8/52

"a portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Zoe Tiare: it's very difficult to take you a picture these days... you prefer to stay on the other side of the camera!

Me & my belly: 17 weeks


you can see jodi's project here

we ♥ books!!

that's what's new in zoeti's library... i'm kind of shopaholic when it comes to books (expecially children's book). i don't remember if i mentioned that we're trying to raise our child as much bilingual as possible (me and Giulio are both italians, born and living in italy). i'm following all the suggestions in this website bilingue per gioco (bilingual for fun - italian only), where the founder tells that it's not fundamental to be mother language to teach another language, but there are other ways. so we're buying just english books and dvds for zoeti and ... hoping for the best! i'll normaly take suggestion for books to buy in that website or here in the blogsphere, but recently i've found out that in england they give a bookstart pack to every child living in the territory (isn't that wonderful!). that's the website. in the site there's a section called book where you can find suggestions for babies, toddlers or preschoolers, and it was so useful for me! i've just bought other books from amazon but i'll told about them after a break-in period..

:: i live in tokyo :: we don't read this book very often... i think it's more suitable for older kids, but i bought it anyway bacause i think it's important for zoeti to know and understand the place where aunty comes from and her cousin is half japanese as well! we've been to japan three years ago (looong time ago!) and i loved it! it was already one of my favorite countries... i love all the tea ritual, the geisha's history, a religion so different from mine and i love sushi!
plus, there is a kind of vocabulary inside... if you want to learn some basic japanese words!


:: cleversticks :: it's another book about diversity and different culture. i think it's important for zoeti to read stories from different countries or with characters from all over the world. italy is slowly becoming an international country: zoeti will be at school with chinese, moroccan, ghanaians, vietnamese and so on and it will be such a great chance for her to discover new languages and habits! in this book a chinese-american boy doesn't want to go to school anymore because he doesn't know to do what the others can. but soon he discovers that using chopsticks is what he can do and others can't.


:: who's like me? ::

:: the game of mix and match :: definetely two of her favorites! there's a lot to do with little hands such as finding new combinations of colors and shapes or discover new animals!



:: how to make an apple pie and see the world :: definetely one of my favorite!! i can't read the whole story to zoeti because she keeps turning pages looking for the cat, the dog, cows, hens, and all the other animals that the protagonist meets along the way! a book about travelling and cooking... the best!!

still

it's been a hard week... we're ri-organizing the house, trying to find more space for stocking stuff and to keep everything on order, since we'll have to restructure one floor of the house. zoeti is sick... again... cough... last night went pretty bad and today i'm in a lack of sleep! my sciatica is driving me crazy and after cleaning the whole house (not alone btw...) i feel destroyed.
but then comes a moment, while your baby is finally sleeping peacefully, you look around yourself and everything is clean, and you decide to have a coffee (decaf... of course!) and a homemade muffin (i made them yesterday and the turned out pretty good!). the only movement that you feel is your little one in the tummy (i've started to fell the movements last week !)outside is snowing (yes... again!) and everything is ..still..

3# book review

The last book i've read is La bambina che diceva sempre di sì (original title "Dis oui, Ninon"). I'm not sure if there's a english version, but i bet it's going to be translated as soon as they can.

This book is a little treasure! Ninon is the narrator and she describes her lifes through a nine-years-old eyes. she tries to understand and justify her parents relatioship, the economical difficulty, the love for her little sister, without understand all the situations in the deep, but sometimes teaching us more than an adult. The focus of the book is her decision to live with the father and help him to built a house in the woods.

The Author is Maud Lethielleux and this is her first book.

7/52

"a portrait of my family, once a week, every week, in 2013"

Zoe Tiare: tasting our (i hope!) last snow, waiting for warm and sunny days!

Me & my belly: 16 weeks

You can see Jodi's project here. 

happy lovers day! ♥

if this blog is about what i love, that’s the right day to say “i love you” to a couple of people… i’m not a big fan of Valentine’s day; i prefer surprise dinner when my husband doesn’t expect it but since it’s been a long time since my last surprise, i’ll take advantage of this formal day to say…

i love you! You make me feel complete. If i’m the strong and down-to-earth side, you’re the flying and creative part. The two half of the same apple!

and i love you, my little lady! you’re the joy and the chaos and the happiness and the life!

and we already love you, our small bundle of joy! we’re looking forward to see your face, to hold you and to kiss you!

maternity doubts

zoeti was 2 weeks old

i'm thinking a lot about maternity these days... being pregnant for the second time makes me feel sometimes impatient and sometimes afraid. it's not only about feeling like "am i be able to love this second like my first kid?" or "how can i give him/her all the attention i gave to his/her sister?" it's also about practical things. zoeti is turning 2 in a four months and if you have a kid at that age you know what it means...whims and crying every ten seconds. but zoeti adds something new (at least for me): she's this way just with me. she's wants daddy for everything and when giulio comes back home she become a kind of little angel always following daddy and sitting on his lap. ok, maybe i'm seeing everything worse than it actually is because maybe i'm a little bit (but just a little..) jelous. come on, i'm the mom! i'm supposed to be the centre of her universe... i know that instead of being so childish i have to thank god that she has a great relationship with her dad, because when we'll have this other baby i'll have to share my attention between both of them and it will not be easy. but right now i can only see her calling daddy to go to sleep and tell me "go away" when i try to help her... and i'm sad..