Busy December

On December 1st I and few other Moms talked about how fun it would be to record each day of the Dec with one fun Holiday activity we did that day and picture. At the end of the month if will be very easy to turn into scrapbook page or mini album.
It is Dec 12th and I don't think I can remember all but I will try:
December:
Opened Advent calendar looking for chocolate (this and every morning in Dec till Xmas)
1st Baked Gingerbread cookies and stayed home all day in PJ's

2nd Santa Claus playdate with cute craft(Santa's beard made out of cotton balls)

3rd Mommy went to McKays - used book store - and bought $50 worth of used books, lots of new Christmas books, Izzy loves it when I bring out a new book again
4th Santa came with Train, picked up and hugged Izzy and Xmas lighting in Old Town

5th First snow, picked up our Xmas tree, sat on Santa's lap at the Mall (asked for yellow scooter)

6th Decorated our Xmas tree, played in snow with neighbors

7th Sat on Santa's lap at Chick-fil-A (asked for earrings)

8th Snowman playdate

9th Gingerbread man shaped grilled cheese sandwich for lunch

10th drove to Alexandria to music class and looked out of the window for lights (in the picture both are watching Dora ;))

11th Got new snowboots and winter hat

12th Went to beautiful corale Christmas music concert
13th got Candyland game and played for the first time (got only through about half of it and lost interest)
14th Moms group's Xmas Party at the Library

to be continued...

My Music Together journey has began

I went to Hopewell, NJ and completed 3 day training last weekend. Jason stayed at home with both girls. I came back and Amanda is sleeping in her room in her crib and has woken up just once last two night. Amazing!

I am so super excited about my future as Music Together teacher. I had such a great time, learned so much and met many interesting new people and now we share same passion for Music Together. What a great company to work for, very positive, green thinking and family oriented. All the people I met were very inspiring. I will be doing lots of training till the end of year and starting to teach my own classes in January. I was amazed to learn how music and Music Together approach affects children and boosts their development.

I have made conscious decision every day to spend some time making music together with girls. We did it today and both of them really enjoyed it and I was amazed how involved they both were. Looking forward to start this new musical journey together!

November? really? more toddler talk

Wow, I managed to do one short blog entry for the whole month of October. Time is flying by like crazy. Amanda is already 3.5 months old, smiley happy girl. Izzy is just chatting away and coming up with more and more fun toddler talk so I decided to write it down before I forget.

Latest funny toddler talk:

Very popular conversation at our house when Izzy is misbehaving:
Mommy - "Mommy is very sad"
Izzy - "I go pee pee potty, Mommy happy? Sounds like a plan to me"

Halloween was fun and Izzy really enjoyed it but all the C-A-N-D-Y talk has been painful.
Izzy - "Mommy, I want candy"
Mommy - "No lunch/dinner, No Candy!"
Izzy - "Mommy, I need pee pee"
Mommy - "No, you don't, you want candy"
Izzy - "I go pee pee, I dabuu (get in Latvian) candy, Sounds like a plan to meeee" or "That's a good idea" ;)

Not sure if I am allowed to write about this one ;)
Few days ago she ripped a book during nap time so I playfully spanked her.
Izzy - "Ouch, Mommy you hit me!"
Mommy - "No I did not hit you, I spanked you"
Izzy - "Mommy, get up (I was sitting), I want to spank you" as she starts to "hit" my back... it was so funny, I could not stop laughing

Yesterday in the car while driving to Latvian school Amanda was fussing so I unbuckled to lean over her and nurse her.
Izzy - "Daddy, stop driving, My baby is crying, My mommy is feeding baby, Mommy is not buckled"
Busted! I called her my little police officer, she was so serious and could not understand why we were laughing. Same thing happened on our way back followed by the same sentence, it was too funny.

