My sisters visited Katerina and I this past weekend. Mike was traveling so we had free reign of the house. Katerina loved having so much entertainment. We ordered Chinese, did some girl talk, and my sisters taught Katerina how to dance like a ballerina. She stands up on her tip toes, puts her arms in first position, and turns around. So cute! Unfortunately, we haven't been able to capture the moment on camera yet, but stay tuned.
On Sunday we took full advantage of having Aunt Aileen around (the official baker in the family) and we baked cookies (well Aileen actually made those for Meghan to take back to campus) and together we all made a carrot cake for Mike's Name Day. Aileen was the lead chef for the carrot cake and Meghan and I were the "sous" chefs. It turned out great--making carrot cake is not really that hard! :)
I made the cream cheese frosting after they had left and Katerina fully enjoyed licking the bowl. It was a relaxing fun weekend with the girls.
Katerina truly participated in Halloween this year. We went out around 5pm. She was a little timid at the first house, but then she seemed to get the hang of it. She would follow the other kids on the street, walk up to the front doors and hold out her candy pale. We only went to a few houses, but she loved it and so did Mike and I. I had forgotten how much fun this holiday was.
She was a Buffalo Bills cheerleader--everyone thought she was so cute ...although I don't think most of them were big football fans because we didn't get any condolences. I tried very hard to encourage her to keep her pigtails in...but they were only in her hair long enough for me to take a quick picture and she had them out.
Back at home, Katerina got excited every time the door bell rang, looking forward to seeing the new visitors. She seemed very curious as she watched Mike or I give out candy to some 153 kids--yep, that's right, we keep track! LOL. It was a fun night! Happy Halloween.
Katerina appears to be doing a lot more "talking" these days. She still doesn't say much-her vocabulary really consists of Ba and sometimes Mama, and "uh oh." But she is starting to make noises that sound like other words.
For example, she LOVES dogs. She says "doh" whenever she sees one. Although, she says the same thing for duck...but its a similar sound so I applaud her effort (literally). :)
And tonight she was playing with the phone and Mike and I turned when we heard her say something like "hello."
Mike loves to tell the story about when we were in Newark airport coming back from Greece. Mike raised his hands and said "touchdown Buffalo!" Katerina did the same thing, including saying something that sounded like "touchdown." Mike was ecstatic because he thought it was her first real word. But I don't know if you can count that as her first real word because she hasn't said it since. But in Katerina's defense, maybe that's because Buffalo hasn't been making many touch downs.
Regardless, I think we might start hearing some real words in the next couple of months, which will be great. It can be frustrating when she points and says "ehh" and I don't know what she wants. But as Mike says, I better be careful what I wish for. If she's anything like the Nyman girls...once she starts talking, she won't stop! :)
Our trip to Greece was wonderful. Every day we had fresh squeezed orange juice from our uncle's trees, fresh eggs from Yiayia Olga and fresh figs from the neighbor down the street. The weather was hot, but with a cool afternoon breeze perfect for our naps!
Katerina loved her trip as well. She loved "swimming" in the ocean, and towards the end got very good at kicking her feet. She enjoyed taking walks on the beach as well. Our last day, she found a shell that she particulary liked and held onto it for a good hour. Finally, I convinced her to give it to me for safe keeping-we brought it home.
She became particulary fond of all of the animals in Greece: the horse next door, the donkey down the street, the goats across the street and the chickens and cats at Yiayia Olga's house. It was as if we had our own petting zoo in our backyard.
She has started to understand some Greek too. In fact, the other day at home, Mike had to say "come here" in Greek in order to get her to come in from playing outside.
Katerina's affinity for singing, dancing and listening to music grew while we were away as well. Papou and Yiayia would often sing to her...this video is of her dancing!
Now about the traveling--it was not as bad as it could have been. Katerina was well tempered. We had lots of toys she had never seen before, and also used the portable dvd player. She took some walks up and down the plane and played with random objects: my water bottle, a plastic cup, the magazine in the seat pocket..etc. The only "negative" was that she barely slept, which meant Mike and I were up for about 24 hours on both trips, with a few 10 minute naps. We were pretty tired.
Katerina adjusted well to the 7 hour time change. The fact that she didn't sleep much on the plane really helped I think. She woke up in the middle of the night the first few nights. The first night she got a small snack and some milk, the second night just milk, and the third night she had water. After that, she was back on the new schedule. Kids bounce back better than the adults I think. All-in all it was a great trip! We are looking forward to the next trip to Greece.
