I Mici nel Pozzo

The End of the button bowl

2015-09-12T06:50:00.001+01:00

No words

15 days and that's what's left....

The truth about the button bowl

2015-09-08T08:19:00.001+01:00

So it has been a week, time to catch up on the "Button bowl" craft ....
I started full of hopes
I worked all weekend and this was the final result

After much thought I decided to put my beautiful bowl in the bathroom ....
There it has been residing since last Wednesday ... and this is what it looks like today

I still think it looks quite good, but the reality is that day by day the bowl is looking more and more like a plate....
It seems the buttons are too heavy for the glue...
Not sure whether I need more buttons, different buttons; or maybe more glue or a different glue... suggestions are welcome.
I am still planning to master the bowl and use it for Xmas presents.

Button Bowl 2 - the return

2015-09-01T22:17:00.002+01:00

OMT the bowl has lost structural integrity
It is pliable AGAIN
We are risking losing the first ever object I have made with the help of the Internet!!!
I have put it back on the stand
Hopefully it just needs more time for the glue to dry...

The Rise of Pinterest Mum

2015-08-31T16:24:00.000+01:00

... there are moments in your life as a mum when suddenly you are overtaken by the desire of making something with your own hands...
It is like a strange feeling.... your brain suddenly think something along these lines:" If i was able to make a baby of course i will be able to make a bedside cabinet out of corn starch and a bobby pin"
it's the revenge of McGyver;
Forget wanting to be a "Charlie's Angel" or in the "A-team" all you want to be is Martha Stewart assistant.
So what's a mum to do in order to satisfy these strange cravings???? Enter Pinterest the place where all is possible, everyone is a craft person, and everything seems achievable....
I have been falling down the Pinterest Hole all week and mostly my imagination was captured by the all elusive "Button Bowl"
....
you can find pictures of it all over the tinternet, Pinterest, google, youtube.... but hey, loo closer and majority of the pictures bear a strange resemblance .... that's because it is always the same picture....( below 2 pictures from 2 different blogging sites.... please spot the difference)

.... So i started to wonder.... could it be real? could you really make a "fetching" bowl out of only glue and some buttons?
The first blog i read had 35 comments, 29 of which were from people that were declaring the experiment a fail....
Still I refused to give up, how could Pinterest lie to me? I continued to research and the more i looked the more i found proof that it WAS possible, a bowl could be made out of simply:

a balloon
glue
buttons

So my quest began...
following the instructions i just needed to look through the house for all of those buttons i was saving for an occasion just like this one, some Mod Podge (WTF is that????), and a balloon....
...Thank you Amazon for the glue, the buttons and the balloon... where would Pinterest Mum be without you???
Once everything arrived i was ready for action:

Balloon blown, put it in one of Amy's mini baskets, sponge brush and glue at the ready i began to paint it on the balloon....
up to this point all straightforward... and it looks like on the internet... well done Pinterest Mum...
Wait for 45 minutes and wait for first coat of glue to dry...
Return to the project and add more glue....
now here is the first split on the internet, some say add a LOT of glue, some say not a lot of glue,
Some say add the buttons fast, add the button slowly, add big buttons, add small buttons
...
After having tried this is what works for me, slather a fair amount of glue, not too much not too little, wait 15/ 20 minutes for the glue to become a bit thicker and tackier and then start applying your buttons;
Focus on one area of the balloon at a time; I started with the top and work my way around side by side (i know a balloon has no sides but you know what i mean, rotate it and do one bit at a time).
A small suggestion is to hold your balloon with one hand while you are either painting the glue on or adding the buttons.... should you not hold it prepare to learn new and inventive swear words to accompany the fall on the floor of your balloon and consequent dislodgement of all of the buttons you painstakingly attached during the previous 20/30 minutes....
Once you have done attaching all of the buttons ( i had bought 200 but i reckon it would have been better had i had 300/350 of them) put the bucket somewhere where it can dry and forget about it for one hour or two ... Once the first coat is time to add more glue to give strength and substance to the project .... i followed the internet advice and added A LOT of Mod Podge ... it took 30 hours for it to dry ( and not completely)
in hindsight it would have been better to add less glue and do 5/6 coats of it...

