Mamma Americana

Chamomile and Colic

Still on our New England vacation. Eleonora and I leave for LA tomorrow and Lorenzo heads back to Florence for 3 weeks of bachelorhood. I'll post some photos of our trip when we're settled in. 

In the meantime, here's something interesting about chamomile and colic.

Well, I just about rolled over when I read this article in the NY Times a few weeks ago. Evidently research shows some improvement for colicky babies after drinking chamomile tea. You see, chamomile is a folk remedy that Italian grandmothers have been touting for generations. They sell a powdered version just for babies at the supermarket here. 

I never gave much credence to it as there are many other old folk beliefs (regarding health) in Italy that are just plain silly. I have to give some examples: Going to the sea will bring out teething, illness, etc. in young children (il mare lo porta fuori); cold air will cause a stiff neck; going barefoot is bad for children's feet. There are many more, but I honestly cannot remember them right now. 

It turns out I was wrong about the chamomile. That's good news for babies with colic. Wish I'd known that when Eleonora was tiny. She had awful colic every evening/night until about 3 months.

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.

Happy Birthday Baby!

Have you missed me? Things have been a bit hectic around here over the last week. There was a birthday party to plan and execute (Friday-Saturday); a christening party for Eleonora's twin cousins that we attended on Sunday afternoon plus more visiting cousins that evening; a routine checkup at the pediatrician Monday morning and yet another trip to Ikea in the afternoon; booster shots for my little gal Tuesday morning, even though she had a cold coming on; and to top it all off a fever of 101.5 on Wednesday! Probably a combination of the shots and the cold. Today she only has a slight fever, but her nose is pretty stuffed up. Poor thing...

Friday was Eleonora's first birthday, and we celebrated it at our home on Saturday. The preparation leading up to the big day was enough to keep me busy for the better part of a month. Planning, creating, cooking and baking; whew! I'm glad they only come around once a year. There are also 364 un-birthdays, but we'll leave that to the Mad Hatter and the March Hare.

A special tablecloth that I made (the cupcakes are iron on)

Eleonora wearing her birthday crown

Inspiration for the tablecloth came from Martha Stewart. The original idea has guests signing the tablecloth. I liked the idea of a keep sake tablecloth that can be used year after year, so I hand painted one with fabric paint and added iron-on cupcakes. I can always add more in the years to come. The birthday crown came from The Creative Family by Amanda Soule.

Onto the festivities!

The cake was a yellow butter cake with buttercream icing. The bug cupcakes came from Martha Stewart.

Yeah for Sourdough!

My sourdough french bread, fresh from the oven

The loaf this morning (we've already eaten half of it)

I was so proud of the way that my first attempt at sourdough bread came out, that I thought I'd share it with you (just the pics. sorry ;) The whole process took more than a week, but it was well worth it. 

I let the starter ferment for about six days so it would be nice and sour. Then I made the dough in the machine, letting it rise for four hours. After that I turned it out, kneaded it some more and then let it rest another hour, covered. Finally I placed it in a colander lined with a floured tea towel and let it rise another twenty-four hours in the fridge. The result was delicious.

In other news, the sewing machine does work, even after all these years. I will begin my sewing adventure as soon as Eleonora's birthday is over (next week) and have some time for other projects.

Speaking of her birthday, Lorenzo and I gave her an exersaucer activity center, after I finally found one online at Ebaby here in Italy. I'd seen them in the U.S., but never over here. Going to Graco's (an american company) italian site finally led me to it. This is a great alternative to a walker, which I was told can be dangerous. I guess they're bad enough that the American Academy of Pediatrics wants to ban them.

Eleonora checking out her activity center

Earth, kid and wallet friendly cleaning products

A good friend of mine recently brought up the subject of homemade detergent, shampoo, soap etc. This is a something that I've been exploring over the last year and a half. I started making my own household cleaning solutions while I was pregnant, but then I stopped after the baby was born. This May, while I was banishing all of the toxic stuff to a high shelf outside (a.k.a. baby proofing), the thought occurred to me "Why not just get rid of it?".

So I gave away what was left in the bottles and containers and started from scratch. I bought some plastic spray bottles, baking soda, biodegradable dish soap, vinegar, lemon oil and tea tree oil. I use recipes that I found at the Daily Green. They've worked really well for me. I still need to find a good recipe for dishwasher detergent though.

Summer is finally here!

Summer has arrived much later than usual this year. May, usually the nicest month, was very dreary, with showers/thunderstorms almost everyday. And June is normally quite hot, without a cloud in sight. It's almost July and yesterday was our first day of really warm weather. Even so, the mornings are overcast, just like in SoCal this time of year.

Soon our family will be heading off to the beach cottage. Come June and the end of the school year there is a mass exodus of moms with kids in tow. They relocate to the beaches of Italy, or less often, to the countryside from June to September. The dads commute to work or visit on the weekends, depending on the distance to/from work.

I'm looking forward to getting away from Florence for a while, but two months seems like a long time. This is going to take some getting used to...

Not your mother's cloth diapers

I am switching the baby from disposable diapers to cloth. At first it was thoughts of helping the environment that got me curious, but then I found out how much money we could save. That really did it. I read somewhere that the average child uses between 7,000-9,000 disposable diapers from birth through potty training. We've been spending € .34 per diaper. That's a total of €2,720 ($4,169)! The initial investment of $500 is well worth it. Eleonora is already 8 1/2 months, so some of those savings have already been lost. The upside is that we can probably use the same cloth diapers for the next one and save even more money. Woohoo!

I wasn't sure what to buy at first, there are so many different kinds of cloth diapers out there. Then I stumbled upon the Diaper Pin. The info. there helped me realize that I would be happiest with a diaper that was as easy to use as a disposable. I couldn't see myself or Lorenzo folding and pinning etc. After reading the reviews online, I settled on bumGenius one size pocket diapers. They go from 7-35 lbs and have a pocket where you add microfiber inserts. I bought mine at Angel Bunz in L.A. and then my family kindly shipped them to me. They also sell them here in Italy at la Casa del Bimbo.

Here's the inside with the pocket opening at one end.

Here are the inserts along with the cloth baby wipes.

All in a row!

So I'm doing my part for the environment, saving oodles of money, and they're cute to boot! Not bad, eh?