WHAT CHANGES WITH MOTHERHOOD

Personally I can say my life did not change that much as I've never been a disco-maniac or going-out-for-a-drink girl. I like quiet nights, chinese restaurants, simple things, can't afford much shopping in general, don't go to the cinema that often because of the language barrier for my fiancee', love ice creams. When we go out for anything, baby Robert comes with us, since the first days of his life, after hospital, we never spared him a trip to the supermarket or else and he likes the car trips, he usually falls asleep with motion in general. I spend more time with him and less on my computer, I have a very high pile of ironing to do since the pregnancy (I don't enjoy ironing), I breastfeed every 2-3-4-5 or 6 hours depending on the events and time of the day, so this keeps me rather busy, I therefore get sore boobs when they're full and ready to fullfill his hunger. I have nappies to change, altough my fiancee' does most of it at the moment since it's his unwritten job, in my kitchen ther are a few more items than before (sterilizer, bottle warmer and a box with sterilized things when they are not in use) and I have a lot of baby clothes, toys and baby sheets filling a few drawers, I fill more washing machines, use my towels more (very good to have one draped around his neck and going under his bottom in case he spills milk or poo) and finally I have one more bag to carry around, his bag (nappies, cream, solar protection, water bottle, fennel powder to mix with the water in case he has a sore belly, towel and changing mat, 3 or 4 clothes for emergency changes, socks, a hat and a wee long sleeved cardigan for when it gets cold). Overall I don't feel these changes as bad, the only thing is that sometimes I sleep less than I should and it's not really good, and when he gets a sore belly I have a hard time. But it's all worth it when you realize what a miracle he is.

JAM AND LOVE

This is the first of hopefully many happy jam-making years. After I got the plums from the trees with a specific tool, lots of sweating, panting and avoiding insects, even tough I had insect repellent on, I cleaned and chose the right fruits with the help of a neighbour and then boiled them for a while, then I passed them through a "passaverdure" and I then added sugar and let boil for the necessary time. When the jam looked ok I put it in jars that I then boiled in water up to their halves in order to produce the under pressure vacuum. I then proudly printed the labels, cover them in transparent tape and glued them on the jars. TA-DAAAA!

It came out delicious. Unfortunately after 2 jars for my uncles, one big jar for the helpful neighbours and one mini jar for a friend, we only had one left for us and none to sell this year, hopefully next year we'll do more. And I still have to make jam from the selvatic mini apples I found in our land, that should come out a bit more generous. I wanted to make blackberry jam too but after a very hard picking and cleaning I realized I didn't have enough and gifted it to the neighbours (I don't like blackeberries by themselves and in order to take off the seeds you need a special kitchen tool. Since I started this adventure I tought I might make more Jam with all the fruits that I like, starting from the pears. Yum Yum.

*********************************************************
Our son meanwhile is starting to see further away and has noticed the Tv...
We were watching "My name is Earl" from the bed and he was so cute, sitting there trying to get what was that thing with lights and colours and people talking... and we are almost sure he repeated "Earl" many times or so it seemed by the sound he made after watching it. It was more of and "Eaw" but we tought he meant Earl. Here is another picture in which I see my father:
P.S. Today was the day of his first real laughter, a very small and short one but still... and the first day he pronounced a consonant other than M (he usually cries MMMaaaaa) and it was Ba-ho.

TURN THAT FROWN UPSIDE DOWN

Our baby is growing fine, now up to 5.320 kg and starting to make sounds (sometimes like making a whole small chat with us) and grabbing the first things (rattlers and dummy, but the second one he could grab since the first day) altough not that often yet, also I had to put mitts on his little hands as he had started a strange silly habit of poking his eyes...with consequent crying. I've been taking tons of pictures in order to have a wide collection of memories for the future to come and one in particular was amazing as I managed to get a picture in the exact moment he was regurgitating... LOL it was a total coincidence. We've introduced him to bathing at least every 2 days and he likes it a lot as much as he doesn't like being taken out and dried. He's funny and charming and sooooo cuute! We totally love him even when he screams for practically no other reason than complaining. He's very italian in this. But he is also very Scottish looking and has nothing to do with italian screaming babies, his screaming is definately different. Altough I must admit sometimes he reminds me of my dad in some faces he does, like this one. He now also definately smiles for sure (he's got 2 dimples!!), can see us better and does quite a lot of gymnastic moving his legs and arms up and down when he feels like it.

Antiques back in shape

This week I managed to finish something I started 2 weeks ago (I'm slow at these things now i've got my baby boy), and so I went from this:




to this:
I sanded, stained, filled the crack, sanded again the crack, stained again on top, nourished and finally painted it. The second one still hasn't been done, but I will do it asap. Then I'll do one of the 2 ottomans and maybe after that I'll do something else. We'll see. At the moment I am quite satisfied with these 2 night tables. =)

MY TWO BOYS

Aren't they gorgeous? I love them sooo much. Robert is now over 5 kilos. Will know better the 20th at the check up.

Gaining weight and fitting new shower

Lately he established his own sleeping routine, usually falling asleep between 11 and 12 and lasting from 4 to 6 hours depending on the heat, the first 2 morning feeds also are approximately 4 hrs apart giving us a total sleep of more or less 8 to 9 hours which is good. So far he had a skin allergic reaction to some herbal pills i was taking to help me produce more milk so i had to stop them and he got neonatal acne and swollen nipples caused by the hormones in my milk, nothing to worry about since he did not complain about it, not too much nappy rash either as we are very careful. He's been gaining weight and he's now around 4.5 kilograms.

°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°°##################****************<<<<<<<<<>>>>>>>>>>

Last saturday we finally got the old bath replaced with a shower tray and we then finished the job ourselves by tiling in the best way we could. The total cost approximatively adds like this:

• 10 euros of fuel for all the trips to the various stores
• 95 euros for the shower tray
• 20 euros for various bits
• 20 euros for an acrilic side panel
• 13 euros for the shower head, tube and bar
• 30 euros for the new tap
• 20 euros for tiling material and silicon
• 200 euros for the plumbers to fit it all

TOTAL: 408 euros cent more, cent less
This is the result... obviously it still needs a few touches where the silicon has been applied but i'm proud and happy of it.