Brendan and Katya

Brendan is 2 y.3 m.o. and Katya is 6 m.o. Brendan turned out to be a great big brother, loving and caring. I could never think that he'd help me with Katya doing such things as giving her a pacifier or rocking her cradle when she cries. It was amazing to see him being like that. Also Katya is being a very sweet baby. Brendan was an easy going and a happy baby but somehow Katya is even better, I guess she is everything like he was but more patient.

We just came back from our trip to the states. We went to Naples, FL, and spent 3 weeks in our condo. It was Katya's 1st trip to America, she and Brendan did great on our flights. I've got several new toys for Brendan and packed every single one in a box or a bag to surprise him every 2 hours of our flight. And it worked pretty well, he opened only three of them during a 9 hour flight. Of course, it also helps that he likes to eat. Eating kept him busy for quite some time. Traveling with kids takes some planning and when it's planned right, it's not that frustrating and bad. Between toys, books, food, nap and occasional walks it worked fine for Brendan. Katya was just happy to be attached to me for 24 hours. That's exactly how long it takes us from door to door, Moscow to Naples.





The trip was great. It was nice to come from the cold and snow to the sun and the heat. We love Naples and can never get enough of it. On our 1st day we like to wake up early in the morning and go for a walk to the Swamp Sanctuary, then get DD coffee and donuts for breakfast. Brendan hated going for walks in the winter back at home and there he was ready to go in his pj's. So we went for walks in the neighborhood, went to the beach, the zoo, went out to cafes and restaurants, visited family in Orlando, went to the Sea World. The highlight of our vacation was a super fun trip to Miami where we went to the Heat/Clippers game and sat right behind the Clippers bench! It was an amazing experience.  I couldn't believe that I saw some of the most famous players. It was hard to stop taking pictures! What a fun time it was! Also when we were checking out of the hotel the next morning, it turned out that Clippers also stayed there, so I even got a picture with one of their players. Awesome!

Ekaterina Sophia is here!

Our sweet Katya was born on August 28, 2012 at 1-03 p.m. in Moscow Perinatal Center.
Brendan is a Big Brother now!

                        I didn't recognize Chris when he changed into these clothes, he looked like a doctor.

                                                                            She is here!

                                                         Katya is just a few hours old.

                                                           We are going home!

                                            Poor Brendan got upset because Katya cried when he touched her hand.

                                                                   2nd day at home.

                                                         Our Superman - Big Brother!

                                                     Brendan and Katya with my Mom.

                                                                       Me and Katya

                                                                       My parents

Expecting our Little Katya

16 weeks 

28 weeks

39 weeks

40 weeks 1 day

Heading to the hospital!

Brendan is 11 months old and other updates

Our little guy will be one year old very, very soon! He started crawling about a month a half ago and it sped up his movements a lot! He is everywhere now! Before when people asked us if he can sit up or pull himself up we said that we don't know as we haven't seen it. He was very comfortable just lying or sitting. Once he started crawling he made so much progress.

Actually, on October 17th he started walking on his own without any support. Of course, he falls when he gets too excited about walking or even running which always causes tears and lots of drama. Poor guy!

He loves when we read books to him, I read Russian books and Chris reads English books. He also loves watching The Wiggles and Baby Einstein videos.
Brendan is also our little traveler. He has already been to America twice and traveled to Greece with us in October. Maybe it's just his age but he is so good on flights most of the time which makes it easier for us to travel.



One of the highlights of our August trip to NY state was our hike up the Hurricane mountain with Brendan. Chris carried him in a special backpack up to the top. It took us about 1 hr 20 min. to climb up there and the view was really worth it. Brendan was so comfortable that he even took a nap! The path was VERY steep and it was kind of hard to climb it. Brendan was 9 m.o. when we did it! Chris figured out that he is the third generation of his family to climb it. It's pretty cool!

In October we went to Corfu Greece for a week and stayed at our favorite place. We had a wonderful and relaxing time there! It was the end of the season so it wasn't crowded with tourists and we were the only customers at our hotel.

The weather was great and we spent quite a few days at the beach enjoying the sun and the sea. Fresh seafood meals and local house wine are just the best especially when you have a one million dollar view! We had a great time especially Brendan. He loved being at the beach and playing with the sand. He even ate some from excitement :)






One of the biggest changes in our life is that we are moving from the center of Moscow further away to the south west. We have already found a new apartment which is way bigger than our current one (150 sq.m) but it doesn't have any furniture in the living room so we'll have to go shopping. It's exciting but at the same time it will suck to spend money on something that we'll need only for two or three years. At the same time it is a great location, near a big park which is perfect for our daily walks and has our favorite groceries and a couple gyms to choose from. We are moving next weekend. It will be interesting. In a way, I'm sad about leaving this apartment as it was the one we brought Brendan home to from the hospital. His first room was here, here he started walking etc. Oh well, it's time to make a change and we all hope that we'll be the same happy there as we were here.