Sunday, March 31, 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Nesting - continues...

Apparently, the ‘nesting phase’ I described a few posts ago does not last during pregnancy only, but continues after delivery as well.
Since she came back from the clinic, Mathilde has put in order all her jewels, filed all her documents, cleaned up the medicine cabinet, and assembled Leo and Tommy’s bedroom.
Luckily she could count on Leo’ support…

Friday, March 29, 2013

Leo’s favourites

To avoid the Blog is monopolized by Tommy and re-establish a bit of par condicio among the two brothers, here it is a post on Leo - Leo’s favourites:
-          Favourite videos: ‘Pupo’ (i.e. Lupo) and ‘Bo-bo-bo
-          Favourite cd: ‘Pupo’ (i.e. Peter and the Wolf, by Prokofiev)
-          Favourite song: ‘Ia-oh’ (i.e. Nella vecchia fattoria, Old Mc Donald has a farm)
-          Favourite nursery rhymes: ‘Aram-sam-sam’ and ‘Ainsi font les petites marionnettes’
-          Favourite tale: ‘Cappuccetto Rosso’ (i.e. Little Red Riding Hood), or, better, the scene when Little Red Riding Hood says good-bye to his mum, and the scene when the Wolf knocks at the Granma’s door
-          Favourite book: ‘Qui mange qui
-          Favourite dish: ‘nonna’s gnocchi al ragù’
-          Favourite animal: ‘bau-bau’ (i.e.dog)
-          Favourite toy: ‘Mao’ (his teddy bear)

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Post for Giusy

If there is one person that we will associate forever to Leo and Tommy’s births, and that we will never stop thanking enough, this is Giusy.
Need only to say that Mathilde tolerated the idea of not having me at the delivery, and allowed me traveling to Vietnam a few days before the due date, but she would have not conceived the possibility of delivering without Giusy!
Thank-you Giusy, we hope we will manage to keep in contact, and - who knows - see you again in a couple of years…

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Uncle Giglio and Auntie Giusy - 19 months later

We said it, and we restate it: this delivery has been almost a get-together with old friends.
And as 19 months ago, we would like to send special thanks to Dr. Giglio and Giusy (and Dr. Mastrojanni - although we don’t have a picture with her).
Thank-you with all our hearts, à la prochaine fois…

Sunday, March 24, 2013

Brotherliness

We can’t deny there was some apprehension, in the back of our minds, on how Leo would have dealt with the arrival of his brother. And although in the past months we tried to prepare him to this event, you never know how well you can prepare such events until you face them…
However, the first meeting between the two newly brothers went beyond our best hopes: when we introduced Tommy to Leo asking ‘do you know who he is?’, he answered, smiling: ‘Bebé?’, and kissed him on the forehead.
We don’t flatter ourselves, and we know that years and years of quarrels and disputes between the two brothers are awaiting us - but, to use an erudite quote, we hope this will be the beginning of a beautiful ‘brotherliness’…

(I was once told: the best present you can receive is a brother or a sister. We hope we have made Leo and Tommy the best present a parent could give them…)

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Our little family grows (2)

… and of course we could not not include Claudia, our honorary family member, in our new family picture…

Our little family grows

If two is better than one, and three is the perfect number, four is yet to be discovered. But already feeling a sense of completeness…

Fatherhood (2)

After almost two years, I had forgotten how tough fatherhood was.
But as I always said: it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it…

Friday, March 22, 2013

Introducing Tommaso

As per Leo, here the first official post on Tommy (or Petit-Tom - pronunciation: ‘petit homme’ - as Mathilde nicknamed him) is.
For the biometrics geeks, Tommy was born 2.9 kg (6.4 lbs) and 50 cm (19.7 inches) tall.
Physically, differently from his brother, he has plenty of dark hair, but - as his brother - has no chin. Other characteristic features include a birthmark on his left eyelid.
As far as his personality is concerned, Tommy seems a big ‘sleepyhead’ (he slept almost 24 hours in a row after birth!), although the nurses told us to have no illusions: we will have our good white nights…
And now let’s start the game of the resemblances: in your opinion, who does Tommy resemble to?