One of the best parts about being a parent is being able to act like a kid again. We had a chance to do that on Sunday when visiting family in CT. We went to a cook-out visiting the CT relatives as well as Great Grandma and Great Grandpa who were up visiting. It was warm and sunny for the first part of the party, but it started to rain a little before dinner.
Katerina didn't mind the rain one bit. We were both still in our bathing suits, so we just stood out in the rain and Katerina took great pleasure in splashing in the puddles. Here's a video that captured the moment.
Katerina also enjoyed spending time with cousin Jack, her great Aunts and Uncles and Great Grandma and Great Grandpa who I think she remembered from visiting a couple of months ago. Here's a picture of her trying on Grandma's hat...how precious!
One of my high school teachers used to tease me by saying that I didn't get my "hair" cut, I got my "hairs" cut. He was incorrect of course, because as we all know "hair" can be either singular or plural. Either way, Katerina certainly got her "hairs" cut yesterday.
It wasn't technically her first haircut. We had given her bangs a trim a couple times before. But this was her first full haircut by Papou. Papou moonlights as a barber (well not exactly, but he cuts Mike's hair, Strat's hair and Yiayia's hair). So, instead of going through the hassle of going to my hairdresser, we decided to let Papou cut it.
I have had several traumatic haircut experiences in my life and as a result, getting my haircut always makes me a little apprehensive. I didn't realize though that my apprehensiveness would extend to my daughter. During Katerina's haircut I was a mess, especially after her bangs were cut short. I wasn't crying, but I was on edge. And the cutting kept on going and going and going...I thought she was going to look like a boy! Then finally I couldn't take it anymore so I made him stop, probably sooner than necessary.
Luckily when she woke up this morning she still looked like a girl. But now she looks like a big girl--one who can actually see because her hair isn't in her face. See, it wasn't so bad, right Katerina?
Katerina is learning to get and do what she wants around here. Tonight at dinner she was almost finished eating. She signed "all done" so I was about to get her out of her high chair when she started pointing to the jar of Greek cookies. I tried to first give her some cheerios which were next to the jar--but she didn't want the cheerios, she wanted the cookies. She was telling me that she was all done with her dinner, so now it was time for dessert!
While she's been climbing stairs for sometime, but now she is trying to go up and down like a "big girl" by "walking" either by holding onto a railing or my hand. Whenever we are out in the backyard she will try to climb the stairs up to the kitchen door. Last night, we ate dinner outside and then let her run around in the yard. We blocked the stairs with the patio chairs by laying them down. Did that stop Katerina? Of course not. She pulled herself up and climbed over them. She is certainly persistent!
She does have her fair share of accidents though. Yesterday at church she was sitting on the pew eating bread after communion. A piece dropped on the floor and so she reached for it and fell flat on the floor! Poor thing...she cried a lot, but only for a few minutes. And it's only a little bruised today.
While she isn't talking, she certainly understands what you are saying. She knows her ball, and stories, and where Baba and Mommy are, but some things she still doesn't quite understand. I was trying to take a dish out of the oven today and I needed Katerina to stand back. I kept saying "No Katerina, Danger"....she just laughed. I eventually just had to pick her up, move her to the family room and run back to kitchen to take it out before she got there.
Katerina had her first ice cream cone last night. It was a beautiful summer evening. We had cooked out on the grill and thought it would be a perfect night to get some ice cream. We got Katerina her first kiddie cone. She liked it--or at least she liked the cone part. The ice cream was a little too cold for her I think.
Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there. Last year on this day Katerina wasn't yet a week old. :)
We were in Rochester this weekend to celebrate Theo Strat's graduation from Nazareth with his Masters Degree. During the ceremony today, they kept referring to the Mothers in the audience and I couldn't help but think that someday Mike and I would be sitting in the audience and it would be Katerina getting her degree...
Today is Katerina's first birthday. She was born today at 11:05am one year ago. While we celebrated last weekend, today, Katerina, Baba and I stayed home a little later and enjoyed a yummy breakfast of eggs, toast and sausage.
Then Katerina brought in cup cakes to school. Her teacher, Ms. Sharon, said she didn't drop one piece of that cupcake--I think she really liked it!
