Happy Birthday to me!

Yep, I turned 33 on the 9th of August :) This birthday is the best ever: I'm happily married and pregnant with our first child, baby boy! It's pretty much the best gift you can expect from life and from the above. I'm very thankful for everything I have today: loving family, the best and the greatest husband and my pregnancy. It's awesome!

Today has already been a great day even though it's only 10 a.m. We woke up early, 6 a.m. :), so we could have a nice and relaxing morning with coffee and small breakfast in bed. I opened all my cards, I got 9!!! and all my gifts. We live far away from my family and from Chris' family, yet they are amazing and very thoughtful. They sent nice cards and gifts for me, even from the states. I'm always touched by their love and care. My husband gave me a wonderful gift - a beautiful bracelet with my birthstone (light green) that has a dragonfly (purple stone) that "sits" on the bracelet. I absolutely LOVE it!!! What a great day already!

It was great to talk to my parents, my brother, grandmothers and aunt in the morning. It's kind of a tradition in our family to call/congratulate on a birthday in the morning so you can feel special on your special day.

We don't have big plans this year because of the combination of crazy heat and smoke in Moscow, plus my pregnancy. But I'm very excited about the dinner tonight. We are going out to one of the best restaurants in Moscow- Cafe Pushkin. And I'm looking forward to my birthday glass of champagne! I hope our little boy will forgive me and won't mind :)
I just hope that the smoke in Moscow won't be that bad today so we can walk to and from the restaurant without any problems.
I'm 33 today, wow!

25 weeks!

wow! At this point I'm definitely pregnant :) What I mean is that I cannot hide my belly any more even if I want to sometimes. It's great! One of the big changes this week is that I started walking like a pregnant woman. Yep, it happened! I never liked it and I thought that all pregnant women do that just to be noticed. I was wrong. I noticed it about myself two days ago when I went to a store and it seemed funny to me. Oh, well! What you gonna do? :)

Another great thing that happened this week was that Chris felt our boy's kicks for the first time. It was very exciting!

Another change I noticed is that I get hungry more often now. At the beginning of this week I was hungry one hour later I ate, so I had lots of snacks between main meals. Yesterday and today I'm back to normal. I'm going with my hunger. If I'm hungry I eat, if not I try not to snack. I'm still wearing my normal clothes except for I cannot zip my pants, so I just wear them with my belly bands.

So far I gained 13.9 lbs. I think that it's not bad and is considered normal. I lost 5.5 lbs before I got pregnant. My weight was 123.2 lbs. It was the result of our healthy eating or new approach. It was Chris' idea to start eating healthier which I supported. In January we decided to make/eat soup on Mondays, chicken with vegetables, rice or buckwheat on Tuesdays, seafood on Wed, vegetable meals on Thursdays, turkey on Fridays, chicken or turkey on Sat, Sunday was a treat day. It worked pretty well as by March I lost those 5.5 lbs and Chris has lost about 16 lbs. Of course, we also worked out. I stopped working out after I got pregnant as my placenta was low until week 23. Now it looks fine.

We still continue eating sort of healthy which is definitely good for the baby.

Here is me at 25 weeks :)

Oh, Greece!

It's very hot in Moscow these days and it makes me think about our trips to Greece in 2007 and 2008. I also secretly hope to go there again some time in the future. I really miss our lovely Greek place that we found by accident in 2007. It was our first beach vacation together. Both of us were a little nervous about it, I don't even know why, maybe it was just me :)


Chris is a great planner and he always plans our vacations. I also like to plan trips, events etc. and used to do that when I was single. Now Chris and I make a pretty good team when it comes down to such things. So Chris chose the place and booked our flights and the hotel. We went to Corfu. He found out that the beach there was really nice, sandy beach, and it was not very crowded in September.

We arrived in the evening and by the time we got to the hotel it got very dark. The hotel was located right on the beach facing the sea.
We were tired but happy. Our excitement started to wear off after we talked to the receptionist who was not nice. For some reason she kept insisting that we go downstairs and have our dinner as it's included even after we told her that we were not hungry. She was weird and kind of annoying. So we got our keys and went to the room. It was not what we expected. It was located on the first floor which was actually below the ground level. Our attempt to change the room failed as they did not have anything available for the next two weeks. It was a very disappointing start of our vacation. This is the "seaview" from our "balcony" that we discovered the next morning.

