15-month check-up

We had Sasha's 15-month check-up at the pediatrician's today. She needed to get the second part of her flu shot. Well, she had a runny nose since Sunday night, but we thought we'd go in anyway, if for nothing else, to just get her checked out. The dr. said it was probably just a bit of a cold (besides cutting a bajillion teeth at the same time!), so we decided to go ahead and do the flu shot. Now I'm starting to doubt that decision... while she's been acting fine and only a bit more clingy than usual, she has no fever; but it was such a battle to put her down for the night. Now, she's usually great about falling asleep: she babbles for a bit and falls asleep on her own. Today it took us a long long time with plenty of tears (the poor little thing) and me finally rocking her to sleep. We'll see how she is tomorrow; I'm really hoping it's just a fluke and she's fine.
Sasha is still at 30" long (or is it tall now that she gets measured on the big kids scale on the wall?). She did however seem to lose 1 lbs since our last visit, since she hasn't been eating all that well lately, again due to those teeth. It is absolutely no big deal and the dr. even said that kids tend to eat less at this age.

This kid REALLY likes curtains, I guess...

Sasha loves playing with, behind, and underneath the curtains in our living room. I think part of it is that our windowsill is really low and she can easily lean on it and look out the window, but boy, she has such a blast "hiding" behind the curtains and then running out. These were from a couple of days ago:







Ta-da!!

And these are from today:





See what I mean about the windowsill?


And this picture is from back in May (so Miss Sasha was 8 months old or so), when she'd crawl up to the curtains and play with them! Countless hours of entertainment!

Fun day with grandparents today

Today, we went to Y's parents' house to celebrate Chanukkah. Sasha had such a wonderful time running around, playing, reading, and being silly with her grandparents. It was very sweet to watch!

Reading with grandma A.


Dancing with grandma L.


Silly face!


She wanted to share her tangerine with grandpa L.


I just thought this was a silly shot: she was obsessed with that fruit tray and kept stealing fruit from it and bringing it to somebody!

Happy Chanukkah!

Today we celebrated Sasha's second Chanukkah by lighting our brand new menorah (the old one that I loved so much broke a couple of months ago). Tomorrow's we're heading to Y's parents' for some more celebration.



Sasha was very curious about the candles, so naturally she wanted to touch them. Her hand was promptly pulled back....


See how she's pushing Y's hand away in this shot so that she can attempt to touch the candles again? Love it!

Some pro-pictures

We got our pro-pictures back yesterday and I just wanted to share some with you. We thought they turned out ok, but I think the photographer overdid it with the backgrounds. Next time we're definitely going to try to do an outdoors photoshoot, so that we can capture more natural and candid photos. But here are some of our favorites:








And some "birthday" (though slightly belated) photos:

15 months old

Sasha is 15 months old today! It seems like this month has gone by much faster than the last few, not even sure why. She's such a big girl already. She babbles a lot, seemingly saying full sentences, still in baby-talk, then waits for a reply to say another long sentence. She's figured out that she can walk backwards and is having a blast with that: she can take sometimes up to 10 steps that way, then walks forward and backwards again!
She now says 7 words (papa; mama; am - when she wants to eat; tapochka - shoe - to anything that goes on your feet, be it a shoe, a boot, or a slipper, and tries to constantly put shoes on her feet; pupok - belly button - which, in her interpretation, of course, sounds something like "kapuka" - but she means it and points to it every time; glaz - eye - it sounds like gaah; and dai - give me - stretching her arms out for the desired object). She "barks", when she sees a dog. We're working on body parts and other animal sounds with her now too.
She looves dancing and comes up to me throughout the day, points at my computer and does her "dance" - that's how she asks for music! She loves sitting and playing with papa in the evenings while I prepare dinner and clean up. She's cutting at least 3 (that I can see anyway) molars right now, so it's not fun for anyone involved; hopefully they'll be all out soon and we can get back to normally eating and overall happy kiddo!
Here are some pictures from today's "photoshoot" - didn't get too many, she was very very grumpy in the morning.

Kisses for Tobey


Looking for her "kapuka"



And here she is exactly a year ago today for comparison:

The sweetest thing!

For the last couple of nights, when Y and I put Sasha to bed and give her lots and lots of kisses and hugs, she has been doing the absolute sweetest thing in the world: while I was holding her, she pushed mine and Y's faces together for a kiss. It first made us giggle, but I guess our kid likes to see some affection. Seriously, the cutest thing ever!

Playing dress up? Or torturing the kiddo? You decide!

This morning started entirely too early for my taste, so I let Sasha wander about a little while I made myself a biiig cup of coffee. She found her new boots, brought them into the living room, sat down near me and attempted to put them on. So of course, I had to help her. This is what she looked like (she grabbed a metrocard on the way over too)



Then I pulled out a bathing suit and wanted to see how it fit. Not sure why I didn't take Sasha's t-shirt off first, but here ya go:





Yup, she took my purse too. She's a little lady, that's for sure!

The Bronx Zoo today

We had our family pictures done today (combination of Sasha's 1st birthday pictures and holiday pictures). After that we headed to the Bronx Zoo, since Y was home for the day. We had such a great time, even though it was a bit chilly out. Sasha seemed really into the animals, she especially enjoyed watching the seals swim around and did not want to leave the bug carousel we went on! Here are some pictures from our fun day:

Entering the Madagascar exhibit - see it's right there on the map


Sasha with papa


Sasha and I watching the seals


A cool-looking frog


The giraffes!


Mountain goat


At some point, Sasha demanded to get out of the stroller and walk holding our hands.


"Be careful. Tigers are nearby!" - love it!


This is how Sasha chose to ride at some point today


Enjoying the bug carousel - the kiddo loved it so much, she refused to put on her jacket, kept saying "nah-un" and shaking her head, and then ran back to the entrance!!

10 years in the States!

I cannot believe I haven't posted about this yet, but this month (on the 15th to be exact), we celebrated 10 years since we came to the US. On November 15, 1999, my sister, my mom, and I landed in JFK airport (my dad actually moved here almost 2 years before that, because my grandpa - his dad - was very very sick). It was in no way an easy transition for any of us, but my sister and I (being 13 and 15, respectively) got over it a lot better than my mom: it's no easy task starting from 0 at the age of 40, with no English, no friends, and away from family (all of mom's side of the family is still in Russia!). I'm certainly proud o what I've achieved in the 10 years here, but I'm unspeakably more proud of my parents and of how far they've come in this time. Big shout-out to my mama and papa and a big thanks for bringing us here!
Here are some fun pictures from the day (I say, better late than never!):

My sister and I ice skating


Anna, mom, and I


There was some dancing too!


Silly girl playing with uncle Andrey


This is what she did when I ask her to smell the clementine... and she doesn't have a shirt on because it was getting really messy eating strawberries and she REFUSES to keep a bib on for even a minute (we're working on finding better bibs and aren't easy to yank off)