Ciao Famiglia di Svizzera!

I've been meaning to do this for a while...we've got a bunch of family blogwatching from Switzerland, so I thought I'd do something in Italian for the non-English speakers.

Prima, mi dispiace...non ho practicare italiano da molto tempo e che tanti errori. Forse, Pietro arriva e aggiustalo.
(First, I'm sorry...I haven't practiced Italian in a long time...there's going to be lots of mistakes. Maybe Pietro will come and fix them.)

Tante belle cose occure adesso...i capelli di Amedeo cresce velocemente. Questo fine settimana passado, ho fato taglio di capelli. In questo foto...capelli come una bambina...
(Lots of good things are happening now...Amedeo's hair is growing very fast. This past weekend, I cut them. In this picture...he's got hair like a girl.)



E...capelli come un bambino...finalmente!!! (and ... hair like a boy! Finally!)



Per due settimane, Amedeo non mangia bene. Ho preparato tante cose di buono con piccolo successo. Ero frustrata e ho pensato di mandare il povero Amedeo a un orfanotrofio. Senza avvertimento, comincia mangiare ancora. Poi vedere che sente piu energetico adesso. Vorrei sapere cosa occure nella sua testa. Anche, si vedi un po' piu' vicino delle foto, Amedeo e' un disastro gigante...questo e' il suo metodo preferito di mangiare...con cibo di tutto. Forse un po' di vitamine assorbe altraverso la sua pelle.

(For two weeks, Amedeo was not eating well. I made lots of good things with little success. I was frustrated and I thought about sending poor Amedeo to an orphanage. Without warning, he started eating piles of food again. You can see that he feels much more energetic now. I would love to be able to read his mind. If you look a little closer at the picture, you can see that he's a gigantic disaster. That seems to be his preferred method of eating. Maybe vitamins are absorbed through the skin. (yeah, dream on, mom))



Amedeo e' infatuato con i camion....specialmente il escavatrice. Questa mattina, e' fortunato, perche che un escavatrice nella strada in fronte della sua casa!!! Tante rumore...tante disordine...Amedeo e' estatico.

(Amedeo loves trucks...especially excavators. On this morning, he was lucky to have an excavator in the street in front of our house!!! Lots of noise...lots of mess...he was ecstatic.)



E un altro foto delle felice Amedeo con capelli corti.

(And another photo of happy Amedeo with short hair.)



Ciao ciao!!

Yes ... No ... Yes

I was supposed to host the PG today, but Amedeo woke up acting sick...whiny, irritable. I canceled, made a doctor's appointment. He took a 2 hour nap and woke up a new baby. I canceled the appointment and reinstated the PG invite. We were looking forward to a very boring afternoon, when Melanie and Jillian showed up!


Jillian tests out the playhut.



Amedeo impresses Jillian with his knowledge about women's shoes.

Amedeo is considering his next mommy-thwarting plan.



And, Amedeo's battlefield, the highchair. He is increasingly difficult to feed. One day, I'm sure he'll collapse of malnutrition, and I will be carted away for child abuse.

Happy Valentine's Day --And a Question

I am the lucky recipient of these flowers. I think they're from Pietro, but with all of these other boyfriends, it's hard to tell. Oh, Pietro just informed me that they came with a note. The note specifies that they are indeed from my husband. Isn't he sweet? And also very very tolerant.

So, I was mopping the floor a few minutes ago, thinking about things that are more exciting to do. I started wondering: given the chance, who would I be if I got to start over? Being a SAHM is fun and rewarding, but there numerous killjoys, like laundry, and floor cleaning. Some of these reflections started because I keep getting tagged on Facebook in notes. For example: 25 Things About You, or your Labor Experience, or what you want to do before you die (Bucket List). Mostly I don't have time to fill these out, but I'm starting to think that it's more about how boring my lists would be. So, instead of filling out a list, I'd just like to pose a question for the blog-readers out there...who would YOU be?

