The bus

A little before 8 in the morning: Auro waiting with the other children for the schoolbus

Getting on the bus with a smile!

The magic number

Many friends have always told me that once your child turns 3, things become much easier. Auro has indeed changed a lot over the past couple of months and has become much more independent. On the 17th of September, we celebrated his 3rd birthday with a little party at home and some days later (on the 21st) he started school (a small kindergarten or asilo in a beautiful place, high on a mountain, with an amazing view) . In Italy, sending a child to school for the first time is taken very seriously. The first days or weeks (depending on the child) is called the inserimento period (or acclimation period). During this time a child is allowed to gradually get used to this new world that is opening up to him. So, the first 3 days he went from 10 o'clock until 11. The first day I stayed with him for an hour. The next day for half an hour. The 3rd day I was asked to wait outside. On the 4th day he took the schoolbus and we followed by car. The next day he took the bus by himself and I went to pick him up before lunch time. After that he was ready to be picked up after lunch. And, today, exactly 2 weeks since his first day, he will stay in school the whole day. A little before 8 this morning he got on the yellow schoolbus, and around 16:15 I will be waiting for him at the bust stop!! I don't know if this inserimento period exists in other countries, but I had never heard of anything like this. I must say: it seems to be a good thing. After all, it is a big change for a small kid and this way he can ease into his new situation without too many tears. Of course, Auro did cry a little bit the first days, but now he seems to be ok with the idea of being away from me and spending time with other children playing, drawing, listening to stories...  

While Auro was busy turning 3, also Tosca went through a big change. Except for the fact that she caught her first cold (fever, stuffy nose and lots of crying and sleepless nights), she woke up one morning with a little tooth sticking through the gums on her lower jaw. Some days later, a second one showed itself. Tosca is no longer toothless! Her nights of undisturbed peaceful sleeping, unfortunately, have not returned yet. She still wakes up almost every night and cries, cries, cries...

Auro with his birthday crown (to my surprise he wore it practically the whole day!)

 

First day of school!

Tosca and her 2 first little teeth

A bit messy, but very tasty cookie!

News

It`s been a while since the last post, so to bring you up to date speedily, here`s a list of some of the more important `news`.

*Me and the children spent most of the summer in Cesenatico while Remo stayed in Genoa to work (at the institute and in the house). For little Tosca the heat and humidity was a bit overwhelming (read: lots of crying and desperate thumb sucking), but Auro had the time of his life. Not just on the beach, but also in the garden, in the city park... basically in any other place where he could find `toys`.

On the beach: Tosca sucking her thumb because she is sleepy

Tosca and her cousin Ginevra

* While we were in Cesenatico, I took Auro to the hairdresser for the first time. Since the day his hair became long enough for a haircut, I have been the one who did the cutting, so I figured it was time for a professional to get a go at it. It wasn`t easy to convince Auro to have a stranger touch his hair, but 2 visits later (the first time he wouldn`t even sit down, so we had to go back home) he looked like this!

*It took some time and effort, but, while we were enjoying ourselves in Cesenatico, Remo built a wall! We have been trying to come up with a plan to re-organize the garden and after seeing this wall, we have decided to buit a lower version of this beauty and a fence on top all around the garden.

*Only the part where the garden stops abruptly and there is a small stream running 2 meters below, we decided to put a net fence and have climbing plants make a natural wall. The poles are already in place and soon we will put up the net and plant the plants.

Unfortunately, we had a little accident with one of the unused poles (it fell on Auro`s face and cut right through his upper lip-cheek area) and he needed to be rushed of to the emergency room where he got 6 stitches. After the inital swelling went down, Auro cheered up again and if he doesn`t touch the crust too much it shouldn`t leave too big of a scar!

*Since the accident, Auro has not slept by himself anymore. The first night I took him in bed with me (more to soothe my guilty conscience than anything else), and from the 2nd night on Tosca has been sleeping in the same room as Auro! (Auro now sleeps in a big bed, while Tosca sleeps in Auro`s old bed.)

*Tosca continues to grow and she does something new nearly every day. She has started rolling over (from back to stomach and the other way around) and has no difficulties anymore in grabbbing even the smallest toys and bringing them to her mouth for closer inspection. 

