August, Summer Holidays, Naxos I

August means summer and summer means holidays!

Hello little one - we are setting off for Naxos with your cousins, your aunty Lilly and Grandad P and Granny Y.



Here you are with Mummy and Cousin E on the boat. Can you see in the background what's going on? It's the famous Hekatontapyliani church of Paros - they say it was built by St. Helena herself... (actually, you can't see it in this photo, Daddy likes to show off!).



We were on Naxos last year and after Daddy went back to Athens to get ready to go to France for the FSE General Assembly, Mummy realised that she was going to have a baby. You! Look at you now, one year on in your little sun hat...



Here we are with a very happy Daddy! We are on the back of the boat with the wide expanse of the Aegean behind us. You liked to be out on the back of the boat with the smell of the surf and the briny winds. You weren't too keen on the exhaust fumes from the Goodies restaurant, and to be honest, I don't blame you.





While on the boat, we had to change your nappy at some point and the nice steward unlocked the disabled bathroom for us so we could use the changing table in there. The disabled bathroom is very big compared to the other one and gave us plenty of room to manoeuvre and wash you with running water properly. Full marks to the Blue Star steward for this one.

On the left, you are lying on the changing table waiting to get changed. Here on the right, you can see how we set up your child seat so you could sit comfortably for the whole journey.



We spent the summer at Athina's apartments in the Plaka area of Naxos. It was our third time at Athina's rooms. She was expecting you and had set out a play pen for you and had put a friendly teddy bear in there for you. We called him Athinoulis.



This is a common sight in the Plaka area - can you see how the dog likes to be on top of the car?



Here is Mummy with the pram on our first day on Naxos as we headed to the world famous Cedar Cafe. Can you see how she positions the sling over the pram so the sun does not burn you. This is how we moved you around in the day. There is a funny video here with cousin E pushing the wrapped up pram:



It was quite a windy day, that one...

Our average day went a little like this: We would wake up and Mummy would feed you in the morning, then sometimes your cousins would come round on their way to the beach to play.

Here they are in our room both of them trying to get your attention with the wind-up music box.


And here they are all together with Aunty Lilly.

Sometimes Daddy would have to sit and work on his laptop - and you would help him by hanging on his shoulder:


You were a great help to Daddy, so much so that things he worked on in Naxos are still having results almost six months later.

Some days, we would all go to the world-famous Cedar Cafe for eggs and bacon or for cakes and coffee. Here is a selection of photographs from Cedar Cafe.



We were most often there with Aunty Lilly and Uncle Claude and your cousins:





Here we are all together at Cedars in a photo taken by Daddy's friend Lefteris:



Sometimes we would go to the supermarket in town and buy exciting things to eat in our rooms, all together. Here Mummy is preparing scrambled eggs with some eggs from real hens that one of the cleaning ladies gave to us.



We tried all sorts of meat cuts from the meat counter of the supermarket but our most interesting discovery was the Naxian cheese shop in the town. Very interesting indeed.

Sometimes friends would come and visit us. Here are some photos of friends who visited us in Naxos:

On the left is Daddy's boss Marianna, and on the right is Daddy's friend Lefteris. Below is Daddy's friend Margarita.

Birthdays aplenty!

Hello little one. We celebrate a monthly birthday on the second of every month - and it looks like we will do so until you reach one year or maybe more. You cousin has his birthday on the second of August, which was your third month!



Here you are all of Grandad P's and Granny Y's grandchildren together on the sofa! You can't quite balance yet, but your cousins are helping you out and keeping you from keeling over!



Here you are with your cousins - you all had a really good time together.



And here you are with one of your favourite toys - kokkinobalaki, the little red ball!

You are now three months old!

Last week of July

Hello little one!

The last week of July was an exciting one because the summer holidays were on their way and that meant that your cousins were going to be coming from overseas.

There wasn't too much time to play around but here you are sharing a moment with Daddy on the sofa...



Daddy was all rushed because apart from finishing off various stuff he had for his work, he had to make sure that the car was washed and presentable and ready for the Summer.



Here we see how everything has come out of the boot on the left and how the nice migrants are getting ready to clean the car.



And here you are with Mummy at the airport waiting for your cousins - can you see the control tower in the distance? On the right, Mummy is changing your nappy in the boot of the car - we could never have done something like that in Daddy's Cinquecento!



You didn't go inside the airport because airports are the sort of places where little babies might easily catch pig flu from exotic travellers. By the time your cousins came and had all their luggage you had had a chance to fall asleep in Mummy's arms. You woke up soon enough when Aunty Lilly appeared with the rest of the family, though.

Visiting Granny in Paloumba, Arcadia

After the successful crossing of three different prefectures the weekend before, you were ready on 25 and 26 July to go further than ever before, one more time. This road trip would see us crossing Corinthia and the Argolis to reach Arcadia and it would also involve a sleep-over at Granny-M's house in the country. Granny lives in the village of Paloumba in the Gortys part of Arcadia.

We all woke up for your first feed and set off as soon as you had burped and headed off for the Athens to Patras motorway. This took a little longer than it usually does because the nice people in charge of the Attiki Odos decided that early on a summer Saturday morning is the best time to resurface the motorway.

You made it through the whole journey without needing to eat, so you had your second meal of the day in Arcadia at 750m above sea level. It happened to be the hottest day of the year so it was all a little awkward being in the country house. Here are some photos of you with Granny-M. Can you see Lara and the cats in some of them?






Here is a little video of Granny-M pushing you in your pram. This weekend was the first time you sat in the pram and the first time we used it for transporting you about.



Granny-M really enjoyed the opportunity the pram gave her to take you out for walks. When it grew a little cooler in the evening, we went out for a night-time walk round the village so she could show you off to the neighbours.



We wanted to test-drive the pram as preparation for the Naxos holiday we had planned so we took it up and down stairs and put a mosquito net over it just to make sure everything was working.






You liked eating out in the central square of the village - here you are having dinner on Saturday and lunch on Sunday.



On Sunday we took the opportunity to leave you playing with Granny-M and took the car out for Mummy to try driving it a little. There is a stretch of road between Pal and Sarakini which is perfect for driving as there is very nearly never anyone on the road. Look how in-control Mummy looks here.



Look at how many kilometers we did in the weekend!