Good Moms

I took this picture in the house of our friends. She is a great mother of two but her floors are never sticky and her kids are among the happiest I've seen.  So I guess it's possible.

Then why are my floors sticky? Ah well, at least my kid is laughing like crazy.

Sleep, baby, sleep

Oh please, do sleep! We've tried everything, really every thing. Singing him to sleep, this seems to work, he likes dirty French songs and counting elephants. But it only works half of the time. We've tried letting him cry it out. This almost never works at night times. We're trying nighttime rituals and soothing the baby with no tears. We've done swaddling and other S words as well, worked well at some point, not anymore.

At the moment, we are going through the "I don't wanna fall asleep" phase and the things we tried before seem useless. Just before, he had a "I go to sleep at 9 PM, wake up at 7 with you guys" phase. That was the dream, we had date nights with my husband in front of a movie. "Now you see me" is fun although we still haven't seen the end, after 3 tries, ah well, the joys of parenthood.

Last night we got him in bed with us. We are not co-dodo or co-sleep adepts but last night at midnight, we cracked, got him in bed with us and, after a few cries (he never cries unless he is really tired, he's belly hurts or he's hungry, I'll let you guess which one was this time) he eventually fell asleep next to me, with my hand on his tummy. I then scooped him up and placed him in his crib where he slept until the morning when our daytime routine started.

The idea is that he is supposed to sleep on his own and we don't seem to find a way to help him with falling asleep on his own, he always gets some help from us. Any tips on how to train a baby to sleep? Our's seems to want to talk and smile or worse, cry if left alone, rather than sleep.

When he does sleep, oh the blessign, he sleeps until morning, undisturbed and serene. And he is such a happy, healthy baby babling away and playing all day long, sometimes continuing at night.

Nursery under the roof

The time has come for our little boy to transition to his own space. It will be a slow thing, first off will be the building of his space. Our loft has a low, open space which will be the nursery once we add a door. And a wall, of course. I am looking for inspiration, as always, on pinterest.

And as always, one of my favorites comes from Ikea. I love the rug and the kid playing with the wood train set. and the shelves and the wall decal. I don't like the picture of the boy's head, guves me the creeps.

Again Ikea... the colors are wrong, of course, even if I am all for not labelling blue as the only color for boys. The nook bed will be a feature of the room due to the low ceilling.

I love this bed. I should also look for a low table. And of course, the Malm drawers, why didn't I think of that?

Storage! I need lots of storage space, I'll go crazy with all the clothes and toys. 5month olds have more clothes than me!

Built in shelves could be a solution for the storage problem. Oh and the cute rocking horse. Totally love the bench too.

My idea for the desk looks a lot like this:

I hope I am inspiring you to create a space under the roof for your baby. I definetly think kids like to play in such places, they must feel protected, like under a tent.

Getting back

Happy 2014 to you all! I know I come late to the game, but better late than never.

And as always, with the new year wishes come the resolutions. One of my resolutions, as every year is to keep writting here hoping I will not go totally gaga from staying at home with a baby.

If you want to encourage me to write, please just leave comments, feedback is greatly appreciated.

See you again, soon, in the mean time, check my pinterest page as well, here.

Parada Militara

La multi ani Romania! 95 de ani de la Marea Unire, merita sarbatoriti asa cum se cuvine.

Parada militara nu este doar despre tehnica militara dar si despre oamenii care adesea nu se vad, despre mandria de a fi roman. Hai sa facem astfel incat lucrurile chiar sa mearga in directia potrivita. De noi depinde, oriunde am fi, cat timp suntem romani! Hai sa fim cu adevarat frati si sa dam mana cu mana ca sa mergem inainte, uniti.

Life in the Countryside

I would just love to get away for a summer weekend to this guest house in the Polish countryside. It feels so out of this world, a place from a time long gone. I cannot decide if I prefer the interiors which are so much my style that it reminds me of my place, or the outside life. I'll let you decide for yourself and dream of your weekend.

All pictures are from Moniowka website. Did I tell you that Monika, the owner, gave up her 9 to 5 job in the city for a life in the countryside to run her guest house?The dream :)

My Bucharest through someone else's eyes

...is optimistic. At least if you look at it through the pictures posted here on Bucuresti Optimist. I am one of those people, who, like My Cup of Digital who showed me these pictures, loves Bucharest. This is were I grew up and spent most of my life so far and even if it's not the perfect place to live, it's still in my heart. I haven't lived there in 5 years but I still know the city quite well and even dream of it's streets sometimes.

