Hanukkah, keys and smiles.....

I have to admit my photos have not been as much in abundance as of late. It's been a busy end of year, so starting in January I will try to get better. We have a new family camera so I will start take photos with that instead of my iphone. 


First off, I gave Sasha his first dreidel, er..chew toy. He did not seem at all impressed with my Hanukkah songs and dreidel spinning. He did however think Jingle Bells was hilarious when I sang it to him. Go figure. 

Dreidel..Dreidel...Dreidel

Sasha is not a fan of putting on clothing. He despises sleeves most of all. He would be happy in muscle tee's, but that's not really an option due to the weather and um, our style. Getting him in his winter coat is somewhat of a challenge so I have a few items to entertain him while we go through the process. He is chewing on his own baby keys since he always wants mine. But his most favorite, which is sitting in his lap, are tic tacs. They make a wonderful rattle and he never notices I am putting on shoes, coat and a hat until I take away the tic tacs. Whew. Once we are dressed and out the door, he's a happy guy. He loves to be on the move like his mama. 

Got my keys, ready to go....

Lastly, I just love this photo. I can't get enough of Sasha's smiles. He is most happy playing with his basket of blocks and books. He can't get of them. 

I love my blocks. 

Have a happy and healthy New Year and see you on 2012. 

Happy Holidays!

It's been a busy few months around our house. I have been working on a freelance project for since the summer taking up every minute of my time not spent with Sasha. Somehow Sasha is going to be a whooping 8 months next week - how did that happen? Every day I look at him I have to say "you are soooo big" and I mean it. He grows right before our eyes. His hair seems to be growing in abundance as well. 


It's been so fun to have a baby around for the holidays. You really get to appreciate everything new through his eyes and it makes you remember that it's all about friends and family. Sasha loves the lights, the crinkle of wrapping paper and the cheesy holiday music. What Sasha does not like is putting on many layers of clothing, but you can't win them all. 


A friend of mine loan me a santa costume that her little guy wore to go see the big Santa. I thought it would be great fun to get Sasha in it and do a holiday card. As previously mentioned my little guy is not a fan wardrobe changes, so we made it as far as the hat. Basically Sasha staged his own photo shoot. Somehow he found the pom pom and thought it was hilarious to pull his hat off. So we just went with it and could not stop laughing. I don't know if you can see the t-shirt but it says "rocker baby", this was a baby shower gift from my friend Michele. Alas, Jingle Bell Rock came to life. 


Have a wonderful, happy and healthy holiday from the Burling's. See you next year. 

Feeds Self Cracker

At Sasha's first doctor appointment five days after he was born we were given a yellow pamphlet to keep track of his health record. On the inside of the pamphlet there's a chart that highlights average growth and development for the first six years of life. For some reason, we chuckled at the development listed as "feeds self cracker".  At five days old we couldn't even fathom Sasha eating let alone holding a cracker. 

As I mentioned before Sasha is well, what can I say, he's a foodie. He loves everything we give him and always will try everything. We just started to introduce him to organic snack food as a means to get him comfortable picking up his food and feeding himself and it's fun. As his pincer grip develops and his little fingers and adorable thumb continually practice picking up everything he can get his hands on, he is still not quite grabbing a sandwich with both hands, but getting close. 

The other day a fellow mommy turned me on to Baby Mum-mum's, an organic rice rusk. This is basically a rice cake for babies shaped like a long oval so it's easy to grasp. So of course I went to the health food store the next day, got a box, opened box, put Sasha in his high chair, gave him a mum-mum, he loved it....end of story. 

Today when I gave Sasha his mum-mum it broke in a few pieces. I picked up a piece to hand it to him and he got very upset. He thought Mommy was taking his mum-mum. Once I helped him get the small piece back in his mouth, he stopped crying. Someone does not want to share their mum-mum's. 

In case your wondering why Sasha looks so different in these photos, it's because, well, he looks different. He's growing up before our very eyes and we are convinced he often grows overnight. 

Who cares what this is, I love to eat...

Look at me feeding myself, such a big boy.

Those two teeth come in handy.