After 30 hours the glue was dried, and i have to say i was a bit apprehensive about popping the balloon.... the moment of truth had come
But i took courage and went for it, i decided to make a small cut at the top of the balloon instead of popping it and this is what happened
( imagine the sound of escaping air accompanied by the voice of my husband rooting for the bowl to collapse on itself)

It starts small... The hiss is barely audible ... and then it gathers momentum, your heart in your throat you follow the balloon with your eyes.... It shrivel, the glue is still pliable... The bowl follows the balloon, no no no this cannot be ... (slightly amused smirk is audible from the husband ) ... And then a small POP, the glue frees itself from the balloon and you are left with a perfectly shaped bowl!!

Yes you need to trim the extra glue, yes it would have been better to wait a couple of days for the Mod Podge to really dry and harden up, BUT
IT WORKS
My faith in Pinterest is restored
The Internet is full of truth
Today saw the birth of a new ME, the crafty me.
LONG LIVE PINTEREST MUM
.... New project making a lamp shade out of string ....

Friends without children

2015-07-18T13:08:00.004+01:00

It all starts that day you look to the stick you just peed on and it says... pregnant 2-3 weeks....
then you know your life will change... forever...
what you might not know is that it will change in ways you did not even consider... ( ahem like you never heard this one before)
yes yes there is going to be diapers,
there is going to be poop talk,
there is going to be emotional upheaval,
you are going to turn into your parents slowly,
you are going to gain weight,
what you might not have ever imagined is that , if you live in a city, a strange phenomenon will take place....

I call it

DESERTIFICATION OF THE FRIENDS' ZONE

what I mean is that with that positive pregnancy test here should be a warning
"YOU WILL LOSE 90% OF WHO YOU THEN CALLED YOUR FRIENDS"

"No,I hear you say, I have had a baby and I still have all of my friends next to me" Really??? Really???

Think about it and count how many of the people you used to see on a very regular basis you are still seeing now; if you have everyone still next to you count yourself lucky and smart as you chose the right people to be friends with to begin with; what happened to me however was very different.

It all started that day that me and Richard were at the hospital for our first screening, up to that we had told only 2 people about the pregnancy (and they were super happy, but hey they were pregnant and lived abroad... so nothing could be lost there) but after the scan when we got confirmed everything was ok we thought it was time to tell people.. and so it began

"hey I have to tell you some news"
"what, tell me"
"... We are expecting a baby ..." (follows an uncomfortable pause)
" Does this mean you won't be coming to my wedding???? OMG the wedding will be a disaster all of these people that can't make it"
follows more uncomfortable silence

"hey I have to tell you some news"
"what, tell me"
"... We are expecting a baby ..."
" Oh that's fantastic, amazing, I will be there for you guys all the time, I will be like the fun aunt/uncle".
...
Be prepared for the big vanishing act, these are the people that are never to be found when you actually need them but always there when you don't to swear by their reliability.

You go through 9 months of pregnancy and everything seems fine... you don't see people too often, but hey you expected this after all you can't drink, you can't eat the same things (sushi anyone?) and let's face it you are a bit of a beached whale;
all this time holding on for when the baby comes and some normality will be acquired and slowly but surely everything will settle back into normality

....

WRONG

...

People will come see you and wonder at the baby ... some will coo and some will be terrified of even seeing the inside of a nappy, some will plainly be not interested, but seriously consider that as a goodbye as after that "POOF" they will mostly be gone

It is not through fault of their own, mostly it will be yours.

Unless your friends get pregnant quickly the divide between you and them will grow quickly.

They will still carry on with their carefree life clubbing, restauranting, drinking, theatreing and in general staying out of the house as much as possible.

On the other side there is you, your husband and your baby and for a very long time you will have a very varied list of conversational topics:

Poop
Nappies ( reusable? nappy genie? characters on them?)
Sleeping ( and lack of it)
Poop
Poop
vaccination ( and OMFG you will lose friends, acquaintances and you will rage war on this subject)
Poop
and then some more poop (yes it will happen, we all said no i will never be that parent and suddenly you find yourself at the dinner table discussing consistency and colour of the above mentioned like if it were the most natural thing in the world)

You will be running home as fast as you can because you will want to spend time with your baby.
You will resent your "friends" as they still get to live the life you used to.
You suddenly will think that spending 8 hours on a Sunday in a dingy smelly pub drinking yourself silly is NOT quality time.
You will want to go out but then change your mind at the last minute as baby seems a bit down.

