Tweet

The long awaited walking videos.

As I wrote in the 11months post, Lexi started walking full time {with support} at 9 months and then with one hand + first independent steps at 10 months and then full on ran throwing our hands aside at 11 months.

Here is the progress video of what it all looked like.

I cannot believe what a chubster she was before she started walking (i.e. in the first shots)

And if you don’t want to waste time looking at how she arrived at walking, you can check out her toddling around for the last 2 weeks.

Complete with head shakes, belly rubs, flashcard kisses, stumbles, screams and lots of running and falling into things. Hit change quality to view it in HD or less fuzzy.

Tweet

I am enjoying my time off with my family and trying to get some stuff done ( the reason why I’ve been a bit absent despite the cutest photos that are burning a hole in my LR or the awesome posts I really want to write). But since I’ve had my November Instagram photos all ready to go in the drafts, I figured I might as well post them.

Tweet

I used to not like writing or reading Instagram posts. I felt the photography was lacking and I like “purdy” pictures. But I am starting to love Instagram photos more and more for one reason. As Alexis gets older and more mobile, it is becoming harder to have my big heavy camera with a big heavy lens on hand for those cute fun and precious moments that happen in a blink of an eye. In addition to that, she is obsessed with pressing buttons on my camera, which means as soon as I pull it out, Lexi crawls to me which makes it impossible to take A picture, let alone a candid one. So taking cell phone pictures is the only way to really capture the amazing girl that she is. I really don’t like to have become on of those moms that ONLY takes and posts pictures of their kids, but that’s most of what I do all day and it’s hard NOT to take pictures of your kid. So lately, as I have been going through my Instagram photos, I’ve been loving how real authentic and fun they are. Just our life: dirty, messy, funny, real every day life. So this feature is here to stay, as evidenced by its newly created category :)

OCTOBER 2012

A massive Zulily order of books. We actually really like these and most of them are impossible to find otherwise.

Tweet

The first video here is the highlights of everything that being a 6 months old entails. The second video is her highness playing with toys, mostly boring but with a few very cute/funny/adorable moments in between.

I am putting the usual disclosure of parents sharing home movies:

-Ignore my singing

-Ignore my overly excited exclamations

-Ignore any other babble coming from me that you might hear in this video

-Ignore anything anything else that comes with being a parent

Do enjoy the adorable goofball that is Lexi!

{Also, like previous videos, this was intended for friends and family, so it’s pretty long and for most will be pretty boring.  To us, of course, it’s the best video ever. :) }

Below is a compilation of videos of Alexis playing with her toys. All the above disclosures apply.

Tweet

Ok, I have to preface this review with the following:

{I am not a huge fan of exersaucers/stationary jumpers/jumperoos (whatever else they are called). The crazy bright lights, the annoying repetitive sounds, the upright position when they should be crawling around on their belly – it’s essentially a placeholder for the baby while you go get some stuff done. However, babies LOVE them, and they give mamas a minute or two to get stuff done. }

Note: I couldn’t stop taking pictures of Lexi in it, since it’s so cute, so you get a lot of essentially identical photos :) lol

So when I was talking about reviewing one, I was skeptical. We had a Fisher Price one we borrowed from a friend of mine. A conventional standard Fisher Price that you see in every other house. Alexis really enjoyed jumping in it and playing with toys. But the annoying sounds and music would get us EVERY time. We’d have to turn it off, but then I felt like I was robbing her of full experience in it.

And then she started taking EVERYTHING in her mouth. This spelled the end of the Fisher Price. I don’t particular trust Fisher Price, or any big big corporation for that matter, to not make toys out of some toxic plastic ( nothing to back it up, just a big company and a few lead related recalls, as well as their previous stance on toxic plastics,which I know they have correct ).

Note: If you happened to have inquired with their customer service about the type of plastic this jumperoo is made of, feel free to share, I am sure a ton of parents would love to know.

Anyways…. so we get the Evenflo Exersaucer Jam Session and get it out of the box and I don’t know what I expected, but it’s plastic (duh!)…. Before I get Lexi in it, I email the customer service ( even though I am dying to try it out), inquiring what plastic it is made of and whether it contains PVC, Pthalates, lead or cadmium, which I should have done ahead of everything, but I spaced out. The answer comes back fairly quickly: “[...]polypropylene and does not contain PVC, Phthalates, lead or cadmium.”   Whew!

In the meantime, I wash the seat fabric and the chew toys.

It was fairly easy to assemble, though I have to admit, hubby was doing all of the assembly with me just playing with Lexi and watching.

