We’ve had a busy week. Miss K started two of her fall classes. I know if you’re Greek you’re sitting there saying she’s sending her kid to school now? She should have started a couple of months ago!  We are adding onto our nursery rhyme collection…if you remember I’m better with the Greek ones than the English ones. One class is primarily rhymes and reading so we should be able to add to our repertoire! We’re also excited to have our paternal γιαγιά and παππού back from Greece. Of course they spoiled the little one. We’re beyond loving our new Ζουζουνακιά collection (see picture below).

It is important to me and hubby that our little Miss is able to grow up embracing her Greekness. Growing up in the διασπορά it is hard to be able to continue those customs and traditions that were instilled in us by our parents.  When I was 21 I spent 3 months in Greece after finishing my degree.  I primarily spent the time in Athens but I did spend a week or so in my dad’s village.  My dad’s village finally got asphalt roads that year if it gives you a visual of what it was like.  My aunt and uncle from the US (God rest their souls) were in Greece that summer.  I was walking with one cousin from the aunt and uncle’s house to our house.  We could see sitting about 4 houses down two little old ladies, widows, as they were dressed all in black.  As we were walking closer I heard one say to the other, “έρχεται η αμερικανα”…”oh here comes the American.”  I of course with a big smile on my face respond in my perfectly accented Greek, looking behind me, “που, που είναι η αμερικανικα;…Where oh where is the American?”  The women were in shock, literally jaws dropped.  They continued to say, “παιδί μου μιλάτε ελληνικά;…My child you speak Greek?”  I replied, “φυσικά μιλάω ελληνικά, εχω αποφοιτήσει από το Ελληνικό Σχολείο, kai σπούδασα ελληνική μελέτες στο πανεπιστήμιο….Of course I speak Greek I finished 8 years of Greek School and minored in Modern Greek Studies in university.”  Well needless to say the ladies were shocked.  They could not believe that an “Amerikanaki” like me could speak Greek with no detection of a foreign accent or anything.

One thing my father said many years ago and has stuck with me is he didn’t learn how to speak English so his kids could learn to speak Greek.  Now at the time growing up I didn’t understand what that meant.  Seriously you moved to a foreign land why wouldn’t you give it your all to learn everything you could.  Now don’t get me wrong he had a successful business and is able to hold his own but now that I have a daughter I understand a bit better what that meant.  If we don’t keep the language alive in our homes then it will be lost forever.  I try to speak Greek to Miss K all the time.  Why you might ask? Because I know that the older she gets the more prevalent the English language will be in her life.  Now is my chance to instill in her some of those traditions that were passed on to me, so when she goes to Greece 20 years from now on her own for 3 months the next generation of little old Greek ladies can be as shocked at how my Greek-Canadian/American daughter can speak better Greek than the locals!

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Chickens, puppies and piggies, oh my!

So today was one of those days. A lot has happened in the last two weeks since I wrote. Little Miss rolled over for the first time. Not sure who was more excited me or her dad who was showing the video to everyone!

She also was able to get lots of time in with her yiayia and pappou before they had to go back to the States. We had a wonderful visit with them and she was able to learn some more songs. As of right now pappou owes her 4 chickens, 7 puppies and 5 piggies. Let’s see if he pays up 🙂

Today is the feast day of the Virgin Mary and I decided to go to church…okay so this was picked up from Friday where I left off…it never ceases to amaze me at how people feel free to comment on anything and everything when you have a child. Little Miss behaved greatly. She had a bottle without a freak out before (go me on the timing) and I even was able to cool her down in the warm church. To cool her down off came her socks and sandals and obviously her blanket. So as church was wrapping up a couple of ladies came over to see her. The first thing they both said was how I needed to put socks in her right away so she won’t catch a cold. Did I also know how quickly babies can catch a cold?!? Okay so I might not be up on how fast a baby catches a cold, I’ll give you that one, but did you know my baby hates to be hot? Did you also know how I had been up 5 out of the last 7 nights because the house was wayyyy to hot for the little one? Did you know how I was the one that carried her for 40 weeks plus 10 days because she didn’t want to come out until she was ready? Did you know she is not like any other child as she is a complete individual. So my dear ladies, next time you want to tell me how my kid needs to wear socks in the middle of August in a non air conditioned church I may have a hard time biting my tongue.

