William playing with big boy stuff - William che gioca con i bimbi grandi

Laughing at mommy - Una bella risata alla mamma

It is contagious. There are times my son starts laughing at me and laughs and laughs and laughs out of control. He just cannot stop. The laughter is contagious.

E' contagioso. Delle volte mio figlio inizia a ridermi in faccia e ride e ride e ride e ride, senza ritegno. La risata e' contagiosa.

Mmm, banana! - Mmm, banana!

We were expecting he would have loved banana as both mom and dad always did.

Ci aspettavamo che William amasse la banana come la mamma e il papa'.

Mmm, that green stuff could be tasty - Mmm, quella roba verde sembra buona

After the first successful attempt with the Italian zucchini, back in the US, we gave William excellent tasting peas.

Dopo il primo successo con gli zucchini italiani, di ritorno negli Stati Uniti, abbiamo dato a William deliziosi piselli.

The spinning enigma - L'enigma della rotazione

Happy six months birthday, William! - Auguri per i tuoi primi sei mesi, William!

Happy six months birthday William! You have got pretty tall but still a little chubby. Your eyes are still almond shaped and in that mysterious baby brown-green-greyish color that mom likes so much. Your hair keeps growing in the front and the back of your head is still worn out from lying on it. Your hands have learned to grab and twist complicated objects. You have become a pro in using the pacifier and nursing. From the amount of time your hands spend in your mouth, mommy is nearly sure that you have started to go through teething. Hang in there my boy, soon your cute little milk teeth will appear, will fall, and you will soon find shiny coins under the table. :) I love how much time you spend investigating toys that you happen to grab. You have started to like the jumperoo more than the mat. In the last few days you have discovered how to browse the pages of the Mc Donald farm book on the jumperoo. You have also learned how to play with the piggies,how to make the duckies spin and how to make the ryno jump by pressing the button. All pretty impressive for mom and dad! You look so attentive and sometimes so excited - you giggle and giggle and giggle and giggle - when I read your nightime story and you look so angelic in your cozy sleeping bag that your future Godmother Susanne gave you for Christmas. Happy six months birthday William! We are sooooo proud of you!

William's favourite activity - L'attivita' preferita di William

It happens all of a sudden, always outside the house, usually when there are people around and it goes on and on until someone starts talking to him:



And if you think this was a one time event, check the next one.

New year, new hair style! - Anno nuovo, taglio nuovo!

Daddy, to mommy's surprise, all of a sudden, started cutting William's hair and mommy's messy baby, all of a sudden, turned into a stylish little man.

Wiliam prefers the carrots - William preferisce le carote

When mommy gave William the carrots to try, William kept opening his mouth and ended up eating the whole jar! Confident that the same would have happened with the bananas, mommy decided to take a video of the happy moment. See below.

The witch has been kind to William this year - La Befana e' stata carina con William quest'anno

The witch has brought the Imperial College bear to wish William an intellectually stimulating future.

Close encounters of the third kind - Incontri ravvicinati del terzo tipo

We took five months old William to meet his nonni in Italy for the first time. To meet his nonni, William had to travel for nine hours with a six hours stop in Munich. He was giggling on the plane flying to Turin and as soon after we landed, nearly all the passengers couldn't help saying hello to William before getting off the plane. Mommy had to fight for William's rights to get a bassinet and she proudly got one for both ways. In Turin it was not too cold. Spring temperature on Christmas day! Amazing. It was the first time John and I were not feeling like tourists in mommy's town. The other times we went there we were always busy going to see things. Not this time. William was keeping us busy.

William and nonno immediately connected, like old buddies. Every day there was a big smile on William's face followed by nonno's "e ciao!... e ciao!... e ciao!... ciao!... ciao!". Followed by "Occhioni! Nasino! Cucciolo! Bambolotto!" And by nonno's mesmerized expression of the face. After that, mom would place William on nonno's lap or next to him, most of the times in uncomfortable positions because nonno was not able to use his arms, having pulled few legaments here and there. And William? He would stay with nonno in that same uncomfortable position for as long as mom would let him stay there. The magic of nonno! - he did won a Gold medal of magic after all!