Since she recently turned 6 (months), I have started to give her solids.The first day not much actually made it to her stomach, but from day 2 she devoured her new food and she is now eating three meals per day (and I still breastfeed her 4 times a day!). Today she successfully had a meal in her high chair (supported by cushions and towels), so from tomorrow she will join us at the table when we eat!

paediatrician visit

On Wednesday, we took our children to see the new paediatrician (because we moved out of the city, we also had to change doctors!). She had a thorough look at Tosca and updated the info in Auro's file. Tosca has doubled her weight since birth and now weighs 6,2 kg. She has also grown quite a bit and is now 64 cm 'tall'. Auro wouldn't keep still on the scale and therefore weighed only 14 kg, but at home he weighs about 15 kg. Whereas his weight is within the norm, he is 98 cm tall and is still considered a bit tall for Italian standards.

In September, Auro will start going to the kindergarten and since they serve hot meals for lunch, we also needed to ask the paediatrician for a letter saying that we are vegetarians. Unfortunately, she said that she couldn't do that, so we will have to write our own letter to the school and hope that they will respect our wishes and not give meat to Auro. We will see how that goes...

I also had another try and asked whether she could help with my breastfeeding problem (the pain I had before disappeared for a while, but then it came back, though luckily not as strongly as before), but, even though she seemed very empathetic, she couldn't help me. I was, by the way, recommended to get an ultrasound of my right breast...

Forget-me-not

Lately it seems that I'm always writing about Auro and I  never have any news about Tosca, so here is a post entirely dedicated to my little flower. 

In short: she is doing great. She is growing and becoming more beautiful every day. Since she started sleeping through the night (more than 2 months ago), she has not woken up again during the night. That is until last night... She woke up around 2 this morning and wanted to be fed. Actually, she seems to be going through a bit of a difficult period recently, because she also cries more often than usual. Also new are the ear-piercing shrieks of frustration she lets out when she doesn't succeed in grabbing the toy she wants. I wonder if that is typical for girls? Auro certainly didn't do that.

Tosca is nearly 20 weeks old, but I have no idea how much she weighs, nor how 'tall' she is. On Wednesday we have an appointment with the pediatrician, so I will have more numbers by then. Today she did skip her 3rd nap (the one towards the evening) for the first time, so I'm hoping that is what she needed to return to her uninterrupted night's sleep.

Success story

Potty-break during dinner

It's official: Auro is finally potty trained! It took some time and all the positive reinforcement techniques I could think of (from encouraging and complimenting to awarding every effort and result with little stickers, candies and presents), but it seems that the final step, and I'm not proud of this, was taken with an old-fashioned punishment technique. After he had 'soiled himself' for the 3rd time in one day, I lost it and slapped him on the hand (in my defense: I had warned him after the 2nd time). I then left him crying outside while I went inside to fight off the urge to hug him and apologize (no matter how angry I am, it's always heartbreaking for me to see him in tears). Anyway, more than 1 week has passed since this episode and I have not had to change his trousers even once! I'm going to relish this new-found happiness for another bit (and regain my powers) and then... that diaper he still wears during the night is coming off too!

I had wrapped all these Duplo blocks separately and every time Auro sat down on his potty and 'produced' something he was rewarded with a present (small present for number 1 and a big one for number 2).

Genovese

 I like our new neighbors. Let me tell you why. They own a piece of land up in the mountains where they grow vegetables. Apparently, we have entered the zucchine season and, yesterday, we were presented with a bag full of fresh zucchine (with the flowers still attached). Not only that, they also gave us a big bunch of basil leaves. As soon as I get some eggs from the store, I am planning to make zucchine ripiene (zucchine stuffed with ricotta cheese), but in the mean while, like a real Genovese, I processed all the basil into pesto. Since it was the first time for me to try this, I wasn't sure if it would come out OK, but seeing Auro eat 3 plates of pasta, it couldn't have been too bad ;-) 

Wet

Who needs to go to the beach if there is enough sand in the garden and a big bucket with fresh spring water to play with? And now that we are on the subject of 'getting wet', Auro has been 'dry' and without a diaper for 3 days already! It took a while and I was about to give up, but it seems he has got it under control now...

