Summer holidays

Published by pedro 22.08.2010 - 23:41 in Nadia,blog,life

Well, here we are passing the third month since Nadia was born. And maaan, that seems to me like a very long time. Even if a lot of interesting things happened since she came into our lives, I won’t do statistics and I won’t even talk about her. Maybe at 4 or 5 months, or maybe at 1 year ;-) And maybe in ten years from now, I will laugh reading this post, because 3 months seems to be a short time. Or is it a long time?

On one side three months is very short, you don’t realize when it passes. It’s 1/300 from the average human’s life. Or if you want, it’s as long as a small project that you didn’t even started and it’s already finished. Or should be finished. Or maybe as long as you need to prepare an event. Or some TV show. Or some radio show. Or as long as you need to be confirmed on a new job. Or as long as you need to get a new job. And you’re always running out of time. So it’s not long.

On the other hand three months is s a very long time. It’s as long as the summer holidays that we all used to enjoy before we started the “work” life. And damn that seamed so long at that time. It was as long as an year of school to me. And I could sleep as much as I wanted. And I could play as much as I wanted. And I could stay outside as much as I liked. And I could wonder around as much as I wanted around my grandparents village, or inside my other grandparents town. And I could spend time with my friends as much as I wanted. And when I grew older, I could party as much as I wanted. And I could travel as much as I wanted. I even lost one year of my university because of that, but for sure I don’t regret it! And I didn’t have so many things to worry about. In other words I was happy.

That doesn’t mean that I’m not happy now. Because I am and I have to thank my two lovely girls for that. I just feel that it can be better than this and I’ll do anything that is in my power to achieve it. Therefore I hope that after some years, when I’ll read this, I’ll be able to laugh and to say: yes I did everything and I am much happier now!

P.S. Of course I couldn’t help it and I placed a few photos with Nadia. Enjoy ;-)




Decorating Nadia’s room

Published by eugenia 18.08.2010 - 17:40 in Nadia,blog,casa,life

Due to the fact that Nadia is already a big girl she decided to have a schedule with sleeping hours, eating ones and playing time. In this way I have time to read, to compose new posts, to check emails, Facebook or Twitter ;) and also to decorate Nadia’s room.

I start doing it by festooning her room with some words that describe her, such as Happiness, Amazing, Poetry, Magical, Hopeful, Adventurous, Awesome, Beautiful… and the list continues. In this way all three of us will constantly reflect on her extraordinary qualities and potential. Words are in Romanian and I am sure that some of them will be among first words she will tell us ;)

Here are some pictures while creation act was happening and how Nadia was starring at the new posted words :) She even helped me with the last words :)



“How Smart Parents Make Smart Kids”

Published by eugenia 16.08.2010 - 18:25 in Nadia,blog,life,una, alta

Or

This is the best book about kids I ever red and I doubt to find another one to dethrone it. Maybe another book of Tony’s :)

I was pregnant in 3 or 4 months when my colleague Sabin talked to me about this book. First I was thinking: “Come’ on, I am just at the beginning of my pregnancy. I won’t start reading books about raising kids!” After some other months, when Nadia arrival was approaching and I become a little bit scared, I remembered Sabin’s advice and asked him to borrow me the book.

This is probably the first book writen from the baby’s point of view. A research work of more than 10 years done by Tony and his team made “Brain Child” beeing, from my perspective, a real “MUST to read” book for every person that decided to become a Parent.

On the foreword pages there is a letter that made me love this book and stimulated me to read it again and again:

“Hello Mum! Hello Dad!”

Brain Child is my book for you, written from my perspective – your future baby-to-be.

Brain Child is an Utopian book, written to describe everything I would ideally like in my upbringing to help me to develop full potential of my mind, body and spirit, in a way that makes life easier and happier for all of us.

I am sure you will heard that I, your baby, will own the most astonishingly complex yet compact piece of equipment ever developed by nature or humankind: my baby brain – a truly magical gift for both you and me. I will similarly own an astonishingly complex body with its extraordinary supernatural senses.

