Thanksgiving in Orlando

We just got back from a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday in Orlando (Lake Mary) at aunt Anne and uncle Butch's place. There we also got to spend some time with aunt Lucky and Robb's cousin Artie who flew in on Thursday with his wife Kim and the kids Riley, Colin, Ronin and Carrigan. Aunt Anne and uncle Butch prepared a traditional Thanksgiving feast (even Nikolas got to try the turkey that I processed for him later), and they continued to pamper us the entire rest of the time so that it was very difficult for us to pack and return home in the end.

Nikolas was free to roam through the house pretty much anywhere as long as the door to the back patio with the swimming pool was closed--and he took a full advantage of it!

Where is Nikolas now?
He gave a very cute hug to his cousin that I didn't manage to capture fully (he pressed his face tightly against her), but I took this photo a few seconds later:
During the day we often had Nikolas in the walker outside so that he could enjoy the beautiful weather and watch Artie and Kim's kids as they played in the swimming pool all day long!

'I feel like I'm running in circles...!'
I couldn't help but dip him in the pool for the first time. He loved it more than I ever expected. He kept kicking his legs and arms that I could barely hold him and letting those signature shrills of pure excitement.
We had Nikolas sleep in our bedroom in the playpen-we weren't sure how he'd behave now that he wasn't at home, but he slept 8pm-7:30am every day!
Of course, he is much happier hanging out all over mommy and daddy's bed:

There is something about spending time with older kids--it regularly teaches Nikolas something new. This time it was walking while holding on with only one arm:
Ok, that was easy, now we move on to acrobatics.
He approached the walker where Carrigan was seated and climbed with both feet, one at a time, very carefully onto the rim of the walker completely by himself! He balanced on it for a little bit while Carrigan moved!
The two cousins:
Here is Nikolas in his favorite pose in the car seat on the way back home (leg attached to the canopy, babbling and playing with toys).

standing alone

This evening we saw Nikolas stand on his feet without any support for the first time. He was standing and playing with some toy, and then for a moment he let go of it with both hands, turned to daddy and grabbed him by his hair.

finger food

Did I mention that he started nibbling on baby finger food on his own? These pictures were my second attempt to offer him little baby snacks. Last time he was immediately able to grab them with two fingers, but he wouldn't eat them unless I put them in his mouth. Now he learned that this was food that he could feed himself.

little devil

Try to keep Nikolas away from something he wants... haha, good luck!

Little yogi passes through our improvised obstacle course:
Reaching for a book (they are still forbidden until he learns not to eat paper!):
The baby gym used to be just a mat with toys hanging above... now it's a tent too!
Now, of course, we have to mention the girls... we had a playdate with Isa, Julia and Bella at Kathy's house, and first he had to impress Isa again:

Then he had to impress Kathy by lounging in her new curtains and getting into her laundry basket:
And finally he impressed mommy by walking behind the truck:

first concert

Sunday, November 11th

Nikolas attended his first classical music concert :) We listened to Beethoven played by the Gainesville Chamber Orchestra. One of the violinist in the orchestra was our neighbor whom I met recently, a very nice girl, Stephanie, who has 2 kids and whom we would like to meet more often. The concert was such a treat both for mommy and daddy, and for Nikolas. We had no idea how he would behave so we sat in the back. The first 15 minutes he was completely focused on the stage--then he started banging on the seat in front of us keeping the rhythm. Then he got a bit too excited and maybe impatient and started 'singing' too, at which point daddy walked with him and stood at the entrance to the hall so that he could still listen to the music and see everything without bothering anyone. Everyone could tell that he loved it and we got compliments for exposing the child to classical music at such early age. It's definitely good for him in many ways (my top reason is that he calms down and falls asleep to it when he is tired--nothing else can make him fall asleep like classical music, esp. Bolero). He is also the biggest fan of daddy's guitar music :)

Tampa

Saturday, November 10th

This was our first trip to Tampa (other than the airport). The day was perfect for talking a nice walk, in fact, most of the days have been like that since we got back from California, so we decided to find a path along the beach and get some fresh air. We found exactly what we had in mind, a boulevard that followed the outline of the bay, where the locals walk, jog, ride bikes, etc. We parked next to a park next to which there was a pier with an awesome little hole-in-the-wall fish and chips restaurant, and the main attraction for Nikolas were countless seagulls that people fed bread from their hands so the birds lingered in the air really close to us.

playdate with Emma; general observations

I babysat Audrey's little girl Emma for a couple of hours this afternoon. I was curious to see how the kids would get along now that Emma is walking at 14 months. They are about the same size (Nikolas a pound or so heavier), but last time they hung out together Emma was interested in climbing everything although she couldn't walk yet, and Nikolas still just sat there--so they couldn't really play together. I had to watch non-stop that Emma's fingers wouldn't end up on Nikolas' eyes where they were always somehow headed.
This time, though, both kids were very mobile. True, Emma gets up and walks a lot, but Nikolas stands up too. And they like the same toys. Emma's stacking cups were the most popular item. They shared them too! Neither one of them acted like a spoiled selfish kid like some other kids of similar age, which was a pleasant surprise. I'm still learning about and, hopefully, helping Nikolas develop right character traits. Two hours went by in a snap. We should really get these kids together more often.