60

On the 19th of June, Remo's mother turned 60. A special birthday requires a special gift, but what do you get for someone who seems to have everything already? Luckily, Lara (Remo's sister) remembered that one of the things her mother once mentioned as something she wanted to do before dying is to ride in a sidecar. So, all we had to do was find a motorbike with sidecar (preferably with driver). Easier said than done. It actually took some weeks (and some visits to a local biker's bar) before we (read: Lara) found a guy owning a sidecar, willing to come down to Cesenatico and drive my mother-in-law around for a couple of hours... and all for a reasonable price! But it was so worth it.Tears of commotion upon seeing a bike with an empty sidecar pull up in front of the house. 

Dream fulfilled!

Mission accomplished!

Dance

During the latest auditions of So You Think You Can Dance, a young dancer of unparalleled talent was discovered. Some of you might remember the little happy dance Auro so proudly performed in a Chinese shopping mall  a little over a year ago? Well, he had rhythm then and he still has it! 

 

Fever

On Saturday and Sunday, Cesenatico hosted the Biker Bikini Benefit, an (at least I think) annual biker's event organized by a local bar. Over the weekend, Cesenatico changed from a rather quiet port town mostly visited by families looking to spend some relax time on the beach, into a noisy bikers nest when heavily tattooed men dressed in leather came flooding in from all over the country on their shiny motorbikes. The ideal opportunity to show Auro some real choppers, cruisers and Harley Davidson's! It was absolutely wonderful to see how his jaw dropped open in awe when one bike after the other drove past us. He was also more than happy to pose with the bikes he liked most ;-)

Last night, unfortunately, Auro developed a high fever. 2 paracetamol suppositories and a sleepless night later, luckily, the fever disappeared and he is feeling much better now. Let's hope that tonight will bring him lots of sleep and 'peaceful' dreams about beautiful motorcycles.

Time off

After my family had left Genoa, Remo's parents came to visit. Because Remo had to go to China for a week,we had decided that the children and I would travel back with them to Cesenatico.

So far we have been enjoying our little holiday. Having all that extra time to spend with my children, I decided to get serious about Auro's potty training. In the morning, we put on his swim-shorts, that are easy to rinse, and we make him sit on his potty at regular intervals. So far, it's not too bad. It is clear that he is physically able to do what he is supposed to do, but he doesn't really want to. It reminds me very much of the time when he was learning to eat with a spoon. He could do it, but he preferred me to feed him. After 2 or 3 days of crying and not eating (because I refused to feed him), he got over it and picked up the spoon. We have not quite yet reached the final stage yet, but I am very hopeful ;-)

In the car, all safely buckled up

Tosca's first time on the beach

...no comment ;-)

Déjeuner sur l'herbe

Last Saturday, at around 6:30 in the morning, my family from Belgium arrived at the house! During the next 5 days I forgot I was in Italy: the main language spoken in the house was Dutch,  and while the  mayonnaise was always on the table, the empty beer bottles piled up in the kitchen ;-). 

Auro had a great time talking to/playing with/climbing on his new victims. Zita needed some days to appreciate her cousin's 'entertaining qualities', but at the end decided to reward his efforts with 15 minutes of uninterrupted laughter! Tosca was her happy self and smiled at anyone who would give her some attention. She even kept smiling after she got a nasty sunburn in her face (pieces of her skin came off and she looked horrible, but it's nearly gone by now).

Picnicking in the mountains, or our own déjeuner sur l'herbe as my brother so wittingly compared it to

Zita reading a bedtime story to her father

Vaccinated

Today, Tosca is exactly 3 months old and this morning we had an appointment for her first vaccinations (7 vaccinations in 2 shots, one in each thigh). For the next set we have to go back on the 25th of July.

