In a Nutshell

Another month flew by and Thanksgiving is only a week away. As Ophelia would say: "That's cwayzee, Mama!" Totally agree :) I am having to catch up with the latest happenings in our little family, so here is a little October-November digest.

Ophelia fit perfectly into her doggy-suit for Halloween this year and absolutely loved it! This year I took her trick-o-treating for the first time. She got a hang of it pretty quickly, as soon as she saw people packing candy into her little bag :) She calls candy "iffikit", which comes from the Russian "konfetki." PJ and I made sure all her candy was tasty and appropriate for her age :) Here is our little candy-getter:




This September I signed Ophelia up for pre-school, a three-hour class once a week at Mrs.Jeannie's house, who is a member of our stake. First month was hard: Ophelia cried the majority of time the first week, despite the teacher playing Elmo video for her; next week I brought her paci to school, which soothed her, whenever she started crying; by third week she was only crying a little bit. I thought about pulling her out of it, but I am glad I didn't, because the weeks that followed and to this day, she loves school! I made a mistake of telling her one Tuesday that tomorrow we will be going to school, and that's all I heard for the rest of Tuesday, she didn't want to do anything else but go to school! Ophelia loves all the kids: there are 4 older kids and one boy 2 months younger than her. She comes home proud with her little school projects and she sings songs that she learns there. She's learned to paint and to use glue, the latter being her favorite. It has totally helped her to be more social and outgoing, which is the reason I wanted her to go there in the first place. Here is our little school-girl, all ready to go:



In October we got to go twice on this little trainride. Of course, Ophelia loved it and she loved having her friends there:





It seems to have been a tough month for balance for Ophelia: I suspect she was going through a growth spurt or something, but she sure fell down a lot! On the above picture, she has a bruised nose, lip, and chin, because she fell right before our train ride. It was a hard face plant on a solid piece of concrete - nothing to trip over exept her own feet, which she successfully accomplished. There was even a bloody nose, which scared me, but with support of other moms, we got her all cleaned up and happy again. Right after the train ride ended, she managed to fall down again, which made the already scraped knee bleed even worse...I am sure it's not the last time she'll fall, but it was pretty bad...

The past few months PJ has been really busy getting ready for his huge Master's test, so Ophelia and I hung out on our own a lot. One of those days, she had a fun idea of sticking Mr.Potatohead's body parts into her own body:



The test was just last week and we don't know the results yet, but I am sure that PJ passed and will get to graduate this year. It's been a crazy 2-year ride for us! We started out with him taking care of Ophelia during the day and evening classes at night, while I worked full time. Then we switched to him working part time plus going to school full time and me staying home with Ophelia. The Lord has blessed us in many ways to be able to do this, and I am extremely grateful to be a stay-at-home-mom! Here is Ophelia trying to see what it's like "in mama's shoes" :) You'll be there someday, my sweet girl, don't rush it :)



PJ also is teaching seminary this year...Talk about being busy!! But he is loving this calling, he is learning a lot and he loves to teach. He is teaching me a lot too! The only downside is getting up at 5 am on his weeks to teach (he shares this responsibility with brother Staheli). It's impossible to get used to for him...I feel really bad, but I am enjoying me being able to sleep in until 7 am. It used to be 8 am until the daylight savings time ended (Ophelia has the hardest time switching he internal clock one hour back for some reason).

Here is me and Ophelia showing off our bellies :)



In other news, Ophelia is totally off her paci! We did it cold turkey and it worked like a charm. One of her favorite ones had a little tear, so we cut off the nipple and told her it broke...it was the saddest thing to see her try to still use it...without luck. She cried herself to sleep the first night and had a hard time during nap the next day, but after that no tears and no fuss. She asks about it once in a while, but after being reminded that it broke, she moves on without issues. Sometimes she pretends her doll or a stuffed animal is crying and when I ask her what happened, she says :"he wants soska!", meaning "paci" :) So, I see that she wishes she still had it :) But she is a big girl now! I wish potty training was just as easy. I tried it for one day a couple of weeks ago and it was a total disaster... I let her run around pantless and not one single drop hit the potty after the whole day! She purposfully held it in until after sitting on the potty and it all ended up on our floors...it was a frustrating day, and I decided that she is just not quite ready yet. Will give it another shot in a couple of months...