Few days before Halloween we went to grocery store "Wegmans" to do safe Trick-or-Treat-ing. We practiced in the car to say "Trick or Treat" and explained the concept to her, she will have to say "Trick or Treat" and will get candy in return and then she will have to say "Thank you!"
She had a blast Trick-or-treating with her friends. After lunch and grocery shopping we got into car and started driving and the following dialog happens:
Izzy - "Mommy, stop!"
Mommy - "Why?"
Izzy - "We need to go back"
Mommy - "Why?"
Izzy - "I say Trick-or-Treat"
Mommy - "Why?"
Izzy - "I saka (say in Latvian) Trick-or-Treat I dabuu (get in Latvian) candy, sounds like a plan to meee" ;)

"Izzy the Bumble Bee" had so much fun Trick-or-Treating on Halloween night together with her friend "Everett the Captain Hook". The night before going to bed she was telling me story how it is going to be dark and big giant Moon is going to be out and Izzy Bumble Bee and Everett Pirate will look for pumpkins and it will be scary and they will do - knock, knock! who's there? Trick-or-Treat and dabuu (get in Latvian) Candy! and while telling me this story she was very serious and made her big eyes and scared face, it was too cute and funny!

Amanda is 3 months old

Amanda is 3 months today. She is such an awesome baby. I love her smile and giggles and coos and all about her. She is very vocal. My chunky baby. Love the rolls on her arms and legs. I call her my "Poncjiks", treat that my Grandma used to make, round dough balls deep fried with jam in the middle.

My days are pretty crazy. Being Mom of 2 is definitely not a picnic or walk in the park. I was told it is hard but had no Idea what I was getting myself into.

She just woke up, have to go, will continue hopefully soon...

Happy Halloween, Trick or Treat ;)


continued on Nov 7th.
I will give you a sneak peak at my calendar for Halloween week activities

Sunday, Oct 25th
Driving to Latvian School in the morning for our class in Halloween costumes.
Jason was off to golf after we got back, his Birthday gift.
2 hour nap with girls, followed by Pumpkin finger paint playdate with Alexis and stayed for dinner there at Helena and Chris's house, where Jason joined us after golf.

Monday, Oct 26th.
Amanda's Name Day. Meeting friends at the Victory Lakes playground, we also went for a little "bear hunt" walk and admired beautiful Fall colors. I had to explain to Izzy, it was pretend Bear, she kept saying - I am scared... followed by lunch with our friends and Jason's BDay German Chocolate Cake leftover. Home for Nap, had to wake her up to go to pre-ballet and pre-tap class, she was not happy, refused to go into class, it was stressful, two fussy baby, one tired Mama, not fun! Left Dance studio without participating in her class, weather was beautiful, so we went to our old playground by apartment we used to live in and happened to meet there Heather with Cora and Sammy, who are about the same age as my kids. We exchanged tired Mommy talk and our thoughts on handling 2 kids vs. one. It was nice to talk to somebody in same shoes. By the time Jason got home I was at the point where I just had to leave and get some fresh air, so I decided to make Tutu for Izzy's Halloween costume. Went to Hancock Fabric store, got supplies and was so proud of myself to have handmade something for Izzy's costume and it took my mind of my rough day too.

Tuesday, Oct 27th.
Tried to get H1N1 vaccine for Izzy and I but by the time we got to the walk in clinic they were already out of them. As much as I wanted to just scream at somebody for unfairness of one having to drive 40 minutes with 2 fussy kids for nothing I did my best out of this situation and went to local Library there and Panera for lunch.
Followed by Our Moms group's Halloween Party in the evening. Shortly before we had pacifier disaster where suddenly I could not find even one pacifier and had to drive with screaming baby and no-napped toddler to Target to stuck up on pacifiers.

