Angels Don't Wear Red

Colin's first piano recital

2010-05-06T11:28:00.000-07:00

Last night was pretty exciting. Colin had his very first piano recital. He only started taking lessons in November, but he seems to really enjoy it. His two favorite subjects in school are math and music. So last night - his big debut! In front of hundreds of screaming fans! Well, actually just a few dozen other parents, and thankfully they didn't scream as they might have been a bit offputting for my son.

The recital began at 8:30pm (on a school night, only in Italy) and Colin was third on the program. It started a bit shaky. The lights go down, the audience settles into their seats, and the first performer is announced, little Annalisa. She didn't even make it out of her seat, she was too terrified to perform. We move on to little Alice, she makes it out of her seat, to the piano, and performs her two little songs, quite well I might add, but with a terrified look on her face, and a few tears slipping down her cheeks. I'm starting to get a bit worried, Colin is a bit shy, and I thought seeing the other 2 little girls his age crumble under the pressure might shake him a bit. But as soon as Alice finished, he popped up from his seat, before they had even called his name, and strode to the piano. He looked so wonderfully happy and confident. He played his 2 little pieces perfectly, with accompaniment from his teacher, and even flashed a smile to the crowd at the end. Marco and I were beaming with pride, truly one of the proudest moments of my life, a night I won't soon forget.

The photo isn't great, but for what it's worth....

I haven't had a chance to post for a while, but as an update, Colin got a cool new bike, and he's loving it.

Ode to Joy

2010-02-28T12:10:00.000-08:00

Colin started taking piano lessons in November, and he really seems to enjoy them so far. His school has a nice after-school program with several teachers, covering various instruments, and he goes once a week for 30 minutes. We purchased a little keyboard for him to use for practice at home, as we weren't sure how interested he would be or how long it would last. Of course, he may decide next week that he hates it, but so far, he is really excited.

He arrived home from school on Wednesday, and he had his music class that day (the one that is part of the regualar curriculum, not the piano class). He was all excited because they had learned a new note that day, eighth notes. For those of you drawing a blank on this one, these are the ones that are attached together at the top with a little bridge going across two notes. In fact, I had to look up the translation for it online, as he only knew the term in Italian!

Anyway, he was excited about learning a new note, and he wanted to show me what they look like, so he got a piece of paper, drew a musical staff, and drew a series of eighth notes. Then he got into it, and drew a bunch of other notes, and said, "Mom, I made a song! I'm going upstairs to play it!" He may be a few years behind Beethoven, but I was still very proud.

This afternoon we were practicing his piano lessons, doing the songs that his teacher had assigned as his weekly homework. And one of the songs that he was assigned was the first few bars of "Ode to Joy", using just one hand. I was telling him that this was one of the most famous songs in the history of music, and after we had finished, we put it on the stereo. We listened to it, and I was explaining to him that it started out a bit slower, with just the strings, but things got "happier" and the other instruments joined in. I was explaining that all of the instruments of the orchestra were playing the exact notes that he had just played upstairs and when it all came together, it sounded like this. He was fascinated, completely excited that he knew how to play this famous song. He spent the next 15 minutes running and dancing around that house, "singing" the notes. Ode to Joy, indeed.

White week

2010-02-21T11:38:00.000-08:00

We just returned from our first "settimana bianca" or "white week" as a family. It is an Italian tradition to take a week off in the winter to go skiing in the mountains, and we decided to take our little ones for their first foray into the wild world of skiing. We stayed at a friends' house in La Thuile, which is on the border with France, and our friends from London, Patsie and Tom and their 2 children, Nessan, 17, and Dervla, 15, joined us. They have been making a tradition of white week during their children's mid term break for the last 5 years.

We enrolled them from Monday through Friday in a ski school which lasted for 2.5 hours every morning, which gave Marco and I a chance to hit the slopes for a short while. The kids were divided into various classes depending on their level, and ours were obviously at the beginner level. They were given yellow vests to wear with their names on them to signify their class. There were about 30 kids in the class, with 3 teachers...quite a group. La Thuile is popular with the British for ski vacations, so the majority of the kids were English, which Colin and Lucia really enjoyed. They had a special kids area at the bottom of the slopes, and the group stayed there for the first 3 days, practicing "snow-plowing" down a little hill, with the help of a "moving walkway" to take them up back up again. Afterwards Colin would talk about how he wasn't able to snowplow "at ALL, Mom" and that he fell "every 2 seconds". But, being Colin, he had a smile on his face as he said this, and was always happy to go back. Lucia was not quite as excited in the beginning and the first couple of days I had a tough time getting her to release her death grip on my leg and go off with the other children. Usually she was fine until, inevitably, one of the other kids would start crying and screaming "Mommy", and then I would look down and the big tears would start rolling down her cheeks. But by the 3rd day, she was okay.

On the 4th day, they took the children on 2 chairlifts up the mountain, and did some skiing on the beginner slopes at the top of the mountain. Colin was so excited to go up the chairlifts, even though I had no idea how 3 teachers were going to manage 30 children on chairlifts that seat only 4 people at a time. I decided it was better not to dwell on that. When I spoke with the teacher at the beginning of the day, he had said that they were headed for the ski school at the top of the mountain for hot chocolate. When we met the children at 12:30, Lucia immediately marched up to me to report that the hot chocolate had never arrived. Obviously these instructors did not understand that when you promise Lucia chocolate, you'd better deliver!

