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!

Granny M comes to visit

On 13 June Granny M came to see you and spent a lot of time singing the song with the owl which lives on a tree and greets the evenings whith her shout of "kou-kou-tza!". You like the song, even though Granny M sometimes forgets the words and had to call Auntie Maria out in the village to remind her.

After Granny M left Mummy and Daddy decided to try to go watch another film. This time they chose the Oasis cinema on Pratinou street which has a small screen and lots of trees to keep the area cool. You slept almost all through the film which was about an old curmudgeon and his dealings with a boy who tries to steal his car.

Not a bad film, one of Clint's best, but not well received by the critics, maybe because of the wooden acting from the supporting cast and the fact that critics don't like films with on screen eating of vast amounts of food any more.

Granny M's birthday

It was granny M's birthday at the weekend, and we all went to Auntie Igor's house on Monday to celebrate.


Daddy dressed you, but he's a little funny sometimes and he put your nice outfit on you back to front, so the nice collar that should have been on the front got turned round to the back!




Here you are with Granny M and Aunty Igor. It was your first time to a different house and you rose to the challenge quite well indeed!



Here you are with Granny M out on the balcony of the house...

Mummy's birthday

On Thursday, Mummy had her birthday and Grannies M and Y came with Grandpa P. You spent the whole night sleeping on one or other of the grannies and they took it in turns to hold you or to eat.



Here you are with Granny Y and Mummy - three generations of Taurus born in May!



And here you are with Granny Y and Grandad P!



During the afternoon, you went out with Mummy in the sling all the way to Ethnikis Antistaseos street to get the birthday cake! Mummy took care to let you smell all the nice smells on the way there, especially the roast meat smells coming from Arkhontas across the road.

Here is a funny picture of you from this week where you are trying to copy the little boy on the dolphin from the Augustus of the Prima Porta type:


The photo on the left is by a chap called Andreas Wahra and it has a creative commons license, which means that Daddy can do what he likes with it as long as he mentions Andreas as the original creator. Isn't living in the 21st century cool, huh?

A week full of firsts

Hello little one.

It's been a week full of first times. Daddy has been very busy so he didn't have a chance to write about each few days as they passed. He's writing now, from the waiting lounge at Gate 10 in Otopeni airport in Bucharest. Some day you will come to Bucharest too and hopefully it will be a much better place when you come than it is now. Daddy is helping the programme to stop prejudice against the Roma people.



Anyway, let's start the discussion with a visit from your Auntie Igor early in the week. She didn't stay to watch bathtime, but she stayed long enough to rival Granny M. for pulling a silly face while holding you. Look at this one:



On Monday night, we swaddled you! Everyone at the hospital and elsewhere was telling us that babies don't need to be swaddled like they were in the past. But now, in America, they have different ideas and your cousins Irene and Evgenia sent you a "swaddler" from America. It's meant to keep you snuggled up like you were in utero. Well, you are still a little small for it, but you sure liked having your arms pressed up against you while you were inside it.



Here you are sitting on Daddy's lap, swaddled. You stayed quiet for long enough for us to want to try it again some other day.



On Saturday, Daddy doesn't go to work and the two of us spent the morning trying to see how many hairs we could get to stick to your cheeks. Well, we weren't actually trying to do that, but it happened! You had a really good time lying on Daddy and kicking your feet back and forth.

Later in the day Mummy and Daddy took you for a drive. Here you can see how happy you are in the car seat before the drive. You slept your whole time in the car, so you missed both Granny Y and Grandad P. Still it was a good trial run for Sunday, to know that we could put you safely into the car and drive around.



That afternoon we discovered that some times, you are not too keen on being photographed with flash. This is a rather funny photo because you reacted to the pre-flash and the real flash caught you as you were complaining.



Daddy generally does not like using flashes and prefers to shoot with available light even if it means he gets more grain. Like in this photo of you after bath-time. You really enjoy bath-time whenever you get under that warm water!



After drying you Mummy put you in your eco-friendly re-usable nappies. We are very excited to be helping the environment like this, whatever some bad people are saying about the wasted water needed to wash the nappies every time you fill them with your green poo. I guess this is as good a time as any for Daddy to refute the information he had received from Elektra's mum before you were born that Baby's poo does not smell bad. Oh yes it does. End of story.



So here you are in the eco-nappy! Mummy says you look like the black-and-white actor Avlonitis in his big trousers. You will look so much better when you grow a bit…

This is a photo of you on the morning of Sunday. On Sunday, Daddy went to work to help write the proposal for a big project in the Ukraine and when he came back, you went for a big adventure with him and Mummy.



All set for the big adventure?

The Paediatrician, David Gilmour and the herbs

Hello little one...

