the pile is growing

bow wow yipee yo yipee yeah

it's a doggy!

Walking in your shoes...

Sophia is obsessed with Max's shoes. I stick them outside to avoid the smell and she goes and seeks them where ever they are!! Plus bags. Any bag that she can get her hand on, she stuffs everything and anything inside. I actually got a shot of her when she's got both her vices in hand!

here's what i've done with those spirals...tadah...nothing. i dumped it in a pile and made a different necklace instead. great now i have a big pile of spirals, why the heck did i do that?

Spiraling out of control...

...okay last night i made all these spirals, now i'm going to hammer them out. after that im not sure what im going to do with them...not too methodical in my thinking process here, i waste a lot of wire doing stupid stuff like this, not to mention the carpal tunnel im getting from twisting the wire.

One small step for mom...

...and one giant leap for sophia-kind. aside from her little booty always being cold, it's starting to get some irritation, so yesterday i put on some potty training panties (plastic lined washable undies) (which we have used MANY times before) and she didnt pee in them! she still will hold her poop if she can, but its still one step closer to getting rid of the pull-ups!! hooray!!!

red version of the blue one

why always copper you ask? well 1), cuz i like it. and 2) because its cheap and i still feel like im experimenting. today i will order some silver and get crackin'

yeehaw!

Max worked 'til midnight tonight. it was a 'girl's night in.' somebody decided to finally use her carnivale costume which was now sitting in the toy bin in her room. i was sitting in the kitchen when a cowgirl comes sallying in, tips up her hat and says 'howdy ma'am, MILK!' well this ol' gal climbs up the chair, drinks the milk, slams the plastic cup on the table, sidles down off the chair, mounts back on to her horse, looks at me, tips her hat again and says 'thank ya pardner' and goes riding off into the sunset, erm, living room. true story! darned if i dont wish i got it on film.

a whale of a tale...

i went to the kitchen to go do something, came back in the living room to check up on sophia and wah lah------ it's a whale! it's getting freaky how good she is at drawing. and if you are thinking to yourself...well obviously, having a mom that draws, nurture, blah blah blah....i have to say she doesnt let me draw very often and i dont do so on my own (if it was all monkey see/monkey do, she'd be cooking and cleaning instead) so all initiative/creativity/design is of her own volition.

adding on to the stockpile

as auntie holly justly calls it...


yes. i know the inventory is growing, but the profits are not, just trying to build up for spring.

Another crappy story....

this is today's retelling of today's series unfortunate events...first smashed finger and now have blood blister halfway under fingernail on index finger. then went to go get sophia and teacher said that the little bugger did not take a nap today- instead she played and giggled with her friend chiara. i knew it was gonna be a tough afternoon. unfortunately i decided to walk to school instead of ride the bike (just to change things up a bit) and sophia decided that she wanted to go to the park. but neither she nor i were dressed for the wind that was picking up. sophia was especially under-dressed for the occasion since she decided to wear her crocs, which arent very warm and come off very easily. and she unfortunately decided to shout 'PARK' and not ask nicely. in fact she refused to ask nicely. so she threw a big gigantic tantrum ALL the way home, screaming and shouting. i ended up having to pick her squirming writhing body and struggle all the way home. she went immediately in time out and things got better. she is still going around the house in her half-naked potty training. then she started doing the poop dance. 'doo-doo mommy' she cried while hiding behind the curtains. i went to go and grab her under the arms and carry her to the bathroom. there was already a turtle-head, that grew by the second until it plopped onto the floor, under my foot and squished everywhere, and i slipped (but did not fall). and then another one plopped onto the bathroom floor, and i was holding her under the armpits and running around the land mines in our very narrow bathroom. eventually i got her on the toilet, still red faced and pushing... but the action was over...at least for her. she's okay with going shi-shi but she refuses to poop in the toilet. later during dinner it was the same thing. she cries 'doo-d00' and tears stream down her face and we put her on the toilet and then she wants immediately off. she refuses to stay on. she goes back to doing whatever she was doing (in this case dinner) and then cries 'poop, doo-doo' and back onto the toilet, then back off and back to the table. this makes for a very irritating dinner. what makes me frustrated is that after crying doo-doo, then trip to toilet, then off the toilet, then back and forth a million times , she then poops on the floor again. arghhhh! i know its just one tiny step back for all the steps forward we made, but it still sucks!

to go with the necklace...

....a bracelet. tadah....

all thai'd up

holber and greta had gone to brescia and went to the international store, so they called up to ask if we wanted to do dinner together. they brought over his new wok and all the ingredients and fixed us a thai dinner. oliver is getting so good at cooking he can now do it with one hand thai'd behind his back....haha!

that's hot!

oops she did it again, the newest greta-ism. well, greta as usual has added one more to her her repertoire...here is the picture:

this is the greta comment: wow sophia looks bigger than the other kid.
retort: thats cuz she's closer to the camera!

for those who dont remember that gets added to: how long is shark week? and (at mariposa park in yosemite) are the fallen trees (imagine hundreds of big trees horizontal to the ground-ALL around)? what would we do without greta?

