Down Under

Last night we had a blast hanging out with our Aussie friends, David and Megan and their boys, along with Pip and Dave and Pip's Mum who is visiting at the moment from Down Under (Pip's poor Dad caught a bug on the plane and so missed the fun last night). We had yummy grilled lamb (my favorite meat in the whole world!), pasta salad and wine and a wonderful evening with friends.

Luke and Henry were so sweet with Jack, who was completely enamored with the big boys

Jack slept fitfully and finally woke up completely around 11:30 pm, reminding us all that we needed to get on home!

The gang plus the two baby bumps (Pip's and Meg's...NOT mine, although I'm kind of looking that way in this photo!)

Thanks for a really fun evening together, friends!

Peter and Waddles

We love having people come to stay with us. We designed Jack's nursery around the guest room furniture, making sure that we would still be able to accommodate friends and family who needed a place to spend the night. Now, when we have visitors, Jack's Pac 'N Play gets moved into our bathroom for the night and we have space for everybody (and so far, Jack doesn't appear to mind sleeping between the toilet and the shower!)

This past week, we had a special visitor stay over on Thursday. Peter is my friend Victoria's dad and we love him and his wife Ann, who live in Chattanooga. They are from England originally and so always feel like special family and we love spending time with them when we can.

Jack meeting Peter for the first time

Peter was attending a wood working conference here and we were thrilled to have him for the night. And he brought along a very special present, a hand carved duck, which he made especially for Jack! When you pull the string the duck moves just like a real one, so we've named him Waddles :)

Jack enjoying Waddles

Thank you for staying with us Peter, and for the beautiful present...we will always treasure it!

Happy Shower Day

Today we celebrated my friend Pip and her coming baby boy at a baby shower. It was such fun and lovely to meet some of the other special people in her life. Her little boy is due in November and we can't wait to meet him!

Beautiful preggy Mummy

Pip's husband is in the band Revive and so this little onesie is very appropriate!

Last Beach Post!

Here are the last few tidbits from our beach trip...and I promise not to put any more photos of the beach up EVER AGAIN!! Well, maybe not until next year :) But really, we had a wonderful, restful time last week and enjoyed every minute. Thanks Mum and Dad for hosting us all!

Jack loved having his lunch out on the beach

We tried sweet potatoes (his first vegetable ever) and he didn't do too badly

Michaela loved building sand castles with her bucket and spade

We put Jack's Pack 'N Play in our bathroom because there wasn't an extra bedroom for him, so he had to have his baths in the kitchen sink :)

Playing with Alexis (whenever Alexis and Jack see each other now, they grin happily!)

Sunbathing

A New Love

Disclaimer in previous post!

Well, our little boy has a new love in his life: the beach! He has always loved his bath and the swimming pool, but the ocean has taken his love of all things water to a whole new level. He adores it all, the sand, the waves, the wind, the paddling, the playing...everything! And he greets it all with smiles and squeals. Needless to say, he thoroughly enjoyed his week in Florida.

One morning Dad, Andre and I took him out before it got too hot, for a paddle and ended with a dip in the pool:

Round Two

Disclaimer Again: the posts that follow are really only going to be interesting to family and friends far away who have asked for photos of our trip. I know it will be thrilling for you locals who see us everyday to scroll through a hundred million pictures but I don't know how to do PhotoBucket and would prefer not to get sucked into online storage... so feel free to skip visiting us Russians for a few days if you'd rather!

Early last week we attempted a photo shoot on the beach with the kiddos, which, due to extreme humidity, poor lighting and bad tempers, didn't go so well. So on Friday night, that being our last opportunity, we headed out once again for Round Two. And, thankfully, met with success!

Nana and Grandpa with their Grands

Mum and Dad

Cousins

Sweet Alexis

Miss Michaela

The Cousin Twins showing off their standing skills

Sisters

Sean and Ness with their girls

Mum and Jack

Me and Dad

Boys Day Out

Disclaimer: the posts that follow are really only going to be interesting to family and friends far away who have asked for photos of our trip. I know it will be thrilling for you locals who see us everyday to scroll through a hundred million pictures but I don't know how to do PhotoBucket and would prefer not to get sucked into online storage... so feel free to skip visiting us Russians for a few days if you'd rather!

Here's a glimpse of what the boys did on their day out with Dad (Mum and Dad usually treat all of us to a special time out while at the beach). This year Dad took the guys deep sea fishing which they LOVED. They had a marvelous time. We girls secretly think they enjoyed it so much because they had been manly men and spent the day subduing their little corner of the earth: hunting, triumphantly bringing home the kill and then eating it for supper :) Thanks Dad for a wonderful experience for our boys!

The ride

Speeding 15 miles out to sea

Lone pelican waiting to gulp down the left-overs!

Their impressive catch

P.S. Mum took us girls to see "Eat, Pray, Love" (which, in my humble opinion, was a sad and disappointing story, however much I love Julia Roberts) and then to have a manicure/pedicure. Fabulous relaxation time!

Date Night

Confession: Andre and I haven't been OUT for a date since Jack was born. I know, it's awful. We vowed, of course, that we wouldn't be those parents, whose world revolved around their child and never made time for each other. Well, what with Jack's colic and reflux, my surgery and long recovery, travel and then going back to work, our child is now almost 6 months old and we hadn't had a date night away from home yet. We've done movie and pizza night in quite a bit, but haven't done the dress up, baby-sitter, go out and be real adults thing yet.

So this week at the beach, Mum and Dad very kindly offered to watch Jack while we went out one evening. And we had the best time! We went to a place here in Sarasota called St. Armand's Circle, which is full of shops, restaurants and boutiques. And we did the unthinkable...got dessert first...and after too! Whenever we go out, I always pick out what I'm having for dessert first and then think about dinner. But this time, we actually ate the dessert first! In our quest for the perfect dinner place, we came across this tiny little French bakery called "La Macaron" which served gelato, specialty chocolates and the most delectable little pastries called macarons. They came in all sorts of flavors like black currant, vanilla bean, passion fruit and even basil (which I must say was amazing!). So after coffee and macarons, we found a fancy dinner place and partook of mozzarella salad and mussels (well Andre had these as I'm allergic) and then went back and had more macarons!! So fun.

We didn't have the camera on our date but took a photo when we got back

The macarons we brought back for Mum and Dad to try


All in all we had a wonderful first date night out. And Jack slept through the whole thing!

We Tried

Yesterday evening we attempted to take some photos of the kiddos on the beach. Unfortunately, there was a huge storm during the afternoon and although it cleared up beautifully by evening, it was SO muggy and humid that no-one had much fun. The babies were highly unimpressed by the whole thing and both of them ended up face-planting in the sand before too long! Oh well.

Jack Goes To the Beach

Bare naked baby loving the ocean air!

Enjoying time with Nana and Cousin Michaela

Hanging out with Daddy

An early morning stroll with Mummy

Cowboy Jack

Saying good-bye to Uncle Steve
(my brother was just down for 4 days and had to leave today)