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I was born on the 3d of July in the city of Delft in Holland, and I was not the biggest baby at birth – with only 2740 g of weight and 46 cm of length. But I am growing day by day and therewith I make my parents and grannies happy. People say I must be lucky because I was born on Sunday - well, at least it is a real luck to have such loving and caring parents.

My zodiac sign is Cancer, the same as my mother and father’s; so no wonder that we all are one family. And July has one more feast now – MY BIRTHDAY! As Cancers we are very vulnerable people living in the world of feelings and emotions.

According to Chinese calendar, I was born in the year of Rooster, maybe that’s why I like to cry out loud sometimes, and not only in the morning. The same wise calendar says that Rooster gets very good along with Snake and Bull, the years my mother and father were born in. Again a happy coincidence!

My name Fiete is unique, and it looks like I don’t have official “name days” in the calendar. But as long as my parents keep calling me Fiete, every day is a name day for me. A little changed, in Russian it means “small thing”, as I am, but only in positive way. A combination with the family name Fiete Gerhardt sounds firm, practical and brave. My full name would be Friedrich, it means rich in peace, in other words I am a very peaceful person and don’t like to break my inner and outer peace without reason.

When I was 6 months old, my mother started to work 4 days a week and it was time for me to go to the kindergarten “Pippeloentje”. From the very first day I liked the place, with the friendly nannies and all the other (elder) kids around me. One little girl, Sanne, I liked in particular. Three days in the week I can eat nice things, play with other children, go for a walk outside and sleep an hour or two in the afternoon. There I learned to crawl, first the other way around (backwards), when I was 6.5 months old. But it couldn’t be otherwise, because I am a real Cancer. Now I can also crawl forwards, stand and even walk, holding chairs, tables and my parents’ legs as support.

When I was almost 9 months old, we went on our first holiday altogether. We have been to Turkey, in the neighbourhood of Side, where we were witnesses of the total solar eclipse. To be honest, I didn’t really like it, playing in the sand and on the grass was much more interesting. And swimming with mama and papa in the swimming pool was fantastic, even better than my regular swimming lessons in Kerkpolder swimming pool.

We also made many trips and discovered many interesting places in the south of Turkey.

I am really a lucky boy, because I have already been to two other countries before my first birthday. There were my parents’ motherlands: Russia and Germany. Such luxury is only available for members of an international family. I liked it there as long as my parents were near me.

Time flies, and when I look back now, I can remember many nice and interesting things I experienced. I am not a baby any more, but a little boy. My height is 70.3 cm and my weight is almost 9 kg – so to say, I am still not the biggest one among children of the same age. But I have remarkably grown since last year. One can see the process of my growth and development on this internet site.

It’s is the New 2007 Year, and I have just turned 1.5 years – so to say, an official farewell to baby-time. At the age of 12.5 months I had a breakthrough – I started to walk by myself and my teeth – oh, this subject of my parents’ worries – started to grow. And a little bit later my first words could be heard. This summer we went altogether to East-Germany – visited the places of my father’s childhood and my little cousin Claudia.

But my travel adventures have just started. In September we went on the short vacation to Greece (the island of Kos), where we cycled all the week long. I liked it very much and learned the word “koe” – that actually means “cow”, there were so many of these lovely animals over there. Cutting my hair for the first time was another milestone in my life. Now nobody can have doubts if I am a girl or a boy.

And to finish this year, full of events, we went to Germany and Russia again. I had great time during Christmas and New Year celebrations. The only thing I could wish for the next time is: let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Summer has come again, and on the 3d of July was my second birthday, how time flies! There were many things I came across during the past half a year, but the most remarkable event was the birth of my little sister Katarina on the 25^th of June. Both my parents and myself are very happy about it! She is such a sweet little girl; the only thing is that instead of playing with me she prefers to sleep peacefully. I can’t wait till the moment she is old enough to become my playmate and share my adventures.

