Out and about

Rosa is getting out and about more and more these days. My mom commented the other day that the pictures make it look like Rosa's walking has progressed - has it ever! I let her walk home from the laundromat with me the other day...

Here's Rosa in the laundromat

And we'll be out and about on the bike soon, now that we have a bike helmet and bike seat for Rosa! Rosa wasn't fond of the helmet at first, but with a little practice session wearing it each day, she went from refusing to let me put it on her at all to not seeming to notice it at all.

Maybe she should wear it all the time for those moments when she decides to dive off the couch

Once I get the bike seat installed, we'll take some pix of us biking. I've been looking forward to this for a long time!

More cuteness

A few postings ago I said I would get a picture of the big girl sitting in the shopping cart. Finally, here she is! Rosa is now a shopping cart veteran.

I also said that once I got some pictures of Rosa at the beach from our North Carolina trip that I would post them. Here's two:

And finally, here are some pictures of Rosa cuteness I couldn't resist posting, with no particular theme or order.

Rosa in her wagon from Grandma Lois and Grandpa Misha.

This sweater was actually a Christmas present from Daddy, but it fits her perfectly now, and is just right for cool foggy mornings.

Rosa in her cool pullover jacket from Nepal from Auntie Eva.

Rosa in her pinkie outfit from Aunt Pat.

Rosa in her sailor dress from Grandma Judy. Mom - let me hold the camera!

Rosa sure loves her new toothbrush! She's got 3 new teeth, all on the top, starting to come in.

Rosa goes crazy for her dolly stroller. We didn't bring any dollies on this trip though.

Great Grandma

Jeff was out of town last week because his Grandma passed away. She was a sweet woman and everyone will miss her very much. We are so happy that she had a chance to meet Rosa last Thanksgiving. We even got to take some 4-generations photos.

Here's a few pictures of Rosa and her Great-Grandma:

Greetings from the TB ward

Jeff randomly got sick the last day we were in North Carolina - fever, chills, coughing, the works. No one else in our group was sick, so it was a little mysterious, but germs are all around us I guess. Then a week or so later, Rosa got a cough, which got pretty bad kind of out of nowhere. It was waking her up in the night and everything. Might have been from Jeff, might have been from a girl in music class. 4 or 5 days later, I had a mild sore throat for a few days - no biggie, gargle salt water and stay hydrated. Then Jeff went out of town Wednesday night, and Thursday morning I woke up a shivering pile of sweaty achiness, praying that Rosa would fall back asleep from her 5:30 wake-up. Thankfully she did. When we both got up at 8:00, my throat was absolutely burning and I couldn't turn my eyes to the side without a shooting pain. My chest felt tight and then I coughed - oh it hurt - and sounded like something between a bark and a goose honking.

I actually internally panicked a little bit. This was the first time I've been really sick since Rosa was born - for which I am thanking my lucky stars! It takes a lot of energy to get through a day with Rosa, and I really wasn't sure if I was going to make it. I have a couple friends who aren't working right now that I could have called to come help if I truly couldn't do it, but I didn't want to get them sick, so I decided to just try to plow ahead and see how it went.

I couldn't talk above a whisper and was moving at about 1/4 my usual speed, and Rosa could definitely tell that something was different with me. She was the calmest and mellowest she's ever been for all three meals, and all morning long, when all I could do was lie on the couch, all she wanted to do was crawl up and nestle against me. (And then squirm around of course, but that goes with the territory.) I was amazed, and really really grateful.

Rosa went down for her first nap easily, and I slept too, and by the time I woke up, the Ibuprofen had kicked in and the achiness had eased. As I said, Rosa was on her best behavior for lunch, and we even made it out to the playground (where I took great pains for both of us to stay away from the other babies) in the afternoon.

By the time Rosa woke from her second nap, I could see the end of the day in sight, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Since then the coughing has gotten phlegmier, my voice is totally gone, and I can't sing lullabies to Rosa, which is usually a big part of naps and bedtime, but I made it through the achey day, with a lot of help from my sweet girl. No pictures of being sick - just a boring all text post. Hopefully we're both on the mend!

Rosa turns ONE in Duck NC

It's July 4th... and I remember this night last year. We had a one-week-old baby, and I was amazed all the amateur fireworks exploding in our neighborhood didn't wake her up. I hope we're as lucky this year! Rosa's first birthday was a week ago, and on that day, my friend Zarah sent everyone in the band the original email Jeff sent announcing Rosa's birth. It had the link to the pictures we took in the hospital. We all looked back at those early pictures and couldn't believe how much Rosa has grown and changed in this year! I mean - she gained 10.5 inches in length this year - when else in your life do you grow 10 inches in one year?!? And looking at those pictures just brought me right back... how I called my mom and dad at 3:30 in the morning to say, "Mom, we have a baby girl!" It's making me teary just thinking about it. It's been an amazing year - and although I didn't grow 10 inches, I think I grew 10 feet in patience, endurance, and love.

Here's the Rosa tree. This tree was in full bloom on the day Rosa was born last year and was gorgeous again this year. We just learned this is a Jacaranda tree, native to India.

It's been a week now since we got back from our trip to Duck, NC. While we were there, Rosa had her first birthday! We spent the week with my parents and sister, my Kallaur cousins, and Jeff's mom, sister, and sister's boyfriend. Unlike our 52-degree Pacific waters, the Atlantic Ocean off of North Carolina was warm and swimmable, and we spent most of our days down at the beach. My parents got Rosa a kiddy pool to set up under the umbrella, and on different days, various grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles helped fill it with ocean water for Rosa to splash in, which she loved! Unfortunately, both Jeff and my hands were always full (or sandy!) taking care of Rosa, so we didn't take a single picture of her at the beach! Hopefully in the next few weeks, we'll get some pictures from some of my cousins who had their cameras at the beach.

For the rest of this post, I'll let my pictures do the talking!

Rosa was pretty darn good on the flights both heading out and coming home. We had a layover in Chicago on the way, which broke up the trip nicely. On the way back, it was straight from Washington DC to SF, so we had a full six hours on the plane. Rosa was squirmy, but didn't ever really cry. Luckily, she amused herself by reading (and eventually eating) the safety information card.

After the flight to the East Coast, we stayed with Jeff's Aunt Pat before heading down to Duck. Thanks for your hospitality Pat!

On the trip from VA to NC, we had lunch at the Digger's Diner - the home of the (apparently) famous "Grave Digger" monster truck. Monster trucks seem to be a big deal in NC!

We had hot sunny days and beautiful sunsets most of the days.

We also had a couple cool thunder and lightning storms - Jeff loves doing long duration night shots, and caught a couple good bolts of lightning!

Grandma Judy and Aunt Aly loved their time with Rosa

During our week there, we also re-celebrated my Uncle Costya's 75th birthday, complete with a parade of birthday signs from his grand-kids

Thanks to my cousin Dan for always remembering that we need pictures of all 3 of us together!

And now - some birthday party pictures...

Here's Grandma Lois showing Rosa the beautiful roses that Tanti Kira bought to make the house pretty for the party!

Tanti Kira also put up streamers and balloons...

and decorated the driveway so that everyone could see it was Rosa's birthday!

Here's Rosa with Aunt Aly and Tanti Kira

The cake, decorated by Grandma Judy...

and Rosa's face, decorated by the cake!

Rosa also got presents from Grandpa Frank and Nana Anita, including a stuffed animal puppy

Here's the group photo we took. It was a very bright, very hot day. We all look a little wilted.

And here's the group photo of just our house.

We had the good luck of bumping into (literally!) the Obamas in the Dulles airport!