Your Opinion

Here's me and the belly last weekend at Ruffia.  I'm so big that my maternity clothes are too tight!  Boo!!!

We're in the home stretch (any day is good) and it's your last chance to tell us what you think is causing this big ever-growing bump.  So, vote and tell us if you think it's a boy or a girl!

Are we having a boy or a girl?

• Boy
• Girl

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Nesting 1

I wasn't going to write this blog until I had a final result to present, but I have some time this morning and some photos that aren't getting any younger, so here is "nesting part 1!" Fabri was really cute when I explained the concept of nesting to him.  If you follow him on Twitter, you've seen his updates with photos of the progress.  If you don't follow him on Twitter, you should and there's a link to the right of this blog!

The baby's getting the room with a view!

From Saluzzo House

So our guest room/office is becoming the baby's room.  That means that we no longer have room for guests here in the apartment, but fret not, the Motta's have space at their home and the B&B in Ruffia (don't book through the site, I just wanted to include it for the photos and English description), so we still have room for off-site visitors!  We painted the room yellow when we first moved in 3.5 years ago with the "baby possibility" in mind, so no painting necessary.  We started by getting rid of the desk and reorganizing the armoir.

From Nesting

Then we added a new dresser to hold all that cute baby stuff our generous friends & family gave us at the shower.  Shout out to Joey for helping to carry that heavy thing upstairs for us!  Olney was of course integral in putting the thing together.  He's quite a handy pup.

From Nesting

The next project was putting together the Inglesina travel system.  This includes the bassinet which is in our bedroom, the car seat and the stroller.  It's all very modular so everything can attach to the wheeled stroller base with relative ease.  We still need to put the base of the car seat in my car.  I think that's a week 38 project (this is week 36).  We're waiting for all this snow to go away; we'll be waiting a while as there is snow in the forecast for this weekend; so we can practice walking Olney with the stroller.  Meanwhile he's been getting a lot of practice in the house and it doesn't bother him at all.

Look at all those boxes for a stroller!  Well, a travel system.

From Nesting

This was fun to construct because everything snaps together easily.  We'll have to keep the manuals close by to remember how to do all the changes when you attach different pieces.  This is a prime example of Italian fashion and the preferred brand of the most fashionable Italian mothers.  What I'm doing with it, who knows, but after I saw the one handed closure, we didn't seriously consider any other brands.  Also I like that the car seat can snap out of the base in the car and into the stroller to avoid waking a sleeping baby when we arrive at our destination.

From Nesting

Last weekend, we put together the crib, the final piece of furniture for the nursery.  When we were finished we realized we put the very first piece on upside down.  After a quick redo, we had the future baby bed.  Now with all the furniture constructed, we've been moving things around trying to figure out the best configuration.  We think we have it figured out and we'll probably put up the paintings and decorations this weekend if we decide we still like where all the furniture is.

From Nesting

Speaking of paintings, after over 3 years of searching, we have artwork up above the couch in the living room!!  That was part of the nesting process too.  That and a new piece of furniture in the bathroom, a humidifier in the bedroom and a third stool at our bar!  Check out the rest of the photos in my Picasa web albums (link to the right).

From Nesting

Emergency Snow Blog!

Saturday afternoon: the snow is just starting to stick

From Snow, finally!!

Fabri thought it was very important to tell you & mostly show you how much fun we had with our snow this weekend.  The snow began early on Saturday afternoon.  Thankfully it waited for us to run some errands first.  It started lightly and Fabri scoffed and said it wouldn't amount to much.  Saturday evening, when it had finally covered the grass, we geared up in some snow stuff and took the puppy out to play.  He loves snow!

Sunday morning: winter wonderland

From Snow, finally!!

We were happy to have at least a little snow this winter.  Even the mountains have been bare and the Limone ski slopes closed.  The snow continued to fall all Saturday and into the night.  It picked up and by the time we went to bed, there was a few inches, 4 maybe.  Sunday morning we slept in, but at 7am, I had to go to the bathroom and on my way back to bed I could not resist looking outside.  There was our winter wonderland we'd been waiting for!  Everything was covered with white and the snow was coming down hard!

