Weekend Walk

This past weekend was simply glorious here in Seattle. The sun was out and everyone took advantage of the chance to get some extra vitamin D. We went on a family walk with the new baby backpack that I got Deme for Valentine's Day. It holds up to 40 pounds comfortably and makes hiking fun for kids since they get a great view from up there.

Veronica loves the view from up high in the backpack. She notices birds, cats and dogs most of all.

Lorenzo is not facing outwards in the Baby Bjorn, his head and neck control are really improving and he likes to look at people passing by.

Veronica refuses to keep clips, rubber bands in her hair for any decent period of time. She ends up pulling them out and taking large tufts of hair out as well.

Veronica's Cappuccino

Deme told me he used to think that parents who spoke about their kids all the time, how great they were, how funny they were, how beautiful and smart they were etc.... we are all crazy lunatics BUT now he finds himself taking about Veronica and Lorenzo all the time. I find myself enjoying all the funny little things they do and so I take photos of everything, the good, the bad and the ugly.
Deme has taken to making Veronica a cappuccino (minus the coffee) every other morning, she likes watching him foam the milk and then loves the cocoa powder dusted on top.

This girl likes to try everything and will even suck on a coffee stir stick after Deme adds sugar to his espresso, she also loves green tea.

Veronica's Swimming Lessons

Since we will heading to Guam in less than a month, we thought it was a good idea to get Veronica used to the water and used to swimming by enrolling her in swimming lessons. She loves the pool and gets very excited when we arrive.

Since the class is a parent taught class, one of us has to get into the pool with Veronica. I do it during the week and Deme does it on the weekend.

She used a flotation device with 4 pieces, as she gets better and better at swimming, the pieces are removed slowly one by one until she is swimming da solo.

The lessons include safety skills such as how to hang onto the side of the pool for quite a while in case a child falls in and needs help getting out. They are taught to hang onto the side of the pool until help comes. If no help is near, the child is taught how to climb out of the pool in their own. Here Veronica is just climbing out of the pool.

The fun part of knowing how to climb out of the pool is jumping back in. She can even jump off the diving board but I missed the photo opportunity. She is becoming a great little swimmer.

Fossette (Dimples) Galore +Other News

My mom's dad had dimples, I have a little dimple, my sister has a dimple and several cousins have dimples as well. No one in Deme's family has them so I guess we can conclude that the dimples are from my side of the family. Finally, offspring that look like me.

No dimple in this photo just a cute little smile and a gorgeous heart shaped mouth. People go to plastic surgeons to get lips like Lorenzo's.

The dimple in the right side of his cheek is bigger than the one on his left, I have yet to get a photo of that one.

**Other news: Veronica has started swimming lessons. She has also weaned herself off the bottle and now goes to bed with a sip of milk from her cup. Veronica has discovered cappuccino and loves the foam. She is making more animal sounds than ever and is learning a few signs (mainly ancora (more) and buona/o (good to eat)).

Anna's Wedding Weekend

Deme was overwhelmed with all the estrogen in the air with me, my mom and two sisters in the house. Here is he bonding with Lorenzo at lunch.

My mom gave my sister Anna away and my sister Sara flew in to help make the wedding run smoothly.

Deme and I were lucky that the kids were nice and quiet during the short ceremony. Veronica made a great speech at dinner though.

Kentra might be the next to get married. Anna (the bride) is only 5 minutes older than her younger sis.

Here is the bride in all her glory. The ceremony was short and sweet and there was not a dry eye in the house.

Cold Turkey

My mom left this morning and I did not take her to the airport. We called a Town Car to pick her and her bags/boxes up. (After 4 months she accumulated quite a bit of stuff.) Instead I took the kids to a new playgroup of Italian kids that meets only once a month. I was dying to go and since we will be seeing my mom in about a month, she said it was fine that we did not take her. Having my mom here was wonderful, today I said I did not want her to go and she asked me if I was tired of her yet. I quickly replied "No, never."

My day is almost over, Deme and I have had dinner and as he watches a movie, I am typing away. Part of me dreaded being along with the kids. Only rarely over the last 4 months have I had to take care of the kids 100 percent alone. I worry about feeling overwhelmed and not being able to care for them both adequately. It was a fun day, we went to have coffee with the Italians then we went to the park for another hour or so. When we got home both kids took good naps and played at home until the dinner hour. Tonight I did fine. It was a lucky night. I fed both kids, changed both kids and tried to put Lorenzo to bed. After turning all the lights in the house down and walking him around for 30 minutes or so, he was drowsy enough to be placed in his crib. I immediately began getting Veronica ready for bed as 7:30 pm was quickly approaching, luckily Lorenzo fell asleep in his own and I got Veronica to bed just as Deme was arriving home. Whew!

