Infantino Photoshoot

A while back I saw an open casting for "Everybody Plays" campaign for Infantino a Toy company based in San Diego and Step 2. I came accross it by pure accident while reading Kelle Hampton's blog (one of my favorites!)
She was the photographer for this shoot which was really cool.

I submitted Sascha's and Cameron's photos sometime in September, and at the end of October I heard back from them. They ended up picking Sascha for it. I took her to her first photo shoot which was held at a private residence in Scripps Ranch. It was nice considering it was in San Diego and fairly close to our house, I would have never done it if it was in LA or somewhere.

So at first she didn't want to change into the clothes they gave us, but she did cooperate with them doing her hair. At first they were going to leave it down or do 2 pony tails (which I wish they did), but then they decided on a high bun updo hair which hid all her pretty curls... but it still turned out cute.

She did pretty well when taking pictures, didn't seem too shy, followed instructions most of the time, basically played with the toys they gave her while Kelle took photos. Afterwards she really didn't want to change back into her own clothes, she said the clothes she had on were soft, she cracks me up.

They actually happened to use 2 of her photos. One of them without her face in it, is on their home page, it's a link to a promotional video of one of the products that they were shooting for called "HappiTaps. And another one is the laundry toy she was playing with. A few weeks ago they also sent 2 more photos for me to keep. She looks like she is biting her lower lip in both of them, so they are really not that great of pictures, but those are the ones they emailed to me. It was a fun experience.
The top two I saw used on their websites, and the bottom two photos were the ones I got.

Who knows may be there are some in print ads too?

This wasn't a paid gig, but they gave us a $75 coupon for their brand... which I need to find and use :)

The Disney Wonder Cruise

Considering that we really haven't taken a week long vacation since Sascha was a year and a half, we have been looking forward to this for a while. Of course it went by way too fast, like it always does. We had a great time, and it made it even more special to share it with both sets of grandparents and cousins.

Here is a photo of all of us as the sun sets and the ship starts moving away from the LA port.

Every night we watched a Disney Musical show. The kids loved it, even Cameron sat through every single one of them, clapped and smiled. It was fun watching the kids during the shows and we really enjoyed them too. Dinners were great, we got dressed up most of the nights, had way too much yummy food. Cameron was good with eating just about everything we gave him. Sascha got to order her usual, either pasta, or chicken strips. She had ice cream or other desserts with every dinner, what a treat! On the last night Jeromey and I were had reservations at Palo which is their "adults only fancy restaurant" that you have to pay a little extra, so we got to enjoy some alone time and a very yummy 5 course meal! My parents took the kids a few times so we were able to hang out on our own. We went to Puerta Vallarta for a little over an hour and did some shopping. While my mom stayed with the sleeping kids in the room, we were able to watch a movie and a comedy show on different nights.
The 2nd night on the ship was Formal where we got to dress up in our fancy clothes, not something we get to do often.

There was a band playing near us, and Sascha danced and twirled like a little school girl. Her spinning curls were priceless, she didn't have a care in the world, and we just sat back, watched, and enjoyed these little moments. Sascha got to wear her fancy beautiful dress that she got for her birthday from a friend of ours, and Cameron had his vest and tie attire that Baba and Deda got him a few days before we took off.

One of the nights was "Pirate night" themed, and we were prepared to be in our Pirate attire and in character. Loads of fun! We took lots of pictures and everyone looked really great! Sascha and the girls practiced their angry pirate faces. This was one of the funnest nights, especially when we went on the top deck for the party. We danced and danced! Sascha was on every one's shoulder's, so she could see, and then her and I were dancing away together, and had an awesome time.


Another highlight for Sascha was meeting the princesses. The girls were dressed up in their princess costumes. Sascha of course asked why Rapunzel wasn't there, and I had to tell her that she was very busy at Disneyland and could not join the rest of the princess at this time. I think she was ok with that. We stood in line to take photos with them for over an hour (kind of ridiculous if you ask me). She did love every minute of it, in total awe of the princesses. Cameron on the other hand could take it or leave it... mostly leave it. We didn't even attempt a single picture with him till the very end when Cinderella looked like she was "free" for an extra picture, and as soon as we put him down he screamed like crazy and started crawling away! He must have been mad about waiting in line for that long! :)

We also signed up to have tea with princesses. Only Ariel and Tiana were there, but it was still such a treat for Sascha. It was so magical to see her eyes light up with excitement when they entered the room. One of the breakfasts we had was with Characters, where Mickey, Minnie, Pluto, Chip and Dale all came over to say hello and take photos. It was pretty exciting. Cameron didn't seem scared, in fact when we were taking photos with Minnie, I stood right by her and he kept hitting her ear, and laughing, I had to hold his hand down at one point because I don't think Minnie was too happy about it.

