Why can't I be like him?

My sweet little Andre. Today he was climbing onto the couch and jumping up in the air and landing on the floor and then rolling onto his back. After repeating this a few times, he looked at me and said in a sad and frustrated tone - "Mommy, I can't... I can't fly... I can't fly like Buzz..."
He was so cute, he tried a few more times and then gave up on flying...

Parents, Birthday, and more fun...

I am loving having my parents here! They are so much help and so much fun! Andre is sure enjoying having them around. He loves to run around with Sasha (my dad and that's what he calls them), put together puzzles, play with his matryoshka (stacking doll), go for walks... the list is endless.

Here's a cute picture of my parents and Harper I took at the mall

My parents brought the traditional Ukrainian clothing - cossack outfit. I think he looks darling in it. Harper also got one (blue and black) but it's a bit too big for him.

I also had my 26th birthday on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun having my parents around for it - it was the first in the last 7 years. We had some good Ukrainian food and my Mom made my favorite cake. We really haven't done much that day, but the festivities will continue on on Friday as we are planning on going to Sea World.

Andre helped me blow out the candles on the cake. (My parents got me those gorgeous roses)

It was also the awesomest birthday in the present department. Here's what I got:

GAP 'So Pink' perfume from Jeff

Willow Tree nativity set from my in-laws (I love it and I am really excited to put it out for Christmas)

Wii!!! My brother and my aunt gave me this one - Thanks so much!

My parents got me Wii Fit and hopefully one day I will be able to proudly say that I lost all my baby weight :) They also got me some clothes, 2 purses, wallet, and are also taking me with them to Las Vegas for 3 days for a change of scenery (since we never really go anywhere:) Thanks so much everyone!!!

It has been a while since I have posted, so I am just putting some pictures of my boys.
Don't let this angelic face fool you - though he behaves for the crowd, he has definitely been no angel at home. I have been very exhausted, he just constantly cries when not held. And if he does happen to be happy sitting or laying or whatever else that he is doing, as soon as he sees me out of the corner of his eye, he starts screaming right away. I am really hoping that he is just frustrated with not being able to move and that this phase will soon pass. I just keep my fingers crossed. As of right now he rolls and spins around, and also moves backwards (which makes him even more frustrated.)

This is a typical face you get from Andre when you ask him to smile for the camera.

P.S. I am very excited about tomorrow, my parents are coming, and they will spend about two weeks with us (intermittently as they are taking a vacation to Hawaii, and going to Las Vegas). It will be a lot of fun and I am sure looking forward to having extra four hands around. Hooray!

Andre's Repertoire

While we were making Halloween decorations (explains the mess on the table) Andre decided he was in a 'performing' mood, hence I am posting quite a few videos. Andre loves to sing and he is good at it. His nursery teachers always compliment him, and say that he is one of the few kids that sing in nursery and that he is great at it.

This first video is of Andre singing a song he made up himself - if you can't understand, he sings "A tiger says roar" and so forth naming as many animals as he can think of. It's interrupted in the middle by him naming colors on the pumpkin decoration. Unfortunatelly, colors are about the only thing he prefers to say in Russian (except color 'pink').



In this one he sings "No one like a frowny face", "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam", "Popcorn", "Itsy-bitsy spider" and "ABCs":



"Once there was a snowman" and "Do as I am doing":



In this one Andre is counting. To count to the teens he usually likes to have something to count, therefore I had to kind of 'push' him. He can count to 14 in English, and to 11 in Russian (skipping 7):

Halloween

I am way behind on posting Halloween pictures, but here we go. On the 30th we finally set aside the time to carve our pumpkins. Jeff carved Jack Skellington from "Nightmare before Christmas" and I carved a wolf. Andre was really cute watching us carve. He really wanted to help, but obviously playing with knives was too dangerous, so he took on the role of a cheerleader. He would say: "Good job, Papa!", " You did it!", "Papa, try again!" he then periodically would hang his head at the reminder that he couldn't carve, but quickly would resume the cheering (I have the video, but the uploader is being retarded, I'll see if I can upload it later).


Andre loved the Jack-o-lanterns. He would blow out the candles and the would say - "More punkins, plaese."

We also visited Jeff at work, to show off the kids and see Jeff participate in a pie-eating contest. Look at that blood-thirsty vampire digging into a piece of pie. He did fold under pressure and did not win :)When Jeff came home we went trick- or treating with the boys.
Andre would say "trick-or-treat" way too early - while knocking on the door. And when the door would open he would go straight for the candy.

At one tiem, when the door opened, I sadi to Andre - "What do you say?". Without any pause Andre replied - "I want candy. Give me more candy."

Our cute little elephant

We only trick-or treated on a couple of streets, but we came away with a lot of candy. ( I have to admit that it is a lot nicer when you kid can actually say trick-or-treat, you don't feel as dumb, people know that he will eat at least some of that candy.) Andre was on sugar high for about 3 days - good times!