William and Zara in North Wales

Here they are "playing nicely" which means Zara is not interested in any kind of sharing. The good news is that just before we left, she was behaving much better and their interaction was really fun to watch!
Gilo in London!
William waiting for his ride on the horsey!
With Matt we had 10 at the table!
Look who we found enjoying a walk on the beach! I still can't believe that Liz was in shorts!

england and wales

ohhh its chilly mommy! in the mountains of snowdonia; on the way to the cottage!
ahhh, nice and warm with victoria at church bay!

Matt arrives in Anglesey

Here we are in Dublin after meeting up with Matt after his overnight flight from the US! We are having a nice pub lunch with irish stew!

snaps from the cottage!

Zara 's birthday today!!

Our first day in London with Justin Sharla, and baby William.
Anthony treated Zara & me to lunch near his office, here they are teaching Zara to use crayons- her first time!
Arrival in North Wales, off to the beach down a very steep hill.. not bad going down, its the coming up that's completely uncivilized!
just outside the cottage....more to come

Lazy Sunday on Anglesey

all the cousins come over to visit... we plan to hit the beach in the afternoon once high tide has occurred- that way the sea is "warm" having just come up over the sand and stones! At least that is what we tell ourselves when it's so cold that it feels like your rib cage has suddenly been restricted and your body goes numb! LOL

Hottest day of the year here in North Wales

close to 85 degrees i would say! Here's a view from Zara's bedroom that she generously shares with me.. and soon daddy too!
Jane's daughters- julia and joanna came to the cottage with their little ones, they both have girls--Luella and Freya. We lounged in the garden together and the William even got up from his nap to join in the action!

Happy birthday cooey July 26th

all the birthdays are happening..sharla, cooey, anthony, mary rose and greg rock, Ashlyn, Declan, ..and list seems to go on!!! Zara turns ONE on July 30th! that's because we don't do august round here! wink wink..

here we are at Church bay! we all went in for a swim somehow; except the babies of course, way to cold! We waited for high tide so it would be warmest...xoxoxox love j

Video from England

Anthony turned 37 on july 15th and Becs found a beautiful guitar for him. He celebrated by playing for us some songs and later found himself teaching zara to do some coloring!
press play to see uncle anthony in action!

Zara almost one!

dining a la fresco

Zara dining outside video

press play see vids! random sampling of the last 2 weeks, this one is Zara hopefully eating her dinner, since she demands a spoon and only wants to feed herself, we have placed her in a "safe" environment for all! She sits just outside the front door of the cottage, and we watch from a undisclosed location..lately does not like anyone "helping" and gets distracted and plays with her food, trish says she is just very clever... or so we all hope!

At The Alewyd Uchaf in Anglesey, North Wales

Here we are with cousin William in the garden of the cottage enjoying the sun! Even though it's about 60 degrees; when you are out of the wind from the sea, the sun feels very warm! My cousin Justin is holding William here who is only 7 months months but is a "big chap!"
Zara is having a tasty peach and enjoying all the attention. These photo's are from my Aunt Trish's camera and i was able to upload them, soon i should be able to do my own shots too!

The Munch Arrived in London one hour early!

It was a great flight with the munch, super well- behaved and fortunately due to the fact that there was TWO of us controlling the situation! thank you MATT!
We loved meeting cousin ~William for our first time, he is 7 months and is powerful! We had some lovely walks in the park and today i drove up from London via Ludlow to the alewyd uchaf! The drive went through Snowdonia, beautiful mountain driving BUT tricky...with the stick shift on my left side, not to mention i was sitting on the right side of the car and driving on the left side of the road!
We did arrive safe and sound and will hope to upload some pics soon for you! Zara has been spectacular, and really rolls with the punches! I might even be able to feed her some bigger meals here; and fatten her up! Although i have to say she has to DO EVERYthing herself and wont let me give her food with a spoon, so i am working on all sorts of healthy foods that she can hold and put in her mouth before it slips out of her fingers and lands on the floor!
oh well.. i just hate seeing her trying and then the food not actually making it into her stomach!
I have some wonderful pics of ~Anthony and Becs on Anthony's 37th birthday, pics will be up soon! Anthony got a gorgeous guitar from Becs ands was playing reggae for Zara! How hip!
I've also just heard that Aisha is flying to London for ONE DAY to have lunch with us; its about an hour flight from Holland, but such a big effort for her! So excited Aisha!!!! xxx j

July 2008

She loves her Baths Al Fresco!

here is Zara's army crawl! How fitting!

