Living in a gated community!

These days our high traffic living room looks like this:). Every 'real housewife' lives in a gated community, right?;). You can tell who owns and runs this house! We wouldn't have it any other way :).

Daddy came home and jumped right in!:)

First broccoli!

Julia had her first broccoli today!
Yesterday, I made a trip to our local grocery store to get some organic broccoli. As usual, I made several individual servings that I threw them in the freezer. Today, she had her first broccoli EVER for lunch along with a pork tenderloin and mixed grains. She wasn't sure if that was something she would be interested in at first, but ended up eating it all! We have the best little eater in the world!!!:)
We also went to Stony Point mall to window shop :). She got sleepy very quickly!

Romp n' Roll make up class!

As you all know Jules was sick for about 3 weeks and therefore, she missed a couple of Romp n' Roll classes. Today, was a perfect time to make it up to her. A little bit after 8am, the three of us headed to the baby gym :). I was glad Daddy could join us and enjoy her little Princess! Of course she wasn't shy to show off her skills:). We were proud as usual!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Nick!!!

May today be filled with sunshine and smiles, laughter and love! We hope all your birthday dreams and wishes come true!
Love, Kasia, Justin and Julia :)

Julia's Boumy jogging shoes!

Julia's new shoes finally arrived! I am so excited! When Justin saw the box, he had only one word for that :'ridiculous.' Decide for yourself ;).

Little Julia (such a coincidence :)), the daughter of the Dutch Princess Margarita, was spotted wearing her favorite shoes......white jogging Boumy's. Definitely fit for any Princess!

We are eating like a big girl now!

Today, Julia has started eating her finger foods all by herself! She had some Cheerios and organic yogurt puffs. She did great and we are sooo proud!:). We just cannot believe of how amazing and sweet that baby is! Love her so much!!!

OK, I'll take it back! 80F today-crazy!

Here are some shots from our walk! It was so warm outside that I thought I overdressed Jules :).

And here is a video of our crawler! She is so fast now! I don't think that any Seal Team training will help me to keep up with that 'speedy precious turtle :).'

72F in February! We might have a record!:)

Such a pretty day to chill outside and watch Mommy cleaning her car!

Working hard on our rental house weekend + first 'real' snow day

Nana and Nick arrived on Wednesday evening and stayed with us until Sunday morning. I started my Seal Team PT workouts after 1,5 year break and needed some help with Julia. From my previous experience, I knew I would be very sore for the first few days. It also gave me a chance to go to 9.30am workouts, because going forward I will have to attend the 5.45am class..eeeek! Here is the website to give you an idea about my 'torture';): http://www.sealteampt.com/

Daddy and Mommy also got a chance to sneak out of the house and had fun at the Casino Night organized for Richmond Bankruptcy lawyers at the Science Museum. We even won $50 gift card to Osaka sushi restaurant and golf balls :). We used our gift card on Saturday night!

The majority of our weekend consumed the hard work on our rental house and property. Our tenants moved out about week ago and we had to prep the place for the potential tenants. Nana and Nick worked hard on the yard and cleaning, so were Justin and I. Julia was supervising everyone of course! Otherwise, the job wouldn't be done as well as it should be, right? :). The weather on Saturday was gorgeous (65F) and Julia had a chance to catch some fresh air and play outside. The pack-n-play was a life saver that day.

On Sunday, Justin and I decided to work on the house some more and tried to put Julia for a nap in pack-n-play in the rental house. After about 5 min we heard her cry (she never cries) so badly and after 30 min of trying to put her down, we knew it was not going to work. She just loves her own room and cozy crib. I decided to take her home and she fell asleep immediately in the car and then slept for about 3 hours in her crib. Our Princess just knows what she wants and who can blame her for that?!;). We came back to see Daddy after her nap and yummy lunch.
We finished all the work on Sunday before it started snowing. Thank God! I just cannot believe how the weather changes in here. One day you can wear t-shirt and the next day a snowsuit ;). On Tuesday, at 5.45am, I experienced my first workout in the snow and in 25F weather. It was though, but it felt good afterwards!

Julia is growing up so fast! Her favorite thing to do is pulling up on the window in her play room and look at the world.

Jules also started paying more attention to Hugo and Basia (our kitties) and started grabbing their tails and touching their noses! Yeah, they know they are in trouble ;). She is such a joyful baby and we love her so much!
Yesterday we experience a bad hair day! The hair is getting so long and mama tries hard to manage it :).