And you will feel all of this at the same time, a lot of the times.

And your friend slowly but surely will be pushed aside by your parenthood... they won't like you and you won't like them
you will pretend to like each other still for a bit but by the time your baby is 3 you will have lost almost anyone ...except 2 or 3 of your old friends... the best ones?
not sure;
I probably would say the one that were interested in you more than in the activities you used to do together; or the ones that actually cared enough to stick with you while you were "that parent"

unfair? Maybe

But don't worry good chances are that you have been "that friend" before and that you will be again, you will abandon several friends through your life
It's all part of growing up
the important is to remember that it's not them it's you
don't blame them, don't resent them, just move on

Peace Out

London Fashion Week

2015-02-21T17:21:00.001+00:00

As it is fashion week Amy wanted to participate and show us all the new trends in fashion for 2015 in the Canziani- Chiesa household:

and this is how you wear it:

Una sorpresa, un gioco e del cioccolato ( a surprise, a game and some chocolate)

2015-02-17T21:24:00.003+00:00

"Vorrei... vorrei

Una sorpresa, un gioco e del cioccolato"
( i have tried to find the video on youtube, but it is almost impossible :( )

this is a sentence that meant a lot to me for many years;
it was part of the Italian spot for Kinder eggs .... we all loved kinder eggs,kinder chocolate bars ( con piu' latte e meno cacao); they were a staple of every body's merenda.... they are pure genius, you open, you eat and you get a game, plus in those ingenuity filled years we got the game container which could be used to shoot stuff around the playground....

Sadly Mr Ferrero died this weekend leaving all of us childern of the 80s ( and not only) with a bit of a knot in the stomach.....

without him no ferrero rocher, no nutella and no kinder eggs, in other words a very sad childhood....
( it was a very sad childhood in the USA where kinder eggs were banned as the toys inside were a choking hazard... but that's ok they could go to the local walmart to get stuff that shoots other stuff around ... )

So although today is Shrove Tuesday, pancake day, martedi grasso today in the canziani-chiesa household we celebrated Mr Ferrero...
With Amy's first Kinder egg....

Amy demonstrated why this man was a genius...

so thank you Sig. Ferrero...

we will make sure that another generation shall carry your flag...
and while we are at it we shall celebrate Pancake day with some light and totally fat free (:P) Nutella pancakes...

Ingredients

250 gr, flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp Nutella
1 large egg
340 ml buttermilk ( if you do not have it, use the usual trick add some lemon juice to the milk, wait 5 minutes and there you have buttermilk substitute)

How to make it

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar. In another bowl, whisk together Nutella and the egg. When smooth, beat in buttermilk. Combine the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just mixed.
Heat a non stick frying pan over high heat until a drop of water on the surface skips around. Grease it with butter ( the more you use the tastier they will be... stuff the diet, we have lent for that) and drop batter into 3-inch rounds. To check that they are ready check for bubbles on the surface and check that the edges are dry. Turn over and cook for another minute or two in the other side.
Serve immediately, with more Nutella.

Eat warm with gusto, no regrets and a sprinkle of icing sugar for good measure.

shifting paradigm: "sensory activity and educaltional play"

2015-02-15T13:32:00.004+00:00

There is a moment in every mum's life when you realise that being Nigella is not nearly enough, so off you go on the quest on how to be the perfect mum, the one that on 5 hours sleep still has the energy to do fun activities with her kids and whose family looks like the "Mulino Bianco" one...

This week was my turn to be "that" mother, the one with the twigs in her hair trying to get everything to fit in like in a Tetris game, the one that juggles the washing machine that beeps, the cat that demand food, the husband that nurses an hungover in bed (when it is 11 am on Sunday and you have been up since 6am) and due to the beautiful English weather ( could it just snow for once instead of boring rain???) a very bored toddler.

