Adela & Viktor

January 2012

2012-01-29T21:41:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Adela's 4th B-day.

November 2011

2011-11-06T21:39:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Viktor's B-day.

July 2011

2011-07-18T21:04:00.000-07:00

We are enjoying our baba Lucy's visit.

At the restaurant.

At the park.

At the corn festival.

January 2011

2011-01-24T06:02:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Adela's 3rd Bday.

Viktor started walking independently. He can say the cat's name along with half a dozen words that only we understand like: good, ball, yummy, agah (can maean many things)

December 2010

2010-12-25T14:20:00.000-08:00

Adela is 35 months old and Viktor is 13.

Here are some fun moments from the past few weeks

And some photos

November 2010 (Viktor 12th, Adela 34th month)

2010-11-11T14:54:00.000-08:00

We celebrated Viktor's birthday twice - at home and at the daycare. Here are the videos.

August 2010 (Viktor 10th, Adela 31st month)

2010-08-23T06:57:00.000-07:00

We took a challenging, yet successful trip to New York and Canada to visit our grandparents on daddy's side and cousins on both mom's and dad's side.

June 2010 (Viktor 8th, Adela 29th month)

2010-06-29T07:04:00.000-07:00

Viktor is sitting up more steadily on his own and is becoming masterful at moving around in his walker. He can even play tag with his sister. As a matter of fact, Adela always tells us that he needs to go in his walker because she wants to play with him that way. Plus Viktor is becoming quite a little troublemaker as he's exploring the world around him. Within 5 minutes he'll try to open the kitchen cabinet doors, play with the knob on the kitchen table drawer, and poke the electrical outlet. I am so thankful we already have the house child-proofed.

The hot days are upon us. Adela is taking swim lessons at the club house, and at home both kids can get refreshed in the kiddie pool with 'tata', daddy.

May 2010 (Viktor 7th, Adela 28th month)

2010-05-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

Our adventures continue. Adela and Viktor are growing and thriving. They like each other very much and enjoy each other's company. We had a visit from teta Deva from Canada on a cold May day (probably the coldest spring in a long time). We went to the Folsom Zoo. Viktor's first word seems to be "ABBA".

April 2010 (Viktor 6th, Adela 27th month)

2010-05-02T23:17:00.000-07:00

Viktor's first two teeth poked out. Adela's vocabulary is growing by the minute. The latest words: 'bruise', 'coconut', 'ankle'...

Here are two photos and two short video clips.

And some more photos

Cute videos winter 2010

2010-03-28T21:48:00.000-07:00

February 2010 (Viktor 4th, Adela 25th month)

2010-02-27T16:32:00.000-08:00

At the beginning of February Tony went back to work and Viktor started attending daycare. It was a pretty smooth transition. His skin condition on the cheeks (which started in January) flared up and we started using hydrocortisone 1%. After initial 4 applications the skin cleared up nicely, but then I skipped one day and it came back. We are going to his 4-month well baby doctor's appointment next week and we'll see what Kaiser pediatricians have to say about this. Our pediatrician had a baby back in December and is on a mat leave, so we've see a few different ones since Viktor was born.

We visited Bruyeas in Turlok and celebrated Adela's B-day for the third time. She had a lot of fun and ever since that weekend she's been asking to go see Nina and Mila again. Every day she asks me if we can go there.

Here are a few photos from February.

They can be found on our online photo album.

Also here's a video of us singing Happy B-day at Bruyea's place.

This video is on our youtube channel.

January 2010 (Viktor 3rd, Adela 24th month)

2010-02-27T16:18:00.000-08:00

After nice holidays with the family, mommy went back to work and daddy took a month off from work to take care of Viktor. They had a full month to bond and Tony discovered ways to make Viktor laugh and giggle. Adela's second birhtday fell on a Saturday when her daycare provider, Theresa, had a party for all the parents and kids, so we had some cupcakes and sang Happy Birthday and she blew a candle in the shape of number 2. The same day, in the eventing, we had a small celebration for her at home - just us. Nancy bought her balloons and a pretty dress, and one more time we sang Happy Birthday and she blew a candle in a shape of a three layer cake - which grandma Lucy bought for her. The balloons were also turned out to be quite a hit with Viktor, too. We noticed that he was looking at them with amusement, so we ended up keeping them next to his soothing center chair for almost a month.

