Phew...

Maksim with his Teddy Bear.
He looks like his Grandpa (Dedushka) Vova in this picture.
Picture taken a few weeks ago.

First, since I'm such a nut for grammar even though mine need some serious help, there is no difference between the words Whew and Phew besides the spelling - the writer can choose whichever spelling preference they want - both words mean the same thing: an exclamation of relief, surprise, disbelief, weariness, etc; exclamation of astonishment, etc., early 15c., a whistling sound, of imitative origin.

Now that that's out of the way, the week is finally getting back to its normalcy.  Since the dishwasher broke, I've been manually cleaning dishes for over a week.  My hands have never been this dry and it's only now I realize I should have gotten washing gloves.  *SH*  Anyway, we purchased the dishwasher as soon as ours broke but it only arrived and installed yesterday and today.  I'm never going to take the dishwasher for granted ever again.   And there are lessons learned - one must actually clean and maintain a dishwasher - who knew, right?  Oh the joys of being a grown-up.

I've also been busy with shutterfly  (creating photo books) and pinterest.  I made a list of my favorite baby stuff: check them out here.

And a shout out to my dad:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! 

 YOU are AWESOME!!!