Wednesday, Oct 28th.
Veggy painting playdate at our house in the morning followed by very relaxing evening with well napped toddler and sleeping baby. We carved pumpkins and baked peanut butter cookies from scratch, truly enjoyed this quality time with just one child ;)

Thursday, Oct 29th.
Trick-or-Treating at "Wegmans" with our friends, followed by lunch and grocery shopping. Back home, short nap and Music class, that was disaster since all the kids had too much candy in the morning and not enough nap. At night, Nicole and Rebekah came over to have a beer and chat without kids interrupting us. Went to bed after midnight and had no regrets.

Friday, Oct 30th.
All the kids had worn their Halloween costumes all week long so by the time Friday came kids were not interested in wearing the same thing again. ;)
Playdate at our house, we were supposed to decorate pumpkins, but I think Moms were too tired from all the Halloween activities as well, so we just did regular Friday playdate - kids played and moms chatted. Followed by nice Chili lunch and little trick-or-treating practice for our kids. Each of us prepared something non-candy treat and kids were practicing for the next day.

Saturday, Oct 31st.
I went with girls in the morning for a walk to the Hayden school playground while Jason was studying. We were out in fresh fall air about 2 hours so all three of us had great nap. In the evening Everett, Nicole and Matt came, we had dinner, Amanda's 3 months celebration with key lime pie and 3 candles. Enjoyed giving out candy and going trick or treating with kids.

Busy week but filled with so much fun ;)

Toddler Talking

Izzy has been so funny lately. I have been wanting to write down the funny things she says and always forget. Her Vocabulary has grown tremendously.

Today while driving home from play date we had funny conversation:
I - "We are driving home to take nap."
Izzy - "I don't want home. I don't want nap."
I - "You will need to nap."
Izzy - "Why?"
I - "Because Mommy needs Break."
Izzy - "No, I need Break ;)"

Later today we were driving to a toddler class that one of Mom's from our Moms group is hosting. I was telling Izzy she needs to be nice and share and heard from back seat of the car - "I don't want to be nice!"

Yesterday Jason was putting up some picture frames in living room. He was working on attaching the right hooks and had hammer close by. As soon as Izzy saw what he was about to do she declared - "I want to bang. I want to bang like Daddy". We could not stop laughing. (she was referring to hitting with hammer on the wall)

I really enjoy hearing her use more Latvian words. Especially since my Parents visit few weeks ago. One funny thing she does is she is very particular about keeping "I" in English. Sometimes she will say the whole sentence in Latvian but "I" part is always in English.

While my Parents where here she kept mixing up Opis (for my Dad) and Oma (for my Mom). She even came up with universal combo name for both - Opa. For some weird reason some days she knew who was who and some days she kept mixing them up. My Mom would be in the room and she would ask - "Where did Oma go?" ;)

Another thing I just remembered from few weeks ago. We were at CVS drive-through ordering her anti-biotics. I asked her what flavor would she prefer - grape, cherry or strawberry. First pick was chocolate, when I told her that it is not available, she picked Strawberry. When we were done and pulled off she asked for her Ice cream, she assumed we were at McDonalds. ;)

Few days ago we were at Costco and I bought package of new panties for myself. The next morning she told me to be nice and share. She even asked what color I want and then gave one pair to me and took another for herself and said: "Mommy be nice - share Izzy. Big girl panties for Mommy, Big girl panties for Izzy."

She also like to negotiate by asking for one more time or turn. And one of my favorites is when she says - "Okay?"

She is too funny and cute!!! I really enjoy this stage of her life.

Izzy's YELLOW Party

On Saturday September 12th we had Yellow Party for Izzy. Yellow has been Izzy's favorite color for a while now, so we decided to add fun theme to her party.
Izzy's Oma and Opis from Latvia were the honor guests.


Part of the toast from the party: We have lots to celebrate - Izzy's Names Day, Izzy's 2.5yr Birthday, Izzy is Big girl and going to preschool, Izzy uses Potty and Izzy is Awesome Big Sister! (Wow, I got tired just writing it all down ;)


Cake: Homemade Strawberry Chocolate cake with berry cream cheese filling.



