Montserrat - a must go place

I don´t know you, but I have days when I am inspired to write about a lot of things, when different ideas get to my mind and don´t stop, and then if I do not write them these stop and then I have days when I cannot write either a sentence.

These days as you see I am really inspired to write about different things about my baby and things we are doing together. About images, I do not have to say that these, are tons of, as every parent is making pictures to his kid continuously, almost now when you don´t need to have just a camera, you can get these photos by mobile or tablet as well.

On these holidays we have relatives from Moldova, so during this weekend we went out to show them a ¨must see¨ place if you are in Barcelona, is nothing else as Montserrat,  is a multi-peaked mountain located not so far from Barcelona. The mountain is composed of strikingly pink conglomerate, a form of sedimentary rock, what get to these mountains an unusual aspect. In one of the top of the mountains is a church and museum, tourist corner, and various restaurants and of course different places where you can make beautiful pictures, what makes this place an attractive one for tourists. I encourage you to go and to see this wonderful place.

We were there with Damian in summer and in winter, and of course it is better to go there in summer, as when we went this weekend, we had part of a windy weather and it was really cold. When it is windy you are not so disposed to stay and admire the views from the top. The church that is in one of the top of these mountains is a Catholic one, it is very beautiful inside, and if you are lucky enough to see a ceremony of marriage as we were in summer it is just spectacular, as the music is live and the decorations make you feel like you are in a movie scene.

 I will share with you images from both seasons and you will decide when is better to go there.

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Maestro Damian

All children love music and songs, and I think that it is the best way they can learn words on their own or any other foreign language. Damian is not an exception, he adores music and classic one is one he likes most, as well we try to show him children songs in different languages, ones that we think develop his vocabulary and better understanding of a language. I think I will share one day all the songs we are singing together day by day  in a post.

As well all children like to touch music instruments, like piano or guitar the more habitual instruments that parents try to buy for their children. We haven´t bought any of them, but one of the parents took one music instrument to the nursery and showed all children how to play on it. And not an habitual one, but a violoncello. I was really impressed when I have seen the video where Damian is playing on this kind of instrument, he took violoncello like a professional, and he didn´t touch any kind of instrument till that day.

Below I want to share with you these videos, I hope you will like them as much as I do.

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Oral Hygiene - or when to start cleaning teeth on babies

To prevent dental problems it is very important the teeth cleaning, and as all of us do is cleaning teeth at least twice a day, but how about our babies, when do you think is is the perfect time to begin this process?

My thought at the beginning was that when baby has all teeth, you can begin to clean them, but after a consultation with a specialist, a good specialist, I understand that once appears the first tooth you need to begin to look after oral hygiene of your baby. This consultation was long after first 4 teeth, so you understand that I didn´t do anything till then. After this advice I have begun to clean the teeth of my baby, but as well not regularly. And now, when Damian, has 12 teeth he cleans his mouth alone. To get this it was easier as I thought, I just had to show my baby that I clean my mouth daily, and gave him his toothbrush and shown him that it is fun he copies me.

Our pediatrician told us that it is very important that when you show your kid the cleaning process you don´t use a toothpaste, because babies want all that we have, Damian till now didn´t ask me for toothpaste.

Below you can see the video with him cleaning teeth.

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Christmas in the nursery

On Friday Damian celebrated Christmas in the nursery. I had to wear him in something red, because this was the color of their group. At 16.00 all parents had to come, and children were supposed to show us something. When all of us came at the nursery, we had to hide, as our children couldn´t see us. The first ones presented was the group P2 (these are the last year in the nursery and are the big ones :)). While they were presenting the little ones P0 and P1, had to sit and watch them. It was funny as every time a child found in the crowd his/her parents he/she began to cry. Damian wasn´t an exception, he was looking into the crowd, watching all the people and searching for us, till he finally found me and he began to cry as well. So, just imagine how fun was to see all the children crying, the girls trying to maintain them showing all that was supposed to be shown...just a show. At the end I cought Damian and we were listening to a wonderful music presented by one of the parents. After that great presentation, all the babies and parents had to sing a traditional song ¨Fum, Fum, Fum¨ Below you can see some images from this Christmas party. As on previous posts, for confidentiality reasons I will show you just pictures with Damian.

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Sledding

Yesterday we went for sledding to ´La Molina´, it is not so far from Barcelona, almost 2 hours by car. The main reason of this getaway was to disconect from a daily routine and to have fun with our lovely kid. It is not his first time when he sees snow, but it is his first time sledding. We didn´t expect too much from Damian, but we´ve seen how much he enjoyed his first experience on a sledge. As well dad explain what is snow, and played with him with snow balls :).Below some images.

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On a farm!

Last week Damian with his mates in the nursery went to a farm. It was first time when he went somewhere without us, but with his nursery. It was a great experience I think, as he has never seen any domestic animal. I was keen to see any foto, and finnaly I have got them, so I am really happy :). I advise you to show your child real animals, not just in books as this make them be more attentive to the sounds that these are doing.

After going to the farm Damian shows us how is making a dog, a cow, a duck, a sheep. These make me feel like this going out wasn´t a bad idea. I really want to thank the nursery for organizing this, as I understand how much work it suppose.

For reasons of confidentiality of the images I have made changes and croped the images, so you will see just my child in the images below.

1. Here are the images in that mornig in the bus.

2. Here he is dressed up as an angel, all of his classmates were dressed up in different Christmas personages.

3. Below some images of the farm, really big farm and very beautiful.

And here is the link to the farm where they went last week.

http://www.canmontcau.com/

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It´s Magic...It´s Christmas...It´s Barcelona

Did I tell you that I love this city? I think yes, and not once. Now, even more, as it is Christmas time and all the city is magic. It becomes magic, because are different events organized on streets, the streets are iluminated with Christmas lights and the atmosphere is very warm.