Jess & Olney playing in the snow

From Snow, finally!!

Fabri took the puppy out just to do his business, but his excitement could barely be contained.  We had a yummy breakfast and then got SUPER GEARED UP to go and play in what was about a foot of snow.

The snow did NOT stop falling at all on Sunday

From Snow, finally!!

We ran around (as best as possible) and threw snowballs for Olney and generally had a lot of fun.  I was happy some of Fabri's snow gear fit my ever expanding belly because I didn't want to miss out.  On Sunday we went out for two good play sessions.  It never stopped snowing, it just kept piling up & piling up.

Fabri & Olney playing in the snow

From Snow, finally!!

Sunday evening we had to get down to business and free the cars for work today.  Our nice neighbor helped and the snow eventually stopped falling in the early morning hours of Monday.  Fabri had to clean off his work car this morning, but got to work without incident.  The roads are all cleared (which often means the snow is piled up on the sidewalks).

The snow out front Sunday evening

From Snow, finally!!

I took Olney out to play in the field again late this morning.  Our tracks from the evening before were visible, but covered and the snow came up to the tops of my knees (about 2 feet)!  It's been right around 0°C all day and tomorrow they're calling for moderate to heavy snow through out most of Tuesday, so I don't think this snow is ready to go away quite yet!

And even MORE snow this morning! (and schools were open today)

From Snow, finally!!

Holiday Marathon Part 2

Dinner at Danny's new house

The week between Christmas and New Years we ate cookies (and cupcakes), visited with friends and relaxed.  It was cold and humid and I caught a bit of a cold as well, so when NYE arrived, we were not where the party's at.  We wanted to go to our favorite restaurant either with a group of friends, or just the two of us, but ours was the only reservation the restaurant received, so they didn't open for NYE.  That was just as well because of my cold and instead Fabri and I made ourselves a very fancy and very yummy several course meal.  At midnight we watched some fireworks and paper lanterns from our balcony while Olney hid in a corner, afraid of all the noise. 

Olney loves meat!

Fabri sets a beautiful table

January 2nd is Maria Pia's birthday and we had a Motta family dinner to celebrate that.  I don't remember what we ate, but I remember not feeling stuffed like an olive and having plenty of room for the chocolate cake that I had brought.  Apparently that was the first time the Motta's tried frosting and it made a real impression on Francesca especially.  Frosting has the ability to bridge all cultural barriers!

The following Friday was (finally) the end of the holiday marathon, Epiphany.  It was a 3 day weekend and Fabri wasn't working a single shift the whole time, so I said "let's get outta here!"  We put the puppy in the car and headed over the snow-less mountains to Nice, stopping on the way for a pint at Troll brewery.  The weather was great and we even ate lunch outside in the sunshine!  The city was really empty though and didn't have that exciting Nice vibe that we love, so on Saturday we packed up to go to Limone for a night.  Well an empty Nice is more sad than an empty snow-less Limone, but not by much.  We enjoyed walking around the town with Olney which is difficult when Limone is crowded and ate dinner in the apartment.  On Sunday we were already close to home, so we got home early to relax and enjoy the last few hours of the holiday marathon before things went back to normal. 

Giant ornament light in Nice

The Holiday Marathon

The Big Bingo Winners: Lulu & Fabri

 In Italy, even more than in the US, the winter holidays are a marathon. The holiday season traditionally opens on December 8, the Immaculate Conception. As far as I can tell, it's just a day off of work/school for all but the most Catholic among us. So the Italian holiday season starts after ours (ours beginning with Thanksgiving at the end of November), BUT it doesn't end until January 6, the Epiphany. We're done after New Year's Day, and we don't celebrate December 26th, which it seems a lot of the rest of the world does. 

Our silly looking family in front of our little tree

In Fabri's family, we follow the Southern Italian tradition of a big seafood dinner on Christmas Eve. I have to say that I wasn't into it this year. It went very, very long, the dining portion not ending until 1am and without copious amounts of vino, I was exhausted and over it by 11pm. 

