California, day 1- Disneyland

This trip was meant to be. We were actually going to skip vacation this year and just work. Well, life had other plans in store for us. Dave's cousins Frank and Linda pretty much offered us to use their beach house in Laguna Beach and we couldn't say no :) So here we are in California enjoying the nice weather, the beach house (thanks SO much, Frank and Linda) and all that California has to offer. Day 1- Disneyland!!! Alex was so excited to come here! We actually went to Disney World when he was 2 but he has zero recollection of that trip :)As we walked into the park, immediately we met Mickey.
My mom came along with us on this vacation and, of course, she has never been to Disneyland before (neither have I actually), so she was also excited to meet Mickey.
We walked down the Main Street to get to all the attractions.
First ride of the day was Buzz Lightyear.
At lunch time we just had to go find the infamous turkey legs and I enjoyed one whole leg by myself! Ok, ok, I did share a little bit of my leg with everybody, but I'm not sharing tomorrow!
We had very nice lunch.

Nicholas really enjoyed his first trip to Disneyland. Wait, he actually napped through half of it, but it made for one happy baby, which of course we didn't mind :)
Half way through the day we had to replenish our energy with some delicious blended drinks, mmmmmm.
What trip to Disneyland is complete without a ride in the teacups? At first I didn't want to go (the heat of the day made me think that I would get too sick). But then I dragged Dave and Alex to go on it with me for the second time :)Nicholas got his very own Mickey Mouse ears hat!
Now both of the boys have their own :)
I don't know how many days it will take to get the song "It's a small world after all" out of my head.... Here I go again. It's a small world after all, la la la.... Shoot :(

But at least the ride was fun..
Dave and Alex had a second run-in with Mickey while we were resting in the shade.
Then we met Goofy.

Toontown was great but the best part was resting in the shade and gathering our energy back up :)
Hello, Pluto!
Nicholas wasn't afraid at all.
Alex, you're so strong!


We also went on the big steam boat around the lake.

Somehow I managed to get on the front seat of the Splash Mountain ride at the very end of the day. Yeah... my pants ARE all wet...
Until tomorrow!

Alex's first day of school- 1st grade!

Is it just me or it seems like we're going in a circle? Didn't I just write about Alex's first day of school? O wait, it was a YEAR ago... Can you believe it? My big boy is a 1st grader!!! Where has the time gone?Fully equipped with a huge backpack, new shoes, and a new outfit, Alex started his 1st grade yesterday.
Babulya stayed home with sleeping Nicholas.

But the rest of us, including the dog, walked to school with Alex. Even our neighbor Karen got to walk with us part of the way :) Just look at Alex's huge backpack! How does he carry that thing?




At school Alex got a desk assigned to him. We had to move his "girlfriend" Kennedy to another desk because otherwise neither one of them would get any work done at school! Alex had a very easy transition. No tears, no fears, no worry. I think the previous 2 years of being in school have helped him a lot!

Contrary to my expectations, I didn't even shed a tear :) I was happy for Alex to start this new and exciting chapter of his life. Education is the road to success!

My dear Alex, I wish you all the best in your educational journey through life. We'll be there to support you through all of it.

We love you very much!

A little bit about Nicholas

Nicholas is already 8 1/2 months old. As I look back at the last few months I realize how much joy and happiness he has brought into our lives. I wanted to write a little bit about this miracle boy who joined our family at the end of 2009.

Nicholas is a pretty happy baby, he smiles a lot. He also can scream and pretty loud too. He just doesn't like to be left alone. He's so used to all the attention that he's given from all the family members (including the dog and the cat), that the minute we leave him to play alone he'll tell us by his very loud voice :) One of his favorite things to do is going on walks. He can sit in his stroller for hours, as long as we're moving. He seems to be outgrowing his favorite spinning Baby Einstein toy. He now prefers to roll around the floor, which he does very well. He can get anywhere in the room within seconds :) He tries to crawl but so far not very far and he mostly just stands on all fours and rocks back and forth. Nicholas loves his big brother Alex very much. He calls him "A-da". They play together a lot every day. Nicholas really looks up to Alex, it's very precious.

Nicholas loves to eat his homemade solids. He enjoys pretty much everything we give him, be it vegetables, fruits, meats, or yogurts. He's already tried a large variety of foods and enjoyed all of the them. He doesn't know yet how to drink from a sippy cup but he's learning. He tries to hold spoons and cups on his own already. I think he's anxious to be independent at that :)

Nicholas can fall asleep in his crib on his own about 80% of the time. At other times he requires a pacifier or some more attention. I'm happy with that though. He takes 2-3 naps a day and eats in between. His schedule is pretty set right now.

