Halloween 08

This year we weren't going to get any costume for Mark because he absolutely hated all different costumes we tried. But then at the last moment, Chris went out and bought a train engineer costume, since Mark is really into choo-choos now.

Of course, putting a costume on brought out a 30-minute-long temper tantrum. But then we went over to our friends, Sean and Stephanie, and Mark always loves going there. His little friend, Maeli, was also loudly objecting to her batterfly-princess costume. So they made quite a loud duo. Sean was dressed as The Cat in the Hat and acted totally goofy. He kept making up silly rhymes every time someone would ring the door bell. Like one of the rhymes was "I'm the Cat in the Hat/ Eat this candy; it'll make you fat."

After having a bite to eat, we all went out for some trick-o-treat fun. We walked around the neighborhood, looked at a couple of funky haunted houses and lawns decorated with big inflatables. And we saw large crowds of other trick-o-treaters. Actually, Steph's neighbors kept count and said that they had 77 kids stopping by that evening! Crazy!

Well, Mark and Maeli didn't care to walk much, so instead they rode in the little Radio Flyer wagon which we all took turns pulling along. We even took Sean's dog, Maple, with us since it wouldn't be fair to leave her all alone in the house. That was probably the only time in the recorded history, when a cat was walking a dog! The entire procession - Sean in his costume leading Maple, followed by Chris pulling the wagon with the kids in it, and Steph and me bringing up the rear looked pretty funny. The kids got lots of complements and candy. Of course, as they are too little to eat candy, we got to eat it all (after putting Mark in bed). Loving it!

NC State Fair 08

Ever since our move from FL in 2006, we go to the State Fair every year. In Daytona we had the Daytona 500 and the Bikeweek with all their hustle and bustle and craziness. And here we have the State Fair. It is really fun, there's lot of fried food that is bad for you and pretty bad in general, and it is just as expensive. So apart from not seeing or hearing stock cars or Harley bikes, we notice hardly a difference. Ok, ok, so Daytona 500 does feature a fly-over by F-16s.

So this year we went there with Mark and with our friends, Sean and Stephanie and their little girl, Maeli. And while there, we met up with Matt and Amy and their toddler, Ford. Of course, because of the little kids, we couldn't stay as long as we wanted. And we didn't go on any rides other than the ones in the Kidz Fun Park. And we barely got to see the agricultural exibits. But it was still lots of fun.
Mark walked almost all the time! And he loved the grilled italian sausage with peppers and onions and roasted corn on the cob. But most of all, he loved the Fun Slide. Now, the Fun Slide was very tall and scary.

It's party time!

Things we do here, in Raleigh

What do Mark and I do during the week? We do lots of cool stuff. Usually we follow some kind of schedule, but of course things change and we try to stay flexible.

Mondays are our nothing-special-scheduled days. Sometimes we have playdates and other times we go to the library. Other times we go to the science museum in the Downtown.

We recently started going to the Russian day-care on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Mark is the youngest child there and there are usually 4-5 others. At first I was worried that he'd hate it, but I was so very wrong. He really loved it from the first day. Well, he already knew the teacher; it's the same woman that teaches his Saturday class at the Russian school. Other kids are Alex, 5; Alexei, 5; Varya, 5; her little sister, Tasya, 3; and Ella, 3. So Mark is the baby. When I come to pick him up, the kids say "Baby, your mommie is here!". But they all like him and treat him really well. I think he gets along with all of them.

He loves watching the boys doing cartwheels and running and jumping around. And he doesn't just watch and laugh; he tries to imitate them too! He even started doing sommersaults (with my help, of course). He likes the youngest of the girls, Tasya. She can be a bit bossy, but he holds her hand and they walk together and even talk! So now he repeats some of the things she says and in the same tone of voice; things like "come over", "here", "there", "what's this" - in a very bossy way. Another thing he repeats after her is "ouch!" - he loves it and laughs every time he says it.

Anyway, another thing Mark does now on Tuesdays and Thursdays is swimming lessons. Of course, Mark is much too young to learn swimming, but he learns to not be afraid of water. Chris takes him to the pool in the evenings. I don't go, so I don't have any pictures. But I've heard good things about the lessons.

On Wednesdays I now take him to the Tumble Bunnies class at a YMCA. It's a bit far, but it's worth the trip. A couple of his little friends go there too. The instructors set up a mini-obstacle course that changes each time. Mark does very well, even on the balance beam. And then the kids play with a big parachute and that's absolutely Mark's favorite thing!

Then on Wednesday afternoons we have physical therapy. Mark is doing great now. He's really improving. He goes from sitting to standing to laying down without thinking twice. His balance is much better now; he crawls and climbs and goes down the slides; he twirls around and bounces; he can almost run; and he climbs up the stairs really well. We still have plenty of things to work on though.

On Fridays we also have a free day. Again we have playdates and go to the museums and parks. We try to have a arts lesson at least once a week now that Mark likes drawing with crayons and doesn't mind playdough as long as he gets to use the Fun Factory. And we try to go to the children's museum called Marbles. Also, we go to the Pullen park where we ride carousel and the train and now the boats.

A half-day at the farm

Actually, it was even less than half-day; it was more like an hour or so. I took Mark to the Russian school in the morning and then he slept for 3 hours. That’s what he does – during the week his naps are only about one hour long, but on weekends – 3-hour naps aren’t uncommon. And so we had a late start. The farm was pretty far away – on the other end of town. Also, the directions we got from Google weren’t exactly right and we kept driving back and forth looking for our turn. Finally we got to the farm at about 4pm. But it was a lot of fun. First we had Mark go on the hay mountain. He wasn’t very excited about it though, probably because there were too many other kids climbing, running, jumping and acting crazy. But he did crawl through a very long tunnel under the mountain.

Then we took him to the hay maze. I thought he wouldn’t be very interested in it, but it was just the opposite. He loved it and kept wanting to go back. He even went into the maze on his own! Then we went to the larger corn maze, but it really wasn’t all that. And most corn was already picked. And plus it rained the day before, so the ground was very muddy. We got out of the corn maze with only a couple of ears of corn and went to feed the animals. This farm had a small petting zoo with goats, pigs, and chickens. Except of course, you couldn’t pet the pigs because they bite. And since so many people go through and pet and feed the animals, they really couldn’t care less for our corn. They did love the dry corn stalks though. But what they liked even more was the fresh grass. All the goats and sheep ate all the grass in their little enclosure. So they were just too happy to got even the smallest blade from us. That’s how we kept them coming over. Otherwise, they would just stay away.

But pretty soon it got boring anyway and we went to pick cotton. Cotton-picking is a lot of fun when you only do it for a few minutes. The plants are very beautiful and it’s pretty amazing how much cotton can you pull out of a single flower (or whatever it is called). Mark really got into it. I guess he really liked that for once he was encouraged to pull and tear something. I decided to use the cotton that we picked for crafts, but so far we haven’t used any. Anyway, just as we were done picking cotton, we saw that the hay ride was getting ready to leave. We hurried up and jumped on a hay wagon. Of course, Mark simply loved it. We sat all the way in the front where he could see the big tractor. He thought that was the absolutely best thing ever, even better than cotton. Unfortunately, the girls that sat next to us didn’t think so; they kept throwing corn at the driver. Mean!

Finally, it was time to go to the pumpkin patch. Our admission price included picking one pumpkin per paying adult. First we went to the patch and tried to find a pumpkin still on the vine. It wasn’t that difficult, especially after we moved all the way to the back of the patch. But all the pumpkins were pretty small. So we let Mark find one and we picked it. But then we felt like getting 2 tiny pumpkins just wouldn’t be fair. Instead, we went back and picked another, larger, pumpkin from a ready-to-pick pile. Mark was getting tired and cranky; it was getting cold and dark. And there was really nothing left to do. It was clearly time to leave.

Bear Mountain

I love Bear Mountain! It's so close to my parents' house - only about 10 minutes away and an easy drive. And most of the time it's absolutely beautiful. If you go early enough in the morning, you might be the only person at the summit. And on a clear day, you can see the downtown Manhattan and the Empire State Building from the summit.

During this visit, I went to Bear Mountain not once, but twice. The first time, with my brother who took a day off to spend with me and Mark. We left the house pretty early and stopped for breakfast at one of the bagel shops in Pomona. Then we drove up to the summit along an empty winding road covered in yellow leaves. After spending time at the summit, we drove down the mountaint to the lodge and walked to the little zoo there.

The zoo was great! It has a nature trail with lots of interesting information. Even my brother admitted that he learned a lot of new things. And we saw some pretty cool animals, even a couple of bears. The only thing that sucked was that I had to carry Mark most of the way since he refused to sit in a stroller and got tired less than half-way through the walk.

The second time, I took mom to Bear Mountain. We wanted to set out early in the morning, but I overslept. Then it was time for Mark's nap. Then - lunch. Finally we left at around 1pm. Of course, there were tons of people at the summit, but this late in the day there was no haze and the views were stunning! Mark didn't care though. He picked up a big stick and spent the entire time running around a big rock and fighting a clump of tall grass that grew at the side of this rock.

But check out these golden retrievers we saw on the way back to the car! Aren't they cool?! And I can't get Mark to wear sunglasses or a hat.

Apple Picking in New York

What can be more fun on a warm sunny day in early October than going apple picking? Going apple picking in New York, of course! Luckily, there's a great little family farm, Conklin Farm, that has Pick-Your-Own on weekends. And it's less than 2 miles from my parents' house.

So off we went to pick the apples yesterday. Actually, the first time we went there was last week. But the weather was perfect, Mark was refusing to take an afternoon nap, and I wanted to get out of the house.

Oh boy, apparently many others had the same idea of going apple-picking on a sunny afternoon; the place was packed! It doesn't hurt that they also have a store on premises that sells everything from fruits and veggies to spices and preserves, a pumpkin patch, and a Kids' Zone with inflatables and slides.

We didn't plan on picking a lot of apples, so we only took 1 plastic bag. But of course how could we pass by huge, ripe apples with their glossy red cheeks warm from the sun and smelling like heaven! And so we picked and picked - red apples, yellow apples, red and yellow apples, apples hanging from the branches and apples from the grass, apples from big trees and apples from dwarf trees... And after our bag was full, we simply picked a few pretty ones, wiped them off with our T-shirts, and sunk our teeth into them. Mmmm, so very good! Mark ate a whole big apple - a record for him! All in all, we picked close to 20lbs of apples.

On the way back, we stopped by the farm's store. It was absolutely packed with shoppers and smelled deliciously of freshly-baked apple cider doughnuts. We picked up some fresh cider, corn, and doughnuts and hurried back home to the feast.

Mark's first parade

Even though we had some bad weather Friday evening and Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon was great. So we went to the downtown for a Raleigh Wide Open festival. Besides, it was the weekend of official opening of a new convention center with its uber-cool shimmering wall (thousands of pieces of moving metal forming an ever-changing picture of an oak tree; and it's lit at night too!). Fayetville St was closed to traffic and instead had vendors set up selling food and trinkets and advertising their businesses. There were several concert stages as well. In the convention center itself we got a short tour of the place and then went downstairs to the exhibit floor because they had a huge International Festival going on. I lost count of how many countries were represented through little food kiosks, information booths as well as dance and music groups, but definitely a couple of dozens. City and state services were there as well. So Mark got to check out a police car and a fire engine (of course he LOVED both). And at the end of the day there was even a parade, a short one though.

Museum of Life and Science

Mark and Monkeys at the Zoo

Hooray-hooray, we are going to the zoo today! Actually, we just got back. It was Mark's first trip to the zoo. Frankly, I understand why kids under 2 get in for free - otherwise it would be a total waste of money. Mark wasn't much interested in the animals. I think it was because most of the animals were a) behind the glass, like the pythons or b) far away, like the elephants or c) sleeping, like the lions. The only ones he really liked and paid attention to for a little while were meerkats (ok, so they were super-cute). He did like the zoo overall - ran around for a while, was interested in trees, flowers, water fountains... In fact, he was so engaged that he forgot to take his nap and started getting very cranky. So after about 2 hours at the zoo we got back to the car and headed home. Mark fell asleep 1 minute into the car ride...

