Francesca Maria.
A Champion's Preemie Baby Diary.
Part 6: Europe in Winter.
Welcome to my site www.francesca07.com. My name is Francesca Maria, I was born on April 22, 2007, a 29-week premature baby (preemie), weighing only 1.46 kilos (3 lbs. 3 oz.). This is part 6 of my diary, when at the age of a little over 8 months I flew to Paris with my parents (see buttons on right links to previous parts).
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February 7: Ouchy.The Lake.
Today was too much of a nice day to stay home, we went walking next to the Lake Léman, passing in front of the Olympic Museum where my parents met more than 6 years ago. We continued our stroll next to the lake, I slept a little, breathing the very fresh Swiss air, and opening my eyes occasionally to watch the beautiful lake, the swans and the mountains. By the way, do you see the photo where my Mom is photographing my Dad who is photographing me? A pity nobody is photographing my Mom who is photographing my Dad who is... I hope soon my Dad gets me a camera and we can have a long series of people photographing other people. Cool!
We have to go to bed soon, as tomorrow we will get up at 4 in the morning and leave for a long trip home... I will post all my impressions from the trip as soon as I am settled and get rid of jet lag. Sorry for the delay.
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February 6: Tiny Love Magiq.
No it's not a spelling mistake, it's my all-time favorite toy. It's a Russian-speaking dog, who communicates in real time with a DVD on the TV. It's amazing. My Dad's friend Julia gave it to me a couple of months ago, and now it seems I cannot live without it. I even learned to wave to people watching that DVD, very cool. As soon as we travel to the USA next week, I will ask my parents to order other products from Tiny Love.
By the way, let me say that while I love my Tiny Love Speaking Dog, I don't like it when companies make on purpose spelling mistakes when creating brand names. I understand they do it so that they can trademark a new term and be unique on the web, that seems like a good reason. But think of all the poor children who will make spelling mistakes because of them. Well, anyway, I love the magic of my Magiq.
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February 4: Switzerland. Swiss. Heidi.
Since I am in Switzerland this week, we passed by a tourist shop and got me a Swiss t-shirt and head scarf. Don't I look like a little "Heidi" in them? (Heidi is the most typical Swiss name for girls).
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February 3: A Snowy Sunday with Friends.
It was a perfect day today in the Alps. My God-father Tonton Hassan came to see us with his children, we had a great time in the snow!
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February 1: Chess is Cool!
I am a serious 9-month old little girl. Today I had a chess lesson, since I know that starting early is one of the keys to success. The chess pieces were nice and big and I was able to throw them around without any problems at all. I guess that's called step by step learning.
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January 30: I want to learn to play the piano.
I was thrilled today to be held by one of the best pianists in the world, Natacha Kudritskaya. My parents met her last fall in the Château de Villandry and she's our friend now. I saw a video with her music and all I can say is "wow"!
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January 30: Ludivine's First Birthday.
Today is my friend Ludivine's birthday, she's already 1 year old, boy does time pass fast. Our Moms organized a nice party a our place and we all had a very good time. If you want to see how we have both grown recently have a look at a photo taken of us 5 months ago.
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January 25: Splashing is Fun.
I love my evening baths. But most of all I like to play in my bath and splash as much as possible. Then when everybody is wet I give them that angel smile and they don't mind being all wet...
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January 23: I like to be carried around.
It's cool to be carried by my Dad and have my feet relax after a hard day.
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January 22 (PM): MA-MA!
I decided that today was the ideal day to surprise my Mom with the word she has been waiting to hear for quite a while. I told her, clearly and several times, the word: "ma-ma". She was so happy! It's actually not so hard to speak, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it quite fast.
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January 22: My 9 month birthday.
I'm a _really_ big girl now, 9 months is no joke. This last month I have progressed quite a bit, there are many things I know how to do on my own now, like playing with my toys, sitting at my desk, and drinking from my bottle. I don't have any trouble recognizing people, and I always smile at the nice people around me. I even smile when I see photos of myself, and I must say there are lots of them around.
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January 20: A peaceful Sunday.