Our Princess is 10 months old!

Such a big girl. Already 10 months old today!

Julia's stats and all the important info as a 10 month old Princess:
- weights about 19 lbs,
- wears size 4 diapers,
- wears 6-12 months and 9-12 months clothes, some 6-9 months, but we are getting closer to outgrown them,
- can pull up on everything, loves to pull up on Mommy,
- has some sweet dance moves,
- goes to bed around 7.30pm and sleeps through the night until 7.30-8am,
- takes two 2hour naps a day,
- has oatmeal with fruit in the morning, usually chicken and veggies for lunch, fruit or yogurt for snack, and egg with veggie for dinner,
- likes spinach ;),
- is getting better with eating Cheerios, won't put it into her mouth by herself, but will eat it and actually swallow it while the Cheerio is in,
- very squirmy while changing diapers and while putting jammies on,
- is very good in self entertaining,
- likes to play with her play table and loves to chew on any strings (from hoodies),
- has 2 toothers, but more are on the way,
- goes to Romp n' Roll every week and is clearly the star of the class,
- sleeps with her paci ('dydus'), couple teething toys and pink doggy,
- skypes with Babcia every day,
- started crawling on her knees, but army crawl is still active,
- can stand unassisted for 2-5 seconds,
- giggles very hard when I blow bubbles,
- still can say 'dada' and 'baba,'
- is overall very easy and happy baby.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Julia's first Valentine's Day is here and of course Daddy is her nr. 1 Valentine! I always call her and Justin the 'so in love' couple :).
We had another 'first' for Jules today! She surprised me today with some sweet dance moves. This girl is simply amazing!!! :). The first clip is the best. Just need to figure out how to rotate it!

We also got some bubbles in the Party City today. Little Pumpkin seems to enjoy them a lot:). She also likes all the electronics :)

Daddy came home with dozen beautiful roses, chocolate, VS gift and Maggiano's take out. I love that guy so much! Perfect ending to this day :).

I also should have menioned that Julia got the most Valentine's cards this year! Thanks to Nana and Nick, Papa Joe and Marie, Gramme, Aunt Kathy and Uncle Turner and Ms. Mary Pappas :).

Another 'Julia's first' today!

Let me start with our doctor's visit this morning. We saw Dr. Terry this time, who after examination said that Julia is perfectly fine aka the ear infection has cleared up:). The 'pulling ears' could be a sign of a minor virus, not a big deal I hope, or an incoming tooth, which is what we are expecting pretty soon.

After returning from the docs office, Julia had some oatmeal with apples and blueberries and was ready for her morning nap. So what I thought. I heard her (baby monitor) playing for about 50 min in the nursery. She usually falls asleep within 10 min or so. I decided to check on her and to my surprise, there she was, all happy standing in her crib. Her crib was the only place she was not able to pull up because of the thick railings. Oh well, she figured out how to do it and did it again during her second nap :). Little smarty pants :). Of course I had to snap some pics:).

First snow in Richmond this winter!

On Saturday, Julia finally got a chance to experience some snow, oh well, maybe just watching it for now. Actually, after she was done with her nap it pretty much melted.
It hit very unexpectedly ... When I went to the grocery store, it was perfectly sunny outside. I got my groceries done in less than 20 min and while approaching the exit I was shocked to see a snow storm! I was wearing 3/4 sleeves warm cardi and that's all. It was about 43 degrees outside, so the snow didn't stick to the road :(. I was hoping for some snow days. Maybe they are still coming!
Unfortunately, Julia sill has some signs of that continuous ear infection :(. Her ears seem to bother her at times to times. I decided to take her to a doctor on Saturday morning, but when we got there, I saw maybe 30 sick kids in the waiting room. We stormed out immediately! She would get even more sick by sitting there. We will try again tomorrow morning.
Daddy is still sick, but hopefully he will feel better tomorrow!
Despite the ear problem, Julia was very playful today and had cooked spinach for the first time. She ate it all :).

Precious spinach face :). Cooked spinach with egg and brown rice!

Eating like a big girl! Chicken with butternut squash and rice!

Alexandria bound!

