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

Tennis at the O2 Arena

Last weekend we went to London for the first day of the Masters Tennis Championship. When Will bought the tickets, we didn't know who we were going to see, as the groups were decided later. Luckily for me, it was Federer playing against Verdasco. I liked Federer a lot, but after watching him playing live, I became an even bigger fan. He is a great player! Here are a few pictures from the match. Thanks, my lovely husband for another surprise and for a wonderful evening.

 Start of the match

Federer serving for the match

Federer winning

Autumn Stories

Simple games and toys are always fun for kids. Here is Maria enjoying some wrapping bubbles that daddy brought for her.

September and October have been 2 very nice months for all of us. Maria is developing quite well, crawling, waving "bye-bye", clapping hands and playing with many toys.

Last month, we had a visit from Will's uncle and aunt. We had a great afternoon together.

Great Aunt Jill, Maria and Grannie Mary, Great Uncle Geoff and Granddad Peter

Each weekend, if it was a nice weather, we took Maria for hikes and walks around the beautiful places of England's countryside. As she is getting bigger, but still not too heavy (as she hasn't gained in the last 2 months a single gram), we decided to "upgrade" her to a baby back pack carrier when we take her for walks.

Mummy taxi

and daddy taxi

Mottisfont Abbey Garden

A beautiful time in the gorgeous weather

Having fun on the grass

At the beginning of October we went for a trip to Munich (Germany) to visit our friends Mat and Sally and also my friend Ursula, who I haven't seen for about 7 years. It was so nice to see our friends and Maria enjoyed the trip a lot. In the first day there, we went to the center of the city, went geocaching (of course...) and visited my friend Ursula and her husband at their place. I felt 7 years younger; all the memories from the US came back, as everything happened just yesterday.

Marienplaz - the same as it was 15 years ago

we changed...

We went for a walk in a nearby park and introduced Ursula and Florian to geocaching. In the evening, we all went to a nice Bavarian pub in the center of Munich.

 So nice to see Ursula again after such a long time

Maria is having a nap, preparing for the evening...

I am awake now and my eyes are glowing in the dark. Spooky!

Lovely dinner with our friends in a cool Bavarian pub

The second day in Munich we went for a nice walk to the Andechs Abbey. This time we introduced Mat and Sally to our geocaching adventure and it seems that they liked it quite a lot and we ended up recruiting new members. We managed to find all of the caches. After a long walk to the Abbey, we had a Bavarian lunch (white sausage and pretzels).

"Thanks, Mat for playing with me!"

"It's Sally's turn now"

Back from Germany and straight to Heathrow to pick up "Mama Lili". She is so happy to see Maria again and play with her. My mum's first weekend here was busy. On Saturday, we took a travel bug to the beach and "upgraded" Maria to a MacPac (Thank you grannie Mary and granddad Peter for my first birthday present.)

" Brrr, a bit chilly today, I need my hat on. Let's go geocaching, everyone!"

And the biggest sport event in October, the World Gymnastics Championships in London. What a treat! And how nice of my lovely husband to suggest to get tickets for the event. Thanks, Baby, we all enjoyed it so much! In the last day of the event, we went to see the apparatus finals: 2 for women and 3 for men. The Chinese dominated the last day, but the Romanians and the Brits managed to "steal" one gold each, too. How special for all of us to get to sing our anthems and see your gymnasts compete and win golds.

The Romanians won gold and silver at Men's Vault event, in a competition where almost all the gymnasts performed Marian Dragulescu's vault. But who was the best?

Marian and Flavius celebrating winning gold and silver

and receiving their medals

time for some tears of happiness when the Romanian anthem was playing in the O2 arena

The Romanian girls were not as good as we got used to and Ana Porgras, the only Romanian with chances at medals, won only a bronze medal in the uneven bars, even if she was the main favourite in the beam event. We still enjoyed watching and cheering for her.

Romanian Ana at the beam

The British and Romanian supporters in front of the O2 arena. Thanks, Lauren for joining us!

Last summer days

Summer is on the way out, the leaves are falling, the rain seems more and its getting chillier. The veggies are almost all gone apart from the many leeks and marrows that are still going strong, I guess we will be eating a lot of leeks this winter!

Maria is now 9 months and a half and she is crawling everywhere, still in her unique style, as I explained in a previous thread. She started saying "mama", "dede", "nene" and other consonant-vowel combination. She is extremely excited about the leaves moving in the wind and the grass and loves to spend time in the garden (daddy's girl). Many times she crawls in the kitchen and stands up, hanging onto the door, looking outside in the garden and "asking" me to take her outside.

"I love my swing"Maria in her swing and the plants in the background.

At the end of August we visited our friends in Wales and spent a few days in Cardiff area, going geocaching and visiting museums and parks. We stopped at the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff to take some pictures.

At the Millenium Stadium: the England mosaic and its representatives

and the Romanian mosaic and its representative
Maria and daddy went geocaching along the river

with the stadium in the background

in Cardiff harbour on a rainy day
visiting our friends, Corina, Jamie and Eric and their new baby, Finley
Maria playing with Eric
Eric was so sweet showing Maria his and Finley's toys and playing with her. Thanks, Eric!
"Back home, playing with my toys and practicing some gymnastics"

"Gosh, this hair gets into my eyes"

Meeting with babies and mums in our group
Maria and Ben
Sam and Priscilla's visit
Maria and daddy on a swing
and by myself
Daddy's time at the playground
Maria and her friend, Sam going to the playground together
and going to the sensory room (thanks Priscilla and Lylda for taking us there)
"I love this place"

Before our trip to Wales, we went to visit Grannie Mary and Granddad Peter. We had a lovely time, celebrating granddad's birthday and seeing also uncle Ed, who flew over from France, auntie Katie and uncle Ron. The day after, we went to the Eastbourne airshow with Mary, Peter and Ed. Here are some pictures from the day.

Flying in formation

Maria, granddad and grannie waiting for the next act

The whole family enjoying a nice windy day and the airplanes