-in-law turned 5. Awesome!

August is a pretty tame month for us, but this September is going to be nuts! My sister's wedding, Sasha's birthday, our trip to Ireland! My aunt, uncle, cousin, and her husband are coming from Russia for the festivities, so it's going to be loads of fun.

Super awesome kids day!

2011-07-30T17:13:00.000-04:00

I don't know if I've mentioned this before but Z's job is fantastic! Not only do they have a very close group (who get together outside of work to hang out all the time), but they also throw all sorts of wonderful parties. One year, their Winter party was at the Natural Museum of Science, how awesome is that?!? We've gone to Rye playland a couple of years ago with them. And let's not forget their beer-tasting and sake-tasting parties! Yesterday was "Kids Day" at Z's work and we had a blast!! There was face painting (for some, arm painting, but still exciting), sand art, cotton candy (the adults took part in this activity very eagerly), shows, and workshops (playtime with the actors from Paperbag Players).

Sasha's cousins Daniel and Jonathan were also there, and the kids had a wonderful time playing together! And yes, I blurred out the last names on the name tags, I'm paranoid like that... I don't want random internet strangers to stalk us (provided people other than my parents and a few friends read this of course)

Happy birthday to my mom!

2011-07-26T23:14:00.000-04:00

... who also doesn't always photograph well:

But then, sometimes does:

We went out to celebrate my mom's birthday last night and had a blast (and I even remembered to take my camera with me this time!) Happy birthday to the best mama ever!

Z's parents

Sasha likes to steal my shoes and then walk around the apartment making clicking noises

Silly girl!

2011-07-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

Yesterday when my parents came over, Sasha was enjoying dancing and playing with them. Then suddenly she came up to me and asked for her "pink dress". So I handed it to her, she demanded that I leave so that she could put it on by herself. Then she proceeded to twirl around, dance and tip-toe like a ballerina. Everybody loved it.
After her nap, she put on her pretty princess dress again, pulled out her train set, asked me to put it together and spent nearly the entire evening playing with her Thomas train.

And made faces with her equally silly mama:

She kept asking me to see this picture over and over and was laughing hysterically!

She's not a 100% girly girl, nor is she a 100% tomboy. Some days she's a tip-toeing, tutu-wearing ballerina and others she's a ball-throwing, soccer-playing, Thomas- and Woody-adoring little tomboy. And some days, she's both at the same time!

Happy birthday to my husband!!

2011-07-24T10:52:00.001-04:00

... who apparently doesn't always photograph well!

But Sasha's face more than makes up for it, don't you think?

Yesterday, we celebrated Z's 27th birthday with our families. And I somehow forgot my camera, which never happens. I mean, I literally almost never forget my camera! Oh well, at least we have this shot from Z's parents camera!!

Two more July birthdays and then a little break before the next batch of festivities!

Happenings and cuteness

2011-07-20T13:31:00.001-04:00

Yesterday, Sasha and I went to the movies to see Charlotte's Web - Sasha's first time in a movie theater, and she loved it (but somebody should've warned me how sad this movie was). And honestly, for a dollar, I wouldn't have cared if she needed to leave half-way through the movie, but she sat through the whole thing, asking me questions about what was going on. It was so much fun!!

And because last post was so long and picture-less, here's some recent cuteness of our girl:

Lots of birthdays are coming up in the next week (papa's on Friday, then my mom's a few days later, and then my father-in-law's the next day), so stay tuned for a ton of picture-filled posts. Summers are totally insane with birthdays for us!

Playing catch-up

2011-07-18T22:12:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted since last Monday - bad bad blogger! But, to be perfectly honest, nothing much was going on really. Most of last week we spent at home since it was so bizarrely hot and disgusting outside. I did get to the city on Thursday for a lunch/coffee date/shopping with my good friend Inna, Z, and my sister, so that was nice. The weekend was pretty exciting though. We dropped Sasha off at my in-laws and went to see Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part II. When I say it was spectacular, that's an understatement!! It was so good, I seriously don't think I've ever cried and laughed and clapped so much watching a movie, ever! And granted, I haven't been a huge fan of the series from the beginning and only really got into it pretty recently, I think I blended in with the long-time fans pretty nicely. Sunday, we went to look at houses in NJ - which was fun, but so tiring.
Today, my braces came off!! Woohoo!! That's so exciting, though the process was not a very pleasant one, but at least, I'm done with them! Now I do have to see my dentist for a deep cleaning, so that's a pretty terrifying prospect, but I have no choice in the matter, sigh.
Tomorrow, I'm planning to take Sasha to the movies for the first time ever to see Charlotte's Web. There's a $1 summer movie program in a theater near us, so I figure even if she hates it, we can leave and it's not like we paid $19 for each ticket (and yeah, we paid $19 for each ticket for HP in Imax 3D - how ridiculous is that!)