A few minutes later, Lexi was put into it to play. At first, I thought  it was just like any other jumperoo/exersaucer type deal. She jumped around in it, all wide eyed, excited at this new shiny toys she’s been presented with.

But unlike most products that you start finding flaws with as your baby uses, this one kept getting better and better.

So the concept of the Jam Session is the following:

There are 4 interactive “smart” toys that represent an “instrument” each: percussion, piano, guitar/sax/trumpet and a conductor’s score. Each instrument plays a specific genre of music depending on what has been selected on the conductor’s score. So if the conductor’s score is set on jazz, the rest of the instruments play jazz melodies when triggered. Same happens when she selects rock or classical music There are 67 activities for your baby to play with in this version of the exersaucer.

The piano toy can be set to play notes or melodies. The conductor’s score plays longer songs when triggered. The hanging guitar/sax/trumpet play shorter songs when pulled down on and the overhead lights light up. The drum plays a short little melody, as well and there’s a spin wheel with plastic balls in it. On one of there corners there is a fake microphone with little plastic pellets for noise making. Each side has a detachable teether in different shape and one mirror.

The bottom of the exersaucer has a blue balance base that supposedly helps to “build core strength and coordination”

Like I previously mentioned, at first I was a bit disappointed. Being so used to jumping centers that were filled with multitude of toys, lights, noise and color, my first impression was that Lexi won’t like it because there are not as many toys to play with.

Over the last 2 months, I have been learning why my initial impression was completely wrong.

-The lack of overly stimulating toys means that she has to turn and reach and pull and push to get the results she wants. {It’s kind of like the advice of not surrounding your baby with too many toys, but leaving one or two for her to play with so that she would be prompted to move to reach them}. I almost feel like it IS truly beneficial to her and her development which is a far cry from how I felt about activity centers before.

- Given that with Lexi who is semi-mobile ( she doesn’t crawl, but easily gets from sitting position into a crawling position, but not always safely or gracefully), we often have to put her in the Jam Session for a minute or two while we get what whatever we need.

Well, I couldn’t believe it, but both me and Andrew would dance and sing every time Alexis would trigger a song. Why? That’s because finally the music in a kid’s toy is one that parents can relate to, as well.  To this day, I dance every time she plays Rocking Robin and she watches me and jumps around (or sometimes shakes her leg in a fun way attempting to dance too).

It’s been 2 months and I have not once thought “Oh, this music is annoying”. In addition to that, rather than have music every time she jumps, it has to be triggered by her specific action, whether it’s pulling on the hanging instruments, turning the page of the score, or pressing the piano keys or drums.

- Teethers are a perfect shape and height for her. They bend, they twist, they turn, they can be manipulated in any way possible. It’s often that you see her with her mouth on the teether while jumping around

- The piano keys are really easy to press and she is at the point where she uses the switch to go from melodies to notes ( not on purpose, of course).

- I also was not sure that I’d like the base rather than the floor like most other activity centers have, but I like it  lot, because it adds more bounce to her jumps and keeps her trying to balance her body which is always a good activity for infants.

Evenflo has 3 exersaucers in their new line, but I just really really like this Jam Session. It’s fun, it’s low key and it fosters love for music that is not an annoying repetitive childish tune.

-Another pleasant surprise for me was that the Jam Session is not overly colorful. The toys are bright and happy but the posts and the seat base are white with black accents, so if you’re the type of person who is not a fan of ridiculously bright and colorful baby things in your house, this will probably be the most inconspicuous one of them all. I actually enjoy looking at this bright spot in our living room.  It looks very neat from the distance.

There are very few baby items that I get very excited to review and this is one of them. It turned out to be a great one from both parents’ and baby’s standpoint contrary to my expectations of what a jumping activity center would be.

Note: When we first received the Jam Session, Lexi couldn’t easily turn in the seat. I emailed the customer service and after a few emails back and forth, they sent me a new seat that turns perfectly. I just wanted to mention that in case someone else has that problem. Evenflo customer service is great,so don’t hesistate to contact it.

Note 2: I don’t have a giveaway for you, guys, at this time, since Evenflo didn’t have giveaway units available, but I am hoping in the future I’ll be able to offer a giveaway as well.

Let me know if you have any questions about it, I’d be happy to answer.

Tweet

I am doing a good job catching up with the photo posts and soon you’ll see more current ones and more meaningful posts.I have Father’s day, 4th of July, Lexi’s first boat trip and an overnight trip to Orlando left to blog about and then I’ll be all up to date and hopefully start posting more current photos, as well as more parenting related stuff. It’s much easier to edit photos, put them into a collage and post them, than write about more serious things, so I am trying to get the backlog of photography out of the way.