Friday was the last day, and I spent 20 minutes watching the kids doing their thing, and I have to say, I was impressed. Neither Colin nor Lucia fell on any of the 4 descents down the little slope that I saw. Colin didn't look like he was 100% in control of his snowplow, but he is getting there. Lucia on the other hand, made sure that she took the path of least resistance down the slope, going off to one side that was not as steep and meandering slowly down.

But it wasn't all hard work, we spent a couple of afternoons sledding, to give our tired leg muscles a rest.

As for Lucia's hot chocolate, right down the street from the house we stayed in there was the most amazing chocolate shop I have ever been in. We stopped in a couple of times for hot chocolate, the Italian version, which is literally melted chocolate, thick as mud, that you have to spoon in your mouth rather than drink, truly one of my favorite parts of winter, and this shop did it up right. On the last afternoon, we stopped in for a chocolate fondue that was heavenly.

We had a great time with our friends from London as well. Nessan and Dervla are always wonderful about playing with our children, who adore them. It always amazes me that 2 teenagers aren't completely disgusted at the idea of playing with 2 little kids, but they seem to enjoy it, and it gives Mom and Dad a little break at the end of the day.

All in all, we had a wonderful little vacation, and the kids are already looking forward to going back next year.

THE SOUND AND THE FURY

2010-02-01T00:37:00.001-08:00

Last Monday, Lucia had another of her temper tantrums - a sort of a nuclear explosion of anger, complete with screaming, pounding on the floor, walls, doors, usually a good 45 minutes of pure, unadulterated rage. I have tried everything to deal with them, ignoring them, timeouts, taking away privileges, etc., but nothing seems to really calm her down. And it is really hard to ignore, because I can't get away from her, she follows me around the house, screaming and crying at the injustice she is having to endure. Colin and I usually just have to put up with her until she runs out of fuel for her fire. She is very contrite after one of her breakdowns and realizes that she has behaved unacceptably, but that doesn't stop her from having another one a few days later.

The reason for Monday's tantrum? I had done the unthinkable - told her that she must wash her hands before she helps me prepare dinner. Obviously I ask her to do this every time she helps with dinner, but for whatever reason, Monday it was just too much to abide. The tantrum started out with her screaming, "I DON'T WANT TO WASH MY HANDS!!!!!" But after about 10 minutes or so, it had shortened to "I DON'T WANT TO !!!!!!", which is usually the indicator that she doesn't even remember why she is screaming anymore, but since she is on a roll at that point, she is going to keep going.

As I was doing my best to ignore her during this latest paroxysm, I first thought that I would tell her she wouldn't be allowed to sleep with Colin on Friday night. Her favorite part of weekends is that she is allowed to climb into Colin's bed and the two of them chatter away until they finally pass out. Obviously, this is a no-go on weeknights, as they would never make it to school the next day. So my first instinct was to yank this privilege. However, it was only Monday night, and for a five year old, a punishment that doesn't go into effect until five days later is really not a deterrent. Then I hit on a better idea, I told her that she was going to bed at 7:00pm, an hour earlier than usual, and that Colin would be allowed to stay up, as he had not had a tantrum. I figured that this was especially brilliant as the real source of the problem is usually that she is overly tired. As I said, she is usually quite contrite following one of her outbursts, and I have to say, she accepted her punishment with as much grace as she could muster. The next evening after dinner, she even pointed out to me that she had not had a tantrum all day.

Colin, on the other hand, is a much more serene child. He generally does not explode in a frenzy of wrath of fury. However, he has his moments. Usually they start out by him shouting some syllable that expresses his anger, like "ARRGGHHHHH!! Then he stomps out of the room, throws himself on the couch and cries for about 10 minutes and then it is all over. Amateur stuff, in Lucia's eyes. Well, Sunday morning, he had one of his fits, and Lucia, never one to let an opportunity pass by, asked me, "Are you going to send Colin to bed at 7:00 tonight?"

The 12 Days of Christmas

2010-01-08T12:04:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day may have been the pinnacle of the holidays, but we were busy for the full 12 days of Christmas with lots of activities, starting out with the grandparents and cousins in Turin, and continuing once we returned home. Right after Christmas, we took the children along with their cousins, Benedetta and Giorgio, to visit a royal residence in Turin, not far from Marco's parents, which has recently been renovated, called the Reggia Venaria. They had an exhibition on knights, and the kids really enjoyed it. They had a special "treasure hunt" for the kids - they were given photos of certain objects throughout the exhibit, for example the photo of knight's armour that was made for a 3 year old, and they had to find it, write down the room number, and then if they submitted it at the end, they received a shield. Needless to say, the kids totally ate this up, and the other cool part is that Colin got a book about knights for his birthday from one of his classmates, so when we came home we looked up some of the things we had seen in the book. However, I noticed that the idea of the treasure hunt made them speed through the exhibit, paying more attention to looking for the next item to find rather than taking a chance to look around at all the wonderful objects on display. Once again, I found myself thinking that although my kids are getting older and it is starting to be fun to take them to museums, we still have a long way to go.....

The next day, Marco and I left our kids in the capable and very willing hands of their grandparents to take off snowshoeing in the mountains for a day, along with Marco's cousin's husband, Ernesto. We went to Moncenisio, literally crossing the border into France. We had a nice hike, LOTS of snow, so that was fun, although my legs were so sore by the end. The only problem was that it was VERY windy when we got out of the woods and toward the top of this part of the mountain. We were planning on hiking a little further, to a nice lake, but the wind put the kabosh on that. But the combination of the hiking, all that snow, and the heavy wind took its toll. I was so exhausted when we finished that I literally passed out in the car on the way home. Before we left, we stopped into a nice bar in the town where we had left the car, as the only other person we had seen on the hike was a man who mentioned that his wife runs the local bar. So we stopped to have a tea, and told the woman that we had seen her husband while we were snowshoeing. She was very friendly to us, but left it understood that she was not pleased that her husband had left her alone to take care of a very busy bar during the holidays so that he could have a nice hike in the mountains!