In the morning we had their horrible breakfast with 100 other people in a very noisy room. We were seriously thinking about leaving or finding another place to stay. We walked along the beach and looked for "to let" or "vacancies" signs. We could not even expect to get so lucky to find a beautiful and PERFECT place right next door to this horrible hotel! I remember seeing it in the morning from our balcony and thinking: "these people must be so lucky to stay/live there!"
We could not believe our luck when we found out that it was a private hotel and they had two rooms available and it was waaaaaay cheaper than the stupid hotel. We actually had a choice of rooms! This is what we saw when we entered:


I was so excited that I couldn't believe it! We went back to our room, packed our suitcases and returned the keys to the receptionist saying that we're leaving, in spite that we paid three nights deposit. All we heard on the way out is her stupid cry: "Why???"
So our vacation started. The place was awesome! It's a family business. They also had a restaurant downstairs where sometimes we had lunches and dinners. These people are great and very friendly.

Our days started with breakfast on the balcony, then we went to the beach for a few hours, then Chris made his sandwiches for lunch, naps or more sun/sea, dinner at local places on the beach or going up the hill to the village. It was great times!!!

Our happy hour :)

We like to be independent and buy food for breakfast/snacks in local stores.

It was funny that we still could see "the Nazi" hotel from our balcony and watch their life from the other side of the fence.
Those poor people! When the sun went down there were no lights in the territory, the fence to the beach was locked. Occasionally we heard sounds of entertainment they provided for their guests followed by applauses that went on for two to three hours. It was definitely not for us! We were happy in our one bedroom apartment on the top floor looking over the sea and having dinners on our balcony.
In Corfu town:
In the village (up the hill), our favorite local place. The local wine is served cold. We loved it!
In our local restaurant/cafe:

It was one of the best times we have ever had! And we were in our best shape that year. We worked out 4 times a week and ate lots of vegetables and chicken fillet for 7-8 months before the trip.

We were happy to get that horrible room in the hotel so we could find this beautiful place that we fell in love with. Actually we came back there in September 2008, just a few months before our wedding :)

My Husband is Back Home!!! :)

Today is the day I was looking forward to for almost two weeks.
My husband is back from his visa renewal/vacation!! I'm so happy to see him.

And he got me this nice "I'm glad to see you" gift:

I absolutely love it. Of course, I was very touched by the engraving. I'll definitely wear the ring all the time. He also brought home a huge box with the swing we bought and a wall sticker I picked for the nursery.

And he got a great book for himself. It's called something like Be Prepared, guidelines for Dads. It's awesome. I already looked through it and it seems like he will be giving me advice and teaching me how to do certain things for the kid. I'm so happy that he is very excited about our baby boy!

I'm glad that Chris is safe and home. I'm so lucky to have such a great husband as he is!

Updates

So I owe lots of updates. First of all, I'm 23 weeks :) I think that it's still the best stage of the pregnancy when you feel well and beautiful. I love my "bump" and it doesn't make me feel uncomfortable yet. Although I'm looking forward to it getting bigger. I had my u/s appointment on Thursday. Thank God the baby still looks good and measures right. He is 500 grams now! He's kicking and moving every day. Yesterday for the first time I saw my belly moving left and right from the baby's kicks. It was very amusing and funny! Sometimes I'm trying to picture what he is doing there.

One of the biggest updates is that my husband is on vacation/visa renewal trip right now. He went to FL. It's the first time in the last four years when we did not go together. We know that it's safe to travel for pregnant women but this trip is really tiring and exhausting: 11 hours from Moscow to Atlanta and then from there to the final destination. So I decided not to go. Chris had a great time with his family and even took a short trip to Tampa to watch a baseball game. I was very happy for him as he does not get that much free time here between his job, gym and Russian classes. I even feel bad that he doesn't get any time alone as I don't work and always home when he comes from work. Anyway, I also had visitors while he is gone. My brother and his girlfriend came and stayed with me for 10 days. We had a great time and it definitely helped not to feel lonely without Chris. Only when they left I started counting the days till Chris' arrival. I miss him a lot and I'm excited to see him in two days!!! Thank God for Skype! We talk every day and it helps, although I'm always on the edge of crying closer to the end of our conversation...I blame hormones for that :))

Yesterday we bought a swing for our future baby. It was very unexpected and kind of random.
Our initial plan was to buy most of the baby clothes in the states on Chris' next trip in late September. We did not plan on buying anything for the kid this time. At the same time Chris is traveling light on this trip and he suggested getting a swing or a bouncer now. I did some quick research and found a swing that I absolutely loved!!! He got it yesterday and will bring it home on Tuesday. I'm very excited as it will be the first baby thing we've bought. He is also bringing a couple of onesies and a few other things we received as a gift from his cousin. It was very cute and funny to watch Chris, a big guy, showing me all these tiny clothes on Skype. Seeing and holding the clothes made us realize that it's for real :)

As I said before I still enjoy my pregnancy but I have already started a list in my head of the things I'm looking forward to doing after I/we have the baby. One of the items on my list will be taking a bath!! I love it :) The next will be sleeping on my tummy which is my favorite position. Then margaritas. I'm sure the list will get longer within the next three months!
I'm posting some pictures from week 19, 21 and 22.

week 19

week 21

week 22

It's a boy!!!!!!