Tosca is growing well. In 3 months time, she gained a little more than 2 kilos (from 3,130kg at birth to 5,240kg today) and grew 11cm (50cm at birth, 61cm today!). And all of that with my milk ;-)

The pain

I am convinced that breastfeeding is one of the best gifts you can give to your child. This gift, however, sometimes comes at a high price for the mother. Because, whereas breastfeeding is thought to be something very instinctive and natural, more often than not it it something that one needs to learn. Not only can it be very painful in the beginning, I find that there is a lack of supportive doctors for those who want to overcome those pains and continue breastfeeding. Switching to bottle-feeding is very often seen as the only solution to breastfeeding pains. I agree that sometimes it is better to quit. If the pain is so strong that feeding becomes pure torture and you literally become afraid of your own baby, then it is maybe better to stop. However, I also think that with the proper support and advice you can get rid of the pains. Breastfeeding is not supposed to hurt.

Anyway, because I suffered a lot in the beginning with Auro, I was prepared to go through it again with Tosca. And indeed, after about 6 weeks of sore and cracked nipples (toe-curling pain!), it finally seemed to get better. Around Easter, however, I again started to have a burning pain during the feedings (only on one side) and shots of pain in my breast in between the feedings. It hurt so much that I had to take paracetamol to find some relief and I decided to seek 'professional' help. We first went to the consultorio (a place where you can go with all your child-raising questions, on given days they also provide free consults with pediatricians, obstetricians or gynecologists ) where an obstetrician looked at my breast and told me I did not have mastitis (inflammation of the breast). She told me to leave my breast uncovered as often as possible. This did help with the cracked nipples, but the deep breast pains after the feedings remained.

I then looked for a La Leche League group in Genoa. By this time we suspected thrush (a yeast infection) to be the culprit of my pains and the La Leche League people agreed. They told me to have a doctor prescribe me some medicine. 

We then went to see a friend of a friend, who is a gynecologist at the hospital where I gave birth. Grateful as I am for her seeing us during her lunch break, she could not help me much and could not give me any medicine. She told us to have it looked at by a pediatrician. 

In the meanwhile we had found out that doctors used to prescribe gentian violet for thrush and that very often solves the problem. More importantly, we found out that you could get it at the pharmacy without prescription. Finally something I could try! Since they didn't have it in stock, we ordered it at the pharmacy. 

Then, we went to see our family doctor. She must be the most ignorant doctor there is, because first she said that one can not have a fungal infection on the nipple. She then continued by saying that I needed to take antibiotics (which only a gynecologist can prescribe) to treat the thrush (antibiotics can make a yeast infection worse!) and stop breastfeeding right away. When I uttered that there are antibiotics that one can use during breastfeeding, she admitted that that was also a possibility, but more importantly that I should go see my gynecologist. 

At this point I started loosing my patience. I decided to give myself until the end of the month to fix this problem or I would stop breastfeeding.

Anyway, after the completely useless visit to our family doctor, we then tried with the pediatrician. Surprise, surprise: he had a look and decided it wasn't mastitis. He then said that we'd better go to the gynecologist.

Exactly one week ago, I got my hand on a bottle of gentian violet and I started using it in the evenings. Messy as it is (it stains the nipple purple and everything that comes in contact with it... after a feeding Tosca is left with a purple mouth, chin and cheeks), it did seem to help. The pain became bearable and some feedings were actually pleasant.
 Then, we did what we should have done from the very beginning: we went to the maternity department in the hospital where Tosca was born and asked to see the pediatrician there. We had to wait a little, but it was worth it. She agreed that it might be thrush, but that she couldn't be sure because there are no visible symptoms. The pains I described to her (she actually wanted to know about them!) did seem to point in the direction of a yeast infection. She prescribed Daktarin, a cream that I have been using for 2 days now. I can't really say whether it is getting better or not, but it seems to be better. It definitely didn't get worse. I still have some pain in between the feedings, but a lot less than before.I really hope I can start enjoying feeding my baby soon!

Topo Gigio

It's amazing how children copy everything we do. Auro, for example, watches me breastfeed Tosca every day and, doing so, he also sees me in a lot of pain from time to time (I will 'dedicate' another post to that later). One day, Auro asked me to look at him because he was breastfeeding 'Topo Gigio' (a character from a well-known Italian animation). At first I thought I had misunderstood somehow, but then I heard him making suckling sounds and so I looked. He had his hand close to his nipple and in it he was holding something what I can only assume to be an invisible Topo Gigio. He then pointed to his left nipple saying that it was painful from that side, but that the other side was ok. (I have a painful right breast, so that becomes the left one for Auro) Despite all the pain, however, he stubbornly continues to feed his Topo Gigio every now and then. Believe it or not, but the other day I noticed that after a feeding he even burps 'his baby'!!

