Happy Thanksgiving Day

This turkey is a little bit worried. I would be too ;-)

Jeremy thought this photo fitting for our Thanksgiving post... so here it is courtesy of NYtimes.

Last few days in NY

Getting our money worth out of the last monthly unlimited subway card and vising places that we will miss has been on our to do list. We made another trip to the Natural History Museum and explored the geological collection.
Sonia loved the rocks. I hoped to see some Ural treasures but found just a few samples from USSR in the gem exhibit. I guess this section was built during the cold war era therefore lack of representation. Plenty Brazilian marvels there.We ran through the evolution section on our way, noting the arrival of conscious beings. I think they are cute ;-) I like their fur coats.
Sonia also enjoyed the funky Christmas tree with, horses, dinos and rotating stars. She couldn't take her eyes of it even for a moment.
Yesterday we had to stop by the Met. Our main object was Annual Christmas Tree and Neapolitan Baroque Crèche.
Twenty-foot blue spruce with a collection of 18th-century Neapolitan angels and cherubs among its boughs and groups of realistic crèche figures flanking the Nativity scene at its base just simply takes your breath away.
I wish for a tree like this one... wait how would I move it? Jeremy laughed and said "people who posses these kind of things never move." I especially enjoyed the everyday scenes with animals and people and how realistic and at the same time decorative they were. Sonia is grown up and handles our museum trips with much more interest. She loved paintings and really wanted to touch some of the precious art objects.
We ended our day at a friends house with sushi feast. Thank you, Ben and Yuki, for a real treat... Yuki is from Japan and she taught me how to do the rolls so we might be making more sushi at our house soon.

Dealing with my anxiety

To all my friends... thank you for being there for me through thick and thin. In the past year I had to deal with post partum anxiety and I am doing much better now. Sonia is doing great and there is no need to worry. I guess countless days and nights with no sleep and pressure from all sides of life landed me in psychiatric hospital three times last year. It is sad but in order to keep my marriage and life together, I had to get expert help.

Here is what my recent motto is... life is most definitely worth it!!!! Just take a look at my family. It is hard to make a decision of having a family these days when every nanny at a playground asks when am I going to go back to work. How can I blame them? They need their work and that is what they do for living... watching kids whose parents are making their choices.

It was hard for me to become a home stay mom, as many of you know. I enjoy being part of the world and building my career. However I know what is most important for me right now and it is making sacrifices and being a mother. I know there will be opportunities when the time is right.

Not everyone would agree with me. But we all make choices and as my bishop yesterday said... at the end it is all about what we take with us after this life into eternity.

For me, my husband, my children and my personal development is all that matters... and I really don't care what others say or post on their blogs about me. If you are my friend and my family's... just simply be so, it is more than I can ask for.

Thank you guys, for all you have done, cried with me and shared my silly stories. It means more than I can tell. We really don't know where we are going right now... I am sure in a few months we will be more settled in one way or another.

I will let you know ;-)

In and out of Museum of Natural History

A cold morning that it was with temperature dropping to -2C (28F) we headed for our last farmers market trip. Sonia was all bundled up and happy to get out of the apartment. I love this civil war memorial arch... wars are inevitable and this is a sad reminder of differences we all face.

Then we took ourselves on an adventure... riding subway on Saturday to the Natural History Museum. Some of the lines were closed so it took Jeremy's ingenuity to figure out how to get there.Sonia's joy and exploration were enough to make this trip worth the effort ;-) She ran from one diorama to the other... naming animals and making all sorts of meows and barks.

The North American wild life was her favourite. I think she recognized most of the animals here.

It took encouragement and help from papa to get a little bit closer to the elephant family. They are big after all and little bit scary.

Sonia figured out a way to squeeze in between the railings and get closer to her objects or full admiration.

"Twit, twits!" They are African kind of its species.

Turkey day is coming up! We found two turkeys hiding in this display. Sonia saw them and exclaimed "Gobble, gobble, gobble!"

It is hard to see them but they are really there, just take a closer look.I love how old exhibits there are filled with love for animal world and beauty. It is easy to see change of scientific views and lack of faith in the later ones.

First Christmas casualty

We are moving out of NY, selling most of our furniture, packing up the rest and putting everything in the storage. I was going through all our stuff and decided to show Sonia some of our Christmas decorations. A while ago Babulya sent us our old family ornaments from Russian and nothing broke on its way to the US. Then we thought we accidentally lost them; Jeremy thought he threw them in the garbage in LA. I almost had a heart attack, then he found them shortly before Sonia was born. So today we repacked everything for another move and Sonia got to peek into our family Christmas treasures. She took two beautiful balls and "BANG" one of them turned out to be made of glass.