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Another Beautiful Sunrise

Well it is official, I have seen another beautiful sunrise.  That is more sunrises than I witnessed my entire life before I had a baby.  Yes there was one particular night in Beantown when I witnessed the sunrise and those two nights on the Greek island of Mykonos when we closed down the nightclub but all in all I usually made it to bed before the sun came out.  Who knew that motherhood would change that?  No my baby wasn’t up with me, yet again she and hubby were peacefully snuggled in bed.  But as I’m finding out the more new moms I meet, this tends to be a common occurrence.  You either finish a feeding and can’t get back to sleep or wake up because baby hasn’t woken up for a feeding and can’t get back to sleep.  I’d like to say that I solved the world’s problems last night but honestly after checking Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Google+, emails, CNN, my hometown paper and local papers, really there wasn’t much more to do.  Not much is on TV between 3am and 5am other than various infomercials even when you have 900 channels.

So what do you do when you can’t sleep?  Do you read? Warm milk?  Help a momma out and share your tips!!

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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40 Day Blessing

So my little one received her 40 Day Blessing this about 10 days ago.  Daddy, baby and I got ready, loaded up the diaper bag, car seat, blankets, etc., and off we went to church.  We got there right at the end as people were receiving the andithero.  Since I was an unblessed woman I couldn’t actually enter the church just the exo-narthex.  I guess going into it I didn’t realize that it was as much about me as it was about the baby.  I know my fellow Greek moms shared with me their experiences in a previous post but I guess I didn’t fully understand until I was there.  With my baby squirming in my hands and the priest reciting the prayers from his bible, I took a second to take it all in. To think about the women who came before me and who will come after me and partake in this important part of our Orthodox faith. As I was saying to my friend yesterday via Skype, it totally took me off guard how much it was about me the mom. Our priest is very thorough so we didn’t get the drive through blessing and had time to take it all in.

The blessing then got me thinking of the next big part of our Orthodox faith as a little one, the baptism. For those of you who don’t know in the Greek Orthodox faith you are baptized, confirmed and receive your first communion all in one sacrament. The planning has begun and I’m excited for the little one to officially enter our religion. I just keep wondering if she’ll be a screamer and cry during her ‘dunking’? How did your little ones do during their baptisms? Did they cry? Were they screamers or happy campers?

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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A day of rest?!

So it is 6:25am and I’m sitting with my first frappe of the day. For those of you who aren’t Greek frappe is the Greek’s version of iced coffee. I have been up since 2:00. I awoke worried that my little one hadn’t woken up yet. As one mommy so well put it the other day, I wake up freaking out that they’re still breathing! Well that was me last night/this morning, of course the little one was fine, she decided to have an extra long slumber before her feeding. Well once the feeding was done she wouldn’t burp well so all in all that took 45 minutes. Now I’m not sure about you but after 45 minutes of being awake, I’m done. So I did what everyone does but you’re not supposed to do, I picked up my phone. I checked Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, I was even tempted to look at Google+. I played my Words With Friends and checked emails. Put the phone away and waited for this amazing slumber and rest to take over my body. Ummm yeah not so much! So I Googled the best transitions for getting your baby to sleep the night in their crib (our little one is still in her bassinet), I Googled the transition of ready made formula to powder or concentrate (we’ve tried both and she didn’t like either).   I even Googled ways a mom can sleep better at night. That was a joke! I listened to my husband snore (sorry babe) and my little one gurgle, cry and moan in her sleep, even getting up a few times to make sure she was okay. Everyone was fine and snuggled in their beds while visions of sugar plums or ponies, danced in their heads. And then there was me…so I did it…I got out of bed. On the couch I found out that our TV was down, really we have to do something with this high speed internet that never works when you need it! When it came back on Mystic Pizza was my show of choice. I put away a load of the baby’s laundry, folded a load of our laundry and put in another load. I paid some bills and even took a shower. And now I sit here typing away sipping my frappe at 6:30am. Not sure about what you’re planning to do on your Sunday but I feel pretty accomplished already!

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Blessed are the children…

Hello everyone,

It is so hard to believe that in a bit over a month our bundle of joy will be here.  That is if they aren’t stubborn and follow the “timeline”.  I’m packed and ready as they tell me you never know when the time will come.  Saying all that I wanted to take some time to discuss something that is very important in the Greek Orthodox faith and that is the 40-day blessing.  Similar to Jesus’ presentation to the temple, the thought is that you bring your child to church at the 40 day mark to be blessed by the priest.  Forty days after birth and in accordance with the Old Testament tradition observed by the Virgin Mary (Luke 2:22-24), the mother brings her child for its first visit to the Church. If they are a boy they are entered into the altar as well.  The Greek Orthodox Church still has a closed altar and females are not allowed to enter.  Certainly I have thought about having my child receive this blessing but as the time gets closer for our little one to arrive I wonder what does this really mean?  Will I be stuck in the house for 40 days without being able to leave ever?  I asked this question and some others to some of my girlfriends who have agreed to serve as ‘blog collaborators’ on certain subjects.  Certainly they have MUCH more experience in mommyhood than I do and I am so excited to be able to share all of this with them.

