Month: May 2011

What a beautiful and blessed day, May 22, 2011.  My one and only dearest brother united with Lilya to become one.  It was definitely one of the most emotional days for me, I had a difficult time holding in the tears as I was taking pictures of the gorgeous couple.  Their journey started off at a friend’s wedding where they both were in the wedding party.  Apparently they both caught one another eye and the dating part of life has began.  I liked Lilya since the first picture that was shown to me and once I met her in person, she pretty much sealed the deal for me and I believed she was the one for Oleg 🙂  She has a very kind and genuine hart and most importantly she is in love with my brother.  I love the way they look at one another.  The pictures below are a quick glimpse of the beautiful day.

 

I tell myself over and over again, that I need more time, so I can record memorable moments as our princess going through her early years of life.  So in this post I decided to record some of the things she has been doing up until now (16 months of age) and I will try to keep this going as much as possible.  Some of these are funny moments and some are not so funny as she is studying our patience 😉  I am learning that my daughter might be even cleaner than I am, which to be honest, scares me a bit as many people think that I am over the top, which to me it’s simply a norm.  Here are a few things what led me to this conclusion:

–  While at the park (we try to take her daily) she tries to clean out the bark that she finds on steps to the slide.  She refuses to make a step, until she picks up every piece of bark (can I just say WOW!)

–  If the door is open half way, she will either open it all the way or close it, there is no such a thing as half way (crazy rigtht?)

–  If she sees a dirty diaper that I have not had a chance to throw away, she will immediately pick it up, say “trash” and take it straight to the diaper champ, which she opens and closes on her own.  After she accomplishes this task, she claps 🙂

–  She has watched me numerous times, wiping hand prints from the refrigerator, dishwasher and etc.  If she gets a hold of  a damp towel, guess what our daughter starts doing, wipes refrigerator doors, floors, dishwasher, stove and so on.  The first time she did this, I think she was barely a year.  We video taped it and laughed uncontrollably.

–  Bella loves to help in the laundry room.  What that entails is moving clean laundry from the dryer to the couch and dirty into the washer- it’s impressive to watch her.

–  One of our very favorite moments was when I was putting her down for a nap, I noticed her lie down but then suddenly sit up and what seemed to me trying to clean out her sheet.  Indeed, she found a few crumbs on it and would refuse to lie down again until it was all clean.  It took me good 5 minutes to explain to her that it was all clean and she could peacefully take her nap.  Barry and I had a great laugh after that.

–  She cleans her toys when she gets a hold of a damp towel.

One of the highlights just a few days ago was when we got home from the park, I took her jogger into the garage and when I came back I heard her close the door to our shoe closet.  I looked for her shoes and they weren’t where I took them off, so I decided to check in the closed.  Indeed, she put her little shoesies in the slot for her shoes and closed the closed behind her.  Once again, I shook my head and said, why are you growing up so fast and gave her the biggest hug.  She also hates it when I leave my shoes by the door, she makes sure they go straight into garage, carries them over there and drops them off.  Pretty hilarious if you asked me 🙂

