We Are Totally Not Cooking Our Baby

Just so nobody at Child Protective Services is confused, we got Gabriel a play-pen.

Teeth, feet and screams *

Goodbye toothlessness, hello teeth!

Yes, they started growing a day after his magnificence turned 8 months old**. By that time holding on to mom's fingers in order to stand up was (a hundred times per day) daily routine, and a play-pan (OK pen, written like the fountain pen!) had to be purchased and installed at Stela-the-baby-sitter so that she could catch a breath without his majesty threatening to bump his royal head falling off the couch. Or break his first precious tooth, which is being followed closely by a second precious tooth. If anyone can't see the second precious one, squint harder, or wait for next month's pictures!

Until now the teething experience had been far more comfortable for his majesty's humble servants than his august strive for bipedalism. The troubles associated with teeth growing had been minimum : a few nights of extra fussiness easily calmed down by "tzatza" and once or twice by 2.5 ml of Nurofen (ibuprofen), here and there a cranky half a day when his radiance would be, well, less radious and more vociferous. But that's about it - no fever, no rushes, no endless screams, none of the foretold miseries of creation and eruption had afflicted us. So far the cuteness is maximum and the inconvenience barely there. Of course, I'm not sure we'll be just as lucky as times goes by and more fangs come to adorn King Gabriel's splendidly bare gums, so let's not jinx it.

This may let you wondering why mention screams in the title. Because these days when his majesty communicates, 7 heavens hear! When his grace chooses to share his excitement, it is done at high pitch. And when his worship is outraged by his subjects's lack of solicitous response he appeals to their hearts ... and their bloody ears. So yes, besides growing our teeth and using our feet, our voice is getting stronger too, and we do have lots of screams to share with the universe.

So in all it's been a month with many very bright and some very sad moments, but King Gabriel has always been on the shinny, upright and out-loud side. That being said, until next time, pictures and videos of the month for the faithful! ***

Daddy says Gabi and I have the same eye color. Daddy is blinded by love, of course.

That, or he is a visionary.

Moment of Zen

The Chick and his Daddy:

*That's a name suggestion for Gabi's future fan-club.

** to be precise: 8 months, 8200 grams, 68.5 cm. in length, 42 cm. head circumference.

** except for our Swiss adventure which had been chronicled extensively by daddy.

VIDEO, VIDERE:

You Can Check Out Any Time You Like

My day so far:

4am: wake up
5:10: leave for airport
6:00: no traffic; arrive way early
7:30: Say goodbye to Io, Ovi, and Cati, go through security
7:50: at gate. Plane still says taking off on time, 8:30
8:10: boarding call, get in line
8:20: Why hasn't the line moved?
8:30: They tell us all to sit down, plane will be taking off late
9:10: Boarding call again, back in line
9:15: On plane!
9:25: Why isn't the plane moving?
9:40: Dude comes out of the cockpit holding a bullhorn.  This is probably not going to be good news.
9:45 Dude tells us they are having problems with the electronics, and they are going to, like, reboot the plane. They are literally going to turn the whole thing off and back on again, like it's a wireless router that has stopped transmitting or something.
9:46 I start wondering, Okay, suppose that works.  What are you going to do if the same problem happens while we are 35,000 feet in the air?
9:50: Plane is apparently BSODing, they tell us all to get off the plane.
9:55: Why aren't they letting us off the plane?
10:15: Dude with bullhorn again.  Uh oh.
10:20: Jetway not working either, deplaning by stairs and bus, sit tight.
10:45: They take us to a baggage claim area and leave us there with no explanation of what is happening or what we are supposed to do next.
11:00: Bags start coming off the conveyor belt.  I guess this plane is not going anywhere today.
11:10: British Airways lady tells us to get our bags and go to the BA helpdesk to be rebooked, and then vanishes in a cloud of ninja smoke.  Wait, where is that?  Lady?  Hello?
11:30: My bag comes off the belt.  Follow herd.  Moo.  Moo.
11:40: Herd leads us to bizarre hallway in back of airport that has no markings and all secure doors.  Bad herd!
12:00: Finally find helpdesk.  Stand in line.
12:15: Why isn't this line moving?
12:30: BA people come down the line passing out ham sandwiches and Cokes.  This can't be good.
12:45: Why the fuck isn't this line moving.
12:50: Find out from another passenger that serving the entire Airbus A320, with 220 passengers aboard, they have...one guy.
12:51: ONE GUY?!?!
1:15: BA starts handing out numbered cards to people in line and tells us they will call us up when it's our turn, as if we are waiting to get tickets to see Hanna Montana.
1:25: Get assigned #50.  Go sit in waiting area.
1:30: Old guy starts talking to me in Romanian about how great and successful his son is.
1:31: Tell old guy, in Romanian, that I speak very little Romanian.
1:32: Old guy says "OK" and then continues talking complex Romanian at a million miles an hour.  Every time he stops talking, I say in Romanian, "I don't understand."  He says "OK" and then keeps talking.
2:15: Hear from another passenger that they are now on #6.
2:16: Rapid mental calculation
2:17: Consider suicide
2:18: I have a son to live for
2:19: You bastards.

My Kingdom For A Horse

I had planned on writing another blog entry before I left, about going to the three-week anniversary rite for Gagi, and Gabe getting a giant rocking horse as a hand-me-down from our awesome friends Madalina and Mihai.  But yesterday was so rushed getting stuff ready and packing, and now it's a little before 5 a.m. and I have to leave for the airport.  So I will just say that leaving sucks.