4 years ago I made a baby and he was the chubbiest sweetest thing in the world. Now he’s a big boy who still wishes he could wear nappies, who loves food and cars and pink. He’s quick to scare (Santi the cupboard!!!) and also quick to console. He loves his big brother probably more than anything else, and also to twirl his fingers around my hair, especially at 3 in the morning.
Since next year we’ll be in England, who knows if we will have time for a party, and since he’s seen Damiano’s party, a bash of his own was mandatory.
The invitation was a trace for a paper plane, of course.
The cake was a whipped cream cake base from the usual book, layered with strawberries and strawberry compote and frosted with 7 minute frosting. It’s a slight variation on the one cake my grandmother used to bake when I was little. For the lettering, I piped his name with melted chocolate on a piece of parchment, froze it for a few minutes and carefully placed it on top of the cake.
We had around 18 kids so we sealed our parking lot with construction tape.
He got a ton of presents. His favorites? This (he will go to sleep hugging it), and this. (yep, that’s right) oh, and this.
And tattoos. (I don’t think I’ll ever throw a kid’s party without them)
Besides folding around a hundred paper planes, mostly taking inspiration from this kit, I folded tiny ones to put in the favor bags. Very relaxing. My favourite pen (White ink!!!)
tic-tacs in the favor bags=happy kids.
For the bags I used my tracing paper and I sewed them into pyramids, which was very satisfying.
I don’t have many photos of the actual party because I was too busy taking kids to pee, making sure nobody threw themselves in front of a car, and keeping the wind from blowing all our cheese-puffs away, but my friend Chrissy did so I’m waiting…
On Saturday we woke up at dawn (if you think they look tired you should’ve seen me), hopped on a train and went to Bologna.
We got our bibs and tried some cheap neuroscience to boost our confidence.
And we ran.
And ran.
Until the finish line!
The boys got medals, as did every other kid in the race. (funny story: Damiano, upon realizing that everyone got medals told me: “mommy that was a fake race”, clever boy). We had a lovely lunch, a lovely ice cream and we plodded through Bologna in a very hot afternoon. My feet were sore, and on the following day…
My friend Claudia and I were all clad in pink…
and with bibs of our own.
It was really fun, and it was a bit like childbirth because running 10.5 km in the heat and humidity with no water really sucked balls but now I don’t remember that, I only think that it was really fun and I can’t wait to do it again. I’m nuts.
The main reason for our trip was to celebrate my grandmother’s 90th birthday. It included delicious food, tamarind margaritas, and around 100 relatives.
Here is she, in amazing shape, with all her granddaughters. (note: her locks are her natural colour. She’s never died her hair)
First stop of our autumn vacation: Valle de Bravo. It’s a super cool town. I lived there when I was 9 until I was 11. (I mostly hated it back then)
The boys got to meet their cousin Lucas. I really miss my cousins and the fact that over here my kids will never have cousins makes me kind of sad.
Mexico is great. It’s fun and alive.
The highlights of Valle de Bravo include its lovely lake and shingled roofs (fun fact: this lake provides the best part of Mexico City’s water supply).
We got to go sailing with my lovely aunt and amazing uncle.
I miss sailing so much! And I also miss being able to prop my kids up on a random stranger’s quad with impunity.
Olympic Steeplechase 3000. Please! That’s nothing, compared with what life threw at me this summer. But I’ve been winning, so far. (fingers crossed).
Things done this summer, more or less chronologically:
1.Took the kids to the lake:
2.Took the kids on a hike, by myself, they both walked for 1 hour both ways. Heroes.
3.Made a couch! Here’s the frame once I finished it. Now it’s all set and it’s great.More pics to follow.
4.Got accepted into university for an amazing Master’s Degree
5.Attended a lovely wedding (Santi wasn’t having it)
6.Avoided widowhood (recommended).
Michele’s bill of health isn’t clear yet and we’re keeping our fingers crossed. I never thought a broken leg could become so bloody dangerous (see: thrombosis).
7.Made sushi with Nahoko.
8.Travelled to London during the Olympic Games, and I haven’t a single photo because I also managed to trash my iphone the day before leaving.
9.Got a deferred entry for said Master’s Degree: YAY, we’re going next year!
