Picnic and the beach

New pictures are finally up.

We went on a picnic to Decordova Museum with Zia Gaia and Zio Jerome around Labor Day.

We also went to the Cape (Wellfleet) and saw the ocean for the first time. It was way more water than in the bath tub!

Happy First Birthday!

Our dear Samantha,

One year ago, you pushed your way into the world, and we got to meet you and hold you for the very first time. It was the happiest and most miraculous moment of our life. The last year was filled with so much joy and unforgettable "firsts." Your first smile, first roll-over, first tooth, first crawl, first word, and of course, your first birthday party.

Grandma Louise came to visit for your birthday weekend and brought you all kinds of goodies. Daddy decorated the dining room with streamers, Pooh, Tigger, and Piglet, and Mommy cooked all sort of yummies. At 11:45am, the doorbell rang and we went to get the door for Zia Gaia and Zio Jerome. But guess what? Surprise!!! It was Babulya and Dedulya! They drove over all the way from Baltimore without telling us. How could they miss your first birthday?! Zia Gaia and Zio Jerome came a few minutes later.

We had a lovely lunch and you got to try your first Earl Gray Chiffon cake.

It just occurred to me that on your first birthday, you were surrounded by 7 people who love so much (it's that number 7 again ;) We wish you many more birthdays filled with people you love and who love you.

• We wish you health.
  
• We wish you true happiness -- the kind that can only come from loving someone and being loved back.
  
• We wish you to have friends -- not many, but a few good ones.
  
• We wish you laughter, even in difficult situations.
  
• We wish you to have faith in yourself and others.
  
• We wish you to grow up all that you can be.
  

All our love, hugs, and kisses,

-Mama and Dada

p.s. more birthday pictures

We are on the move...

Hey, don't look at me -- it's not my fault this blog has not been updated. I keep trying to crawl out of my room and start blogging, but Mommy puts up this annoying gate to keep me in my room.

We are 11 months old and life has been getting busier and busier. We are crawling, standing, pulling ourselves up, growing a ton of teeth (we have 6 now), and reading. Our favorite book is about a little hungry caterpillar.

We also like to help around the house. While Mommy was doing dishes in the kitchen, I thought I'll make her a surprise and clean up my room. Good thing I found the paper towels.

I was giving Grandma and Grandpa a tour of Boston while Mommy and Daddy went to Montreal on their anniversary. It was so much fun! I took them everywhere -- restaurants, playgrounds, parks...

I love it when Dima and Sasha come to play. Dima shows me how to get around the child-proofing things Mommy and Daddy installed to keep us from the real fun stuff. Pst -- quick, come here. I highly recommend my Mommy's slippers. The straps make excellent teethers. But we have to be quick, or Mom will take them away.

Sasha reminds us that legal toys can be fun too. See -- we are playing so nicely with our bunnies and bears. And we don't forget to drink. Not always from our own cups, though.

March pictures and Easter

Hey, come check out my new pictures.

Zia Gaia and Zio Jerome came over for an Easter brunch. Look at me -- I am eating like a big girl :) I even tried some of Zia Gaia's chicken liver pate. Yum! How come they don't sell it in jars like baby food?

We also started going to Belmont Library for sing alongs and reading books. We meet our friends Sasha and Dima there and then go to their place to play with all kinds of cool toys.

I also helped Daddy do the taxes. See -- I am eating away the national debt.

A Trip to the Berkshires

In the middle of February, 2008, we took Sammy on her first vacation, and a great time was had by all. We rented our favorite house in Becket for a week and invited Babulya i Dedulya to join us.

Look at me! I am the biggest person in the room :)

While Mommy and Daddy went skiing, I got to hang out with Babulya i Dedulya.

We read books, played with caterpillars and elephants, and I even helped to make lunch for Mommy and Daddy.

Here is a baby food celebrity, Samantha Rennie, taking questions from the audience on proper puréeing techniques. "You have to make sure your avocados are very soft with black skins," she says. "It's all about the quality of produce, you know."

Cuddling with Mommy by the fireplace on a snowy day.

Mmm -- what a great trip!

More pictures from Becket

Shhh -- no talking in the library

Sammy was playing on the floor in her room while I was in the kitchen. Suddenly, it got quiet... After a few minutes, I got suspicious and went to check it out. Turns out we were reading! And not just one of those cloth books for babies. We were reading a real paper book that Mommy forgot to pick up off the floor. Of course, we had to delve deep into this literary work by chewing on the pages. Luckily, we only chewed our way through one page by the time Mommy rescued the book.

By the way, you see how Sammy is holding the book correctly? That's not posed. That's how I found her. It was so cute I ran for the camera.

Guess what we have?

Friday, February 29, 2008

I was kneading pasta dough for that night's cooking class, when my cell phone rang. I looked at the caller id and my heart sank. It was Sophie, Sammy's teacher. The reason she usually calls me in the middle of the day is to tell me that Sammy is sick. The first thing Sophie said when I picked up the phone was, "Helen, don't worry." "Is everything ok?" I asked nervously. "Guess what we have?" said Sophie.

Could it be? Is it finally here? After 2 weeks of sleepless nights and almost gnawing a hole in our rubber bib, our first tooth came. "Yay!!!" I don't know why, but I was terribly excited. Not that Sammy can really chew anything yet, but it means that she is one baby step closer to being a big girl and joining us for our regular meals. It also means that the teeth won't be torturing her as much (though it's probably just my wishful thinking to get those lovely uninterrupted nights of sleep back).

So where is the tooth in the picture, you say? To tell you the truth, it's been 3 days and I still haven't seen it. I felt it with my finger and you can hear cling-cling when feeding Sammy with a metal spoon, but it's so small at this point that it's hard to see. From what it feels like, I think it's not just one, but two teeth that broke the skin already :)

Everything is moving so fast. For months, we didn't want to lie on our tummy, or hold our head, or sit, and all of a sudden -- bum! We are sitting on our own, we are crawling (though backwards like a lobster ;), we are eating chunky stuff, we are clapping our hands, we are even standing with support, and now we have a tooth! How did all this happen so fast?