The dresses are done, miraculously thanks to Granny Zarr!

Here's the big unveiling ...hahaha, Granny Zarr did the zipper and the finer touches, and a month later we are done with our summer project! Matching mother and daughter dresses....just 36 hours before flying out!

The Munch in her pink Camo!

Our little army waterbaby ready for her swim!

We chose the camoflage shirt that said "Major Cutie" but probably should have picked " Major Trouble"!

"4 more nights and a wake up" til we fly to London!

Soon we will be here!

Our cottage is in the foreground, To give you an idea...we walk daily the small road down and around the hill to come to a nice beach called Church Bay!

Off in the distance over the water is Holyhead port where Matt will arrive by ferry from Ireland!

We are so close to being there...
We leave on Friday!

here's a side view of my mom's family cottage in Wales. It's appropiately named the Alewyd Uchaf, which means "highest hearth", as it is the highest house on the highest "mountain" around!

July 7 08, AKA Galina's Birthday!

We are coming off our high from a great July 4th with Renee & Greg! Renee, Greg's fiance, played with us all day while Greg was working his DC policeman shift downtown for the 4th of July festivities! Renee and I made it over to the National Cathedral for the fireworks with 30 mins to spare! We had a blast and came home and had hamburgers and other treats all made by Matt!

Today was a fun filled Sunday! We started off the day at my 8am soccer game! We had a good win, 3-0. Lauren, Mike and Justin all played as well as newcomer Carol! Here's a pic after the game...

Then we did some pre-lim packing for London and Wales, afterwhich we celebrated with Grandpa and Granny Zarr and enjoyed a fancy dinner out at Firefly Restaurant.

Happy 4th of JULY Everyone!

IT'S Finished! Here is Zara in her dress we made for her, i have a matching one....i still need to sew the hemline on mine... hee hee...not sure if i will wear mine out too often but my Mom was great and help me so much in making the mother daughter dresses.

I AM 11 months old Today and Megan is here!

Here is Megan & Zara at the pool today. Megan is Matt's youngest sister and she is visiting for a couple of nights! Tomorrow, we are taking the train down to the Mall for the Folklife Festival!!! Then off to Gymboree gym class; should be fun!

12 days til the cottage in Wales!

we'll be there soon!
Hi Mommy! are you coming to bed too?
making sure our passports are ready! Don't worry Daddy's is all ready too!

we just got a call from Chrissy and Devonte, sorry to say they were not able to make the trip this week to see us and Zara afterall. I told her not to worry, she really felt dissapointed, but we understood. She must be really in need of rest after travelling back from Cuba and her 6months aways from Te, too.

Straight from the good babysitting book

For those of you who need help, here is a video clip from Jocelyn's highly acclaimed "Caring for baby" training video! So pay close attention to such courageous parenting skills....Watch and learn! LOL

We saw a double rainbow!

outside in the sun shower in front of our home

if you ask... "Zara, how big are you?" she always does her "sooo big" gesture

Zara at the pool today, 11 months old!!!!

Yesterday we weighed her and she is 16lbs; or so our digital scale said! I thought she'd be at least two pounds heavier esp. since at her 9 month visit she was 15lbs 4oz! Plus she feels heavier to me-- evidently i have just become increasingly weaker....oh help!

This morning we went to Gymboree music class and then off to the pool in the late evening! Apparently, we have proven ourselves to be just "ladies of leisure".

If you watch the video above at the pool .. try your best to ignor my voice...i sound like a crazy lady! LOL

hahaha xoxoxox j

At Granny Zarr's house

Lots of flowers in granny's Garden... Zara has just learned how to sniff this week; not sure if she actually is smelling things but she certainly enjoys putting her nose onto everything!

We have been going to Granny's daily since Mommy is making/or shall we admit- attempting- to sew a dress for Zara & Mommy in matching Indonesian Batik fabric. For those paying close attention .. yes I KNOW....its been two weeks and counting.. and still no unveiling of the finished products yet!

Daddy's favorite pics!

tired out from beach livin'

snaps from Long Island!!!

Here are the tiskas; after sammy baseball game we went for icecream! Zara was loving Rich as you can see here!

on the steps at their home...Waiting for the Big kids to come home from school each day!
A little beach time before catching the plane home
sammy with Zara after a very yummy italian dinner