I am sad to announce that Natasha has freely weaned herself off the bottle. Yes, she is 6 months old. But she hates the bottle; in fact, she wants nothing to do with one. And I know I've posted about this issue before, but back then I was still able to squeeze one bottle into her per day, but that is not the case anymore. Even if she does take a bottle, she's make us a huge favour by drinking some 20ml and then shaking her head side-to-side. Arhh. I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating it was!

Aren't babies supposed to be difficult in giving up the bottle habit? And shouldn't the weaning process begin until at least 9 months of age? Is our baby refusing to be a baby? The questions are endless, but looking on the bright side of things, I don't have to wash bottle anymore. Haha! That's the good thing about this whole Natasha madness. And since she cannot figure out her sippy cup yet, I was told to try a drinking straw with her, so maybe this weekend I will attempt that. But with my luck, and considering Natasha inherited a rich combination of Matthew and mine stubbornness, she would hate the straw as well. Hooray right, makes my life more interesting :p

I also want to wish my wonderful husband a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! I love you Matthew, you are the best hubby a girl could ask for (aside from being incredibly annoying at times, that is)! Happy 26th Matthew, and when I grow up, I wanna be just like you!

1. Where/How did you meet? We met online. Matthew tells people we met on the subway, but it's not true. He'll argue otherwise though. Men...

2. How long have you known each other? We have known each other for 5 years.

3. How long after you met did you start dating? right when we met.

4. How long did you date before you were engaged? About 6 months

5. How long was your engagement? it was 16 months. We got engaged February 2004 and married June 2005.

6. How long have you been married? almost 2 years.

7. What is your anniversary? June 11, 2005

8. How many people came to your wedding reception? About 70-80. Many of our relatives are oversears and were unable to make the trip.

9. What kind of cake did you serve? It had 3 tiers. It was white with light purple flowers, same as the wedding theme colors.

10. Where was your wedding? St Maximilian Kolbe Catholic Church.

11. What did you serve for your meal? Mostly Russian/European dishes. Too many to list, but I loved them all!

12. How many people were in your wedding party? We didn't have a wedding party. Just witnesses, ring bearer, and a flower girl.

13. Are you still friends with them all? Well... they're family. So I guess, yes.

14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? I am not sure... maybe a little bit. He'd deny it, though.

15. Most special moment of your wedding day? The entire thing. It was nice to finally be married.

16. Any funny moments? Yeah, some of the reception games we played were funny...!

17. Any big disasters? Nope! Not that I can think of... well, we weren't crazy over the videographer we hired, but my uncle did video too, and did a much better job.

18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? Nowhere. We suck.

19. How long were you gone? Zero days.

20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? No videographer, as my uncle was enough. Not sure what else... if I could change the weather, I would have. It was too hot.

21. What side of the bed do you sleep on?: I sleep on the right side (when looking from the foot of the bed)

22. What size is your bed? We have a queen size bed.

23. Greatest strength as a couple? We enjoy a more simple, car and cellphone free lifestyle. We get along well, and that's all we need.

24. Greatest challenge as a couple? Not sure, yet. We haven't been married that long. We're different people on many different aspects.

25. Who literally pays the bills? Mostly I pay them online, but sometimes he does too.

26. What is your song? Don't have one. I find 'couple' songs to be cheesey.

27. What did you dance your first dance to? I can't remember, but it was a melody without any words. It was nice.

28. Describe your wedding dress: It was a queen A style. With long see-through sleeves, full skirt. I wanted something modest, not hoochy strapless and Church inappropriate (sorry if I offended anyone).

29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? Roses - white, light pink and light purple.

30. Are your wedding bands engraved? Nope.

How old were you when you got married? I was 21.

You know you're a mom, when...

1. Your feet stick to the kitchen floor, and you don't care.
2. You spend an entire week wearing sweats.
3. Your idea of a good day is making it through without a child leaking bodily fluids on you.
4. Your favorite television show is a cartoon.
5. You're so desperate for adult conversation that you spill your guts to the telemarketer that calls...and HE hangs up on YOU!
6. You sing “Dora Dora Dora the Explorer” in the shower.
7. You have time to shave only one leg at a time.

Natasha turned 1/2 a year on March 18th and today was her 6-month doctor's appointment. Here are her stats:

Weight: 13.8 lbs, 6.3 kg > between 5th & 10th percentile
Length: 28.3 inches, 72 cm > above the 100th percentile
Head Circ: 16.1 inches, 41 cm > between 5th & 10th percentile

According to her Pedi she's doing quite well. She's gained 600g since her last appointment one month ago and we've got the thumbs-up to start her on meats. Yay! And she can also have homemade soups, like veggies and chicken soup and similar kinds. In another two months her menu would expand even further when she can start having yogurts, cheeses, and finger foods. And soon enough she'll be sitting with us at the table, holding her own fork, and telling me whether she likes pulp in her orange juice or not. [insert loud bawling here]. She also received her vaccines today, one into each little thigh, and naturally she screamed bloody murder. Ahh, poor baby!

Today I've also purchased her a stage 1 sippy cup and I'll begin training her on it in no time. Actually we've started practicing today but the silly kid has no clue what to do with it, even though the principle is identical to the bottle: you suck the fluids out. Duh. Not Natasha. Natasha bites and chews on the sipping part of the cup. Wish me luck now, please. And she's finally graduating to size #2 Pampers. It's about time, baby! And speaking of diapers, hers are becoming smellier and stinkier by the day. And now with meats added into her daily diet, I hear some nose plugs might be a good thing to look into this month...hahaha.