Here's a video of all the folks at Ms. Theresa's party singing Happy Birthady to Adela.

This video is on our Youtube channel.

Here's a video of us celebrating Adela's b-day at home.

This video is on our youtube channel.

And here are some photos from January.

December 2009 (Viktor 2nd, Adela 23rd month)

2009-12-29T14:00:00.000-08:00

We had our grandma Lucy and cousin Boban over for the holidays. Fred joined us for Christmas eve and day. Viktor is 12.7 pounds now and his face is getting rounder. He is still having some issues with digestion - 'lots of gas'. Adela enjoyed having other adults around. She got a lot of attention and played in different ways than usual. Vuk, the dog, and Baji, the cat, also enjoyed getting the attention and TLC from baba that they don't get from their 'primary humans' as much any more.

Here are a few photos.

These can also be found on our online photo album.

And here are a couple of video clips.

They can also be found on our YouTube channel.

November 2009 (Viktor 1st, Adela 22nd month)

2009-12-04T21:52:00.000-08:00

All is going well in our little family, despite the fact Adela had a cold...We hope the baby does not get sick. We got a new double stroller and Gajic-Bruyea family visited. Aunt Nancy and Adela go for evening walks and enjoy the holiday decorations in the neighborhood. This week Adela is not in daycare so she gets to spend a lot of time with her baby brother. Viktor is growing nicely and is staying awake and more alert for longer periods of time now that he is a month old.

photos:

also can be viewed on our online photo album

video:

also can be viewed on our youtube channel

First week

2009-11-12T14:20:00.000-08:00

After losing and regaining some weight, Viktor is settling into his routine of eating and sleeping. We are learning about him and what he likes. For example, it seems like it's better for him to eat out of the bottle lying on the side,just the way he nurses, and not sitting upright (we have to supplement with formula b/c he needs to gain weight). When sleeping, he prefers to lie down horizontal and not be in the reclined sitting position, yet. We hope he'll enjoy his "soothing center" as he grows bigger and stronger.

Adela is getting used to having 'my baby' around.

There is so much to be grateful for.

photos:

videos:

He's here!

2009-11-11T22:55:00.000-08:00

This is what I posted on Facebook at 4 in the morning after Viktor was born:

Dear friends and family,
Meet Victor Mladen Jazvo, born November 3 2009, @ 6:57 pm. 7 pounds & 14 ounces, 20.9 inches. He is doing well after being delivered in an emergency C-section. The procedure happened b/c his heart rate dropped suddenly after being textbook-well-responsive for the first 27 hours of the induction process.Victor's mom is doing well, too. She just needs lots of rest.

Tony has written about the whole experience at http://www.jazvo.com/viktor

Today is his 8th day and after initially losing 10% of his body weight, and regaining 5%, he's doing well again, being an overall very quiet and calm baby. He does not like having his diapers changed and he likes to sleep on mommy's or daddy's chest. His big sister, Adela, has reacted very positively to the baby. She is interested in what she calls "my baby". She's inspected him a number of times already for " eyes, ears, nose and mouth". We do " family hugs" very frequently, and overall go about business as usual.

Some videos from October 2009

2009-11-02T23:04:00.000-08:00

Here are a few cute videos of Adela and her couisins.

Nineteenth and twentieth months

2009-10-11T13:43:00.000-07:00

We had some more fun at the splash pad/spray park and a fun afternoon in the kiddie pool with daddy one very hot august Sunday. With our strollerstides playgroup, the most interesting thing for the kids is to grab parent's elastic bands and imitate grown-ups exercising. Adela has been exploring her world on foot. She was inspecting the back yard before we did some major work in it. Along the same lines, she was also looking at what types of drought-resistant plants there are the local park and wondering if the would work in the back yard. She now likes to go for walks around the block and push her 'babies' in their stroller. And still her most favorite first-thing-in-the-morning activity is to have a bottle of milk, but she graduated from her reclining chair to the couch.