Question 1: Did you bring your child to church to be blessed on or around the 40th day and your thoughts on the overall blessing?
          One friend says, “I did bring both my children to be blessed around the 40th day and I really enjoyed the experience.  It was a chance for the baby to have an official outing, go to church and be introduced to the community.  It was an important milestone for me!”
Another friend says,  “I have had all three of my children brought to church for a blessing.  It was more towards to the 30 days, our priest does allow you to bring them a bit sooner.  I wanted to get them blessed because I have a strong faith and always seek God’s help in my daily life.”
Yet another friend stated that before her second child received their 40 day blessing she went to church for a Μνημόσυνο (memorial service) for her Godfather’s passing.  When she was spotted by the church secretary, she was shocked to see my friend and asked why she was there.  She explained and later found out that the blessing is as much about the mother as it is the baby.  She apparently wasn’t supposed to step inside of the church prior to the 40 day blessing.  She didn’t know this and felt anxious the entire time leading up to the blessing thinking something “bad” was going to happen to the baby or me.  Nothing did of course!

Question 2: Who went with you for the blessing? 
One friend said, “…whomever was available: husband, yiayiathes, and other children.”  Another states, “The godfather and yiayia came for my first child and the grandparents and godparents came for the second child. ” Yet another states, “…my husband for my first and my husband and older child for my second…I learned that our priest does not like it at all for other family members to attend.”

Question 3: Did you stay at home the entire 39 days leading up to your child’s blessing? Or did you go out but baby didn’t?
One friend says, “At first I scoffed at the idea not understanding the reasoning behind it, I chalked it up to superstition.  However after two pregnancies I realizes that a woman does need time to recover after her pregnancies.  I did find myself staying in most of the time when it was possible.”
A few friends stated that they went out but baby did not unless it was for an appointment with the doctor.  And yet another did venture out of the house before the baby was blessed but only during the day.

In reading all of this I found it interesting the differences between churches, priests and countries.  One friend stated that her aunt in Athens said something about the 40 day blessing now being 20 days staying at home but she didn’t doubt for a second that her deeply religious cousin stayed in the entire period.  Some priests do the blessing as part of the ceremony after the Sunday services and others have the family come in on a Saturday so the blessing is more private.

I always wonder if sometimes we Greeks of the diaspora have held on to these traditions more closely than our Greek counterparts.   Simply because we were brought up with the traditions of Greece circa 1950/60/70/80 or whatever year our parents immigrated to their new country.  They held on to this Greekness so tight in order to not lose their Greek identity and instilled in us these values and traditions.  I know that it is important for my husband and me to have our child blessed and start his/her life in the Greek Orthodox Church.  Whether or not I stay in the house for the 39 days prior or even if baby does, I’ll fill you in once that is happening.  Did you have your child receive the 40 day blessing?  Did you stay in or go out during this time?  I’d love it if you shared with me!

I did find a great section of Myth busters on a church site in Australia.  If you want to check them out, click here and go to the Myths ‘busted’ about Birth and Baptism section,

 

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Do you talk and drive?

So today’s blog is a cross between a public service announcement and my personal rant.  I guess that is the good thing about having your own blog…you can do that!

I was driving to OB appointment last week on a not so busy road.  I had about 20 cars pass me during my time on this road.  This is either driving in the opposite direction or to pass me (I do follow the speed limit, more so now that I’m pregnant).  Saying that 12 of these people were talking on their cellphones.  Full on holding a phone up to their ear and holding a conversation.  Now I should let you know that I live in the province of Ontario in Canada and this is illegal.  There is a law on the books that bans this.  The summary is below and the more information can be found here.

Ontario’s ban on hand-held devices while driving took effect on October 26, 2009.

The law makes it illegal for drivers to talk, text, type, dial or email using hand-held cell phones and other hand-held communications and entertainment devices. The law also prohibits drivers from viewing display screens unrelated to the driving task, such as laptops or DVD players, while driving. The use of hands-free devices is still permitted, and drivers may use hand-held devices to call 9-1-1.

‘Hands-free’ use means that apart from activating or deactivating the device, it is not held during use and the driver is not physically interacting with or manipulating it.  Actions such as dialing or scrolling through contacts, or manually programming a GPS device, for example, are not allowed.

Now many people are offenders of this law every day.  I guess you can say it just REALLY bothered me on this particular day.  Was I more sensitive because I’m with child?  Would it have bothered me just as much on any other Wednesday?  Probably, I just don’t know how vocal I would have been about it.

