LanaM!

VivaAmore

I "see" you online... How was Hanukkah? Did you have Friday off too?

LanaM

hehe, I just got on, was going to go check out if there are any good coupons on the coupon code board   Did not make it there yet though.

How are you feeling? When is the big u/s? 

Hanukah was good, thank you! We had a little gift for Ethan for each night and I got something little for J, he does not care about gifts yet, so I am taking advantage of it. Ethan liked most of his gifts... ahhh.... it's getting harder and harder as they get older :-)

How was Christmas? Did Mia enjoy her gifts? Was Santa good to her? :-)

I took off on Wednesday instead of Friday. My neighbor (the babysitter) asked me to take off on Wednesday, she was having Christmas dinner at her house and needed to get stuff done. No biggie. It was a slow day here on Wednesday, only 4 of us here and I finally got my medical FSA claim forms done (back from April when I had J).

Are you at work? 

VivaAmore

Aw, I love your new picture! 

Yes I'm at work but just today and tomorrow. I would have loved to take this whole week off but I used too many days and only have one left! Next year I get 5 weeks. I'm so psyched although the new baby will probably take up at least 3 of them with illnesses and such!

I'm feeling good thanks. Christmas was awesome! Mia seemed to really enjoy herself and her new train set (although I don't know who likes it more - her or Joe!). For once I felt totally relaxed and not at all overwelmed by the preparations and gifts. Usually there's so much excess that I can't stand it.

 I don't get my big U/S until early Feb - ugh - although I did have a dream last night that I had it and they could see it was a boy! I am really starting to hope that it is because we can't come up with a girls name that we both love!

Will you do anything special for the orthodox christmas?

LanaM

It's awesome that Joe and Mia play with trains I am so tired of playing with cars... I am always trying to buy/make some projects to do with Ethan, but he's mostly interested in cars. To him that's not playing, cars is playing... boys....  Can't wait for J to start playing with Ethan...

Nope, we don't celebrate that either   Russia has a week off between New Year and orthodox Christmas, it's actually more.. I think they're off from 12/31 to 1/8. This is the only time I wish I was there again

Ahhh..... February is going to come before you know it!

Ha, that was my #1 reason for wanting a girl, we did not have a name for J even 2 hours after we were discharged from the hospital after having him. We still hardly ever call him Jacob or even J... he goes by Akiva at home (the name Ethan gave him as soon as we told him he was going to have a little brother) Did I tell you why we ended up naming him Jacob? It's the same as Akiva, so Ethan named him for us. Ask Mia

 

VivaAmore

LOL - if we ask Mia, the baby's official name will be "Baby"!

That would be great to have off for those 2 weeks. We work far too hard! What brought you guys to the US anyway? Do you ever plan to go back? I love to travel but I think I'd be too afraid to move to another country, even Canada! It just seems so scary to have to learn all the rules/laws for everything!

 

LanaM

We were looking for better life and brighter future

Jews were not and still not very much tolerated... that's why so many are here now.

5 weeks is NICE! I have 4 weeks and DH gets 2 weeks (WTF). I used up all my vacation days when my maternity leave got cut, I am sure you remember my whining.

They never cut down my vacation days, now that I am here 4 days a week and getting paid 80%. Not sure if they will or not. They even offered my pg co-worker the same 80% 4 days a week schedule but she refused (her mom is watching her daughter and will be watching this one too). I guess they're trying to save where they can in this economy.

How much maternity leave do you get?

I think next year, if we're all still employed, we'll use 2 weeks on vacations somewhere and maybe I'll take off a week in the summer to go to the Poconos with the boys again, we'll rent a house, we've done it for two year now. It's nice there, cooler, there are lakes and pools. oh... I hope MIL will get a job... otherwise I know what's going to happen... she'll want to take the kids and go to the Poconos without me.... oy, I can already see it... and DH will be like: but they'll have fun and it's better than daycare and babysitter....  ahhh....

Any plans for NY's?

VivaAmore

It's sad how much intollerance is in the world. I think it's pretty bad here still but I'm glad to see it's getting better. I'm glad you guys came and we got to meet you!

We're not doing anything for NY and I'm torn about it. Part of me wants to get together with friends, and the other part wants to just rot on my couch and watch Twilight Zone marathon episodes! Joe just decided that we'll have surf & turf which sounds good to me! How about you guys?

I love the poconos. We would ski and camp there a lot when I was younger and would love to start taking Mia up. With our family and old friends all over the country we end up spending most of our "vacations" visiting people. It makes for inexpensive trips but I'm starting to get hungry for a nice private vacation!

I get almost 3 months for maternity leave. 2 weeks before my due date and then 8 weeks after (or 10 after for c-sections). With Mia I used an extra week of vacation days so that I could stay out through Labor Day but this year I don't think I'll have to do that because my due date is a week later. At this point, we're still not sure if I'm going to come back or not at all. I'd like to hold out until the end of 2009 but at this point I'm barely holding on until the end of 2008! LOL

LanaM

LOL, not too much longer to hold on, hang in there!

I love going away, and I love going away with my boys. My parents keep bugging that we need to leave the kids and go by ourselves and my IL's always want to take the kids somewhere (well, used to be Ethan up until now). back in the beginning of the year they wanted to take Ethan (not yet 3 y.o) to Mexico without us. I could not say yes to that... I know soon they'll be asking again and I really don't have a good excuse & I know he'd have lots of fun... so I am really hoping she'll get a job soon although, maybe they're done traveling for awhile... they went to Mexico with us, going to Israel in January for their friend's son's wedding (we're skipping this one) and then I guess she'll be looking for a new job....

So, this is where it gets hard to explain - New Years Celebration...  because back in the com. days people were not allowed to practice any religion related activities, at some point our New years celebration became exactly the same as your Christmas celebration. People were putting up trees, putting gifts under the tree from Santa for the kids & having dinner & drinking from 12/31 to 1/1, saying goodbye to the old year and welcoming the new year. So this is what we're planning to do. We are going to our friends' house, they're IL's family friends and live with their kids, so it's a lot of people and a lot of fun. SIL, BIL and 2 months old nice is going too and my IL's and 4 of us. I need to talk to them about our sleeping arrangements, maybe we'll just camp out in their huge basement (they live in Short Hills) instead of taking our sleeping kids home at 4am.

Oh, and of course, we can't have only 1 new years celebration Back before the russian calendar was moved by 2 weeks and Christmas got moved from 12/25 to 1/7, the new years got moved too, so some people get together and celebrate the "old/new new year" on 1/12-1/13 :-) 1/13 happens to be FIL's birthday, so we still celebrate I tell you, most of the time we don't need a reason to drink.