Saturday morning with dad...

Mom is working today so I am all alone with Daddy. Pretty soon my dad is leaving for the garbage dump to take our trash to the dump. Baba Lena will take care of me while dad is gone. 

Dad is on Spring Break this week so he does not have any homework to do but he probably could work on his final paper for psychopathology.

I have to eat more when dad is feeding me because he thinks there is something wrong with him when he feeds me and I just do not feel like eating.

Anyway,  on some weight news I have crossed the 9 pound threshold and I continue to grow at a monumental pace. I am healthy as could be and I am sleeping well at night.

I have been experiencing some drool and bubbles and I keep hearing my mom and dad speaking about these things called teeth. I am not sure what they are yet but I will update you as soon as I find out.

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Nikki are coming to visit again this weekend and I am really excited. Uncle Kevin held me and I found it very easy to fall asleep. I think they are going to drop off some cookies and then go out to lunch with my mom and dad.

One last thing I wanted to update you on is that my dad has been leaving his Macbook next to me when he leaves the room and it also stays on for a bit. I figured I would mess around with it and I think I have pretty much mastered blogging. Now, if I can just figure out how to setup an email for myself.....

Uncle Sonny...

On this day last year as many of you know we lost one of the center pieces of our family. He was a man who was always concerned about everyone else. He was always happy when his jokes made others laugh and he was always heartfelt during reminiscing about others we lost. He lived a full life and he worked hard to help support everyone in his life. He was a family man!

Evidence of his greatest enjoyment can be seen with the various pictures of him holding his grandchildren as they push at his face. He really enjoyed and loved his family and I know I can speak for our family when I say we enjoyed him and we were lucky to have a man of his stature and compassion in our lives.

Women and bottles...

As a father of a girl I must admit that I cringed and became infuriated about a recent news incident. When I heard a certain famous person call a women a slut and state she should post videos of her sex acts online for all to see because she believes birth control should be part of a healthcare plan I became upset. As a student of social work and one who has a daughter I guess these types of things should upset me. In America we all chip in for things we might not believe in. For example war, many people are against but they are forced to pay for it.

Anyway, I do not want to get too political here but it is a shame that a man can degrade a women through the press in such a manner. It seems some believe women are less equal than men in today's society and the truth is they are less equal but they should not be. Do not fear as I am on a mission to fix this.

On to more pleasant thoughts.....

As Nadia keeps growing I keep washing bottles. A bottle washing master as I would like to think. I wash 9 bottles in less than 20 minutes and that includes the various devices that the bottles consists of as well. Tash asked me the other day how I wash the bottles so fast. I think it is because I do it more often and I do not really wash them but rather just rinse them with hot water. Do not tell her my secret please.

Nadia is beginning to utter sounds other than crying when we talk to her. Tash hears most of it but Nadia lets me in on the conversation when I am home once in a while. One of the things that makes me happy to is how she follows me around the room with her eyes as Tash is holding her. I go up to her to say things and when I walk away and turn around her eyes are zeroed in on me no matter where I go.

It is amazing to watch her grow and think that almost 5 months ago she was less than 1/4 of what she weighs now. Of course that seems like no big deal but as most of you know quadrupling in size when beginning at 1 lb 10 ounces is a huge difference. Last week she weighed in at 8 lbs 1 ounces.

Nadia will be 5 months old on March 9th.

The weekend past...

Uncle Kevin and Aunt Nikki stopped by this weekend and you can see some pictures in our Instagram feed to the right.

We also went out to The Alps again and I must say they change the menu constantly and the food is excellent every time thus far. If you come to visit we will certainly take you there for lunch or dinner.

After a three day weekend it is back to the grind as I have class tonight and tomorrow with a midterm tomorrow.

Yesterday I went to a Starbucks and observed everyone in the place for about 1 hour and 30 minutes. Human beings are amazing creatures and it was a lot of fun to see the quirks that many of us have. I will be writing a short 10 page paper for my midterm in my Psychopathology class and this observation was part of the project.

After my observation Tash and I had a nice lunch at home and we then took the baby for a walk on the farm. Walks on the farm always help Nadia fall asleep.

