Cakewalk

I spent most of today getting ready for Tyoma's party. Please help me understand why I obsess over cleaning so much! My folks wanted to select Tyoma's birthday cake so I met them at our favorite Albertson's. Mom and Dad took turns chaperoning Tyoma around the store as my eyes glazed over looking at Shrek and Cars cakes. He returned from his second tour of the store with a cute fuzzy gorilla and a big smile. My folks are so going to spoil him! Anyway,after fifteen minutes of leafing through the Monster Cake Book of Tackiness, we wound up choosing a simple "Happy Birthday" cake. Screw you, Walt Disney!

Outback With My Birth Partners

 Yesterday evening I took Momfiend and out for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. If you'll notice, Momfiend has a can of bear-spray with her. Upon seeing the photo, a shocked exclaimed, "Was your mom worried about being mugged in the parking lot?!" No, actually, Mom said that she "brought the bearspray since we were going to the Outback." Hee! Mom, you so crazy!

The three us us had a marvelous time. We should meet every year to celebrate our work together in bringing Tyoma into the world. Ewbliette and I asked Mom to tell her birth story repeatedly, but we kept getting sidetracked. Maybe we'll keep meeting just so Mom can finish her story! I am so grateful to my girls for being there for me. Till those labor pains rock your bones, you don't realize just how much you need the ones you love! Much thanks to Mom's sturdy arms that held firm my flailing leg and much thanks to Ewbliette's indefatigable vocal cords that kept me pushing 1-2-3, 4-5-6, 7-8-9! I love you guys!

Thanks Helen!

My friend and former colleague Helen sent Tyoma a birthday gift. Since he's been watching it since I brought it home, we let him open it first.






Tah-dah! Helen hand-made some special things for Tyoma: two hooded towels with cute decals and a plethora of decorated lap/burp pads. Very sweet and really useful!

Happy Birthday Tyoma!

According to Russian tradition, it's bad luck to celebrate before your birthday. Thus, we scheduled our weekend party for next Sunday. But! We had to give the birthday boy a little surprise!

 Whoa this thing is scary...   ....but sort of interesting.   Now how do I open this???   Twenty minutes and fourteen attemps later...   What on earth is this?!  



 Wow!!! My very own Gorilla! Cool! Thank you Grandma and Grandpa!!!

Das Trench

I haven't posted "The Final Straw" yet, but we are taking steps to eradicate our "drainage problem." Check this out:
 
 We haven't figured out exactly how the finished project will look, but we are doing what should have been done looong ago. Ewbliette told us that we could have sued the former owners for not telling us about the sunroom problem. Since we might well be selling our house soon, we refuse to leave the next owners in the same bind. I dare it to rain now!

Little Animal

I slunk into Tyoma's room to nab the dirty laundry I forgot to pick up before I put him to sleep.  The light and my rummaging partially woke him. I hear little grunts and the crinkly rustling of the waterproof mattress pad.  Instantly I was transported to a different place.

His room became a grotto, filled with animal smells, heavy dark  and dampness. I looked at his crib as if it were a cage and he was some strange little zoo creature to be stared at. The alien-animal feel of my son was so strong, that it was simultaneously humorous and unnerving.  It is so easy to forget in our world of words, skyscrapers and sidewalks that we are still animals.

Copyright Frenzy

Some mentally derange woman has found my parent's website, stolen their pictures and started claiming them as her own and entering them in contests. Despite my parent's letter about copyright laws, discipline and removal of her photos from the contests and other blogs, she is still copying and publishing their photos.

She seems less about wanting to make money and more about being an unbalance attention seeker.

Mom is pretty freaked, concerned that the offending woman will board an airplane and molest them in person.  While I think that's totally unrealistic, some people are nuts and that can be pretty unpredictable.  I think the best that they can do is notify the sites where she post instead of having any contact with her.

Happy Birthday Moosh

It seems like I've spent most of this week scrambling to put together birthday surprises for my two guys.  Last year I ordered a heap of outdoor grill goodies for Egor, including an extensive range of esoteric accessories, that save for one, we have used regularly.  This year we are stone broke, so such luxury is an impossibility. I even speculate that we might need to either auction off our grill-ware or start catering out of our back yard.

So, to treat Egor, I focused on the pragmatic.  What does that mean? Pillows! Yep, I'm replacing the battered, pancaked pillow his mama sent him years ago with fresh springy marshmallowy pillows. 

E's one of those fellows who likes firm pillows. You know, the unyielding mattress-like pillows that jolt your spine into rectangular alignment.  They are the type that are either very expensive and feature the word "therapeutic" on them or are bargain priced and "made in China."  I guess the difference is how long-lived they are, but if they last for six months and don't smell like naphtha, they'll do.

So lucky me, I go to JCP and find, on sale, a pillow certain to contain several geese worth of feathers.  Actually, considering the price, it's probably Freebreezed chicken feathers, but it's lovely.  I splurged a tiny bit on some shower gel at Dillards, Ambre, pour Hommes.  Smells great!  It's nice to find a scent fresh and modern that doesn't smell insecticidal.

So, tonight we had a lovely home-cooked dinner, thanks to mom: scallops wrapped in thick, organic uncured bacon ( my mom rocks!), asparagus and corn on the cob with tons of melted butter.  I sent the birthday cake to work, since I am still watching my carbs, but wine doesn't count, does it? Sauvingon Blanc, ice cold.  We are sure to toast my folks, who have been so helpful to us!

Bath Time

A Cute Pic of Tyoma in the tub. Notice how he does an Austin Powers with his inflatable toy! He is so huge compared to the little tub! He becomes frightened it I put him in the big tub, so issy-pissy tub it is.

First Haircut

I took Tyoma for his first haircut today. I intended to have an incredible photo shoot for the whole thing, but I wound up leaving the camera in the stroller while holding Tyoma in my lap. The haircut went incredibly well, Rodeyo is a genius with kids! It's always a treat to see him.
 
Later that afternoon, as I fed a hot and slighly cranky baby his dinner, Tennisfiend grabbed the camera and took these shots. I objected to the whole process since I wanted his "first haircut" pictures to be a monument to his babyhood. Afterall, he looks sorta goofy shirtless and with a tiny bib.
 

How dare you take my picture! 
Well, okay. Sometimes I'm too anal for my own good. Enjoy Tyoma's totally-realistic-and-reflects-our-real-life "first haircut" photos!