Celeb-obsessed

2011-07-11T23:22:00.002-04:00

If you know me, you know I'm a little bit celebrity-obsessed. I love the gossip, I love the dresses, I love all the drama. And I love Harry Potter. So it was only natural that I should attempt to brave the premiere in NYC today. It was completely insane and very disorganized, almost unbearably hot and crowded. I was close to leaving at a couple of different points throughout the day, but I stuck it out. And even though I didn't get lucky and get a wristband for the better spot, I had a great time!!

Matthew Lewis - Neville Longbottom

Tom Felton - Draco Malfoy

Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker

Alan Rickman - Professor Snape

Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley), Emma Watson (Hermione Granger), and Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) were also in attendance, but disappeared rather quickly; and the sea of hands with cameras in front of me made it hard to take pictures. All in all, a fun, memorable, amazing day!
Edited to add: a girl I met that day just sent me the pictures from her camera, and she did manage to get Rupert Grint (love him!) and Emma Watson! Woohoo!

Finally back home!

2011-07-11T22:08:00.000-04:00

Or as my sister put it "back to the civilization". There are no bugs or moths in our apartment. Our mattress is divinely comfortable. I can actually go places (in fact today, I went to the Harry Potter premiere in the city or, at least, attempted to, but more on that later).
Here's the remainder of our time in the Catskills though (because, no matter how much the bugs annoyed me and the horrible mattress was nearly impossible to sleep on, we really did enjoy our time there!)

Almost ready to go home

2011-07-09T16:40:00.000-04:00

We're leaving for home tomorrow afternoon, but we decided to squeeze in as much fun/lounging/swimming/tanning/shopping in as possible in the last two days. My goal is to try to get rid of the horrific "X" on my back from wearing a swimsuit with criss-crossing straps.
Here's what we've been up to since my last update:

Enjoying the nature

2011-07-05T11:16:00.000-04:00

We've been in the Catskills since last Thursday and, while the internet connection (or lack thereof) is quite frustrating, we're really enjoying our stay here. We even went for a walk in the woods this morning while everybody else was asleep; Sasha found some raspberries and flowers.

Sasha was fascinated with a bug that landed on my chair!

More to come, I'm sure: we're here till Sunday and I am one of those parents who lugs their giant camera around!

Busy busy busy

2011-06-28T13:59:00.000-04:00

Last week has been pretty busy. Good busy though. Sasha got sick on Thursday, the poor kid, kept pointing at her neck and saying that her throat hurt! Thankfully, it turned out to be nothing serious, and after staying home for a couple of days, she seemed much better. On Saturday, she and Z went to the beach while I got to sleep in (they had a fabulous time together, though there are no pictures to prove it, hmm...) I had a brunch date with some friends of mine at Max Brenner (oh, my gosh, this place is like heaven!) Then we went to Z's coworker's BBQ which was a blast! Sunday was my cousin's birthday, so we had a dinner and desserts in the city. Monday was nice and relaxing since Sasha's in school, so I worked on some projects of mine. Today, we went to Sasha's music class in the city, stopped by Auntie Anna's to say hi, then had a coffee (and cookie) date with Z. Now, Sasha's napping as I'm catching up on things.
Oh, and did I mention the packing? Sigh, I hate packing. We're going to upstate for a week and a half, and we need a lot of things! I gotta say, the packing isn't going too horribly though, it's just that if I could I'd rather not do it at all ;)
And some pictures to compensate for the wordiness of this post:

Uh-oh, we're in trouble!

Children's Museum

2011-06-22T21:37:00.000-04:00

Sasha and I took a little trip to the Children's Museum. It was loads of fun, Sasha got to play with the water table and in a giant sand box, see fish and turtles, and even touch a snake! We really should've gotten there a bit earlier, since all the school groups were there later, but we had a blast. In fact, Sasha was so exhausted, she fell asleep on the bus (man, I really need to learn to drive!)