She must have known it was her birthday today because she only napped for 15 minutes at school, but despite that she was all smiles when I picked her up at the end of the day.
It is hard to believe an entire year has passed. It has been a wonderful year. Parenthood is a blessing and it certainly teaches you a lot about yourself. In this blog post, in addition to writing about Katerina's milestones, I have also included some of my own.
Here are some of Katerina's recent milestones:
She is legitimately walking now, even on grass
She has fallen in love with a stuffed Kitty, and sleeps with it at nap time and at bed time
She now drinks whole milk out of a sippy cup (although we are still struggling to get her to drink enough during the day)
She no longer drinks out of bottles (although sometimes I wonder if she misses them)
Sometimes she will try to repeat a sound you are saying...such as "Ba" or "Kitty"...or at least it sounds that way
In the past year, Mommy has:
Learned that babies change every day
Learned patience... and that sometimes things do not always go according to plan... and that's okay
Learned that a child can make you smile even on your most difficult days
Learned that there if often not one right answer when parenting...sometimes its trial and error and each child is different
Learned to appreciate the little things in life such as Katerina's good morning smile, her laugh when playing a game and how much fun it is to simply watch her observe and explore the world around her
We held Katerina's first birthday party this weekend. It was a hot summer-like day. Katerina enjoyed all of the attention from her aunts, uncle and grandparents who came to visit her. And she thoroughly enjoyed the food-- she ate a hot dog and had a HUGE piece of birthday cake that her Baba made her (It only took about 3 hours to make the night before). She made a wonderful mess, which was fun to watch. Mike cut her quite a large piece, and she ate three quarters of it. I think she was on a sugar high for the rest of the evening. :)
Katerina received wonderful birthday gifts too...although at certain points she appeared to be more interested in the card envelopes, ribbons and the bows that came with the gifts. In fact, in one card contained a gift card to Toys R Us...she grabbed onto the gift card, and didn't want to let it go! She got a bunch of clothes, some new books and some cool toys.
Mommy and Baba got an outdoor castle for her, with a slide and swing. Grandma gave us the idea. It only took Baba, Papou and Uncle Billy 1 hour to put together, even though the box said "Only 20 minutes to assemble." She loves it--well certain parts of it. She likes the swing, and she likes the "landing" where she can stand up high, and turn the 'captain" wheel, but she HATES the slide. She cried and cried and now she won't go near it. Maybe by the end of the summer she'll enjoy it.
She'll be turning 1 officially on Thursday at 11:05am. It doesn't seem possible sometimes...she is such a big girl now.
Katerina has been playing a lot of games recently. One of her new things is to point and laugh at you. We haven't told her yet that its actually not very polite! :)
The other day when she was having dinner, I asked her if I could have some of her chicken. She picked up a piece and held it out for me, which I assumed meant she was going to share. As I opened my mouth to take a bite, she put that piece of chicken in her mouth and laughed at me. She proceeded to pretend to share several more times, but each time I went for a bite, she took a bite herself. I couldn't help but laugh at how clever she was.
Of course peek a boo is an all time favorite. She will even hold up a blanket in front of her as I say "where's Katerina..." and then drop it down waiting for the "peek a boo"
We are having so much fun playing these games. This is such a wonderful age!
I am not sure when you can officially say a child is walking...but Katerina is certainly doing a lot of it. Just within the last week she has gone from taking a few steps and falling, to walking across the room on her own accord. She prefers walking I think, but still crawls, particulary if she wants to get somewhere fast.
It has been very fun to watch her delight as she can get from one object to another while walking...such as the couch to the stairs. And she has soooo much energy!
p.s. ignore the date on this picture...our camera keeps screwing up the date...
Katerina has made several discoveries recently, which has been fasinating to watch and observe.
She has discovered that grass is soft, bumping and feels kinda funny. She doesn't want to crawl on it because she doesn't like how it feels.
She has discovered that while teeth are good for chewing food, when she puts her fingers in her mouth and clamps down--it hurts!
She has discovered her nostrils--and that her little finger fits perfectly up there!
She has discovered that walking is lots of fun, and if she whines and fusses long enough, Mommy or Baba will hold her hands so she can walk around the house.
