Turkish delight

Our wonderful holiday at Turkey's seaside is over now. Except an afternoon when Ilaria was crying, crying, crying, "without a reason", and except the cold she caught there due to her overprotecting parents who wanted to keep her away of the dangerous sun, everything else was close to perfection. We had the feeling this holiday will last forever, but, unfortunately, it didn't. All that remained were pictures, memories and a big gratefulness feeling. We are now more grateful for what we have and for where we live. Outside our Turkish resort we have seen really poor people, poor villages, poor towns and we realized that Brasov is such a nice town to live in!

Our holiday in pictures, from Ilaria's point of view:

* enjoying the pleasure of carrying a luggage:

* enjoying her 1st flight:

* enjoying the 2 hours long trip from Turkish airport to our resort:

(after she falsely congratulated the driver by clapping her hands and saying "Bravooo!" for 5 or 6 times when the bus was stopping at red traffic light, she felt asleep just 10 minutes before our arrival, so she missed the real "Bravo!" at the end of the trip) 

* enjoying the view from our room ( we were lucky enough to get a duplex room instead of the standard category that we paid for! And we were also lucky to get a freshly bought bed for Ilaria, on the 2nd day of our sojourn! ;-) )

we were all thrilled by the panorama:

* enjoying walking on the promenade:

*enjoying the sea's water:

1st "contact" with sea's water, on the 1st day:

She was really excited. She just didn't want to let it show ;-)

enjoying water on the 2nd day:

and by the 5th day she made real acts of courage:

* enjoying the sand:

* enjoying the elevator's buttons, which, many times, ignored our commands:

* enjoying the freedom of running on halls:

* enjoying the pleasure of begging:

and then, enjoying the begging's gain:

* enjoying mini-disco, every evening, 21:00 - 21:30:

enjoying mini-disco on the 1st evening. Ilaria's original dance:

2nd evening:

3rd evening, taking care of one of her newly made friends:

also 3rd evening:

enjoying mini-disco on the 4th evening. Another original dance of Ilaria:

mini-disco on the 6th evening (her couple was the trend-setter for this activity):

* enjoying the watermelon carving:

* enjoying shopping in Kusadasi:

* enjoying the beautiful Greek ancient village of Sirince:

"enjoying" the view up from the hill:

tasting for the 1st time one of mommy's preferred fruit - mulberries. And really enjoying them:

Raluca: before leaving for this holiday I've seen mulberries from Turkey, on one of Brasov's markets. So I imagined we would get mulberries at every meal. I was so wrong. We got none! And I'm pregnant so I was dreaming mountains of mulberries! :-) The dream came true in Sirince:

also from Sirince:



* enjoying her 2nd flight, the flight back home

At lift off, Adrian took Ilaria on his lap so she could have seen outside the window. She was quiet and he said "she is so excited about what she sees! She is focused on the panorama for some minutes already." Then we realized she was just this focused:

;-)

So long, Turkey!

We'll miss you, for sure!

Ralu & Co.

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One thousand gifts (part three)

I continue the wonderful experience of counting my life's blessings, linking to Ann Voskamp's gratitude community:


I am grateful also for:
39. on 23rd of February I was blessed for the 2nd time in my life to hold a positive pregnancy test
40. on 26th of February I have heard from my gynecologist that the embryo is well placed and: "look, there is cardiac activity"
41. around 05th of May I started to feel baby's movements
42. on 18th of May, after some days of self-induced stress, as I wasn't feeling baby moves, the gynecologist confirmed once again that everything is fine and that "it's a girl! 100% sure."
43. there, in the consulting room I heard Adrian saying "may SHE be healthy!", in the purest frustration-free voice, although he hoped for a boy for the 2nd time
44. echographs
45. Ilaria's tenderness, when I point out to my belly and I ask her to hug and kiss the little baby from inside
46. the beautiful woman that reminded me to pray when I am overwhelmed
47. the smell in my kitchen, when roasting eggplants for salad
48. daydreaming of a holiday
49. a new haircut
50. warm days of spring
51. friends who encourage me to make changes ( million thanks, Luminiţa! she's the girl behind my new haircut :-) )

Have a blessed week!
Raluca

P.S.: My previous "One thousand gifts" post can be found here.
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The power of prayer

Yesterday was a tough day here. This was the 3rd time (in passed 3 months I think) when I felt I have no solution for Ilaria's crying. And I'm also not sure about the reason. It's so frustrating to try anything comes to my mind and still not be able to make her stop crying.

We were outside, far away from home. She was in the stroller when the tantrum begun. I've tried everything that crossed my mind those minutes: walking, running, back in the stroller, I offered her water, toys,... I've even ignored her.... Of course in the meantime I was getting angry too, not understanding at all what could have been so wrong with her.

