Summing up Sunday: 2014 - Week 1

This week has been a whirlwind and has gone by in a quick blur.

New years was a last minute thing on our part because initially we were supposed to have a few friends here, but one thing led to another and no one could come! :-(  Instead we went to our friends' Linda and Claudio's house to celebrate with their friends and family as well as to meet their new baby son Giorgio. He is sooooo super cute!

I dedicated the first few days of the year to caching up on Sera's memory quilt and even started sewing some pieces together.  It's really much more satisfying than just cutting up all that baby clothes is.

I've also been on an organising/purging/cleaning kick and managed to tackle the compactum where we keep all our outerwear, our laundry 'room' (it's really a closet in the kitchen/den), my 'home office' (the closet upstairs) and Sera's toy kitchen.  Feels good to accomplish things.

YesterdayI made some doll clothes for Sera's Barbies (tutorial to come!) and then we went to Piacenza for lunch with Mauro and Carlotta.  Really a lot of good fun and good food!

A few photos from the week:

• sparkly glitter New-Year's nails
• first brekkie of the year: pomegranate, banana & clementines
• Sera learnt to draw 'Humpty Dumpties'
• lots of work on a memory quilt
• all dressed up for New-Year's party
• our newest friend Giorgio
• Sera slumber party
• playdate @ IKEA with Lele
• baby bloomers to Barbie clothes (tutorial post coming up this week!)

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ready, steady, potty!

yellow is a perfect colour scheme ;-)
Hannah @ Bonne Nouvelle

Last summer, sick of the cost and waste of diapers, I did an experiment to see if Sera was ready for potty training. She was only 18 months at the time and wasn't quite there yet so I put the project on the back burner for a while.

The project for this first week of August is to get the dreaded potty training out of the way.

I've been planning for this for ages and hoping to get the job done quick and easily without tears or tantrums.  I read up on different philosophies of potty training and decided that a reward-chart and potty party will probably be the best combination of strategies.

I've made a princess potty chart to motivate Sera with stickers and that seems to make her happy. I even drew a little picture of her being successful on the potty in the corner.  She's already used it on several occasions and is always very proud of herself when she gets a sticker. She even asks me if I would like a sticker when I'm on the 'potty'.

We've got a Fisher Price 'Little Mommy' potty-training doll that pees only on her own potty (cool use of magnets huh?!) some really great books (see bottom of post), frilly girly undies and even ipad apps.

Mindy Starr at Creative Juice threw
 this amazing party for boys and girls

The plan is to throw a potty-party for Sera after nap-time today where we train the doll together and then throw away the diapers 'for good' (I'm afraid to jump right into the night time and nap time sans-diapers).

Potty parties have become very trendy lately and you can get loads of inspiration on line if you're hoping to do something a bit over-the-top for the occasion... I don't know if it helps the training go any faster, but it is a fun excuse for a party if you have nothing else going on.


My version of a potty-party is going to be pretty simple in comparison to the above examples seeing we won't be having any guests (aside from dolls, bears and other favourite toys) but I do plan to inflate some balloons, have kiddy music, snacks and, importantly, drinks.  I think as a reward I'll be creative and propose pedicures, candy necklaces and other fun treats as well as the stickers.

Wish us luck! I'll post again about how it goes.








In the meantime here are some potty training books and toys we love:

off to Friuli - part 2

this is part 2 of our Friuliano wine trip... for part 1 click here
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Sera woke us on Friday morning and we all went downstairs for breakfast in our cottage's kitchen. Our friends soon joined us and we enjoyed bread, coffee, tea, fruit and cookies before heading out.

Our first stop was the cantina comunale in Cormons

Later on we went to the Cantina and had a break in their courtyard.

At Mulin Vecio in Gradisca d'Isonzo I had, sadly to say, the worst dining experience I've ever had while living in Italy.  We initially chose the restaurant because it was recommended by the Slow Food guide, which is normally spot on with reagrds to restaurants and good eating. In this case they couldn't have been more wrong, however and I'm planning to write them to warn them that their reputation is on the line if they keep promoting this establishment.  We had booked a table outside and so when we weren't greeted at the entrance, made our way to the courtyard, where the table was set up for our party. Everyone was hungry and eager to eat and the kids needed to be fed first. When we finally found someone who seemed to be popping in and out of the kitchen (not a waitress exactly) and asked her to heat the baby food, we didn't get a response, just the jar snatched from my friend's hands.