My answer: I'd be an actress. It suits my personality. I adore attention (big surprise since I'm a Leo.) I really like becoming different people. Comedy is my favorite, but I also think drama is a tremendous amount of fun. The downside is that I'm awful at memorizing scripts, I get stagefright, and I'm incredibly self-conscious.

I'd really like to hear what everyone else would like to be...c'mon people, do a little fantasizing!! It is mandatory, or else I shall come at you with one of my giant roses. Those thorns are awfully nasty-looking!

Um, More Shots Please!

Last night Amedeo slept through without waking! We put him down around 7:45, and he got up at 6! Holy Cow! Pietro thought he was dead...I assured him that he was sleeping. He has only done this once in his life...let's hope for more of this stuff. Though, I'm not expecting it. His naps were longer than usual today and I feel it is due to the shots from yesterday. Can we take him back for more sedatives tomorrow?

I was going to post a picture, but blogger won't let me.

Happy First Birthday, Amedeo!

Yesterday was the big 1.0. Amedeo reports that it doesn't feel any different from before. Here's a summary of his big day.

Before his first nap, we saw two street sweepers cleaning up all that salt the county dumped on us. He LOVES big trucks. He was very excited to see these guys!

We had a make up Gymboree class. It was a large class, but I think he had fun. He especially enjoyed walking up the slide, then falling on his belly, to slide down backwards. At first, I thought he was especially clumsy, but then I decided after watching him grin that he was doing it on purpose.


When balls are involved, he is happy!

In the late afternoon, we had my parents over for presents and dinner. Here's the PlayHut that we got him and a few presents. Notice the cat inside the playhut.

Ok...more cats in the playhut. Seriously, they were having major fun in this thing. Amedeo has shown a tiny bit of interest. Maybe we'll take it down and show it to him when he's older.

Some bath shapes that stick to the tub walls. I was thinking that he'd stay IN the tub if he had cool stuff to play with...mostly he chews on these. Nice soft foam = great teether. Hmmm. Maybe we'll have to put these away too.


Grandma gave him some soap crayons. Pietro and I had fun drawing on the tub. Amedeo didn't care. Well, he enjoyed erasing the pictures we drew.

His spaceship. I got this because I thought Pietro would have fun playing with it. This one is pretty cool.


And, Grandma and Grandpa got him a stool. He does enjoy taking out the puzzle pieces...and he likes to climb on the stool to get to the sofa so he can harass the cats. Yeah!


More toys...mom went a little nuts.



Maybe we won't pack it up just yet.

The birthday cake. Ever since I can remember, I've had memorable birthday cakes. Mom always asked me what kind of cake I wanted...a cat cake, a whatever cake. They were always neat looking...I have some big shoes to fill. Amedeo smiled when he saw the cake. And since he's been to so many birthday parties...he knew exactly what this was.



Apple spice cake with vanilla buttercream frosting.


A pretty big slice for a small fry...I think he ate about half of it.

We had his doctor's appointment today. Here are the 1 year stats: 21lbs (20th), 31.25 inches (90th) and I can't remember the head circumference. The doc concluded, he is tall and skinny. Not a big surprise.

I asked about honey...she said that grocery store honey that is processed is fine, just don't give him raw stuff. We're going to give him that PolyViSol since we're still breastfeeding. I'm going to try some milk with him soon, but I suspect he'll take to it very slowly...hence the vitamins. We can also turn the carseat around now! Yay! I think we'll do it this weekend.

Thanks very much for all the birthday wishes! Amedeo is so lucky to have so many friends! (Me too!)

Review and Waiting for the Next Curveball

Yesterday, the weather was in the 50s, so we spent some time in the backyard. Amedeo wore his new shoes, courtesy of grandma and grandpa. I think he's working on more teeth...everything still goes in his mouth: sticks, leaves, pinecones....etc.


I'm glad we have a fence.


In this pic, I look like a giant, thanks for pointing that out, Pietro. Amedeo has quite a lot of growing to do if he's going to catch up with me!


He loves walking holding on to fingers. I try to practice with him lots so he'll learn to walk on his own faster. I'm looking forward to walking...


