I just loveloveloveloving my kiddies.
Maya is just getting funnier with every day. It’s too bad I never find time to write all the funny things she says.

Yesterday, as I was showing her a preview of her first year in the new photo book I am working on, she started asking me all these questions about the umbilical cord she saw in one of the baby pictures.
I’ve explained to her that the umbilical cord connects a baby in the womb to her mother and this way the baby gets all the “food” she needs from her mommy.

After that picture, Maya also saw another one of the stork, which our kind neighbors have given us as a gift when Maya was born.

She looked at the picture and ran off to daddy, screaming: “Daddy, daddy…now where is that Stork, which brought me to you? “

Alexa is an incredibly sweet baby. Sweet can’t even describe how loving and gentle she is. Always giggling, smiling and laughing.

She started pulling herself up to standing all by herself. Of course we missed it, when she did it for the first time  Oh well..the “joys”of being working parents…


My parents take care of Maya and Alexa all day long until we are back from work.
I should say, I feel incredibly lucky to have parents like mine, who dedicate so much of their free time to their children and grandchildren.

Our little munchkins is starting to understand English and Russian. That is so funny. She totally listens to what my dad has to say and does it after. Ryan asked her to pick out a banana out of all the fruits she played with yesterday, and she showed it to him with such a proud face.

Alexa is a very good eater. She enjoys trying the new foods and we already started giving her lots of fresh veggies and fruits. Amongst favorite are cherries, tomatoes, bananas, apricots, peaches, watermelons, cherries and strawberries.

Lexi is learning so much from her big sister. They started playing together and she is gradually starting to defend her play territory when needed. ) The other day when taking a bath together, Lexi grabbed two toys, one for each hand, and when she noticed a pink shovel floating towards her, she took a quick glance at her hands and without thinking started trying to fish the shovel out with her mouth. That was hilarious. She was actually sitting there with two toys and a shovel in her mouth, making sure Maya doesn’t get a hold of either of those precious toys.

At the end of June Alexa has graduated from her swimming class. She loved it!! One can actually see the progress made. She can now swim in her swimmies all by herself and enjoys swimming under water as well. I can’t be more proud of my little baby. Both Maya and Alexa are already signed up for another year of swimming course. I hope they will enjoy it.

So, this is it for now…see ya in 4 weeks!!!!

Today is your 10 month birthday. As I celebrate the day you were born 10 months ago, I can’t help but be a little sad at how fast the last 10 months have gone. Words can’t express how much I have loved you growing up in my arms. You and your big sister Maya are absolutely the most precious gifts I’ve ever gotten in this life.


I feel so lucky that I get to cuddle with you at night and hear the cutest noises you make when you are sleeping or drinking mommy’s milky. I love watching you roll over in your crib, throwing your cute little feetsies to the side. You are such a little love bug.

Cuddling, giving kisses, hugging, smiling, giggling and clapping is what you like the most. You smile for everyone and laugh at your big sister all the time.

You wave hello to people you meet and say “hi,” also when you see them on TV, silly goose. You can already say “hi”, “mama”, “dada”or “hi dada -*the last one melts my heart every time and you always wave to him when saying it”

You are starting to cruise around furniture and make steps when we hold your hands, but I don’t think you are ready to take those first steps on your own yet.

You are still trying to figure out how to crawl on all 4, but I am sure with deda’s exercises and Maya’s help, you will do it very soon. And even if not, Maya can teach you how to do the cutest tushie scoot. :0)

You love to dance to the music and especially enjoy the “Sunny Bunny” CD or “JoCo Looks Back” album by Jonathan Coulton, which works magic when daddy is putting you to sleep.

I love our time together while you are nursing. It gives us “our alone time,” which we do not get very often and makes me remember what is most important; plus that look of yours, full of extreme happiness and satisfaction when you are nursing is more rewarding for me than anything else in the world.

You love eating and tasting different foods. You have quickly mastered how to work with those first two teeth of yours and you try to bite and taste everything you get in your hands. This long weekend we spent in the baby hotel “Semi”, where they showed you a tiny newborn rabbit. You decided to pet it, gave it another look and then quickly stuffed it in your mouth, silly monkey. You make us laugh a lot!!! Every time you are done with your food, you just take your bib off as a sign of: “no more” and there is no way I get another spoon in you. :O)

I feel incredibly happy and blessed to have you in my life, my little sunshine, and can’t wait to sing a Happy Birthday to you in just a few months.

With greatest love, your mommy

We already had our first cherries and now it’s the strawberries time.
Let this yummy summer begin!!!