Once in a while when both kids are crying because they are tired and hungry, I feel my blood pressure rising and I worry if I am going to blow my top. I used to take care of 4 kids at a time as a nanny and now I often question my competence with two. I know there is hope, as Lorenzo grows and matures he will be more able to wait to be fed when he is hungry and will need less coddling before naps. I know in 3-6 months time I will enjoy my children much more, they will have a mom that loves to be around them instead of one that wants to run away at the first sign of trouble.
When I feel like I cannot handle both kids, I watch this show.


Veronica is constantly trying to give her baby brother kisses. Sometimes she is too rough and makes him cry.


Today she almost crawled into the baby chair with him. He protested when she placed all her body weight on top of him.

Veronica in Reno

Veronica loved visiting Reno and seeing all her aunties. She especially loved going out to eat. Here is she is a Vietnamese restaurant waiting for her lunch.

Whenever food comes her way she smiles and sometimes while she is eating she does a happy food dance.

Auntie Anna and Veronica were playing in the suitcase when we all got the idea to send Veronica to nonna Stefania this way next summer.

Where is Veronica?

Peek a Boo!

Disaster Averted

Pictures do say a thousand words. Last week Veronica bonked her head on a piece of furniture while I was at the grocery store. My mom and Deme were both babysitting at the time. The cut looks worse than it is since when I got home from buying some goodies for dinner, all the tears were dry and she was as happy as she always is. No harm was done and the cut closed up the very next day.

CIO=Cry It Out

Everybody has their own method for putting baby to sleep. I have read 4 different books so far, Health Sleep...Happy Baby, No-Cry Sleep, Babywise, Solving Sleep Problems. I almost ready to so resort to this, now if I only had 50K. It is true I am desperate for some sleep. Mom is leaving in about 2 weeks and I am scared. I am afraid of becoming more of a wreck than I already am. But if you look at the photos below, you'll see I am not the only one who is a sleep deprived wreck.


Here Lorenzo looks really worried. Daddy fell asleep again while babysitting. Notice the white spit up stains on his black t-shirt.


Whenever Daddy D'Ambrosi gets a chance, he takes a snooze on the couch to catch up on the zzzz's he is not getting.

**Note: Blogger spellchecker is not working so I apologize for any possible misspellings.

Kiddie Update-3 Months Old

Lorenzo is 3 months old today, he is smiling, giggling, cooing and being a sweet little baby. We do not need to have him vaccinated this month and that is good news to us. His sleep habits have improved slightly but still he is not going very long at night, often waking up every 1-2 hours. I think that because his sinuses are so clogged up all the time he wakes himself up at night as a protective mechanism. I am still counting the days until he turns 4 months old and will sleep more.

Everyone has been telling me Lorenzo looks huge. Here he is in all his chubby glory. He does not have very many fat rolls but is mainly stocky all over. I admit he is on the chunky side but I bet that is from the fact we use the bottle as a pacifier when he fusses since he will not take a real cuiccio. He weighs about 7 kilos, 15 pounds and is nice and healthy. The only problem he has is the hereditary stuffy D'ambrosi sinuses.

We use a swaddling blanket on Lorenzo whenever we put him to bed and Veronica has decided she wants to swaddle all her babies as well. She walks around the house all day with babies and blankets.

This little guy is getting stronger and stronger as we encourage more and more tummy time. He can only do 5-10 minutes at a time but every little bit helps right?

Taking Shape

Today my therapist summed up my current feelings as "the second wave" of feminism. The first wave had to deal with the suffragists, the second wave was after all the "Rosie the Riveters" came home and had to play "Suzie Homemaker". Yesterday I commented on how I cannot believe my life consists of sleeping in 2-3 hour increments at night, waking up, putting kid #1 down for a nap then putting kid #2 down for nap. After naptime I feed kid #2 then kid #1, we play then both kids go down for naps again. After more playtime, dinner is served for kid #1 then kid #2. Baths are given every other night, then kid #1 goes to bed like a dream while kid #2 frustrates me beyond belief before he finally goes down. I love my kids so much when they are asleep.


Lorenzo has begun to smile and giggle at me which melts even my Maleficent colored heart. His personally is starting to take shape.