First haircut and tumbling class

Time came for Ophelia's first haircut. Although we loved those cute curls, for the sake of long-term hair-growing success, I had to chop them down. Bath time was the perfect place to do it. Opehlia didn't even notice what I was doing and didn't try to grab the scissors. A disclaimer: I've never cut hair before. I just cut straight across around her neck. Afterwards I thought I should've gone longer, because she looks like a boy...but it will grow back soon enought. Here is the before picture:



And here's after:



Good bye, curly curls!



This week was Ophelia's first tumbling class. She had so much fun! She just wanted to run around and explore everything. At first we all sat in a circle and did some movement songs, then we summersaulted and bear-walked across the gym floor, then we did an obstacle course. I had fun too, can you tell? Here are some pictures and videos from it:

I am excited to video her in the last class, after the 8 weeks of classes are done, and compare them to these videos and see the progress!

Sweet babbles

Update on the rat...it's gone to the spirit world now! PJ got a big snap trap and put some cheese in it. One hour later it totally worked! Turns out our rat did not like peanut butter that we have been putting on traps for months, but would much rather each cheese. Wow, I should have taken a picture of the rat, it was HUGE. But maybe some of you are grateful that I didn't!

Meanwhile, Ophelia is cutting more teeth, which comes with tears and a runny nose. One thing I hope to remember as she grows up is when even she is sick, Ophelia is sweet and cuddly. As I was trying to rock her tonight, she put her head on my shoulder and her arms around me. She whispered "mama" and pat me. I could've done this all night long :)

We are working on her "please" and "thank you". She is doing really well: most of the time she can say "mo pea" and "ta tee" (translation: more please and thank you). Here is a taste of her babbling:



I asked in Russian for Ophelia to dance and then to give a kiss to Ophelia :)

Christmas break 2010

Sad to see the Christmas vacation come to an end, but it is good to be at home again. After we came back, we realized that some rats have moved in to our garage (or maybe have gotten less quiet now). The war is on... we are trying everything - sticky traps, poison blocks, expanding foam spray, snap traps, rat-repellant noise makers. For now, it's been unsuccessful - the rat flipped over the sticky trap, chewed through the wall insulaltion (around the foam), has not touched the poison blocks or snap traps, and seems to only be more annoyed by the noise. I really hope they will never find a way into our home!!!

Our vacation was great as usual and here are some highlights of it: Ophelia got to play with many new toys at Grandma's house:



She was such a happy baby the whole two weeks while we were there. She was a joy to us and to her grandparents. Unfortunately, she had to be on antibiotics for the first time in her life for an ear infection in her right ear. Now, looking back, I think she could've fought this one out without meds...The amoxicillin made her have no appetite and meal times were a struggle for all 10 days. But she made up the days following when the meds were done - she ate "like a horse" (according to Grandpa) and pooped like one too (sorry for TMI). At the doctors follow up appointment today we learned that she gained 2 pounds in the last 3 weeks! She sure is growing!

Ah, yumm, the famous Franke (PJ's Mom's side) family potato dumplings! I took this picture just for my Dad. When he got a chance to try these one year, he ate at least 6 of them. I won't get into how many calories these things have, but let me just tell you that the ingredients are potatoes, bacon grease and bits with lots of butter and salt as toppings :)

Matt and Judy's friends came for a dumpling experience too and brought their sweet dog. Needless to say, it made Ophelia's day!

This picture shows just how sweet our little girl is. When I am busy cooking or with the dishes in the kitchen, Ophelia out of the blue just comes and gives me a hug on the legs and says "mama". She did it with Grandma a lot too. So cute! She learned to say "Grandma" over the Christmas break, but the "grand" part has been missing, so "ma" is the only part left :)

She loves "playing" the piano:

Our little Mozart:



Her love of books continues to grow. Grandma got lots of new flap books for Ophelia.

She can't even put a book down while her diaper in being changed:

The blocks were played with a lot. She had fun crawling into the box:

But not so much fun coming out of it:

PJ and I had a little getaway to San Antonio and it was AWESOME! We ate at an interesting place called "Mad Hatters". Check out our veggie burgers:

We went on the tour of the river walk:

We visited the San Antonio temple.

It was a great getaway! Thank you to the grandparents for allowing us to have some one-on-one time!