New Years Eve

The Policaro family invited us over to their house to celebrate New Years. It was great fun for the girls because it was like a late night party. I couldnt get Sophia to take a nap today, so I was suprised she stayed up past midnight. Max had to work, so the girls played and then ate dinner, then it was played some more.

This is a game where the winnie the pooh tree blows up leaves and you have to catch them with your net. Apparently the game cannot be done without intensive screaming and then it takes more time to actually pick up the leaves that didnt get caught and put them back into the tree. but of course thats the fun part of it all and the girls enjoyed themselves.The Policaros have a little turtle that squirmish Sophia loved to play with but didn't like to touch. She did all her playing vicariously by picking up Giorgia's hand and tell her what to do with the the turtle.

Max eats the traditional lenticchie and cotechino.

Marco does it too.

The only reason why I am posting this pictures is so that you know what I have to deal with. Max seems to be allergic to taking pictures. I have to ask him to do it, I will give him that he does it semi-willingly, but I swear he is the worst photographer. I dont have to toot, nor do I dislike Paola. I simply asked that he take a picture of Paola, but instead he took a picture of both of us, without telling me. And then of course he didnt redo it or take a better one, he just left it and didnt say anything until it was too late. (while i am on the bitching and whining subject I will also add: it takes him a lifetime to snap the picture and get it 'just right,' by the time he presses the darn button, you've already stopped smiling and even if asked, he wont tell you if your hair is messed up or you have something in your teeth. This is why there are very few pictures of myself that I keep and why Sophia will think she was brought up by a single dad!) It drives me nuts!

Hot Chocolate

One of the things I love about winter is having hot chocolate. We got the scooter out, Sophia wobbled a lot but did a good job (i dont have any pictures because my camera is having trouble taking action shots/using the flash). I was suprised she got the hang of it so quickly. And then it was into the local bar for hot chocolate, which is more like hot pudding.

Cheers.

The secret to young skin: hot chocolate facials.

Occupying the Vacation days

This year the Christmas breaks seems extra long, it's about 3 weeks (also because we had that snow day right before the break). Sophia's imagination has been running overtime and she really likes to act out things with her dolls. She also loves doing puppet shows. We don't have too many, so I decided we should make some. Turns out it is a longer more detailed process than I imagined, esp when someone slapped on 2 pieces of paper mache and decided she didnt want to get her hands dirty. Well, at least painting doesnt get you too dirty and she enjoyed doing that:

And after that she decided she needed some glasses:

and Dad did too:

Che Asciugona!

We don't see the Zii too often, Sophia made sure to make up for lost time. I think she told Zia Paola EVERY detail of her life since the last time we saw them. I would walk past every few minutes and all I could hear was Sophia take a deep breath and say '....e poi: blah blah blah blah' (e poi = and then....). I'm sure Paola just wanted to get some quiet sun but she ended up with an earful instead. Luckily she is a good sport about it.

*asciugare v. -meaning when someone talks so much, they suck the life right out of you.

San Stefano

I can never remember why this is a holiday, but it is and therefore it means only one thing: more eating! Paola and Ale came up and we met them for lunch in a neighboring town. Sophia on her most excellent behavior, despite the fact that lunch was long and noisy. One of the things she did to occupy her time was take pictures:Self portrait.

Auntie Paola

This looks like some bad version of that tmobile(?) commercial asking if you have all the bars.

Max the Carnivor with a big plate of bollito (salsas not in foto).

Nonno and Uncle Ale

Group foto.

If Stevie Wonder was...

...Italian, not blind and couldn't actually play the piano:

Christmas in Cuneo

Luckily Santa has a people finder (or facebook) and GPS and can even find us in Cuneo! Sophia was extra worried that a) we were not going to be in our house and so Santa wouldnt know where to leave the presents and b) (after we read the night before christmas:) how would he get into the house, since there is no fireplace. (obviously the author was not a city folk like us!). Santa was extra generous this year, he busted out with a scooter (and knee pads, helmet and all the other stuff).