Julia and I had our first little trip without Daddy. Considering the fact that I have been in the US for hmmm forever ;), I decided to have a dual citizenship. I sent my application for naturalization about month ago and on Friday, I had to drive up to Alexandria to get my biometrics done (yeah, like they couldn't have an office in Richmond!). Originally, I planned to go by myself and leave Julia with Daddy, but unfortunately he got sick (cold); therefore, I had to take her with me.
She played most the time while listening about 10+ times to her favorite song 'Witaminki,' and slept for about 45 min. She did great and even on the way back we stopped in Potomac Mills mall to check out some outlet stores. I got for Julia cute clothes for next winter. After we finished our shopping, she was so tired that she slept the whole time on the way back to Richmond :). Such a trooper!!!

Laid back week!

We've been having quite relaxing week so far. Julia is getting super active now, pulling up on everything in her sight and crawling quicker than ever. She also tries to run away from us every time we want to catch her. She laughs and gets excited while doing it of course :). She usually crawls from the living room through hallway to Daddy's (of course!) office. I am seriously thinking about buying a baby safety cage and put it in the middle of our living room to keep everything under control :). Sometimes we do miss the time when we put Jules on her activity mat and she just sat there, played and we knew she was not going anywhere. Oh well, those times are certainly gone! However, we love, love our baby girl and her happy little face makes our days super special!

We went to our weekly Romp n' Roll class today wearing all pink! It is a Valentine's Day week, so Jules had to look the part!

Hi pretty Girl:) More pulling up:)

Here are some pics from our walks this week and some encounters with Hugo :).

The most precious face I've ever seen!

I also got a chance to make some baby food using the meats we bought from the butcher downtown. I cooked pork tenderloin and chicken, both with carrots and onions, separated into small portions and threw it all in the freezer.

On Tuesday Jules had her first pork tenderloin! She also had chicken twice this week :). She is a great eater, no complaints here! We are also working on getting better and better with Cheerios!

Super Bowl weekend fun!

Jules definitely feels 100% and this morning, we officially finished her 10-day course of antibiotics. No more meds for that little body!:)
This weekend, Papa Joe and ReRe paid a visit and were willing to babysit while Mommy and Daddy had a double date night with Virginia and Eric (Daddy's coworker). We headed downtown to Black Sheep restaurant (highly recommended).

Also on Saturday, five of us went to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts to see The Mummy exhibit. It was quite chilly outside; therefore, we had to find some inside activities.

On the way home we made a stop at the butcher store to get some organic chicken and pork for our Princess:).
On Sunday Daddy smoked a pork butt;) and we had a yummy pulled pork barbecue! And later it was time for Jules's first Super Bowl (Giants-Patriots). She was very active during the game, crawling super fast away from us and pulling up on the couch. I am not sure who gets exhausted quicker, Jules or us! She crashed right before half time! What would Madonna say? hehe ;).

9 month pics are here!!!

Our 9-month-old photo session had to be postponed due to the virus, so finally yesterday we had a chance to snap some shots.

Jules stats as a 9-month-old baby Bear (as 01/16/2012):
- 17.10lbs (30%), 28 1/2 inch (70%),
- wears size 3 diapers,
- drinks about 20oz formula a day,
- eats oatmeal cereal with fruit or veggies in the morning and mixed grain cereal with veggies for lunch; prunes or pears for snack to speed up the system. She also eats chicken soup, egg yolk, and baby yogurt
- can sit up by herself and started practicing an army crawl,
- loves when Babcia help her walking around,
- loves her Daddy and can say 'baba' for Babcia and 'dada' for Daddy,
- is a very joyful baby, loves to smile,
- loves reading goodnight stories such as 'Very hungry catepillar' with Daddy and polish books for babies with Mommy,
- loves when we sing 'Bells are ringing' when we greet her in the morning and after each nap,
- very squirmy when changing her diaper,
- wakes up around 7.30 in the morning and has a morning nap around 9am until 11am and afternoon nap around 1.30pm until 3.30pm. Bedtime is anytime between 7.30pm and 8pm. She sleeps through the night,
- takes baths every 2 days. Jules LOVES her baths and plays with animal bath toys,
- loves being outside and strolling around, does NOT enjoy shopping;)
- goes to Romp n' Roll every week,
- has never been sick (as of 01/16/2012),
- has 2 bottom toothers.

9 month old Princess :)

Ok Mommy, I think I am done here ;)