My book for you explains why each baby’s brain is such a magical gift, and what an important part you, my dear parents, have played and will continue to play in its development.

Most book on bringing up babies have focused on feeding the mouth. My book for you and me focuses on feeding the brain.

At my birth, that brain will already contain its full complement of brain cells: one million million (1,000,000,000,000). PLEASE, help me feed them well!

With love from

YOUR BRAIN CHILD”

Brain Child is a book that calls you back, especially because the author put at the end of each chapter Thinks for you to do as a parent.

The book has 6 main parts:

Part I – THE BRAIN

This part reveals to the readers what a “fabulous instrument” the human brain is and how it can be nurtured in order to do the most incredible things. Also you can start using Tony’s most popular thinking tool: Mind Mapping together with your kid.

Part II – UNIQUENESS

Reading this part of the book, any parent who will want to have or already has more than one kid will stop compare the kids, their abilities, their behaviours or way of thinking. Any parent will start to think that each child is UNIQUE and acknowledge that the comparison between them will bring only frustration to the kids.

Part III – BRAIN PRINCIPLES

Parents will find more information about the seven main brain principles that will guide your child in his/her life. So, you will find out that mimic is the first tool used by a child in learning process. Also it is totally wrong to think that mimicking or copying equals cheating, which is bad of course.

You will also learn to use the synergy or the Correct Formulae when talking with and about your child. Two examples of Incorrect Formula versus Correct Formula: “Thinking she is stupid => Thinking she is bright, Thinking that the child should be kept under control => Knowing that the child should be given as much freedom for learning and self-expression as possible”.

TEFCAS principle is explained.

T= Trial

E= Event

F= Feedback

C= Check

A= Adjust

S= Succeed

Parents note that any child is a “Success Mechanism” and very persistent. Edison who was a genius for many people defined the word genius to be 1% inspiration and 99% persistence. Think about your child in these terms, read the things you can do and you will be able to manage situations like  “- I want an ice-cream! – No!, – I want an ice-cream!, – No!….”

You will also find out how important is the TRUTH in the child’s life and how many bad things can happen if the parents are not seeking the truth or not keeping their promises. Learning this as a parent will most probably solve the “teenage  years problems”.

Part IV – DEVELOPMENT AND ENVIRONMENT

While reading this part parents will see the importance of nurturing all the skills offered by nature and also how the word Play influence the child’s life. Also a Work versus Play section will show how many things a child will learn while playing. In this part the author described also the development stages by month of the first 3 years in any child’s life. So you will find how she/he develops physical, mental or using motor skills. I admit that Nadia, at hers three months does the things described by Tony :) .

Part V – THE SENSES

This part explain to the readers that a child will know the Universe using all the senses that Nature gave us. It is also introduced the “homunculus” – the “brain’s eye view” of what is really important. You, as a parent will discover all the senses through their capacity, development and freedom with which the child uses them.

Part VI – LEARNING

This final part investigates the major areas of learning in baby’s development. It includes:

Curiosity

Concentration

Logic

Art

Music

Mathematics

Reading

Baby Talk

Hot Housing

Mind Sports

Information Technology

Dance

Sensuality and Sexuality

Learning Difficulties

Pets

Discipline – Physical and Mental

Schools

And besides being probably the first book written from a child’s point of view, the author invites yo to read the book in a total different way: by using The Swan – an Overview of “Brain Child”, the first Mind Map in the section in the middle of the book.

For the moment “Brain Child” is available in English language on Amazon.

Few weeks ago, I sent an email to Tony’s team asking them to translate the book also in Romanian and they replied they will take this into consideration. I hope the book will soon appear in bookstores all over the country. For sure, with this book, we will have smart kids and Romania can have a different future!

More about Tony’s books and thinking tools you can find on his website: http://www.thinkbuzan.com/uk

Finally I want to thank Sabin again for telling me about this book! It is amazing!!!