We rented Mini Moon Bounce and you can say for sure it was kids favorite part of the party. I truly enjoyed watching kids have so much fun jumping and sliding.



Guests: Jasmine, Zane, Reagan, Adeline and Jack, Alise and Emils.



Jasmine's baby brother is 5 days younger than Izzy's baby sister Amanda. Two little cuties ;)



Our happy family of four, notice Jason's hand on my head and Izzy's on Amanda's ;)

Amanda is 1 month old today

I can't believe it - our little baby is ONE month old today. It flew by so fast. I am kind of sad to think this is how fast our baby girl will grow out of being baby.


This first month has been little bit blur, getting used to changes newborn baby brings along. Challenging month but filled with lots of happy moments. Waking up at night and in early morning hours probably has been the most difficult part and not being able to sleep when baby sleeps since there is toddler that needs her share of attention and energy when you have very little of it ;) Also getting out of the house in the mornings with two kids requires totally new set of skills and level of patience. But seeing how much Izzy loves her baby sister, constantly wants to kiss her, hug her and hold her, makes it all worth it. I thought maybe excitement of having little baby in the house will wear off in few weeks and she will be over being big sister but as a very pleasant surprise to me, she is still as excited as on day one. Izzy is so gentle with the baby, it comes so natural to her to be big sister, filled with love and adore for baby. She keeps telling me it is "my Baby", we keep having this funny conversation where I tell her it is "my Baby" and she says back - "no, it's my Baby". Friend of mine Rebekah had told me this while I was pregnant that her son was like that when his baby sister was born, it was his baby, not hers. I did not fully understand what she meant until it happened to us. Izzy totally has claimed ownership of the baby ;)




Few facts from Amanda's first month:
She has used up about 270 diapers in her first month, yes I can't believe the number too but we realized yesterday that big Costco box with size 1 diapers is empty. What a great pooper!!!
Her umbilical cord fell off on day 8 (Friday, August 7th).
Amanda's first outing was at 5 days old to Hollin Farms for peach and raspberry picking together with Grandma Coralie.
Our first family of 4 outing was on July 19th, 20 days old, to the 60th Annual Prince William County Fair. She did really good, while big sister enjoyed her first rides alone, little sister slept in Moby carrier.
At the 2 week check up she was 8lbs 11oz, exact same weight as her big sister at birth. They both were the same lenght 20.5 inc.
Amanda is starting to hold her head up very nicely and starting day 25 she can see more. She is so much more alert and looking around, and starting to follow objects with her eyes.
She loves bath time. I love how she streches out, looks like little froggy to me, pushing with her legs off baby bathtub.


It has been a great first month and we all are looking forward to Amanda's first month party this afternoon. ;)

P.S. Pictures taken on August 8th, 2009 by Rebekah Wehner. Amanda 9 days old at the time.

Amanda is here!!!

On July 30th at 4:49pm our beautiful baby girl Amanda was born at Hylton Birthing Center in Manassas, VA. Same lenght as her big sister 20 1/2 inches but little bit smaller 7 lbs 14 oz. Big Sister Izzy and GrandMa Coralie came to the delivery room shorty after baby sister was born and we had wonderful and very special first hour of Amanda's life together. Interestingly both girls were born in the same delivery room #5. Both of their first pictures look so much a like.

I was really hoping for natural delivery without pain relief this time since I had epidural with Isabella but ended up having one with Amanda too. Baby sister just really liked inside of me and did not want to come out even after the due date passed.

