I know, I am behind on posting about a month worth of posts, but I decided to put current posts out and when I have time, I’ll post the missing posts under the “Retro” heading 🙂 Will try to have current week posts up by Tuesday or Wednesday of the following week. So here it goes…

Monday (August 13)

Ilyusha and I are sick. I’ve had this cold for over a week now and it is not going away. Ilyusha had an amazing night, sleep wise, but I was up every hour and couldn’t sleep. Of course in the morning I was so sick that asked Yura to stay home from work. He couldn’t take the full day, but promised to be home by 2 p.m. I called my mom to help me from about noon till Yura gets home.

Murphy’s law, when I really needed some rest, Ilyusha only had 20 min nap in the morning, so I made him a seat and he was playing in our bed as mommy was trying to get some rest. You can see from the photos that Ilyusha is not feeling so good either 🙁

After we both had some rest, I decided to take a pick of Ilyusha sitting on his own. Here is one. He is not sitting for a long period of time, but still… I am so proud of him. But since he is not sitting too well on his own, that’s the only good picture of many that I tried to take.

My mom came over and took Ilyusha for a walk, while I also slept for 2 hours. It was weird waking up without my baby in the house (not the best feeling). I’ve noticed that I slept for 2 hours and ran outside to see where my mom is. She was right there, as Ilyusha was still sleeping and she put the stroller in the shade.

Daddy got home close to 3 p.m. and Ilyusha was running a fever. He had fever on Sunday, so we were hoping that was the end of it, but since it returned I called Dr. Berzen’s office. His secretary actually raised her voice at me that I waited that long to call and should have called the moment he got the fever i.e. Monday morning since he had it on Sunday. Anyways, we were scheduled to come in for 5:45 p.m.

Ilyusha is all packed up and ready and this one is actually at the doctor’s office
to go to the doctors with daddy waiting for Dr. B and playing around

Dr. Berzen diagnozed Ilyusha with a mild ear infection. The decision was made not to put him on anything but return at 9 a.m. on Tuesday to retest.

We also made a wew discovery. Ilyusha likes foot massage. He stops crying and goes to sleep easier this way 🙂

Tuesday (August 14)

Our little family went to Dr. B again in the morning. Nothing has changed through the night, but there was no more fever, so Dr. B recommended that we leave it be as is without any medication; however, if it gets worse we should be back in his office.

After Ilyusha and I dropped of daddy at the office, I went to his play room and tried to figure out how to make sure he sits while playing. I found a “thing” that my parents bought me in order to read in bed. I’ve rarely used it for that purpose then I figured I can use it to breast feed in bed (that didn’t work either) and it was just laying around. Well, it worked nicely. I put a blanket on the floor with this “thing” on top and used a pillow or a towel to make sure he doesn’t fall forward, and voila!

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Then, when he got bored, back into jumperoo. Love to see my baby smiling even when he is sick.

Wednesday (August 15)

A pretty ordinary day. We played, ate, slept and went for a walk. But it was very hard to put Ilyusha to bed for the night, he was yelling and screaming. After about an hour of struggling, I enlisted Yuri’s help and somehow we managed to get him to sleep.

Thursday (August 16)

Again an ordinary day and since neither me nor Ilyusha were feeling too good, I wasn’t taking any photos. On Thursday evening I was scheduled to go out with girls (Julka, Alla and Marina). I did tell them that I take my car as I wanted to make sure that Ilyusha is in bed sound asleep before I go. I did leave a bottle of pumped milk for Yurka to feed Ilyusha at 11 p.m. just in case. After going through our usual night routine Ilyusha was not asleep by 8:40 p.m. I was ready to just stay home, but Yura wanted me to go out and said that he would take care of everything. He texted me at 9:40 p.m. that Ilyusha was finally asleep. I did ended up having a very nice time, and was happy that I went. The restaurant was closing at 11 p.m. and I was home around 11:20 p.m. so Ilyusha got his night feeding a bit late, but since he fell asleep late, he didn’t even stir before I got home.