One of our other holiday activities was a trip to "Forte di Bard", about an hour outside of Turin, an old fort that was recently refurbished and reopened, and it was very impressive. They did a wonderful job with the place, adding 4 elevators to take you up to the fort, which sat, as most do, I suppose, high on a hill overlooking the valley. Inside there was one exhibition called "Le Alpi dei Ragazzi" or the Alps for Kids, which taught kids what an expedition on Monte Bianco is like (or Mont Blanc, as we Americans tend to call it, which pisses off the Italians to no end). It was very interactive, high tech stuff, with lots of different types of media. We started out getting our "gear". They had us put on helmets, harnesses, and roped us together on a rope team - Colin was the leader of our rope team. Then they taught the kids how to look up the weather forecasts for the day, using a computer with a webcam of the top of the mountain, then choose a route, using photos of various parts of the mountain, and the kids could decide which looked easiest to hike. Then they "packed" a virtual backpack, choosing from a group of items those that would not be needed for the ascent (cell phone, MP3 player) and those that were necessary (ice pick, crampons, and parmesan cheese - this was, obviously, an Italian expedition up the mountain). There was one part where they were simulating the walk across a glacier, and you had to stay on a certain path, if you stepped outside, there was a sound of breaking ice, apparently to symbolize that you had just plunged to your death in a crevasse. At one point, they took photos of us, and superimposed our faces on the bodies of climbers at the top of Monte Bianco - my kids loved this! There was also another very nice museum about alpine nature there, and once again, Colin kind of raced through that, but Lucia really seemed to get into it.

We headed back home on the 30th, as we had visitors arriving from Turin on the 31st to celebrate New Year's Eve with us - Marta and Alberto and their 2 children, Clara (4) and Paolo (2) came to ring in the new year. We made a big dinner and opened a very nice bottle of wine that Marco had received from work, so the adults ate and drank too much, or perhaps we just ate too much and drank far too little. The kids had a blast, we did some face painting with Lucia's new kits, had a dance party, ate ice cream, and topped it off with a Tom and Jerry cartoon. The kids, in fact, were still raring to go at 1am, when the adults, who were falling asleep on the couch, finally dragged them upstairs. Our guests stayed the next day and night as well, we took them to Bellagio to see the lake, and so that the kids could run around outside and get some fresh air. It was a wonderful visit, and it was nice for us to have some extended time with Marta and Alberto to catch up, rather than just quick visits when we are in Turin.

After that we kind of chilled at home, inviting some friends over to play one day. Marco went back to work on the 4th, but the kids didn't return to school until the 7th (here they always go back after the Epiphany). So I am back at work as well, and already planning our trip to the U.S. this fall.

Christmas 2009

2009-12-31T05:32:00.000-08:00

Once again, we had a great Christmas this year. Colin woke up Christmas morning feeling much better and even managed to eat a great big Christmas lunch, after 2 days of fever and eating practically nothing. So right away, Mommy got her Christmas wish. Santa Claus managed to find us in Turin at the Nonni's house, and brought lots of good toys as well.

Colin received a couple of Lego-like construction toys, one is an assault chopper (which we are still working on) and the other is a motorcycle. He also received a 7-in-1 game set, with chess, checkers, backgammon, and a whole bunch of other games I've never even heard of. He also received a flying "bug" as you can see in the photo, which of course we had to test right away that morning outside.

Lucia had a princess Christmas, as Santa brought a Cinderella dress, a princess chalk board, and even "make-up", and she sat down right away to test out the goods.

Santa also left some "tattoos" in our stockings, which we were eager to try out with our Italian cousins. Check out the body art on Colin (one leg has a whale, and the other a lion - which by the way, has still not washed off over a week later), Giorgio has a row of turtles up his leg and an elephant on his arms, Lucia has some flowers on cheeks and butterflies on her hands, and Benedetta has a giraffe on her leg and a horse on her arm.

The main attraction of Christmas in Italy, at least for the adults who received nothing but coal in their stockings, is the traditional Christmas lunch. In Piedmont, the typical pasta is agnolotti, which is like ravioli stuffed with lamb or other meat. My mother-in-law makes it by hand every year, with a vegetarian version of ricotta and spinach for me, and it is always delicious. Of course, there are lots of starters and a second course, finishing up with panettone, or Italian Christmas cake.

We spent the afternoon with the cousins - the children happily played with their new toys, while the adults tried to digest the massive amounts of food they had eaten.

Snow Day

2009-12-22T23:44:00.000-08:00

Tuesday was supposed to be the kids' last day of school before the holidays, or rather the last HALF DAY of school, as they were supposed to be excused at noon, and then we were planning on visiting Daddy at his office and having lunch with him. Mother Nature had other plans, and on Monday, she decided to let loose with a snow storm that left about a foot and a half of snow on the ground before it stopped on Tuesday morning. It was already getting bad Monday afternoon, it took me close to an hour and a half to pick up the 2 kids from school and get back home again. I called Marco around 3:30pm and told him he should leave work immediately because it was getting bad. Of course he didn't listen, and when I called again right before 5:00pm, saying that I was just getting home from picking the kids up from school, he took me a little more seriously. Still, he didn't get home until 9:30pm! The next day was obviously a vacation day, and we pulled out all of the snow gear and had some fun in the snow.