We went to Oatmeal this past weekend for Camille's baby shower. Just like with school, I now don't tell Ophelia that we are going to Grandma's and Grandpa's house until five minutes before we leave. She gets so so so excited! The grandparents were happy to see her too:





Here is our little star, performing the "itsy bitsy spider":

More Birthday Memories

Here are some more pictures from Ophelia's second birthday that auntie Cami took:



A year later Ophelia preferred to eat her cake with a spoon:



Concentrating on bending the correct amount of fingers to show how old she is:







The next morning we spent at the park with auntie Cami and unkie Mark:



I LOVE this picture of us all:



And this is a good one too!



Thanks for the pictures, auntie Cami!

So, what's a hay ride?

That's what I asked some of girlfriends last week and got an amused look..."you've never been on a hay ride?". That night got the same reaction from PJ. No, I've never been on a hay ride! Apparently it's a very American tradition, not practiced in Eastern Europe. Well, the whole fall theme is way different too. Here, fall season is all about pumpkins, Halloween, cornucopia, fall harvest, Thanksgiving. Over there, fall seasons focuses on beginning of school (always September 1st), leaves changing colors, storing up for the winter, harvesting apples of all shapes/kinds/sizes, bird triangles heading for the south, lots of rain in the beginning and then first frost and first snow...

So, me and Ophelia headed to the Flower Mound pumpkin patch and had our first EVER hay ride. I guess I expected something way more exciting with all the hype about it... A lap around the area in a trailer behind a tractor while sitting on top of hay. Well, now at least I know what it is!



Ophelia enjoyed seeing the farm animals. She kept adding "Mr." in front of all animal names for some reason: "Hi, Mr. Goat!", "How are you dooni, Mr.Donkey?"





Those bounce houses are her favorite these days:



Later I found out those wagons were meant for big pumpkin transportation. Well, I got me a big pumpkin and hauled her all over the pumpkin patch :)











I couldn't fit into that bowl...But Ophelia and I had a great time at our first pumpkin patch!

Big 2 photoshoot!

My friend Vipha who took Ophelia's pictures last year, took some more awesome shots for us this year. The pictures turned out great! Here are some of my favorites:















Thank you to VNG Photography!

It's a...BOY!

Time to update our blog! Have not been so good about it lately...I have to justify, so here are my excuses:

I read all of the Twilight series and LOVED it. I have been missing out! I thought of it as some silly love books, that everyone was too overly obsessed with...and now I am in the club :) I loved the Harry Potter books, so I guess I should have guessed I would love these as well. I am glad to have started reading when all four books are aleardy published, so I could enjoy the whole story. It is a total chick flick, love story, teenage drama, but sooo intriguing, addicting, clean, and exciting! I spend about two weeks spending all my free time reading those books, thus the blog was on hold.

Our laptop broke...and it hasn't even been 6 months since we bought it! I had to ship it to the Lenovo support people twice, because they didn't fix the problem the first time. Turned out to be a faulty hard drive...Glad that we had all of our files and pictures backed up. It has been working fine since then, but without it for two weeks, I had limited internet access, so no blogging either.

I have been putting together photo books from our vacations to Ireland, 3 years ago, and the one this summer. And also I have been trying to work on Ophelia's baby book. I am so behind on it and the new baby is on the way and will need a baby book too! Once again, the blog was on hold.

Now that I am finally back in blogging business, I am happily announcing that we are having a little BOY! And are so excited about it! Here is face:

Side view:

And the "manhood"! See the arrow pointing at it?

Crazy and exciting! Camille is having a boy as well. So come next year our family will have two little additions on the boy side!

The scary part was that we had to have an emergency ultrasound to make sure the baby was OK, and that's how we found out that it's a boy. I was looking for my knitting stuff (nesting issues), that was buried under some pretty heavy boxes in the closet...of course, I can do anything, right? Well, not so much, being 18 weeks pregnant. I started bleeding and had to go to the doctor's ASAP. Everything checked out normal (more answers to prayers!) and we got to peek in the womb!