We were discussing what was going on with Ilyusha as we were having difficulties putting him to bed for the past two nights. I knew that one of the days when he was very sick, we allowed him to fall asleep in our arms and then carried him to bed. So, I was surprised that after one day, he already managed to change his habits, but it appeared that on other nights when I was too exhausted and sick to continuously go to Ilyusha’s bed in the evening, Yura resorted to having him sleep in his arms. The good thing was that after two nights of being consistent in not allowing Ilyusha to fall asleep in our arms, he is back to his normal self in the evening.

Friday (August 17)

Well, I again had a very rough night. Plus during the girls night out, the girls convince me to go to a walk-in clinic to check out what I am sick with as it had been going on for over two weeks. Yura and I decided that I would go before clinic opens and hopefully be the first one in and he will stay with Ilyusha. I was the first one in! The doctor quickly diagnosed me with bronchitis and prescribed antibiotics with which I can safely continue breast feeding, but if they don’t work I would have to take stronger drugs and stop breast feeding 🙁 I really hope that this will not be necessary. I left the doctor’s office by 9 a.m. but then was stuck at the pharmacy for 30 min, even though I was once again first one in! Ugh…

When I got home, Yura showed me how Ilyusha stands on his own near the couch. We are always close by to catch as he just either bends his knees or falls backward. In the pictures, it looks like Ilyusha himself doesn’t understand what is going on. 🙂

Ilyusha and his vibrating teether:

This one right after I gave it to him Oops.. Not a problem… I can pick it up

Almost there…. Yes, I got it and it ALL MINE…. yummy!!!

Ilyusha and I also had fun with the Jolly Jumper! Ilyusha LOVES to jump!

It became a tradition for our little family to do Shabbat prayers together.

Daddy and Ilya are ready for Shabbat prayers I was trying to get the best picture, so daddy is tired, but Ilyusha is happy 🙂

Daddy is trying to read prayers and Ilyusha is also interested in taking part

and when he is not given this opportunity, he gets a bit bored

Saturday (August 18)

We were invited for a BBQ at my Roma & Leila’s new house. So first we went to Vaughan Mills to buy a gift and then were getting ready to go. Ilyusha is all ready in his sport suit that Alla & Sasha got him in the states pretty much when he was born. He was the star of the party, as always! and the evening would be the one to remember for some time, especially by Julka, as Ilyusha projectile vomited all over her new jeans (plus all over the dinner table, chairs and carpet, luckily it was outside and easily cleaned).

I actually met a new friend! If you can’t figure out from the pic, I am a bit afraid of him. Haven’t had much interaction with birds, and it was weird how this bird was climbing up my arm and around my shoulder.

Sunday (August 19)

We are spending some time at home before going to my parents’ house for a long walk. We walked for 5.5 km! As we were passing by Sasha’s parents’ house, I gave her a call and she was home, so she went out and we chatted for a bit. It was like old times! So so happy they are back!!! Since both Ilyusha and I are still recovering we spent the rest of the day at home playing.

I rarely use the little tray that comes with the Bambo seat as Ilyusha’s legs are pretty bulky and (a) it is hard to put the table in properly as I am afraid of hurting him, and (b) Ilyusha is very efficient in arching his back and kicking the table off the chair.  This is one of the rarest occasions when we are actually using this table for his tree toy.

Here more interested in mommy’s phone      Nope back to the tree, the lights and monkey

  

Meditating on the monkey

The tree fascination didn’t last long and he was back in this exer saucer.

He is now able to bend and put all toys in his mouth

As my lovely sister lost half of the toys on this excer saucer we had to improvise. Ilyusha stopped chewing the actual toy and went a bit lower to chew on the ball that I added

 

Posing for the camera!

 

This evening after I put him in his crib for the night, I came back to check on him and that’s what I found!

(look at his face! That’s before and after he realized I was in the room. I did use flash for these pictures so that gave me away)

He totally undone all buttons on his legs and was lying in his crib bare feet!!! It becomes a constant struggle as he unhooks one leg and shows his other leg inside the unhooked leg of his sleeper, and then complains about it. Fun times!