On us lately

♥ Ilaria

♥♥ her vocabulary become richer and richer with every new day. She started with "nu" (no), "nani" (sleep), "apa" (water), "Ana" (her cousin), "pa!" (good bye), "bavo!" (short form of bravo!), "sizi" (instead of "suzi" = "pacifier"), "papa" (food), "ham" (dog's barking), "mami" & "tati" and now she also says: "nenea" (any man on the street), "papu" (short form of "papuci" = "shoes"), "caca" (poo), "pufu" (short form of "pufuleti" = some snacks), "ia" (take this), "hai" (come), "sus" (up), "pisi" (cat), "cra" (crow), "Mama" (instead of "Mara", her friend from the park), "măr" (apple), "miam" (that's how she asks for food), "catea" (short form of "cartea" = book), "aşa" (like this), "bebe" (baby).

♥♥ she is trying her best in pronouncing any word we ask her to pronounce. When we started this kind of game she was repeating the word as we were asking her to repeat, except for "cuţu" (dog), which she was replacing with "ham" (dog's barking) :-)

♥♥ any flying creature is a "cra" (crow) for her. Few days ago when she noticed a big fly, of course she called it "cra" :-)

♥♥ she is jealous. Adrian is her and only her. She cannot stand to see me kissing him or holding his hand. Immediately when she notices such daring behavior of mine, she comes toward us, screaming "nu, nu, nu, nu", and she pushes me away from HER Daddy

♥♥ currently she has only 3 favorite meals: supa de galuşte, ciorba de fasole verde cu perisoare de pui, mâncare de mazăre cu pifteluţe de pui la cuptor.

♥♥ and what bother me the most these days:

she throws food on the floor.......
I've explained her about poor children not having any food at all, I've told her it's not a nice behavior so she should stop doing it, I've told her I will slap her hands, I even slapped her hands.... She learned something: she knows it's something bad:

but she keeps on doing the same and to drive me crazy:


♥ baby girl

♥♥ on 11th this month we had another appointment with the gynecologist. We were told our baby girl is perfectly developed, according to the calendar, and she weights about 800gr.

♥♥ she is super-active and strong (I compare her movements with Ilaria's in the same stage of development).

♥♥ only 3 months to go and we still didn't fully decide on her name. We had a list of preferences: Ana, Maria, Dionisia, Valeria. Now our favorite is Rebeca. I'm very happy with "Rebeca", but Adrian still has some doubts. He would prefer a "happier" name, ending in "aria" or at least in "ria", the same like Ilaria does. 


♥ me and Adrian

♥♥ on Friday, 15th, we've celebrated Adrian's birthday and 5 years of marriage!

Happy Birthday, Adrian! And many happy years together for us!


We had fun at Zoo Tg. Mures (www.zootirgumures.ro/), on a too hot day

together with our parents:


♥♥ spending 15th of July by visiting a Zoo garden seems to had became a custom for us, as last year we were visiting Zoo Brasov. So, which Zoo for next year? ;-)

♥♥ apart from the surprise with Zoo garden (Adrian drove us there knowing only the address), Adrian got another symbolic surprise:

After 5 years from our wedding day, I finally made our wedding photo album. The album was our wedding gift from my sister and it turned out gorgeous! And it's a huge satisfaction to have another project finished!
It was a great feeling to remember those happy moments!...
The doing process:

Kisses from us and have a marvelous week-end!

Ralu & Co.

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I would freeze time NOW

Back in my childhood I remember hearing adult people saying in the background, with nostalgic voices: "childhood... these are the most beautiful years!". We were playing carefree, without understanding the real meaning of those words, not feeling the time passing fast at all and, of course, feeling immortal. Summer holidays (15th June - 15th September) were for me entire lifetimes, passing slow, full of activities and I was even forgetting the hand write. I was having a big problem when starting school after the long summer holiday: it was hard for me to distinguish between "E" and "3".

Back then I didn't feel like they were "the most beautiful years", as I didn't have what to compare them to.

Then, when in high school and university, I heard again the same words: "these are your best years! young + healthy + carefree = fun". But again I didn't feel those years were my best ones. I think I was hoping: "something even better should come for me!".

I don't know what's in store for my future and since nothing is guaranteed, ask me NOW about freezing the time! Yes, that's the very stage of my lifetime when I would press "pause" button on my life's remote if I would have something like this.

I'm sure for me motherhood is the waited "best part of my life". And, on the other hand, I don't feel so immortal anymore :-) And I think that's another key toward the conscious happiness.

I would freeze time now, to live forever similar stories like these:

* me working on my gobelin, while Adrian and Ilaria are running through the house, chasing each other and laughing loud. These are moments when I think to myself: "what more I could ask from life? really nothing! health and a happy family are enough to declare myself the happiest!"

* I love how Adrian sets up Ilaria's chairs in the evening, after she falls asleep:

We call this image: "Baby bar closed. Sorry, we serve but water until tomorrow morning 8AM"

* we've been promoting hardly our titles ("mama" & "tata") lately. Yesterday morning I was blessed to hear "mama" for the 1st time in my life! Until then, Adrian was proud to be preferred in Ilaria's dialogues:

    ** the 1st time I've heard a clear "ma..." it was followed by a "...ta" :-))

    ** once, while speaking on the phone with Grandma from Sighisoara, Ilaria was asked by Grandma to say "mama" and she answered back with "tata", 5 times in a row :-))

P.S.: thanks to all of you who participated at my 2nd poll. Here are the results:

I'm happy to see that I have traditional readers who still enjoy the fun of snow sledding.

@ the 3 of you who answered "No": maybe you should seriously take into consideration buying a sledge. Global warming is not a joke and who knows how much time is left for us to enjoy snow!?

Kisses!

