Changes 25 - 26 Months

I thought I'd sit down and go through your recent changes. You love playtime, I think I've mentioned before that you do a lot of pretend play. You "cook" things in your kitchen and then you sit one of your dolls down and feed her in the high chair, you give her food and drinks... the works. Then you like to take them on a stroll. You put all 3 dolls and now a little dog into the stroller, sometimes they can hardly fit and fall off, but you are very persistent and you stroll them around the house as if you're going on a walk. You even make "smooties" for us, and give us the little cups to drink.
Well eating hasn't changed much, you're a much better eater at Daycare, so at least I am thank full for that. At home, you're pretty much a vegetarian, you refuse all meat, sometimes you are willing to have chicken nuggets, but you will eat cereal or eggs for breakfast (y0u love eggs!) and for lunch it's either a grilled cheese sandwich or a quesadilla, and dinner consists of either mac & cheese or spaghetti or pizza. There are 2 things that are actually healthy that you are still excited about eating, to my surprise it's corn and peas, very rarely you will eat broccoli. You still like yogurt, but you're very particular about it, you have to open it yourself and you don't like when it gets dark because of the fruit that's on the bottom, seems like a total deal breaker. One day I warmed up some spaghetti that daddy had the night before without realizing that he put a ton of red pepper on it. Well you started eating it, and then you realized that it was spicy!!! You stuck your tongue out and begged for water, and then you kept trying to clean off your tongue saying "Hot mommy, hot!" It was really funny. I definitely didn't mean to do that to you. Daddy had a field day with it, and couldn't stop laughing. Since he loves things that are spicy, he was all about you trying it out.

Most of the time you play nice with kids, although you will every now and then take the toys away from them and even hit sometimes. When I took you to Hilltop park a few weeks ago, there was a little girl there who was also enjoying the slide, you got off the slide, walked towards her looked at her and pushed her down, I was so embarrassed, there was no reason to do it, I apologized for your behavior and told you that it's not ok to push or hit and you didn't do it again. I know it's part of the process, but it's definitely no fun seeing you bully others around. I did notice that before you did it, you sort of measured her up, assessed that she was smaller and you could probably take her and then proceeded to push. I don't think you would have done it if it was a boy and if he were bigger than you, although Galya tells me that if you don't like something that the other kids are doing, you go after them... even if they are bigger. Sometimes you get in trouble there too, and she sits you down on a chair on a time out.

I definitely see that you understand things in Russian as well as English. You know a lot of Russian words, but most of your sentences are in English. You try to repeat just about everything and if you don't catch all of it, you repeat at least the last few words. You love reading books, and when we read to you before bed time, it's hard to try and limit to 2 or 3 books, you keep wanting to read more. Your favorite ones for the last few weeks have been "5 little monkey's jumping on the bed" and "Wheels on the bus go round and round". Seems like you go through "book phases", you want to read the same 2 or 3 books over and over for a week or two and then switch to another 2 or 3 books. Also you ask to turn on twinkle, twinkle. It's a turtle that we turn on that projects stars and the moon onto the ceiling. I often hear you sing the "Twinkle Twinkle little star" song. Then you request for eskimo kisses, this was started by daddy, and now became part of the bedtime routine, although it's probably just a phase too. Then we say "I love you!" and very often you say it back to us.
You are getting better at counting and ABCs. Your counting lately always starts with the number 2 and goes up to 6. And when you sing the ABCs, it usually stops at E or F. You definitely recognize letters around you. The other day we were walking into Bed Bath & Beyond and you noticed the huge letters of the store sign and said "ABC"!

And last but not least, you went Potty today for the first time at Daycare! You've asked to go a few times at home, but most of the time when we put you on, nothing happens, but Galia said that you actually went pee pee today on a Potty! Horray! May be we'll get you Potty trained in the next few months!

Not scared of the big tall slides anymore!

Pausing your climb to say hello

I see you!

Finally a video... I haven't posted one in a while. Here is one of you playing in a cute little house with daddy. You love to hide in it and then look through the window and yell out "I see you!" Oh and I got you saying "I love you!" which you now do pretty often.



Here is another video our friend Vanessa made when we were at the zoo with them. You had so much fun on this playground, especially on the stick going round and round with your buddy Sebastian. :) Also you weren't afraid of the animals in the petting zoo like you were when we took you to the Del Mar Fair. You actually wanted to feed them just like the other kids.

Family Photoshoot

This post is super late... since these pictures were actually taken back in November, but we have been busy! It's not easy having all 3 Birthdays in one month and Holidays on top of it all!

I wanted to go to Precidio Park for this shoot with our friend Vanessa who's been taking pictures of our family since Sascha's 3 week photo session. I chose a different venue and was very happy with it, since there was a lot of different spots to take photographs at. My family has not had any nice pictures of all of us for a long time, so this was a good opportunity to include them as well. I think everyone felt very comfortable, even though none of them had done such a session before.

