Sunday, March 25, 2012

The things I learnt this week, mum…

… and that I’ll show you tomorrow when you are back:

- to be sitting without falling
- to say ma-ma-ma
- to say pa-pa-pa

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Parabéns, Tiago

Tiago, Leo’s best friend, is one year old today.

Parabéns, Tiago, parabéns a você!

Friday, March 23, 2012

È arrivata zzzia

A darci man forte per il week-end...

Monday, March 19, 2012

My first Father Day

Arrivano i nostri!

Mathilde had not yet taken off from Fiumicino Airport, that Nonna Rita had already arrived at Termini Railway Station - to rescue me…

And since you may become 'nonna', but you don't forget you are a 'mamma' as well - between changing a diaper, washing a bottom, and feeding a hungry stomach, she managed (in the spare time) to cook for me for the entire week, so that I can focus on Leo and don’t have to bother about myself in the next days.

Grandmas: what a great invention! But mums: if they didn’t exist they should invent them…

(But now that Nonna Rita has left, who will come to rescue me during the week???)

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Bye-bye mum...

... have a safe trip. See you in one week...

Friday, March 16, 2012

The Handover Note

‘The Handover Note’. It could be the title of a bestseller. Or that of a blockbuster. It is in fact the title of the document that Mathilde sent me yesterday, and that is now hanging on our fridge. The Handover Note: what you need to know to take care of our son for a week.

Mathilde is leaving tomorrow for the States for one week. Nine days/eight nights to be precise. Leaving me with the responsibility (burden?) of taking care of Leo. By myself! And with only one page (actually less: 364 words) of the things I need to know to carry out my duty.

“Is that all what I need to know? - was my first reaction when I read the document - I thought it would have been much more complicated…”

Have I been fooled, or in fact it is not that difficult?

The answer in a week (probably less…)

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Leo, one of us (2)

Apologizes for having overwhelmed you with Leo’s pictures in the past couple of weeks, but, beside ascertaining that the editorial line of our Blog has now irreversibly changed, have to say, as a partial justification, that (1) he is so funny in this period, that if we could we would record him 24/7, (2) he absorbs so much of our time, that in fact we don’t have much else to tell beside showing how he grows, and (3) he absorbs so much of our energies, that we often do not have the energy to write anything longer than two lines.

We will however soon start travelling again (Mathilde will be in the US next week and then in France the following one, we’ll go to Puglia over Easter, and then I leave to Afghanistan and then Pakistan), and so - hopefully - we’ll have again plenty of stories to tell and material to share…

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Leo, one of us

Who said that you actually need a name that starts with ‘M’ to be an M&M’s?

(Ps: Special thanks to Sarah)

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Turistas en Roma

The weather is getting better and better, spring is just round the corner, and l’Auberge ‘Les M&M’s’ - despite Leo took possession of the guests room, and after Anne’s visit in January - is receiving the first bookings for 2012.

This week-end we received the visit of Patty (an old acquaintance of our Blog) and Andres - who brightened up our week-end with their ‘Spanish’ cheerfulness. And between breakfasts, lunches, and dinners, we managed to visit a bit Rome as well…

Mum and Chiara are expected next week-end and the following one respectively. And then Lili, Macha, Muriel and Julian, Ingrid, maybe Bertrand and his family…

So, if you have not booked yet, hurry up, before it’s too late!

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Leo, what would you like to be when you grow up?

Il gommista (the tyreman, le réparateur de pneus...)

Monday, March 5, 2012

Happiness is...

Happiness is... sitting for the first time on your new high-chair...

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Leo’s new stroller

Do you remember Leo’s baby carriage?

Et voilà, now it has turned into a stroller!

Friday, March 2, 2012

Mr. Tall

Yesterday Leo went to the pediatrician for his monthly control. Apparently with his 70 cm height he is taller than the average at his age.

Se il buon giorno si vede dal mattino (if you can tell a good day from the morning), Leo will grow as tall as his dad…

Ps: today Leo is seven month old - happy monthyversary, Leo!

Thursday, March 1, 2012

Les M&M's al Concerto di Jovanotti



Jovanotti may perhaps not be as talented as Conte or De Gregori, his voice may not be as poweful as that of Battisti or Morandi, and his texts may perhaps not be as profound as those of De Andrè or Guccini - but his songs belong somehow to us.


I always recognized myself in the words of ‘Ragazzo fortunato’, and Mathilde has loved ‘Questo è l’ombelico del mondo’ from the first time she listened to it, in Ethiopia.

But all his songs in a way or another remind us a moment, a trip, a person. And so ‘Chissà se stai dormendo’ is part of the soundtrack of our (Silvia, Fabio, Eugenio and me) trip to Prague in the summer of 1993. We all have the refrains of ‘Io penso positivo’ and of ‘Piove’, or that of ‘Ciao mamma’ in our ears. And you cannot not have a throb when you listen to ‘Per te’.

And even the most recent songs - ‘Ora’, ‘Le tasche piene di sassi’, ‘La bella vita’, ‘The sound of sunshine’ - are part of us by now.

Thanks Mathilde for this nice present, thanks for this beautiful night. I do believe that lo spettacolo più grande dopo il big bang siamo noi