I don’t have much to say for this post. It’s a simple photo dump from our first playground trip. Alexis loved the swing and would probably do it until she passed out. Unfortunately, with the current Florida weather we can’t be going to the playground too often. It gets too hot by about 8 am. But starting October, when she’s 8 months old and the weather is cool, I suspect we’ll have daily trips there. I am already seeing how bored she gets at home, even though I try to provide a stimulating environment. But she’s the happiest when we go places. So i predict a lot of walks and fun trips outside of home as soon as the weather gets cooler. Right now we’re trying to plan at least one outing somewhere fun once a week: the beach, the playground, children’s museum, the mall, the pool, Disney, etc.

{swing cover by Infantino}

Tweet

When I was pregnant I loved day dreaming about what life with a newborn would be like, what Alexis would be like. I always said that if she ends up being a laid back baby, I am SO going places with her from the get-go and having the fun I missed out on while being pregnant. If she’s more of a high needs baby, I thought, we’d do whatever it takes to keep her safe, healthy and comfortable. Somehow I had a feeling she’d be more of a high needs baby and I remember telling my husband that I think I’d rather have it that way, because that would mean she knows what she wants ( and also years of hard work for us).

Well, as you all know, Alexis isn’t a laid back baby. She’s her own perfect kind of smart, alert, inquisitive, demanding, hungry newborn who wants to be held (and not in the carriers) and fed and entertained all the time. She’s also a happy baby (that is when she’s not fussing for food or to be carried around on our shoulders so that she could look at stuff).

So while I’m spending all my days taking care of Alexis with all my energy and time spent on keeping her happy, fed, entertained, growing, all the things babies are supposed to get, I can’t help but think of a time when we all, as a family, can be more active participants in life. Particularly I’m looking foward to seeing some of my friends who live far away.

There have been a few people who I considered soulmates from the beginning. You know the ones that you meet and click with immediately and they love you back just as much.
My husband was one of them. We knew we were meant to be together from our first conversation.

So two of those kind of friends will be coming to visit in August. In time for my birthday which I plan to celebrate in style (energy and funds permitting)
The most amazing thing is that I met both of them online through blogging. I have connected with so many awesome people online it makes my heart melt! I’ve met many of them in real life afterwards and others (relatively new ones) I really hope to meet some time in the future.
I love how easily connections are made in the Internet world. You feel like you know the person. And the warmth coming from some of them, the support and love- that just makes you love them right back!

Leeka, one of my oldest friends in US, contacted me many years ago back when I had a blog on a Russian site. We became online friends and soon decided to meet when she was traveling to Cleveland from Cincinnati for work.
The instance we saw each other, it was like we always were friends. There was no awkwardness, no shyness, no holding back- it was like “Hi there, girlfriend!”

From then on, we’d see each other every time we could and keep in touch online.
Once we had moved to Florida, if Leeka had a vacation or time to get away, she’d come down to Florida with her daughter Gabby!

I consider them both as important to me as family.

Another friend is Teagan, a bloggy friend turned real life friend. I am absolutely in love with her and her husband and cannot wait to see them again. It’s amazing considering that we only met once, but we just get each other. We only had a day to hang out the first time, but what awesome long day it was and this time they’re coming for a week and I couldn’t be happier.

After a late night conversation at an Orlando restaurant about being vegan, (we had to be kicked out because we were so into it), Teagan and Scott went vegan as well (note: my husband is vegan, I was vegetarian, and am currently pescetarian (minus dairy) with plans on going vegan when I stop breastfeeding). And recently I got news that Leeka went vegan as well, so it’s even more exciting to have these two friends over, because it’s going to be an amazing vegan fest over here.

By then Alexis will be 7 months old and I am just super excited to introduce both Leeka with Gabby and Teagan with Scott to her, she’s already so loved by all of them.

But until that time comes ( and I am sure it will be here before we know it), I am left perusing photos from past adventures and day dreaming about all the fun trips to come.

Tweet

Calm down! It’s nothing too special.

It’s just yesterday we finally ordered a Yamaha keyboard! I play (or am learning to play) drums and hubby has always been really good on piano/keyboard, but haven’t had one in ages. I really think he has talent, but he’s always wanted a $1000 keyboard which seemed like a waste of money considering it’s solely for fun. I tried to convince him to settle down for a cheapy keyboard ( you can get a great one under $200), but he’s been too proud to do so.

Personally, I’ve always wanted to buy a keyboard and  learn how to play, but he would refuse to let me get a lighted keys one ( yeah I know I’m a kid at heart). So that’s where it always stopped.