I have a great and short update on my living. Yesterday we found out the gender. We are having a boy!!!!! It's so exciting! It was the first time Chris went with me for the ultrasound. The doctor asked us if we wanted to know the gender and we said yes. She showed us the baby's heart and started taking measurements and then said: It's a boy! Chris and I were very excited and happy. I kept having dreams about little boys from the very beginning of my pregnancy, even when I did not know that I was pregnant. And my brother and MIL had a dream that we had a boy on the same day before they even knew that I'm pregnant. It may sound crazy and insane but it's an amazing connection between a woman and her child.

So the baby measures exactly 16 weeks and everything looked good. Chris and I were very happy to know that we are having a son. Now I can think of the baby as a boy, our son, my son. I'm so touched typing it. Yesterday on the way back from my appointment I was thinking that I would be a proud Mom of a boy. I will have a son. It made me think of a picture Chris has with his Mom at his graduation from college. It must be an amazing feeling to be a mother of such a great son! Hopefully, our son will look like Chris and be like him: smart, athletic, tall, strong and just a nice guy. We have no idea about the name yet. I started a list of possible names. We have plenty of time to choose the right one. There will be lots of researches involved but it's all fun stuff. So far I have no idea what we'll need to buy for the baby. I'm not going to buy anything before October. By the way, another interesting thing is that we did not break the family tradition having a boy in November or around November. Both Chris and his father are born in November! My EDD is one day before Chris' birthday :)


So far I'm doing well on gaining weight. I've gained only 3 pounds from the beginning of pregnancy. Not bad, I think! I'm still wearing my clothes and I have quite a few dresses and shirts that are perfect for my growing belly. I'm posting pictures of me at 12 weeks and at 16 weeks.

12 weeks















16 weeks
Yep, I have a little bump!!! Grow baby, grow!!!!!

Victory Day - Den' Pobedy! May 9th, 2010

May 9th is one of the greatest holidays in Russia. It's anniversary of the victory in WWII. Not many people outside of Russia know about this holiday and what difficult and horrible time it was for all Russian (Soviet back then) people, and not only for Russians of course.

Soviet Union lost 25 million people in World War II. There is no family in Russia whose relatives did not fight or died in the war. Hopefully there will be no wars any more. I cannot imagine what my grandparents and other old people had to go through living at that time, not to mention fighting in the war. Both my grandfathers fought in the war. I did not know my Dad's father as he died before I was born but I knew my other grandfather Stepan who fought in the war. He got all the way to Berlin in his tank and was wounded. He has many medals and awards. He did not talk about the war and we did not ask as we were kids and everything seemed different at the time. Unfortunately, granddad died about 13 years ago. Since then it's a tradition in our family to go to a cemetery to his grave on the Victory Day and bring him flowers.

This year it was the 65th anniversary of the Victory Day. It was celebrated throughout the country. Actually, we celebrate every year.
This year it was special. Moscow had the main parade at the Red Square.

One needed an invitation/pass to get there. Mostly WWII veterans and representatives of foreign governments were present there. 40 thousand soldiers participated in the parade.


For the first time in the history they invited soldiers of the Allies to take part in the parade. It was great! Following the march of the soldiers were tanks and heavy military trucks. Then 127 planes and helicopters flew over the center of Moscow. It was amazing!






We live in the very center of Moscow and for the second year go to the main street to watch planes and military trucks, as the latter always go back to their units from the parade through the main street. It was great! The street was full of people, everyone was happy. There were many veterans in the streets. People congratulated them and thanked for their bravery.





I like to watch tanks and military trucks driving along the main street and wave to soldiers on May 9th. I always smile and wave to every single one of them. Some do not look at the crowd, some do and even wave back, some drivers honked in response. It was fun and did not look real: tanks in the center of Moscow! There were many foreign tourists watching it too: Americans, Brits, Germans, Italians etc.




After watching the tanks we went for a short walk to a park. They played music there and kids sang for veterans. It was very touching.
Chris bought me beautiful flowers for the Victory Day. Lilies smell amazing!



The last picture was taken last year on the same day.