Then she stopped in the middle of a not so crowded street, still crying. And I was looking her from a distance, talking to her, when a couple of old people approached. The woman took Ilaria up, on her arms and she brought Ilaria to me. Then she asked me: "What's wrong with her? She doesn't want to leave the park and go home, isn't it?". "No!" I've answered "We haven't been in the park at all. We are just walking around. I really don't know what she wants. She doesn't want to walk and she doesn't want to stay in the stroller either." Then, before leaving, the woman leaned to me as you do when you want to tell somebody a secret and she whispered in my ear: "Recite for her <<Our Father>>". And I did. Right there, in the middle of that street, with tears running down my cheeks. Of course part of them were tears of frustration, but there were also tears of gratitude for that beautiful woman who cared enough to give a good advice to an overwhelmed mother.

I'm not sure how much the prayer helped Ilaria directly, but for sure it helped me a lot to calm down and to see the situation from another perspective. I put her back in the stroller, started making her aware of all the doves, cats and dogs around us and gave her flowers and leaves to play with. And soon she calmed down too!

So yes, it's true: no song, no toy, no argument has the power of a prayer! All it takes is to believe.

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What did Ilaria do lately

To all my fans out there, especially to my family: please excuse my late laziness (let's call like this the lack of time I struggle lately).
Here I am back with a post about Ilaria's activity over the past 2 months. I have to mention that Ilaria is much more active than you can read from this blog. But her "lazy" mamma is not using her camera at it's true possible value. Oh, these mammas.... They never succeed to do everything in time and to please everybody...


So let's start!


Immediately when weather seemed to be sunny and good (end of March) we wanted to take advantage of outside activities. On a too windy day we took a trip on hills around Mărcuş:

Ilaria was happy to dig in the ground with bare-hands. As a total coincidence, 2 days later we realized she caught a cold. Fortunately she got better, without fever!


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She loves clothes. And she takes any opportunity to show us this thing. Here presenting some ballerina USA  fashion:

As you can see, in the meantime she cut her hair. Or, to tell the whole truth: her hair was cut by her clumsy left-handed mother. But Ilaria is still confident. She knows that hair is just an accessory and a cute girl stays cute any haircut she would get ;-)


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She also loves adrenaline. Here dangerously playing with daddy,

this time proudly wearing vintage daddy's trousers, more than 30 years of age :-)


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On Easter Holiday Ilaria enjoyed nature a lot, at Sighisoara, together with her relatives:
She participated for the first time at Easter eggs crashing championship,
where winner of the year was my grandmother:



Also in Easter Holiday we've visited a great place near Sighisoara, Hanul Dracula (http://www.dracul.ro/). It worth to pay a visit there. Nature is wonderful  and for children is quite good, as they have some animals to be seen.


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Here is how Ilaria lived the wedding moment (William & Kate's):

She was busy waving them back a lot :-) So, fortunately, she didn't notice mommy's emotions.. We wish them a very happy and long life together!


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Ilaria presenting some more fashion on Petru T.'s baptizing day, on her first day ever with only 10 minutes nap over the day!

    (30th April 2011)


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Two Sundays ago we were fortunate to witness an ad hoc concert held by tens of tenors and sopranos, on Noua lake:
We were amazed by the show!


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Again Ilaria showing us some US fashion, on Anca M.'s wedding day, on Ilaria's first day ever with 0 minutes nap over the day!!

    (07th May 2011)


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And last but not least: Ilaria is patiently waiting for a brother or a sister :-)



Kisses from us!
Ralu & Co.
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A mother's nightmare