I am also taking a 2 hour lunch tomorrow from work to watch a presentation from two of my SW colleagues as they release their research results about the changing landscape in aging social work. I will be receiving a Certificate in Aging Social Work along with my MSW so this will be relevant to my field of study.

We are actually thinking about a family party to introduce Nadia sometime in the late Spring or Summer season. We have not set anything in stone yet but my in laws certainly have the property for such a party. We have not gone over the details with them yet either but we were thinking of it being a family picnic type deal…. Anyway we are slowly thinking about this as there is plenty of space to host almost 100 people for sure…. TBC….

New blog face....

As you can see my blog has been edited and it looks great.... Tash wanted to add a video and some other things.... and then she changed my header to am image which shows the meaning of the blog as well.

We are looking forward to seeing Kevin and Nikki this weekend and of course the Bud Shootout tomorrow night as well.

I have a midterm next week and I need to study people in a public setting for two hours this weekend as well. So.... if you are in public you might see me with a pad and pen. Please do no disturb me... j/k

The Alps..... and everything else...

Sadly, Baba Nina has returned to Moscow although we are very happy she will be returning after some medical procedures. She left Saturday and we missed her before she left.

It has been hectic to say the least with all the reading I have done and will be doing this semester. I am actually starting field work in the fall as Rutgers' requires it to graduate. I will learn the field from within and I know that is a valuable tool.

Ok, so what has Nadezhda been up? Well, as you can see from the pictures she is growing. She is not eating as much as I think she should but I assume the doctors will be happy with what she is eating as Tash is not concerned. She is starting to communicate in ways others then crying…. Something tells me her first word is going to be Rumination…. On the weekends when I run the show in Tash’s absence I read Nadia a heavy dose of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Health Disorders. She stares at me while I read out loud and it is entertaining to me that her first word might just come from the DSM.

Although her first word might be Lady Gaga, Tash can explain that to you as I am now saying it to her as well.

So, I am not sure if any of you know this but Uncle Sonny is buried on the road we live on as there is a military cemetery down the street from us. This makes it very convenient for anyone visiting his site to come visit with us. Aunt Margie and Aletia stopped by a few weeks ago and we had a great time. We took them to a German Restaurant in Allentown called the Alps. Of course Aunt Margie insisted we get some booze even though it was noon so I relented and purchased some beer and wine.

After dining with Aunt Margie and Aletia we then went to Kevin’s 40th b-day party and had a lot of fun visiting with everyone. We certainly had a lot of laughs and Kevin’s sister in law made a really neat cake which exhibited a quad on a mountain of sugar infused dirt and grass.

Kevin and Nikki are actually visiting this week so Tash, Nadia, and I are definitely looking forward to that. We will also be taking them to the Alps for some lunch.

As for me personally I am getting some dental work done and receiving a 3 tooth bridge/crown. When I was 18 I had a tooth removed on the left side of my mouth and for the last 17 years I have avoided chewing on that side of my mouth. Well in three weeks that will end as the crown/bridge will be done. However, yesterday I had the two teeth where the bridge will sit grinded down.

The dentist put two temporary teeth on those teeth and one fell off two times. I went back this morning and the dentist set me up with a temporary brown instead of the plastic mold they used. It is holding well and I must say I am excited about that. I am also pumped because I have no pain in the teeth as it was noted that if I do a root canal would be necessary. I do not care about the pain in mouth of a root canal but rather the pain in my wallet. Dental is not getting any cheaper and I am not sure how anyone can afford this work.

Anyway, that is all for now because I won’t post this for another week if I delay it any longer. Speak to you soon.

40

Well... I am always reminded of how old I am when my brother's b-day comes up. I still feel like I am young and I will be running the Spartan race with my men's team in July to prove it to myself.

Kevin is 40 today which makes me 35.67 years old or there abouts anyway. As I approach 40 my one goal is to have MSW done before May 5th, 2016. I am right on track for that.

I think the end of point and shoot cameras is near as the new iPhone pictures are pretty nice and in some cases better than what I have seen from some cameras. Check out Tash's library as it updates as she takes pictures.... or at least I think it does.

http://instagrid.me/ngcreations

Also, we Skyped with Uncle John and Karel last night and it was awesome. It is much easier to show the baby than it is to describe her.

If any of you want to Skype with us look Tash up and give us an electronic signal moving at thousands of miles per second.