Grandma was thrilled to pick William up, although she was shocked of how heavy he was. She was holding him the same way I found myself holding the biggest suitcase when I moved to the US! She couldn't stop starring at him and saying "e ciao! ciao! ciao! brutto muso! (she used to say that to mom)" Then, she was making a silly "bloorrrroorrrrr" which surprised William the first one or two times she did it. On Christmas day, there were more presents for William under my parents' nativity than there were presents for all of us together. It was my mom the guilty subject. She must have spent the last three months before Christmas going to all the baby shops in Turin looking for baby stuff. I was horrified to see how much Italian moms spend on baby stuff. The shops there are not all next to eachother like in the US and they shut every day from 1 to 3 pm so grandma must have been driving in her little car a lot. And in Italy the sales only come after Christmas. John and I could only manage to reach two baby shops in the entire time we were in Turin: Bamby, the shop where my mom used to dress me from head to toes and baby Benetton, the place all Italian moms go to. Plus nonni's friends this year decided to give William a present instead of the usual present to me. So this year on Christmas day we did not have enough time to finish opening William's presents!

I was surprised to see how prepared I was on baby's matters compared to my mom. She kept wondering why we had to wash William's clothes so often and why we had to get William to go to sleep so early in the evening. Or maybe I was too much of a clinical American looking mom to her eyes...

William playing with mom's Trudi stuffed lamb - William mentre gioca con la pecora Trudi della mamma

It was with surprise that mommy, after opening one of William's Christmas gifts, the ones still located under the nonni's nativity two days after Christmas, saw her old dear lamb Trudi. That was the one mommy used to hug under the bed spread hoping to fall asleep after experiencing the joyful and "sorrowful" moments of her childhood. Will William be able to take comfort from mommy's little lamb more than he currently takes from listening to the music coming from his mobile? We'll see.

William's First Christmas Part 3 - Il Primo Natale di William Parte 3

William's First Christmas Part 2 - Il Primo Natale di William Parte 2

William's First Christmas Part 1 - Il Primo Natale di William Parte 1

It is story time William! - Dai, leggiamo una storia William!

"Story time" sounded a bit like "tommy time", an overused Boston moms expression for newborns with no clear meaning. What does it mean "story time" to a 4 months old baby? This is what used to mean to William's mom. Trying hard to hold yet another baby book in front of William and read few words to him while he was trying to grab and tear the pages of it with tears in his eyes. Despite that, mommy started to read a short story to William every day before putting him to bed. The first attempt was not successful at all. Maybe because mommy had the non brilliant idea of starting the story time with a Fedro's fairy tale containing Italian words even she could not understand. She then moved to a different book with stories marketed for babies. Mommy soon realized they were not appropriate for William's age - the first story was about diapers, the third one was about women's periods! After that, mommy moved to Disney's subjects such as sleeping beauty and decided to only read William two or three paragraphs of a story at a time before putting him to bed. She did in the bedroom with the lights dimmed. It worked! After reading two or three paragraphs of a story, William, as mommy was hoping, was happily closing his eyes and was falling into a deep sleep. But - mommy was wondering - was this the goal of story time? Make the baby fall asleep? Few days ago William received a book as a Christmas gift from his great ant Bev. Mommy saw that the story in the book was made of about four words per page. The rest of the book consisted of large pictures of animals. She asked herself "Will it keep him entertained during the day?" It turned out that William loved the large pictures of the animals and that the less mommy was reading the more William was happily entertained. Was this better story time? And the book on the jumperoo? Maybe that is the way forward in terms of story time for my little man. See video below.

To mommy's cowboy - Al cowboy della mamma

William enjoying mommy's Christmas present, i.e his expensive cowboy boots which turned out to be a pain. Each time mommy tries to put the marketed 0-12 months socks on William's feet, they allegedly fly away leaving William's one or half foot bare. Just what a mom would want to happen on a cold winter day in Boston.

