Mother's Day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and Gene Violet really stepped up her game to make it an incredibly memorable day.  The night before Sunday she stayed at her grandparent's house so Gene and I spent the evening eating, drinking and playing poker at Sereja's and Slava's house. The following day we even got to sleep in, something that we haven't done in a very long time. When I woke up on Mother's Day morning, Gene said he saw Violet stash something in her crib. I excitedly ran into her room, where I found a Scoop bag, inside of which was a python clutch.   That's when I knew that it was going to be a good day!  Next on our agenda was to head into Staten Island for a family breakfast, prepared by uncle Vitya and aunt Gela. We devoured the omelet and triple stuffed French toast (Nutella, cream cheese and bananas) and spent the rest of the morning watching all the kids play together.  Peter and Ari play so well together (more so as they get older) and Mia just adores 'baby Violet'.  By 2PM, Violet was barely keeping her eyes open so we decided to head home.  She fell asleep on the car ride home, so I suggested we head into the city and check out some accent tables at Room and Board.  I went into the store and Gene stayed in the car with Violet, who woke up shortly after I left.  At this point we figured that we might as well go back to Brooklyn and spend the rest of the day strolling through parks and doing some grocery shopping at my favorite store: Trader Joe's.  We were on our way (and somewhere downtown) when all of a sudden Gene stops the car, pulls over and says he has to go to the bathroom.  I look up from my usual car activity - Facebooking, of course - and see that we are in front of Aquagrill.  Gene disappears and runs out a few minutes later holding a bag of my favorite - a dozen kumamoto oysters.  Ten minutes later, we were home and I was enjoying the plump and succulent willapa oysters, which I washed down with a cold glass of sauvignon blanc.  After a nice late afternoon stroll through the neighborhood, we put Violet to bed and spent the rest of the evening cuddling on our brand new couch and enjoying the apartment, which was finally (almost) fully furnished. Mother's Day 2011: A+