We prayed about the name just like we prayed for Ophelia's name. We were flipping through a hymn book one Sunday and stopped at the page of the names of authors. One name immediatly jumped out at us: Emerson! We loved it! It was confirmed first to PJ when he was reading something else, and Emerson (Ralph Waldo) was mentioned there and then I was reading a book about Lamaze birthing and they randomly quoted Emerson as well. Anyways, we feel really good about it and are moving forward with faith!

Big Two!

We had such a great time for Ophelia's b-day this year. Grandma and Grandpa came to stay with us as they journeyed back from their trip up north. Ophelia loves to have extra playmates around. She constantly would say "Hey, Grandma!"  or "Hey, Grandpa!" and then "C'mon, Grandma! Let's play!" Grandpa's German rhyme with lap bouncing was a huge hit, not only with Ophelia but with her baby doll and bear :) Here is Grandpa (baby doll and bear) all worn out:

Here is Ophelia's first time eating corn on the cob. Grandma and Grandpa brought a bunch of freshly picked corn from North Dakota and it was so juicy, soft and delicious:



Here is our birthday girl. Apart from Grandma and Grandpa, auntie Cami and uncie Mark came to stay with us for the labor day weekend, and the Mojicas came for the party.

She got a hang of opening presents really quickly! 

Grandma's special fruit pizza was amazingly tasty and looked so good it was sad to ruin it:

More b-day pictures were taken by Auntie Cami and are to appear on the blog soon. Meanwhile, these are some quick shots that I took in between serving food.

We got a doggie-shaped cake again this year, making it a tradition now :) She blew the candle in the middle of her happy birthday song (and I was worried that she won't know what to do since we didn't practice this year...silly me) and dove into the cake...with a spoon! Yes, a year after her last birthday she matured enough to realize that she does not want to get dirty with cake anymore!

It is just crazy for me to look at pictures from just a year ago and see how my little girl has grown! Her talking skills surprise me daily. When we had grandparents here, Ophelia would sit at the kitchen table between me and Grandma. Instead of stretching her dirty hands towards me with her usual "Ooo, dirty!", she stretched the right hand for Grandma and the left hand for me to wipe :) very efficient indeed :) One time papa was sitting there instead of me and Ophelia was eating yogurt. She announced that her hands were dirty and stretched one to Grandma, who wiped it with a napkin, and one to papa, who told her that the hand was clean and did not need wiping. She then dipped that clean hand into yogurt and stretched it for papa to wipe: "Ooo, dirty!" We cracked up for a while at her solution to the problem...not dirty? oh, well, here it is dirty now! 

A couple of weeks ago Ophelia and I were playing with her little baby crib, she was inside, so couldn't get out. She dropped the paci far enough not to be able to reach it and turned to me to say: "Mama, quick, sosa! (meaning paci in Russian)". She wanted me to go get it, which was fine with me, except that we've been working on "please" and "thank you", so I turned to look at her, waiting for a "please", instead she looks at me seriously and says: "Mama, do you want time-out?" :) :) :) My mouth dropped! Bossy girl, I could not believe it! One, this means she totally realizes that not listening has consequences of time-out. And two, she knows there are times when mama needs to go to time out too (I was hoping she will not find out about that until after she is at least a little bit older)!

Ophelia is my sweet little girl and is ready to give a kiss and a hug anytime of the day. She brings so much joy into my life and I am so grateful to have her sweet little spirit join our family two years ago. I love to listen to her talk, I love to see when she discovers new things (the excitement in her eyes), I love that she always asks "What are you dooni, mama?" (meaning "doing"), and I think it's the cutest thing that her normal pace is running everywhere! At her 2 year doctor's visit, she measured at 50% for height (33 inches) and 7% for weight (she is just 23 lbs). She continues to grow, even though it is at her own pace. Her head is in the 75% percentile (big head!) for circumference. No doubt, a smart girl sign :)

August happenings

The time slipped away from me as the new semester began. Seems that we have stuff to do all the time. Ophelia started her weekly tumbling and music classes at the Hurst rec center. She loves the music class and is kind of getting tired of tumbling - mostly she just has a hard time sitting and following the teacher's lead, she'd rather be running around and doing the obstacle course or the trampoline or the balance beam. I think I'll try a different class next time.