Tommaso’s birth chronicles

Same clinic, same midwife, same gynaecologist (same uniform)… even the receptionist, the clerk at the administration, and the car-park attendant remembered us!

‘How do you do’, ‘How is Leonardo’, ‘Do you remember me’… in a way this delivery resembled more a college reunion than a delivery. But perhaps because of this homely and convivial atmosphere, or perhaps because the second time you can count on much more experience, everything went smoothly - even too fast to really interiorize what was happening.

To the extent that Mathilde concluded the delivery by saying: ‘well, it was not too difficult… perhaps we can consider a third one…’

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Tommy, day 1

More pictures and stories in the coming days...

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

E’ arrivato Tommaso (Tommy for his friends)

E’ arrivato Tommaso, con la primavera. E come la primavera, attesa ed allo stesso tempo inaspettata, irrompe nelle nostre case, cosi Tommaso irrompe nelle nostre vite, sorprendendoci e riempendole…
Pictures soon…

Stork on its way...

A visit from the stork is expected (very) soon.
Keep an eye on the Blog. We’ll send periodic updates…

Monday, March 18, 2013

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Maratona di Roma - from above

Twelve months ago I was finalizing the preparation for my first marathon. If not at the best of my shape, I was certainly in a good shape.
Twelve months after I found myself watching the Rome marathon from my terrace, wishing I could be there and meditating on the physical decline I suffered in the past year instead. And knowing that with two kids the chances that next year it will be better are very very limited…

Saturday, March 16, 2013

Which sport Leo will practice...

We said it and we will keep our word: Leo could choose any profession he may like when he will grow up. And, with a bit more reluctance, I accepted the fact that he could support any team he may wish.
But as far as the sport he will practice is concerned, it is decided: Leo will be a rugby player. The only thing he could choose is whether to play for the Italian or the French national team…

Six Nations in Rome

Nowadays watching rugby is trendy and chic. But it’s also fun!
On a sunny Saturday afternoon, in an Olympic stadium overflowing with people, in the middle of thousands of merry Irish, Piergiorgio and I witnessed the triumph of Italrugby over Ireland: first victory ever over Ireland in a Six Nations, second victory and fourth place in this year’ Six Nations (before France!).
And have to confirm it, watching rugby is an experience that brings you back to the essence of sport: Italian and Irish supporters sitting together, everybody silent and standing during the national anthems, lengthy applause for every worthy action - independently whether played by your team or by the opponents, and above all, joyful and peaceful celebrations after the match - in what is commonly known as Troisième mi-temps (Terzo tempo, Third half-time…)

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Postcard

Hanoi by night

Saluti & baci. Matteo

Photo pour Macha

Baghera

Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Monday, March 11, 2013

Explora

A friend of mine made me notice that in Rome it’s very rare to have two days of rain in a row. But in those rare cases in which it rains, you have an 18 month old boy running up and down in your apartment destroying all what he encounters, and you have exhausted all the games, tricks, pastimes you know, what do you do?
A few weeks ago we have discovered this place in Rome - it’s an enormous indoor playground for kids of different ages with plenty of ‘smart’ toys, workshops, and challenging cognitive development games.
Difficult to say who enjoyed more, whether Leo or his dad…

Sunday, March 10, 2013

East is always East

This time to Vietnam. See you on Thursday. Hoping Oscar does not play a nasty trick on me, and patiently waits his dad to be back before presenting himself to the world...

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Oscar???

Tommaso, Nicolò, Paolo, Lorenzo, Giacomo, Ludovico, Jacopo, Raffaello, Federico, Valentino, Alessio, Mattia, Edoardo, Emanuele, Giulio, Emilio, Elio, Thibault, Timeo, Thimothée, Arthur, Nathan, Lucas, Noah, Yanis, Esteban, Gabriel…
Ne rimarrà soltanto uno! (There can be only one!)

Monday, March 4, 2013

Il bello della Roma-Ostia (2)

La spiaggia dopo la gara... (on the beach after the race...)

Sunday, March 3, 2013

Il bello della Roma-Ostia (The nicest part of the Rome-Ostia)

Il pranzo dopo la gara… (the lunch after the race…)