Adela's baby-brother's genetic profile

2009-08-17T19:46:00.000-07:00

Here it is. We have one for Adela, and here is one for her brother. As their dad pointed out, it may be interesting for them to look at their own kayrotypes when they learn about it in school.

The story of three bellies

2009-07-30T10:26:00.000-07:00

You may wonder why I am posting this 'possibly tasteless photo for some'. Well there is a story behind it. Each member of our small family is patting her/his belly for a slightly different reason.

Adela is discovering her belly button or pupak (poo-puck as she calls it in Serbian)
Tony is nursing a beer often and is going through a sympathy pregnancy stage
Branka has Adela's baby brother in her tummy and is entering her 3 trimester at the beginning of August

So the big news is - We'll have a baby boy! This is what he looked like at week 20.

Some videos from summer 2009

2009-07-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

Since mommy is off work for the summer, she's got a little time to take videos and even organize them and post them online. Here are a few cute moments from this summer.

On her new tricycle

Playing in the back yard

A fun car ride

Reading a book to her teddy bear

At a splash pad

Playing in her room

Eighteenth month

2009-07-28T13:15:00.000-07:00

So Adela is a year and a half old now, officially. She reached most of the milestones outlined in the pediatric literature. She's got a vocabulary of 7-10 words, and she is eating with a spoon. She is walking, running, dancing and even 'kind-of' riding a tricycle. She can be very helpful around the house and understands when asked to pick something up and put it away. She follows through on the request most of the time. She also likes to chat away even though the grownups in the house still don't get the whole conversations, but are picking up bits and pieces. Here are some words Adela uses a lot:

mommy
tata (daddy)
tzi-tzi (cat or dog, or any other animal)
Elmo
baby/beba
bubbles (it works for any type of round object: bubbles, balloons, balls)
nice (but without the ending 's' sound)
I know! (She says it in a very cute way)
du-du (for #2)
nyam-nyam (for food)
eyes
nose
mouth (even though it sounds more like ma-ma)
pupak (pronounced 'poo-puck', Serbian for belly button)

We had a visit from our step-grandma Shirley at the beginning of July and that was a very fun week, with Adela going to the Railorad Museum, Marshal Gold Discovery State Historic Park, splash parks, the hatchery on the American river, a number of different playtowns at shopping malls, and many restaurants (she loves to eat out). We think Adela is quite a 'foodie' - because she eats with gusto and will try all kinds of dishes, even the spicey ones.

More recently we had a BBQ and went for a kayak ride on Lake Natomas one Sunday afternoon. Here are photos from this month.

Seventeenth month

2009-07-03T16:41:00.000-07:00

Adela continues to grow and explore the world around her and learn to do things. She went to a 'spray park/splash pad' with her cousins Mila and Nina, and they had a blast. (It was 105F outside. We didn't think to bring a camera, but we have a photo of them after the event, relaxing at home.

Fourteenth and fifteenth months

2009-05-09T21:55:00.000-07:00

In addition to the trip to Europe and meeting her grandpa Mladja and mommy's family and friends, Adela also saw her grandma Lucy in March, got a new friend, Vuk - aunt Nancy's dog, had 9th - 11th teeth come out, went to the zoo as a part of a daycare trip, and has become very good at coming down the slide in the local park. She also loves the swing there.

Adela meets the rest of the family

2009-04-13T08:13:00.000-07:00

While mourning my dad - the whole family really appreciated having Adela there. This is the first time I could let her be away from me for hours on end and not worry. She had a couple of favorite people - my youngest uncle, Bato, my cousin Bilja (her aunt) and my cousin Gagi (her uncle. When she was with them - she did not need me. Her grandma got to spend some time with her towards the end of the week, as the activities after the funeral started slowing down.

