Oh, those parks...

(image copied from http://www.foundshit.com/merry-go-round-teddy-bear/)

I don't have good feelings when it comes to parks of our town.
* they are overloaded. Often big children are playing a kind of football there so you have to be careful not to be hit by a ball while trying to relax yourself
* Ilaria has to eat there because everybody has something to eat in the park (usually she is served by somebody else, as I don't use to take food with us outside the house).
* there we have to play babies because everybody plays babies.
* entering in a park without a ball is like killing myself slowly, as Ilaria also wants to play the ball. And she insists.
But, on the top of everything, the worst is that I have to educate other children there. I don't say here that I know everything and that I am the standard of parenting, but it doesn't take an expert eye to realize that there are too many spoiled and nasty children left alone in the parks to survive in society's jungle as toughly as they want.
Too many parents of nowadays seem to be too busy to include into their daily schedule any of their own children's education.

So, I try to avoid parks as much as possible. But, of course, this becomes harder and harder.

Two days ago we were in a park and Ilaria wanted to enjoy herself in a merry-go-round. This kind of merry-go-round:

Unfortunately for us, when we reached the park, merry-go-round was already "taken" by a boy and a girl 5-6 years old. Boy's mother was sitting on a bench speaking on the phone and not giving a damn about her son. Girl's grandmother was there, near the children, tongue tied, proud to hear her niece proclaiming herself "wind's princess, as I like the wind so much!".
Both children showed to be troubled by "baby" Ilaria who was just coming to spoil their "so much fun". From now on they had to spin slower and, as the girl said: "slow is so boring!".
As long as we stayed there I had to defend ourselves of remarks coming from 5-6 years old children!!! Remarks like these:
"I was the 1st one here, so we will spin fast, as I like fast" (girl) (I suggested her that maybe being the 1st there made her bored already so she should try some other activity. I wasn't cogent enough. She stayed.)
"I have an idea. I will spin as fast as I can so the baby will stun and she will leave" (boy)
"Oh, that baby girl! Here she comes again! Ufffff" (girl)
"This baby drive us bored. We are older and we want to spin faster." (boy) (I suggested him too that maybe having fun somewhere else would have made him happier. Again I wasn't very cogent. He also stayed longer.)
......

I am pretty sure those children were the future selfish people, each of them the one-and-only child of their parents, never having to share something with a "baby".

My heart went out watching my little girl sitting there, next to so much nastiness, being unable to defend herself. At least not yet. And my second thought went to children that are "different". Children that won't be able to defend themselves ever. Society and "normal" people would simply ignore, marginalize and destroy them from the very beginning of their life.

It's such a pity to hear people around us complaining so often when speaking about education: "Teaching is not as good as it was in the past!". I would say parenting is even worse!

P.S.: today we visited the same park and history seemed to repeat. Merry-go-round was "taken" again, this time by 2 girls and 1 boy. The boy was spinning the merry-go-round. His mother was there and when the speed was "too fast for girls" she intervened immediately and warned her son to slow down. At a second glance I noticed that boy's mother was pregnant with her 2nd :-)
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"Where children sleep"

I started thinking we are out of space here. Starting with October we should be 4 people in 2 rooms.
I started to wake up in the morning thinking who will sleep where, with whom as room-mate and in which bed. (and I still don't have a clear picture about it.)
I am complaining often, especially about neighbors who disturb our sleep and who don't allow us to aerate our house right when we want (because the ones beneath us smoke in the window and the ones above us clean their carpets out of the window) and who... but OK, I don't mention anything more...

I complain on weather too, especially in these hot days when temperature in Ilaria's room rises up to 28 Celsius degrees!

To be short, I often forget to be grateful for what we have and I find myself criticizing and wanting more.
Today a special link came into my way. It is that kind of reminder which make you realize that yes, there are many living better than you do, but there could be even more living worse. Much worse!
It made me realize one more time that our children are not growing up, as I would like, in the garden of Eden, full of trees, flowers and bees, but they have many opportunities that others don't even dare to dream about.


Here is the link that melted my heart today.