Not considering the idea of Amy running back and forth in the sitting room shouting "PASTA PESTO AaaaAHHHHHHH" the most fun and skills developing activity to do with her i got to my favourite pastime .... the internet .... and this is where I discovered this wonderful amazing website: "Fun at home with kids"

It is wonderful and although it is so Mulino Bianco it does almost hurt, it is full of wonderful activities and really cool things you can do with Amy.

And it is so cool that it has gone totally viral ( you know that when several of your "normal mums" friends on fb post picture of the same amazing activity at the same time) ... so here is OUR attempt at the amazing RAINBOW FOAM experiment:

In order for the experiment to be successful you will need the following:

water
liquid dish soap
food colouring
food mixer
big container ( like a baby bath, you know the one you keep in the attic as a memory? yeas, that one!!!)

The procedure is quite complicated so please read carefully ....
Put water in bowl, add soap and food colouring, insert food mixer in the bowl, turn on to warp speed and wait ( yes yes i have a celebrity chef mixer, please mock away)

Repeat the procedure several times according to how many colours and how much foam you want to "make".... add delicately into the container ( baby bath between me and you) and this is what happens:

( green did not come up too nicely as i was stingy with the food colouring...)
Proceed to march your toddler to the bathroom ( unless it is summer than stick her outside and lock the door so to squeeze in a up of tea or a chilled Pimms)....

and wonder of wonder observe:

She truly loved it even if i must say at the beginning she looked puzzled for a bit and even asked what was she supposed to do with it.... but 3 minutes in and we were away with foam gloves, foam noses, foam dresses....

So thank you Ms Asia Citro for having opened a door to many more crazy rainy Sunday morning .... after all we can all be the "Mulino Bianco" perfect family

....
and if you want to see how it is really done do yourself a favour and check this out
"Rainbow Soap Foam"

Sunday Breakfast

2015-02-08T09:48:00.001+00:00

... best thing about Sundays is that we can all have breakfast together, I always liked preparing big, lazy, prolonged brunches and now I have a little helper it even more enjoyable than before...

Today we had the usual eggs,bacon, tomato English breakfast, pancakes, coddled eggs with salmon and Parma ham and asparagus and a lovely cup of tea with pain a chocolat...

when making Pain au chocolat you have 2 option, the first is restricted to pure and real domestic goddesses ( ie people with a cook, a cleaner, a nanny, and an unhealthy obsession with some cat charity)

Pain Au Chocolat (Prep Time: 180 minutes)

Ingredients

4 teaspoons instant dried yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
3 1/2 cups bread flour
1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup butter, softened
9 ounces bittersweet chocolate coarsely chopped
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water for 5 minutes. Add the bread flour, milk, sugar, melted butter, and salt to the dissolved yeast and water and mix the dough on medium speed for about 2 minutes. If the dough is too sticky, add 1 tablespoon of extra flour at a time, until the dough is just firm enough to fold a shape.
Shape the dough into a ball and loosely cover it with plastic wrap. Allow it to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes. Roll the dough into a 10-inch by 15-inch rectangle, and then cover it loosely and allow it to rise for 40 minutes.
Brush the rectangle with the softened butter and then fold the dough into thirds, like a letter. Roll the long, thin rectangle back into the original 10-inch by 15 shape. Fold the dough into thirds, again, and then cover the dough with plastic wrap and allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Repeat this process one more time.
Using a sharp knife, cut the dough crosswise into 12 rectangles. Arrange 2 teaspoons of chopped chocolate across one of the short ends of the rectangle and fold that third of the dough over the chocolate, toward the center. Repeat the process on the opposite side of the dough, folding it over and tucking the end under to create a cylindrical shape. Arrange each finished brioche on a lightly greased baking sheet with at least 1 1/2 inches between each pastry. Cover them loosely with plastic wrap and allow them to rise for 45 minutes to 1 hour, until they are nearly doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 200 grades centigrade.
Whisk the egg and 2 tablespoons milk together to make an egg wash. Brush the egg wash across the surface of each pastry.
Bake the pan au chocolate for 12 to 14 minutes, until they are puffed and golden brown.

if you do this you will be rewarded with something that looks like this:

Should you otherwise not have 3 hours to dedicate to baking while sipping tea from your favourite mug, but craving the sugary rush needed to survive yet another 5am start ( a perfectly acceptable time for your loved toddler to demand you watch Ponyo together) you could do this:

