The mysterious virus

I really don't know exactly what it was but after 2 weeks it is gone with no particular treatment.
Symptoms:
- 4-5 poops a day with a bit of mucus, not very runny, not green, no blood, no foul smell, no vomiting, no fever;
- he was not bothered by it, he was very active, he still had an appetite all this time;
Personal treatment:
- in the first days I gave him rice, rice crackers, bananas and BIOGAIA probiotic in the milk bottle;
- after 5 days of this diet, I started give him normal foods again, just keeping in the mix the probiotic;
One week later and no change, I called the doctor and asked her if I should worry. Meanwhile, he had a bit of a diaper rash ( I suspect from the no of poops). Our doctor advised to wait one more week and if the poop doesn't go away or symptoms aggravate we should go in.
Less than week later, he's back on track, one poop a day.
And BTW the rash is gone ( I used DESITIN).
He had for sure something in his belly (in my opinion, I find it totally normal as he's interacting with other kids, they share foods, toys etc not to mention that he plays outdoors, puts his hands in his mouth), no matter how much you try to clean his hands, chances are he will manage "to eat" some dirty hands). I'm happy his little body fought it all by itself and that it wasn't something serious.

More learning

We've been reading every morning for a while now, from this little, cardboard book that teaches you animals and numbers.
We have :
1for 1 rooster
2 for 2 cows
3 for 3 pigs
4 for 4 horses
5 for 5 chickens
Every time I'd get to the picture I would say in Romanian: one rooster, the rooster is singing "Cucurigu", than turning the page "where is the rooster"? And I would point the rooster to him.
Let me tell you : "Repetitia est mater studiorum". Today, he started pointing to the animals, every time I would ask him where they are.
It is such an amazing experience to watch them grow and learn in front of your eyes

BLW podcast

I was writing some weeks ago about me participating in a podcast about BLW.

Here's where you can hear me.:)

Understanding Romanian

He completely understands Romanian. I'm so 100% sure of it. There have been numerous occasions where I would ask him in Romanian to do different stuff and he would do it but there was a particular situation today that made me even more sure.
He was playing with the remote and then at a certain point he just dropped it on the floor, somewhere in the living room. After about 2 minutes, he came to me (I was by the computer), approx distance from the remote around 14' so the remote was not even in his visual field.
I kneeled down to his eye level and said to him in Romanian:
- Bryce, bring me the remote. Bring me the remote! The remote! He looked at me as if he processed all the information and then he headed towards the remote, picked it up and gave it to me.
There's so much joy in the heart and mind of a mother when she sees the all her hard work, perseverance, patience are paying off.
Raising a kid is the most challenging project of one's lifetime as that kid is the future and we all want to have a healthy, smart future.

Romanian citizenship

Bryce became a Romanian citizen as well around 2 weeks ago.
The process of becoming a Romanian citizen is not very complex, but it is very Romanian. LOL
So, the first thing you need to gather is the paperwork.
Here's what you need:
- valid Romanian passports or valid American passport is your spouse is American;
- both parents birth certificates;
-the Romanian marriage certificate;
-the kid USA birth certificate with apostille;
- parents declaration (paper available at the consulate);
- if one of the parents is American, he also needs to sign a paper agreeing to the new citizenship;
Ok, now that you have all the papers, the next step will be for you to go the nearest Romanian Consulate. Once, you figure out the chaos and you pay the fee ($260, in our case) then you're good to go and in about 2 weeks, you will get your Romanian birth certificate.

More words

aja - asa

ata - asta

bu - buf

Up and down

I know, I know....I believe I've said it thousands of times already of how amazed I am as to how fast he's learning and figuring out things all by himself.
The latest: going down the stairs or the couch.
He just comes to the edge of the stair, turns around and there you go, he just arrives on the next step.
Curious what the next one it's gonna be.

A podcast and BLW

Some days ago, I took part in a interview about BLW. The interview was hosted by Meredith who herself has a 6 months old little girl and on the verge of starting BLW.  The idea behind it was to basically tell our BLW experiences: how we heard about it, how was in the beginning, what our fears were etc.
After I got the questions and started to prepare for the podcast, I read Rapley's book one more time and I was so amazed again by the easiness of it as well as by the informations I discovered going though the book regarding Bryce's stage, that I've decided to share some of those right here:
- "Babies and small children seem to know instinctively which foods will give them the nutrients they need"
- "Babies who crave a particular food seem to be responding to a need, so it's important to trust their instinct and let them make these choices"
- "Most mealtimes battles with toddlers are the result of a mismatch over what the parent thinks the child needs and what he thinks he needs"
- "Children have a strong survival instinct, especially when food is concerned. They have an extremely reliable sense of when they need to eat, what to eat and how much"
- "A baby-sized portion IS a baby-sized handful" - a portion is roughly the amount each person can hold in one open hand
So, we should try to include in our every-day toddler's menu:
- vegetables and fruits: five (three of vegetables and two of fruit)
- grains and starchy vegetables (rice, potato, pasta, bread etc)  two to three
- meat, fish and other protein rich foods such as lentils: one
- cheese, milk, yogurt and other calcium-rich foods such hummus and small-boned fish :one
- healthy fats (such as olive oil, nuts and seeds) : a quarter of a portion

Diversity in the mother's world

One of the things I loved most about LA was the diversity. I like the multicultural exchanges, people with different religions and beliefs and skin colors living all in the same place, at peace.
After I became a mother and especially after Bryce grew a bit and was able to take him places, I became a part of different group of mothers with different backgrounds belonging to different cultures.
In Stroller Strides, for example, one of my best friends is Akkiki, who's Japanese, married to an Afro-American so, their baby, Shaw (I hope I've spelled it right) is a mixture of them both: BEAUTIFUL.
Then we go to the park, and here's the funny part:
- if you go to the Encino park which is like a park located in a middle class community, you will encounter Mexican, Russian, German families with their kids, all plain and simple, no strings attached;
- on the other hand, if I drive up the hill towards West LA, I pretty much have the chance to mangle with a different crowd of moms. Moms that are coming to the park with their kids and their set of nannies. Or nannies who are wearing Stella McCartney boots. LOL. Or kids of famous people.
Anyway, I just LOVE the diversity. And LOVE to talk with all these moms, find out their stories or points of view in raising their kids, all so different but at the end of the day, all kids are just playing in the SAME sand.