Sasha wanted to be a bus driver!

Happy Father's Day!

2011-06-19T22:14:00.000-04:00

Today, we celebrate our fathers. It's a little cheesy, and, surely, you can call up your dad and tell him how much you love him and how much he means to you whenever you feel like it, but it's also nice to have an extra day dedicated specifically to this. And I feel so incredibly lucky to have my amazing dad! And now, I feel so lucky and so happy that Sasha has an amazing dad as well - I take some of the credit for that, since I did pick him after all ;)...
We usually don't do anything grand or fabulous, but we like to hang out - today, we headed to Z's parents' house for a barbeque and had such a wonderful time with both his and my parents!

Wishing all the wonderful dads out there a happy Father's Day filled with love and warmth!!

Soccer practice

2011-06-16T10:53:00.001-04:00

On hot sunny evenings, we like to go to a park nearby and have dinner there. Last night, we decided to add a little soccer practice to the evening. It went quite well, Sasha might just become a big soccer star one day - she had a blast!

New York Aquarium

2011-06-15T18:30:00.000-04:00

This afternoon, we met up with some friends of ours and headed to the aquarium. The kids loved it and kept asking to see "more fishies". You should've heard them squealing in delight, trying to poke the fish through the glass!

We saw Happy Feet in 4D, Sasha tolerated the glasses for a total of 4 minutes: as soon as the movie started, she ripped them off and climbed onto my lap, where she spent the rest of the movie, covering her ears with her hands!

And at the end of the day, naturally, we had some ice cream. The girls thoroughly enjoyed it!

Long birthday celebration

2011-06-14T13:45:00.000-04:00

I had a very very long birthday celebration this year. Not that I'm complaining. Although Z did say on Sunday night that he's quite tired and would like a break.
Thursday, I was in the city most of the day, and had a lovely lunch with Z, followed by a Chinese takeout picnic in our living room. Friday, we went to see How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying - it was fantastic!! People, go see it! It was hilarious, beautifully made, the songs were excellent, the jokes - witty. And Daniel Radcliffe was amazingly good - and the guy can sing!!

On Saturday, we went to Beer Garden with some of our friends - which was quite loud and dark, but really fun!

And on Sunday, to round up our long celebrations, we had dinner with family at a cute little Greek place here in Brooklyn.

Man, that was long. The post and the birthday itself. Sorry for the picture overload, I'll be sure to post a cute kiddo-pictures-post to compensate for these soon ;)

Happy birthday to me!

2011-06-09T23:57:00.001-04:00

I had a very happy (and a ridiculously hot) 27th birthday today! I had a couple of doctor's appointments, errands to run in the city, of course, stopped by Barnes and Noble for a few new books, and a lovely lunch with Z. We had a picnic on our living room floor, since the weather suddenly changed and was very stormy. And then, after Sasha's bath, she sang me a birthday song!

I got so many messages on my phone, phone calls saying "happy birthday", and my FB wall was going crazy with awesome birthday wishes. I feel so loved today!!

Beach day

2011-06-08T21:57:00.000-04:00

This morning, to beat the heat, we headed to the beach. Wasn't completely spontaneous since I started packing the night before, but let's just say it was pretty spontaneous. And really really fun!

When it's too hot to go outside...

2011-06-07T21:33:00.000-04:00

We stay in and do crafts. Sometimes involving toilet paper, sometimes paint-covered kiddo (funny side story: we were attempting to make Father's day presents today and as we were crafting, I told Sasha that these are going to be surprise and not to tell papa or anyone what we made. So as soon as we sit down to eat dinner, she looks at papa very excitedly and says "We were making presents today". Sigh. She will not make a good spy)

Family time

2011-06-04T15:37:00.000-04:00

As promised, some pictures from yesterday's family gathering and today's playdate.

Playing with animals and picking strawberries

2011-06-04T14:16:00.001-04:00

Although this weekend is not as intense with activities as last weekend was, we are doing quite a few very exciting things. Yesterday, we went strawberry picking (and got to play with adorable little goats). Then we went out for my grandma's birthday. Today, we had Sasha's cousin Emily and her parents over for a playdate (which created the biggest mess our living room has seen to date - but was so worth it!) - which totally deserves a post of its own. Tomorrow, my good friend and her boyfriend are coming over and we're grilling and watching Harry Potter, while Sasha hangs out with her grandma.