Open the fridge and see the light:

( i strongly suggest you have several of these stacked in your fridge, they are a life savior solution and they also come in croissant, cinnamon swirl variety and they work a treat) ( thank you jus-Rol )

and get your toddler to help, they love it, you have a perfect treat and your husband is none the wiser and still think you better then Nigella :P, and they do look like this:

Here is Amy showing you all how easy it is:

Sleeping Beauties

2014-07-12T08:28:00.001+01:00

... i sense a pattern developing here...
look what happened in 2012...

and then again in 2013

and again this morning....

we did not even change beddings :P

i am starting to think one day i will look back at these moments ad they will taste like home

Per i due anni di Amy

2014-07-12T07:56:00.000+01:00

... Shamlessy stolen

Bambina i miei sogni sono la follia, il coraggio, l'ambizione e l'irrequietezza. La fortuna degli amori e il delirio della solitudine. Il gusto per le comete, per l'acqua e per gli uomini. Desidero per te intelligenza e ingegno. Uno sguardo curioso, un naso dotato di memoria, una bocca che sorrida e maledica con precisione divina, gambe che non invecchino, un pianto in grado di restituirti la fierezza. Ti auguro di avere il senso del tempo che hanno le stelle, la tenacia delle formiche, il dubbio dei templi. Spero tu abbia fede negli auguri, nella voce dei morti, nella bocca degli avventurieri, nella pace degli uomini che dimenticano il proprio destino, nella forza dei tuoi ricordi e nel futuro come promessa che contiene tutto cio' che non ti e' ancora ccaduto.

Amy does a photo shoot

2014-07-09T18:08:00.002+01:00

and here is our lovely baby in her first photo shoot....
the nursery has these days every year.. I remember my pictures were never purchased as I was already photo hygienic instead of photogenic .....
but it seems Amy has taken from her dad and not from her mum
:)

Glastonbury Amy

2014-07-05T19:50:00.002+01:00

...There used to be a time when i declared:
"I will never allow Amy to dress as a princess.....EVER"
and then 6 days in Glasto happened....
and this is what i did to my little babina....

... she seems well happy though....

One year of Amy

2013-06-02T15:18:00.002+01:00

Dear Amy,

... strangely, slowly, securely and super fast one year has passed...

one year from that Saturday morning...
It felt strange when i woke up, i had slept in your room as i did not feel too well in the evening... there was a bit of tugging... and then searing pain for 12 hours...

then the drugs.... the squalid hospital rooms, then the doctors, the anaesthetist (amazing person).... then the fear, the loneliness the feeling of someone rummaging through my tummy.... and then you were on my shoulder, looking at me, not sure were you were or if you were at all...
.... Amazing Amy resting on my shoulder....
I almost don't remember what you looked like;
I remember crying... i remember thinking over and over "you are here, you are ok, you are not dead.... you are Amy" and i remember i kept on counting your fingers.... there were 10 of them....
I remember Richard.... he put you in the mini pyjama that was still far to big for you; you looked like this:

we made the calls, parents cried, relatives cheered...and you still were in my arms.... i kept on checking if you were breathing... you looked so awake, i felt so strange ....
Then the strange hospital days, the crazy midwives from Eastern Europe that moved you around like if you were made of rubber when it was so clear to me you were made of the finest porcelain and you could break every time we touched you.... your dad on an extremely uncomfortable chair... both of us looking at you... bemused, confused, confounded, amazed.... we had a baby... we had you...
We came home, it felt like you always had been with us...
The next 4 months were the months of fear, when i felt inadequate, lost, but mostly i was so scared of failing you .... would i break you? ruin you? give you some terrible disease??? How on earth could i be a good mother when i wasn't even able to produce milk for you??? They were the months of crying, for both of us, you very vocally, me not so much vocal, but emotionally wounded....
I was so sure i was screwing up, massively... nobody and nothing seemed to help ... I am not ashamed to say that at times i wondered if i had made the right choice, i questioned my ability to be a mum....
The months rolled by, we had an Olympic baby in July:

We had a baby Johnson's Model in August:

A flying baby in September:

And we went to visit Gran parents in October...