Christmas activities

2009-12-22T23:03:00.001-08:00

The last week has been full of activities leading up to Christmas. Last Wednesday, Colin basketball class did a Christmas program, where they showed off their mad skillz to a very-impressed crowd of moms and dads. They basically ran around the court, dribbling, or at least doing a fairly good imitation of such, and attempted a few baskets, with Christmas music playing in the background. Colin is getting pretty good at dribbling, but since the basket is basically at standard height, making a basket is a pretty rare event.

The following evening was Colin's 7th birthday party. We held the party at a place called Giocolandia, which is basically an enormous play area for kids. It is every parent's worst nightmare and every kid's dream. A couple of kids from Colin's class have had their birthday parties there this year, and Colin couldn't imagine doing his birthday anywhere else. It went fairly well, although at a certain stage a couple of boys started fighting and another boy ended up in tears in an unrelated incident. Colin spent most of the time with his eye on the table of presents, asking when he could start opening them. I was a little worse for wear after a very hectic week of work and trying to get gifts for Christmas and birthday ready, and I told Colin right away that we would do a different kind of birthday party next year, maybe just a slumber party for a couple of his friends!

The kid with his arms around Colin in the photo is his best buddy, Davide. The cake in front of him is a special cake they provide as part of the birthday package. It is basically a sweet bread with Nutella spread inside in the shape of a number 7. Kids go nuts for it.

Friday night they had a special mass for the elementary and middle school kids at Colin's school. In typical Italian style, they said that it would start at 8:30, and that we should have the kids there at 8:15pm. Being American, I thought that meant that my kid should be there at 8:15, and he was, however, the mass didn't start until about 9:00pm and it was 11:00pm before we were back home again. This year went better than last, however, in the sense that Lucia at least managed to stay awake, and Colin wasn't nearly comatose with sleepiness at the end.

As an example of one of the many mysteries of children, my exhausted children fell into bed at 11:00pm, but were wide awake at 7:00am. I'm not sure how that works.

Saturday was Lucia's pre-school Christmas play and it had all the elements of a perfect pre-school Christmas play - Baby Jesus walked off stage crying for his mom, and one of the girls lost her skirt while dancing, although she wasn't at all bothered by this. Another kid, who Lucia regularly says is a trouble-maker, lived up to his reputation during the performance, much to the consternation of his teachers. Lucia's role was as a star, and it was the perfect role for my little girl, and she thoroughly enjoyed herself on stage, as you can see as she hams it up during her little dance.

Colin started attending weekly catechism classes this year, and on Sunday afternoon, all of the classes put on a nativity scene/play at the church. Colin was an angel, again a role that perfectly fits my son. Afterwards they had panettone (Italian Christmas cake) and a little party in the community center. We stayed for a while, but my kids were pretty exhausted after their busy week! But now we are definitely ready for some presents and vacation.

2009-02-25T08:13:00.000-08:00

Today Colin celebrated Carnival and all the elementary school kids came in costume (I think I have in the past explained the whole Ambrosian calendar thing, Lent in the Milan area starts on Sunday). He went as the cutest Ferrari driver ever. He is on vacation for the rest of the week.

Lucia’s last day was supposed to be tomorrow, all the pre-school kids come in costume and there is a parade and a big party. Lucia was going to wear her princess dress from last year (what else?). However, as soon as she figured out that Colin was off school, she refused to go. I even offered to take her only for the parade and party in the afternoon, and still, no deal. She will absolutely not stand for the idea that Colin is home while she is not.

Here is Colin in his cool Ferrari driver outfit. I'm hoping that this does not presage what he is going to be like when he gets his license as a teenager!

Card shark

2009-01-28T04:14:00.000-08:00

I recently taught the kids a couple of card games, and their favorite so far is War. Sunday evening we sat up on my bed, and they were completely stoked to learn a new game. The funny thing is, although it is a game of completely random chance, based on luck of the draw, and involving no strategic skills whatsoever, for some reason Lucia ALWAYS wins. It is pretty amazing. I figure that this is just another example of how much of a Manning/Blanchard she is. Colin, of course, is a clone of his father, and the Deons are just not a card family. Lucia, meanwhile, pulls Aces out of nowhere, and does the Manning/Blanchard blood running through her proud. Every time she wins, I imagine Grandma and Grandpa looking down on her and beaming with pleasure at my little girl. It is also kind of nice, because Colin is so into board games right now, and being just a bit older, is able to beat her most of the time. But Lucia has found her niche, and I am so looking forward to having her as my euchre partner in a few years.

In a related story, I have had a couple of people look at me in amazement when I shuffle the cards by doing that thing where you cut the deck in half, bend the halves in your hands and then sort of shuffle them together, bend them backwards, and shuffle them together again. 2 of my friends were like, "WOW! Where did you learn to do that?" And I was so puzzled, I thought everyone knew how to do that.

Batman and Barbie

2009-01-21T06:17:00.000-08:00

I enjoy playtime with both of my kids. My mentioned previously, Colin is going through a board game stage, and so we play either Sorry or the Goose Game at least once a day. Lucia doesn't really like to play, but she likes to hold the cards and hand them out to the players, effectively controlling the flow of the game, which is consistent with her bossy personality.

