The snows arrive and my extra support leaves...

by Peter
(Bucharest)

Over 30cm of snow fell last night and today!

This was another excellent day. Little Victor is now 8 days old, and to be honest, he seems to have been with me all my life. He has fitted into the way of things so wonderfully well - and has settled down to feeding and sleeping sensibly.

In the morning, the snows were pouring down - this continued all the day, and is still going strong as we speak - making it impossible to leave the house - except if you are very strong willed like my father in law, who kindly cleaned the car, let the engine run (Romanian cars don't seem to work if they get cold - a bit of a major design fault if you ask me... as their batteries suddenly die!).

Doina woke up and helped around the house. Both ladies looked at me in astonishment, when I placed the wide-awake baby on the kitchen table changing mat (it has a soft blanket on top) as apparently in Romania, only the dead sleep on tables... (obviously not enough drunken nights have been spent here!). My logic was it was soft, warm, and safe and the baby could listen to what was going on around it. He seemed happy enough, until Doina whisked him back to his room, where he promptly fell asleep - just as he should.

The CD player has been working well today, and so baby is now immersed in classical music all day (I read it increases the growth of the brain - and so I am happy to try!)... and even Irina has now started to sing to Victor, and so we are all now into singing to him which he loves. My friend, Simon, has a theory that my low voice probably makes the baby vibrate a little and this comforts the baby - I am happy to say that he was quiet and still as I wandered about, singing a little extra low, just in case Simon was correct.

We have now come to the end of sending out pictures of Victor as he has reached one week and we think that the world has seen enough of him for the time being, and so I will be putting up pictures of his surroundings and great photos I really want to share with the world about Romania. If you want more pictures - the solution is simple - come and give us a visit, along with your camera.

This neatly brings me onto the discussions we are having over the baptism - it is in May, but quite when remains to be seen. I did suggest a little earlier in April (when I have a week holiday so I can be a host to visitors), but we clash horribly with the Romanian Orthodox Calendar that insists on no celebrations for about 40 days after Easter.

The nurse came and did her normal wonders, leaving little Victor red skinned, but fast asleep, and each time she visits, he complains less. She has now taught Irina how to best feed the child and so we are now well on track for successful breast feeding - making the broken scales and breast pump redundant before we even needed it - but we will use them in the future - I guess when we need to measure large objects, or the monthly weigh in - or of course when friends need to borrow it. This is the big downside of Romania - in England, you would go to one of the many second hand sales and buy this stuff - costing about 20 pound for the lot. Here I need to buy it new - and of course it all needs to be imported, adding to my costs.

As Irina is now busy with baby, I am now free to experiment in the kitchen, as Irina can't be on the phone, checking baby and watching me! So today's experiment was 'Double mustard (from a pot and from powder) and beer (I had so flat beer - I must be getting tired!), and some chopped onions - which seemed to expand after chopping and made it into a loaf of bread using the bread maker. As all these are ingredients, which Irina can't eat while feeding, I will test it tomorrow when it has cooled. I also continued on making juice - and so have enough for another week - as mother said, I am very lucky to own a couple of orchards - or this would be a terribly expensive occupation.

This evening, Doina took one look at the weather, and as any sensible grandma would do, decided that she had done her stint and a night in her own bed was a great idea... and so we are now on our own with baby and dire warnings if anything should happen to their one and only grandson! We will of course take exceptional care of him and get up as many times as we need.

This brings me to my final point of the day. I think I have resolved the difference between English and Romanian families. I always wondered why Romanian families, who always seem to do things together, seem closer than the typical English family, and I think it is simple immersion - if a baby sees his grandparents each and every day, he is then happy to do stuff with them, as their arrival is not a special event. It could also be to do with the fact we all live in much smaller apartments here, so escape is impossible! We are lucky - we have only 2 people in our flat (three including baby) - while the other flats here have 4 grown adults across two or three generations together - so you have to get on well as there is no where else to go!

I am so thrilled people enjoy reading this blog - I have had such warm and wonderful comments about it, that is does motivate me to continue writing it on a daily basis. It is also just a nice way to end my evenings, as in the day I now find I am making little mental notes about what I need to write that evening, and can I find a fun photo before the sun sets!