It was summer of 2009 and we were in Italy in a shop. Ilaria was safe, in my belly. Suddenly we've heard a desperate mother's voice calling for her little child who seemed to be missing. In less than 1 minute she found him leaving the shop together with the mini-shop-cart. She was so scared that she started slapping him. Of course in my mind I accused her, thinking that she was to be blamed for not having payed enough attention and now she was punishing him. I was thinking: "It's not fair!". (My impression created by Italian magazines and RaiUno TV channel is that kidnapping is the most frequent cause of kids lost from their parents, in Italy. And it happens very often.)
Few days ago, while we were in a supermarket I turned my back to Ilaria for maximum 5 seconds. When I turned back to where I knew she was, she wasn't there anymore and I didn't have any clue in which direction she could have gone. I remembered she was attracted by a girl with beautiful dress and she could have gone there again. In the next 5 seconds I found Ilaria there, playing with that girl's flowers on the dress. I was lucky!
In tonight's nightmare it was a little harder. I was at a pool, together with my sister and with Ilaria. Ilaria wasn't my daughter, but my niece. I turned my back to Ilaria for few seconds and here she wasn't there anymore! We started searching her. It was daylight outside when we started searching. And we were searching quiet, afraid to signalize to others that we were looking for a lost child. Probably few hours passed. It was dark outside and we were still searching. Finally we found Ilaria's coat. Inside it, it was a letter from our grandmother. I was disappointing, as I hoped the letter could have given us some hints where Ilaria could have been found. I didn't take time to read the letter, but my sister did. She told me: "she puts all her hope in us. She trust WE will find Ilaria!". I was already losing my hope in ourselves and I was thinking police could do more than us. But after I've heard our grandmother's message I was thinking: "Wait! She's so right! No policeman could do more than a mother's (aunt's) love for her child!". And I started calling Ilaria's name as loud as I could. A lot of cats started to come out from all the dark corners and soon Ilaria joined them! :-) I was lucky again!
It's just a dream, but it seems that somewhere in my mind it's already written "turning your back to your child can become so painful! Don't do it again!". I really hope I won't!
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Edmund Adler, my favorite painter

He was an Austrian painter and he painted my favorite subject: children.
Look at these paintings and imagine what childhood those children had:


no noisy, pollutant and dangerous cars in their neighborhood

"Cherry delight"?

no noisy battery toys

 "Dolls supper" 

no computer games

 "Playing school"

no TV

  "The weatherman"

no plastic

 "Repairing the little cart"

just simple

  "A new friend"

quiet

"The little postman" 

sweet

 "The young artist"

natural life

 "Flowers for grandmother"

It's obvious that Adler had painted real children from his village, as some children can be observed in many paintings. My all time favorite Adler's subject is the little boy, the youngest and the most curious one. He's adorable:
( I call him "Nătrăcală". :-) )

Simply lovely paintings, aren't they?

P.S.: @Bogdan B.: thanks for reminding me that this blog and me we still have some fans out there!

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"I am a mother"

I don't belong to LDS Church, but I love their messages. From time to time I visit this page of Mormon Messages and I like them. Recently I discovered a really special one, from my point of view: Hi, I'm Jane. She spoke to me, so I purchased her book:

Yes, another book on motherhood. But her example is something so rare in nowadays: she left her successful career at CBS News and dedicates her time for being "just" a mother! Did you hear something similar lately? I didn't!

I read her book in 3 days. She quotes a lot of persons in her book. There are motivational stories and wonderful words on motherhood.

I quote here some paragraphs I love:

"If I were Satan and wanted to destroy a society, I think I would stage a full blown blitz on women. I would keep them so distraught and distracted that they would never find the calming strength and serenity for which their gender has always been known."

Patricia Holland

"Our mother provides us with our first experience of nurturing. She is our first and most powerful female role model. It is from her that we learn what it is to be a woman... Our cells divided and grew to the beat of her heart. Our skin, hair, heart, lungs, and bones were nourished by her blood, blood that was awash with the neurochemicals formed in response to her thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. If she was fearful [or] anxious..., our bodies knew it. If she felt safe, happy, and fulfilled, we felt that too...

...every daughter contains her mother and all the women who came before her."

Dr. Christiane Northrup

Motherhood is the ideal time to "live in the moment" because it is the perfect time to see life in action, to witness your child taking his first step, picking her first flower, walking out the door for his first day of school, or leaving with a fine young man on her first date. These thing will never happen again.

I love this oft-quoted proverb, which seems so applicable to my life right now:

   The cleaning and scrubbing can wait for tomorrow,

   For babies grow up, I've learned, to my sorrow.

   So quiet down, cobwebs! Dust, go to sleep!

   I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.

                             - Author unknown

Teenagers grow up fast, too. And so do grandchildren. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow just down and really watch our children - at every age - change before our eyes?

Rather than trying to be Supermom, try being simply Mom - and let the wonder in your child's eyes give you the strength to keep on going.

Jane Clayson Johnson

"Don't judge someone until you've walked a mile in her shoes."

In August will be 2 years since I'm home only for my family and I think often that if you want to do everything right, by yourself (cooking, laundry, cleaning, daily walks in park, blogging ;-), education...), with a lot of help from husband!, 24 hours is no time enough! So I totally agree with Jane when she says that stay-at-home-moms shouldn't use the "just" word, but simply say proudly "I am a mother"!

Being a mother is more than enough, and it's such a pity that it's considered by many as "doing nothing"!
Anyway, I feel so uplifted everytime I remember that somebody once said:
"The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world".
:-)

Kisses from a happy mother!
Raluca

P.S.: On a scale from 1 (worst) to 10 (best) I give for "I am a mother" by Jane Clayson Johnson an 8.

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