We got super lucky with the weather being January and all. It was summer weather for a few days, shorts and tank top. Pool time for the kids. Sascha had fun in the Mickey pool, she even got brave enough to take the Goofy slide down. I think she was barely tall enough for it, and one of the times the water kind of swallowed her up right when she was towards the end of it, so she got pretty spooked and didn't do it again. But we gave her kudos for even trying, considering how anti-swimming and anti-pool she has been the last few years, I was happy she was in the water. :) There was unlimited supply of soft serve ice cream, and boy did the kids enjoy that!

Cameron had a little splash zone for kids his age and he had fun getting wet too. He practically learned how to walk on this ship. It was so cute to watch, as he navigated around with his wobbly little walk.

There was an area on the ship where they played music and the kids loved to dance. Sascha boogied, and Cameron was trying to keep up as well.

When we docked in Cabo, I really wanted to check out the famous "Lover's beach", but since we got such a late start that day, and weren't able to put Cameron into the Nursery, we took him with us and just enjoyed an empty beach near by. Our cruise ship was right in front of us as our view. I took a bunch of "beach photos" of the little guy as we hung out and relaxed. Cameron loved the sand, the water not so much... but that's because it was cold. Only Jeromey and my dad went in. Cameron napped in the Ergo as we walked back to get back on the boat, he was such a trooper!


Sascha enjoyed her time at the Kids club. She loved going there, and pretty much asked to be dropped off after breakfast for at least an hour or two every day. They did so many fun things there with the kids.

It was a great Vacation. I think we got a bit tired of the food, and eating in general, so it was nice to come back home too. A bit difficult to get back into our old routine, but inevitable...

all good things come to an end.

I did manage to leave my wallet in our room. Yes, our packing was so frantic, I didn't remember packing it, and realized it when we got to our car in the parking lot. Luckily I made a claim before we left and after about 2 weeks I finally heard that they found it, and I got it back in the mail. Very lucky!!!

Even though we were in Cabo for only a few hours, we had this little beach all to ourselves where I took this photo... I am sure we'll be back soon. :)

A date with Sascha

Oh how I love and treasure these times that I get to spend with my little princess one-on-one.

Although I didn't really plan this one specifically, we just decided to get out of the house since Daddy was busy watching the NFL playoffs and Cameron was about to have his 2nd nap. I gave S a choice of going to the park or feeding the ducks, and she choose the ducks so off we went to our usual super peaceful little Hendrix Pond in Scripps Ranch. There were a ton of ducks, and boy were they hungry. One or two were especially agressive and walked right out of the water practically chaising Sascha down to give them food. She tried running away... I had to shu them off, and then other ducks basically ran the 2 agressive ones down and we never saw them again.

Sascha had fun throwing the bread as far as she could, while I was having fun taking photos of her with my phone since I didn't bring a camera. I was just 5 feed behind her looking down at one of the pictures I took with my phone when I heard a whiny cry. I look up and Sascha had slipped on the slippery ground and fell forward into the pond. She caught her self, so the only thing that got a bit wet was the bottom of her pants and the arms of her jacket. Her face was also covered in drops of water but that's because the ducks got spooked by her falling and flew up into the air and splashed her. She was a bit upset, but recovered nicely and kept wanting to play. We even went on the swings and played while hiking back up to the car. Sascha is usually annoyed by me taking too many pictures, but this time, she actually kind of liked it. She smiled and posed, and surprisingly even went to different locations and asked to have her picture taken. She sat on different tree stumps and posed. I was totally surprised.

Then I gave her a choice of going home to change or going to see a movie. Of course she choose to see a movie. Luckily I had another jacket for her, and she insisted that the pants will dry and since her feet were not wet, I thought it would be ok. We went to see Beauty and the Beast 3D.

We had some time to kill so she ran around the water fountain (no falling in this time). She insisted that I held her hand and I gladly did. She mentioned a few times to me that her pants are now dry so she is ok.

Right before the actual movie started, they showed a short 3D film that was based on the movie Tangled with princess Rapunzel. Being that Tangled was her favorite Sascha was in heaven! Of course she loved watching Beauty and the Beast as well. She kept her glasses on the whole time.

What a fun treat it was for her, and of course for me as well!

Here is a little recap, the picture in the right corner is of her pouting... almost crying once she got back up from falling into the pond.

Holding onto popcorn, sporting her 3D glasses, and posing with one of the chipmunks

Park Playdate, Birthday Party & Xmas Lights (yes... still catching up for December)

We had a great play date with the Slavin's at the park where I actually got a chance to take a lot of fun photos of the kids.

We also ran into one of your classmates from school - so the 3 of you guys played really well together. Of course one of the special treats of this park is that every 20 to 30 minutes a train comes by. You all pretty much dropped whatever it is that you were doing to watch the train when it quickly rode by. Cameron loved the slides as usual and he also really liked the swings.