***justly noted by holber... tonight i made a cake that was fit to be thai'd up in a bag and thrown away! i often go to foodnetwork.com to look for recipes. they have loads of recipes and a rating system that's usually pretty trustworthy. usually is the keyword here! this time it was NOT trustworthy at all! DO NOT try emerile's hot water sponge cake, or as oliver likes to call it the fritata dolce (the sweet omelet). it flattened after it came out of the oven and tasted like sugary scrambled eggs and weighed a ton. it was total fear factor food! i only did half the recipe, thank goodness otherwise the garbage men would have to come back with a larger truck in order to throw that away. yuck! and yet somehow holber and max ate their first piece and holber then went back for seconds. greta and i only took a bite. holber we will see you on the next edition of fear factor!

Sophia's Scribbles

Its amazing how much motor control sophia has:

i think she said this is supposed to be a bunny.

happy valentine's day

happy valentine's day. our special way to celebrate was for me to burn a big batch of cookies then max went to the parent meeting at the asilo. fun fun fun for everyone!

how did it end up?

that blue bead and copper wire eventually grew up to be a necklace. i finished it with an egytian wire chain so the links would be smaller and turn around the neck nicely. now lets see if i can do a bracelet and some earrings to match.

she did again

as soon as she wakes up or gets home from school, i yank the diaper off. i cant always get her on the toilet in the morning, because i think she pees when she knows still has the diaper on. but after school i can usually get her at least once. today she held her pee for hours until she was bursting, she crossed her legs, sat very still, did everything but agree to go to the bathroom. eventually she couldnt hold it any more and sophia ran up and said 'diaper.' i said nope, we're gonna sit on the toilet. the response was 'no thank you, diaper, hurry.' but i plopped her down anyways and she went on the toilet! wooo hooo! next goal is to get her to poop on the toilet...i was suprised she didnt today because i made korean pancakes with lots of veg and she ate half an apple. she has amazing control - doesnt get it from my side of the family. we have to pee often and when we gotta go we gotta go, without hesitation!

ive been working on this bracelet. i dont know where im going with it. maybe it will become a necklace because the 'chain' is so darn big. i like the idea, it looks so klimt.

just found this:
i was so excited when i saw all the wire wrapping on metal workers. i looked everywhere on how to do it. finally i found the right key words and stumbled up a tutorial just now. check out this woman's stuff it's fantastic: studio heath. keep your eyes peeled for future work. maybe i will actually make something out of it.

just for fun...

the sophia witch project

i forgot the confetti

i forgot the best part about carnivale at home on saturday...the confetti. today when we went to go and pick up sophia we opened up the bag and thru some around. there is loads of the stuff everywhere (not just from us) lets hope it doesnt rain soon otherwise it doesnt have time to blow away and decompose, it just gets soggy!

and this is sophia's 'snap snap' game with her daddy on the walk home from school.

im outta wire/nude-y booty

darn, im out of 18 gauge wire, thats annoying, ive been all over the city looking for more. well here is the last bracelet made out off the last of the wire that i had.



so last night i got fed up and sophia went totally bottomless. she held her pee for hours, but she went on the toilet! wahlah! same thing for this morning, as soon as she got out of bed, i yanked the diaper off and she ate breakfast with her little double char siu bao nudey booty - and again she went on the toilet. lets hope it keeps going.

park

pia loves going to the park with her dad. mommy doesnt have the patience! here she is with her overgrown bangs in the park near our house.

You Look Like a Mooooooonkey...

Soph is really into singing happy birthday right now. we tried to get her on tape singing to shelly, but she insisted on singing this sassy version of the song.

Carnivale

Pri and Paolo invited us to celebrate Carnivale with them and Maria Amali and Emanuele at their oratory near their house. Maria Amali went dressed as a princess, in an intricate costume made by Pri and Sophia as a cowgirl, in a vest and stick horse that i had made for her. At least Maria Amali showed off her costume a bit (sophia didnt want anything)...both girls cried and stayed in mommy's arms for most of the time. But it was neat to see how it was all celebrated-was the first time for both Sophia and me. It was like an Obon Festival meets Halloween. Games, parades, lots of activities held at church but in the cold and in costume. Here the kids dress up, throw lots and lots of confetti and the older kids have shaving cream fights. Maybe next year the kids will be able to enjoy the festival a little more, this year they were a bit too young.



Pri and Ma

Pia and Ma, the 10 seconds that they were both down on the ground.

MA's cousin

The girl's at home having a better time than at the party...

