Colin's first piano recital

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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!

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

Nothing like a little duelling to commemorate the birth of Christ

Christmas photos

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

Christmas photos

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

Christmas photos

Colin with his remote control helicopter

Christmas photos

Getting ready for Christmas Eve mass

Christmas photos

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

Happy New Year!

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

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.