And he stayed asleep for about 25 minutes, until we stopped at the apple orchard. Our plan was to drive up to the store, I would go in and get the apples and then we would continue on our way, without waking up Mark. Sure thing... it didn't work as planned. The babe woke up the second we turned off the road into the parking lot and he was ready for action. So we all got out of the car, grabbed a couple of baskets and wandered off into the orchard to pick some apples. And then we sat in the shade of the huge trees cooling off (it was a very hot day today), swang on a tire swing and tried (unsuccessfully) to climb up the tree. Best of all, after paying for all the apples ($1/lb - a bargain worth driving for), we even bought some fresh apple cider slushie (the best idea ever). And it was tons of fun for Mark since now he drinks out of the straw.

So Mark spent most of the rest of the day running around, climbing up and down the furniture, screaming his head off, saying things like "aisee-yaisee", "woooooow", and "trheeeh" (we don't know what he means, but it sounds very important and fun).

Busy Summer

Ok, so I haven't posted in almost 3 weeks. But that's because, as usual, we're very busy here. I can't really think of any particular project we're busy with, just lots of small daily stuff. Although we did go to a Mediterranean-themed BBQ party at Sean & Stephanie's and then had a little cook-out of our own the following weekend.

Mark's got a couple of new toys, quite a few new scratches and bruises, and he's kissed a girl! He finally weights more than 20lbs, but just barely - 20.48lbs to be exact. And he grew a bit taller and is now full 31 inches. He tries to run, climbs stairs whenever I'm not watching, and absolutely loves sliding down the big slides (ok, I have to go with him). No talking, but a lot of pointing, tagging at clothes, and babbling. Favorite games include chase, peek-a-boo (he actually hides now), and a game where Mark is a bull and Chris is a bull-fighter.

A couple of weeks ago I took Mark to the Russian school. It's only a part-time school - once a week for half a day. Most kids in the youngest age group are still much older than him - 3-4 year-olds. He didn't care much for learning new things mostly because he didn't want to sit down even for a second. So I had to take him out of the classroom and to the playground. Still it was a good experience because he got to be around kids and adults who spoke Russian. So we'll try to go again every Saturday, if only for an hour.

Back from NY

Sorry for a long dry spell... We're finally back from visiting Mark's grandparents in NY. Tons of things happened and most of them were very good (even though the trip began with us getting locked out of the house, me getting sick, everyone else getting sick, Mark cutting a new tooth, etc, etc). Anyway, Mark had tons of fun. He spent most of the days outside - on the deck, in the splash pool, walking up and down the stairs, in the garden. And he hardly sat down at all! I mean, from about 6am to 8pm with only one short - 30 min - nap, he kept walking, climbing, crawling, standing, and running. He was so busy exploring the surroundings and enjoying himself that he didn't bother to play with any of the toys I brought with us from home! Here's a video of a little game he came up with while in NY.

Airplanes in my kitchen

Mark turned 17 months old this week. He's walking very well now! Plus he learned to stand up from crouching on the floor, pick up objects from the floor, and otherwise move around easily. Today Chris and Mark were playing an airplane game - running around the kitchen in big circles, hands outstretched, making the "ooooo" sound.

Mark is absolutely fascinated by cars. He can spend a very long time walking circles around our little Rio, pointing to the headlights, doors, wheels. The other day I was gardening and he took my keys, walked straight to the driver's door, and tried to stick the car key into the lock! He also now puts plastic "coins" into the piggy-bank and can put a little toy pyramid together. He loves watching me assemble a tall tower out of stacking cups - you can just see him giddy with anticipation. Then I tell him "ok, now you can go ahead and demolish it" and he pushes the 3-foot tall tower ever so gently with his little finger and watches it sway and then crash with a loud noise.

We don't feed him baby food any more. He now eats our regular food, except we don't put any pepper or spices in it. Surprisingly, he mostly loves it, even the veggies (especially the veggies, I should say). Tonight he even ate a salad with olives, artichokes, and capers and absolutely loved it.

The pictures here are from the 4th of July weekend. We didn't do much on the 4th - went to the Fairgrounds for some ice-cream and music. But we got there way too early for the music. So we had to settle for just ice-cream, some root beer, and a few minutes in the misting tent for Mark. The next day we went to Durham for the 27th annual Festival for the Eno. It was very nice - we walked around, listened to a lot of great music, ate fair food, played games and dipped Mark in the river.

One Giant Step...