Here are some of the pictures from the page.The depth, the colours, almost reminds me of the smells and sounds of the place. Yes, I love Bucharest, whatever people say, it's got its good points, you just have to open your eyes. And yes, the communist buildings are what remind me of Bucharest the most, but inside the buildings there are the people that make it my city.

So many things have changed in the 5 years I've been away, there are not so many cities that move at the fast pace that Bucharest has. Here is the National Arena. It wasn't there when I left.

And I also love the nostalgic Bucharest of the 20s and 30s with its Paris meets Istanbul air. The mix of styles is impressive, not always very pretty but quaint. The Lipscani area or Old City is a memory from a long lost commercial past but the new rendition of it as an area for partying is equally successful.

 Go check out Bucuresti Optimist, you will find a Bucharest you barely recognize. This is Herastrau park for instance. Everything looks so different if you look at it from another angle. Even the pessimists will start to love this city and maybe work on making it better.

Every time I go to Bucharest I feel I came back home, and that is despite the fact that sometimes I feel so far from all the issues that trouble Romanians. for me, Bucharest is Romania and these pictures bring back the memories.

Driving bebe

I've mentioned we have an Aygo. Perfect city car, we go with it everywhere. A friend commented that a car means independence and I am here to tell you what the car means to me as a new mum.

I was driving all through my pregnancy and even joking I'll end up driving myself to the maternity. At the time, I was working 45km away from my home and so if labour started early, I had 45 minutes of driving to my maternity of choice or 15 minutes to the closest one. Many were surprised I wasn't carpooling any more but I felt free and wanted to be able to leave fast if any contractions so I preferred to drive by myself. I continued driving for errands during my maternity leave, I was even driving the night before my son was born.

Because I had a c section, I was afraid the safety belt would bother me and I would be unable to drive. This made me sad, I knew I would be home with my son only and I wanted to be able to use the car if necessary. I also wanted the freedom a car gives me.

I was surprised to find that adjusting the seat was different then when my big belly helped - knew how far I had to be from the wheel because the belly stopped me - but other then that, the belt didn't bother me at all. So I drove the car about 2 weeks after my son was born and I think it helped against the baby blues: wind in my hair and the possibility of going anywhere meant that life was moving forward ok even with a baby. The big football match that day meant no free parking space around the city centre and a 20 minute walk in the rain for me: I should have taken the tram instead.

Life part 2 started, now with a kid and I enjoy putting him in his baby car seat and taking him for rides to visit friend or shop or whatever. Mobility is so important for us, we don't have to stay inside all day long, we can go anywhere. As winter approaches, my husband will take the car to work instead of the bike as he does now. I will miss the car but the trams and buses are a good alternative even if they don't takes exactly where we need. We just have to put an extra layer of clothes on us to keep warm. But this is another discussion: who to dress your baby for trips outside?

Breastfeeding in public

My post is inspired by this from A cup of Jo and a discussion I had with a friend before I gave birth. My asked me what my opinion was about breastfeeding in public and I said the jury was still out on this one.

The fact is, before I had to breast feed, I considered it as a private affair between mother and child. The only women I saw feeding their kids in public wore gipsy women in Romania. I was a bit uncomfortable with the idea of nursing your baby while others watched, even after reading about this on several blogs and seeing mothers do it in CZ. And not just gipsy mothers.

And then I had my baby and he was hungry all the time so my choice was to give up any form of public life such as dinner with the family or nurse him in the living room. I am not so prude any more but I still retreat in a corner, discreetly. I think that my baby deserves my attention and care and that is why it's called nursing. But I still like to eaves drop on conversations.Besides, being able to breastfeed in public spaces such as in the car or Ikea's cafeteria (they have a special corner for this) means that I am more free to move. And this is excellent, we can take him on trips and have fun as a family.

By the way, the picture is from the post I mentioned earlier on Joanna's blog. I totally see myself in the way she is dressed.

Autumn Baby

As Autumn is getting closer to saying it's final word, here are some pics from the neighbourhood I walk around with my son. The side walk was covered in crunchy leaves, just the way I like them, the weather was nice and quite warm for this time of the year. Too bad my pictures are not so good. This area is full of houses from the 30's, I day dream all the time of having even the smallest one.

The park in the second picture is a big round place in an intersection and it is always full. I crossed there Ukrainians and Slovaks and heard some English once.

The other day a squirrel crosses my path and once, I saw a small hawk. My son will be lucky ti grow up with squirrels for neighbours.