Our little son is at a new stage now. He is not a baby that he was at 3,4,5 months. Once he started rolling over and crawling, major changes began, but now that he stands up and understands the world around him better and knows why he stood up in the first place (there was something he wanted to see or reach), I see a whole person in front of me, not just a helpless creature. His personality is showing up. He understands 'no', which I try to pronounce much but instead to pull him away from what he is doing and tell him why he is not supposed to do it. He also cries 'crocodile tears' and turns his lips down barely keeping a sly smile off his face when I take a toy from him (or rather, the remote control or something like that). Luckily his angry cries don't last long and a little bit of distraction can bring the giggles back. He enjoys peekaboo with both me and Robb. He recognizes us, grandparents, and great-grandpa...he must have recognized Mina and the kids because I don't remember seeing the questioning expression on his face when we used to visit each other in L.A. He loves music--always pauses and listens to the sound of music or drumming (oh and drumming he loves to do himself!). When I say bum, bum, bum, while I carry him, he bounces in my arms and pounds my chest with both hands rhythmically, giggles and shrieks.
He still focuses more on faces and words than on movements of adults: he watches me carefully as I recite to him while I feed him in his highchair, but when I sing songs that involve hand motions (Tasi, tasi, tanana), or when I wave to him, he can care less. I'm surprised that his hand control is as good as it is--he can already grab little objects with his thumb and index finger, be it strings or any sort or baby snack food the size of Cheerios that I gave to him just the other day for the first time. As for snacks, he hasn't learned yet that he is supposed to eat these baby crackers so he plays with them and grinds them with fingers; he will eat them when I put them in his mouth although he still looks surprised as he chews them.
He is very interested in moving and exploring the area, particularly places that require crawling underneath something--even as we sit in the middle of the living room, he will crawl under my bent knees to get around me! And, of course, he knows what he is not supposed to touch (wires, wheels of strollers etc, NordicTrack...) and he immediately goes just for those objects. He will persistently pass through any obstacle in the way, it's amazing to watch. Using bar stools and chairs and barricades doesn't always work anymore. And when he spits up on the floor, he will *always* smear it with his hands and then crawl right through it! I can just look at his knees and shins to know if I need to look for a mess somewhere on the floor....

A few recent photos:

October 30th
Showing off the outfit he got from Karen and James:
It's so much more fun to be *under* the high-chair than strapped in it!
Did I hear you say that I shouldn't squeeze in between the sofa and the fence? Oh, OK... Let me do it anyway.

Little gangsta:
Can you see the two bottom teeth?
Look at my freshly painted room :)
October 27th
We met with Kathy and Isa in the park.

Check this out, girls are literally throwing themselves on me!

And I sure know how to scare them away!

2 more teeth!

Two more upper teeth protruded today on either side of the front teeth!
That's why he's been drooling so much in the last few days--it's always the sign of a coming tooth.
To add to the food diary: he ate a bowl of red beets for lunch and after dinner he had apple for the first time (not counting the licks that he got from my apples--now that he bites, I don't dare let him lick the apple anymore).

mango

Baka reminded me that he already tried mango in LA a couple of weeks ago, and loved it. Well, today I bought a box of mangoes and put it on the floor temporarily. Nikolas crawled to it and jumped on the mangoes and started touching and licking them as if he was going to eat them by himself. I had to peel and puree one and he had a little bit just before bedtime.
He was a good boy today. We played in at home, we also went for a long walk in a different neighborhood that was pretty nice, smelled like pine trees which I love, and Nikolas slept during the entire 1.5hr walk, which hasn't happened in Gainesville yet but regularly happened in LA for some reason... he fussed so much when I put him in the jogger that today I used the Maclaren and it seems like he likes it better! Strange.
Oh, he caught a cold. His nose is stuffy and his voice is a bit rough (sneezes and coughs a little too), but he doesn't have a fever. I wonder if this is the effect of the flu shot on his immune system.

yogurt, cheerios, sippy cup

We tried all those things today:
First I let him play with Cherrios in a bowl of water. He chased them around and was able to grab them, even occasionally using thumb and index finger only, although mostly full fists, but he didn't realize they were edible. Why does he put everything in his mouth except for real food?! Ok, we'll work on that more this week.
Then, during our evening walk I gave him his first sippy cup filled with water. I got one of those Gerber bottles with handles. He was able to hold it and put the correct (and then some incorrect) parts of the bottle in his mouth, but I think more water ended up on his clothes than in his mouth, so I had to turn around and change him before finishing my walk.
Finally, he got a taste of yogurt before bedtime, and of course, is there anything Nikolas will refuse?!