Now, we're lucky that in Italy little kids are accomodated for at all but after our experience with the crayons and the dominoes from the night before you can imagine our surprise at the contrast. Another friend at the table tried to explain the gesture saying that the Friuliani are just brusk like that, but as I suspected, there was more to the story.

The baby food arrived warmed to satisfaction 15 minutes later and we still hadn't seen any wait staff. It seemed as if no one worked there. When we finally did find the waiter and asked for the menu he said there was none (not uncommon for a small restaurant in italy) and began to list the dishes. Pasta and Fagioli, Baccalà con Polenta or Hot Dogs and Crauti.... and that's it. That's all they had!

Well, now having wasted 30 minutes of our lives and the baby eating we couldn't walk out and were stuck with the selection, none of which suitable for either Sera or I.  In the end we ordered 4 pasta fagioli, a salumi plate and a baccala.  After another 30 minutes only teo of the pasta fagioli turned up at the table and the salumi on a styrofoam platter. After having cancelled the others which never arrived we went inside to pay the bill only to discover that the whole debaucle cost 30 euros per person!!  It was infuriating. Not having a written menu meant they could charge whatever they wanted and we'd have to pay it.
Avoid this restaurant!

It was 26 degrees outside and sunny when wre got back to La Subida so Sera and I changed into bathing suits and head down to the pool to check things out.  The main part of the pool was sectioned off as closed but the shallow area was open so we dangled our feet in the very cold water for a while before Sera jumped in for a quick dip. I couldn't handle the temperature and decided that for me up to the knees was fine. Afterwards we played in their garden and playground and then went back tot he room to rest up for dinner.

This photo of gustobase is courtesy of TripAdvisor

We ended up wandering around the town of Cividale del Friuli in search for somewhere to eat. Settling upon Gustobase, an adorable tiny cafe located in Piazza Paolo Diacono, we grabbed a corner boot in the back and proceeded to order pretty much every starter and pasta dish on the menu (afteral, we didn't really have lunch).  The food and service was gorgeous from start to finish, the atmosphere delightful with retro digital clocks and wood panelling, as well as a healthy wine cellar.  This meal entirely made up for lunch!!


gustobase
Piazza Paolo Diacono, 24

33043 Cividale del Friuli, Italy
tel: 0039432731383

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To come in part 3: Trieste, a long walk, Pordenone

hoo knit an amigurumi owl?

Here is the amigurumi owl I knit for Sera. I followed a pattern I found in a book by Amy Gaines; Little Knitted Creatures. He only took about a week to put together and since he was done entirely with stocking stitch it wasn't even difficult! I had intended to make some more for friends but didn't get around to it in the end and got distracted with other projects (as usual).

The book is definitely suitable for beginner knitters and has many more adorable creatures. Knitting toys is so much more fun than knitting clothing if only because it takes a little while longer for kids to grow out of toys than clothes!

Hoo!

big girl bed

We're starting to think about transferring Sera to a big girl end and as I write this she is having her first nap in on the mattress I've set up on the floor for her. She didn't take any longer than normal to fall asleep but the real test will be when she wakes up.

The truth is its been almost a year now that she's been able to climb out of her crib by herself so really we should have done something a while ago, but instead I lowered her mattress in the crib all the way to the floor. This wouldn't have been possible with a regular crib but we were lucky that a neighbour had lent us her Stokke Sleepi oval shaped one and so all I had to do was remove all of the hardware... But it does mean our daughter effectively sleeps in a cage.

We haven't wanted to make the switch because its convenient to keep her in a crib. It means she has to call out for us at night instead of just walking through the door and hoping into our bed. I'm worried that when we take it from naps to full-nights I won't be able to convince her as easily that the mattress is the best place to sleep. In the crib she didn't really have a choice.