The holidays in the Motta Goldstein house

Christmas Day we took it easy. Fabri had to do rounds at the hospital in the morning, so after opening our stockings and presents at home, he went to work and I had a relaxing morning. I was in no rush to have a long family lunch (even though we'd be 10 instead of 20 like the night before), so Fabri and I didn't go over to Ruffia until 2 or 3 in the afternoon allowing everyone to eat their several course meal without us. When we arrived, we picked and chose what left overs to heat up and ate quietly just the two of us. That was lovely.

After lunch, we kept everything relaxed and low-key. We played cards with Gaetano & Detta (wish we had been able to finish) and lounged around. Olney was better behaved because there were fewer people and it was sunny & he could spend a lot of time outside. That evening I (amazingly) didn't feel like killing Fabri & escaping, so I made MD steamed shrimp for everyone for dinner instead. Giovanni & Brunella joined us and we played the traditional family bingo tournament ending at 11 or so. Much, much better.

I showed the Motta's how to light the Menorah before bingo

 

 

December 26, San Stefano, Fabri wasn't working during the day, but did have a night shift that night. We decided that was a good reason to not leave the house and just try to recover from the weekend. We both worked on Tuesday, so we needed it! 

Four holidays down, two more to go.  To be continued...

Engagement Weekend!

Laura thought we were going to spend a quiet family weekend in Chincoteague.

From US Visit Nov-Dec 2011

Fabri and I hadn't yet seen Mom & Dad's new beach house.  It was very nice and comfortable.  We were really happy to spend some time there.  Laura and Chris arrived to drop of Lily puppy and then they went to the beach to make sure if was still there and as they remembered...

From US Visit Nov-Dec 2011

We all knew that Chris has a surprise in mind.  He proposed to Laura on the beach!  Then he had a further surprise when he took her to a hotel and his family was waiting there to congratulate them and celebrate what will forever be known as "Engagement Weekend."
From US Visit Nov-Dec 2011

Check out that rock!  Chris foolishly asked my & Mom's help picking it out.  My contribution was to considerably add to the price by suggesting a platinum setting doesn't yellow over time and need to be retreated to maintain the silver white color.  He won't ask my advice again!  Lily puppy was so happy that her parents are finally going to be married and all of us below are so happy we're finally going to be family!  We're just missing Chris's sister, Kim who took this photo.  And of course Fabri and I will be adding a +1 before the wedding date!

From US Visit Nov-Dec 2011

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012!  I'm naming this year "2012 - things are happening" because a lot of things are happening this year.  I have a cousin getting married in April, a college roommate getting married in June, a sister-in-law getting married in August, my little sister is getting married in the fall, and a cousin getting married in December; and oh yeah, I'm giving birth in March!  Those are the kind of things that are happening.  There will also be some immigration things to do including (hopefully, and if not this year I will freak out) my being sworn in as an Italian citizen and then getting a work contract with the University of Turin.  Two passports and real work, always exciting.  There will also be a trip to Milan to the US embassy to get this bilingual, dual citizen baby registered as a US citizen and get him or her a US passport so that he or she can come to the US and eat cake at some of these weddings!  Fabri's work is stable and this year he'll be doing some tutoring for the master's program he just completed in December (thank goodness that's over with and he finished with top scores and cum laude).  We're feeling really lucky and excited to have all this to look forward to this year.

In 2011 I really dropped the ball on the blog writing.  This late summer/early fall while I was in my first trimester and feeling nauseous all the time, I really didn't have anything good to say...so I decided not to say anything at all.  I did not adequately pick things up these last couple months though and I have lots of great photos to post and stories to tell.  Even stories that do NOT involve Olney (if you can believe it)!  So as my first new year's resolution, I'm going to go back in time a bit and post those stories & photos you're missing out on.  I'll wait to make any other resolutions as my whole life will change in March and there's no point in saying I'm going to lose weight or run a marathon or write the great American novel right now.  (Losing weight is an especially touchy subject because I still have 2 months of gaining weight to do). 

I'm not sure if little babies are conducive to blogging, but at least I'll never lack inspiration for my posts, so if these past couple years have been all about Olney, expect the next ~18 or so to be all about the baby. 

Happy 2012 everyone - things are happening!!!