I'm amazed to see how different and at the same time similar Nicholas's personality is from Alex's. At times I look at Nicholas and his pictures and I see baby Alex in him. But at other times Nicholas looks so different...

I'm also amazed how much love I have for my boys. When we had just Alex I never could imagine what it would it be like to have another baby and how it would be having to split the love... But now I can see how my love just grew twice as large, so I didn't have to split it :)))

I can't help but feel grateful for my days here on Earth (however long or limited they may be) so I can experience this unconditional love and learn to sacrifice my own comforts and desires for those of my children. I'm starting to get a deeper understanding of the meaning of life!

P.S: The same day that I typed this, Nicholas suddenly showed me that he CAN drink out of a sippy cup. It's too funny that he learned it as soon as I said he couldn't, LOL!

Privacy

I decided to go private on our family blog. If you enjoy reading our blog and would like to continue to do so, please send me your email so I can invite you to read it.

You can either leave me your email here, on FB or through my email.

Thanks,

Paulina

A story with a happy ending

This spring for some reason I have been very acutely aware of the nature and the wildlife in our backyard. I always knew that we live surrounded by many different species, but this spring it was almost like I got new senses. And once I opened my eyes, I was in awe of all the wonderful things happening around us.

This story started out as a single blue egg, which was laid on May 3, 2010. I immediately went to my online resources and learned that American robins lay 1 egg per day, up to 4 eggs on average (some can lay as many as 6, but it's rare).
Sure enough, 4 days later I discovered 4 little blue eggs in our nest! Our mama bird must have been an average kind of gal, because she stopped at 4 :)
Baby robins were born on May 19, 2010 and they were instantly hungry!
It took me a while to realize that only 3 of the 4 eggs actually hatched. 4th one was a blighted ovum... The natural selection works its wonders in nature too..
Mama robin worked tirelessly to feed her hungry offspring and warm them up.
From my bedroom window I could see the nest very well and every time I would sit down to nurse Nicholas, I would watch the life unfold right outside my window. Mama and papa robins flew back and forth all day long bringing fresh worms to their babies, protecting them from predators, and cleaning the nest.
Om May 27th the babies lost all but a little mohawk of their baby fuzz.
And started growing real feathers.
Then we went to Park City for 4 days and I missed my feathered babies. Boy, was I in for a surprise when I came back and saw the following in the nest:
Babies weren't babies anymore! They lost all of their fuzz, got real feathers, and looked more like mischievous teenagers. Now ready to fly! It was June 2nd.
It was a "The Birds" moment for me. I went out in the backyard and saw the baby birds sitting on the edge of the nest ready to fly. I also noticed that our backyard was full, and I mean FULL of chirping birds. Not only robins were there to support their fellow birds, but also finches and other creatures whose names I, the amateur bird watcher, don't know yet. I thought for a split second of running in and grabbing my camera, I turned around and then the mama and papa birds literally tried to attack me! The next thing I knew baby birds were flying across the lawn while their parents were circling around me and chirping very loudly. Other birds cheered on all around the trees. The babies made it safely onto the tree across our yard. Then suddenly I realized that something has changed... The yard was QUIET. All the birds were gone, just like that. Weird...

Now the babies were out in the real world.
Good-bye, baby robins. Thank you for giving me hours of entertainment and joy! Good luck in the real world, be careful out there!

I am still amazed that it took less than a month (from May 3rd to June 2nd) for the baby robins to incubate, hatch, grow, and now fly away... Life goes by so quickly!

P.S: As of today, I still see my baby robins come and visit me in the backyard. They sit on the fence and "talk" to me :) Call me crazy, but I can recognize them. They're all grown up in size but still have the spotty chests compared to the adult robins who have orange-colored chests.

Life goes on!

Kindergarten graduation

Alex graduated from kindergarten a couple of weeks ago! His class did a very nice program for parents. Alex did very well, singing very loud :) Nana and Pa were able to come to Alex's program and he loved having them there.Alex's teacher, Ms Johnson.

These are Alex's best friends: Reggie, Evan, Nathan, and Nicholas.
Good-bye, kindergarten! Hello, 1st grade!
Can you believe that Alex will be in 1st grade? I sure can't... Makes me cry a little how fast kids grow up!