Sascha was very serious for a good half of our session. It wasn't until we put her in a pink tutu that she started to loosen up. The pink tutu was an early birthday gift from my friend Khanh. It's so cute! I think I am going to randomly dress her in it and take pictures until it no longer fits. We also brough a bubble maker and a big lolipop with us and that helped out a lot! The pictures came out awesome, Thanks to Vanessa! I even made calendars for my mom and sister so we'll be enjoying the photos every day!

Here are a few favorites.

Family Photo that made it on our Holiday card this year

Looking serious with those gorgeous blue eyes

Sunlight, bubbles, tutu and a lolipop ... great combo!

Love this playful smile!


One of my top favorites!

Loving Grandparents

The Rendler, Lerner and Lewis family :)

Christmas and New Years

So many fun things to write about, I am not even sure where to start. Daddy and I had time off between Chrismas and New Years and we definitely tried to make the most of it. Christmas morning was so much fun with you. Before we went to bed, we lined up all your gifts under the tree, you even had a few Bday gifts under there that you hadn't seen and when we brought you downstairs in the morning, we got you excited about presents and you said "Wow" as you walked down. When you would open a gift, you had the same excitement! You loved ripping into the paper and seeing what it was. I am sure it will be even more exciting for you in the years to come, when we start leaving cookies out for Santa and counting down to the day. I am also looking forward to using the "be a nice girl so that Santa doesn't forget about you" phrase.

The night before Christmas - Gifts from Santa, and everyone else...

Checking out your Stocking

Ripping into your gifts, Doodle pro was a huge hit as well as the train!

Cruising on the Plasma Car... actually your Birthday gift from aunt Inna, Grisha and Aaron

We made waffles for breakfast which you also enjoyed and then we got ready to go to grandpa's house. We picked up Ded and Baba and you were very excited to see them as well. You got sick a few days before that, but seemed to be doing very well when we got to Grandpa Dave's house, we stayed there all day, eating, watching football and playing. You had fun playing with your cousin's Carolyn and Angelina and you loved seeing uncle Zac. It was really cute how you would look for him at times and get really excited when you find him. You didn't eat much of the dinner, although there was a full 5 course spread that was very delicious. I think you filled up on crackers that you kept stealing from the cheese and appetizer table.

You loved opening your gifts there too. Actually daddy dressed up in a Santa suit and the girls were very excited to see him, you got a bit spooked and were in Baba's arms. It was your 2nd encounter with Santa, your first was at the Daycare performance, and you were terrified of him there as well. You love a snowman though, when we took you to see the lights on Christmas Card lane near our neighborhood, you would point at one every chance you got and yell out "nowman". You got so many toys that I had to put a few away to open on other days of the week or even later... The biggest hit was the stroller, bassinet, swing set with a doll that you got from ded and baba. You now stroll all 3 of your dolls around as well as put them into the tiny high chair to feed them. You also go to bed with at least one of them. I should mention that you got a kitchen set for your birthday from our friends, and now you pretend to make the food on it and then you feed it to the dolls. You also bring the cups to us and tell us to drink the smoothie that you made. So cute! Also you love the doodle pro drawing board that we got for you and a Plasma car. You love cruising on it inside and outside. After a few days we also visited your grandma Sherry and you got even more gifts from her and Amber.

Sitting down at the dinner table

Santa comes all the way from the North Pole to pay a visit

New Years we celebrated with our friends Marina and Leo, we let you, Matty and another baby boy Ben play for a few hours before putting you to bed at their house. Eventually you went to sleep, but it was not easy. You kept climbing out of the pack n play, and would not stay in your room. Seems like a reoccurring problem. A few nights ago we actually put at baby proofing handle on your door and it lasted 1 night and then you ripped it off and now still able to leave your room. Well you finally went to sleep and we were able to hang out, play Guitar band and a board game before it was midnight. You then decided to wake up and cry, and that's when we took you home. On new years day we went to have a late breakfast/brunch at baba and deda's house to ring in the new year and exchange new years presents there. Yes more presents!

The next few days we had such wonderful weather, we tried to make the most of it and spent a day at Sea Port Village and then a day at the Zoo. (thanks to the passes we got for your bday from baba and deda!) Both things we enjoyed doing with our friends.

At Sea Port Village you watched the drummers drum and were dancing and clapping, it was adorable to watch. Also you had a parrot bird placed on your arm and you didn't freak out, it happened so fast that you almost had no time to react and once it was on your shoulder you just stood them frozen. The zoo is a different experience every time we go. You loved watching the animals and were repeating what they were and pointing and talking. For the first time you got scared to go on the zoofari ride, although once we got on it you actually enjoyed it. Also this time around you didn't get scared by the petting zoo area, probably because the animals in there were much smaller than those we tried to pet at Del Mar fair. You were even running towards them trying to feed them.

New Years Eve with daddy!

Your playmates Matty and Ben

Happy New Year everyone!

I certainly wish we had even more time to spend our days the way we did with wonderful friends and family! Hoping for a fun and adventurous 2010!