Ryan and I are not getting any sleep at all lately since our Lexi started teething.
With 8 months of age she got her first of the two lower central teeth and now the other ones are waiting to break through.

Today was the worst night of all, I think, when I didn’t even get a 30 min. of non-interrupted sleep and spent the whole night soothing the baby.

Oh joys of parenthood…… *Yawn*

I can’t believe that our little munchkin has already turned 6 months old, exactly on 14 February 2011.
She is just so so sweet, I can’t stop kissing her…

Alexa is a real laughing machine. She is constantly smiling and especially squeals from delight when she sees Maya. She just adores staring at her big sister. They sometimes play together, Maya plays a Winnie the Witch character and Alexa is her cat, Wilbur. Maya waves her magic wand and turns Alexa into different things. Both love that game.


Alexa is becoming a real social butterfly. She loves being around Maya’s friends and watching them play.
Lexi has already been to her first 2.5 hrs ice skating show: “Holiday on Ice” and will be attending Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo show in March. I try to expose her to various social outings as much as I can. We have also started our baby swimming course with Seepferdchen, just 10 minutes away from our house.

Alexa really enjoyed her first splashing session in the pool and fell asleep as I was dressing her up.

<a href=" The bouncing baby bjoern chair is her favorite sports activity of the day, you should see how she bounces herself. I sometimes have a feeling she is aiming to fly out of it.
It is fun to watch her amazement as she discovers each body part, especially her toes.

She expresses herself loudly with screaming “hiiiiiiiii” and goes “yum yum“ when eating solid foods. So far, carrots, potatoes and meat combination is her favorite.

We are so lucky to have my mother staying with us now since both Ryan and I are working full-time. I can’t thank her enough for watching our baby Alexa and giving her so much love.

Happy 6 months, Lexi!!! We love ya soooooo much.

This year we were invited for Christmas dinner to our friends’ house.

It was our first Austrian traditional Christmas.The Christkind (german “The Christ-child”) is the traditional Christmas gift-bringer in Austria, so we had to explain to Maya that since Santa has a long way to come over to see us, his helper, the Christkind, will start bringing presents to children. So she will get a couple of gifts on the 24th of December at night and will hopefully find some more in the morning of the 25th.

We sang some Christmas songs followed by some Christmas stories.

After which Ryan and Christian put the sparklers on the tree while the kids were in the bedroom playing.

Once everything was set up, Christian rang a small bell to announce that the Christkind was seen by adults but he just dropped the presents and left quickly.

The kids were so excited to see the sparkling Christmas tree and so many presents under it.
They couldn’t wait to open the gifts.

After the present opening, we had a wonderful roast beef dinner and enjoyed a pleasant company of our dear friends.

Merry Christmas!!!
Enjoy spending time with your families and close friends.

“Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” -Marcel Proust

I am the luckiest:

Alexa’s first Christmas

Maya was so looking forward to this Christmas.
She wrote a wish list for Santa and even baked Santa cookies to welcome him to our home.

Here are some photos from our preparations:

Special Santa cookies

Just in case Santa is hungry

Since the weather was very nice and sunny today, mommy decided to take her girlies outside to one of the best Viennese Christmas markets.
Lots of special present-making and cookie-baking workshops for kids take place in the Volkshalle of the town hall.
It is never an easy thing to take both of my princesses out, especially that I have to take a stroller for Maya and put Alexa in the baby bjoern. I love the looks everyone gives me: some with “OMG” and lots of smiles.

I had to fight my way into the baking workshop, as we came exactly at the time reserved for school children, but the chef took a pity on me and let my little munchkin in.

She was having a lot of fun making cookies for her daddy and Santa.

rolling that dough wasn’t easy

so many cookies

Santa and daddy will be so happy

Disney Christmas Tree

After that we drank some punch, got some french fries with ketchup, which ended up being all over mommy and Alexa, and enjoyed looking at traditional Viennese Christmas treats like glazed fruits and baked apples and wooden handicraft stocking fillers.

Then we had to pick up a special Santa ballon, because it looked like mommy didn’t have enough to carry )

Both Maya and Alexa fell asleep on the way home and slept for about two hours during which I was able to make three apple pies and a punch and prepare our house for another Christmas singing with our neighbors and their kids. Before my husband arrived from work, I prepared turkey strips with veggies and rice and we had a wonderful dinner with our friends, Sabine and Christian and their son, Matteo. There is nothing better than a wonderful Monday filled with so many exciting things to do. I juts wonder where I got the energy to pull it through.
Night night now..