At the very end when we were heading out, Sascha and Matty decided to hold hands and walk to the car together... yes it was an awe moment.

That same evening we went to walk around Christmas Card lane near our house and had a wonderful time. Matty and Sascha really enjoyed the few houses that had the trains set up. Also the Mrozek's joined us on the walk. Bailey was super excited, her and Sascha ran around like crazy. We had a hard time keeping them off the lawns.

... And here is a load of instagram photos

Riding in a train with grandma & hanging out at Balboa Park. Love the photo of the 2 of them on the blue chair. Sea World with Cousins and Grandpa, playing in the snow. Enjoying a cookie at the preschool holiday lunch, making a holiday craft, reading to Cameron, and making cookies at a holiday party with mommy, dance performance, Hannukah lights, watching a movie with Matty during lunch after your park playdate, movie date with daddy, hanging out in the cart at Costco.

Family, Friends, Christmas Lights & trains, what can be better?

Also Sascha got to celebrate a friend's Birthday at Dancelogy. It was Sophia's princess birthday party which was a ton of fun for her, and even had Cinderala coming to it.

December Holidays

It's been a crazy month! I can't even begin to remember everything that we did! I started writing this post mid-December but since I never finished I decided to just keep adding to it. Now it's mid - January and I am trying very hard to catch up.

We went to a ton of Holiday Parties, decorated cookies & watched lots of Christmas movies. Daddy had the whole 2 weeks off with the kiddos, while i had one week. We went to Sea World twice where Sascha got to play in the snow. Sascha went to Disneyland w/her grandparents and cousins again. She met Santa there and asked him for a toy reindeer. We went to see the Christmas lights on Xmas Card lane near our house and near Aunt Inna's house in Poway. We also made it out to Santa's house in Poway where Sascha once again saw and took pictures with Santa. There she asked Santa for a butterfly toy. Cameron started screaming as soon as we put him next to Santa, so he didn't enjoy it as much. Sascha loved the lights, and the decorations. It was different this year to see her really take it all in.

We introduced the Elf on the Shelf and it really helped Sascha be a good listener (well... most of the time). She was so excited every morning to wake up and look for him to be in a different spot in the house. She got very good at finding him, and once she spotted him, she screamed for us to come over and see where he was sitting. She named him Mr. Troy and he was part of our family for 24 days. She was actually very sad to find out that he will not return after Christmas, and it took a lot of explaining to convince her that he is back at the North Pole along with Santa and will return next year.

We celebrated Jeromey's Birthday a few days early with a few friends and yummy Sushi. We even had a day to ourselves to spend time together without the kids which was a big treat.

We lit candles for Hanukkah, and I had so many small things (and still a few toys from their birthdays) that we had enough to give them a little gift. This became something Sascha really looked forward too ...hmm... could it be because she got to open a present every day? So every evening she asked is it time to light the candles yet?

Christmas day started off by Sascha looking under the tree with amazement. It took us well past midnight to get everything wrapped up and ready to go. It was such a magical morning because she truly believes in Santa. The night before we made a Ginger bread house and left milk, cookies and carrots out for Santa and his reindeer. She checked and saw the cookie crumbs and was reassured that our house was not missed which meant that she got on the good list. It was pretty magical to watch her really believe in it, and be so excited and in the moment. She was thrilled to get her "butterfly toys", and other gifts to open. It was fun having 2 kiddos open gifts. Cameron wasn't super interested, but Sascha was more than willing to help him. They are two lucky kiddos! After opening our gifts and having breakfast we headed to Jeromey's dad's house and spent the rest of the day there. Santa actually paid a visit to their house. Sascha was beyond excited, and Cameron was just in awe and observing. It was a great day spent with both of our families. Grandma Sherry came by a few days later and we also got so spend some time with her as well.

New years was a bit less exciting. We decided that it would be pretty impossible to stay up till midnight and try to put 2 kids down to sleep at another house, so we celebrated New York time. It was the first time ever I was in bed by midnight on New Years! How un-russian of me. I remember how awesome New Years had always been, the one night where you get to stay up late and party! Things have definitely changed a bit since the kids came along. I am hoping to resume that ritual once they are a bit bigger and are able to enjoy it as well. On New years day we met up with my family to exchange gifts and grab a bite to eat. It happened to be pretty late this year so our annual walk around La Jolla was in the dark, but it was still great to hang out with the family right before we leave for our 6 day Disney Cruise vacation.

Kids at Santa's house... Cameron was not excited to meet this bearded man who called himself Santa


Working on the Ginger Bread House. Sascha was very particular about how she placed the little candy balls on it (just look at the side of it, she color coordinated them... starting from purple - her favorite color).