Ice cream date with my girl

2011-06-03T08:52:00.001-04:00

On Thursday, after picking Sasha up from school, I decided to take a little detour and go have some ice cream with her... as an official welcoming of the summer, you could say (or possibly simply because I wanted to go have some ice cream with my girl). She loved it. She shared with mama and was generally very well behaved (and even ate her dinner later that night)

Today, we're heading to Long Island to do some strawberry picking and to play with some animals, so excited!!

Welcome, summer!

2011-06-01T14:02:00.000-04:00

As per usual, the spring never arrived in NY: the long and cold winter (and this one has been a particularly snowy one too!) has morphed into a sweltering hot summer. We've had temperatures in the 90's the past few days. And now we're under a tornado warning... fun times!
Last summer was a bit chaotic with us randomly deciding to do something, so this year I came up with a plan, if you will, a rough list of things I'd like to do this summer (when Z saw the list, he looked at me like I had two heads and declared that there aren't enough weekends this summer, but I'm determined to do as much as we can):
Rye Playland
Washington DC (done!!)
New York Aquarium
The Bronx Zoo (already went once, might go again)
Staten Island Zoo
Botanical Gardens
Children's Museum (Brooklyn and Manhattan)
Central Park and the zoo
Jersey shore - a long weekend sometime this summer
Coney Island - love this place!
Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty
Intrepid Museum
Jones Beach (can totally go more than once)
Liberty Science Center
NY Hall of Science
Queens County Farm Museum (or really any other farm where we can play with cute little animals)
South street seaport - love this place!
Camping - this idea was just brought up a couple of days ago and I'm trying to figure out if Sasha's fear of bugs will outweigh the fun we'd have

So yeah, that's quite a list, huh? I'm really excited about all these things. I'm also looking forward to doing a bunch of non-kid things, like multiple birthdays, Harry Potter weekends with Marina and her boyfriend, going out with other adults, my mom's family coming to the States for my sister's wedding at the end of August. It's going to be a good summer!!

Happy first (unofficial?) day of summer!!

Crazy busy good weekend

2011-05-30T09:16:00.003-04:00

Last night, as I was about to head to bed (uncharacteristically late), I thought to myself "Geez, I'm exhausted... and the weekend isn't even over yet!" We've had such a fun busy weekend, that today, honestly, we're laying low, relaxing. Cleaning. Maybe checking out a new playground. Not running around and trying to fit everything in the short 12 hours (or whatever remains of this day).
On Saturday morning, we headed to the Bronx Zoo to see one of Sasha's favorite cartoon character, little orange dinosaur Buddy - we had such a blast, Sasha even enjoyed the carousel ride with papa, until it was time to wait in line to take pictures with Buddy. I stood in line, waiting patiently, when at the last minute (and I mean one family in front of us), we were told that Buddy was going on a break and if we wanted to, we could wait about half an hour and he'd be back. So like a good mom that I am, I grabbed the kiddo and ran after the departing dinosaur, so that she could at least wave hi. It's a good thing she's so little and didn't realize what exactly was going on and was still very happy to see him.

We then dropped Sasha off at my in-laws' and headed to see Pirates of the Caribbean (which by the way, was really excellent). In the evening, we headed to the city for my sister's birthday party.

Sunday, we were back in the city for a pizza-making-and-wine-drinking class (which, ahem, was my sister's present for my birthday... last June) and it was fantastic!!!

Then to pick up Sasha, hang out with Z's parents, hang out with Sasha's cousin Jonathan, and then back home.

Happy Memorial Day Weekend, everybody!!

First beach day of the season

2011-05-25T09:07:00.000-04:00

Last night, when Z got home from work, we grabbed our stuff and went to the beach for an impromptu picnic. The weather was finally nice and warm, though the water was still freezing, so we hung out on the sand and built sand turtles (I think)

Sasha was not happy that Z put his foot into the whole they'd just dug!

Two birthdays - one Sunday!

2011-05-23T20:36:00.000-04:00

Sunday was my "little" sister's birthday (for the record, I've been promising her I'd stop calling her that for the past 4 or 5 years and she just turned 25, so she's clearly not so little anymore... I promise to do better, Anya!) So we headed to Hoboken for a brunch, and in the afternoon, we went to my aunt and uncle's house for my aunt's dad's birthday.