And here is the book.


Have a wonderful week-end and... don't forget to be grateful! You surely have many reasons!
Raluca
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Big love. Baby love.

We are well aware of the "big sister jealousy" that we will face here starting with October, when baby girl should be born. We have heard so many people speaking about it, that we don't have any doubt in our case will be the same. But we hope that in our case it won't be too critical. Why? Because Ilaria adores babies! All kind of babies:

printed ones

Her favorite authors of the moment are Baby Butt and Baby Walz, who wrote some wonderful babies supplies catalogs, read by her daily. They are both pretty tired of saying the same stories for her, daily, but some pages still stay together, even if they are less and less.
( the expression "favorite authors" belong to Adrian, which used to make fun on me by saying that I had a stage in my life when my favorite bestsellers books were Quelle and Otto catalogs ;-) )

baby dolls
We started having problems in park when she sets her eyes on some baby doll owned by another child. She immediately goes there and puts her hands on the baby doll and she wouldn't let it go without some tears on her cheeks. So I've already decided the gift for her birthday to be a baby doll. I hope we will resist two more months without it.

unborn babies
Ilaria already adores her unborn sister


She kisses


and hugs

and kisses and hugs some more my belly, often. She will be a loving big sister for our baby, that's for sure. But she seems to have a problem with the name Rebeca (my no.1 for the moment). When I ask her: "where is our baby?" she points toward my belly, her face all smiles. Then I tell her: "here is baby Rebeca". Immediately the riposte comes from Ilaria: "No!". "Then baby Maria, maybe?" (name Maria in Adrian's no.1 now). And then Ilaria says: "Yes!". Does she know or fell something more than I do?? :-)

and finally,
born babies
She had a crash on baby Petru recently. (She calls him "Pete")

with whom we spent a little bit too much time

got attached to him
so, at the end of the visit she wouldn't let him go home anymore. In the end, she was right, wasn't she? If Petru wasn't our, then why in the world did he come our way and why did he enter our home? :-)

Sweet kisses and lots of baby love from us!
Ralu & Co.

P.S.: I have a feeling she will have a crash also on baby Teodor, soon. She met him today for the 1st time and with him will be a little bit harder, as she has a competitor already! And the competitor is a really determined one!!
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Time for little projects

I hear often people saying that only when the 2nd child comes you realize how much free time you were having when you were with only one child. So, lately, I took the opportunity to fulfill little projects which made me happy:

* I've started with the wedding album (the most complex of those projects)

* then I have continued with a tiny one. I framed my sweet niece's picture in Ilaria's room, so Ilaria could take "enough" of Ana whenever she wants:

OK, here I have to admit I just painted the frame in acrylic and I attached the hanger. Frame was already heart shaped.

*  this one I made for Ilaria room's window.

And it took me much more time than I could have ever estimated. I got it done in 4 steps!! : cut - cut - glue - color. I won't underestimate the effort needed for such projects ever again!

* the last one, the tasty one I made on 10th of August. My parents were here, Ilaria was 22 months old on that very day and we had another appointment for checking on baby (everything is perfect with the little baby girl and she weights approx. 1600 grams!). With so many events to celebrate, a cake was welcome:

It was tasty and appreciated by everybody (including Ilaria!) and my greatest satisfaction came when Ilaria exclaimed: " ursu' " (the bear) when she saw it for the first time. I had big doubts she would recognize the animal :-)

Kisses from a not-so-busy-yet Mom ;-)

Raluca

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Sarah's recipe

Here is another easy-to-be-made and no-fire-involved recipe. Great to be done in hot summer days when heat cooking is torture..

What is needed:


You dice tofu and tomatoes; add sliced olives, olive oil and condiment. Mix well and serve with fresh bread.
Bon appetit!

P.S.: the recipe's name comes from a beautiful lady who inspires me daily. Her blog can be read here. And my recipe is an adaptation of one of her tasty recipes, which can be found here. I replaced feta with tofu and onion with olives so I've obtained a nice fasting recipe which can be served whenever and wherever.
Thank you, Sarah, once again! You rock!
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