Expecting!!

We are expecting a new arrival on September 8. We are looking forward to growing our family and watching Katerina interact with a new brother or sister.

Katerina doesn't really understand much yet, but if you ask her where Mommy's baby is, she will point to my belly. Sometimes she will give the baby a kiss too. It's really sweet.

More to come soon!

Katerina's First Story

Katerina told her first story last night. She thought it was so interesting that she repeated it again tonight, several times. After the 3rd or 4th time she told me the story, I decided to record it. But before you watch the video, let me put this in context so that you can understand her story.

On Saturday, Katerina was outside playing in the driveway with Mike as he cooked our steaks for dinner. They were playing with a bouncy ball. Apparently Katerina threw the ball and it landed in the snow. Katerina was a bit distraught that she couldn't reach her ball. Since neither one of them was equipped with boots on, Mike went and got a broom to pull the ball towards them. He picked up the ball and gave it back to Katerina, who was extremely pleased! Here is Katerina's version of that story.

Holiday Fun!

Katerina has enjoyed the holidays this year. She loves being the center of attention so any time with extended family is a welcomed treat. We were in Rochester, then Oswego, then CT. She was a great traveler, hardly ever complaining.

Christmas was especially fun because she loved opening presents. It was fun watching her get excited about a toy she just unwrapped and then get frustrated that she couldn't get it out of the plastic wrapping quickly enough.

I think her favorite x-mas holiday character is frosty the snowman. He hangs on her door and we have been singing the song to her. Every time she sees a snowman she starts to break out in song. Santa isn't as exciting...in fact she cried hysterically when we tried to get her to sit on his lap at church as she held on to me with her death grip. But from a distance he's okay. She likes saying "Ho Ho Ho."

Finally, our New Years was very enjoyable. Our friends from College made the trip with their kids (Wilson 2, Kaya 1 mth). Katerina and Wilson played nicely together and Kaya was a perfect baby--even staying up to watch the ball drop with the adults.

Well I need to end this post since Katerina keeps trying to type her own post on the computer... I keep trying to tell her that she has her own blog, but she doesn't seem to understand the concept.

Girls Weekend!

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.

Happy Halloween

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.

"Talking"

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

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.