First Day

Yesterday was the Boy’s first day of preschool. This is going to be one of those mundane posts with lots of pictures exactly like everyone else’s pictures, but it’s a pretty monumental step for us so just bear with me and try not to roll your eyes too much!

The first thing he said to me as soon as he woke up was “do I get to go to big school today?” (as opposed to the Baby Parking, which, as indicated by the name is little kids' school). I was both happy and sad at his enthusiasm. We got dressed and had breakfast in record time and I managed to get in a couple of obligatory first pictures, here you go:

Surprisingly, he let me put his smock on for the picture. 

The enthusiasm makes him silly

Sillier and sillier

And then we sneaked out of the house, cause the Girl was none too happy that her big brother was going to school without her and she had to go back to Daycare all on her lonesome.

The Boy was unbelievably excited at being able to ride his bike to school, “like the big kids” and I sniffled all the way (thankfully it’s a two minute ride, so I didn’t have time to really start the water works).

His preschool is right across the street from that bell tower in the background

He parked his bike right at the front entrance

We explored his classroom together, put everything in his cupboard (which he shares with another little girl), he donned his smock and was ready to go, a little sad to see me leave, but excited to meet the other kids. I walked out and thankfully ran into a neighbor so had to maintain a modicum of decorum, cause I had a LOT of pent up angst. I really hope I manage to get myself together and be a little more relaxed about this stuff or I may die from a heart attack (or lack of sleep) before they get to middle school.

Checking out the toys

You can go now, mama

other classroom

shared cupboards

Thankfully, when I got home and looked over the pictures I found something that snapped me out of my melancholic mood pronto. You may recall a recent post about the Boy’s name and our decision to possibly change it, you can read it here, but for the short version his name is Alexandre, pronounced Alexander, and we’ve started finding some difficulty with his having a foreign name (for Italy) with an unconventional spelling. This is the result:

I’m going to talk to his teachers today, cause I’d really like him to at least learn to spell his name correctly and not have any confusion on that point! As far as the legally changing it part, we’re on the fence still, we’ll see how this year goes.

At noon we rode our bikes home and had a nice quiet lunch, just the two of us, before going to get his sister from daycare. Starting today he eats lunch there, so we’ll see, they have a nice lady who cooks lunch as it’s a small parochial school so it should at least be good!

Toodles for now, I hope everyone else’s first days of school are going well!

Virtual Coffee {22}

Hello, and welcome to what is, at this point, a nightcap rather than coffee as it’s almost midnight here. Eh, no matter, any excuse to get together, right?

The day completely ran away from me today, which is not a bad thing in and of itself as it’s kept me from obsessing about the boy starting preschool tomorrow. The start of preschool here, or Scuola Materna, is emotionally what Kindergarten is in the US, cause after three years of preschool they start first grade. I know it’s not “real” school yet, but still… he gets up and goes every morning… and sure, it doesn’t matter if he misses school every once in awhile but still, after this… primary school. Sniffle.

Anyway. I picked up his grembiule today, a smock they wear over their regular clothes, from a friend who embroidered his name on the pocket for me as I’m crap with a sewing machine (of course I’ll post a picture tomorrow, you don’t even have to ask), I packed all his stuff, I dried my eyes looking at baby pictures and I went to my very first school meeting tonight. I know, all this is going to get real old, real fast, but right now all I can think is how is it possible that I think my three year old is big, he’s only three.

Ok, I’m done, moving on to other news, I went to Ikea again today for the beach apartment. I practically live there. They should be giving me stock options any day now! I’m not totally done yet (will I ever really be done??), but I did get the last of the “necessary” items (like the second bathroom sink, cabinets, mirror) and have started on the actual decorating part which, admittedly, is kind of fun. So I came back with a trunk full of pillows, and colorful fabrics, and vases, rugs and candles. Not a bad way to spend the day, even if it is an hour and a half drive, there and back. The husband is going down tomorrow to supervise the last of the furniture assembling operations and, though we would’ve enjoyed spending this weekend there, the sodding windows haven’t arrived yet so it’s going to keep sitting empty, well, furnished but empty of people.

At this point, if we were really having a nightcap together, I’d yawn and stretch and offer you a bed, because, it’s pretty late to be driving home (and we probably weren’t drinking herbal tea). We’d finish the conversation over coffee tomorrow morning, right before taking pictures of the cutest little preschooler ever. And now I’m off to charge my camera. 


Night, night. But before we sleep, pop over and visit Amy!

Silent Sunday

There's no link today cause Mocha Beanie Mummy is off playing rookie, but I'm posting anyway. So there!

I love the way….

On the first of each month I usually do a post about things I want to teach my children, but this time around I decided to try something a little different. It’s the end of summer vacation after all, the Boy starts preschool on the 7^th and I don’t really feel like giving them a set of directives, I want to give them something that makes them feel good. So, here are some of the many, many reasons I love my children, it feels like this is a good note with which to start a new (school) year!

I love the way you always grab a book as soon as we get in the car.