Like I said, this little lady just might top me in cleanliness 🙂

Bella loves to talk and her vocabulary grows daily.  Without hesitation I can say that she is way over 100 words in her vocabulary and the craziest thing, she says good 70-80% of them clearly.  I couldn’t imagine that she would be at a point to tell me what she wants and when she is done doing something and when she wants to go on a walk or a park.  Currently she is working on putting sentences together, so far they come in 2-3 words at a time, her first one was “I don’t know” to which now she has also learned “I know” and uses it in perfect content.  She loves to sing, one of the favorite songs is from the “Cat in the Hat” – go, go, go, go…on an adventure…. and “The Old McDonald had a Farm”  she likes to sing the ia ia oh part.  She also chooses her kids DVD’s, where I give her a choice and she says “this one” it’s amazing.  She knows how to turn on TV and DVD player.  She has also mastered to remember where I hide the cookies and snackies, so she simply goes into the pantry and starts demanding “snackies” or cookies to which if I respond positively, she yells out “YEY” – picked up from her bestie Lissy 🙂  She knows many animals, which are accompanied by the sounds that each animal makes, she started counting, but so far only 1-2-3, she loves the alphabet, so we go through it quiet often.  Colors green, red, blue, purple and yellow have been mastered, we shall be moving on to pink, orange and so on.  Currently favorite books are:  God Loves You, Peas and Thank you, Thomas the train, First 100 animals, I love you Papa, Find Elmo and the Bible Songs book.  What blew me away a few days ago is her remembering the order of songs from the CD that I play for her from time to time.  Before the next song begins, she knew exactly what it would be and start doing actions for it.  Her response to sounds is very strong, whenever she hears an airplane, says it right away (er plane), the same thing with the mower, dog, cat, bird, it’s absolutely amazing.  She is a real sponge!  About three weeks ago I was calling Barry from upstairs while holding her and said “Babe” to which I heard an echo from my daughter with a huge grin on her face “babe” then I called “honey” with once again, a little copy cat saying “oney”  I was laughing so hard and it also made me re-think that maybe we should start calling daddy just “daddy” 🙂
There have also been a few moments where she thought our requests/commands were funny and she wanted to see how long we would go along with her cuteness.

–  Our daughter LOVES standing on couches, ever since she mastered climbing.  “Bella, please sit down, no standing on the couch!”  Bella’s response:  huge grin and “he he he”  this continues until we get her off the couch and once again explain why she should not be standing on the couch- usually this type of behavior ends in tears 🙁

–  If our daughter wants something and can not have it right away, she will cry hysterically, to which our response is usually, have her cry it out.  Once she is done crying, and the same item has been offered upon availability whether it’s a toy or certain food, she absolutely refuses to accept.  WOW!  Don’t even want to know what it will be as she gets older.

–  Bella’s least favorite word is a “no- no” which we use very often around the house, trying to explain each time why it’s a “no-no”  One of the things she loves to do is throw food on the floor while she is eating.  After saying somewhat of a soft “no-no” a couple of times, and seeing no results, a more firm “no-no” follows.  Our daughter falls apart and starts crying while at the same time looking at us and trying to tell us how heart she is by waiving her little hand from side to side saying “no-no” with tears coming down her face.  It’s truly heartbreaking and funny at the same time.  She actually tries to tell us that she is hurt by the whole thing and we need to stop.

Well, these have been just a few examples of what joy this little girl has been to us.  I am sure I will have more in a few months.  I better keep my notebook next to me at all times.

I have been wanting to do a little photoshoot with Bella and my parents for a while and we finally picked a day.  The time of the day was not perfect as our princess gets tired after 6 P.M. so we had a little extra sun.  Over all it was a great experience and Isabella did wonderfully!  Enjoy 🙂

I just realized that it has been over a year since we have started this blog, yet another reminder of how fast time is slipping away.  Every single day, I am grateful for the gift of being a mom.  It is truly a gift from God, I am also reminded daily that being a parent is the most challenging job you will ever be given and in our case, these are just beginnings.  Isabella might only be 16 months of age, but she definitely finds the best way to test our patience on daily basis 🙂  God’s creation is extraordinary and I love everything about our little daughter!  Mother’s Day was wonderful, as it was spent with family.  I received my first bouquet of flowers from Bella and when I say received it, it was handed straight into my hands and when her daddy tried to take the flowers and put them in water, she got very upset and took them back to once again hand them to me.  I could not help it but laugh in disbelief 🙂  We did a little picnic in my parent’s back yard, simply relaxing and enjoying each others’ company.  I am above and beyond blessed with my mom, she is a true gift in my life, definitely a great example of what a mom should be.  I can’t count the amount of phone conversations about excitement, sorrow, advice and many times simply about nothing.  Those are very precious to me.  Thank you Lord for blessing me beyond measures!