16 months old and 3 months home update

We have been absent for a few weeks now but only b/c I started work and haven’t really had much time to post updates. Let me tell you – it is not easy at all. In a way, I am glad to be back but I miss having my little boy around me. Everyone was asking me if I cried on the first day driving to work – I didn’t. It took almost a month before I got to that point. I ended up going to an IBM Forum one of the evenings after work and I didn’t see my son for almost two days. Driving home, it hit me that I will end up missing so much of his life and before I know it he will be a teenager. How do other working moms/ parents do it? I leave the house around 6-6:30AM before he wakes up and don’t get home until 7PM (or sometimes later) and it’s killing me that I only get to see him for just about 45 minutes every day during the week. Our weekends as a fimily are really amazing but still… is this how it is supposed to be... just weekends???

Anyway, here are some of this month’s highlights:

March 1st
Baba Marta – All Bulgarians celebrate the tradition of carrying a white and red martenici. We do it out of tradition and for health and happiness. Given that our families still live in Bulgaria, we have strong connections to certain Bulgarian traditions, including this one.
My parents sent us a whole bag of martenici and of course, it only made sense for Vanie to wear his 1st one as soon as he woke up on March 1st. Needless to say, he didn’t leave it pinned on his cloths for even a minute so I can take a picture.

March 8th
International Women’s Day
It is not necessarily celebrated here but March 8th is big in Bulgaria and Russia. This is also the official Mother’s day in Bulgaria so it meant making phone calls and greeting our moms.
We will have to see how we treat this one along with the official American Mother’s day once Vanie is older. I am thinking I should get both. :-)

March 11th
3 Months since our court date and since we officially become the parents of the sweetest, most cheerful and adorable little boy we have ever met. We plan on celebrating this day as an official anniversary once Vanie starts comprehending the amazing story of our family.
Another miracle on this date - Vanie decided that in honor of his “Gotcha Day” he should man up and finally stop crying eveerytime we try to feed him with a spoon. Yes, he no longer cries and actually likes being fed with the spoon ( I can even say that he prefers it to the bottle).

March 21st
That weekend Vanie had his first real beach experience. No, we didn’t go sunbathing but it was warm enough for us to walk in the sand and get Vanie’s feet in the water. He cried at first, not knowing how to react to the ocean waives or the warm and soft sand but he got pretty comfortable very soon. So comfortable that when we went to the beach a week later, he screamed his lungs out when we didn’t let him in the water b/c it was way too cold.

Overall, our son is doing great, developing by the minute and just making us happy every second of our lives. He is enjoying his daily walks to the park with his grandma and just all the freedom she gives him. He’s also gotten a nice Californian tan from being outside so much (catching up on vitamin D).
I keep hearing funny stories from their daily routine that always make our days:
• My mother-in-law once found him hiding and playing in Zorro’s house,
• He keeps begging for snacks so he can feed Zorro with them
• He has “lost” at least two sippy cups somewhere in the house which are still missing to this day
• Grandma’s glasses are missing now, too (not a trace of them)
• We constantly find either our underwear out of the designated drawers or all the books he can reach off the book shelves in our bedroom
• He keeps going on the scale in our room (mimicking us). He loves it and keeps doing it but doesn’t really know what it means
• His new thing is to stop and look at and “smell” every flower he sees. “Smells” is in quotes b/c he knows he is supposed to lean towards the flowers but doesn’t know to use his nose to smell them yet. He is just so artistic and I really hope he keeps that as he is growing up.

I can make this post endless because there have been so many little things and precious moments I wish I could record and memorize but it’s just impossible. I might just start doing so on twitter b/c it’s hard to remember everything once you are out of the moment.

I will post more pictures in the following post.