It's been two days since Daddy wrote here about what you have been up to. That's because Daddy had to go back to work on Monday, because the Greek state has a very advanced social policy regarding new fathers and allows the father to be away from work for two whole days! Daddy took three more days off from his annual leave to be with you at home for your first few days back.

On Monday the nice Paediatrician came. He had been suggested to us by Litsa the midwife and although he's quite old, he seemed bright and sprightly enough on the phone and made a good impression on Mummy and Daddy when he came. He brought some papers for Mummy and Daddy to read and told us a few things, most of which were just what we thought we wanted to hear! One thing that we were not expecting was that he said that no one should visit for six months! Mummy and Daddy think this is crazy, but they are going to try to tread on the safe side of the golden mean. The nice paediatrician measured you while he was at home with us. You are 200gr heavier than when you were born, and 1cm longer!

Mummy and Daddy have been trying all sorts of tricks to keep you quiet and happy. Here you are in Mummy's sling.

You like the sling because you are always close to Mummy and you can feel her warmth and it keeps you all snug and wrapped up. For the same reason you like to sit on Mummy's breastfeeding cushions:

On Monday night Granny M came and watched Mummy and Daddy give you a bath. Here are some photos of bathtime. You like being given a bath under the tap in the sink!

Daddy holds you usually, and Mummy sponges you down with the nice natural sponge. Sponges are animals too and Daddy can't wait to tell you all about the strange animals that you cannot imagine existing on this earth with us.


Here you are getting dressed again after your bath and here you are getting your hair brushed after getting dressed. Mummy and Daddy are wondering how come your hair looks so straight, since Daddy has wavy hair and Mummy's is slightly curly!




Here are two photos of you playing with Daddy and making faces on the sofa:


Wake up! Daddy, I want to play!


When Granny M. came on Monday, we found that you like the strings on a Paganini CD we played for you. Tonight, Daddy put on the album "On an Island" by David Gilmour. Daddy likes the CD and wonders which epoch of Pink Floyd you will prefer: Barrett, Waters or Gilmour. He wants to do some experiments tomorrow.



Daddy did some more experiments today with smells. After seeing how you liked to have the leaf of Marjoram near your nose, Daddy brought some Mint from the balcony and crushed it under your nose. You liked it very much. Daddy is almost sure you were interested in the smell and not in the movement of his fingers around your nose. Tomorrow he's going to play with Thyme and other herbs that are on the balcony. One day you will be old enough to look after the plants together with Daddy.

That's all the news for this part of the week. Tomorrow Granny M and Aunty Igor are coming.

You are now a week old!

Hello little one...

You are now a week old.The week did not go too fast for Mummy and Daddy because they were learning all sorts of new things.


Mummy has been reading to you like she used to while you were still in her tummy and Daddy still sings to you - the same old songs, because he cannot find where he has put his song-book.


Granny M came to visit inthe morning on Friday and she held you for a long time and let you sleep on her. She likes to hold you very much and comes to visit as often as she can.


In this photograph, you are sleeping on top of her. Mummy and Daddy are not sure whether we should let you sleep on us or whether you should get to know that sleep is for your basket. It is difficult for them to make these decisions, because you find it very calming to be sleeping on top of someone else.

During the night in between your sixth and seventh day of life, your link with your previous life was lost. Your umbilical cord stump came off while Mummy was changing you and she didn't notice until it fell on the floor. Mummy does not want to keep it, and Daddy is not going to insist.

This is your first official photo without your umbilical cord stump.


Other things that are new are the way you smile more and more often - Mummy and Daddy are sure that you are not actually smiling yet but just making the smiley face motions as a reflex action. Sometimes you smile in your sleep and sometimes you open one eye while sleeping like you are trying to check that Mummy and Daddy are both there.


Here is another self portrait with Daddy that he likes.


On your one-week birthday, Mummy and Daddy decided to try and put you into the rocker. It is still a little big for you but they are worried that you are confused about your basket because they are letting you sit in it while you are awake, and then when they want you to sleep you don't. Two nights in a row now you have kept Mummy and daddy up from three am until morning because you don't want to sleep after eating and don't like to sit quietly.

Later on Saturday, Grandad P and Granny Y came to visit.

Here you are with Grandad P in the rocker. We talked about your name a little with Grandad P because he likes talking about names and Mummy and Daddy have changed their minds about all the names they had chosen while you were in Mummy's tummy. After all the discussion and even after Aunt Lily sent ideas by SMS, there was still no decision about the name.


Here you are with Grandad P and Granny Y. Later on Granny M came too and Mummy made her first trip outside the house to go to the supermarket. This was very exciting for everyone because it helps signal that life will go on and almost everything will be as it was before. Soon Mummy and Daddy are thinking of going to the supermarket together with you in the sling. Now that your stump has come off, we'll be able to do all sorts of new things at home and outside the house also.