I love the way you (usually) share everything.

I love the fact that if I give one of you a treat you always ask for one more to give to the other.

I love that you spontaneously come up to me and give me a hug for no reason at least once a day.

I love that you never want to wear socks, ever.

I love that the two of you are always hugging each other.

I love that you play together.

I love the long, complicated, convoluted stories you tell me, both of you, even though I don’t understand all the words you use sometimes.

I love that your absolute favorite, comforting, bedtime song is a song I made up on the fly one day and had the presence of mind to record so I wouldn’t forget it.

I love that both of you get mad if I put you to bed and don’t say “I love you” on the way out the door.

I love that sometimes you look at me and tell me I look beautiful.

I love that I can’t take a shower alone because one of you always wants to come in and wash my hair.

I love that when one of you is being contrary and doesn’t want to hold hands with me, you’ll hold each other’s hand to cross the street.

I love that your favorite thing to do as soon as you wake up and right before going to sleep is look at pictures of our family and friends on the ipad.

I love that you love each other so much, it makes me feel like I’m doing an ok job after all!

I could, of course, go on for hours with this list, but I decided to give myself five minutes to write the first things that came to mind and this is it.

So now your turn, what makes you all googly eyed about your kidsters? 

Virtual Coffee {21}

Hello friends, welcome to coffee!

Today’s coffee is being served on a beach in Sardinia!

Well, the truth is it’s being served on a beach in Sardinia mostly in my imagination cause this place… not so big on service. But who’s complaining, I’m on vacation aren’t I?!

I have plenty of time to write a post complaining about the crappy resort, much like I already complained about flying CAA (Cheap Ass Air) but today I’m going to be positive and only mention the things we like, like this:

This is the beach near our resort. Each room has an assigned umbrella and two chairs, which makes our lives much more relaxed as we’re not worried about rushing down to the beach early to get the “good seats”. We’ve got a grand total of two umbrellas and four chairs as we have two rooms, so we have loads of space to play in and throw sand at each other without bothering our neighbors, this too makes for a much more relaxing time (and, in case you were wondering, by “we” in this sentence I actually mean the kids, as the Husband and I try not to throw sand at each other, unless he does something really stupid, of course!).

We’re not right at the water’s edge, we’re actually in the very last row (of five, so not bad) but we’ve discovered this arrangement is pretty good as it makes for easy running behind the dunes for emergency pee situations (ahem, not that that’s ever happened, of course).

I have the brunt of the water play duties as it’s been pretty windy (you can tell by the state of my hair), and the husband has a pretty bad cough which we’re still trying to figure out (don’t know yet if it’s permanent damage to his lungs due to the radiation therapy, but that’s fodder for another post, as we’re keeping a positive spin on this one) so I’m basically spending A LOT of time in the water with one or the other little fish (the oldest of which came up to me yesterday, pointed at me and said “mama, pruny!” – thanks kiddo!)

Yesterday though the wind let up a little and the husband braved the open sea:

It was his first dip in  over two years, he was very happy, though a little freaked out and paranoid. Today he didn’t jump in, but I guess he just needs to gain confidence in his immune system with baby steps. So we balance our mornings at the beach with more husband friendly activities in the afternoon, like ice cream eating:

And horseback riding:

And car driving:

And animal watching:

This is a miniature horse mare with her colt 

Yes, that’s a peacock in the playground. I thought that was a little weird, but they just freely roam the resort. The ostriches, horses and donkeys on the other hand are penned up. Which is lucky, because I, for one, would not like to run into an ostrich on my evening stroll, those things are huge!

Another really relaxing thing about this place is the fact that it’s really family oriented, seriously family oriented:

Those are all strollers parked at the entrance of the restaurant, the go all the way around. That’s A LOT of kids! I for one am not a great child lover, I mean, I like my own kids, I’ve just never gotten all misty eyed at the sight of other people’s kids, so I thought it would be torture being in such a child-friendly place. The truth is though, that in a place where everybody has small children, nobody gives a shit if your kid is throwing the mother of all tantrums or smearing food all over her tray and herself, they’re all too busy looking at their own offspring doing pretty much the same thing. So I don’t have to spend my time with all the “don’t scream”, “don’t play with your food”, “don’t bang on your plate” and can actually look around and (inwardly) pat myself on the back for how well mannered my kids are. No stress, plus great for my ego!

Though if we were really having coffee I’d confess that apart from the above-mentioned perks it hasn’t been the most relaxing vacation we’ve ever had, mostly due to the fact that it’s the husband’s first time away from the “comfort zone” of the hospital since we started this whole leukemia saga, but, a little worry aside, we’re very happy to actually be able to take a vacation as a family. More pictures coming soon, we are now off to visit Cagliari, a nice little city near us.

Thanks for stopping for coffee, although, now that I think of it, I probably should have served Daiquiri’s with these pictures!

And, as usual, don’t forget to visit our hostess Amy!

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Up, up and away! (Would you like to buy a watch?)