William che si sta godendo il suo regalo di Natale, i.e i suoi nuovi stivali da cowboy... che si sono rivelati un disastro. Ogni volta che la mamma cerca di mettere queste belle calzine pubblicizzate per neonati dai 0 ai 12 mesi, sui piedini di William, inevitabilmente, volano via, lasciando uno o mezzo piedino di William nudo. Proprio quello che una mamma vorrebbe che accadesse in una gelida giornata invernale di Boston.

William happy with his new mat - William felice con il suo nuovo tappeto

How boring the old Ikea mat. As soon as William saw the animals hanging down from the new mat, a smile shined on his face and the 2 minutes of mat time went back to 10. Urra'!

William doing tommy time - William mentre fa il tommy time

Tommy time, the horror proposition for William. The first time it was ever mentioned, mommy and daddy were thinking that it was yet another hipsters moms Boston thing. Then the Isis Maternity people started going on about it as if it was a must do in every baby's day. Then the conversation with other moms. Then the weekly email from the baby sites. I felt everybody around me was talking about tommy time. Tommy time toys were populating the shelves of baby stores. And finally the orthopedic specialist was proposing ways to get William to spend time on his tommy. But William each time mommy and daddy were trying to get him on his tommy was allegedly screaming! So... here it is, the fish mirror with flashing lights and with water sounds, yet another tommy time secret weapon to try to distract the baby while he is doing his tommy time! How long will this keep him without screaming?

William's first Christmas at home - Il primo Natale di William a casa

This year John and I have managed to make the tree during the weekend before December 8th, the day of the Immacolata Vergine Concezione, so that William could get started on this Italian tradition. Mommy was so excited when she saw baby William looking at the tree with surprise on his face. Even more, when she saw his little hand grab a ball from the tree and then the American candy! How could she ever imagine that something like that could one day make her so emotional?

William does NOT like rice cereal - A William non piace la crema di cereali

When starting him on solids? Good question. One says between 4 and 6 months, others say absolutely at 4 months, others say start cereal absolutely at 5 months, others say start giving him a taste of different food at 5 months, our pediatrician said start solids at 6 months, and nothing before. Another pediatrician in the same practice said that breastfeeding mothers should move to solids at 6 months, not before. He then told me to start giving William green veggies for three days, followed by yellow veggies for three days followed by fruit for another three days to test for food allergies. It was not at all clear what we had to do. So we started giving him a taste of rice cereal. No matter how yummy mommy and dad presented it to him, he just did not want to take it. We tried three times. Twice by itself and a third time mixed with an Italian brodino and zucchini mousse. No luck! Conclusion: William hates rice cereal.

Quando passare ai solidi? Una bella domanda!! Uno dice tra i 4 e i 6 mesi, altri dicono di farlo assolutamente ai 4 mesi, altri dicono di iniziare i cereali ai 5 mesi, altri ancora dicono di dargli un assaggio di cibi diversi a 5 mesi, il suo pediatra ci ha detto di iniziare i solidi a sei mesi e non prima. Un altro pediatra nella stessa clinica ci ha detto che... le mamme allattanti non devono iniziare i solidi prima dei sei mesi e che il latte del seno materno e' sufficiente fino ai sei mesi. Dopo di cio', per una qualche strana ragione, ci ha detto di iniziare a dare a William legumi verdi per tre giorni, seguiti da legumi gialli per latri tre giorni, seguiti da frutta per latri tre giorni. Non e' chiaro qual'e' la cosa migliore da fare... Cosi' abbiamo iniziato a dargli il rice cereal. Nonostante le facce godute di mamma e papa' che facevano finta di gustare la deliziosa pappina, William proprio non ne voleva sapere. Abbiamo provato due volte. La prima volta da solo, la seconda mischiato con un brodino vegetale ed un omogeneizzato di zucchini. Niente! A William la crema di cereali proprio non piace.