Poppy and Amedeo. I got Pietro this jacket at Eddie Bauer yesterday...they're having a 40% off sale on their clearance. They've got some awesome deals...and there are still lots of sizes left.


OK...so EMILY1 IS AWESOME! She sympathetically listened to my ranting and raving about Amedeo NOT taking naps. She suggested that I place his crib mattress on the floor of his room, which would make it easier to transfer him down. SCORE! It works...he's been napping really well...thank you, thank you, thank you, for saving my sanity.

One of his birthday presents came in this box. He LOVES the box. I haven't given him the present yet, but I doubt I'll need to since the box is his favorite. He climbs in and out, in and out. And, cat toys are the THING. Hysterical laughter...too bad it could poke his eye out. Otherwise I'd put one in his crib...maybe he'd sleep better at night. Or at least have something fun to do when he woke up.

When is was nose-freezing cold, I took him outside to walk around. He was in the not-napping phase, so I thought some frigid air might make him sleepy. I think the neighbors were thinking I'm a bad mother for taking him out on such a cold day. I got some weird looks. Or maybe it's just the walker is kind of bizarre.

And, on Thursday, Kristin and Chrisaetos (I think I spelled it right, but not sure...) hosted a playgroup. Her house is very nice, and has a big space for playing. I learned that Amedeo is not a climber (yet.)


So, that's the review from last week and the weekend...things are going along nicely. Amedeo has made big strides in eating. We took him to Fudruckers last night. I gave him some bites of my buffalo burger, and he was hooked. He held that burger in a death grip. He's been able to handle table food much better. Last week, he'd take things in him mouth, chew them, and spit them out. Now, he will swallow about 50% of the time! Yay! He seems to tolerate spoon feeding while he's got something in his hand to chew on...I feel like I'm one step ahead of him right now. Not to sound pessimistic (I think of it as realism), but I'm sure he's working on the next curveball. Here's to waiting for the other shoe to drop!!!

Hooray for Chaos!

On Tuesday, we hosted our hospital playgroup's group birthday party. Everyone brought something, which helped my workload tremendously. In total, we had 11 babies, all of whom were one or about to turn one. And Andrea's mom and sister came and brought the 12th baby, who was 14 months old. There were 14 adults, which rounds the grand total to 26 people!

Decorations, provided by Andrea. Plates and napkins by Emily1. I strung Cheerios onto elastic bracelets for the babies. Amedeo enjoyed chewing them off the elastic. Not pictured: Lindsey brought a lovely selection of breads. Emily2 brought beverages, sodas, and a very tasty red wine. Tammy provided chips and salsa and Dana arrived with some mini quiches. Amedeo really liked the quiche...he chewed on one of those for a long time! Melanie brought the veggie tray and dip. We've been enjoying the leftover carrots!

We had a present exchange...I saw lots of cute things. Amedeo got a book, Snuggle Puppy and a stuffed kitty from Jack. He loves both...and enjoys laying on top of the kitty.

Denise made lasagne. Archana's mom made Indian fried rice. Both were delishous!

I made some turkey chili...it comes out different every time I make it...very easy to do in the slow cooker.

Another view of the chaos. The babies were all very good.

Emily on the left, the beverage mistress.

Lindsey, feeding the wildlife.

Melanie...with Jaden...not her baby.

Here's Jillian, Melanie's daughter.

Pietro came to the party during his lunch break despite all the work and deadlines. Yay for Poppy!

Amedeo was a good host. No meltdowns!

I made banana cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. (From the book, Crazy About Cupcakes. I can post the recipe if there's any interest. Pietro has been defrosting them and eating them for breakfast. His assumption, if there's fruit of any kind involved, you can eat it for breakfast.)Here are a few of the cupcake eaters. The aftermath was not as messy as I anticipated. These kids are relatively neat! Go moms!!!

I don't know what is going on with Google Blogger...but this has been hell to format. Stupid program. I wish they'd leave it alone once in awhile. Anyhoo...if I missed anyone, it is due to the program!

Thanks for all the help! It was a very special day!

So, who's hosting the 2nd birthday party???