The first snow of the year!

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!

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...

... 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

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

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)

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

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!

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: