Good-bye Roberto, Dunja and Sara

For us, Roberto, Dunja and Sara , our downstairs neighbours, are home.

They welcomed us when we arrived here in Rome, almost two years ago. Dunja has been an important reference person for Mathilde during her pregnancy and Leo’s first months. And, above all, Sara has been Leo’s first kiss!

But as we have learnt and have already experienced, life is a revolving door: when someone is moving in, someone else is moving out. And tomorrow, Roberto, Dunja and Sara will leave - destination: Cincinnati.

We knew since we arrived that they were on their ‘way out’, but their transfer kept being postponed and postponed for so long that at the end we got used to the idea they could stay, if not forever, certainly longer.

So, when about one month ago they told us that their transfer had finally arrived, a profound sense of nostalgia pervaded us.

We will be missing bumping into each other on the stairs or on the escalator in the mornings or in the evenings. We will be missing our meetings at the park after work. We will be missing the feeling that we could knock at each other door at any time to have Leo and Sara playing together, or simply to have a chat. And we will be missing our improvised dinners on our respective terraces.

Good-bye Roberto, Dunja and Sara. We will be missing you, but we wish you all the best for your new, exciting experience…

Les M&M’s are pregnant again!

Dear family and friends, Les M&M’s are pregnant again!

As Spring, Baby #2 will arrive towards the end of March. And, as Spring, ‘sigilosamente, entrará a nuestra casa, en la noche y en la sombra, con pies estrellados…’*

We look very much forward to his arrival…

Matteo, Mathilde, and Leo

(*) Cautamente, entrerà nella nostra casa, nella notte e nell’ombra, con i piedi stellati…; Silently, will enter to our home, in the night and the shadow, with starry feet…; Silencieusement, entrera à notre maison, dans la nuit et l'ombre, avec des pieds étoilés…

Leo’s first word

Of course he already said ‘ma-ma’, ‘pa-pa’, and many other syllables and sounds, but for the first time we had the clear perception that Leo said a word meaning it.

And, although I tried to deny it - to my great regret - I have to admit it was in French…

Another milestone achieved!

Leo & Leo

We didn’t necessarily want to be original, but it’s true that when we chose to name Leo ‘Leo’, we didn’t know many other Leonardos. In fact the only Leonardo I knew was a class-mate of my sister at the primary school, Leonardo Lunati, who I have not heard of for the past thirty years or so.

But since we named Leonardo ‘Leonardo’, it seems that all babies in Italy (or at least those who were born in Rome) are named Leonardo. There are no recreational areas or parks where we do not hear other mums calling ‘Leonardo, Leonardo!’. In the IFAD childcare, out of 25 babies (half of which I presume are males), there are three Leonardos. And even if there are no other Leonardos in our Leo’s class at the Nido, I already heard several times calling ‘Leonardo!’ in the Nido’s corridors the few times I took Leo to the childcare…

Within this Leos’ epidemic, I thus had an easy guess when Mathilde, coming back from work, asked me: “Hey, guess what’s my colleague Noemi’s child name?”…

Security, security!

 … il y a un fou qui saute derrière Monsieur le Président !
 

Are we creating a serial killer?

For his birthday, we decided to offer Leo a book. We went to a bookstore and looked a bit around in the child section. There were plenty of cute books: ‘Qui est le bébé de qui’, ‘Qui habite ou?’, ‘Qui crie quoi’…

Look what we chose…

Leo & the Blog*

Tutto questo un giorno sarà tuo… 

(Ps: check the differences: this picture was taken exactly one year ago!)

(*) Busy busy days these days. Caught between the workload at work during the day, my father's duties at night, Leo who is sick every other day every other day, etc. etc. I haven't even had time to download the pictures from our trip to the Red Sea - let alone to post our usual post-trip reportage. To keep the Blog alive however, here they are a few pictures and stories from our files...

Back from the Red Sea

Apologizes for the long silence, and thanks for the messages inquiring whether all was well. In fact it was: we have just come back yesterday night from a week on the Red Sea to celebrate Nonna Rita’s 60th birthday.

Pictures and stories soon!

Hand luggage

A few last pictures from our summer - Week-end a Cori Alto

Week-end in Cori Alto (LT) chez zio Riccardo and Tanja!

A few last pictures from our summer - Ferragosto a l’Aquila

Let’s close our ‘summer 2012’ chapter by posting a few last pictures of our summer: Ferragosto a l’Aquila da Piergiorgio!

At Einaudi's concert

Our soirèes à deux have become so rare, that when it happens it is always an event. Last Saturday les M&M’s, indifferent to feverish Leo, hired a baby-sitter for the evening and went to the Auditorium to listen to Einaudi’s concert.

Bello.

Leo’s notebook cover

May I ask you what in your opinion is represented on Leo’s notebook cover?

Because to me it’s rather obvious - but I have been told: ‘Nice, is it a chick?’, and ‘Nice, is it a baby-girl?’.

It’s not a chick, and it’s not a baby-girl…

Inserimento

For the past three weeks we have been busy with the so called ‘inserimento’, the process to insert a new child in a childcare class. According to this well-tested process, at the beginning parent and child are together in the classroom, and then, day after day, the time in which the parent is present in the classroom progressively diminishes, while the time in which the child is by him or herself in the classroom progressively increases.

At the beginning there were no major problems. On the contrary, it was interesting to observe from a corner in the classroom how your child familiarizes himself with the new environment. But after a while, when the time in which the parents had to wait outside the classroom had significantly increased, it became quite boring to have to wait one-hour/one-hour-and-half outside the classroom, always on the alert, before being called again.

To kill the time the teachers gave us a task: we had to decorate the cover of our children’s notebook - the notebook in which all the pictures and works that our children will carry-out during the year will be collected. We were sent to the childcare workshop, and, armored with scissors, tape and glue, and using all the materials we wanted - coloured papers, paperboard, fabrics, seeds, woods, leaves, buttons, and anything else we could think about - we started our homework.

And have to say it has been great fun: most of us (myself included) have not done anything similar since our times at the primary school, and - in a way - it was as being back children again.

And, to my own surprise, we had plenty of talent and creativity!

Leo at the Nido

Being Leo our first child, we don’t have many benchmarks. We don’t know thus if several of the behaviors we daily observe in him are peculiar of his personality or common to most of the children at his age.

Having him at the Nido is allowing us to discover many characteristics of his personality.

According to the feedback we are receiving from the teachers, Leo is (and here we got a confirmation) rather sociable and independent. At the same time he seems to be rather impatient, and to easily get upset if he doesn’t manage to do something at the first trial.

And, finally and perhaps surprisingly, he seems to be a big eater!

First day at the Nido

While Matteo was stuffing himself with chinese food and hamburgers across the ocean, Leonardo had his first day at the ‘nido’ (the childcare). 

In line with his personality, he faced the new experience with enthusiasm and with a smile on his lips - breaking immediately off from his mum’ skirt, and starting to discover the new environment with curiosity and interest. The only moment in which he got a bit upset was when another baby stole the toy with which he was playing. But he will soon learn to make himself respected. Or to offer his own cheek.

Leo, the youngest in his class, has already a lover (Matilde), a rival in love (Lorenzo, openly in love with Matilde), and a bunch of new friends (Edoardo, Paolo, Giuseppe, and Francesco).

Another milestone achieved!