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...