On the morning of July 30th, we arrived at the birthing center around 7:30am. After monitoring for about 45 minutes and signing all the paper work, I was able to walk around little. Around 9:30am my Dr Eugene Louie-NG arrived, checked, still only 2,5 cm dilated, he broke my bag of water and we decided to wait few hours hoping that it would trigger for the labor to start. I guess having about 1 contraction in half an hour does not count ;) I was reading book, Jason went home to check on Izzy and Grandma, they even managed to go to Farmers Market while I was in so called labor ;) Around Noon I asked to start Pitocin. Hearing newborn cry in other delivery rooms did not help, I decided it is time to have plan B. After having Pitocin dose upped from 6 to 32, I could not take it anymore and asked for Epidural. I was getting sleepy and drowsy. It was given to me around 2pm. I was able to take a nap. Around 3pm Nurse checked I had progressed from 3cm to 5cm, decided to sleep a little longer, but woke up 40 minutes later with feeling that baby is coming. Sure enough, Nurse checked and I was 10 cm and she said - Baby is about to fall out! I had strong urge to push but waited for my Dr Ng to rush over for delivery. We called GrandMa and told to get Izzy in the car as baby is ready to be born. Since everything happened so fast there was no time to turn off my Epidural and it made pushing stage more challenging since I could not feel contractions, just the urge to push. After about 15 minutes of pushing Baby Amanda was born. I think it is one of the most miraculous and amazing feelings in the world when warm baby is put on Mommy's belly, all sticky and wet but so special. I could not believe she was out although she was right there in front of me. Tears poored down my cheeks and I could not be happier!!! Very special moment!

Amanda looks so much like Izzy when she was born

Meet our new Family of Four

My 2 beautiful girls meet each other for the first time - could not be happier!!!

Happy GrandMa Coralie

Izzy is sick ;(

It is so sad to watch your child in pain and not be able to do anything to help.

On Sunday we went to Bull Run for a walk. Izzy loves to throw rock and shells into water and at this particular place, you can get right next to the water. Later I noticed how puffy Izzy's eyes looked in pictures.






On Monday we went Blueberry and Peach picking to Hartland Orchard. It was so much fun! Kids and Mommies enjoyed picking and eating berries and peaches. Again, puffy eyes in pictures.






So on Tuesday I took her to the Dr office for check up. My concern was mostly puffy eyes and now also fever she had night before and funny thing to complain - she has been napping every day since Friday. Our girl does not nap anymore so that is why I know something is going on.
I was so proud of her. She was so good at the Dr office, she did everything Dr asked her to do - look up, look down, stick tongue out, show one ear - other. Izzy even peed in the cup, I know I never thought I would be proud of that or write in the blog about it ;) but common, she is a 2 year-old and only has been fully potty trained for a bout one month now.
So Dr just thought it was allergies and 2 year old molars coming out.
Today is Friday and we had to go back since Izzy has had fever for the past 3 days, is super fussy and is waking up at night every 3 hours and is not eating well or at all and keeps telling it hurts. Today we saw our regular Dr G. and he said - she has sinus infection and prescribed antibiotics. I really hope it will do the magic fast and she will feel much better already this afternoon.

Not a fun blog entry, but that is our reality right now. I am 38,5 weeks pregnant and hoping not to go in labor for few more days since Izzy is super fussy and I know it would be hard for anyone to take care of her. On the positive note, we had date last Saturday and my friend Nicole came over to put Izzy to sleep. It was first time anyone has done it, besides Jason and I and few times in Latvia last summer my Dad did it. Izzy calls Nicole - Mimi, just like her son Everett. It is so cute! And it went very well, the next morning Izzy asked where did Mimi go? she wanted more of Mimi. So I think we are set if baby comes before Jason's Mom gets here on July 25th, as long as we can get Izzy back to normal sleeping through the night and be a happy girl again!!!

Mother's Day vs. Father's Day 2009

Since I had not started this blog yet during Mother's Day and Father's Day, I decided to combine both in one posting.

This year both Mother's Day (May 10th) and Father's Day (June 21st) were really nice and relaxing. We asked each other before what do you want to do for our Special day this year and that is exactly what we did.

Both days started with Crapes for breakfast. Jason made for me Vanilla Crapes and I made for him Latvian Crapes from scratch.