Sophia has been asking for one ever since she road Tia's in Germany.
This was by far the favorite thing she opened (after she tried to ride it and found it was difficult, she already started to lose interest-but as it was an expensive present, we are going to try our best to have her keep trying-she will have fun on it whether she likes it or not!)

Mom and Dad gave a pop up Charlie and Lola book
(we found her favorite episode/the one she identifies with most, about how Lola is a picky eater)

Dad got me an iphone (which i have been asking for)
side note-it got robbed the day after when we went to dinner. totally my fault. i left it in my coat pocket and somebody snagged it-i feel nauseated just writing about it!)The Nonni open Sophia's gift to them, a photo album.

altho not on her xmas list, Santa knew wanted a piano (every time she sees one, she sits down and likes to bang out a tune and sing. she is also pretty good at pressing notes and beat-boxing.). Santa and the Nonni gave one to Sophia.
side note: i dont want to seem ungrateful, but we havent quite figured out how to get the Nonni to get the presents Sophia has in mind. They are sweet and overly generous-but mostly overly zealous: whatever she asks for, gets magnified to something much greater and more expensive than what she has in mind and not kid friendly. The big ones this year were that Sophia says piano (small inexpensive toy piano), she gets a complicated keyboard. She asked for binoculars or a telescope (like pirates) - something made solely of plastic and probably wont last until next xmas, but instead she got a telescope to see the stars. The piano was actually fine because she will play it, but when she saw the telescope, she was not interested at all. I want her to be grateful and gracious, but I sort of understand her disappointment because it wasnt what she asked for and its way over her head. but i also feel badly for the nonni because they try so hard and get no enjoyment from seeing her having fun with the presents. (hopefully in the new house we can use the telescope a bit, but living in the city we often have a cloudy sky and we are sandwiched between buildings.) I guess the whole sitch drives me nuts bcuz Santa didnt go overboard at our house (or at least that's the way I remember it), he brought one big gift that we would appreciate and some stocking stuffers (and everyone else gave us something small like books or clothes or money to be put into our savings)I and toys were still overflowing at our house (and my parents have a much larger house than ours). I want the Nonni to be Nonni, but I would also like Sophia not to be spoiled. This is her last xmas as an only child, so I guess I can suck it up and she can live it up. And hopefully next xmas will be different because there will be 2 grandkids to give to, instead of one. yeah right, i doubt it too. but at least i can drink a couple glasses of liquid relaxation to help deal with the stress. this year probably bothers me more because i have to be alcohol free.

Xmas Dinner

Well if there is one thing an Italian Nonna lives for, it's cooking for Xmas dinner. I think she waits the whole year just to plan the menu. This year it was spaghetti alla bolognese and roast. Sophia made the Nonni happy by eating A LOT! Usually no matter how much you eat, the Nonni think you're emaciated, this year they were actually impressed with Sophia's appetite!

I started eating and forgot to take more pictures. But trust me, it was good.

Cookies for Santa

We brought the cookie we baked with Vale yesterday to Cuneo to leave for Santa.

Careful...careful...snack for santa/bribe to ensure he will leave presents!

The Day B4 Xmas Eve

Today Valentina came over for a playdate. It was impromptu and I still had lots of things to do, like baking cookies. Luckily I had two good Santa's Helpers!

And the little elves reap their rewards with a little tea party afterwards!

Jabba the Snowman

About pick up time from the preschool, it started to majorly dump snow. I ended up walking because cars were stopped up and our car was already buried in snow quite a bit. I think it was faster anyways, and Sophia had fun catching snowflakes on her tongue. That was yesterday...today Sophia is at home, school vacation started a day early due to the heavy snow (unfortunately for me because im not finished with xmas presents yet!!!). She and Max unburied the car.

And then they made a snow(er?)man?
I think he has to go on a diet, looks like he swallowed a panettone whole!

