Mamma Americana

Afraid of the dark?

Eleonora just learned the word for dark (buio in Italian) last week. She would repeat it over and over breathlessly as we rode on our bike at night. She seemed a little scared, but it would pass as soon as we arrived at our destination.

Then we returned home yesterday from the beach. She napped in her crib without incident, but when it was time for bed she started crying, saying "Buio! Buio! Buio!" and absolutely refused to go to sleep. After more than an hour of trying to soothe her, we finally put her in bed with us. Even then, she took another forty five minutes to fall asleep. Lorenzo placed her in her crib a while later.

Now, what I'm wondering is this: is it possible to develop a fear of something in just a matter of days? And what does the name have to do with it? She wasn't afraid of the dark at all until she learned the word for it. 

I thought that (at least in the adult world) naming something gave you some power over it. And I also thought that fear of the dark didn't come along until later. I guess I was wrong.

The Cinque Terre

We're finally home (for about a week)! On the 5th we leave for a 10 day vacation in New England. Then Lorenzo heads home and Eleonora and I head out to California for a 3 week visit with family. 

In the meantime I'd like to share some photos from our trip to the Cinque Terre in Liguria, Italy on August 10.

From the pier at Forte dei Marmi we boarded a boat headed for the Cinque Terre. The service is offered by the Consorzio Marittimo Turistico- 5 Terre. It leaves at 10 am and returns at 6 pm. We stopped in Monterosso for 3 hours, and Portovenere on the way back for about an hour and a half.

It was a beautiful hot day and the waters were calm. Which was good, because I get seasick!

Riomaggiore

Corniglia

Monterosso al Mare

Monterosso al Mare 

The Oratory of the Black Men, Monterosso

Portovenere

 Church of San Pietro, Portovenere

There's a grotto dedicated to Lord Byron just behind the church. He evidently swam from there over to Lerici. That's quite a swim! 

Mountain Retreat

Since the first week of August we, as a family and not just the baby and I, have been on vacation. My 16 year old cousin arrived at the end of July from the States to spend two weeks with us. Lorenzo is "officially" on vacation, but is still working here and there. All of Europe is on vacation and on the roads it seems like. I've noticed lots of French, Dutch and German license plates. They must love the Italian sun and heat.

The first week of August was spent in the pre-alps, in Lombardy near Lake Iseo. Lorenzo's aunt and uncle have an apt. in an old chalet dating back to the 1700's. It's close to the village of Solto Collina. 

Sitting area in the apt.

It's an area full of natural beauty and bounty. Here it's quite common to find wild black berries, walnut, hazelnut and chestnut trees. And dormice! We heard them every night scurrying around on the roof and squeaking at one another. 

Young hazelnut

Young chestnuts

Field near apt.

We had lunch at a restaurant with a panoramic terrace overlooking lake Iseo. The view was breathtaking.

Lake Iseo

Felt Food

I've started making felt food to go with Eleonora's play kitchen. Now that I've started I don't think I can stop. Working with wool felt is quite addicting. I would love to make a cake or something but I've got to find foam.  Certain craft supplies are hard to find in Italy.

Ham and cheese on whole wheat and some strawberrries, sewn by hand.

Here are some links to more felt food and tutorials on the web:

One Crafty Place: Felt Food Tutorial Roundup

Half Pint Pixie has another great list of tutorials 

Cherry Curtains

I've been embroidering these kitchen curtains off and on for a while now. I sewed the curtains up in a snap back in early April, but the embroidery took a while to complete as I was only dedicating an hour here and there. At the beach I finally found the time to complete them.

And here they are, bringing a smile to my face every morning.