I will continue with Mind Maps for kids :)


Princess for a day

Published by pedro 31.07.2010 - 14:35 in Botez Nadia,Nadia,Photos,events

Sunday, July 11th 2010 it was a very special day for Nadia and for us, as well.

After the christening ceremony at the church, she celebrated with many many dear friends of ours.Thank you all for being with us :)
The whole day was full of strong feelings that are hard to explain in words. The only thing I can tell is that we were VERY VERY VERY HAPPY together.

Then the hard task came – selecting pictures :) We’d like to thank (again) to all 3 photographers, they did a fabulous job! It was really hard to select the pictures from this post, once due to some technical difficulties (that we hope will soon be fixed) but also due to a large number of great pictures ;-)

The applauses goes to (in the order of their names and pictures) Vali Carţiş, Tudor Juravlea and Nic Vîlceanu.


I could not wish more

Published by eugenia 26.07.2010 - 14:06 in Nadia,blog,life

Yesterday just ended another super great weekend spent together with my dear husband and our precious little girl. Where? In Vama Veche, the place where Nadia became reality ;)

Friday afternoon we were just enjoying the view from the pension’s terrace ;)

Nadia met Vladutz, a very charming Prince born in the same day, May 15th :) They were totally cute while sleeping near one each other under the tree’s shadow with the sea’s waves as a background music.

Saturday morning Nadia took good care of her health with a cure of aerosols near her mum ;)

And when she woke up, she put her sun glasses and had stare at the waves for some time on her daddy’s arm.

This was the first weekend outside Bucharest and the feeling I had all the time was that I could not wish more than spending my time with my family.
Today we started another short vacation, at the mountains. Stay tuned, we’ll post more :)


Definitely a GIRL

Published by eugenia 21.07.2010 - 11:41 in Nadia,blog,life

From now on, I hope no one will ask mummy if I am a boy ;) Unless he is stupid enough and won’t notice my new earrings.

They are just temporary and the ones I really like will come pretty soon from far far away :)

I will ask my dear parents to put more pictures with me on our blog for your delight!

I smile to you all,

Nadia


De ce atatea gadget-uri

Published by eugenia 03.07.2010 - 19:51 in Nadia,blog,life

Acest post este un raspuns la un comentariu venit din partea Dianei_aka_Mihi in care spunea ca ea are poze in lighean si galeata. Totodata prin acest post imi satisfac nevoia de a povesti despre gadget-urile folosite cu Nadia.
Acest post NU este o justificare a folosirii lor!

Avand in vedere ca sunt mai multe, am sa le iau pe rand:

1. SCUTECE REFOLOSIBILE
Principalul motiv sunt beneficiile de care se poate bucura copilul meu daca este infasat cu materiale precum finet, bumbac, canepa sau bambus. Daca pe mine ma fac sa ma simt bine hainele din astfel de materiale, cu siguranta acelasi lucru este valabil si pentru un copil, cu atat mai mult cu cat zona vizata este una foarte delicata.
Photo by HipHip.ro
2. INSTRUMENTE DE PURTAT COPILUL
Pentru ca am ales sa imi tin copilul aproape de mine, la piept sau pe burtica. Asta o face fericita pe pustoaica mea si implicit si pe mine.
Eu sunt convinsa ca de asta Nadia nu stie ce sunt alea colici si nu plange fara motiv ore in sir pana la epuizare.
Am mai fost intrebata de ce wrap sau sling si nu marsupiu. Pentru ca wrap-ul si sling-ul sunt niste marsupii upgradate, mult mai prietenoase. Si pentru ca sunt captivata de tot ce este nou si nu ma tem de schimbare. (Photo by HipHip.ro)

3. TUMMY TUB
Pentru ca imita burtica unde Nadia a stat noua luni, loc care i-a oferit siguranta si libertate de miscare. Lucrurile astea nu le are intr-o cadita normala conceputa cu o parte inclinata la 45 de grade unde nu are niciun control. Da, cred cu tarie ca un copil de 1 luna are aceasta nevoie si se bucura daca ii este indeplinita.