Last Minute Tree Decorating

We are soooooo lagging behind this year. I put some of it down to the fact that I was sick, but really most of it is just typical Christmas slacking. We are so late that Ikea didnt have any trees left, luckily Castorama (like Homedepot, but less organized) did. I like Ikea's trees, because you can return it and they give you a gift certificate worth what you paid for the tree to spend inside their store. (even if the tree is dead!). Trees here only come potted or fake, I feel so guilty about the fake trees making the landfills bigger, we usually just get a real one, hold on to it and then try to keep it alive until the next xmas. Of course we end up leaving the decorations on until Easter, forget to water it all the time and it is usally half dead by spring. Anyhoo, Sophia told us we needed to get a real tree this year and not decorate her treehouse again this year.

Hanging up snowmen with Dad.

The proud tree decorator.

Hiding Mommy's tummy in front of the tree.

Waiting for Grandma

Sophia has been missing her grandparents a lot lately. I told her Grandma is coming in Feb for the arrival of the baby. So she made a sign for us to hold up when we pick up her up from the airport (in case she doesnt recognize us).

The story of Rudolf in 8 pages

This summer my friend Karen introduced us to bare books. It is such a great find. The idea behind it is sooo simple, but genius! They are just blank books that kids write their own stories/illustrate in. We did our first one this summer at the Gran's house. Now Sophia likes to do books all the time. Unfortunately we don't have any more bare books left, hence the computer printer paper style book. Why waste 45 minutes watching that old stop motion movie Rudolf? You can see it here in 8 pages:









ps yeah i know some of the drawings are mine, altho its hard to tell. usually she does the whole book by herself, but this time she wanted help. i'm looking for other books to stick up here where its just her stuff, but this was the first one on hand.

The Christmas Wish List

Day VI

Moved and down graded again. This time I'm down the hall in a room with 2 other women. the one in the first bed is a a germ-a-phobe. She doesnt say anything to my face, but I can tell by her whispers (and the fact that she and her husband have slapped on masks) to the other woman that she wants to be transferred and away from my germies. Believe me I want to be here less than her, I'd like that first room back please. This bed is worse than before and the room is colder and draftier than the last. At least the girl in the bed next to me seems nice. Im starting to eat again (Max brought oreos) but the food is getting worse. The meatloaf looked and tasted like dog food and I've never had pasta and marinara so horrible in my life. it was like this weird salty sweet chemical taste. I cant eat it. And if you think I'm being melodramatic, so did Max, until I made him taste it. He just lets me complain now. Max has brought melba toast and Im surviving on that. I'm back on the antibiotics but in pill form now, so if I dont eat anything, then I will really be sick. Luckily the phlegm is lessening, but I constantly have a dry tickle in my throat. The girl next to me has already claimed the tv for C'e Posta per Te, I think i wont renew the contract and take up Max on having the laptop here. I know I've missed a weeks worth of dexter, csis, how I met your mother etc. Im also in the middle of journey to the center of the earth, altho its dragging out, im almost halfway thru and they arent even to the center of the earth yet. i feel its an analogy to my stay in the hospital here. not enough food or water, going thru blind tunnel after tunnel, not knowing whats going on and when the hell i will be out of here. i need a distraction!

Day V

moved and downgraded again. did i mention I have to pay for the tv, every time they move me its an ordeal to have the tv transferred. not that there is anything good on anyways. at least this room is still private, but the bed is getting more and more uncomfortable. This room is a bit colder and drafty, I'm drinking a ton of water. I just got a new a-hole ripped for having drank 3L last night. I drink to stiffle the painful coughs. Now I have to pee in a bedpan and save it.

If one more person tells me it's asthma Im gonna slap them, I'm sure its pneumonia since its not h1n1.