Mark is walking! I mean, he's finally walking and standing un-assisted (on his own, without using any kind of support). This is very exciting. I mean, he's been cruising since he was about 12 months old. So we've waited for this for a while. But it's great so far. Our phys. therapist, Tom, worked with Mark and finally got him confident and strong enough to step out on his own. Thank you, Tom!!! We'll post a video and some pictures later this week.

Here is the video (actuall, two videos).

Fiscal Fast is Over

Day 5 of our first Fiscal Fast was hot and sunny... Ok, ok, so it went just fine without any accidents. We didn't go to any stores, didn't spend any money, didn't even think about spending money. The refrigerator was getting emptier and we ran out of fresh fruits (I know, I know - not quite the Donner Party story, but YOU WEREN'T THERE!). I took Mark to the lake to feed the ducks and then to the pool in the morning. Then in the afternoon, after Chris came home from work, he took Mark to our neighbor's pool, which is actually better than the Lake Johnson pool because it has a real spring board, hehe.

Day 6 was a Saturday. As usual, I was going to sleep in while Chris was supposed to entertain Mark for a couple of hours, until 8-9am. Through my sleep I heard them leaving the house... Did they go to a playground? Did they go to a park? Or maybe they went to a post-office to mail a letter? No, no, no! They went to a coffee house (guess who's idea that was). And so our Fiscal Fast was interrupted. But just like any successful dieter would know, it's important not to regard these occasional slip ups as an all-or-nothing deal. That's where the cheat-day concept comes in. And so we cheated just a little bit - Chris had his morning coffee and later that afternoon we bought a big $3-dollar snow-cone at a Moore Square concert. In our defence, it was VERY hot out there and we did split the snow-cone between the 3 of us (yes, Mark loves snow-cones).

Day 7 was supposed to be the last day of our Fiscal Fast. Well, turns out, while asleep, we made a joint decision to cancel Day 7 altogether and stick to a 6-day week. We decided to properly celebrate the end of the challenge by going to the Gypsy's Shiny Diner in Cary for some breakfast. And since our fridge was practically empty, right after breakfast we went to the Farmers Market and then to the Whole Foods. But that was it as far as day's spendings. In the afternoon we went on a stroll along one of the greenways. And in the evening we went to yet another free concert, this one at the Fletcher Park. And really, we could've done a lot worse and went to a mall or to a Target store instead.

So all in all, even though we didn't last the entire week, we didn't do too bad either. We didn't perish nor did we go through hardship. We didn't stay at home getting bored. As a matter of fact, we found one of the nicest parks in Raleigh (Fletcher Park) and re-visited possibly the best playground in the Triangle area (Kids Together) and we went to more concerts (3) this week than many people go in a year. We haven't been to any store, except for Whole Foods and a couple of book stores. And best of all, we only drove 134 miles - half-tank of gas.

Fiscal Fast - Day 4

The week is almost over... I can't wait for the weekend and a chance to get some decent sleep. Mark keeps waking up at 6am, but now that he's teething AGAIN, he wakes up more often at night and stays awake longer... I'm really thinking about starting drinking coffee in the mornings.

Anyway, today I had to go to the store to buy some fresh milk for Mark. Even though we're not buying any groceries for ourselves this week, we agreed that I'll have a $10 budget for Mark - milk, fruits, etc. So I bought him some goat milk, a couple of bananas, and a small thing of raspberries for a grand total of $6.30. I still have $3.70 left over to spent - I'll buy a pint of blueberries at the Farmer's market. One thing though - I had to really restraint myself from buying items that were on sale or from buying more than what was absolutely necessary.

Usually on Thursdays we drive to the North Hills shopping center for a free concert. Also usually we get a bite to eat and some ice-cream. And on the way back from the concert we usually stop by Target to pick up whatever we have on our "wanted" list. Today we just went to the concert. How much money did we save? Well, let's say $8 or so for ice-cream and around $50 at the Target store (it just seems like every time I step into a Target, I walk out at least $50 lighter). We had a good time at the concert, except it was very hot and I kept thinking about cold drinks and ice-cream!