We had a very strange episode this morning. I was feeding Natasha her morning oatmeal cereal with squash; meanwhile Matthew was shaving in the bathroom. Once I finished feeding her, I took her to the bathroom (which Matthew just left) so I could wash her messy face, but before I could even do anything Natasha dissolved into hysterical sobs. The tears came out of nowhere, the screams were ear piercing. I tried holding and rocking her for a bit and once she started calming down, I put her on the changing table so I could take her dirty sleeper off. Oops. Wrong move. The sobs and tears and screams and hysterical Natasha all returned at once. Matthew and I had no idea what the heck happened but the only other time I remembered seeing her in this state was at her doctor's. So we tried putting it all together...

My initial instinct was the smell of Matthew's aftershave because Natasha started screaming when we entered the bathroom where Matthew put on his aftershave just seconds before. The next thing I did was undress her. Matthew also realized he did not use his usual aftershave that day, but a different one he hasn't used before. Anyways. The only conclusion we were able to arrive to is that maybe this new cologne/aftershave smelled like the one her doc was using, and the undressing part did not help because we undress her at each appointment for the weighing. Arhh. Poor baby girl. You should have seen it. She was absolutely hysterical. I felt so sorry for her.

Of course there might be an entirely different explanation to this, a more logical one, but we really don't think so. Natasha is a very calm, laid-back child and this was very unlike her. They say babies don't have a long-term memory at this age, but I think otherwise. At least they remember enough to associate certain smells, sounds, and actions with either safety or danger. I really believe that much is true.

A few months ago I attempted at making a carrot cake and it turned out really well. The original recipe I found on a random website, but I've altered it quite a bit by cutting down on the sugar proportions (Matthew doesn't have a sweet tooth) and also replacing certain ingredients with what I had on hand. It turned super!

Carrot Cake with Icing

Ingredients:

• 4 eggs
• 1 1/4 cups vegetable or sunflower oil
• 3/4 cups white sugar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups all-purpose flower
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 teaspoons ground cinammon
• 3 cups grated carrots
• 1/2 cups chopped pecans

• 1/2 cup butter softened
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 1/2 cups confectioners sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar and 2 teaspoons vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely.

4. To Make Frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Stir in chopped pecans. Frost the cooled cake.

Lotsa lotsa news!

Natasha got her ears pierced!
On March 7, we went to People's Jewelery and got her earlobes pierced. She was a real trooper and cried very little, maybe 2-3 minutes. It's amazing how much more and how much harder she cried after getting her shots, she took those much much harder. After the piercing, on the other hand, she was her normal self for the remainder of the day and on. She got cute little 14k gold pink flowers and she looks super cute and very girlie.

Natasha cut her first tooth!
Yes, this morning I finally felt it on her bottom gum. It was begging to cut through for about a month now and decided today was the day. It's very sharp. I think it bothers her a little because she is very whiney today and keeps drooling everywhere, but there is not much we can do.

Natasha began saying some consonants!
She is no longer a vowel-only girl. Her vocab now includes ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga and some other weird consonats which she attaches to vowels. Matthew is hoping she'd add pa-pa-pa to her new sounds collection, but she hasn't done so. Besides, I wouldn't be too happy if she said pa-pa-pa before ma-ma-ma!

This post is a pure vent.

Last night Matthew and I decided to order Thai food delivery because a) we had no dinner, and b) we wanted to try something other than Pizza Pizza or Chinese. Matthew loves a well-done Pad Thai Noodles and I've had really good Cashew Nut Chicken before so those were our choices. So we picked a Thai restaurant off an online delivery site (and I wouldn't mention which one), placed the order at 6:45pm (was asked to re-spell my address at least 3 times), were told the delivery would take 45-60 minutes, and then we waited. And waited and waited and waited...! Around 7:45pm I received a call from the restaurant asking to re-spell my address for the umpteenth time, which I did - they had the letter "F" from our street address mistaken for the letter "S" so the delivery guy couldn't find it. [Insert eye rolling here]. By 8:00pm we were getting really annoyed and impatient, so at 8:05pm I dialed the restaurant to ask what's going on. I was assured the food will arrive any minute. Great. FINALLY, at 8:05pm the delivery guy showed up. Ahh.

And that's not all... I quickly noticed the aluminum containers leaked through so that the sauce from Matthew's Pad Thai Noodles had soaked into the paper beg the delivery came in. Yuck. The containers were wet and disgusting. My order was missing rice. Matthew's order smelled like "cow's poo" (his words, not mine). The food didn't taste good, either. It was a waste. And I hate mentioning that we paid $29.00 for this order, AND for some idiotic reason I gave the delivery guy a $5.00 tip. He was almost 20 minutes late! The food leaked out! It's that thing where the delivery person stands by your door, staring down at the receipt as you sign it, and you just cannot NOT give a tip, know what I mean??

Well I just needed to vent. And we might be fed-up with Pizza Pizza, but at least they deliver within 20 minutes, always warm, always good. More power to them.

Here's a Word Cloud of words used most frequently in my blog. Get your own cloud here.
I appears the words I frequent most are Julia, Matthew, Natasha, Baby, Good, Night, Different, Family, Little, Two, and Time.
Great, now what does this tell me? Nothing, I just thought it was cute!