So November came, and my goodness how you had changed from a bundle of porcelain that could not even see to a crazy active little piglet, rolling around on the floor, laughing and desperately trying to find your own way...
But still it was very hard to understand who i had become, who you made me; the fear was still ripe and i have to say i relished the time i would go back to work and leave you with your daddy for the day.....
I went back to work on the 19th of November, almost 8 months ago... the time flew by...
I started to miss you, every day a little more;
I started to look at the watch wondering how long before i could come home and see you
I started running through the crowds to get the earlier train to make sure i could grab you for those 60 minutes before your bed time.....
I started to enjoy every single second we had together, and how could i not? Finally you started to interact with the world around you, and every little thing, every little achievement made me sooooo happy...
The first day i came back on time from work to give you a bath and put you to bed you looked at me like no one else has ever looked at me, a look of so pure joy, just radiant, no second intentions, nothing expected.... pure unadulterated love ...
So may more pictures roll through my mind
(yes one day i will have to answer for all of the pictures i took of you in funny poses....

I could post a million more ( yes i have them all )
but they all scream the same THANK YOU AMY - you are the best "thing" I have ever done, you make me happy as nothing else can, the greatest adventure i ever started.....
I just hope i can be a good mum for you, the mum you deserve.
You are wonderful, you are my AA ... Amazing Amy
Here is to another year of madness, walkies, food thrown on the walls, babies rolling down the stairs.....

CIAO PATATA

LA TUA MAMMA

PLASMONN

2012-12-26T12:40:00.001+00:00

In a week of first, another small step for men and a giant step for Amy
This morning i was having tea with biscuits, and Amy was looking at me longing
so i thought mmm she is 6 months old, she has been very good with her food, she does try and eat anything that comes into her hands, my parents brought plasmonn biscuits from Italy
so
1+1+1 = 2

i gave Amy a biscuit (you can see she was not so convinced at the beginning...)

Her first biscuits and she did eat it, all on her own, with minimum spillage...

"What is is that you said i should be doing with this????"

Yum Yum Yum

so bring on the season of new wall decorations, made with food

Go Amy and welcome to the solid food world

an amazing new adventure begins...

My First Photographs

2012-12-26T12:23:00.001+00:00

This morning we woke up very early,
we still could not go to Amy's layer in the sitting room and Amy was being a bit bored so i decided to turn on the phone, put it on front camera and proceeded to give Amy the phone ....
These were the results
:)

"Amy here is the phone, you need to tap on the screen "... click

" me likes this"

and she kept on banging on the phone, so more pictures were taken...

So indeed Babies can operate mobile phones, they indeed seem to be intuitive
so no more excuses for my parents, that cannot take pictures on the mobile.....
and no more excuses for my husband that does not take pictures....

Amy's first read

2012-12-01T20:56:00.002+00:00

... here are some shots from our Italian trip...

on this day Amy reads for the first time....

( ... she choose a discount leaflet form a well know Italian supermarket ...)

"well mummy let's see what can i do today.."

" mmmmm maybe o could read, Grandfather move me in position please..."

" this seems interesting, let's see if i can turn the page.."

...swwish ... swish...

" this is interesting... maybe it also tastes good .. nomnom..."

" No??? Me can no eat this??? "

" Seriously??? "

"THEN FEED MEEEE"

An Halloween post

2012-11-11T11:22:00.002+00:00

... In Italy we do not have Halloween, on those days in October/November we remember our departed relatives and friends with endless visits to cemeteries and flowers
(chrysanthemums to be precise... a flower you learn from a very young age to identify with death and gives way fro plenty misunderstanding when you go abroad)
I only remember the utter boredom of it all plus the "caldarroste" i was allowed to have as a treat if i behaved.
So i was excited for Amy to have her first trick or treat night in London ... last year we finished 4kg of candy in 30 minutes... so many neighbour's children and parents showed up, it is a great way to get to know people that live close by and have children..
I even bought her an outfit....
But then life is strange and we found ourselves in Italy for Halloween...
was I supposed to give up and not have a celebration?????
Of course not!!!!
we did try and ruin 2 pumpkins by carving them (too ashamed to post pictures)
and in the end we did settle for costume and (me) eating a lot of candy
here are the results:

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Trick or Treat???