Christmas morning. Lots of excitement from both kiddos. Sascha had to learn to take turns opening gifts, but she graciously helped Cameron open his presents. The big tent was actually a birthday gift of hers which she got a bit after the party and I meant to let her open it on her actual birthday but it got so hectic and she opened so many other gifts that I completely forgot to let her have the tent, so it became one of the gifts from Santa. She loved it! She also loved the Flying turtle ride (daddy loves cruising on it too... since he's just one of the kids). The last photo is a book that Sascha picked out with Daddy to give to Cameron. It was so sweet how excited she was to be able to give it to him. Cameron got Sascha Hello Kitty slippers which she was happy about as well.




Family photo in front of the tree and a day at Grandpa's house. Tony dressed up as Santa, and the expressions on the kids faces were priceless! Sascha was in awe. She got a Rapunzel doll from him and was in absolute heaven. She loves her, brushes her hair and sleeps with her.
Also a picture of Carolyn who adores Cameron and wants to hold him every chance she gets.


Grandma Sherry came over to spend the day with Sascha & Cameron and helped them open their gifts as well. Cameron is rocking out to some music in daddy's super awesome headphones. Cameron playing with a car that he got from Santa, and the last photo is of the boys in their pirate hats getting ready for pirate night on our upcoming disney cruise.


And lastly a picture of her next to the Hannukah candles

Wow... I really should have broken up this post into 2 or 3.

Cameron 13-14 months

On December 15th Cameron took 4 - 6 steps on his own. Seems like only a week or two before that he started to walk with the walker in front of him and now he's taking actual steps. He is very into throwing things at the moment. It doesn't matter where he is, but if he gets a hold of something it will be launched! Makes a diaper change pretty challenging since you will no longer lay still unless I occupy you with something very interesting. You repeat little words like (da and ma) all the time and you started to mimic our hand gestures, or a little bit of sign language like the sign for milk. Also food throwing has been added to your fun little games you play. I don't enjoy that one so much, since I am the one doing the clean up and boy does it get messy! Sascha tryies to get very stern with you when you throw food and tell you "NO!" . You look at her, and then you look at us and you giggle and throw the next thing. Very amusing! Sometimes you do understand that we are upset at you, and your lower lip starts to fold over and you look so sad like you are about to cry. That look kills me, it's like I just hurt you so badly because I said "NO". It doesn't work on daddy, but you definitely get me with it.

Right around 14 months you really started taking off, Cameron is now a walker! You are so proud of your self. You can turn around, walk, pick something up and keep walking. If you do fall on your butt or knees then you start crawling, and a week later you have figured out how to get up on your own.

Sascha seems to be very excited about your accomplishments as well, she frequently tells you to walk to her and then gives you a big hug when you get there. What a sweet big sister. :)

I started calling you "my eater" because you seemed to like just about everything that I put in front of you. Well that was short lived because after about a week or so, you started to get more picky. At the moment you love avocados, but you pretty much refuse most of the other veggetables that I put in front of you. Also you started to be difficult with meats as well. Wonder what happened there? Because just a few weeks ago you would devour everything I put on your tray. That was making me so happy, especially when I have Sascha on our hands who's meal choices are very limited because she refuses to try anything.

You also let us know if you want something or don't want something. You stretch your arm out trying to point to something on the counter and nod your head yes if I put it in front of you. On the other hand if you really don't want something, you start shaking your head back and forth indicating that it's a definite 'NO'. You really seem to know what you want. If I put blueberries and other fruit on a plate, you will pick out all the blueberries first. Bananas are also a big favorite of yours.

In the last month you have finally learned to "sleep in", meaning you don't wake up screaming at 6 am or earlier, your usual wake up time is around 7:15 now which we really like.

For some reason you started to cry during your baths. At first it seemed like you were freaked out by some bath toys, so we took them away and left you with the ones you seemed to like. Now it just seems like you really don't like the water too much or when we dump the water on your head.

Here are some photos of you from the last 2 months.

All of these were taken with a phone camera, I love that even when I don't bring my actual camera I can just snap a quick photo and I fall in love with some of them, because they capture such a moment and tell a story (at least to me)... it's not something I can get back once it's gone. Like the first picture here when you were w/daddy at Balboa Park - you wanted to go thru the spining metal gate and you didn't want to hold anyone's hand. The 2nd photo is of you at the park in Del Mar with the ocean behind you, you loved the swings that time. 3rd is a snapshot of you learning how to walk - leaping forward with your hands up in the air between daddy and I. The last photo has a story behind it - you had decided to wake up just after 5am and scream until we got you your bottle of milk, then by 8am I fed you breakfast, and you were in your high chair finishing up some fruit, and in a matter of minutes I turned back and saw that you were completely asleep in your chair with raspberries all over your mouth - just classic!

This last photo I adore! It shows your sweet and playful demeanor. You were sitting on my lap dragging all the stuffed animals down from the back of the couch, and you liked this blue one from Monster's Inc., so you held onto it. You kept putting your face on him, giving him kisses.