Adela meets her granpa Mladja 2 days before he passes away

2009-04-13T08:02:00.000-07:00

My dad was diagnosed with stomach cancer in May 2008. He was doing really well until January this year. He stopped eating on March 23 and that's when I knew Adela and I had to go see him. We arrived on April 4th and he passed away in the morning of April 8th. One comforting thing is the fact that he met his granddaughter and they had some quality time together, albeit very short. Another comforting thing is that he did not suffer very long. Almost every second friend and neighbor of ours back in Novi Sad has a story of seeing someone close suffer from cancer for much longer than my dad did.

Starting toddler years

2009-03-03T11:25:00.000-08:00

I needed to update the blog really badly, and I have to do it in a hurry. Here are some photos from my phone - mostly about us getting ready to begin our day and at the daycare. Adela is very steady on her feet now. She toddles very confidently and thus falls and hits her little (big) head all over the place - but that's nothing that a little hugging and comforting can't cure. She opens kitchen cabinets and unrolls toilet paper and moves magazines and catalogs from one end of the house to another. We did some childproofing - but the best way to do it is to watch her constantly and make sure she is safe. Of course, most of the stuff she does is very cute.
Here's a link to a photo album for this period.

From thirteenth month

Adela's chores

2009-01-08T22:08:00.000-08:00

She will be a year old in a few weeks and accordingly, Adela took on some tasks around the house. Here's a video of what her responsibilities are.

Seventh to twelfth month

2009-01-08T20:12:00.000-08:00

Over the last five months Adela has learned to crawl, cruise and walk. She has seven teeth and a repertoire of about dozen words. Ata and Titi are her names for our two cats. For some reason she really likes to say 'doddle' and she keeps on repeating it. Lately she's been giggling a lot, but also bursting into crying suddenly (when things are not going her way). These are sure signs that we are entering toddler years. We enjoy our every moment with her.

Leisurely Thanksgiving

2008-12-06T13:20:00.000-08:00

Adela is watching her cousins, Nina and Mila, play on the swings in their local park.

Adela clapping to Happy Birthday

2008-11-15T19:28:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to grandma Lucy!

Crawling and cruising

2008-10-26T21:17:00.000-07:00

It all happened over a period of two weeks. From not knowing how to get that left leg under her and start crawling to now being able to pull herself up in standing position, get herself back into sitting from standing, and crawling pretty fast...these sure were the milestones we were looking forward to with a mix of excitement and wariness (now we really have to watch her every move to make sure she does not hurt herself). This video clip shows two and a half minutes of Adela exploring the world around her.

Now we have two

2008-09-28T16:18:00.001-07:00

The second tooth came out! Yay!

The first tooth

2008-09-20T19:57:00.000-07:00

It's here! It came out on Sunday night, September 6th.

The matter of teeth

2008-08-30T13:46:00.000-07:00

So Adela's been exhibiting symptoms of teething for months now, but the pearly whites are still not rearing their head. In the meantime I created a collection of photos titled 'toothlees grin'. I will miss it very much once the teeth poke out.

What could Adela possibly be thinking?

2008-08-27T10:54:00.000-07:00

My colleague Penny Pearson showed me a cool add-on program for MovieMaker (software for editing video clips), and I created this short clip.

Adela's photo album

2008-08-25T21:55:00.000-07:00

In case you can't view all the flashy slideshows from this blog on your computer, here's the link to Adela's photo album online. That's where the photos come from.

http://picasaweb.google.com/brankarific

Sixth month

2008-08-25T21:50:00.000-07:00

Adela is becoming very good at sitting up and going shopping. She loves sweet peas, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, bananas and apples. She makes many cute sounds and squeals in delight. We had an amazing 9 weeks together and now I am back at work and she started attending daycare.

More adventures

2008-07-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

Adela is talking, 'reading' and socializing...as the following 3 video clips show. On July 15, Adela spent some quality time with her cousins: Maya (18 months), Nina (4 yrs) and Mila (7) years.