Playtime with Lucia is a bit different. She enjoys make-believe, and likes to pretend that she is a princess (her favorites are Ariel and Belle). The downside is that whenever we play, I am basically instructed to follow her around, keep quiet, and not question her decisions. And I never get to be a princess. Her newest make-believe game is Batman and Barbie - guess who has to be Batman every time. I've tried requesting a change in characters - "Can I be a princess?" "No." "Can I at least be a girl?" "No." End of discussion. I try to contribute to the game by suggesting things that we can pretend, "How about we fly to the beach in my Batplane?" "N0." "Barbie, shouldn't we make the dolls some breakfast before we send them to school?" "No." Just do what she says and follow her around as we dance or skip from room to room. That is essentially playtime with my little gir.

Boy Am I Sorry!

2009-01-08T11:19:00.000-08:00

My son is crazy about board games. For a while there were only 2 in the house - "Candyland" and "Chutes and Ladders". He loved both of those games, we played them daily. All of the characters from "Chutes and Ladders" were falling apart, the cards from "Candyland" were worn out, and though Colin wanted to continue playing them daily, mom was clearly over them. I do have to say, though, that it was through "Chutes and Ladders" that Colin learned his numbers from 1-100, so there was definitely an upside.

While I was in the U.S. over the summer, I decided that the situation needed to be remedied, and at Aunt Julie's suggestion, decided to buy "Sorry!" to give to Colin as his birthday gift in December. But in the period between July and December, as we played countless "Chutes and Ladders" games, I was endlessly tempted to just break out the game early and end the insanity.

But I made it to his birthday, and he was very excited about his new game, because he had played the "Spiderman" version with his cousin Zane over the summer. In fact, I am happy to say that "Chutes and Ladders" and "Candyland" have been reassigned to the back of the cupboard. He also received another Italian board game for Christmas, "The Goose Game" (don't ask), but "Sorry!" is clearly his favorite. I can't even count the number of times we have played it since the middle of December. Sometimes we even play it more than once a day. On a red-letter day we even get a chance to play with Daddy, making it even more fun. It is a little complex for Lucia, she loses interest quickly, but she likes to hand out the cards to everyone else, and move the pieces. And Colin is really good at it - in the beginning I was taking it easy on him, but now he regularly kicks my butt. The children were supposed to start back on school on Wednesday, but both Wednesday and Thursday were snow days (we got about a foot and a half of snow, which in these parts, is unheard of) and what better way to spend a snow day than playing non-stop games of "Sorry"?

I have already decided that on the next trip to the US we are stocking up on SEVERAL board games. I have already scoped them out on Amazon.com. And I can't believe that I am actually thinking this, but I am sort of starting to miss "Chutes and Ladders".

Christmas photos

2009-01-01T11:30:00.000-08:00

Nothing like a little duelling to commemorate the birth of Christ

Christmas photos

2009-01-01T11:28:00.000-08:00

Giorgio and Colin taking a break from the non-stop playing

Christmas photos

2009-01-01T11:27:00.000-08:00

Lucia and Benedetta playing dress up on Christmas Day with help from Alessandra

Christmas photos

2009-01-01T11:26:00.000-08:00

Colin with his remote control helicopter

Christmas photos

2009-01-01T11:24:00.000-08:00

Getting ready for Christmas Eve mass

Christmas photos

2009-01-01T11:23:00.000-08:00

Lucia with her new sing along microphone (includes disco ball and lights!)

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T10:46:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing all our friends and family a wonderful, peaceful new year. We had a very nice little party at our house, with our friends Shanda, Marco and their son Noah (4 years), who are back in Italy visiting for the holidays, and Kathy, Nico and little Emanuele (10 months).

It is, needless to say, a bit of pressure having a professional chef over for dinner (Kathy attended the Culinary Institute of America), but she brought a wonderful roast turkey breast, Shanda brought a delicious dessert, and I prepared Artichoke Bruschetta for a starter, and then a Mushroom and Farro Torte for a main vegetarian dish, Creamy Baked Spicy Polenta (seriously yummy) for a side dish as well as a little salad. Then I made sure that I served dinner late and made plenty of drinks available in the meanwhile, so that by the time they ate, they were all drunk and starving, so nobody complained about the food!

We had entertainment from the kids as well. Shanda is a dancer, and Noah has inherited his mom's talent. That kid has some really good moves, and since Lucia, of course, loves dancing (especially flipping her hair around), they were a happy pair.

Emanuele made it an early night, his first New Year's Eve was apparently not enticing enough to keep him awake, but the other three all made it to midnight, just barely. Colin and Lucia were in bed by 12:30pm, completely exhausted, but Colin was thrilled that this was the latest he had ever stayed up in his life. When I told him that his Grandma had said that his 5 Lamaze cousins were all in bed by 8:30pm, he was so psyched that he had been allowed to stay up later, and maybe, for just a few minutes, Marco and I were cool parents.

Busy pre-christmas weekend

2008-12-15T03:28:00.000-08:00

Well, it was a very busy pre-Christmas weekend for us. Now that it is Monday I am finally getting a chance to recover.

It started on Thursday night. The moms of Colin's first grade class organised a pizza party at a local restaurant for the kids. Nice idea, because they chose a restaurant with a play area for kids, complete with "entertainers" (a nice euphemism for babysitters) to watch them while they are in the play area, and a big screen out in the dining area, so the moms could keep an eye on them, when they weren't chatting away. Unfortunately, it was supposed to start at 7:30pm, which of course means that it did not actually get underway until 8:00pm, and we finally made it home at 11:00pm! On a school night! And since Marco was out of town for the night, Lucia was also out until 11:00pm (she did however, nap for about the last half hour on my lap at the restaurant). Colin had a blast, and the children only stopped running around long enough to shove some pizza in their faces, then later, ice cream. However, getting them out of bed for school on Friday was a nightmare.