Trick

Maybe i have changed my mind and choose

TREAT

you gotta roll with it

2012-11-10T09:33:00.002+00:00

We were on holiday at my parents' house and we did make a makeshift play mat for Amy ,
on this particular day she was happily playing
...

but she started to think maybe it was time for something different... mumble mumble

She asked the fish what she should do:

She then looked at Mummy for some direction:

And Mummy said Roll Amy roll

I can do it... going, going,

!!!!GONE!!!!

So here it is, proof that Amy can roll from front to back.... bring on more rolling!!!!!!

The Passport AKA "il lasciapassare A38"

2012-10-23T10:40:00.002+01:00

When i was a child getting a passport was like a dream,a momentous event that will enable me to leave the horrible little town i was born into and open the doors to amazing locations and exotic destinations (to be fair up to 15 the most exotic place i visited was Switzerland !?! )
The path that led me to my first passport was long at first i did not have a passport, i was "part" of my parents passport, when i got to 11 i got a strange green wallet, at 13 I graduated to an ID card and finally with the move to the UK i got my Passport.

So when the time came for Amy to get her passport (after all she has got dual nationality) i was duly excited; she will have not 1 passport but 2!!!!
yuppieee
Just after we registered Amy at Lambeth council we started thinking about passports and we started gathering information on how to get them...
In a matter of hours we realised that getting a British passport was pretty straight forward:
-get birth certificate
-get wedding certificate (translated by any registered translation agency in the UK)
-get form from the post office
-pay fee
-get passport
all pretty straight forward....
we then called the Italian Consulate to get instructions on how to obtain the Italian passport; it became immediately clear that it would not be so simple ... after 5 minutes on the phone with the very helpful assistant i was reminded of Asterix and his 12 tasks:

A few weeks down the line we are still lost in the burocratic iter that will one day lead to the "lasciapassare A38" but just a few days ago we got a letter in the post

Amy was all excited:

and indeed in a matter of 5 days we got Amy's british passport:

So we are all ready to go... Italy here we come, tomorrow it is going to be Amy's first flight

Amy wants to be a Trekkie

2012-10-21T11:14:00.004+01:00

.. A musky Saturday morning, a strange music flows through the sitting room....
Science officer Amelia Chiesa is getting ready for her first adventure and she is ready to boldly go where she has never been...

Here she is trying her first proper commute

.... we would have had a lot of picture if my husband had actually worked out the beam me up app, but he could not work it out .... I did however find a way to put him on the cover of SF magazine:

on the way back plenty of photo opportunities courtesy of the Emirates cable car:

The joys of breastfeeding

2012-10-19T12:55:00.001+01:00

Disclaimer

nipple and breast images will flash in your mind

and not of the good kind

... It was day 2, i had just woken up...
well woken up is not the correct word, regain consciousness is possibly more appropriate; just by looking around i could sense i was not in my bedroom and the bed had an awkward feeling to it... where the pupu was I??? Ahhh yes, we had a baby, a quick survey of the space around me revealed a crumpled up Richard on an impossibly uncomfortable chair and a strange creature in a transparent plastic box ... our baby ... she seemed as freaked out and lost as i was, but clearly she was looking at me
(clearly??? will discover a few days after that poor Amy at that point could not see past 10 cm)
It would soon be time to feed her;
I was prepared, I had studied, I had attended the (useless) workshop ..
It was time for breast feeding.
I was ready, I was kind of curious and a bit excited.
It could not be difficult, it would be perfectly natural (or so i had been told)
After all it was something women had done for millenia, it was the best for babies.
For if not for breastfeeding why on hearth would have nature had given us breast?What could they be for if not to provide our offspring with all the nutrients and protection they would ever need in the first few months of their lives?
...
So i call Richard ( in those days he actually was able to wake up in a millisecond, he was so tense and scared and excited) and he picks up this tiny little things, i get ready (wiggle my bum and expose a breast), Amy looks at me with what i can only describe as hunger, hope and anticipation ...
I cradle her in my arms, prop her, as instructed in the workshop, into the "Rugby ball" position, nipple to nose, she opens wide, i see an opportunity and POP nipple in mouth ...
it's on, (i think) there we go - our fist proper feed -
...
WTF
...
WTF IS THIS HORRIBLE SEARING PAIN?????
...
amy starts crying like a fox in heat
...
WTF
...
So went our first attempt at breastfeeding, during that second day we tried several times with the results of cracked and bleeding nipples ...
feeding Amy?