Flowers!!

Happy Mother's Day! 

I hope nobody was forgotten. My boys remembered ;-)

La madrina

After Tosca's godfather's visit some weeks ago, also her 'madrina' came to Italy to meet her godchild. Tosca, who had just struggled through a somewhat difficult couple of weeks (lots of crying and many nearly-sleepless nights) was a perfect hostess and greeted Wendy and Olaf with lots of beautiful baby-smiles. Also Auro, even though he was a bit confused about our guests' names, was on his best behavior and not only showed them around the house, but also demonstrated every toy he had in his room ;-)

On Saturday, we went for a hike in Cinque Terre, five villages on the Ligurian coast that are so beautiful that even UNESCO made them into a World Heritage Site. Having to carry a 2 year old and a baby along, we only hiked from Corniglia to Vernazza, but it was more than worth it!

Starting point: Corniglia

Leaving Corniglia behind us

Arriving at Vernazza

On demand

The other day, I was told that there were so few photos of Tosca on the blog and that when Auro was born I was posting so many. Don't worry: I am taking photos of Tosca as well! Taking care of 2 kids, however, keeps me quite busy and I just don't seem to find the time to post any of them. Anyway, on general demand, here are some photos taken in the last 2 weeks...

Tosca, nearly one month old, drunk on milk (26 March)

Lunch at home with our guests from Japan (Tosca was asleep) (29 March)

Another relaxing moment on the sofa after one (of the many) feedings (1 April)

On Sunday we drove up to the Praglia Planes (15 minutes from the house), where Auro tired himself...

... and Tosca drank milk and napped under a tree! (2 April)

Yesterday, Auro smelled all the flowers in the garden...

until his nose was yellow! (5 April)

This was taken this morning before going to the supermarket

A proud big brother with his baby sister (even if she wakes him up several times during the night with her persistent crying) ... by the way, if anyone knows how to turn this photo... let me know, because I have no idea how to do it ;-)

Ginevra

This morning, Lara, Remo's sister, (finally) gave birth to a little baby girl. We welcome Ginevra (Italian version of the Celtic name Guinevere) and congratulate Lara on becoming a 'mamma'. Congratulations also to myself, since I am now officially a 'zia' (Italian for 'aunt'). Hurray for all of us!!

Visitors

From the moment Tosca was born, we have had some visitors. Some visited us in the hospital, others drove/flew all the way to our house in Ceranesi. Some stayed for 1 week, others just for some hours. But they all came to see our little girl and they all came bearing gifts ;-) A big thank you to all of them!!!

The one who was waiting the most for Tosca to arrive was Auro. He helped me prepare all the baby clothes and tested some of the other baby things to make sure they were comfortable enough ;-)

After his first visit to the hospital, Auro had already memorized the way to my room. Here you see him caressing his little sister for the first time. Also now he still uses every opportunity he gets to touch her and give her many (wet) kisses!

The first one to arrive at the hospital was Patrizia (the cousin of Remo's mother). She was so fast that she actually visited me an hour after I had given birth and I was still in the delivery room! (This photo is taken in the house, not in the delivery room!)

Second one to arrive at 'the scene' was Remo's mother. Tosca is her 2nd grandchild and she is currently waiting for the 3rd one to be born (Remo's sister)!

Remo's mother had just left (she stayed with us for a week and helped us out with cooking, cleaning and unpacking some of the boxes) and we had our first visitors from Belgium: my father and my aunt! They also stayed with us for about one week and besides putting up with my postnatal tiredness and mood swings, they helped a lot in improving/cleaning the house.

Tosca sleeping through our lunch in a restaurant close to the house.

The (for the moment) last visitors arrived from Belgium last Saturday and stayed only for 1 afternoon! My cousin Kim, who is the proud 'padrino' of Tosca, flew to Italy just to meet his godchild! A short, but very meaningful visit!