PJ and I went on a fun date in August. Despite over 100 degree heat, we had lots of fun! The ropeline people almost didn't let me do it when they found out I was pregnant, but you could barely even tell that I was. I think my belly grew the next few weeks following our date about 4 times that size.

Our little queen bee continues to grow and come up with fun things to do. It is so amazing to see her imagination grow and thinking skills expand...like sticking Mr.Potatohead face parts into her own face: ears, mouth, hat, glasses...she had a hard time with the nose :) And here she is making a "beard" for herself:

I made some homemade playdough and Ophelia is a huge fan. She likes to make pretend mama, papa and Ophelia. Sometimes we make pretend couches and cribs and the other day we made pretend church :)

Here is how big she's gotten, despite the fact she doesn't realize her own dimentions yet :) This babycrib suffered some damage already!

And PJ has expanded his skills to include sushi making! And he is really good at it! Yumm-yumm!

Exciting news!

******TMI ALERT*****POTTY ALERT******

Here are some exciting news going on in our neck of the woods lately. Ophelia is starting to go potty!!! We have had several poopies in the potty now! The trick has been to put her on the potty right after mealtimes (that's when she usually goes in her diaper). Mommy and Daddy have been noted to do a "potty cheer dance" to keep Ophelia on the potty and encourage her to go. Then when she poops, we throw her up in the air, yelling "wooo-whoo" and telling her what a good job she did. I think she enojoys all the fuss and attention :) Have not had any pees in the potty yet...partially because it is hard to time those and also I don't put her on the potty other than after meals. We will be working on that...Here is a picture of one of our little triumphs:

******TMI ALERT*****POTTY ALERT******



When I asked her to smile for this picture, she stuck her tongue out instead...funny girl.

I look at my blog and realize that it has been a year since I started it! The sad part is that with each month less and less posts are being posted.I need to work on that, because I love that this blog is like a photo/video journal of our family and it is fun to look back and see how things change, how I change, how our family changes...speaking of family changes...I guess that is also the reason I have not been up on the blog as much as I used to. I have been soooo tired lately, by the time Ophelia goes to bed, I am totally beat too and fall asleep on the couch pretty much every day. For the past month I have been also feeling really nauseous and who is the cause of all this??? This little buddy:



YES, IT'S TRUE! I am 11 weeks pregnant. It is really exciting! Just as exciting as Camille, my sister-in-law, being pregnant too and we are 6 or so weeks apart! She is due on January and I am due in February. Two little cousins are on their way into this world! Talk about excited grandparents :) Wow :) The due date is actually February 22nd, a day after my b-day, what a present that would be! Also, come to find out it is going to be a leap year, so if the baby comes 1 week late, a 29th of February birthday is unavoidable.

When we ask Ophelia if she wants a baby brother or a baby sister, she bluntly says "no!". Yesterday she asked for popcorn instead. She would rather take popcorn at this point than a little sibling. Well, it just means that she NEEDS a little sibling. A little someone to take care of, to think about, to share things with, to wait for, to talk to, to play with, and to share mama's and papa's attention with (that's going to be the hard part). The day after I told her that there is a baby in my tummy, Ophelia told me she has one in her tummy as well...A couple weeks later, she also declared that Papa has a baby in his tummy too. Wow, it is going to be crowded around here with three new babies on the way :)

Ophelia is becoming a little babbler, she loves to talk on the phone and if you happen to actually listen to her, she will talk and talk and talk. Too bad 90% of it is still untranslatable into English or Russian, but she does have a lot to say! She also can sing a ton of songs: popcorn popping, snowman, follow the prophet ("fa-la-la-la prophet" according to Ophelia), ABC's, itsy-bitsy spider, I am a child of God, head shoulders knees and toes, spi moya radost' usni, daleko daleko and others tha I can't think of right now. We need to set up a candid camera to record some of these, so I can post it.

We have NOT been enjoying the 108-110 degree heat that has been going on for the past month and is here to stay for another month (at least). It does not help me feel less tired or nauseous, that's for sure. I did say that I moved to Texas for the reason of loving the hot weather, but... there is an exception to that, which is being pregnant. I wouldn't mind it as much if it didn't make me feel light-headed, exhausted, and queezy. Can't wait for some cool weather! Or Rain!

That is all for now, in the headlines in the newpaper of our lives.