One of the events that are organized on streets are the fairs, or ¨Ferias de Nadal¨ how the people called. In Barcelona city are 4 fairs, where you can buy all the ornaments for Christmas and New Year´s Eve. Each fair is an open space market, organized on the most important streets:  the Fira de Santa Llúcia, located around the cathedral, is undoubtedly the most emblematic, then in the Plaza de la Sagrada Família, just across from the Nativity façade, the Fira de Nadal Sagrada Família, with lots of stops with the elements which distinguish Catalan Christmas. The third one is Reis Fira Gran Via, where you can buy toys, treats and gifts. And the last one the Jardinets de Gràcia, this is a solidarity fair, where different companies sell their products for a solidarity reason. These fairs lasts almost 5-6 weeks, each one different, but all of them lasts from 28th of November till 6th of January. Last year we were on Fira de Santa Llúcia, but this year we went to the Sagrada Familia Fair, where we bought the Christmas tree as well.

This fairs are traditionally organized, and on these markets you easily find what you need, passing by this fair make you feel overwhelmed with it´s magic aura, and you really hope that all your dreams will become true on the next year.

Damian I hope that enjoyed our walking within this fair :). Enjoy the magic Barcelona.

On this fair we´ve met a very known Catalan character called ¨caga tio¨ or ¨Tío de Nadal¨, this character in Catalan mythology is related to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia. Each child on Immaculate Conception Day (December 8) begins to give the tió a little bit to "eat" every night till the Christmas day. Then the child puts the Tió partly into the fireplace and orders it to defecate. The tradition says that before beating the Tió all the kids have to leave the room and go to another place of the house to pray asking for the tió to deliver a lot of presents. This makes the perfect excuse for the parents to do the trick and put the presents under the blanket while the kids are praying... funny :)

And here is our Christmas tree:

That moment when you think your baby will help you...and not... he is just curious :)

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Nappy Rash Creams

Today I would like to make some comments about ointments for babies bottom. This article comes to my mind once I have seen a comment about a baby that goes to nursery and sometimes comes home with a red bottom. I really like my nursery and this doesn´t mean that it hasn´t happened to me to see in the evening a red bottom of my son, and sometimes it looks really bad, that I was thinking there is no way to make it looks better. Believe me, every time there is a solution.

1. Wash the bottom regularly, especially at the moment of changing the diaper... really... I didn´t do that, but I know a lot of mums that are doing in that way. It is great when you have this time and patience, I didn´t have.

2. Change the diaper regularly, I was/am changing it at every 3-4 hours.

3. Use a good dippers, change in case you see the baby is allergic to the one you use.

4. If your baby is on nursery or even better has a babysitter, please don´t be shy to tell to the babysitter to be more careful with changing the diaper and change it on time, and to ask them to use an ointment.

BUT, here I would like to mention, that even with doing all this routine, you can find that sometimes your babies bottom will be irritated. This can be caused by various symptoms: fever, teething (when a child is teething his excrements are acid, and this cause an irritation, that´s why is so important when you baby is teething to change the diaper even more times), or simply his/her skin is so soft that doesn´t accept the dippers you use.

Below I want to share with you some ointments that I have used, and really helped me. (Bepanthol, Lutsine, Mustela, Nutracel, Nutraisdin ZN40, SebaMed)

The best one, but it is not for everyday use is Nutraisdin ZN40, this is perfect if any other cream doesn´t help.

If you have some more things to complete for this article, please do not hesitate to do this. Every comment is welcome.

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In a fairy tale - Andorra

This week I think I´ll manage to change the format of the blog, as there is so many things to say as I cannot just keep the same format of the blog. One of the page will be dedicated to travel. Because before I thought to share just things about how Damian is growing, but now I understand that one of the part of our life is travelling.

As we had a long weekend, we decided to go somewere around and to visit new places. We haven´t bought any flight, we thought that it will be a good idea to go by car. We choose Andorra, not just the city Andorra la Vella, but as well some other towns like Encamp (here we stayed for night), La Solana, Pas de la Casa and other little villages.

I filled up our luggage with a lot of unuseful things, like ´if, I´ll need it´, and then when we´ve got there I found that I forgot the most important thing - THE BALL. I was so afraid that my child won´t have enough clothes, that made me totally forget his ball. The ball is one of the toys that keeps him busy much longer than any other toy.

Andorra is about 3 hours by car, from Barcelona to Andorra, if trust Google of course :). But in case you get in a traffic jam as we did, it takes you at least 5 hours. Nothing bad, if you don´t have a child in his chair, that is bored to sit so long way there. To make him fill better, we were singing a lot, playing with hands, telling stories...but at the end we made a stop and 15 minutes we took him up from his chair just to play with him. The best thing is that he didn´t cry and when he was bored he was just trying to get out from his chair.

This getaway was planned mostly for sightseeing, as well we thought that it would be a good idea to go sleigh, but at the end it was snowing and so cold that we decided to see other towns by car and walking or playing with Damian.

It was a great weekend, but now we have to cure Damian´s cold :(.

So here are some marvelous pictures from the fairy tale Andorra.

  
In these pictures is not Andorra, is Puigcerdá, a city from Catalonia, where we stoped for half an hour, as Damian was really tired to stay just in the car. There we find a great parc with a big lake and with wonderful sightseeing.

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