Flu shot (we are back in Gainesville!)

I took Nikolas for his first flu shot. It was quick and relatively painless. I took the opportunity to weigh him at the nurse's station and he weighed 18.5lbs. No idea how that translates into percentiles for the US.
The only reason I took him for a flu shot is to help get him protected during the trip planned for the Christmas break. I just that hope my baby is as good on those flights as he was during out flight back from California! I initially tried to change my ticket to be on the same flight as Robb from Atlanta to Jacksonville, where we are both changing planes (Robb arriving from Moscow and us from LA), but I wasn't allowed to make the change over the phone. Well, so we showed up at LAX bright and early in the morning for our 8:30am flight when, just as I was asking the person at the gate if I could have a seat with more leg space, it was announced that due to some mechanical problem all of us would be redirected to other flights. I asked again if I could be accommodated to catch Robb's flight in Atlanta (didn't matter when I left LA), and since I was first in line, the lady at the check-in was nice to arrange this for me. She even tried to let me sit next to Robb but there were no two seats next to each other. So this turned out just perfect! There was no way otherwise that Robb and I could fly together from Atlanta to Jacksonville, and who knows how long we would have had to wait for each other in Jacksonville to drive to Gainesville together.

After I was booked on a noon flight, I called mom and dad and they turned around and returned to LAX to keep us company. We had coffee and lunch together at the airport, took some more pictures, they played some more with Nikolas, it was great!

Then, on the plane, I held Nikolas in my lap with the table pulled down right in front of him, and I handed him some plastic cups and bottles with water to play with them. That was the latest discovery: I could hand him my keys or a water bottle with a little bit of water in it, and there was entertainment right there for at least half an hour, if not more. He is getting very good at hand motor skills (still good with his feet too). He holds objects, no matter how tiny they are, passes them from one hand to another, and always, when he encounters a new object, holds it in one hand and wiggles his wrist so the object waves around a few times, as if he is checking out how heavy or how elastic it is...! There is a special determined and absorbed look on his face as he does this. It's very funny.

He managed to fall asleep in my arms once and another time while I stood holding him. And not for a bit did he get fussy! I couldn't believe it.

In Atlanta we met daddy :) and flew together to Jacksonville. Nikolas provided entertainment for everyone around us. By this time he was getting tired which meant he got pretty loud with his happy, energetic shrieks. They could easily be misinterpreted by giddiness, which it probably was, but it's the kind that happens just before once passes out into deep sleep.

Back at home he slept in bed with mommy because he got terrified lying in the playpen under a large fan, I guess, in addition to the new smells and new surroundings. The playpen was in our bedroom until Robb moved Nikolas' furniture back to his freshly painted blue room! I didn't know what shade of blue to expect and I was nicely surprised to discover my favorite summer blue :) It gives the whole room such an interesting, deep and calming effect! I arranged the furniture in there a few times in the last couple of days, until I found the perfect arrangement! Now I really like it, and it seems like Nikolas does too. I let him crawl around the living room, kitchen and his room pretty freely (I still have to move the Nordic Track out of the way), but I think we've done a good job keeping the area child-safe.

two more teeth today

Upper left and bottom left just peeked out today.

Here are some photos taken during the day.

Self-taken photo of mommy and son playing on the floor at home:

Nikolas investigating grass quality at the Balboa park:
Mia is trying to hold Nikolas--and he is jumping, as usual:
In the evening we visited Mina where baka stopped by to pick me and Nikolas up:
The two boys are nicely playing together...:
Then out of nowhere, here comes a kiss (or a bite!):
What, why is everyone looking at me and laughing???
Haha, now you are making me laugh too... :)
Especially when I see how shocked Kiki still is :)

pics from the past few days (Venice, Malibu beach)

I forgot to mention:

Last Saturday the grandparents, mommy and Nikolas spent a majority of the day on Venice beach and Santa Monica. We all enjoyed the stroll and the weather couldn't have been better for it.

Yesterday the two of us went with Mina, Emma, Kiki, Enida and her boy Tristan to Malibu beach. We hung out at the Village first where there is a nice little playground for bigger kids (the two little ones could still peek out from their strollers), and then we crossed the street and sat on the beach for a little while. Emma and Tristan were so cute together! Bummer I don't have any pictures of them. I finally put some sunscreen on Nikolas for the first time.

Nikolas and Kiki, with Mina and Emma in the background:

Before we headed home, we stopped for lunch at the fish and chips place right on highway 1 in Malibu that I'd definitely recommend to anyone who likes fish. The little ones were both asleep, which makes any lunch more enjoyable :)