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"Let her sleep...

...for when she wakes, she will move mountains." (adapted quote by Napoleon Bonaparte)

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LA MULTI ANI, Maria!

(mama mea / my mother)

(for English version please read below)

Azi, de ziua ta, ţi-am pregătit aici o surpriză:

* Îţi mulţumesc că m-ai învăţat să văd şi să apreciez ce e frumos în jurul meu

* Îţi mulţumesc că mi-ai fost alături la serbări şi premieri

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru tot norocul pe care l-am adunat de-a lungul anilor din zecile sau poate chiar sutele de trifoi cu 4 foi pe care mi i-ai oferit din iarbă

* Îţi mulţumesc că nu m-ai lăsat să mor de foame şi ai insistat să manânc cand eram mică, chiar dacă atunci îmi părea cel mai mare rău pe care mi-l făceai

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru magia sărbătorilor şi pentru covrigeii cu chimen

* Îţi mulţumesc că m-ai învăţat bucuria de a dărui şi de a primi

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru că ştii să apreciezi eforturile (inclusiv cele depuse atunci cand ne-ai dat bani să-ţi cumpărăm cadou de ziua de naştere şi ne-am întors din oraş cu cel care s-a dovedit a fi cel mai frumos cadou pe care l-ai primit vreodata, (singurul de care iţi aminteşti mereu): un bibelou şi... o conservă de peşte!)

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru că am crescut într-o casă cu cărţi

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru că m-ai învăţat să cred în Dumnezeu

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru efortul depus pentru educaţia mea, pentru a avea întotdeauna parte de cei mai buni profesori, cele mai bune rechizite, cele mai bune condiţii pentru "a deveni cineva în viaţă"

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru albumul de poze din copilărie

* Îţi mulţumesc că suni când eu uit

* Îţi mulţumesc pentru cel mai mare dar pe care mi l-ai oferit: VIAŢA!

Happy birthday, dear Maria!

Today, for your birthday, I prepared here a surprise for you:

* thank you for you have taught me to observe and to appreciate what's beautiful around me

* thank you for you've been beside me at my prize awards and school celebrations

* thank you for all the luck I got from you through the dozens or even hundreds of four leaves clover you've offered me from grass

* thank you for you haven't let me starving and you insisted that I should eat when I was young, even if I was acting like it was the biggest harm you could have done to me

* thank you for Holiday magic atmosphere and for pretzels with caraway

* thank you for you have taught me the joy of giving and getting

* thank you appreciating the efforts (even when you gave us money to buy you a birthday gift and we turned back from town with the best gift you ever got (the only one you often mention): a trinket and a fish can!)

* thank you for I grown up in a home with books

* thank you for you have taught me to believe in God

* thank you for the effort you have spent on my education, in your goal for me to always benefit of the best teachers, best supplies, best support so I could have became "somebody" in my life

* thank you for my childhood's album

* thank you for calling when I forget

* thank you for the greatest gift you gave me: LIFE!

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Sweet family moments

* as told before, Ilaria loves speaking on the phone. She takes as phone anything she finds around: puppet, pair of socks wrapped as a ball, slipper, her hand,...
After about 10 days break from this custom (she seemed to forget there were phones on this world), on Friday evening, while spending our time in kitchen, Adrian told me "did you observe Ilaria is not so in love with phones anymore?". The next second Ilaria was saying "aaaaaaAAAAAaaaAAaaaaAAAAAAAA" with the boiled egg she was having in her hand in that moment, glued to her right ear.
It was the very 1st moment when we realized she truly understands what we are talking about, not only what we are doing.

* on Sunday we tried (again) to make Ilaria say "mama" and "tata", by repeating her: "say mama / tata". Until Sunday, in our best cases, we were obtaining "mamamamamamama..." or "tatatatatatatatatatata...". This time we were happy to hear few times the simple and beautiful "tata". Regarding "mama", all we got were negative head-shakes, accompanied by laugh.
Mommy has to wait a little bit more :-)

* 

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Our 1st family photo shoot

(shooter: Bogdan)

Inspired by two beautiful ladies (thanks Sue, for photo advices! thanks Heather, for your recent family photo shoot post!), yesterday I've took my family out of the dusty town, into the gorgeous nature and took our 1st family photo shoot. 

In the beginning it was planned that the tripod and timer option would be our helpers, but, we were fortunate enough that our friends Bigu, Dana & Bogdan joined us and helped a lot taking some nice pictures. In case you ever plan a family photo shoot, my advice would be to ask for a helping hand, as no tripod, timer option and remote control could ever replace the human eyes and decisions!

Some other friends wanted to join us, but our little girls' nap schedule didn't synchronize at all. Sorry for this, Aniela & Co. and hope we will meet you soon.

This is the best I could get using tripod and timer option on camera: 

(shooter: tripod + timer)

Some photos taken by Bogdan (the 1st photo of this post, which we also consider the best one, was also taken by him):

(shooter: Bogdan)

(shooter: Bogdan)

Other photos:

(shooter: Adi)

(shooter: Ralu)

(shooter: Ralu; Ilaria's entertainers: Dana & Adi :-))

I think the hardest job when photographing a baby is the entertainer's one. And you really should have at least one dedicated job for this! In our case, Ilaria was fascinated by digging into the molehills and to take off the fillet, so it took us some time to catch the above photo.

Adrian was in an artistic mood. I love this photo:

(shooter: Adi)

And finally, a photo with the entire technical staff:

(shooter: Ralu)

Our photo shoot's staff & technical details:

The sweetest participants: Bigu & Ilaria

Entertainer: Dana, Adi

Shooters: Bogdan, Adi, Ralu

Photo camera: Olympus C-770 UltraZoom

Location: Mărcuş, Covasna county

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