My arms are hating it, I look like a very inexperienced heroince addict. They are full of holes and black and blue. The blood needs to be taken from my wrists but since they are dark and blotchy, you cant see the veins. Today an inexperienced nurse tried to do it, dug the needle around but couldnt find it, it actually made me scream and cry and I have a fairly high tolerance for pain. She actually felt badly. Then a second nurse, without a dose of humility insisted on trying it. This time it was worse and I think she touched a nerve in my hand because i felt a burning sensation there. I went into an asthma attack and she screamed at me for being dramatic. If I could breath i would have told her to shut the F up. Of course she is the same one that is insisting I have asmthma-apparently I only have asthma when you dig a big fat needle around in my arm. Well the third time is a charm- they finally got someone who knows what she is doing. It still hurt like a MF'er but at least it got done. Why do I have a visual of that guy who was sentenced to death by lethal injection, they couldnt find a vein and tried like 18 times and it took 2 hours to die. I used to not have an opinion on it, but I think I'm changing my mind and going with cruel and unusual. At least I can stand up every once in a while, the beds are getting more and more uncomfortable and my ass is starting to hurt- am I actually getting hemorrhoids too? Please, please noooooo!

Day IV

Moved and down graded to a room upstairs, still private, but not as nice. It's in the actually maternity ward (not one floor below where i was before. i didnt realize the difference. during the 2 hours for visitors the floor is chaotic and abuzz with friends and families checking out the new babies). If I want to leave my room I have to wear a mask and anyone who comes in must do the same, but the masks are not the heavy duty ones like the downstairs hazmat like ones. ( Nurses not as nice here, but I have made a friend with the Filipino one named Josie who brought me upstairs. We bond over flip food-i miss chicken adobo and karekare! I actually feel hungry.) I am feeling slightly better, but havent really eaten much or slept much since friday. The IV antibiotics make me tremor and vomit. Still having a hard time breathing and talking, I wear an oxygen mask when to sleep/when it gets bad. With the mask on and sitting up I can actually doze of here and there.
The nurses are getting ruder, I get mixed opinion on whether or not I can have the oxygen, the doctor put me on the nurse takes me off of it. The doctor has not explained to me what is going on, and Ive also been taken off the antibiotics because they say the tremors and vomiting mean im intolerant. ack! whats going on?

Day III

Same as Day I and II, not feeling worse, but I still am having trouble breathing and talking. Arms are becoming black and blue due to all the blood tests. I don't have H1n1, so I am eventually taken down thru a maze of underground passage ways to xrays. Luckily Max is there to help out because holding up the thick lead vest over my bellys is difficult and awkward.

Day II

Wake up call is at 6 am, starting with a fever check. Blood tests. Food. Meds/aerosol. Monitoring of baby's heart rate and contractions (its a machine that they attach you to with 2 big eeg/ekg type things, you can't move for the whole time it is attached and if you the monitoring is lost, you have to start all over again). Ekg monitoring. Buzzing cloud of Drs and Student Drs (san raffaele is also a research facility and school), that come in, stare out you while one person explains what youve got and then they move on. Feeling slightly better, but not much, I still cant breath and tremor if I try to talk. There is still a lot of phlegm so breathing is tiresome and I cant breath deeply. Max has taken time off of work to take care of Sophia and bring new clothes and water to me every day. Aside from the almost constant monitoring, the day is uneventful. Thank goodness Karol and Cristian have watched Sophia for us.

No word on H1N1.

Hospital Stay Day I

Sunday 10pm: Still can't breath, seems to be getting worse despite having taken the antibiotics 2xs

Sunday 11pm: Still can't breath, hesitant to drag Sophia out of bed, wait in ER to be told to go home and told wait for the antibiotics to kick in. Breathing getting worse. etc, etc until:

Sunday 2am: Okay I think Im going to die, have been dressed for last hour, wake Max, shove jacket on Sophia, Max dumps me out of car at ER waits in car with Sophia. Re-explain situation (no mask this time, despite the fact that I am worse) and am taken into emergency obgyn to monitor baby. Baby is fine, I am scooted out of obgyn asap because there is another emergency obgyn. I didnt have time to put on my shoes and am left standing outside the obgyn door in the hallway. Find out that im waiting to see an internal medicine dr.