*ushhhhh* I’m blowing off the dust of this blog (and emptying the shit out of my iphone as you can see)… sorry I’ve been rather busy. We had a bumpy summer start this year, my husband breaking a knee playing football on no other day than summer solstice, and all that endless fun that follows:
Today we got the results of the MRI, and basically it’s pretty broken and we have to decide on a date for surgery. Three weeks in and Michele already took a couple of steps without the crutches. It’s going to be a long summer for him. Children, learn the lesson: don’t play competitive sports.
The amount of gadgetry in this house is ridiculous, but ensures that there’s something for everyone when this mama’s had enough.
Ice-cream makes us all happy. And moustache-y.
And sushi, even more so.
When Santi was serving his last days ever at the nursery (the boy starts pre-school in Autumn), Damiano and I splurged and hit the posh sushi place in Innsbruck one day. The boy is crazy about makis.
Lately it’s been raining ALL THE TIME, but two weeks ago the only thing we were doing was hanging out at the pool. Last year I bought these terry cloth robes (dresses) for the boys, and they loved them. You might have heard me say to someone asking why the BOYS have DRESSES: they’re boy-dresses. We love them.
Damiano does this and it cracks me up. I never thought of doing that. I was too fat.
I love this photo. Damiano looks a lot like my father in it. And Norah is happy, Damiano finally decided he wants to marry her.
We’ve been also celebrating. Nothing in particular. Just that it’s summer and we can be together all the time. Which is nice.
Some guys prefer the batter.
We made vanilla and chocolate cupcakes from this book (which I fully recommend because everything just turns out fantastic) and the kids helped out. It was messy but fun. Also, dinner.
Santi, scientifically proving that I and I only am his mother, ate off all the icing first. (powedered sugar, butter, that’s it). We used liners from Ikea that were wide and low, so more than cupcakes they looked like boobs.
Oh yes, let me show off. I’ve been sewing quite a bit lately (and much much much more to come), and last night I whipped up this skirt. The photo sucks but the light is what it is during our frequent cloudbursts. I’m very proud because: a) it fits like a glove b)I didn’t use a pattern, just improvised. c)the waistband is 100% shirring d)it’s black silk taffeta, so it’s comfy, has a lovely texture (and sound), goes with everything (you just need to pretend you’re a J.Crew model and suddenly the most bizarre combinations look glamorous) and it’s fresh in summer and great in winter with a pair of tights. Seriously, this fucking deserved a blog post of its own. Oh well. oh and it cost about 25€
Loved it. I am, as it turns out, a strident feminist, and it’s a great thing. If I had teenage daughters I’d read it out loud to them.
Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far (Katie pointed out that the distance in days from the summer solstice is equal in April and August, and that might explain why it was so fucking hot). We went to the “beach”. The kids love it. They played and they let me read my book!
Santi got a haircut, finally. The previous one, about 8 months ago, ended up with him bellowing and kicking the toilet seat off the hinges in primeval rage. This time, it took 5 minutes and no drama. He’s growing. There’s hope for us all. He’s turning 3 in 2 weeks!
Yesterday was also a big day for me: I graduated from the Couch to 5K running program 2 weeks in advance. My friend Katie told me about the Twitter Road Race and I thought, yeah sure, I can do that. I had to begin week 8 of the program, which meant running for 28 minutes. Besides, Katie is an experienced runner with marathons and many races under her belt and she was going to run it with me. I couldn’t resist.
Now, it was a bit like childbirth. When we were 4 Ks in, I honestly thought what a fucked up idea it was. I had chills through my scalp and was panting heavily. Telling myself that I run my own body wasn’t even making any sense. But today I’m like, I need to run again. I started running in March, after the XC-skiing season ended. I noticed how much better I was feeling after doing that every other day during my winter break. I really felt depression FREE. So when that was over, I got myself an App and I couldn’t recommend it more. When I began I was completely out of puff after running 45 seconds. Yesterday I ran for 37 minutes straight, and it felt great, chills and all. For a millisecond, seeing the results on twitter was disappointing. People run 5Ks in 20 minutes. It took me almost twice as much. But then I remembered I’m doing this for myself, so I won.
