The Saga of the current... or how to annoy a Romanian neighbour.

by Peter
(Bucharest)

If you are Romanian, you will know all about how dangerous current is. I saw a classic example of it last summer. My friends had started to build a house, and so they had put up the supporting beams - no walls, windows or doors, just the posts... and it was a lovely spot in the shade, with the occasional breeze blowing through the place...

However as Romanians knew there would be doors, and windows in the place, this made this spot an 'inside room' and so the delightful breeze became a 'dangerous draft' - to be avoided at all costs.

Irina has taken the same view of any motion of air in the house and little Victor. In fact she took it to such an extreme yesterday, that when the friendly neighbour wanted to come in to his garage - which Nae had blocked with some spectacular Romanian style parking across the front of the communal garages, Irina screamed along with the rest of the family not to open the door at any costs as there was a draft!

So the poor neighbour, who could hear the baby screaming in the kitchen - a bit of a give away - was left on at the door, trying to ring the bell, until I went out and parked the car. I then saw Nae nip out and dig out the snow and park his car a little more responsibly.

Little Victor is coming along in leaps and bounds and mastered the art today of spectacularly vomiting milk... which of course caused its own little crisis in the Fogarty household as everyone, apart from me, thought this was some terrible omen... I just put it down to overeating.

I went into the cellar and brought out the pram - it has so many knobs, buttons and dials on it, then I had to be very careful to learn how to use it as some of the most useful looking buttons in fact made the whole thing collapse into a neat bundle - not too good if you still have a kid on board.

I also took out the baby carrier - alas and alack, my every efficient cleaner decided to do away with the box and its instructions and so I had to work out how to do it on my own, while ignoring that the company had had a product recall at some point... in the end, after an hour of looking at pictures, I discovered it had all been put back together wrongly after washing it, and so this explained when nothing seems to fit. It has been recommended as a great way to carry a baby from day 1 - as it has a built in neck support... the Romanian don't want anything to do with it, so it will be another day or two before I take little Victor and pop him in, then then of course, they will really love it!

The nurse is back in action as Irina tried to wash the baby herself but she loves how the nurse can give the child a super vigorous skin reddening - and of course she has a long list of new questions to ask such as which milk powder to use - as I have now found a really nice organic milk powder - perfect for any child!

The weather is now too damp and wet for little Victor to have his daily airing - so we spent the day sleeping - or rather he did, while I balanced him on my tummy, and read an excellent book about how to teach maths - a free book that the publishers wanted me to present on one of my websites. I really did enjoy it, as it discussed how the teaching of maths did little to encourage maths in the classroom. The book is called 'The Elephant in the classroom' bu Jo Boaler and it is an excellent read!

Well go to go now as it is little Victor's bathtime and I need to look proactive and see what I am suppose to do in the future.

We are also getting a little nervous as next week sees me back at school - leaving Irina to work on her own - hopefully in the next few days I will have got Victor ready to sleep in a pram so she can just rock him and move him without lifting him too often.