It's Christmas at our house...

...the door is open wide! 
It's Christmas at our house 
don't knock, just come inside!

Iata vin colindatori,
Florile dalbe,
Noaptea pe la cantatori,
Florile dalbe.

Si ei vin mereu, mereu,
Florile dalbe,
Si-l aduc pe Dumnezeu,
Florile dalbe.

În noaptea asta, la noi în casă, Moș Crăciun s-a întâlnit cu Zâna Măseluță! ( Nu au fost surprinși să se vadă și s-au purtat ca niște vechi și buni prieteni ;-) )

Sărbători fericite, pline de bucurie în suflete și de oameni dragi alături!

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Eram și eu acolo

Sunt mereu în spatele aparatului foto. Dacă vreau să apar și eu în vreo poză trebuie să cer asta explicit. Așa că nu se întâmplă prea des să fiu și eu în poze alături de copii. Știu, copiii îmi vor pune peste ani obișnuita pe aici deja întrebare: "Mami, tu unde erai?". O să le răspund, așa cum fac mereu: "Eram și eu acolo, cu voi și vă făceam poze".
Cu mult drag, Mami!

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Our baby's gender reveal

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Something I believe in

"You have nothing in this world more precious than your children.

When you grow old, when your hair turns white and your body grows weary, when you are prone to sit in a rocker and meditate on the things of your life, nothing will be so important as the question of how your children have turned out.

It will not be the money you have made.

 It will not be the cars you have owned. 

It will not be the large house in which you live. 

The searing question that will cross your mind again and again will be, 

How well have my children done?

If the answer is that they have done very well, then your happiness will be complete. 

If they have done less than well, then no other satisfaction can compensate for your loss."

President Gordon B. Hinckley
(source)

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DIY - birthday badge (any badge)

I want our kids to enjoy their birthday.
Ilaria will be 6 tomorrow, but today she already celebrated with her school colleagues, so I prepared some birthday badges for her on this occasion:

The making process:

1. print the pictures
2. cut the pictures
3. draw the picture's shape on cardboard
4. cut the cardboard on the marked shape
5. stick one picture on one cut piece of cardboard
6. stick a safety pin on the badge's back
7. enjoy the result!

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Another dream in the making

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Girls, thank you for the fun (#8)

* 
Ilaria: Mami, eu când mă căsătoresc?
Eu: Când îţi găseşti un prinţ al tău.
Ilaria: Cu Iancu vreau să mă căsătoresc!
Eu: Nu se poate Ilaria, că sunteţi fraţi.
Ilaria: Nu ştie nimeni de la nuntă că suntem fraţi.

*

"Fluturaş cu dinţi", Ilaria

* cântâm "Cântecul gamei" - "Do e o doamnă mai voinică..." la "Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si Do" Ilaria cântă "Do Re Mi Fasole Do"

* 
Ilaria supărată: Eu nu mai vreau să merg la dentist toată ziua din cauza lu' Maria!
Eu: Dar de ce mergi tu la dentist din cauza lu' Maria?
Ilaria: Păi ea merge toată ziua la Tati: "Tati, vreau bomboane! Tati, vreau ciocolată!" si Tati-i dă şi ea îmi dă şi mie.

* Înainte de sărbători ne veneau zilnic la geam câte 2-3 trupe tradiţionale cu capra sau cu ursul. După câteva zile de vizionat,  Maria: "Mami, când vine cu crocodilu'?"

* 
După ce am citit cartea despre Bentley Fulg de Nea. 
Eu: Bentley era un băieţel căruia îi plăceau fulgii de nea. Ilaria, ţie ce îţi place?
Ilaria: Mie îmi plac cadourile.

* 
Ilaria: Mami, spune-ne o poveste.
Eu: Despre ce?
Ilaria: Inventează tu o poveste. 
Eu: Ilaria, ştii că nu mă pricep la inventat poveşti.
Ilaria: E uşor. Uite, aşa cum fac eu: Uşa este colorată cu un cui dezordonată.
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Something I like - Mary Engelbreit

Paper dolls:

Bookmark:

Words to live by:

or simply this:

and I could go on and on...

♥

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One thousand gifts (part ten)

145. Adrian ironed all our clothes as preparation for Ştefan C.'s baptism

146. how Ilaria tells me "I love you" and she kisses me when she knows I'm sad because of Maria

147. Adrian, looking at the children: "There are moments in life when you look and you can't believe how beautiful it can be. This is such a moment."

148. unexpected gift from old friend (book from Aura)

149. flattered by how others see me. Gelu & Luci: "We saw you on a street advertisement. Yes, it was you!" No, the lovely lady posing for Goya assurance company wasn't me, but they made me feel good.

150. kind words from "nenea cu părul creţ", the installer who performed external walls insulation for our flat: "Bună dimineaţa! Ce faci, Ilaria, ochi frumoşi?"

151. Adrian caring enough to repair my grandmother's cooker stove when she was about to buy a new one.

152. moments like this:

when I look, I cannot believe they are all mine and I cry happy tears

153. finally visiting a place I wished to visit for years! (parc Schei)

154. inspired people brightening my life

155. yearly tradition - kids aligned under "our" oak tree

156. baby stages successfully checked (Iancu sitting; 1st tooth (8 months old, we were at seaside); Iancu standing (on the day he turned 11 months); 1st word imitated: "ouch")

157. country simplicity on week-ends, when girls eat anything we have and they don't expect us to entertain them

158. a solid 5 minutes of laughing with Maria when, at bedtime story, I mistakenly named the 3 bears: "the 3 pigs". She is an expert in laughing!

