Father's Day

Our Father's day was pretty low key, similar to the Mother's day we had last month. Although Jeromey had scheduled to help a friend with a video job without realizing that it falls on Father's day, so he actually had to work a great part of the day. So we had to try and make the most out of our morning together.

Daddy loves going out to breakfast and we don't do it too often so I wanted to either go to a favorite place of his "Cafe on Park" in Hillcrest or a new place that we could pick in La Jolla so that we could go spend some time at the beach later on. But since I woke up feeling a bit sick and hadn't had a very good night of sleep, we decided to keep it local and go to Panera for breakfast and coffee. Afterwards we took Sascha to a park in 4S Ranch so that she can play in the sun. Well I completely forgot that there is a splash zone right next to it and

I didn't bring anything for her to wear to run in the water or a towel to dry off. At first she didn't seem interested in going, but after she was done w/the slides and climbing, running and swinging, she wanted to explore the water park... and we let her. I had a change of clothes for her, so I said why not, let her run around in her clothes and get it soaked... needless to say she had a blast. Here are a few photos from our morning together.

Getting Help going down from a very tall play structure

Swinging away together

Right before getting really soaking wet! I wish I had taken more pictures of that!

Thank you daddy for being such an amazing husband, best friend and an amazing father. We are truly so lucky to have you and love you with all of our hearts! We love you for everything you bring to our lives, and know that you will always be there,we can count on you and you will never let us down. It brings such happiness to me, to see Sascha run up to you and greet you after a long day at work, the quality time you spend with us cannot be quantified. The love I see in your eyes when she puts her head down on your shoulder is indescribable. The baths, the nighttime stories, even the brushing and flossing her teeth, the little things that you do every day! You are the best daddy on the planet to our little munchkin daughter! I also love that we will have a boy, and you will have such a different bond with him, love him as much as you love all of us, and teach him to become a man that you know he can be. I hope he gets all your wonderful qualities and I look forward to seeing that happen.

You gave me the biggest gift of all and that's Motherhood. I couldn't imagine sharing that bond with anyone else. I know it sounds cheesy, but I feel like our life is complete together and you have given me something that I was missing and didn't know about it. I love how you always try to surprise us, even though I get nervous when I anticipate something going on. You are still determined to do what you set out to do, and it always ends up so very special and memorable... just the way you wanted.

I knew when I first met you that you would be an amazing father watching you with your little brother and my little nephew. I think it was one of the very first things that I was so impressed by when we first met.

I love you!!!

Ultrasound at 18 weeks

We had our anatomy ultrasound today. All the measurements looked great. It was confirmed that it's definitely a boy! He sure wasn't shy about showing us that one... it was one of the first things that popped up on the screen. So we got our confirmation after a spoiled surprise. Part of me is still a little bitter about it, another part is happy to know ahead of time. It was exciting to see the baby move, he was so active, the lady had trouble getting some of the pictures of the heart because he was constantly moving. He measured almost a week ahead! The doctor said she would like me to come back for a 28 week ultrasound to check the kidneys again because of Sascha's history with the reflux. The baby's kidneys measured normal, but she said they appeared very pronounced on the cross section picture, so we'll go once more to make sure that things are ok.

He wasn't shy taking pictures, seemed like he even posed for a few with his hand up, we even have one with a thumb up. I started feeling him move sometime last week. It's definitely one of the coolest feelings ever!

Profile

I don't think we have any doubt that it's a BOY!

Yawning?

So seeing him on the screen today once again made things so real for us. Crazy to think that in just 4 more months we'll be a family of 4. Wow... are we going to have our hands full or what? haha

I think we are up for the challenge, yes it's not going to be easy, but all so worth it.