Today I'm enjoying a quiet day, watching TV and playing with my cute pink doll "Corolle", which my very nice Tonton Hassan gave to me for Christmas.
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January 19 (PM): At my desk.
My Dad gave me today the chair he had when he was a baby, and it's perfect for me. He gave me a pen an paper, but to be frank I'm not yet quite sure what to do with them. I prefer typing on the computer for my web site than writing on paper, that's too old-fashioned. I'm a child of the 21st century, after all.
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January 19: Nap in the Parc Monceau.
Ludivine and I went for a stroll today in beautiful Parc Monceau in Paris. Then we enjoyed a wondeful nap next to the pond. Of course our moms were keeping an eye on us, in case we wake up hungry, it's good to know they are not far. The weather in Paris today is quite good, approx. +14 Celsius, very warm for the season.
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January 18: Ludivine is close by!
It's great, my baby-friend Ludivine moved to an apartment close by for awhile, so I will get a chance to see her more often, I'm very happy about that.
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January 17: An email from California.
This web diary of mine, while being some work to update on a regular basis, is actually quite cool. It allows me to meet new friends. Today, while deleting my spam messages, I came across a very nice email from Marina and Veronika, from San Diego, California. They said they have been following my diary since I was one month old, because they have good friends called Valya and Sasha who also had a 29-week preemie called Max, and who was born a little over a month after me. So I take this opportunity to wish the best to my young colleague Max!
January 16: I know where you are!
My Dad gave me today a lesson on web geolocation and helped me to install on my web site a map that shows where my visitors come from. So when you visit my site, automatically your "dot" is added to my map at the very bottom of my main home page. Cool!
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January 15: From 5.5 to 10.5 cm in 9 months.
Boy have I grown, my parents noticed today that even though I still don't know how to walk, I have outgrown 2 or 3 pairs of shoes, amazing. I can hardly image how many pairs of shoes I will go through during my growing phase, well better not to think about right now.
As for positive news, I can report that I now know how to move quite actively from my back to my tummy and back, and if I turn in the same direction I can get quite far, which makes my parents nervous I will fall off the bed so they always are close to check on me. Apart from that, people around me keep saying that I should soon start crawling, but it seems I still don't have a clue on how to do that, I need some inspiration and one day I'll get to it I am sure, it's not so tough it seems all babies know how to do that.
In terms of speaking, I now mumble sounds like da-da, ba-ba, in addition to pa-pa, although it's more fun simply to scream it seems.
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January 14 (PM): A video shoot.
Today after I said the magic words "pa-pa" everybody was very excited at home. They recorded a lot of video footage in my bedroom, I hope my Dad will come out with a DVD about me soon. I'm now much more cooperative, I know how to sit still, I look straight at the camera and smile when I am told to do so. Well after all I am already 8 months and 3 weeks old now, I figure it's never too early to be a star.
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January 14 (AM): I said "PA-PA".
My baby-sitter Dushka was witness today to my saying "pa-pa" to my Dad (which means "daddy" in many European languages). My Dad was so taken aback (he did not expect it) and so happy, that he rushed to get his video camera, but of course it was too late and I did not repeat it. But at least my Dad has a witness, or else my Mom would never have believed him, it seems they have some kind of bet going on about my saying first "pa-pa" or "ma-ma".
In any case, since I really did not mean to say anything in particular, I was just practicing my pronounciation skills, their bet continues on until I mean what I'm saying. I guess that will still take awhile...
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This is my baby-sitter Dushka holding me. |
January 13: Meet my Matryoshka pillows.
Here I am, surrounded by my matryoshka pillows. Note that English speakers often confuse the two Russian words "matryoshka" (which stands for the Russian nested dolls) and "babushka" (which means grand-mother). There are sometimes references to those dolls as babushka dolls, but that is not customary at all, so please refer to them as matryoshki (that's the plural of matryoshka). Thanks.
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January 10: I met my cousin Caro!