But there are also other things to remember. Together with my parents we discovered another new for me country– France. We went to Champagne-Ardennes for the Easter weekend and spent 4 fantastic days there. Most of all I liked the domestic animals at the bed-and-breakfast farm we stayed at. Another opportunity to get to know the farm life was during our visits to Mama’s friends who have animal farms in Holland. All those cows, horses, rabbits, sheep – but nothing goes above the TRACTOR! That’s something I’m completely fond of. I have already a few toy tractors, but you can never have enough! However TRACTOR is my favourite word at the moment, I have learned a lot of other words in Dutch, Russian and German and can communicate pretty well. I’ve grown a lot and my weight now is 11,2 kg and my length is 82 cm.

As time goes by, it’s already Christmas 2007 and the New Year 2008 is coming. We are getting along with Katarina very well, I’m really proud of my cute little sister. Together with her and our parents we were two times in Germany: in summer in the neighbourhood of Koblenz and one month ago in Nuremberg, on the Christkindlmarket. In the first trip I enjoyed the nature – forests, rivers, fields, and in the second one – the characteristic ambiance of the old city centre and its Christmas market with seductive smells and sights. During the passed half a year I was busy with the toilet training – it was high time to start with it. I’ve quite succeeded, and hopefully soon I will be able to show my real “potty diploma” to everyone. I also made progress in all three of the languages and can count to 10 in all of them.

Here I am again, and on the 3rd of July 2008 I've turned 3 years! A magical Russian number, which will certainly bring me luck in the coming year. I've become more capable in putting my clothes on and taking them off, making complex movements like turning around, dancing and jumping, singing children songs. But what is really important: I can perfectly use the toilet for "small" and "big" things, at least during the day time, and my next challenge is not to do it while sleeping. Finally, I can use my three-wheeler as appropriate, such a fun to do it! We spent the first two weeks of May on the island of Corsica, a lovely place to be. I saw the Mediterranean Sea again, played on the beach with Katarina, enjoyed the wonderful and so different nature of the island and the hospitality of the locals. There was just one thing going wrong in the first days - I didn't really like mountain driving, even in such a great car as Renault Kangoo, but I got used to it pretty soon. Well, now we are getting ready for a new vacation, but more about that next time.

Hi, I’m already 4 years old and ready to go to the first class of a Dutch school. However, I must admit that I’ve already started with a Russian school from January 2009. I learned a number of letters and even how to write the first letter of my own name in Russian. I’m looking forward to continue these Saturday lessons with other boys and girls and a very nice teacher Olga. And I’ll say good-bye to Pippeloentje where I spent 3,5 year with great pleasure. Of course I will miss it, especially Sanne and Eva, but I’m sure that we (or our parents) will find enough occasions to see each other after school and in the weekend.

Well, now about the other things. Just after I turned 3 years old I went to Russia to see not only my grandfather and grandmother, uncle Andrey and aunt Vika, but also my niece Alina for the first time. We spent a great week at the dacha and afterwards made a trip down the Volga river on the Felix Dzerzhinski steam boat. I liked it very much, both the boat and it’s playroom, and the small nice cities we visited during this cruise. Back in Holland, my parents spontaneously decided that they did want to go to the sea this summer and we went to another new country – Italy, the island of Sicily, to be precise. There we spent a week, swam in the warm sea, went to other cities by bus and even visited the volcano of Etna. I even went down to one of the extinguished side craters. At the end of the year we decided to go to a real snow holiday and chose Unterjoch, in the heart of Allgäu in Germany. That was an unforgettable Christmas week! Of course I’ve seen snow in Moscow before, but not so much and I could go down the hill on the sleigh. Moreover, they had horses there and it was my first time horseback (ponyback if you like…). And we made a snowman and walked in the darkness with torches and enjoyed the swimming pool… so much to remember! In May we went to Corsica again, for a week this time, and found out that the southern part of this island is not less beautiful than the northern and central part. We decided to come back again later, when Katarina and I can walk by ourselves and have a real hiking holiday there. In the same month we went to see Papa’s relatives in Sangerhausen and Aschersleben in Germany. We met Claudia again and had a lot of fun together. We also visited a small, but very pretty zoo, where I was so inspired by the white tigers that my grandfather Mattie had to run for his life from me and the girls. And the very last accomplishment of this year, full of events, was my golden Teddy Beer swimming diploma, now I’m ready to go on and get the A, B and C diplomas.