Saturday was Lucia's big day. December 13th is the feast of Santa Lucia, or Saint Lucy. In Italy, is it common to celebrate the feast day of your patron saint with gifts, etc. And Santa Lucia is a very important saint here, in fact, in parts of Italy, gifts are given to children on Santa Lucia instead of Christmas. Lucia was psyched with the attention this afforded her, and referred to the day as "Santa Me". I tried to explain to her that nobody would ever take her for a saint, but that there was a woman whose name was also Lucia, who was a very good person and.... And that was about the point she lost interest and walked away. At any rate, we had swimming lessons in the morning, which is fun for the kids as well as Mom and Dad, because there is a little gym right above the pool where Marco and I can workout while the kids are swimming. Then in the afternoon it was off to Lucia's Christmas show. She was a woodsman (woodsgirl?) in the play in which the king, queen and princess of a castle were searching for the perfect Christmas tree. Most of the big parts go to the 3rd year kids of the pre-school, Lucia and her fellow 2nd-year woodskids (?) did a nice little dance, some kids played trees, in general it was the typical chaos of pre-school Christmas shows. Big news this year is that none of the first-year kids cried. It's funny how the first year the kids are absolutely terrified - last year Lucia hid behind another kid, and at Colin's first year program, he just stood there looking out at the audience with a deer-in-headlights kind of expression. By the second year, they are much more comfortable, actually able to sing the songs with the group at the end, though still a little shy. By the third year, they are champs, ready for their close-up, Mr. Demille. Lucia was adorable this year. She did her little dance, then sat on the stage at the end with all the other kids and sang a couple of songs and recited a Christmas poem. I had made 2 little braids in her hair, as I thought this would go with the woodskid costume, and at the end when they were singing, she sat there with her little hands up near her face as she held on tightly to both braids the whole time. I asked her later why she was holding on to them while she was singing, and she said that another kid was tugging on them backstage. Then we were back home again, as Colin had to do his homework and Mommy had a birthday cake to make, because the next day was the party!

Yes, Sunday afternoon we had a little party for Colin. We only had 3 little boys come over, but they had a blast tearing up the house. We made a pinata, and of course the boys thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to bash something. Thankfully, no children were hospitalized as a result. We also played musical chairs, which Colin had played at another kid's party and he now loves I made a space rocket birthday cake, decorated with red and blue M&M's, which pushed the limits of my rather limited baking capacity, and then my husband never got a photo of the masterpiece! It was a nice little party, and Colin was so excited. He has talked of nothing but his birthday for weeks.

School Daze

2008-12-09T06:20:00.000-08:00

I sent my son off to first grade this year, with a new backpack and a cool Ferrari pencil case, and all the supplies that were on the list provided by the teachers. His pencil case had, among other things, a full set of colored pencils and markers, and I thought that all those supplies should last him through to January, when the supermarkets have a second sale on school supplies. I had no idea that I would be making nearly weekly trips to the stationary store, or picking up school supplies at the supermarket, in what seems like the endless task of keeping my son's backpack properly equipped.

Take, for example, the colored pencils. His cool Ferrari pencil case has slots for 24 pencils and every weekend when we sit down to do homework, there are at least 5 pencils missing. "Colin , are you sure you didn't leave some of your pencils in your desk?" "No, Mom. We have to take everything out of our desks on Fridays." "Then what happened to your pencils? You had a full set on Monday." "I dunno". Needless to say, shortly after realizing that this was going to be a weekly restock, I purchased a huge box with every possible colored pencil under the sun. It is now December, and the refill box is nearly empty. It is especially annoying because they ask that we put names on all the supplies. So every weekend I have to take adhesive labels, write out Colin's name a couple of times, and then tape a label securely to each colored pencil. Why, you may ask, do I bother when the pencils don't seem to last for more than 2 weeks, and having the name on them certainly doesn't seem to help in getting it back if it is misplaced? I have no idea. I'm a sucker for stupid rules.

There is also the glue saga. I have no idea why, but first graders go through glue at a truly alarming rate. I keep wondering if they are sniffing it. I have purchased at least 5 huge glue sticks so far this year. And any day, I imagine that Colin will waltz home and tell me that he needs another one. Is he selling them on the underground glue market to junkie pre-schoolers?

Finally, the pencil sharpeners. Along with the endless procession of new colored pencils, there has been an endless procession of pencil sharpeners. Just last week, I purchased pencil sharpener #5, only one day after having purchased pencil sharpener #4. In the beginning, he didn't have the right kind of sharpener. He needed one with a narrower opening to sharpen better. Then the teachers told me it would be better if he had a sharpener that had a little container attached to collect the pencil shavings so he wouldn't have to get up from his desk and go to the waste basket every time he needed to sharpen his pencil. Then, of course, some were just crappy quality and broke shortly after purchase (pencil sharpener #4 broke before even making it to school).

I'm sure that any experienced parent reading this is shaking his/her head, laughing, and saying, "What an amateur!" But I miss the good ole days of pre-school, when everything was included, and I only had to supply the child.

Time waits for no man

2008-12-05T04:11:00.000-08:00

My son is enjoying learning to tell time. He is completely fascinated by it.