In the end we turned around and went back to Pri and Paolo's to play. The girls had so much fun playing together. I was a little worried that Sophia was going to be grumpy again because last night she went to bed after midnight and she didnt take a nap today. But in the end of the day it all worked out and she ended up passing out on Max's lap during dinner. Which again was excellent! How am I ever going to lose weight???? Paolo made 5 pizza's with loads of yummy things - sausage, tuna and mushroom, stewed onions and mushroom and sausage -i cant remember them all. (and the guy has that disease where everything needs to be in perfect order and so the pizza's were not just delicious, but picture perfect-forgot to take a picture tho). plus dessert and grappa after. Paolo also does this great grappa mixed with honey that is soooo good. i just might have to become an alcoholic-well more of an alcolholic.

weecha's house

laura and fabio and alice (pronounced ah-lee-chay-unless you are sophia then its weecha) invited maurino and us for dinner. laura is an excellent cook! and as usual i have to go into details of what we ate...there was pasta, but it was really cool-aside from being delicious! the pasta was cooked and then put into the oven (no sauce) and cooked until it took the form of the bundt pan. then it was put onto a great big pasta plate with a meat and pea sauce on top. it was soo good. there are no pictures because mauro ate it all! however there is this lovely pic of him, who got tired of going back for seconds/thirds etc, that he just took the big plate and went for it!

then there were individual zucchini soufflé and yummy cheeses! and lastly there were loads of dessert! laura made a torte with sour cherry jam and a fan of fabio's sent sicilian cookies which were absolutely amazing, (i made a little chocolate cake). and to accompany everything there were some amazing wines! three cheers to fabios collection!

alice and sophia got a long great. it was amazing, i was a little worried because we arrived extremely late. it took us almost 2 1/2 hours to get to pavia due to traffic (it is just a 30 min drive) so having only eaten a few chips(found in the car) and it being late, i was worried that sophia was gonna be a big grump. but instead she loved alice as soon as she saw her (its been many months since we last saw alice) and vice versa. they both have the same type of character so they got along great! plus they had mauro as a playmate!

Gong Hey Fat Choy

'what dat white boy doin?' you say to yourself. well yes, the chinese/the mexicans of italy have turned the tables, we're makin those italians work in sweatshops now! to celebrate chinese new year's we made some fresh wonton pei (using a manual pasta machine) for our wonton soup. it was good! but a lot of stinkin' trouble, i wish they just had a place that sold decent chinese food, i would even settle for some decent wrappers at grocery store!!!!!!

ps did i mention kevin anderson, after his email rant about skype, called today (on skype)! unfortunately our mic/webacam wasnt working - but we did get to see him and tia (his daughter). she is just adorable! and kevin looks exactly the same (minus 80s style hair) and is still the same funny guy. hopefully we will get to go out to visit this spring, he and his family live in germany. if not i cant wait til they come here!

Quack Quack

Feed ducks Mommy. The collection of left over bread has been growing so since Max had the day off (he works the wknd) we went to get Pia from school on the bikes and went to the canal to feed the ducks. Quack Quack!

And once again, a spectacular setting sun makes even Vimodrone look nice. (or is i call it ViMERDRone- and for those of you who took any type of latin based language, you know what that word means)!

Happy Birthday Holber

Today young Oliver (aka Holber, thanks to sophia's mispronunciation) is now Old Oliver! Whooooaaa Nelly! (He is officially older than me now! (being as i just turned 25 last year and i will turn 25 again this year)). Happy Birthday Holber! And now we have one more effeminate picture of you in front of food to add to the collection!

i am one twisted sister

twist twist twist, turn turn turn, wind wind wind. all i have been doing is twisting and turning and wrapping wire. i have permanent dents in my skin and fingernails! it's been slow and a learning process but i am getting much better at it. and its going faster. yesterday i found a little store in the 'town center' that sells beads and jewelry. honestly the beads arent that great of a quality, but i bought a couple anyways just to give her some biz, try them our and see what i can do. and hence the purple rings. they are supposed to be venetian glass, but they feel a bit plasticky. plus i almost completed 2 bracelets...one is the one in the middle...its with a stone called calzedonia in italian, altho i tried to look it up and cant find anything by that name (in english or italian). i love the stone it catches the light and looks this watery blue that could be like the sea or a watery clear blue day. so obviously with the middle bracelet i went with the water theme. the one next to it is a bit over the top with all the beading, but i think would be really nice with something simple but dressy. and i went with the sky for inspiration on that one. altho, it weighs a ton, anyone flying with that thing on would come down like a lead balloon. anyhoo the fiber optic beads catch the light during the night and the calzedonia catches the light during the day. unfortunately its grey and dull outside (and im lazy and just thru the stuff on the table, not bothering to do some decent kind of set up). and the pictures dont do the stones and beads justice. (the only pic that looks decent is the ring one, and those arent even that great in person - ive been doing lots of those rings because those are my meat and potatoes, they sell easily because they are small and inexpensive). off to try and make a necklace and then i wanna try eni oken's rainbow wrap technique and make some rings.