Snow day

Our romanian genes were very pleasantly tickled. Lots of snow and a very happy kid

What are you talking about? I am not eating any snow mommy...

A brave and excited girl climbed all by herself on top of the snow mountain!

 And off we go down the slide! Weee wee!!

Back to work today, but glad that I had a full day with my smiley girl.
We are ready for winter!

Home

They say that home is where the heart is. I am sure glad this holds a lot of truth, as in the last ten years we lived in 5 different places. We had different houses but one home, in our hearts. And that will remain our home as long as there is love around us.

The change that happened is that for once our house is the same as our home. We finally became home owners. It's a small condo, but so cute and quiet, and so dear to my heart. It feels like home. It's in a small community, surrounded by trees, we have a nice balcony and a creek in the backyard. It's lovely.

The process of buying it however was everything BUT lovely. Apparently home buying is as stressful as they say it is. It did not help that I had to do most of the leg work alone. Aside from seeing the house and signing papers where he was told to, Marius was a spectator to most of the process. Daily phone calls to 3-4 different people (our agent, mortgage company, title  company, insurance company, former landlord and sooooo many more). It was stressful and frustrating. I cried and I yelled and I laughed. And in the end we had a mortgage, a key, and once again it was moving day.

We did not have a lot of helpers, so the day was hectic and very tiring. Catalina had a lot of fun though. She found mommy's sun hat and played among boxes.

One of the best parts of having my own house was that I could paint Catalina's room. I dreamt of this since I dreamt of having babies. So I went for the challenge full hearted and full speed. Catalina was a very big help, no sarcasm or irony here. She laid protective paper on the floor and played nicely when I needed her to. This is how it started: few smiles and a lot of white walls.

 That slowly became pink

and a little green

And in the end a whole garden!

Catalina loves her room and so do I. My first painting project was a success!.
And then we had a week of walking between boxes. Marius went to a business trip right after we finished moving the bulk of stuff. It remained for the girls (Catalina, bunica and me) to bring and arrange the small stuff. And we still had shelves to install and pictures to hang for when Marius came back. It was a lot of work. But at the end, my heart was full and my face was smiling. I was home in my house.

And we started living in the new home

 Balcony, my favorite part of the house (among many others)

 Enjoying her new room with an old friend

My two ballerinas

Outside

And this is where we are now. Relaxing and enjoying our new home. May we be happy and build many beautiful memories here.

Believe

Life happens and time flies. Many good things happened lately.
It started with bunica Milica (my sweet mom) coming for a visit in US. Like usually, she stays with us for few days, then goes to my sister in Nebraska, then comes back to Philly for a longer time.
At her arrival we did not plan much, as time was short and jet lag was bad. But we did have fun and made some time for cute memories.
I wanted to visit the 911 Memorial for a long time, and I planned and planned and planned some more for a relaxing short trip to New York. Ha ha ha...There is no such thing as relaxing, short trip and New York in the same sentence. We did have some fun though, despite the exhaustion and frustration.

Yes, I did feel like I'm going out with my best friend! A day in NYC with my mom sounds and IT IS pretty neat, right?

This is why we should all take a second to think. War and destruction always hurt the innocent. Let's pray for peace and reason and love.

My favorite girls!

Can you read frustration and exhaustion on this girl's face? We all felt the same at the end of the day. So we had some beers and german food. A nice way to end our metropolitan excursion.

When bunica left, we had some "fall activity" time. Trips with the daycare, Halloween, and lots of love for pumpkins. And then we got our  special visitor back and Catalina started a month of happiness, daycare free. She enjoyed bunica day and night, threw all possible tantrums, got as many compliments as possible, learned a lot of counting and gained A TON of confidence. Yes, bunica was good for my little angel.

Can you believe that my little scared of everything girl did this? She walked with bunica on this tree trunk like it was nothing. I tried to follow them, but "I " was too scared.

And then we had a very special event in our house. Bunica's birthday came and she turned a nice and round number. Our house was a mess, and a lot of the things I planned did not go the way I envisioned them. But some did, and bunica had a cake, and we sang happy birthday to her and we gave her a small present. And then, we went for a day out, just the two of us, mommy and daughter. It was cold and windy outside, so we crossed on out way through a Macy's store. I took this picture of my beautiful mom there.

I love this picture for so many reasons! For one, my mom looks gorgeous! But there is a deeper meaning to this picture to me. My mom stands below that "Believe" sign. And this is something that everybody who knows my mom will confirm. My mom is a believer, she transpires faith in everything she does. She is an optimist, without being a fool. She had way to many hurdles to overcome in her life, but she kept her spine straight, her spirits up and she succeeded in everything she did. This is how she raised my sister and I as well. To always believe, to strive looking for what lays ahead. No doubt, no going back. Just believe.
The next part of the day was a surprise. My mom loves theatre, ballet and everything artsy. So the two of us headed for a Broadway show. We had fun, and we relaxed a bit from all the craziness that was going back home.

