Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving on Saturday. Didn't get to sit down until 9:30pm taking turns cooking and taking care of our little teddy bear but it turned out great. Here's a pic.

Really tired...

Friday night at the end of a long work week. We thought we'd stay up and play, but we're too exhausted. BTW, this really reminds me of that blog picture of CJ and Kaitlin:)

Some random pics. Oh so cute!

Here are some random pics of Michael taken recently. I haven't got around to reformating this blog yet, but since it's been a while since I last updated, I decided to make a bunch of entries today, this being the fourth and last one I'm doing. Three of these pics are him in his swing in which he's sleeping as I type, although they were taken a few days ago. One of him is him sleeping in his crip with his hands up and under my blanket that was made for me in Australia when I was a baby that mom so kindly sent over here. There's one of him getting all bundled up and dozing off before going outside today. And the top one in his striped outfit I took literally just a few minutes before doing these entries. (Although I had to take a break between entries to help out with bath time:) We love being with our little teddy bear! Anyway, enjoy the pics!

Daddy taking care of Mikey

Here are a few pics of me taking care of Mikey, changing his diaper and what not. Lena takes great pictures! I've got this trick I do sometimes when he gets fussy and my hands are busy - I put his binky backwards in my mouth and give it to him like a kiss while talking to him. The trick is to talk with clenched teeth so we don't drop it and to distract him from whatever's making him fussy. (I posted the pics backwards on accident - sorry if it looks like I'm taking his binky away from him and making him cry. Reminds me of the Simpsons where Homer spent Bart's childhood savings to buy paparazzi pics (ala Michael Jackson) of him droping Bart from a balcony. Homer: "When you look at the pics backwards, I look like a hero catching you":)

Our litle build-a-bear factory:)

When we were at Disney Land a couple years back, we bought a teddy bear at the Build-A-Bear Factory, and even though it's not recommended, ever since Michael's been born Lena's wanted to see if some of our teddy bear's clothes would fit him. Here are the results:) The black leather jacket and jeans went well, but he really didn't like the sunglasses. Also, the football pants fit but the jersey didn't. It's a good thing we did this now, because he's growing so fast we probably wouldn't have gotten away with it later.

Look who came to visit

Here are some pics of grandma Nina and grandpa Sergei's visit. When Lena's aunt Tamara, uncle Tolya and two cousins, Anton and Zhenya, came, little Mikey had never seen so many people in his life!

One month old! Babushka and dedushka have come to visit!

One month already! Some of the loose fitting clothes our little Michael was in at first are starting to get a little snug... he seems to be growing so fast! BIG NEWS Babushka Nina and dedushka Sergei (grandma and grandpa) from Voronezh were finally able to come up for a visit to see their new vnuk (grandson - pronounced 'vnook' like 'too'). The doctor said babushka should wait another week, but they couldn't hold out. They'll be here until Sunday with us. They are SOOO happy to have a vnuk and to finally be able to hold him. Babushka is absolutely beside herself with joy! It's so cute - she's like a little girl with a new doll to play with:) It's good for Michael, too, to reallize that their are more people in the world beside mama and papa (and Bucks:) Can't wait to have him meet the rest of his family across the ocean. We haven't taken hardly any pictures since they've been here. In fact the one right above is the only one so far, but we expect to take a lot more in the next few days that I'll post. All the rest here were taken a few days before they came. Enjoy!

Mikey and Bucks...

Mikey and Bucks still aren't sure what they think of each other. Bucks has never seen anything so loud and Mikey... well Mikey hasn't really seen much of anything, especially something so furry:) Judging by the kung fu moves he was showing, he's got his own ideas of what he'd like to do with our cat:) Probably good thing he doesn't move around just yet...

First walk outside

Today it's been 2 weeks since we brought Mikey home from the hospital. This means that we've got the go ahead to take him outside and walk around our neighborhood. We were lucky because the sun came out (haven't seen it in more than a week) but it was pretty chilly - minus 1 degree celsius (or about 30 F.) so we had to bundle up and we didn't go very far. Here he is getting ready to go outside, a pic of the Orthodox church by our apartment, Lena standing in front of the Moscow River and a shot of our apartment building. (PS I could use some advice for making this blog a bit better... I see a lot of you have music, cool backgrounds, etc. on your blogs. I can't even get the pics I want in the right order yet and lable each pic seperately)

First smile :)

This was his first smile we were able to catch on camera. What a cute kid!

Halloween!

Well, I've finally figured out how to get a blog started! It took me a while to practice downloading pictures and stuff, but I think I've got the hang of it now and you can expect regular updates in the future. Today, Michael is three weeks old and yesterday was his first Halloween. We really didn't do as much as my family in the US, but we decided to put on these cute booties that were given to us and take a picture of him in his new swing.

Michael, almost one day old

Looking out the window with a thoughtful, intelligent expression. (Contemplating the big journey of life he has ahead?:)