Sunday 2:30am: Still waiting outside obgyn door, sit on floor to put on shoes properly and also because I can't stand up anymore.

Sunday 2:40am: Nurse passes by and yells at me for sitting on the floor and someone gets a gurney for me to sit on. and after 5 minutes I am sent into the Internal Med observation room. More blood tests. Re-explain situation for the third time (did i mention i cant breath, well to talk you need to be able to breath). New battery of blood tests, sent into another observation room to breath oxygen and cortesone. Send Max and Sophia (who are still waiting in the car) home. Sent into another room observation room by drafty window. Slowly the room begins to fill with sick people and their families people.

Later Sunday morning: Drafty window is giving me a sore shoulder and making cough worse, try to move bed away from window. but every couple of hours i need to return to have the baby monitored and the bed is back under the drafty window. During one of the baby monitorings, (where i have to retell again what the hell is wrong with me), somebody actually asked the right question and they suspect h1n1-so apparently I need to wait until a room opens up in maternity and I will be moved upstairs-they don't know when that will be but will find out around noon)-obviously noon passes. I am given a whole heck of a lot of antibiotics. I cant remember when, but Max comes around at sometime and brings me water and some cookies from the vending machine. Water and dressing gowns are not given out in the hospitals here. btw, There are a lot of old people who need there Depends changed, and all the diapers are being thrown away in the bathroom garbage that does not have a cover, it smells horrific. I am the only one who is actually peeing in the bathroom. This last trip, I just knocked out the current to the whole room when I flicked on the light. I hope I dont kill anyone on a breathing apparatus.

Sunday 2pm: lunch comes, it's actually not horrible pasta pomodoro, some sort of roast and overcooked carrots. altho i dont eat much because im still feeling sick. I'm not drinking anything because the bathroom situation is just getting worse, i have to suck in what little breath I can hold, keep the door open a crack and pee in the reeking dark. HELP! people are released, im still not moved, but a new load of crazies start coming in, including: the old deaf lady next to me and her son that reeks of cologne and a constant ring of his nokia telephone....da da da da, da da da da daaaaaaa and what I think is an old man with a mega alto voice or if its an old lady with a manish voice, with his/her son. they bicker and belittle each other constantly. Please let them move me soon or somebody come and just put me out of my misery, this whole situation is just getting worse. If I survive I will be sicker than when I came in.

Sunday 3pm: upstairs to maternity to do the baby monitoring (having some contractions due to all the coughing). Must wear mask again due to where I am-which is stuck in a passage way between the delivery area and the waiting area. drs passing thru constantly and woman in her 7th month already having bad contractions, crying in pain. I feel horrible for her. As she gets worse, I'm shipped back out to the cold waiting area for another 30 minutes. Crap I need to pee soon. On the way back I see that the falsetto belongs to a mozzarella bellied old man and his son (who could pass as his twin) who are still bickering and insulting each other. the old man has peed himself (and has no diaper on) and the insults are really flying now. It's almost comedic.

Sunday 4:30pm: wahooo someone's come to take me away ha ha ho ho hee hee. OMG someone please pass the bleach i need to burn this out of my corneas: the old mozzarella man is sitting buck-naked on the toilet and his son is prancing around holding the old guys gigantic tighty-whities and throwing insults-all with the bathroom door wide open because a new light still hasnt been placed in the bathroom. and now the smell from the bathroom is just overwhelming. i should have kept the mask on. I would totally laugh if I could breath!

Sunday4:35pm, wow the room is nice-must be for private patients. I'm in isolation with a paper sign on the front announcing please keep the door closed and the only people who visit me slap on masks and gloves, do their biz and get the hell out.