It was a privilege for me to be with my mom on her special birthday. Being away, across an ocean and half a continent, I don't get these occasions often. And this is why it was even more special for me.
Happy birthday, mami!

Snow white

This year we were a little behind with Halloween shopping. So, a week before Halloween we took our little cutie pie shopping for a costume. Not necessarily excited, she came along with great spirits. She found a poorly made basket (the kind you get in dollar stores) with the ugliest little kitty inside. And she wanted that basket badly. She even said she doesn't want a costume, she doesn't want to go trick or treating, but she wants the basket. So mommy and daddy paid $15 and got priceless smiles all evening long. My little one said please and thank you so many times, I felt bad I even though of not getting her the basket with the ugly cat.

We found in the end an absolutely awesome costume. Catalina kept telling me she wants to be a princess, but I always think of the practicality. How can you show off a princess costume at 30F degree? I was looking mostly for a cow/lady bug/cute animal sort of costume that has enough padding to keep my precious girl warm. But I could not resist this:

The prettiest snow white ever! The costume is well made, has nice embroidery, and looks absolutely gorgeous on my kid. Plus, she can wear warm pants underneath and warm top. And if too cold, we'll put on a jacket. But I am really hoping for mild weather this Halloween, so everybody can enjoy my beautiful girl.

Farm trip

Not all is bad in the shark room :). Catalina's day are organized a farm trip. Parents were invited as well, so we waited excitedly for a whole month. When finally that day came, weather report announced cold rain. So glad the weather people don't know their stuff that well!

The day started a little antsy. We were 5 minutes late and Catalina's teacher gave mommy the sting eye. Since mommy does not like the teacher either, she continued with a smile. And this is what Catalina needed. Smiles and happiness. She cooperated with everything. She lined nicely to get outside the classroom, she held mommy's hand and hoped on the school bus. Only this step would have been enough for her to make a perfect day! She was so overly excited. She was big enough to ride a school bus! She smiled and smiled and smiled some more!

The ride to the farm was long and pleasant. A bus full of excited kids makes everybody happy! When we hopped off the bus we were loaded quite quickly on a hay ride. Catalina has been on quite a few hay rides this fall, but mostly fake ones, where you sit on a wooden bench and you have some hay around your feet. This one was the real deal! We set on hay, Catalina played and smiled some more.

Being a farm trip, at the end of it there was a pumpkin patch as well. Each kid was allowed to pick one pumpkin. Catalina was way more excited however about the corn maze and kept pulling mommy's hand to go there and play.

And she got to pick some corn and became the envy of a classmate (who got hers soon after we showed her how to do it).

Plenty of photo ops, and Catalina made mommy happy and sat still every time she was asked.

And she was one of the most patient kids when it came to take pics with the whole class. She smiled and looked pretty pretty pretty.

It was quite cold outside, so the last stretch of the visit was not quite pleasurable for mommy. But Catalina loved feeding the baby lama. She picked food from the ground and gave it to the her new friend :)

A pleasant morning with little sharks. And a very proud momma!

I don't like Sharks!

      This is what my daughter keeps telling me morning after morning. She really hates her new class, the Blue Sharks. She tells me over and over again that she wants to be a Dolphin, that Miss Laurie (her previous teacher in the Dolphin room) tells her she loves her and why can't she be a Dolphin again. I still have not gotten to the root of her hating the Shark room. But what I know is that every morning she stops at the door and she cries she doesn't want to go. After much convincing, she gets in, but she refuses to wash her hands by herself. For some reason this is a big No-NO in the Shark room and for 2 days now I had to play the embarrassed mom who cannot win battles with her daughter. For a week in a raw now I leave my daughter crying, telling her that I am upset with her. She is not allowed to watch TV now, because I thought it's a power struggle and she needs to know limits. But as I type this, I feel like the crappiest mom for leaving my kid in a room she hates, without hugging her and telling her I love her so very much.

And here she is, my bluest and cutest little shark, sliding on a blue slide

What else happened when not in daycare? Some play around the house, or in the house. Our downstairs neighbors have a son Catalina's age. The two are probably in love, they play and tease each other continuously. One evening they were both jumping on the bed, Catalina fell and got a bump on her head. Daddy was upset for days about it, but the bump did not damage their love :

Other than that, well, it's fall and all the farms around have activities for kids. I love it, it's absolutely wonderful to spend some time outside. We went to an orchard to pick our own apples and of course we picked some Halloween stuff as well.

Here she is, my sweet little girl playing with her scarecrows. She mentioned that she has a daddy one, a mommy one and a baby "paiata" (scarecrow in Romanian). She's all about family, my little one!

All the love for my little fish who does not want to swim with the big sharks!