Finally, she has discovered that throwing up is much different than "spitting up"... she had her first stomach bug on Wednesday night. Mike and I had just fallen asleep and woke up to her throwing up. She proceeded to throw up several more times that night. We did a lot of laundry and she got her first midnight bath. We set up the pack n play in our room so that we could hear her, but she eventually ended up sleeping in our bed. We felt so bad for her. Luckily it was only a 24 hour bug. Its now Friday night and she is finally back to her old self and eating chicken fingers and peas!
I cannot believe that Katerina is 10 months old already! During this past month, she has survived an ear infection after two different medications. Here are some other recent accomplishments:
Katerina has discovered table food! In fact, that is pretty much all she eats now. She is now even trying the food at daycare. Tonight, she had meatballs, cheese, peas and broccoli.
She says Mama and Ba, albeit indiscriminately.
She can "walk" forward and backward while pushing/pulling something, like her high chair.
Katerina is becoming mischievious. Why is it when there is something that a baby isn't supposed to do, that's the thing they try to do the most??
For example, forget trying to work on the laptop now when she's around. She comes right up to you and tries to type. In fact I was googling something the other day, and she kept hitting the backspace button...it took me forever to find the recipe I was after.
She sort of understands the word No...or at least my tone "Katerina...No!" She has been testing me lately. She will start to go over to the shoes by the kitchen door, and I say " Katerina...(pause)" and she will stop, look at me and I say "No". I usually have to say it a couple of times, and then sometimes I need to pick her up and move her away from it.
The other day, she was going toward the humidifer in her bedroom, and I said "Katerina (pause) No"...as soon as I said Katerina, she started moving faster toward it with a smile on her face. I think she thought it was a game. I tried very hard not to laugh. So I just picked her up and moved her. She got mad...and started right back toward it...it was pretty funny.
Katerina celebrated her first Valentine's day yesterday. She is so loved! She got all kinds of gifts from relatives...money, books, clothes, and even a stuffed monkey holding a heart! Thank you all for thinking of her.
Mike and I have never gone over the top for Valentine's Day because it is such a "Hallmark" holiday. In fact, many years ago I told him never to buy me roses on Valentine's Day because it is such a rip-off. Well, Mike broke the rule this year and decided to buy each of his girls a rose...it was very sweet.
Now as a parent, Valentine's Day brings on a whole new, wonderful meaning. It is a great day to remind Katerina how much she is loved.
We got Katerina a book for the bath as her Valentine's Day gift...she enjoyed "reading" while getting nice and clean.
Katerina turned nine months old yesterday...her first birthday is just around the corner, which doesn't seem possible. Here are some of her recent accomplishments:
She can pull herself to standing and then while holding onto the couch/toy/ etc, she can walk around it.
She can also get down from standing with ease, either by kneeling or crouching down.
She is eating meats mixed with fruits or veggies.
She can drink out of a sippy cup.
When given a book, she can turn pages.
She is practicing using a "bbb" sound and "mmm" sound...maybe trying to say Baba and Mommy?? It is so adorable watching her try to form the sounds with her mouth.
I heard Katerina "scream" for the first time today. Mike, Katerina and I were upstairs in her bedroom. We had just read some stories and were about to turn off the lights to get ready for bed. First, however, Mike wanted to empty the diaper genie because it's garbage day tomorrow. Being a curious little girl, Katerina got down from my lap and crawled over towards the diaper genie to watch her Baba. As Mike pulled the very large bag out of the diaper genie and onto the floor, Katerina looked at it and screamed.
Mike and I were a little stunned. And Katerina's face looked filled with fear. I picked her up, and tried to calm her down. While she calmed down almost immediately, she kept looking at the bag. I tried to sit down on the floor with her next to the bag, but she started to cry. Mike then moved the bag to the hallway, and she still kept looking at it. It wasn't until the lights were out, and she was nursing that she seemed to forget about it. At 8 months old, can you get scared?
Mike has heard Katerina scream before. A couple months ago, during drop-off at daycare, Mike sat Katerina down and went to put away her bottles, bag, coat etc. As he was doing that, he heard her scream. A little boy had grabbed a hold of her hair and was pulling on it. The teachers intervened immediately, but it still gave her a shock.
We are forunate that she doesn't scream often (I am knocking on wood right now) and hopefully that trend will continue into the future.
In the new year, Katerina moved up into a new class. She graduated from Infant A to Infant B. With the new class, came many new toys. Toys she can climb on, toys she can stand next to, and toys that have buttons, buckets, and knobs that light up.