Now that I got myself an electronic drum set, and have quite a blast playing drums, we resumed our keyboard negotiations. See, I like to play my drums to Rockband 3. I don’t actually hook it up to the game, but just have the drum part muted and the notes displayed on screen, so that way I am playing along to my favorite songs, and it is actually me playing the sounds, not the game. So Rockband has a part for a keyboard on almost every song and we always thought it’d be fun for hubby to play along with me. It’s much easier since the notes are displayed on the screen and both of us do the singing part ( yeah we’re dorks).

So now that I am pregnant, he finally saw the point in buying a cheap LIGHTED KEYS (score!) keyboard so that he can use it for the time being and then it will become a learning tool for both me and the baby.
Can you imagine a little 16 months old following along the lighted keys? How cool is that?

So we went ahead and ordered it and it will be here tomorrow and I cannot wait! I’m so excited! I love musical instruments and I’ll finally learn to play keyboard ( though it’d probably be smarter to continue learning drums, but drums are so physical- sometimes I just need something calmer)

So here’s the keyboard. It’s under $200 bucks, but it’s definitely better than any other lighted keys keyboards out there. And the biggest feature of it is that when you’re in the lighted keys/learning mode, it actually waits for you to hit the note, rather than continues playing the song, if  though you missed the note, like Casio does.

I just wanted to share!

So what instruments do you guys play, if any?

I’m feeling much better today and I am craving potato dumplings OUT OF ALL THINGS! But the stupid Slovenian cafe next to us opens at 11 am, so no dumplings for me this morning :(
Where’s my mommy when I need her?

Tweet

This past weekend we went out on to the beaches and canals for a little boating trip with our friends. The weather was glorious and despite my attempt to cover myself in spf, I got burned and didn’t even notice until I got home ( damn wind that masks sunshine).

{All the photos were taken with a really shitty camera that I brought just to take pictures in the water since it’s waterproof and my iPhone. The funny thing the iPhone pictures were much better quality than the point and shoot. The only reason these are still acceptable at this point is because I edited the crap out of them. Anything can look good with proper editing.}

We drove the boat to a resturants mainly accessibly by boat. I barely found a vegetarian meal there. Out of a HUGE selection there was 1 (!!!) vegetarian option ( come on!): portobello sandwich. It was even more difficult for Andrew- there was NOTHING vegan, so we finally found some beans and veggies on the “sides” menu. Haha!

Every Sunday a ton of boaters gather by this one beach around Keewayden Island. The current is so insane there, that you can easily float out into the Gulf of Mexico.

And finally, I am walking on sunshine… Oooohhhh-oooh!

Tweet

Have you guys noticed how vacations and little trips disrupt normal day-to day activities? It’s like we go away for a few days and when we come back, our “used to be clean’ house is a mess of suitcases, dirty laundry mixed with clean stuff, our phone is ringing off the hook, no work is done, blog is abandoned. And you spend a week or two just catching up. In those moments you wonder why on earth you ever leave the house.  But then you settle back in, clean the house, give some loving to the cats (kids), catch up on work, edit all the photos from the trip and sit down to write about it. And that’s when you sigh and think “Aaaaaaahhh!!! The trip was really nice!”
Do you have that? Do you?

So I am finally back in the groove ( ignoring all the work, I might say). I have been working hard on a blog post I am very excited about where I talk about MEAT and being vegan and vegetarian and healthy and all that good stuff. I am virtually done with it, just need to proofread it and add pictures. So in the meantime I am happy to share some photos from our Colorado trip.
Just a little background on it:  I have this weird luck with meeting people on the Internet. My husband and I fell in love over the web, I met some of my best and most cherished friends on the Internet, so needless to say, I spend hours online ( the first 8 hours of the day working, the rest “playing”). What does it have to do with my Colorado trip? Here’s what: we went there to visit one of my Internet girlfriends…for the first time! Yay! those are always fun! Never awkward- always super duper exciting. She’d just gotten married and moved to Denver to her hubby and we were trying to plan how to meet before i get knocked up and can’t travel and such. We happened to have free airline tickets, they happened to have a house in Vail available to them for a week. I say SCORE!
So we planned it out and with my “complaining scared of snow and cold and skiing” husband took off  to Colorado.  Now, we have lived in Florida for 6 years now and the prospect of going ANYWHERE where the word snow exists in local vocabulary has been out of question until 2 years ago when I spent a week in the French Alps skiing for the first time in my life. Hubby wasn’t present since this was a modelling job i was hired for, that took 1 day to shoot and 5 days to have fun: 3 or 4 out of which I spent skiing my butt off. I fell in love with skiing. It was so much fun! I had this cute pink ski outfit they bought all of the girls and i was NOT afraid to use it again. So for the past 2 years I have been nagging my hubby to go skiing. I wanted to share the awesomeness of going 30 miles an hour downhill and actually being in control. Such a rush! He kept making excuses, such as we don’t have money, it’d be an expensive trip, we can’t leave work, why can’t we just go on a cruise instead? I realized later he just really really really hates cold that much! And so do I! But skiing makes it up for me. I know, strange for a boy from Cleveland, Ohio and a girl from Russia.