"We are going up to bed in 5 minutes guys!" "No! 6 minutes!" "OK, 6 minutes."

"The pasta will be ready in a few minutes." "When the big hand is on the 7?" Yea, more or less when the big hand is on the 7." Then God forbid the pasta is not ready when the big hand gets to the 7.

There is an electronic clock in my car. Everyday, after Colin finishes his breakfast and brushes his teeth, he trots off downstairs, puts on his coat and shoes, and hops into the car. Meanwhile, Mommy is running around the house frazzled, as she tries to hurry Lucia along (Lucia likes to linger over her breakfast and she is not nearly as independent when it comes to getting herself off to the car) and also trying to gather up the necessities for school (backpack with AM. snack for Colin, clean bib for Lucia on Monday mornings, etc.) Colin sits in the car in the garage yelling "Hurry up Mom! We're going to be late" to his harried mother. He also gives me very frequent updates on the time. Even after I've finished running around the house, and have finally gotten myself into the car, he continues to harass me with, "Mom, it's 1 minute after 8 o'clock.......Mom, it's 2 minutes after 8 o'clock". This continues all the way to school, unless I manage to distract him with some good songs on the radio or a discussion of what fun things we are going to do after school.

The other day I tried to introduce the concept of understanding the difference between time. As we were finishing up our dinner, I asked Colin to look at the clock and tell me the time. He proudly said "8 o'clock mommy". So then I said, "If it is 8 o'clock and Daddy said he would be home at 7:30, how late is Daddy?"

This time Lucia chimed in, to show that her understanding of things reaches way beyond mere minutes and hours. "Very late", she said.

Why are people like me allowed to procreate?

2008-11-24T03:35:00.000-08:00

Most of the time I like to think that I have this mothering thing down. But then, inevitably, I do something that makes me wonder how much my kids' therapy sessions are going to cost me.

Case in point. A couple of weeks ago, Colin had gone off to school with his dad, and I was letting Lucia catch a few extra minutes of sleep, which, trust me, is really best for everyone. While she was sleeping, I went up to the attic to use my printer for some work documents. I guess I hadn't started printing yet, as Lucia never heard me just one floor up, nor did I hear the little pitter patter of her feet getting out of bed. The next thing I knew, I heard shrieks of terror from downstairs. I ran down from the attic, to the bedroom floor, to the main floor, then to the basement, all the while calling, "Lucia, it's okay, it's okay!" She was standing at the door to the garage, looking out at the space where her dad's car was supposed to me, and screaming in terror, tears streaming down her face. She told me later that when she got up, she looked in the top bunk for Colin, looked in our bedroom, went downstairs to check if we were eating breakfast, then went down to the basement, and couldn't find a soul. I felt so terrible for her, waking up one morning and thinking her whole family had left her. That required about 15 to 20 minutes of cuddle time to get back on track.

Then about a week later, I failed miserably again. Every morning, Lucia likes to stand at the window of her classroom, and wave and blow kisses as I walk to my car. On that particular morning, I had to go into Milan, which always involves massive traffic jams, desperate searching for car parking at the metro station, then the fun ride on public transport, the employees of which are perpetually on strike. For someone who generally works from home, this causes a great deal of stress. So as I was walking out of the school, my mind was consumed with how much I was dreading the race into Milan to make sure I wasn't late for my meeting. AND I FORGOT TO WAVE TO MY LITTLE GIRL. I didn't even realize that I had forgotten until about 15 minutes later, as I was sitting in a traffic jam. I was horrified, I felt sick to my stomach all day, thinking about how awful she must have felt when mommy didn't turn around. I almost called the school and had her put them on the phone so that I could apologize, but then I thought it might upset her all over again. That afternoon when I picked her up, I thought I would wait for her to bring it up. And she didn't. So after an hour or so, I asked if she had been upset when Mommy had forgotten to wave to her. She was in a good mood at that point, so she didn't seem too put out. But for the next couple of weeks, every morning when I dropped her off at school, she would ask me at least 5 times if I was going to wave to her at the window.

So I am going to start saving up now, putting a little money aside in an account so that one day my kids can lay on a therapist's couch and spew invectives about their incompetent mom.

1st Elementary School Parent-Teacher Conference

2008-11-24T03:30:00.001-08:00

We had our first parent-teacher conference with Colin's teachers last week. It was, all'Italiana, pretty disorganized. They said that they were assigning slots for the 4pm - 6pm period, so we wouldn't have to wait long. Our slot was at 5:40pm, but we didn't see the teachers until around 6:30. We finally left around 7pm. We brought the kids along thinking that it would be a quick 20 minute deal, and we would let them briefly wreak havoc in the hallways while we talked to the teachers. Instead they ran screaming up and down the halls for about an hour and a half. At least they were really tired when we put them to bed that night!

The teachers' comments were about what we expected. They said that Colin was a bit shy for the first couple of weeks as he was trying to find his way in the new environment, but that he has really blossomed and seems to enjoy school. They said he is a very sweet boy and is a pleasure to have in the classroom. They also said, to my surprise, that he is always enthusiastic to do whatever the teachers suggest, never complains, and that when they correct him for something (like erase a letter because it wasn't written well so that he can try again) he is always positive, and says "Yes, I'll make it better this time".

