A Scream!

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.

New Year, New Class, New Toys

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.

Swim Lessons

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!

8 Months Old

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!

Welcome 2010

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.

A White Christmas

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's First Christmas

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.

It was a great holiday.