We had to thank our friend Aptamil, and their starter pack. But I was not one to give up so easily. We would not give formula to our baby, I was adamant, so adamant i did not even buy any bottle (biberon). We enlisted the help of every midwife on the ward. We saw a few... the young English one, "no it's ok, just keep trying sooner or later she will feed and a little blood will not hurt her"; the Ghanaian one "get on with it woman, stop winging"; the Italian one "shit, it's a miracle you are still even

trying considering how cracked are your nipples" and my "favourite" the tractor wielding, potato like, direct and straight Teutonic one... she took one of my breast in one hand, Amy's head in the other and she proceeded to manoeuvre one towards the other in the same way you would try to engage the reverse gear in a Golf Mk2 circa 1988 ...

It all ended in tears;
and after a couple of weeks of a crying Amy, bleeding nipples, tears and frustration on my side, feeling a failure as a woman and as a mother
(oh yes it does start early as a dear friend of mine told me)
a quick trip on amazon website brought us home several bottles and a pack of Aptamil,
The months flew by and several types of formula got tried and discarded; aptamil gave way to Cow and Gate who gave way to HIPP (the one we are currently using);
We also had several incarantion of the bottle (or Biberon in italian) first the Avent series (Amy would only eat 20 ml form the small bottle)

And then when she had horrible colics and farting issues
(more to come on that later for your viewing pleasures)
we found MAM and she loved them, colourful, cute and most important she loved the tit on them

So almost 4 months to the date form that fateful second day we are now on 160ml at every feed 5 times a day (she is a bidoncino, what can we do?) and look what happened yesterday:

" Mummy i think i can do it on my own, just leave me to it ...."
"OOppss it's in my eye..... (coy face) help me mummy"

Amy's first manipedi

2012-10-17T14:29:00.004+01:00

....
like all good behaved ladies Amy needs to learn the importance of taking good care of her hands and feet
so it is just natural that the time has come for her first manicure and pedicure...

Amy:
"come dici mamma???? WTF are you saying MUM????
Manicure???
Pedicure????
But i am not even sure i have hands and feet at the moment!!!"
Me:
" Really??? We shall remedy then"
... a quick search on the internet and a remedy was found:

The real manipedi for babies...
2 socks and 2 bracelets with added "noise making" insects
They are supposed to make it interesting for babies to look at their bits, so that they will understand quicker that they can move them as they please...
...on the flip side Amy might think her hands and feet are insects...
but we shall deal with this later, let's see if they work...
Amy gets kitted in the new "toys" and her look screams (again) child abuse, but she soon gets the hang of things and she does not seem to mind (or notice mind you) the insects on her feet:

We also tried to use them on the floor, in the hope she would notice the insects more, here are the results:

Yes we did have a lot of fun, but are we really any close to know that we can move the insects as we want???
Not really sure, it does not seem to have made any major difference to the way Amy looks at her extremities, but i love those little silly coloured things.
So the score on Amy's first manipedi is :
fun 10
Learning ?

Disclaimer

I never had any intention of giving Amy a manipedi with nail polish etc

i was just being silly

The princess and the pea

2012-10-02T20:24:00.002+01:00

I have been a very good girl today and cried only for a whole hour

As a prize Antonella took all of this pictures of me

MMMM i am finger licking cute

D.I.Y. Amy

2012-10-01T20:10:00.005+01:00

... Another day, another adventure ...

finally after months and months of waiting we did put together Amy's bed

(Thank you Mr Mamoon)

and Amy did help with this...

Here is daddy beginning to put the stuff together, very alfa male

I promise it will be done

MMMM daddy i think you need some help with this

Here let me help you with the screwdriver....

Can we fix it? Yes we can (Amy the builder)

Are we sure we did it right daddy???

nooooooooooooooooooo

it is not right, noooooooooooooo

But in the end it was done, and then Amy had a new bed...