Adela 'reading'

Adela 'talking'

Adela with Maya, Nina & Mila

Fifth month

2008-06-23T11:16:00.000-07:00

Even though she had a long nap this morning, Adela is a little cranky right now - most likely because she is teething. Overall, she has been very content and lively, jumping in her activity center or rolling on the activity mat. Here's a video from our visit to Bruyeas.

Fourth month

2008-06-03T17:06:00.000-07:00

Many things happened: Granny Mara went back to her home and that was sad. The fourth month vaccinations & check up went well. Adela visited Mom's office and on another day she went for a leisurely stroll along the American River. She saw some real duckies, very much unlike her soft friend who sometimes holds her bottle when she's done eating. And speaking of eating, Adela tried her first rice cereal a few days ago. She seems to like it, especially if she can lick it off of the bib, and if she can hold the spoon just for fun.

Adela playing

2008-04-23T19:53:00.000-07:00

Adela made up this game on her own.

Third month

2008-04-16T21:35:00.000-07:00

Things are moving along well. Adela is eating, sleeping, and growing. We are enjoying every moment with her. She wakes up twice a night on average, but one night she was very considerate of her mom who was running around during CATESOL 2008 conference, and she slept through the night.

Second month

2008-03-27T21:34:00.000-07:00

During her sixth week of life Adela went on her first long trip. My mom was joking that after she got her social security number Adela went on her fist business trip. It was really mine - we went to Computer Using Educators 30th Conference in Palm Springs. We drove 500 miles there and back. She did very well and my mom enjoyed Palm Springs. By the end of week nine Adela is growing nicely. She has problems with digestion and gas, but it's not too bad. She is very strong and keeps her head upright on her own for extended periods of time. And she's got the most kissable cheeks, of course.

Fourth & Fifth Week

2008-02-27T19:11:00.000-08:00

Our adventures continue as we were visited by aunt Nancy, Tony's sister. Bruyea family also spent some quality time with us, and Susy shared a couple of very valuable tips and techniques for soothing a crying baby - which is what we have very often.

Second & third week

2008-02-10T14:49:00.000-08:00

As we are getting to know our daughter, we are sharing our joy with friends and family. Grandma Lucy flew in from New York for a few days to meet Adela, who was named after Lucy's mother.

Adela is eating well, gaining weight and sleeping and crying a lot - doing all the regular baby-stuff.

First week

2008-01-31T18:51:00.001-08:00

It has been a big blur filled with diaper changes{which we all like to do, fortunately}, feeding worries (introducing some formula; going through 3 types of bottles to get the one that creates the least amount of gas; pumping, learning how to breastfeed), bouts of crying (probably b/c of bad gas), and trying to make it on time to pediatrician and lactation consultant appointments, plus already making a few shopping trips with Adela. I guess Tony and I are in this for the next 15-20 years. I am so grateful that both his mom and my mom offered to help us.

She's here

2008-01-29T23:11:00.000-08:00

It has almost been a week since I gave birth to Adela. It happened at 5:10 am on January 23rd, after a 23-hour induction process that had quite a few complications, and almost ended in a c-section after my going through the pains and tribulations of natural birth. Fortunately, I was able to push Adela out a few minutes before they were going to put a knife on my stomach. I will forever be grateful to Tony, my mom, and a nurse who would not give up on me. Tony described the whole experience on this page www.jazvo.com/adela. I am so grateful for having Tony and my mom, Mara, go through this life-changing event with me. This photo is from 30 minutes after she was born.

Oh, how I suffered! Not!

2008-01-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

On January 13th, my 38th birthday I asked Tony to take some photos of me so that we can remember how big the belly was a day before the 'due date'. He persuaded me to make that face as if I am in pain, when I really felt great. He said I'd thank him for this photo when Adela is a teenager, because I will have good 'guilt-trip material' for arguments with her. ;-)

It's four days past due date and Adela is still doing all types of dances in her mom's belly: step, swing, salsa, & ballet.