159. exhausted Maria back from playground and how her face brightens up in a big smile when she notices me up at the window

160. reading a good book - "Nesfinţii sfinţi şi alte povestiri"

161. Italian shop in Braşov (str. Lungă, nr. 213)

162. how grumpy Maria is while in hospital, after nasal polyps removal surgery and how she revive once we hit home and she meets baby

163. Ilaria, enjoying home made ice cream: "Asta-i cea mai bună îngheţată din lume. Nimeni nu face îngheţată mai bună decât tine."

164. 15th of September 2014. Tears of happiness in our eyes (mine and Adrian's) when we find out who Maria's teachers are (this is her 1st year of kindergarten and she was extremely fragile back then)

165. the gift of being home with kids. Mărcuş, monday 13.10.2014, I teach girls how to ride bicycles

166. quiet night time when all the kids are finally sleeping and I tell Adrian, smiling: "who says it's hard to rise 3 kids?"

167. gift from friends - a lot of girls clothes from Adriana C.

168. dear family members gathered around the table to celebrate our both October girls and to share a tasteful dinner  

  

169. gift of being home for my family and having time to prepare birthday cakes

(this year cream for girls' cakes was banana + yogurt + honey + coconut flakes)

170. gift from friends - jams from Adriana V.

171. how girls don't want to go to kindergarten and how Adrian motivates them by plotting with them to steal all of nurse's candies during the daily examination. and this happens every single day. and it works like a charm

172. words of appreciation on girls' birthday party: "Ralu, poţi să-ţi deschizi firmă de organizat petreceri" (Bogdan B.)

173. me working on laundry. Iancu playing and babbling in his crib in the other room. Suddenly - silence. When I go to check I find this:

I could live 1.000 years from now on, only for such moments!

174. we started to build our house

175. Adrian brings girls back from kindergarten. Elevator's door opens. Girls running toward me, each holding a flowers bouquet (27th November 2014, my birthday)

176. trying a new recipe

177. enjoying a cup of tea

178. baby falling asleep in my arms

179. we let kids be little, "because childhood only comes once" (Michelle)

180. help from my mother - girls spending kindergarten holiday at my parents

181. Adrian calling both girls "păpuşă" and Iancu "papanaş"

182. Maria: "Mami, eşti frumoasă!"

183. Adrian teaching girls how to skate

184. joy as only kids can experience - girls laughing just by looking at each other (we used to do the same, me and my sister)

************************

Post inspired by Ann Voskamp.

  

Have a blessed day!

Raluca

P.S.: My previous "One thousand gifts" post can be found here. 

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How I almost lost Maria in 3 seconds

3rd of January 2015, alone with our two stubborn girls, sharing a single wooden sled on what should have been a funny sledding round in the woods.

We found a safe and fun slope, perfect for Ilaria, but too scary for Maria. All Maria wanted to do was to pull the sled's rope and take a walk like this. Negotiation excluded - she's too stubborn for any negotiation. Now she was heading a big slope (I didn't know exactly how big and how long), pulling the sled's rope. Me: "Don't go there, is too dangerous for you!", thinking in the meantime: "She will find out it's too much for her and she will be back in no time.". Negotiation excluded. Then she disappeared, still pulling the sled's rope. 3 seconds later I went to check on her and I saw Maria ON the sled, sliding with high speed on what it seemed a never ending slope, feet first, on her back, like the bobsleigh athletes are doing. Except she is 3.25 years old only, sliding on a massive sled, in the woods, between trees, with zero chances to control the sled and zero courage or idea to jump off of it! Behind her, me, her helpless mother, running like crazy, with zero chances to reach her and desperately calling her name as never before. It was my scariest 50 meters run and then she disappeared from my line of sight, down, between trees. 2-3 seconds later I saw her crying, still on the sled, in big snow, on a cellar's roof's edge. An image I only seen in movies so far and I was always thinking "Yea, right! Thank you for reminding me I'm just watching a movie, as in reality it never happens to stop on the edge, but you always fall". But no, it happened also to us in real life to be lucky beyond any hope! We were blessed, as there she was, staying on the sled, on the edge of a cellar's roof 2-2.3 meters high. I shouted again like crazy "Don't move! Don't move! Stay there! Wait for me!", as she usually has unforeseeable reactions. I grabbed her and then I automatically rose my eyes toward the sky for the 3rd time in my life. (it's an instinctive reaction I have, that surprises me every time when I watch the sky like this). "Thank you God and your entire army of angels for doing this to us!"

And then I hugged and kissed the girls, we cried tears of frustration, anger, shock, relief, joy, I scolded Maria for not obeying my advises and I swore I will never ever let them do what they want or go sledding alone with them again. As if from now on I will be in total control over their little lives and we will live happily ever after... How easy and nice life would be!
(I am not the kind of over-protective mom. Regarding kids I have a slowness in reactions, even in case of danger. It's already known that more probably kids would hurt themselves in my company than in Adrian's. I want to make kids responsible on their actions. I let them learn lessons out of their own mistakes, and sometimes this is a very dangerous habit.)

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