Being pregnant for the 2nd time is definitely not an easy task. I can truly say I enjoyed my 1st pregnancy a lot more, probably because I had more time to focus on me, be in better shape, and just take care of myself... well and Jeromey (sometimes ;) ). This time around, chasing after a toddler is no easy task while being pregnant. Sascha likes to run away, or throw things and I am constantly on the go. Weekends are the hardest because we're always on the go, and through out the week I am resting at work since I am sitting down most of the time I am there. I seem to have some back issues, mostly one one side, but they are pretty severe. Ones I probably had in late 3rd trimester. It's a bit scary because I still have long ways to go. Sometimes it's very painful to walk, I am already so slow as it is, I can only imagine what it will be like as my belly grows. I am sure 20 weeks will fly by really fast... once I am looking back at it and i won't remember any of the aches once I have a beautiful baby boy in my arms! That's when the work really begins anyways! For now we will enjoy having dinner with just having to take care of one little one, instead of the baby crying and Sascha throwing food on the floor.

27 - 30+ Months

This post is very overdue... I am so behind, trying to catch up.

It's going to be a pretty random blog about things Sascha has done in the last 3 months.


You tell people they are in trouble, and say no no no to them... almost trying to discipline them, similar to what we do to you, even though I try to avoid saying "no" as much and use other words... it's really a hard task. You also tell us "Don't do that!". It took us weeks to figure out that's what you were saying because it sounded like "Atuya!" instead of "don't do that". Your other favorite is "stop yelling"! Yes, you let us know that you're the boss.

Your sleeping habits keep changing. A few months ago, you would often fall asleep on the floor next to the banister outside of your room, or on the floor rug next to your bed, but not in your bed. A week ago you decided that if you do sleep in your bed, it will be at the other end, where there are no rails to protect you from falling. You did fall off a few times, but since the toddler bed is so low to the ground, you didn't even wake up. Also you ask to go to "daddy's bed", but anytime you have come to our bed even in if it's in the middle of the night you have trouble falling asleep, and I end up just taking you back to yours where you go to sleep right away.

Although you have become a pretty good sharer of toys, and food and other things, you love saying that everything is yours. Even when we read books to you. For example very often daddy reads you one of his favorite books by Shel Silverstein "The giving tree". On every page there is a sentence and it ends with a different noun, like tree, apple, boy, boat, house. So after you hear one sentence, you say "my tree", "my apple", "my boy"... etc.

Back in May I signed you up for swim to john classes. I have yet to put together a video of you swimming (Daddy has not uploaded it). On the first day you said, yay swimming... you had no idea what you were in for, on the second day when I picked you up you said "no swimming" and you whined on your way there! It did get better each day, but most days you would get pretty upset before going in the pool. The session was only 2 weeks, every day... yes it was intense, but by the end of the first week you were already swimming. I must say that it was totally worth it.

Standing on the step getting ready to swim out to the middle of the pool

You said "netroguy" meaning "don't touch" pointing to your juice box on the counter. You say a lot of other very funny words in Russian, and repeat sentences as well.

For a while you've been saying that you don't want a little baby brother, but now when I ask you where is the baby you point to my tummy and say "right there!". Also when we ask you to name the baby you keep naming him "Gisha", which is really funny because that's your uncle "Grisha's" name, as well as my uncle Grisha. You seem to be stuck on that name.

Your biggest thing at the playground these days is climbing, you will attempt to climb just about everything, and some how you figure out how to do it, and then you want to do it over and over again. It's been a bit difficult to leave the playground with you, since you refuse to go. A few weeks ago you fell down from climbing up some structure at a playground, luckily you didn't injure your self, just got a few scrapes on the shoulder that you landed on and got a bit spooked. It happened right in front of daddy and it gave us a bit of a scare since it was probably from about 5 feet up in the air that you fell from. We definitely have to keep a close eye on you since you seem to have no fear at all. Not to mention a very stubborn personality, so if you don't get it the first time, you try and try again. We're still trying to figure out where you get your stubborn ways from. :) Daddy is hoping to put that stubbornness into determination when you start playing sports... we'll see how that works out in a few years.

Favorite glasses... you actually like to wear these around

Hanging out at Mission Bay

Playing in the sand,

We hope to be going to the beach a lot more this summer. You seemed to really enjoy playing in the sand and you even weren't afraid of the water, probably because there are no waves at Mission Bay unlike the regular beach.