The blog got a facelift

I was looking through some of the blogs that I follow and they're all so cute and fancy, so I decided to get something different for bubblegum. Here is the new layout of the blog, hope you like it. I found a great website with lots of free backgrounds for blogs, so I have a feeling I'll be changing them often.

If rolling over were an Olympic sport...

... my kiddo would so win! Check these out ;)

My daughter is a closet roller!

She rolled over today again. Twice. And I missed it again. Twice! I swear, it's almost as if she didn't want me to see her do it. I turned my back to her for a couple of minutes, looked around, and bam! she's on her tummy! When I'm looking at her, she giggles and looks back at me and absolutely refuses to roll over! And she only does it in her crib; when I put her on the floor in the living room, she seems to forget how to roll... Oh well, I'll catch her one day, even if it means I have to sit by her crib, hiding behind the crib bumper so that she doesn't see me, lol.

5-month stats

Baby girl had her 5-month checkup with the pediatrician today. As always, she charmed just about everyone in the office! Our dr. is a very sweet lady and Sasha seems to like her too! Here are her stats:
Weight: 16lbs12ozs (88th percentile)
Height: 26.25" (94th percentile)

Yay for my big and very long baby! Of course, Sasha got some more vaccines today, but at least only one of them was a shot, the other one was oral. It always makes me so sad when she gets her shots. But on the bright side, she does seem to be crying less now after them. Here's hoping that she just sleeps them off and doesn't become Ms. CrankyPants (CrankyDiapers, maybe?) like she did after the shots last month!

5 months already!

WOW! I keep catching myself thinking, where has the time gone? Sasha turned 5 months today! She's such a big girl now and she's changed so much since she was just born and can now do so much more, but at the same time it really seems that just yesterday we brought her home from the hospital and she was just a tiny teeny baby! The changes are absolutely remarkable, and they all happened so fast. I feel like before we know it, we're going to be celebrating her first birthday, then her high school graduation, then her wedding! I just cannot believe that 5 months have passed since Sasha was born.
I saw a woman in Macy's a couple of days ago with a newborn, maybe a 2-week-old, and I suddenly felt a wave of sadness that I don't have that anymore. Don't get me wrong, I'm extremely happy that she's growing and learning new things every day, but at the same time, she'll never be that little tiny newborn baby again. I try to cherish each and every moment I have with her, remembering every silly thing she does, every laugh and coo, because I'm afraid this will pass all too quickly and one day she won't constantly need her mommy, when hanging out with friends will be more exciting and "cool" than with mom. I think this may be why I'm having a problem letting go and leaving her with someone while my husband and I go out...
Ok, enough silly sappy sentimentality from mommy and onto some Sasha cuteness!


Prepping for her photo session with mommy


"Yes, I'm a big girl!"


"Ok, enough pictures, mommy, I'm going to go play with the puppy now"

And we have a roller!

Sasha rolled over from her back to her tummy yesterday! I'm so proud of my little girl! Although a little sad I missed it, lol. I have no evidence (on a camera anyway), but I put her on her back in the crib with her toys to play and left the room. A few minutes later I heard her making rather annoyed noises, which generally mean "Come in here and entertain me (or turn me over)". I walked in, and there was my little girl on her tummy! Needless to say, I've been watching her like a hawk with a camera ready since then, but she hasn't done it again yet. Will post as soon as I catch her!

Kisses for daddy

That's all really, I just wanted to share :)

My lovebug :)

Just wanted to share the cuteness of my Sasha...

A busy busy weekend!

Baby Sasha had a very very busy weekend (which of course affected her sleep a little):

We visited grandma and grandpa A. and Sasha hung out on their table in her new big-girl pink sneakers...


...then we visited Zhenia's cousin Julie and Sasha hung out with her big cousin Jonathan (who was so very excited about seeing her)...


...then Sasha sat on grandma and grandpa L.'s awesome orange armchair...


...then after hanging out with uncle Mike who came to visit from London, she did aerobics with dad...


... and finished off the weekend with munching on the butterfly on her Jumperoo! Busy busy weekend!

We started solids!!

Last Friday (at exactly 20 weeks), we gave Sasha her first taste of "solid" food (I put solid in big quotations because as you'll see from the video, the rice cereal was very very watery).
It was really funny watching her try to figure out what this thing that mommy and daddy were putting in her mouth was. At first, she completely ignored us coming at her with a spoon and instead stared at the camera. Then she'd let the cereal just flow out of her mouth. Then she figured out she could play with it and started blowing bubbles into the spoon! By the end of the feeding though, she seemed to have figured out that she needed to open up her mouth and swallow.
All in all, I'd have to say, it was a success and we continued giving her some more every day. Originally, we were going to wait until 6 months to start her on solids, but the recent wave of waking up every hour each night and crying non-stop (until, after trying everything else, we would give her a couple of ounces of breastmilk which seemed to help a lot) made us think that maybe she was just not getting enough anymore. It made me a little sad knowing that my breastmilk wasn't enough to satisfy her, but at the same time she's growing so fast and her needs are changing!

"Ma, I'm so not amused right now!"


"Don't tell him, but I'm pretending I don't see daddy"