I’ve been meaning to write all week, I have loads of stuff to post, instead I’ve been packing. I packed for three days straight. And, no, I’m not moving anywhere. On Tuesday I packed an insane amount of stuff to take down to the beach house. I packed all day. Then on Wednesday I went down to the beach house to take a huge carload of stuff and once unloaded, I realized I had taken practically nothing at all. How does this happen? I mean, the car was full, to the brim, and yet the house is still empty. I didn’t even manage to take the vacuum cleaner down there cause it wouldn’t fit in the car, cause of all the stuff. And yet I didn’t even manage to make a dent in outfitting the apartment, all that work was like a drop in the ocean. I’m flummoxed.

Thursday and Friday I spent packing for our trip to Sardinia. As the beach apartment is still uninhabitable this summer, due to the lack of doors and windows, we decided to book a little last minute vacation to one of the most beautiful beach areas in Italy. Unfortunately, rather than learn from my fellow bloggers’ mistakes I decided to fly Cheap Ass Air (I refer you now to Mrs Fancy’s posts on the subject, this one here in particular, I’m blatantly stealing this moniker from her). It seemed convenient enough, CAA (cheap ass air) was flying straight from the small airport near our town, we only had an twenty minute drive to get there, much better than the usual hour and a half minimum to the next biggest airport, which still isn’t a real international airport (that’s almost three hours away), so we thought it was the best solution ever.

Let me just say, and please learn from my mistakes (though I know you’ll ignore me, much like I ignored Fancy) flying Cheap Ass Air is never the best solution, ever, and rarely is it the cheapest. In any case, armed with my previously acquired Fancy knowledge, I tried to dot all my i’s and cross all my t’s when reserving the ticket, I got extra baggage allowance, paid extra to bring my carseat, tried and failed to buy the Girl a seat even though she’s under two but apparently it’s impossible on CAA (although Fancy begs to differ), basically I did everything short of a propitiatory rain dance to ensure a smooth flying experience for my family.

Apart from the fact that we left from the only airport in the world to not have even the memory of a luggage cart anywhere on it’s premises (and though I haven’t actually flown from every airport in the world I have gone through airports that were nothing more than a hut alongside a landing strip and I’ve always found a luggage cart, but nary a one to be found here), I’d like to list a few highlights from the eventful, albeit short, thankfully, flight:

- apparently CAA is CA all around, there are advertisements everywhere you look. On the overhead luggage compartments (which incidentally we were strongly discouraged to use by the inflight personnel that kept repeating to please put our luggage underneath the seat in front of us first) there were all manner of ads, the most prolific one encouraged me to “Discover Lanzarote”, there is no place I’d rather discover less now, so not very effective advertising, in my opinion, but that’s neither here nor there.

Then again ads on the subway (metro, underground, tube, or whatever else you’d like to call it) are common enough, of course, but a subway ticket is a couple of euros at most so it’s acceptable, I would think, to try and cover the cost of running that service with a few ads, but in this case though Cheap Ass Air may be cheap (allegedly) it’s not that cheap.

- They never just shut the hell up. They are constantly on the speaker system telling you about some great deal or other you just can’t miss. Really, they just need to shut up. And when they’re not telling you to buy something or fly somewhere they put music on. I realize I’m no spring chicken, so I’m not hip or cool but really, what happened to just napping in flight to the soothing white noise provided by the plane's engines?

- They charge 3 euros for a cup of instant coffee. Now, I was travelling with both kids, one of which was on my lap because despite my attempting repeatedly to throw money at them they simply would not sell me a ticket for her, and a husband who was not on top form for the trip so I wasn’t about to risk drinking a cup of coffee (which I actually really needed, if only as a respite from the hell of travelling with two kids under four and a sick husband) but 3 euros, seriously??

- The flight attendants were actually something much more akin to those nut jobs that work on the likes of the shopping channel. They tried to entice us with the following items: smokeless cigarettes (really), perfume (not duty free of course, so why the hell would I buy perfume on an airplane?), t-shirts and (wait for it…) a watch, a Geox watch available in a variety of colors, oh and the three euro cup of instant coffee. All this on a slightly over an hour-long flight.

But the highlight of the trip, in my opinion, was provided by a fellow passenger; you see, halfway through the flight the guy sitting across the aisle from us calls the flight attendant to complain that he wasn’t getting any reception on his phone. He wasn’t getting reception on his phone. I laughed for like half an hour once the husband shared this little gem with me, it was a nervous laugh due to the possibility of all of us plummeting to a premature and violent death due to this guy’s stupidity, but still he lifted my mood for a minute so his good deed for the day is done.

Anyway, we’ve made it to our destination, I’ve unpacked, we’ve eaten, the kids are bathed and sleeping and tomorrow we’ll start exploring, though let me just say this, first impression: not great.

I won’t expound on that any further cause I’m hoping my negative outlook is due to a bit of traveller fatigue, but let’s just say that my next post will likely be about why one should never disregard the negative reviews on Tripadvisor, even if they are few and far between. As the Boy said when he saw his room “can we go home now?”.