So we put on a brave face and took our flight up to Denver with a connection in Minnesota. I was actually really excited to see my friend and her new hubby. In Minnesota, we were honestly shocked- ALL THAT SNOW! It looked MISERABLE! When we landed in Denver, it was a completely different scenery: blue skies, blinding sun and relatively warm. Not too bad.

We found each other at the airport and like always, it was completely normal and comfortable, like we’ve known each other forever. The second we opened our mouths, we started laughing and joking and just had an amazing time hanging out and cracking each other up the first day.

The city of Denver really reminded me of Cleveland: lots of concrete and bricks and bare trees. To those who say they’d miss seasons in Florida, I say “I’d miss not having seasons!“. Of course, as soon as I could get my hand on that awesome sticky snow, my hubby got a snowball in his chest!

Later that day, Chris and Anastasia took us to  Boulder for dinner. I have to say, Boulder is freaking beautiful! I’d totally live there…or go to school there when I was younger. What an awesome place for young single people!

 It was starting to get really cold as the evening approached, so while we were walking back to the car, I spotted a SKATING RINK! Ohhhh, I had to try skating! It was so cool and romantic looking.

Anastasia was apprehensive at first, citing not wanting to break a leg before she actually goes skiing for the first time, and it took 3 of us to convince her to try it out. We rented skates and went to town.

You should have seen this little girl. The one, who didn’t think she could skate, was doing pirouettes in the first 10 minutes of skating. She kept trying to skate backwards, in circles, with one leg up, as if normal skating wasn’t enough. We had a blast!

The next few days we spent up in Vail. A few other couples friends of Chris and Anastasia made their way to the cabin, and were all a great company. Of course everyone gave us crap about being vegetarian haha! But we’re used to it, honestly, and don’t really care :) I did sneak in a salami piece under pressure, which i feel really bad about, especially while writing the post about meat. But otherwise, we cooked healthy and ate healthy.

A special word about the cabin: it was absolutely the best cabin i could imagine staying in. I mean I had stayed in a big chalet in the French Alps, but it has been more like a rented hotel with a chef and maids. Here it felt like home, a very comfortable cosy home with many bedrooms, and walls thin enough to hear other couple having morning sex…(twice :), a hottub and a beautiful dining room table… oh and don’t forget the mandatory dead animals on the walls that kept freaking me out, especially a skunk on our bed. I have nothing against hunting, but anything dead creeps me out and makes me sad.

Now, the skiing turned out to be a bit more… hhmmm… unexpected.  I pictured taking about an hour to teach Andrew how to ski and then skiing with him down the green slopes. In reality it was more like this: him getting pissed at me cuz he wasn’t getting it and  wasn’t able to do it. Once he’d “get it”, and we’d start moving down the slopes, he’d “forget” the technique again and I’d get  more bitching and complaining about how this is no fun and it’s hard and why did i even drag him onto the mountain. By the end of the first run, he seemed to have gotten a hang of going down steeper hills, so I suggested we do another run. He agreed, though i will never know whether that was to not look like a wuss or because he truly felt more comfortable skiing. The second run down was no better. In the end, I spent the whole day going down the mountain at half speed to make sure i don’t lose him, which KILLED my knees. I got an earful of complaints and swearing, lots of pouting and resolving to never ever ski again. He HATED it! I was honestly shocked. I thought he’d pick it up faster and enjoy it just like I did the first time.
At the end of the trip, his hatred towards the mountain faded and he seemed to consider going again when we have kids and just spending the whole day at the kiddie slope to really “get a hang of  it”. I wonder if it’s like pregnancy amnesia. It took just a day for him to forget how miserable he was and consider doing it again. But honestly, I have NEVER seen my husband so defeated, frustrated and bitter. Good to finally know that side of him. Or more like “NOW I KNOOOOW and can hold it against you!!!” Just kidding of course!

We finished up the trip with an awesome group-cooked dinner and a super heavy but tasty breakfast.

I have to say it was a lot of fun and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. I do want to have a ski re-do, because I didn’t really get to enjoy myself while skiing. But I guess, what won’t we do for our loved ones, right, girls?

Linking up with
________________

______________________________________________________________________

Please don’t forget to VOTE daily!