Fiscal Fast - Day 3

Still doing ok... Not much happened today. The main challenge I have every day is to come up with entertainment for Mark. Usually I have a small schedule of recuring weekly activities for mornings and afternoons. So on a typical Wednesday we might go to Pullen Park to play, feed ducks, and ride on a carousel and on a train. And in the afternoon we might go to the Monkey Joe's. Well, this week both options are unavailable to us - each ride at Pullen Park costs $1 per person and Monkey Joe's price is $5. So instead we went to the Kids Together playground in Cary - absolutely free, with lots of play areas, huge sand boxes, and plenty of shade. And in the afternoon we went on a long stroll.

In case you're wandering, we're ok on food, even though last time I went grocery shopping was over a week ago. As a matter of fact, I finally cleaned up the crisper and made vegetable soup. And for main course I made a simple salad - home-made bread (baked by Chris), tomatoes (the last of the ones I bought at the Farmers' Market) and home-grown basil. And we even had a dessert - fresh sticky buns baked by Chris!

Fiscal Fast - Day 2

We're still on track. Chris even left his wallet at home this morning. He said that since he wasn't going to spend any money, his wallet was essentially useless. Personally, I think he was just trying to put some distance between himself and his credit cards. And it worked - he did not spend $3.60 on a Tuesday lunch special - mac'n'cheese and a Coke. It was more difficult for me since I kept my wallet with me. I took Mark to the playground, then - to the library for toddler story-time, and finally to the Tookie Toys toy store for a playdate (they let kids play with almost all their toys). This was all accomplished without any breaks. Naturally, by the time we were done, I was starving (Mark had some snacks and juice). And I kept seeing food places everywhere - a Subway, a grocery store, a pizza place, etc - all running these great specials. But I managed to get home without wipping out my wallet.

In the evening we all went to the Barnes&Noble for our regular Tuesday night. Except we couldn't buy anything, of course. Honestly, it was just not the same! Going to B&N was always as much about sipping on a double-chocolate chip frapp as it was about looking through books and magazines. It is especially important now that we're stuck in the children's section because that's where Mark stays busy and quiet. Still, we didn't spend our regular $7 or so. And I didn't buy any of the cookbooks - a savings of at least $20.

Fiscal Fast - Day 1

Ok, so 1 down, 6 more to go! It wasn't so bad after all, this first day of the Fiscal Fast. The most challenging part for me was to keep Mark busy during the day without doing too much driving (since I don't want to run out of gas before the week is over). So we ended up mostly staying in the house, playing with the toys. He gets really bored with the same old toys, but fortunately he's easily entertained with even the simplest new ones. For example, today I took some of my business cards (for lack of a better option) and an empty shoebox, cut a slit the width of the card in the box top, and we played the "mailbox" game. Surprisingly, Mark really liked putting cards into the box (ok, so I had to help him a lot) and then taking the lid off and collecting the "mail". We also played some water games!

And we did go out - in the morning I took Mark to the lake for a walk and to feed the ducks. And in the evening Chris took Mark to the pool for a little while (we have pool passes, so no money exchanged hands today).

All in all, Mondays aren't our spending days. Ok, so if we could spend, we would've done it:

Chris said he would've spent $0.60 at a vending machine and
I would've definitely went to a coffee shop this morning for a much-needed pick-me-up - $1.75.

BTW, I found a couple of free events to keep us busy this weekend. So now I'm crossing my fingers that the weather holds.

Fiscal Fast - Day 0

Chris and I started our first Fiscal Fast today. It consists of spending no money, $0.00, for one full week. We got this idea after reading Jeff Yeager's "The Ultimate Cheapskate". The whole thing sounded challenging, yet not extreme. Besides, we would have to stick to the plan for only one week. We felt we were mentally and financially ready. Fresh after the house-selling scare, with a very limited income and a cash-flow resembling the Murray River in extreme drought, we wanted to feel more in control of our finances. Besides, as I mentioned in one of the earlier posts, I started calling our neighborhood Target store my second home.



Now, to briefly go over the rules:



1) No spending money for 7 days (yes, this includes a weekend)

2) No stockpiling of groceries, gas, iTunes, etc beforehand

3) Keeping track of what we would've spent if not for the Fast



We did have to make a couple of exceptions (blame them on Mark):



1) I am allowed to buy 1 carton of milk and 1 pint of berries or peaches at the Farmer's Market so that Mark has fresh food

2) We did top the car off on Sunday (usually we do it on Thursdays)

3) My business expenses are exempt from the Fast