Adela's nursery

2008-01-03T06:53:00.000-08:00

On December 27th we made a video of the nursery part of our bedroom. We are particularly proud of the way Tony customized a chest of drawers we got at IKEA. Being such a great handyman, he created a frame for the changing pad that fits perfectly on the piece of furniture that was not necessarily designed for the nursery, and thus not overpriced. Also in this video, we both were amazed at how big my stomach grew over a period of few days and it really shows in this outfit. Did I mention how fortunate I feel that I have had a very uncomplicated pregnancy so far? We have had a very good experience.

Here's the video:

Baby shower at SCOE/OTAN on Dec 19th

2008-01-02T00:58:00.000-08:00

Thank you to all of my co-workers, who attended Adela's baby shower. This was quite a feat after 2 weeks filled with sugar-highs and work-based social activities related to winter holidays. Thank you for the cards, presents and gift cards. Darla has made a list of which items were given by whom, and I will try to send photos of Adela as she is sporting the cute outfits and using the toys and other cool baby gear she got from you. Thank you again.

Here's a video of the event:

And I simply could not help posting those cute cards:

Card for Adela from at&t folks

2008-01-02T00:05:00.000-08:00

Thank you to Tony's co-workers for surprising us with a greeting card and a gift card for Adela. She got a nice bath tub and quite a few more cool baby gear items thanks to your generous gift.

Thanksgiving 2007 | Gajic-Bruyeas & Marceta-Jazvos

2007-11-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

On the 3rd Thursday in November (as is tradition) we spent the Thanksgiving holiday with the family. Suzy, Jeff, Mila & Nina visited and we had a fun afternoon in the park and dinner with chevapi (beef/pork sausages) & pohovana piletina (chicken fingers Tony-style). Of course , the conversations were about the new baby & Suzy's new job at CSU system. Afterwards we watched Ratatouille (a very cute movie about a rat who is a passionate cook). Here are some photos of us in the local park.

Growing bigger & more active

2007-11-23T13:21:00.000-08:00

These two photos are from weeks 31 & 32. Adela is moving very frequently and she has a whole range of moves: flutter, ballet and kick boxing. They say: "Active baby is a healthy baby" so I am trying my best to learn to like these sensations.

A drawing of us

2007-11-11T08:26:00.000-08:00

Tony commissioned a drawing by a budding artist, Zach, 5 (a coworker's son) after he saw some of Zach's work.

After Zach did his first drawing, he decided to throw in another one of Tony' family, so here we are...

More about the name Adela

2007-10-07T06:58:00.001-07:00

Adela was Tony's grandma, Lucy's mom. This is a photo of Nancy (Tony's sister), grandma Adela, and Tony in October 1986, 21 years ago.
And here is more about the meaning of this name from thinkbabynames.com.

Amniocentesis results

2007-09-22T16:56:00.000-07:00

We received the results for the amnio test I underwent on August 16 2007. I don't know how to interpret the image of Adela's genetic profile, also called karyotype. We were told that the results are good.

[you can learn more about karyotype and play an interactive acitvity here]

Pregnancy so far

2007-09-16T21:09:00.000-07:00

We named our daughter Adela after Tony's maternal grandmother (his favorite). We were looking for a name that would work in both countries. After we decided on the name, we looked it up. It means 'noble' in German.

My first trimester was pretty good -with very mild all-day sickness. I traveled to Serbia in my 3rd month without any problems. Now in the middle of month 5, I just started going for bike rides with a group of co-workers, and I am beginning to feel energized. We'll see what the rest of the pregnancy brings along. Adela is due in mid-January.

Baby Adela ultrasound

2007-09-16T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello friends and family,

We have a big announcement to make. We are expecting our first child. It's week 22 and below is a slide show of what it has looked like so far.

Even though this is a wanted pregnancy, we have been very concerned because the medical field really scares first-time parents of our age about high probability of complications.

We are slowly starting to relax and enjoy the fact that 'we are pregnant'. Genetics tests are good and 'big, diagnostic' ultrasound is not pointing to anything abnormal.