Winter in South England

January has been a colder month than usual and we had some snow again. Maria loved it and we took advantage of being more outside and going for some short or longer hikes in snow. Two weekends ago we went to Cirencester, a nice old, Roman town.

 Walking in Cirencester

 Along the river

Making snow angels

 Geocaching

Back home, in the garden

Maria enjoying the snow

and greeting the snowman

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I can't believe it's almost mid January and I haven't written in our blogsite for quite a long time. We have had a wonderful Christmas, having my dad and aunt over for 2 weeks. Just before the New Year's Eve, we got together with Will's parents, sister, brother, sister-in-law and future brother-in-law and my family, who was here. It was lovely to have almost the whole family here.

Here are some pictures from the holiday season 2009 (with one exception).

Mottisfont Abbey - Sept. 2009 - From crawling...

... to walking (same place, same little girl)

and with her mama and grandparents

Christmas Eve - our Christmas Tree

It's Christmas time. Let's open presents...

Are they all gone?

Christmas Day: playing with my favourite rings

Christmas with the Romanian side of the family

Daddy is showing me the Christmas decorations

but I want to pull one out of the tree

Time to check the drawer. Any more toys in it?

Just before New Year Eve, we had a family reunion. It was lovely to have the Romanian side along with the English side of the family getting together. Here, Grannie Mary and Granddad Peter are enjoying some playful games with Maria

Ahhh, there they are

Family picture 2009 (wish Maria's cousins and Godparents were here, too)

To finish the year 2009 in a traveling mood, as we got Maria used last year, we decided to go for a steam train ride. All aboard!

We were very happy that Lauren came with us. Lauren and my aunt, Mio are in this picture.

La Multi Ani, Romania! Happy New Year! Still 10pm in England

My first picture in 2010

Going for a walk in the neighbourhood

A beautiful sunny day

That's my favourite swing

Daddy's time in the park

on the way back home

Upgraded from the MacPac to daddy's shoulders

A walk in the Southampton Common

Dan-Dan feeding me

Just before Dan-Dan and Mio left for Romania. Hope to see you back soon!

Happy Birthday, Maria!

Maria is 1 year old. Born on Thanksgiving Day, last year, she is now crawling, walking, laughing, playing and being generally a very happy and active little girl. Her favourite thing is to be outdoors, in her MacPac, carried by her daddy and searching for "treasures". She likes books and toys and her favourite "toys" to play with seem to be the mobile phone, the keys and the remote control.

She recently discovered (in her grandma Lili's room) the jeweleries and she enjoys to play with them, especially the bracelets and the pearl necklaces. Well, I am not sure where she got this from, as I was never very keen on jewelery.

For her first birthday, we prepared two celebrations: on her actual birthday, we had her friends from our mums and babies group over to our house and the day after, our family and friends that are not part of the group came to celebrate Maria. We had a great time and thank you everyone for being with us (some of them virtually, on Internet) and for the lovely presents.

Here are some pictures from her birthday parties.

For one of the parties, a joined effort was put by Will, myself and grandma Lili to prepare a "Diplomat" cake, which is a popular birthday cake in Romania. It was my first time when I made this cake and without Will's supervision, I would have probably spent the whole night trying to figure out how much gelatine to add. Eventually, we managed to finish it and it was quite tasty.

For the other party, grannie Mary prepared an excellent traditional sponge cake and decorated very nicely. I think she won the "unofficial" competition of the cakes. Well done, grannie Mary!

Maria checking out the cake. Actually she put her fingers in it as soon as she saw it.

 

Clapping hands after her friends sang "Happy Birthday"! Thank you, everyone!

Maria's friends and their mums

"I like my dress, mummy!"

"I've got a nice bracelet on my hand and I can put it on by myself"

And here comes the fun of being 1 in the Romanian culture. Traditionally, when you are 1, you are given a tray full of different objects that can symbolize possible future career. The baby chooses up to three objects and then the prediction starts. We asked everyone to put something on the tray for her from their pockets and we added a few more things. Maria went straight for the pound coin and then she picked up a sparkle cake decoration little jar and then the mobile phone. In translation, this might mean that she can be a banker (or rich), she will love cooking or will be a cook and she will communicate with her friends by phoning them on her mobile. We'll see in 20 years or so which of these predictions will become true, if any.

Time to open some presents. My friends and mummy came to help.

"Hmm, it looks like there should be another wheel somewhere"

"This is the funniest thing I have ever seen. You open the card and the phone rings. You pick up the phone and it starts singing Happy Birthday! Great!"

"Ok, I guess I had enough of this noise"

Time to sing Happy Birthday and to blow the candle

And finally, time to play with my new toys and have a breadstick