I talked about this with some friends and asked what they do when they get in the car?  Most friends put their phone in their cup holders or their stands and go about their ride.  One friend actually had a phone that once the Bluetooth was enabled it shut off all notifications until they were out of the car.  I thought this was brilliant!  My problem is once that ding, ring, ping, whatever the sound may be goes off, my brain is distracted and I’m wondering who called, emailed, texted.

Do we really need to be connected 24/7?  A few years I would have said absolutely.  Today I’m not so sure.  I think we all need to be good stewards of the heavy machinery that we are operating and of our fellow citizens around us.

Being form the United States originally I know that each state has its own laws on cellphones.  Did you know that only 15 states have a total handheld device ban?  I was shocked that it was so low.  I am also aware that are a few organizations in the United States where you can pledge to not text and drive but what about talk and drive? Oprah has a “no phone zone” but only 423,000 have taken the pledge.  Seriously when Ellen can get millions of retweets on a picture from the Oscars, Oprah can’t get more than 500,000 people to pledge?  What is the issue?  Why have we become such a connected society?  I certainly don’t have the answers but I’m ready to start the conversation.  Did your cell phone habits change once you became pregnant or had kids?  Are you a believer that we shouldn’t have any laws against this?  Some laws?  Let the conversation begin!

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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Here goes nothing!

Well its official, I’m back to my blogging ways.  Different site, different focus but the same little ole me.  A lot has changed since the last time I was writing.  I celebrated another birthday, I’m now closer to 40 than I am to 35.  I left my senior level management job in downtown Toronto to start working on my own.  Primarily I work on social media marketing, along with some website work.  It has been completely great to be my own boss and to make my own hours.  The biggest change in all of this is that I’m a soon to be Greek μαμά (aka mom).

To say that the last few months have been a whirlwind would be an understatement.  I haven’t been crazy hormonal, although my hubby is probably a better person to ask about that, but to have this little being growing inside you is surreal.  You worry about things that you normally wouldn’t, or at least I do. You have to make sure you’re always taking your vitamins, of which I wasn’t the best at remembering before.  You have to prepare, as best you can for the little bundle of joy that will soon be joining your family, and of course you’re doing all this while being the best Greek wife, daughter, friend, co-worker, and soon to be μαμά that you can be.  No pressure right?!??

To give you some perspective, I guess I should start with the Greekness.  I am 100% Greek-American that has been transplanted to Canada.  I also am married to a 100% Canadian-Greek.  Yes you read that correctly, I put the Greekness first and hubby puts it second.  More on that another time.  My parents immigrated to the United States in the 70s in search of a better life for themselves and their future family.  I was raised in an all Greek household.  This means we spoke Greek, we ate Greek, we did everything but watch Greek TV as this was the age before satellites.  Everyday I’d go to school like every other child but three days a week I’d go to Greek School.  This was in the afternoons after regular school.  I remember my mom picking me up from school, taking me home to change clothes (I went to a private school so I wore a uniform), giving me something to eat, and then driving me to Greek School.  Here I had the opportunity to interact with other Greek children from my church and make bonds that are still in place until this day.  I’d then go home to do my homework from regular school, which in the early days was a struggle.  I was the first grader who needed to go visit my 80 year old tenant for help with my spelling list on Thursdays as she was the only other person in the house who could help me.  My father always says, “I didn’t learn English so my children will learn Greek.”  It wasn’t until I was much older that I finally understood what that meant.   Look out for this story in a future blog. J  I was a member of GOYA, the Greek Orthodox Youth of America and went to their dances and basketball games.  I event was vice-president of the Hellenic Society at my college and lead the charge in the March 25th parade.

All of this would lead me to deciding I wanted to spend the rest of my life with a fellow Greek.  This was very important to me.  Not that I didn’t date non-Greeks but I knew that when push came to shove the values, traditions and things that were important to me, needed to be important to him as well.  I didn’t want to fight about sending the kid to Greek school, or what religion they would be raised in or even what languages they would study.  For me all of this was important and non-negotiable.   Now before the bashers come in and hate, I must say here that I have many friends who have married non-Greeks and are leading very happy lives.  I am just sharing with you what I was looking for.

All of this comes with some pressures—or at least perhaps a pressure that many Greek women I know manifest on themselves.  The pressures to be the best at whatever it is we’re doing.  The best wife, daughter, mother, employee, boss, friend, etc.  Through this blog I hope to share with you my journey through life and the challenges that this soon to be Greek μαμά faces.

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Roula

A little ditty about Jack and Diane...no really in all seriousness I'm a daughter, sister, wife and mother. I'm a Greek-American, who has transplanted in Canada. As a first time mom I'm sharing some things as I go along.

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