On Mother's Day we went for a walk at Stonebridge, part of Manassas Battlefield Park. It was fun and it was Izzy's first big walk and she loved it.
On Father's Day we went to play mini-golf at Magic Putting Place in Manassas. It was Izzy's first time playing mini-golf and it was fun to watch her to figure out ways you could hit the golf ball with the kids stick she was given.


Both days we went to Nathan's Dairy for Ice cream. It is very popular place in Manassas and on both days you would have to stand in line for 10-15 minutes to get your ice cream but it is all worth it. Also the fact that they would give free ice cream to Mom or Dad on that day helped with their popularity ;)



For Mother's Day we went out for lunch to Tandoori Village, my favorite Indian restaurant in the area. It was disaster, our worst dine-out experience ever, Izzy totally freaked out and we ended up eating our meals separate. It was combination of few things - started with booster seat not having working buckles and our girl loves to be buckled in ;) too spicy food for her and lack of pacifier that she asked due to too spicy food ;)
On Father's Day we went out to Tony's NY Style Pizza and it was awesome, Izzy enjoyed my Hawaii pizza and in was in greatest mood and played peek-a-boo with people in the booth behind us ;)

Both Days Izzy took 3 hours long nap, I think it was her most special gift to us, since she usually does not take naps anymore. I used this time to get my Mother's Day Manicure and Pedicure. Jason used her quite time to play video game unirrupted since I took nap as well ;)

Here are our cards, pretty typical for us ;)

Pregnancy Photo Shoot with Jessica Wallach

Sunday, July 5th, bright and early photographer Jessica Wallach came to our house to do my 2nd pregnancy's photo shoot. In the days before, I kept telling baby in the belly that she has to wait till Sunday, so can get professional pictures taken and after that she can come out any time ;)

While Jessica and Jason set up studio in our living room I was busy trying to get Izzy eat her breakfast. (We got back from 4th of July celebration at Great Meadows very late the night before) Not surprisingly Izzy was very interested in everything happening in our living room and not so much in eating ;) I wish I had taken few pictures of the setting, but just to describe it a little, there was a huge backdrop crossing most of our living room, plus professional octagon shaped light box, plus computer station, since the pictures taken would go directly into computer for the review of assistant - my very great friend Zenobia.

Our goal was to capture growing belly that soon will be history ;) pictures of Izzy and her baby sister still in belly and some of me and Jason and of course the three of us. Needless to say, Jessica did it all and much more.

Funny incidents from the photo shoot were Izzy playing peek-a-boo with "doggy" in the belly, trying to fish out baby sister and feeding milk from her "baby bottle" to the sister/doggy ;)

Jessica took about 300 pictures, I saw about half of them right away, we are meeting on Wednesday to go through them and pick out the best. It will be very hard for me to do that, since I liked so many already but can't really get them all. Good problem to have.

This morning Jessica posted some onto her website as well as Facebook account. I have been resisting to join Facebook for a long time, but I was tempted to see more pictures, so now you can find me on Facebook too. I am going to try hard not to get addicted.

Here is link to few of the pictures that Jessica has picked as her favorite. http://www.portraitplaytime.com/after-the-fireworks/
I am in love with the one of all of our hands on my belly and Izzy pointing to belly botton.

Waterpark visit at 36 weeks ;)

Yesterday (June 29th) was hot and humid, typical summer weather in Virginia. We met up with our friends Zenobia and Zane in the morning and had lots of fun at the Signal Bay Waterpark. Kids enjoyed splashing each other and Mommies too ;) What a great way to spend hot morning!

Getting water in your face comes with waterpark visit usually, right?

Izzy enjoyed her grape popcycle ;) Silly girl!

If somebody would tell me I will go to waterpark being 36 weeks preganat, I would not believe it. I did cheat little and did not change into my swimsuit ;)

Zane and Izzy have become such a great friends, it is amazing to watch how they play together and what affection they have for each other! ;)
What happened under that hat we will never know ;)