Today I got a visit from my cousin Caro, she brought me a wonderful green sweater, and super fashionable jeans, I am thrilled. Caro is so nice, she just flew in today from America and she came straight to see me. By the way, Caro stands for Carolina, don't confuse it with the chess opening Caro-Kann, invented by another Caro, whose first name was Horatio. Carolina is a very nice name, I hope I'll be seeing more of her while she's in Paris.
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January 9: End of Christmas Season.
My Mom told me that it will be the last time I dress up in Christmas clothes this season, and so this photo will keep a memory of it. The only problem is that next year I might not fit in this year's outfit, unless I get onto a serious diet but I have no intention of doing so. Well maybe the hat will still fit, that's already something...
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January 7 (PM): Me with The World Champion.
Yes it's me, little ex-preemie Francesca and it's him, the great and the best chess player in the world, the famous Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik. We were so happy he came to have (Orthodox) Christmas lunch with us, and he was so kind. He allowed me to call him Volodya and did not mind being photographed with me, I was so happy and will keep these photos as my most valuable possessions. In a few days he'll go to the super strong Wijk aan Zee Corus Chess Tournament and I will be his most ardent fan, I hope he wins all his games.
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January 7 (AM): La galette des rois.
Yesterday was Epiphany, and my parents bought a King's Cake. The cake came with a crown, and I put it on for this photo. Yes, it felt good to feel powerful while I had the crown on. Well in fact even without the crown I can get my parents to do practically anything I want, even get up in the middle of the night and give in to all my wishes, he he he.
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Me. A King. You bet it! I have a crown and I'm the most important person around. |
January 6 (PM): Green or Grey (Gray)?
The controversy continues. My parents say that during the day in bright daylight my eyes are perfectly grey (gray in the U.S.). However, these evening photos seem to show that my eyes are green. Can it be that it's an artifact from my green towel? I don't think so, as the photos below are perfectly color balanced.
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Click on any of the small photos to enlarge and see for yourself the color of my eyes. |
January 6: More fun in my bath.
My Dad likes to photograph me in my bath, I think I figured out why. First because I'm always in a good mood, but also because the lighting is very good, and so his photos turn up better. So I now know an important rule of photography: make sure the light is good when you press the shutter.
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January 5: My new bathtub.
My old bathtub had a hole and deflated, and in any case it was too small for me. So I got a new one, very comfortable may I say. I really enjoy my evening baths.
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January 4 (PM): I love my toys.
As you can see in the pictures below I have plenty of toys to play with, I brought back from Moscow most of them, and found some I had left behind. Toys are great!
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January 4 (AM): Ludivine's visit.
This morning my friend Ludivine came to see me. She's a big girl, her 1st birthday will be on January 30, she's about 3 months older than me. We had a good time together, although she wanted to play with my magic ball, and that upset me a little, I don't know why. But I'm already waiting for her to come and visit me next time, I'm sure we won't fight about toys.
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Ludivine is on the right, I'm on the left. |
January 3: I am splendissime.
I forgot to tell you that yesterday afternoon we went to see my pediatrician Dr. R., who is very nice. He said I was "splendissime", and after measuring and weighing me (69 cm and 9.3 kilos for 8 1/2 months), said that since I was born a tiny preemie I had caught up and even passed most babies, and that made him quite happy.
January 2: Shopping!
Today we went shopping at a great supermarket called Auchan in La Défense, and got me lots of things like diapers, food, juices, etc, enough to feed me for awhile. I don't like to have to wait in line at the cashier, but it's a good opportunity to take a well-deserved nap.
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January 1, 2008: Bienvenue en France!
The first photo below was taken at the somewhat chaotic Aeroflot check-in counter in Moscow and the second one at the arrival hall in Paris. I seem to be overdressed, it's not so cold here...
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This is the beginning of Page 6, when I flew to Paris with my parents. Previous to that I was in Moscow, that's page 5, before that in Paris, that's page 4. On page 3, after when I was discharged from the hospital NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for premature babies), on June 19, 2007. For Page 1, birth to 1 month, click here. And for Page 2, 1 month to discharge from the NICU, click here.
© 2007 Francesca Maria.
Made on a Mac. Of course.