Folosirea acestor gadget-uri ii fac Nadiei acomodarea in aceasta lume mai usoara, iar pe noi ne fac fericiti si relaxati.
Pana la urma este vorba de decizii pe care orice parinte le ia pentru a-si face copilul sa se simta bine, sa capete incredere in el si sa devina un om FERICIT in viata!


Home entertainment

Published by eugenia 02.07.2010 - 15:48 in Nadia,blog,life

When Nadia is feeling good and we are not that tired, we just grab the photo camera and we “use” the kid for our entertainment :)
Here are some pictures of her in some very funny postures:

Lately she is smiling to us every morning when she wakes up. Next days we will show also to you her gorgeous smile :) that is totally making our day.


Nadia enjoying bath time

Published by eugenia 25.06.2010 - 21:21 in Nadia,blog,life

With some weeks before Z day, we started to look for a tub. I remember it was the only thing left to buy, in order to be TOTALLY prepared for Nadia :)
Our main problem was the tinny bathroom and we were looking for something useful and small in the same time.

We ended up in buying a normal tub. Of course it was too big for our bathroom with the two of us inside :)

Thanks to our friends, Marin family, that they asked us if aren’t we interested in their Tummy Tub. And the answer was prompt: “Yes, why not?”

The days passed, Nadia arrived and the moment of the first bath arrived too. We were so afraid and we tried the normal tub. Guess what? Nadia cried all the time. We don’t know exactly if it was the tub’s guilt or ours, but the same thing happened every evening of the first week.

Then we decided to try the Tummy Tub hopping that Nadia will stop crying during bath time.

And yes, she did stop crying and start enjoying it.

It may seem that the Tummy Tub is too small and the kid is not safe inside it, but trust me that she is. And mainly because she is under water, just like the time spent in the tummy. The only moments she cries now is because of the water temperature and this is our fault, of course :)

And guess what happened with the normal tub? It rests over the shower cabin :) annoying daddy every time he wants to take a shower, no more than twice/day ;)

That’s Nadia’s face while she is in the Tummy Tub:


One month passed, a lot more to come

Published by pedro 15.06.2010 - 23:13 in Nadia,blog,life

Two months ago I didn’t even imagine that I will write this post from a tiny (not to say nasty) hotel from Paris. Two or three months ago me and my wife were only thinking about the D-Day and what would happen in the day Nadia was born. But at some point we realized that this date would only be the beginning of a new era (if I may say so). If not an era, for sure I can describe the past month as a completely new phase of our life.
If it’s not clear yet, Nadia is one month old today. On one side it feels that we’ve been at the hospital months ago, on the other side it seems that everything happened so fast that we didn’t even realized what happened.

So I’ll try to make a summary of what happened during this time:
- we spent ~30 hours staring at Nadia and telling each other what a nice miracle happened to us
- we spent ~100 hours sleeping with Nadia in the same bed with us. The feeling is absolutely great as she is like an oasis in the middle of a desert :-D As well she is totally sweet in the morning when she’s awake, but not yet crying, but just letting us know she’s awake
- we changed about 160 normal (disposable) diapers and we washed about 250 times the different models of reusable diapers :-D This means we are changing Nadia’s diapers more than 10 times a day (in average) :-D
- her mom fed her for about 300 times, while her father barely reaches 10 times (I’m still having doubts I reached 10 :-/ )
- she slept for about 550 hours, spending some other 30 hours crying (being hungry, wet, sleepy, thirsty, angry, upset, hot, cold, etc.)
- she peed 3 times on her father and twice on her mother. Of course she also poo-ed two times on her father and once in the water during the bath, which was the one of the best laughs me and her mom had in this past month :-)
- we started to differentiate the types of crying: the “give me food” crying, the “don’t leave me alone” crying, the “I woke up alone” crying, the “you left me alone … again” crying, the “I am totally wet” crying, the “I am totally wet and brown” crying, the “I will soon be hungry” crying, the “can you please turn on the AC” crying, the “where is the damn radiator?” crying and of course the “would you sleep in this bed?!” crying. And these are only the ones which were clearly differentiated between each-other. I am trying to identify even more, but it becomes as difficult as differentiating the dialects of a foreign language :-D
- she smiled for about 2 minutes and we managed to steal a few of her smiles in some pictures during her sleep. Those few seconds are really enough to completely change your day no matter what happened before. Totally recommended!
- she already became a super-model as she probably has around 200 photos taken (that’s an average of 7 pictures/day :-P )