Sunday 5:30pmMax comes to visit baring water and a bag full of jammies, tissues for all the phlegm im coughing up and extra undies and such. Poor guy I havent cleaned since I've been sick and the whole house is topsy turvy- its a wonder how he found anything (okay yes, im not actually wearing jammies, im wearing sweats and he only found a swimsuit bottom and some maternity undies that are gigantic and yet somehow too small, but at least its something!). He even brought me sudoku and a pen!

Sunday 6pm: Dinner is served-wow didnt i just finish with lunch? Hmmm, bland but not horrific, not too hungry anyways. Ah well at least there is crappy tv with a movie channel. And I brought my MP3, I finished off most of This Side of Paradise in the ER. The last few chapters I finish in here and have started on to Pride and Prejudice.

The nurses work their asses off here. I don't know who is who but all the nurses take blood, distribute meds, attach phlebos, change bedsheets, etc etc. And they are really nice, esp as compared to Melloni.

They won't know if I have H1N1 until tomorrow. Havent slept in 24 hours, doubt I will sleep tonight either.

Cough Cough Wheeze Wheeze cont.

Saturday 8am: Can't hold out anymore, going to ER. Will risk that they say same thing as Guardia Medico. We pack up Sophia, throw her into the car, Max drives up to the ER and dumps me out of the car and comes back with Sophia (parking is a bit far). Luckily no one is there and someone looks at me (as soon as he finishes his cigarette outside). Pregant coughing and wheezing- a mask is immediately snapped on my face. Did I mention I cant breath? Well now I really can't breath, but at least I'm not spreading germs (never mind all the sick people waiting).

Saturday 8:15am: Sent inside to emergency obgyn to monitor baby. Baby is fine. Sent into shared room to be observed, blood tests and rehydrated etc. Max and Sophia come in for a little bit, get yelled at because kids shouldnt be in ER. They go home. Around 2 they release me with a prescription of antibiotics, tacchipirina (a tylonol like substance) and some drops to to stick in an aerosol machine to be inhaled.

Cough Cough Wheeze Wheeze

Thursday: I make Max come home from work because I am so sick I can't take care of Sophia.

Friday 9pm: Max stays home to help me with sophia and because he's not feeling well anyways. Have already been turned down for antibiotics from HMO, I'm hesitant to go back, suffer in waiting room, only to be told to go back home and wait it out. Now its too late, call Guardia Medico -which is like the doctor for non doctor hours, if its an emergency but not ER worthy. We're told we must either wait to talk to our obgyn regarding the bronchitis (on monday) or go to ER.

Sort of Celebration

We made pizza and chocolate chip cookie sundaes for a late celebration, first food i've eaten in a week. Sorry no pics.

Happy UnBirthday to Max

Max worked on his bday, Im sick and so it sort of got overlooked. Sorry Max, but Happy Birthday and Tanti Auguri!

The Flu Game

It's something like pass the potato, but in the end everyone gets a nice dose of bad health and temper. Sophia had it first, she then passed it to Max and then to me. Depending on your hmo, they don't give antibiotics to Preggos, this is my second go at the flu since Sept. i'm hating it because my hmo is a lazy jerk (and he is the nice one, the secretary is even grumpier!).

Festa di Alloween

This year has been sort of chaotic (do I say that every year?), so I didnt actually get to make a costume for Sophia as she asked. She really wanted to be a witch, I started knitting her a hat, but I didn't get very far-so she just wore her usual tshirt and pants that I get from Target every year before we leave.

We made masks.

We played Halloween Bingo.

I found this cute game called witches stew- you cut out pieces of paper in halloween shapes and the kids have to use a straw to suck them up and dump them into a cauldron (we economized-they got an orange plate in our version of the game).

We decorated cookies.

The mommies too.

Boo!

Happy Halloween!

Sophia was unusually whiny at her party...we soon discovered why, as soon as the guests left, she broke out in a very high fever. It was a very stressful wknd with mixed emotions between whether she had the scarlet fever (which is going around the school) or swine flu (which is a pandemic on the news). Nothing to do but look up internet cures and distribute tacchipirina (like baby tylonol).