Harper's first phrase

Today I was able to figure out seemingly meaningless (or so I thought) sounds Harper made. After feeding him his yogurt, I left him in the highchair to get Andre's chicken nuggets out of the microwave. As I was putting them on Andre's plate, I thought Harper would like one. So I went ahead and cut up one of them as well as some cheese (which he LOVES). I then proceeded to put the food on Harper's tray and went back to the kitchen to finish making lunch for Andre. While there, I heard Harper say "Aaa daa" - which I thought was a cute babble and continued to ignore it. He was getting more impatient with his 'aaa daa', so I figured I should pay attention to him. As I turned around to look at Harper, he had both of his hands high up in the air, waiving both of them, and his well-loved cheese wasn't touched. As I came closer to the high chair, he outstretched his arms as a sign of wanting to get out - this is where it hit me - duh, he is saying 'all done'!

Я сегодня смогла расшифровать угуканья Харпера. После того как я скормила Харперу его йогурт на ланч, я оставила его сидеть в стульчике чтоб он не мешался под ногами пока я готовила ланч Андрею. Я подогрела кусочки курицы Андрею и решила что может быть Харпер захочет попробовать, т.ч. я мелко порезала один из кусочков и положила на Харпера поднос вместе с кусочками сыра, который он обажает. После этого я вернулась к приготовлению ланча для Андрея. В это же время Харпер стал говорить "ааа даа", но я не обращала внимания, он говорил громче и громче и уже начал расстраиваться - когда я подошла к его стульчику его руки были выше головы и он ими одновременно махал (по глухонемому это значит "закончил" и он не притронулся к еде - и только тогда я поняла что "ааа даа" были не просто бесмысленные звуки, а фраза. По-аглийски "Ол дан" (all done) значит "все, закончил".

Harper is 11 months!

It's hard to believe that we are only a month away from Harper turning one!!!
Here's what Harper can do:
-crawl on all fours and really fast. He now very rarely resorts back to his left elbow army crawl
-go up the stairs
-get down the stairs (if they are wide enough) - the way he does it is very cute: once he gets to the edge, he lays down on his tummy and stretches his arms to the lower stair - he then pulls himself on stiff arms, until he can get his knees down.
-stand up for a few seconds
-play with and follow Andre around
-give kisses
-give fives
-absolutely loves balls and can throw them in more so dropping/rolling baby way
-make 'indian' sound - I don't know what else to call it
-when you ask Harper "what's in your mouth?" - he immediately opens it, and pulls out whatever it is he stuck in there
-make 'all done' and 'more' signs
-he has 6 teeth - 4 on top and 2 on the bottom
-if I can think of more, I'll add them later - boy, is my memory fading or what?

Аж тяжело поверить что моему малышу Харперу через месяц исполнится годик!!!
Вот что он умеет делать в данный момент:
-ползать на четвереньках - и очень быстро, очень редко он возвращается к его старому партизанскому стилю
-ползать вверх по ступенькам
-сползать вниз по ступенькам (если они широкие) - он подползает к краю и ложится плашмя на живот, выставляет руки на нижнюю ступеньку и "тачкой" идет пока не спустит коленки
-Стоит сам по себе несколько секунд
-Играет с и ползает по пятам Андрея
-Целует когда попросишь
-Дает пять
-Любит мячи и умеет их бросать в малышовском смысле слова - роняет и он катится
-У него есть 6 зубов - 4 сверху и 2 снизу
-Пока все что могу вспомнить

Suprise Birthday Party

Jeff is turning 30 this Wednesday and I wanted to do something special for him. I decided to throw him a surprise birthday party. I had to do it before his actual birthday, since he doesn't get home until late on weekdays, and there was no way I was going to be able to get him out of the house this coming Saturday (due to March Madness :). So we planned the party for the 14th. Our friends Ashleigh and Mike were very nice and offered me to use their backyard for the party (thanks a lot!). And though plans were almost foiled a few times, it all worked out in the end and Jeff was truly surprised.

On Saturday at about 3 pm I asked Jeff if he wanted to go to Target with me, and usually he gladly would do it, but this time he was resisting a bit, but when I told him I needed to get some supplies for the house he reluctantly agreed. After we were done at Target, I told Jeff I needed to drop by Ashleigh's to give her the check for the stuff she got for me, as she lives right by Target. This is where I was almost at the point of just telling him what was going on, as it seemed almost impossible to get him to go inside her house. This is how our conversation went:

Me: "Honey, can we drop by by Ashleigh's, so I can drop off the check and chat for a little bit?"
Jeff: "You have a minute and a half, and if you don't return then, I am going to drive off."
Me: "I'm not going to take that long. How about we all go in and the kids can play with their dogs?"
Jeff: "No, I am not going in. I am hungry and I want to go home and get something to eat. Besides, I don't want to waste my Saturday, once we go in there, we will be in there for at least an hour and a half!"
Me: "Honey, I promise you - ten minutes, that's all!"
Jeff: "It is not going to be 10 minutes. Or if it is, you will make a big deal out of it and tell them that it's because of me we have to leave. I am not going in!"
Me: "Jeff, I promise you - ten minutes! Look, it's 4:10 pm right now, we will be out at 4:20 pm!"

At this point we pulled up to their house and I pretty much jumped out of the car and grabbed Harper as fast as I could, so the argument would end. Jeff once again reluctantly got out of the car, took Andre out of his car seat and followed me in. Everyone was waiting for him in the backyard - so under the pretense that we were going to find the dog for Andre in the backyard, we went straight there. The expression on Jeff's face was priceless. After everyone yelled "surprise!", he looked confused for a second, taking it all in, and then said - "Is this for me?".
We had a wonderful party, Jeff enjoyed spending time with his friend's (thanks to everyone who came out, you truly made this party special), kids loved playing with each other, the food was good - all in all it was a success.

Everyone, but me :)

Jon enjoying his ice cream cone

Brandon (I don't have any pictures of the rest of his family - sorry Lucy, Felipe and Samuel)

Kevin, Marisol and their 2 week old Isabella and...
... Monica Mike with Violet
Birthday boy

Michiko, Brandon and little Cossette

Mary with Emily and Carson in the background

Andre's favorite treat - ice cream cone

This is my masterpiece - I stayed up until 4:30 am, but it was well worth it. I made a chocolate cake with seedless raspberry jam and whipped ganache frosting -yum! (thanks for advice, Stacey). This was my first time making and dealing with fondant, and I think I did pretty well for the first-timer.


Jeff with his cake