Cuginetti (2)

One of the most pleasent experiences of this vacation has been to observe the interactions between Leo and his cousins, Davide and Andrea.

Leo, a rather extrovert personality, fell completely mesmerized in the presence of them - something between admiration and reverence. And Davide and Andrea as well, often compared to the Huns when they move together, were on the contrary attentive, caring, and protective towards Leo.

And I try to imagine them in a few years - Davide and Andrea wearing Adidas clothes and with their Milanese accent, and behind Leo, Petit Bateau and a funny Roman accent with a French ‘r’, searching for adventures in the woods…

Pic-nic al lago with friends

It’s interesting to notice how the process of identifying new friends and establishing new friendships has changed since Leo has arrived.

Before what we were looking for in a new friend or group of friends was the sharing of an interest or of a hobby. The general feeling of mutual understanding or the curiosity for something different they would bring.

These all remain important elements. But now a critical pre-condition for exploring the possibility of a new friendship has become the presence of a baby of, more or less, the age of Leo.

This pre-condition fulfilled, we agreed to go on Sunday on a day-excursion to a nearby lake with two recently met couples: Andrea and Sibyl, a Florentine-American couple, parents of Pietro (11 months), and Kevin and Melissa, from San-Francisco-California, parents of Nico (18 months).

And, at the end of the day, we were pleased to observe that Andrea and Sibyl, Kevin and Melissa, not only had a kid, but were actually sharing a lot with us.

A friendship to be continued…

(Photo credit: Melissa)

Leo and his new friends

From DC, Parma, and - recently - from Tunis, we are getting news that Leo just had (or will soon have) new friends.

Congratulations to Renato & Carito, Agnes & Xavier, Annesophie & Mathieu*, and looking forward to meeting Leo’s new friends soon!

(*) Sorry, we don't have a post with Annesophie and Mathieu yet...

At the park with Valentine and Annick

I Promessi Sposi ? (The Betrothed ?)

Duccio, Riccardo, Andrea, Lorenzo, Lucien, Guilleume, Arthur, Tiago…

It seems almost an epidemic, but most of our friends had a baby-boy in the past year.

Probably good to set a football team, but for us, foreseeing parents, quite a problem: will Leo ever manage to find a wife? With such a shortage of baby-girls, and such a plentitude of baby-boys, the competition will be fierce in 20-25 years, we thought.

So, better to plan ahead.

We have never been particularly in favour of arranged marriages, but we never thought we would have found ourselves in our present situation. And so we started our quest…

The first baby-girl we considered was Aude, who you have already met some posts ago when Laura came to wean us as far as babies are concerned. 

Arranged marriage or not, we consider ourselves a rather open-minded couple, and we thus decided to have the betrothed meeting before taking any decision. The meeting went pretty well: they played together, it seemed they liked each other… in sum, all seemed to go pretty smoothly. But when the time of the bath came, the problems started. With hindsight we have to admit we have perhaps rushed a bit too much. Anyway, we decided to have Leo and Aude having the bath together. 

We should have never done that: Leo, usually a rather peaceful character, literally got crazy. He started screaming, spraying Aude with water… he did not want to share the bathtub with anyone.

Embarrassed, we bowed down in profuse excuses. But it was too late: the damage had already been done. Laura and Benoit, the parents, immediately accepted our excuses. But Aude’ feelings had been hurt forever, and we doubt she will ever want to see Leo again.

And now, will we ever find a spouse to Leo? The prospect of having Leo at home living on our shoulders forever is suddenly becoming more and more real…

Parabéns, Tiago

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

Parabéns, Tiago, parabéns a você!

When you start getting older

When, at your birthday party, you realize there are more children than adults among your guests. And when your child receives more presents than you!

Twins

Leo and Riccardo. Both born on August 2. Twins de facto. And hopefully future good friends…

Leo and Lauretta

On Youtube as well…

Leo and Jack

Rejoicing over an Inter Milan’s victory?

Not lately…

Leo and his friends (2)

Le mamme…

… e i papà!

Leo and his friends

Do you remember when we announced that Leo (at the time still ‘Baby’) was not yet born, and he already had plenty of friends? (click here if you don’t remember…)

Well, today we finally managed to have Leo, Duccio, and Riccardo meeting.

Let’s hope that this will be ‘the beginning of a beautiful friendship’…

(Ps: we take this opportunity to also announce the birth of Federico, today in Milan. Welcome Federico, and best wishes to Maura and Stefano!)

Leo and his friends