She also has these types of toys at home now. She has her very first keyboard. And Grandma and Papa Eddie gave Katerina a "barn house" for Christmas which she loves.
Today was our first day of swim lessons. I regret that I do not have a picture, but with all there was to do, we just didn't have time.
Katerina seemed to enjoy it. We sang songs, floated on our tummies and our backs and practiced splashing and kicking. The water was a little cold at first, but we both seemed to get used to it. Although at the end, she was shivering a little.
She only cried once--when I first got into the water. They told us to sit on the side of the pool with our child sitting next to us. Then, while holding your child on the side of the pool in a seated position, the adults turn around and slip into the water. It sounds easy, but it wasn't and I think Katerina knew I was feeling a little awkward because then she started to cry. But as soon as I took her and put her in the water with me she was fine.
In fact, at first Katerina was so distracted by everything around her--watching other kids, the water, that she barely knew I was there. But towards the end, she was smiling at me as we jumped up and down in the water. Ba watched us from the bleachers and then assisted with the long process of changing her out of her swimsuit and into clothes.
I think it wiped her out because in the 7 minute car ride home, she feel asleep. I was able to take her out of her car seat, out of her snow suit and into her crib while she continued to sleep. Although she didn't sleep long only about 20 minutes. What a great way to start a Saturday morning!
Katerina was 8 Months old on January 6. I can't believe how much she's grown.
We took two pictures with Mickey this month--one is our traditional side by side, in the other, she is showing off her "sitting-up" skills.
Here are some of Katerina's recent accomplishments:
She can sit up by herself
She can crawl
She can move from sitting to crawling and vice versa
She can pull herself up to standing while holding onto something or someone
She loves cheerios!
She understands Peek A Boo a lot more...and will look for a toy that is "hiding"
Finally, she has become a lot more attached to people, particulary her parents. I might put her down on the floor and walk away, and she will burst into tears. I put her to bed at night, and as soon as I leave the room, she cries. Earlier in the week she woke up in the middle of the night and she wouldn't go back to sleep. Mike gave her the binky, that didn't work. He rocked her, that didn't work. I nursed her, that didn't work. We let her cry for over 10 minutes, that didn't work. So we brought her into bed with us. She layed there on her back looking at me, then at Mike, then back at me, as if she was checking to make sure that we were still there.
Well neither of us slept too well that night, so we vowed to be "tough" the next night. I put her to bed with the normal routine, and when I walked out of the room, she started crying. She cried/cranked for 30 minutes before going to sleep. That was tough, but the next night she only cried for 2 minutes! Yeah!
Katerina celebrated 2010 with her good friend Wilson. He taught her many things while visiting, such as how to crawl from the family room to the kitchen (Katerina wasn't quite sure how to get there). How to pull yourself up to standing--yes, she can pull herself up while holding onto something or someone. And he taught her how to shake her head from side to side. It's super cute.
They actually interacted quite well--even at 6am on New Years Day!
2009 was a great year, and I can't wait to see what 2010 brings.
It snowed in Rochester on Christmas Eve and Katerina and I took advantage of the snow and went out and played. It was her first time in the snow. She wasn't a huge fan of being in her big snow suit, because she couldn't really move. But we had fun just the same!
Katerina celebrated her first Christmas in 2009, surrounded by her parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles. She enjoyed the wrapping paper, bows and of course all of the attention. Her cold got better as the vacation went on, but on Christmas morning she was so congested that she spit up all over me at 4am, causing me to take the tags off the new pjs I had just gotten the night before.
We first celebrated Christmas in East Greenbush, then we made a trip to Rochester, then Oswego, then CT--traveling over 800 miles to visit our relatives. Katerina was great in the car, and took the opportunity to catch up on some zzzs.
Christmas really is about kids. It was so much fun to just watch her open presents, examine the new toys that make noise and light up...I could have done that all day. I think Katerina also enjoyed seeing new people and would sit and "chat" with just about anyone. We also continued the tradition of reading "The Night Before Christmas" during the holidays.
Also, over Christmas she began to crawl! I mean really crawl. In fact, when we got home from Oswego, as we were unpacking, it became quite challenging to get anything done because we had to keep an eye on her. So when she went down for a nap, we baby proofed the house--put up the gate, a "lock" on the cabinet under the sink, and put the caps on the outlets. It's a lot more relaxing now because I know she is safe.