Oh, well what can you do? I remember this pink ball with snowflakes from a long time ago... probably was about Sonia's age when I first saw it. My mom told me I broke a few ornaments on my first Christmas.

Sonia played with Santa and Nativity globes. We talked about Santa and a little baby... I am sad we will miss it all this year.

We are grateful to move to Irina's home for a few weeks and spend this Christmas in Utah. So here we are packing all our stuff and hoping to get it back someday.

NYC goes crazy

Last night the city celebrated into the night. We had so much yelling, honking and loud music that it was hard to fall asleep more than when the Giants won the Superbowl. I think the city finally calmed down around 4 am.

We marked the day by venturing out into the city. First Central park and big rock. The rock leads to the playground and Sonia loved running about there.

Then we lucked out in the zoo... once again the polar bear was swimming. We admired his technique. Jeremy kept telling me how well the bear does his strokes and pushes off the walls. It feels like the bear is right next to you.

We couldn't pass FAO Schwartz. An expensive puppy ride was joyous.

Make your own muppet for only $34 had a big mouth.

Sonia was feeding him another super expensive bird by Stieff. Note the bird was way more than a muppet.

Then we found the duck.... we love FAO store. It is like an indoor playground stuffed with toys and no fee ;-)

Rockefeller Center all lit up, with cameras, crowds and non stop news reports. We love NY!

Carving away

We carved a bit late this year but we had just as much fun. Jeremy cut off the top and Sonia made an "Oooooh..." noise. She didn't quite expect the pumpkin to be hollow inside. She helped with taking stuff out of it. We talked about the seeds, touched and smelled inside pumpkin gooyees.

I found a design and drew it with a marker. Jeremy with a serrated Cutco knife carved it out while Sonia was making her own drawings on the smaller scale.

What a lovely little bat we have as a center piece on the dining table!!

Pumpfs, boos, and treats

I didn't have a blog then... so here is our little duck last year.

This year's grown up walking & talking little bunny... she calls pumpkins "pumpfs"

Here is our Hallowing comings and goings...

Nana sent us boos or a pair of hallowinish bear with a pumpkin and a black cat. All in black so Sonia called them boos and they are a nice addition to our basket. Thank you, Nana!

Babulya sent us a doll with a little trunk, hat, shoes, socks, PJs, and a little cute purse. Sonia named her Lyalya. Thanks Mom ;-)

We attended our ward party but I failed to make a pie or chili this year. We had a rough day. However Ben and Yuki used our habanero pepper in their chili and won first place! Sonia went trick-or-treating and got really into it. She said "Happy!" and "Treat!" at each door.

We loved going to Park Slope Halloween parade. Families (most everyone gets super dressed up) get together and march down a street with a band, dragons, bat skaters and huge puppets. Stores in the neighborhood give out candy and everyone is just spookly running around.

It is the biggest and most fun parade I've even seen . This year Sonia walked most of the way. She wanted to keep up with the other kids. She loved getting candy. I think she ate a pound of it by the end of the night.

On the way home her bag was empty ;-)

Happy Haloween!

Boos at the zoos

When we got to the Bronx zoo, hay rides didn't stand up to our expectations... it was a short truck ride accompanied by three songs. Everything else went great. Watching a pumpkin artist carve these beauties inspired me to try one at home.

Sonia loved this collection of animal pumpkins.

An excellent band engaged children in dance and they sang extremely good Halloweenish kid songs. We enjoyed a little nesting in the bird cage.

Sonia climbed up and up like a cat.

Skyfari was Sonia's favorite. Haunted carousel rides Sonia's most faves. She rode with papa on the beetle.

She also loves a carousel in Prospect Park. Our little zoo around here had a small stage performance about creepy thing stew with dragons, scorpions and spiders. To get in the theme of things we all touched a smooth python.

Having fun on Friday nights

The renovated Brooklyn Children's museum offered free Friday nights in October; we made several trips through a bit sketchy neighborhood.
Sonia hiked a music hill, played xylophone, bucket drums and bells with papa in the toddlers area.

She just made an age cut, eighteen months to ride this horse. Papa was mesmerized playing with the blue sand.

He simply made us laugh and giggle with funny puppets. Papa entertained a bunch of kids and they thought he was the coolest dad around.

We played a little dress up with clothes made in West Germany. Sonia loved a grocery store, she purchased cucumbers the first time and lots of oranges the second. She loved opening and smelling spices. They even had some boxes with Russian breakfast cereal. At the end we all had to relax at the library corner.