August 13, 2025
We let the boys sleep in until they woke up naturally close to 9am. Ollie was slow to remember about his tooth, but was thrilled when he realized there were 10 Romanian Lei for him where his tooth was. We learned about the Romanian tradition involving throwing your tooth over the roof of a house for the crow to then take away, but the kids said they still prefer the petite souris from France.
In Romania and Moldova, there isn't a single "crown tooth fairy" figure, but rather a charming tradition where children throw their lost teeth over the roof of their house while reciting, "Crow, crow, take away this bone tooth and bring me a steel one". This ritual symbolizes the exchange of an old, worn-out tooth for a new, strong one, with the crow (or other mythical creature) acting as a kind of exchange agent rather than a typical fairy.
At Olivo Coffee culture, Kyle ordered a cup of pour over. He asked for milk on the side and the waitress asked her boss to come over. We had no idea why he needed to come over for a simple request but he appeared so he could explain that Kyle really should not add milk as it would ruin the coffee. We’ve never felt so judged when ordering coffee and we all had quite the chuckle about it.
We split up with Kyle, Mihai and the boys in our car and I joined Gabby and Hope in theirs. The boys stopped at Mihai’s family’s Cluj apartment and saw the infamous window— the site of the often shared story in our group of friends where Mihai fell out of the window as a toddler. The girls went to the supermarket to pick up sleep diapers for Len and snacks. Hope also got a new friendship bracelet kit and she said she wants to make friendsihp bracelets for me and her (yay!).
We then drove 90 minutes west to Mihai’s family’s country home in Negreni. I got the tour of the country home and met Mihai’s aunt Mia while Kyle and the boys checked into the hotel and started playing in the pool. The hotel is just a 5 minute drive from the house and we’re staying in a small cabin onsite versus a hotel room.
Hope’s cousins Francesca (9) and Tudor (7) were at the pool with her grandma (Bună) and the boys were thrilled to have more playmates. They jumped around from the pool to the ping pong table to the playground to the indoor hot tub non-stop all afternoon. Len stopped to ask for snacks and I offered him cashews or a donut peach. He opted for the peach and when I gave it to him he responded with disappointment, “Whaaaat! Where my pieces of donut??”
We ate dinner at local restaurant near Bună’s house. Len was in rare form and unfortunately missed out on ice cream dessert. Lucky for him, when we went to Bună’s house afterward, she was slicing the biggest watermelon we’ve ever seen so he ended up with a sweet treat in the end. The boys had fun watching Netflix with Hope and her cousin, Tudor, while the adults sat outside enjoying the cool mountain evening. We haven’t experienced remotely cool weather in a long time and it felt glorious.
