Saturday, April 20, 2013

It Happened Again

I blinked and one of my kids turned 5!

Nicolo came into this world in a big way, all 9 lbs of him, and he stole my heart the moment I saw him.  He answered a lot of questions that I had, number one being can you love another baby as much as the first...YES! He is so different from Francesco and I love that the most about him.  He may not be my baby anymore but he will always be my baby boy. 

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Wednesday, February 13, 2013

The Things I Don’t Want to Forget




  • I truly believe that you children become what you tell them they are.  I love the saying from the book “The Help” where Aibileen tells Mae Mobley, “You are kind, you are smart, you are important.”  We say that often at our house as our family motto.  During the first week of 1st Grade Francesco had to write about himself, and this is what he wrote: I am 6 years old, I am an artist, I am kind, I am smart, I am important.  When he told me about it I almost cried. It goes to show that they are listening and my words do stay with them.
  • One night as I was putting them down to bed we recited our motto.  I usually phase it in a question like, “You are?” So I said to Nicolò, “you are?” he said “kind”, I then said “you are?” he said “smart” then I said, “and you are?” he said, “acceptable!”  I love this kid.  He is very acceptable and important.
  •  I get asked for a lot of things every morning, from where's my milk to can I have cookies for breakfast. My favorite request one morning came from Francesco, who just wanted to "snuggle for a minute."
  • One time Francesco sneezed and no one said "bless you" so he got upset.  I told him that I "blessed him 100 times" so that if no one was around or no one said "bless you" he had my blessing.  He came to me the other day as said he need more cause his 100 blessings ran out. I am really not all that surprised he was keeping track.
    •  Nicolò was looking at a book at Francesco's piano teachers house that was written in Chinese.  I asked him if he could read it his reply was, "No, it's in Spanish." Then one day he was singing the song Gangham Style which has Korean words and I asked, "what are you singing?" his reply was, "I don't know, it's Spanish."  If he doesn't recognize a language it's automatically Spanish to him.
      • Gave Francesco a kiss one day and he then appeared to be wiping it off. I said, "Why are you wiping off my kiss?" His response was, “I’m not, I am just spreading it around."
      • I asked Francesco to go ask his Dad how to wirelessly connect the PlayStation Controllers, first answer was: "put in new batteries". That did not help, so I sent him back to ask again. Second answer Francesco came back with was: "Google it".
      • Asked Nicolò what he wanted to be when he grew up, he said, "in Kindergarten".  I said no I mean when you are a real grown up, he said, "a Daddy."
      • According to Francesco if you want to get married you have to go to the city, find a girl that will be your friend, hopefully fall in love and then she will ask you to marry her.  I was curious as to why he had to go to the city, his reply was, "that's where all the marrying girls will be."  Good to know!
        • One evening asked Francesco what his favorite part of the day was? His reply, "right now, because you got home." Am I a lucky woman or what?!


          Saturday, January 26, 2013

          Come Monday

          Eight weeks seems like a long time but it's not (unless you are 32 weeks pregnant and can't sleep).  Come this Monday I go back to work and I have mixed emotions.  Part of me is excited to get back to the project that I was working on and to my co-workers who have been so supportive.  A big part of me is going to miss the one-on-one time with Carmela.  Who wouldn't miss this cutie?

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          When it comes to getting everyone out the door in the morning I am not fretting too much about that process.  I am pretty sure the morning routine will be fine, we have that fined tuned for the boys.  During the past couple of weeks I  have been getting myself and the baby ready for the day and taking the boys to school.  My fear is the "end of the day routine", even before the baby I dreaded end of the day.  What to make for dinner that doesn't take too long and is still nutritious (I am not anal about the nutritious part but try to not make it a complete week of less than perfect nutrition), getting through the homework fight(which is my least favorite task), fighting about piano practice, fighting about showers and then the stalling that occurs at bed time. Even now with me home,  the end of the day is chaos.

          Carmela is doing great, she got here first set of immunizations so she is ready for daycare.  She will fortunately get one more week at home with her Nanna before she heads off into the real world. My biggest fear about daycare is the germs, baby's always get sick once they start daycare.  Hopefully with her immunizations and with me still breastfeeding she will not fare to badly.  She is growing beautifully.  At 2 months she is 11 lbs, 3 oz and 22 inches.  She is right around the 50 percentile for head, height and weight.  It's odd to me that she is middle of the road since the boys were always at the high end of the 90 percentiles for everything.

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          We are  still breastfeeding with formula supplement but we have moved to soy formula in the past week.  I am still restricted from dairy and miss cheese terribly :-( That's okay though, she is totally worth it.  She still gets up every two to three hours at night so the breastfeeding morning and night has been helpful (since I don't have to make a bottle at 2 am).  I have some concerns about pumping at work since I've never done it and I am not sure when I will have the time or where I will do it (it not a pretty sight I tell you).  I am going to give it a try and see how it goes.

          Monday will be here before I know it and I think I am ready.

          Come Monday it'll be alright!

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          Friday, January 25, 2013

          Pleasant Surprise

          I occasionally allow the boys to take pictures with my camera as long as I am supervising.  Lately though in the midst of all the chaos that comes with a newborn the level of supervision has declined.  So when I went to pull off some pictures from my memory card I found multiple shots done Francesco that I was completely unaware that he had taken. It was obvious that their father was around but probably not paying that much attention (LOL).  It's fun to see things through his eyes and how he set up things to be photographed.  Let's say it was a pleasant surprise.

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          This is my favorite shot out of all of them, I love how Nicolo is trying not to be in the shot.

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