Hello Ariadne!

Hello little one.



On Sunday we stayed in most of the day. It rained again and Mummy took you outside to smell how the asphalt smells when it is wet. Daddy spent a while playing around with nails and ropes to set up your insect mobile, a gift from cousin Esmeralda. Sitting on your changing mat was always god fun, but now you love to look at the insects above with their bright colours.



After this, Mummy and Daddy got you ready for your special photo-shoot. So many of our friends kept asking us what we are going to call you and we hadn't yet decided completely for quite a while after you were born. You were now ten weeks old and it was high time we announced a proper name for you that wasn't AKO. We had a whole bunch of names for you picked out while you were still in Mummy's tummy, but when we saw you, none of them seemed to fit. The name we picked in the end we liked because it has the nice "a" sound, it travels well, it is linked to Crete where Daddy was exploring before he came home to Mummy, it is linked to Naxos where Mummy was when she found out you were on your way, it is tenuously linked to cave diving on account of your ball of wool attribute and it is also linked to caves and Anatolia (one of Daddy's favourite places) through the second century saint of the same name who was rescued from her pagan pursuers when a miraculous cave opened to hide her.

We wanted to make a competition of it so we dressed you up in the attributes of your mythical namesake and put the photo on Facebook. The actual photo used is this one:



But we took a whole bunch before we managed to get you in the right pose. So, here you are, holding a sword and a ball of wool… we think it's obvious!



So - in this way, when you were 72 days old, we announced your name to the world, Ariadne.

First time out on the balcony

Hello little one...

Today you woke up with a nice little scratch on your cheek - it looks like your nails are getting a little too long, but the nice paediatrician at the maternity hospital has said that they should not cut them for six weeks. We'll ask the nice pediatrician who will come tomorrow what he thinks about this.

Last night you were more restless than any other night - you had Mummy awake from 2.30 in the morning until 7 in the morning and you did not want to rest at all. mummy and Daddy started looking at their books because they do not want to give you the dummy yet, but they don't know what else they can do.



During the day Daddy tried to hold you in a way that Litsa the midwife showed him, with you lying on your tummy with your head near his elbow. It went very well and you were a lot calmer today. It lets you look ahead and see what you are doing and where you are going.


Daddy managed to do some work on one of the other websites he looks after: www.selas.org with you in his hands like this. This photo shows how he was holding you and typing everything with only his right hand. Mummy made him some toast and some coffee to keep him going. You fell asleep after a while. Another discovery today was that you like black and white music videos. We started out with you in this position watching the Kinks All day and All the Night, and you relaxed and fell asleep before Daddy could put on You Really Got Me.


In this video you have already fallen asleep! Later on that day Daddy played some Animals videos and some Doors videos. You preferred the Animals and Kinks.


Another good trick we tried was to put you in your sling. Here mummy is talking to a friend and you are in the sling. You are far more comfortable than you look and slept in there for hours today.

Mummy took you outside to the front balcony to see the Cinquecento when I came back from the chemists and later you came out with Daddy as well to look at the bats which were flying around the back garden. You probably couldn't tell that they were bats out the back, but I am sure one day you will know the families and species better than Daddy.

Daddy is going to work tomorrow for the first time. He's not looking forward to it too much because he will be leaving Mummy on her own. Tomorrow the nice paediatrician is coming so Daddy will only be away for half the day anyway.