The Show Must Go On

Hello! Finally!

I decided the $2.50/month was worth it to keep up the blog. There were probably other ways to get around this but I have too little time in the day to figure any of that out, so I'll do this for a month and see how it goes.

So what's new?

It's been a busy couple of weeks!

I'll try to get through this quick because Eleni's probably going to wake up soon and if the last week or so is any indication as to what's about happen next......she'll be screaming her head off.

Colic. Do you know what colic is? Apparently no one really does. In a nutshell: your baby screams bloody murder for forever (not literally forever...depends on the baby but for us it tends to be 3-4 hours...which is FOREVER!). You think there's something seriously wrong with her but there isn't, until finally she'll stop and why she stopped is just as much of a mystery as why she started in the first place. 

It's a delight.

Oh, and mommy usually starts crying somewhere around the 2 1/2 hour mark which really doesn't seem to help the situation. But hey, you gotta try everything.

Other than the colic, she also got her first vaccine on Monday. For that...she laughed. My child may be slightly confused about how to express emotion. Good thing mommy has a psychology degree...too bad we can't start working on that now and figure out this whole colic situation. Meh, c'est la vie!

Around the house we're setting ourselves up for a winter of paying less bills (hopefully). We just had a wood stove put in. 

The Pros for the wood stove: cheaper heat for the winter, it's cozy and snuggly and lovely, there's a separate compartment that we can cook in so that means pizzas that will blow your mind, and it smells like Grandma and Papa's house.

The Cons for the wood stove: it doesn't work properly. 

I'm not sure what happened but somewhere in the installation process something went wrong so now when we light a fire, smoke pours out of every little nook and cranny it can find.....even though there shouldn't be any nooks or cranny's but somehow there is and for some reason the guy who installed it was really annoyed when I said that. Whatever dude. Fix my damn stove. I want pizza.

So hopefully that gets sorted out soon because it's actually starting to get a little chilly at night. 

Yes, it does get chilly in Greece.

At least it does where we live.

We're also getting a new solar panel for our hot water tank.This wasn't actually a decision we made. Last week Antonis and Eleni were watching tv, I was washing the dishes when all of a sudden we heard a massive  CRACK! and then all this water was gushing out of somewhere....(I thought my water broke again OH NO SHE DIDN'T! I did. I went there. And for that I apologize.) Anyway, it turns out our old solar panel, that never worked properly but our landlord refused to replace, just spontaneously exploded. Or something like that. We didn't actually see what happened but I think Antonis must have been thinking about our old crappy solar panel during his daily prayer session....and he was answered. I don't pray...I'm not particularly religious...but this guy's either on to something or he's just a lucky bastard because somehow stuff like that always seems to happen around here. Anyway, a new solar panel is on the way and we will be having luxuriously long, hot showers at a fraction of the cost. And feeling good about our environmental footprint as well!

And finally, we're growing a vegetable garden! A friend of ours has some land that wasn't being used so after a few beers and a lot of stupid ideas as to what to do with it, we all agreed that we should try out our green thumbs and make a garden. If everything goes according to plan it should support 3 households and the restaurant. 

As soon as the garden starts to look green and gorgeous I'll take some pictures...right now it's just a dirt patch. Also, when the wood stove is fixed I'll show you what it looks like too. Do you care about the solar panel? Should I take a photo of that too? They're not that interesting but if I find some spare time I'll do it....I'll have to fight off a gang of wild street cats to get to it so if I do put up a pic of the solar panel, you'll know it's because I like you a whole lot. 

Eleni's waking up so I have to run but here are some pictures of Eleni's bath time. She LOVES bath time!

The strategically placed warm cloth acts both as a boobie warmer and a boobie hider so Eleni doesn't disown me when she accidentally stumbles across this blog at 15 years old. 

Actually I'm lying. It's just to keep her warm.

Baby boobies are cute, so deal with it 15 year old Eleni.

We're having a very serious conversation here. 

It went like this:

 Mommy: "Did you just wee in the water?"

Eleni: Smiled and laughed

"Whatcha doin' Auntie Nicci?

Takin' pictures of me?...."

"Well take this! Pfffffffft!"

"Fine. You can take a picture of my usual, irresistibly adorable-ness" 

"I'm bored of this." 

This is what Eleni looks like while she's kicking her feet and getting everything and everyone soaked.

So serious.

She clearly does it on purpose.

And now, snuggly, cuddly, kissy, after bath time

Kalinikta!