I opted for a mattress on the floor firstly to avoid waking up in the middle of the night to her thumping off the bed and second,y because we don't actually have the space requirement for the toddler or single bed until she's out of diapers. The space I need is still taken up with the changing table. Maybe I'll get a cute toddler bed this summer when we move onto panties!

But looking ahead and hoping that she won't always be on a mattress on the floor I love some of these ideas and styles:

how adorable is this?? http://www.klevering.com

another amazing loftbed for an odd-shaped room

free DIY plans for this loft bed at http://ana-white.com/

Baby Sign Language

Sera Signs 'Eat'

Being English mothertongue in Italy means having people comment on how lucky you are to be bilingual.  I am lucky, I learnt Italian pretty quickly from just spending time here and it's a lovely language. I can't imagine having not have learnt it.

I was a bit worried however in how to hangle Sera's bilingualism.  Obviously, being exposed to me on a daily basis meant that she would learn English first, but what would happen with Italian? Some specialists say that the household should be completely bilingual with each parent speaking their own language, but that wasn't going to work for us.  Fabri and I had always spoken English with one another because I met him back when my Italian was barely comprehensible, let alone fluent.  It wouldn't have been natural for him to speak English to me and Italian to her.  And we certainly couldn't start speaking exclusively Italian at hoe because I'm already difficult enough to understand in my own language!  So we opted for English-only at home and Italian when out with friends. Exactly as we did before baby.

I read a few articles on the subject and they all said that Sera would be a late talker. They said that because she would be confused about which language to use she wouldn't say anything at all until age three or later and that I should be too worried because it would probably be because she was bilingual. When we met with friends and the subject would come up they would ask how we were going to 'handle' it as if it was going to be some sort of a problem.... So I started to think it might be (there's my insecurity again!).

Anyhow, being proactive, I decided to look into baby-sign language for a bit of a language-skills booster shot and I'm so glad that I did! Not only is Sera currently making full sentences in both English and Italian, she knows the sign language versions of 20 or so songs!  She started communicating her needs and wants very early because thought eh language centres of her brain weren't yet developed to form words she could sign for what she wanted.

This is down to the fact that early on, at around 6 months we introduced the sign language and at 9 months when she first started signing she developed a passion for communicating. Sometimes bilingual babies arrive at frustration before they have enough tools to communicate and it stunts the development for another year or so, and then they prefer to listen and keep their little lips shut.

Here are some resources that I used and recommend:

Sing and Sign -We bought both DVDs and still sing the songs today
Baby Sign Language Site  - Really nice site to get you started off
Sign About Books - We have My First Signs and the Going Out books and they're wonderful! In fact, they're currently Sera's favorites because now she can read them to us by looking at the signs the kids in the drawings are making!

Baby and Toddler Swim Class

Every Friday afternoon I wake Sera early from her nap, force her to eat a banana and pack her into the car, rain or shine, to head off to her 'Cuccioli' swimming class. It's a pain, it's exhausting, it's in the middle of nowhere (well, not in the middle of nowhere, in Linate airport's sports centre CRAL), its at an inconvenient time of week and I always feel annoyed right before we go but we LOVE it. Or, to be precise, she loves it and I love that she loves it.

Now she's at that adorable phase where she can anticipate things when I tell her in advance about them, remember that I told her hours later and then tell her daddy about what happened when we were there. Swimming is a favourite topic of discussion.

We started the course just after her first round of vaccinations when she was a little over 4 months. Boy was she so sweet! It took me a lot longer to get used to getting in the water with her than it did for her and she was absolutely a natural. I had to get over my fear of accidentally drowning her by slipping or something. (I actually still have that fear even though she now runs around the pool by herself and happily swims underwater completely unaided by me) The staff at the pool we go to are fantastic and really help on a psychological level as well.

Sera seems to be a bit of a prodigy in the pool. She's the only one in her class who dives under the water to pick up the diving fish toys and she has no fear about jumping off the edge, or running, ful speed down a floating mattress.

Maybe I'll be able to live out my dreams of becoming a synchronised swmmer through Sera one day! Do you think it's too soon to think about it?

For more info about toddler swim classes in Milan visit the CRAL website:
http://www.crallinate.it/sport-e-tempo-libero/impianti-sportivi/piscina-e-solarium.html