Fall

Today we spent an afternoon at a local farm. We had a great time. Nicholas wasn't too intersted in the hay rides, but had lots of fun riding on mommy's and daddy's shoulders.

Nicholas is 11 months old

Crawling at the speed of light. Pulling himself up. Eating cookies all by himself. Babbling. Mimicking sounds. Understanding "come here" in Romanian and Russian. Understanding "knock knock" and "jump jump" in Russian. Sleeping through the night? No way! Here a few pictures from the last month.

Nicholas is 8 months old!

Nicholas is 8 months old!  His accomplishments include two brand new teeth (and third one on the way), sitting without support, pulling himself up to standing, and many fun activities with his parents :-)

male bonding

Nicholas and Friends

check out those two bottom teeth

aiming for Kona's ear

fine dining with Mommy to celebrate her last day of work at Harvard

iRobot

Lounging

Balancing act - working on sitting without support

ready to crawl

Happy Mother's Day!

Mommy celebrated her first Mother's Day on Sunday May 8 this year.  In the United States, Mother's Day is one of the biggest days for sales of flowers and greeting cards; it is also the biggest holiday for long-distance telephone calls and the busiest day for restaurants.  Mommy, daddy, and Nicholas stayed away from the restaurants, and celebrated by relaxing at home and taking a nice stroll around their neighborhood.

Mommy's first Mother's Day

cuddling with Nicholas

Mommy is celebrating with champagne and roses

Nicholas naps while Mommy and Daddy take a nice stroll around the neighborhood in the morning

out on a walk in the afternoon

Kona on the afternoon walk

Dr. Mom

Mommy defended her Ph.D. thesis on Friday May 6!  The defense went well and her committee said that she did a great job!  Nicholas stayed in the audience the entire time.  He made a couple of happy noises during the talk; perhaps he wanted to ask a question, but was quickly diverted with a pacifier.  After the talk was over, and everyone applauded to congratulate Mommy, Nicholas got scared by the noise, and had a brief balling session.  Mommy is thrilled to be done, and is excited about official graduation festivities coming up later this month.

Mommy and Nicholas greet the audience before mommy's presentation

Dr. Mom, grandma, and daddy pose with Mommy's Ph.D. advisor

Celebrating at home with Nicholas

Happy Easter!

This was the best Easter Mommy and Daddy ever had experienced. Probably the fact that it was the first Easter for Nicholas as well as one for which we prepared the most made a difference. We also had our Romanian grandma with us which was nice too. Although his first, Nicholas behaved exemplary. He was sleeping as we arrived to church, right around midnight, but was soon awake and ready to get light and go out for the procession around the church. He was quiet and obsevant, taking it all in while in his mama's wrap. About an hour in he fell asleep listenning to the beautiful hymns and being rocked in mommy's wrap - sling style. He slept like a true angel through most of the remaining service until about a minute before taking communion, as if God whisphered in his ear - baby Nicholas it's time... We all headed downstairs for a great Pascha feast around 3am where Nicholas was wide awake, and was ready to partake in the festivities. We finally got home around 4:30am tired but happy.

Here are some pictures to go along.

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Motherhood in 81 minutes a day

The time for Mommy's thesis defense is fast approaching (May 6)...  She is excited to be regaining her ability to focus, think about science-y things, and get things done outside the house.  She couldn't have done this without the help of grandma (her mom), and she is very thankful!  Still, Mommy misses Nicholas when she is away from him, and really appreciates the time that they do get to spend together.  Apparently, an average working mother spends 81 minutes a day looking after her children... Mommy is not keeping track of every minute, but she does feel like this statistic is not that far from the truth.  Luckily grandma keeps her fun times with Nicholas documented with her own camera and notes about feeding times and nap times, and mommy is very thankful for this too!

Yoga time.  "Happy baby" pose.

Look!  I can hold my own bottle!

Flirting with Nevalyashka (a classic Russian toy that doesn't fall)

In the middle of rolling over

Rollover completed!

Out for a walk with mommy after work.

DJ Nicholas

The Debut.

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Nicholas is 5 months old!

Nicholas is five months old!  Here are some recent pictures!

Hanging with my uncles!

Tummy time!

Sitting with support

Looks interesting!

Get me out of here!