There are so many other things to say, but I’ll leave the pleasure of future parents to discover themselves these moments. I am aware now that for a long while she will offer us and teach us new things everyday. And these are the moments that are more valuable than anything else. I let you know enjoy some pictures from her one month anniversary with a simple conclusion: she just makes us happy! Totally recommended ;-)


We also like wearing our UrbanKid in a WRAP

Published by eugenia 03.06.2010 - 12:17 in Nadia,blog,life

Starting from the moment we found out that we are expecting, being the responsible parents that we are, we started to discuss very seriously about our daughter’s future :)
And one point of this serious discussion was “New things for us and Nadia”. So, quite easily we accepted the idea of using other carrying baby instruments instead of the usual ones.
Yesterday we tryed the Wrap and both me and Nadia adore it. It is very easy to use, altghout at first sight seems quite complicated.
The Balinese pants are another new thing I tried yesterday. They are very cozy and useful during the summer time.

Both of these new things I tried yesterday can be seen in the pictures below.


Later edit: Here are some pictures with Pedro and Nadia:


Wearing a SLING…carrying a DOG?

Published by eugenia 31.05.2010 - 08:15 in Nadia,blog,life

Indeed, this is the most frequent question people ask or have on their faces when they see us wearing the sling.

Since we decided to take Nadia outside the house, we used only the sling as a baby-carrying instrument. And it’s very funny to see people passing near to me or Pedro and take a look at what we are carrying inside. The reactions are different: either they smile to us, even small children, either they spell it out laud “it’s a child…” or “they are really crazy!” or “was it a dog?”.

These days I realized that if you are a little bit different from the majority and you live in Bucharest/Romania, people actually stare at you, so you really feel different. And I have in mind persons with special needs, black people or even Chinese that live here.

This is sad in my opinion. These people don’t need to see all these reactions, they are perfectly conscious about the differences. I think this is a thing we need to educate in time and probably when Nadia will grow, she will not stare at mums who are carrying their kids in a Sling or a Wrap or a Mei tai.

PS: Some new pictures with Nadia, outside and inside the house :)


New logo, new look

Published by pedro 30.05.2010 - 13:49 in Nadia,blog,life

Dear all, Max from Visualis helped us to update our page’s look, therefore we added Nadia everywhere ;-)

Besides that, we also have a Facebook page now. Stay tooned, become a fan and we’ll be easier in touch ;-)

Later edit: we’ve got a nice link for our Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/Dobrestii ;-)


First week of a happy life in 3

Published by eugenia 23.05.2010 - 14:17 in Nadia,blog,life

Hello everybody,

Mummy is back online and ready to write about the new life of Dobrestii, which got a new shape starting from Saturday, May 15th 2010, 4:45  pm when Nadia was born.

Indeed, Nadia has already a week and we are very proud of her.

She is very well, gaining weight fast :) and very very pretty. Besides the 3 usual things new born baby do (sleep, eat and poo) Nadia has done other interesting things like going outside with us, like sleeping in a sling

and in a hammock , smiling with all her face after a healthy meal with mummy’s milk
, using reusable diapers and wearing some special merino wool short pants :)

So, we are very very happy about our new life and our gorgeous litlle girl.

Stay tooned cause we will write again pretty soon.

PS: Other pictures with Nadia:

Kisses and hugs,

Nadia, Eugenia and Pedro