One of their "concerns" (aside from the handwriting thing, which we expected) was that he "sometimes has trouble concentrating and focusing on what is going on". Basically they said that sometimes he just goes off into his own little world and starts singing a song, or telling himself a story out loud. They were saying that they had just learned a new song the other day, and that when they were done singing, Colin just sat there, happily continuing to sing the song, not really caring that the rest of the class was trying to move onto something else. They teachers said that they needed to work on this with him, because they wanted him to stay present and not distract the other kids, and I agree. But I have to tell you, the idea that Colin is so happy at school that he just starts singing or chattering away to himself, makes me smile......

Roman Holiday

2008-11-17T12:22:00.000-08:00

What a great weekend. We took the kids for their first visit to Rome (actually, Colin visited Rome with Grandma and Aunt Monna when he was about a year old, and Lucia was in my tummy at the time, which she thought was very cool). But this time, Colin was big enough to appreciate things, but Lucia was still small enough to be a bit overwhelmed by the hectic schedule.

We arrived around 6:00pm Friday night, and headed to Roberto and Jessica's apartment near the center. Then they had reservations for dinner at 8:30 at a little trattoria around the corner. Magnificent food, but by the time we got the kids to bed it was nearly 11:00pm. Not a good start to the weekend for Lucia. At any rate, we were up as usual at 7:30am, much to Roberto and Jessica's horror (they are in the process of trying for kids, up until they spent the weekend with my kids, at least). We had a great morning walking around the Coliseum. I wasn't sure how much the kids would appreciate it, but Colin really seemed to be into it. He kept grabbing my camera and taking photos. I'm sure he didn't grasp the significance of the structure, but he did seem to enjoy the visit. We walked around a bit more that day, saw the Pantheon, threw some coins into Trevi Fountain, checked out the Spanish steps. Then we spent the latter part of the afternoon at the Children's Museum, which they loved, but after having been to the one in Indy, I thought was pretty disappointing.

Lucia had a hard day. She had this cycle going on where she would be all happy and skipping along and enjoying things for a while, then she'd get all difficult, and start pushing her brother or not listening to her parents, which was followed generally by breaking down in tears and wanting to be carried and held for a while. Then she'd recover and go back to happily skipping along. The cycle continued throughout the day. The words that kept going through my mind were "Lather, rinse, repeat". But given her short night, I have to say that she did better than expected. We had a quiet pasta dinner that night at our friends' house, but she still didn't pass out that night until nearly 10:00pm.

On Sunday Roberto drove us around Rome a bit to show us some sites by car, and Sunday morning seems to be the only time you can actually get anywhere in Rome in a car. At any other time, you simply sit in your car, not moving, as people honk and scream obscenities in Italian around you. We stopped at St. Peter's Square, but unfortunately did not have time to stand in line to go through the metal detectors to go inside. We left later that afternoon, and Lucia slept for nearly 3 hours on the train home. I kept thinking as I looked around at my fellow passengers, "Do you people have any idea how lucky you are that this child is unconscious?"

We had such a great time with our friends, and Rome is truly amazing. It can be very chaotic and touristy, but it is truly amazing to walk down streets so rich with history. Colin is already planning his next trip....to Paris. Not a bad life.

Mothers and Sons

2008-11-03T12:20:00.001-08:00

As someone who works from home, I don't often get very "gussied up", as Helen would have said (well, the real reason is most likely just laziness). I might put on make-up once every 2 months. My daughter loves it when I do this, and she often comes in the bathroom to join in the fun. Her favorite thing is to take my purple eyeshadow and brush it all over her face. When she sees the results in the mirror she is ecstatic, and I love the fact that she can get away with such bold fashion statements, when at my age, I must be more concerned with minimising defects and wrinkles.

After one of our girlie sessions in the bathroom, we went downstairs, and Lucia started saying that now she was pretty. Trying to affirm my daughter's sense of self, I assured her that she was always beautiful, even without make-up, that she was my beautiful little girl. Colin was listening to this, and looks at me, and says with all of his endearing earnestness, "Mommy, you are beautiful, too."

Now I think I get the whole mothers and sons thing.

Rebel Yell

2008-11-03T11:21:00.000-08:00

It is not news to anyone who knows Lucia that she has a bit of a rebellious streak. She has been this way basically since her first few months of life, and I don't expect that it will change anytime soon. This school year has been a bit hard for her, as she is trying to cope with the concept of pre-school without Colin, her "best friend". We started the school year with sobbing every day, which broke my heart. Well, she has moved on from this stage. Now, she has decided that the best way to deal with the problem of pre-school is to rebel against it. Each day we arrive at school and check the activities board to see what she will be doing that day, and then check the menu board to see what is for lunch. And every day, she decides that she is either not going to do the activity for the day, or not eat what is offered up for lunch. to which I invariably respond, "That's fine, Lucia. You don't have to color the caterpillar drawing today." Or, "That's fine, Lucia. If you don't want to eat anything at all for lunch, you don't have to". But that is not quite good enough. She insists that I also tell her teacher that she is not going to go on the walk in the forest today, or eat pasta with tomato sauce today, and so every morning we have to go to her teacher and say, "Today Lucia doesn't want to learn a new song about fall, or she wants plain pasta instead of pasta with pesto." EVERY DAY. Every single morning, there is something she doesn't want to do or eat, and every morning I have to inform her teacher that this is the case. Of course at the end of the day, the teachers always tell me that she was perfectly happy all day long, participated in the activities and ate her lunch, but apparently she just needs to establish some ground rules before the day begins. I'm told that this kind of rebellion is normal, nothing to worry about. But then again, these so-called experts will not have to deal with Lucia as a fifteen year old.

Here is Lucia's school photo for the year. I have no idea how the photographer managed to capture her inner troublemaker so perfectly.