MN Little Italy 7

[francagoestohollywood]

Ciao, hello, welcome!

Funnily enough Pippi she does sometimes talk to her teddies in Italian, but she did it more last year than now. Thing is this is her second year of scuola materna, and before that she was at the nido nearly every day, and still no Italian. I think she is just too much of a perfectionist and doesn't want to make mistakes. She has been like that with a lot of things, then she suddenly "gets" it.

I am with the rest of you on the cozzie front, a bikini top seems ridiculous, caso mai I would just get her a 1 piece.

They have removed the slide !!! It is only a little one and not steep . Her eye is fine its a bit grey but she is not bothered about it at all .
I agree that in the Uk it is OTT about pictures etc and I am not sure if there is actually a law about it . I was told off for using my mobile in the pool area in the UK- It doesn't even have a camera in it ! When I was little I ran round in mutande but often I needed a t shirt as I kept burning my shoulders and sun cream was that thick glucky stuff then.
No news on hot ?????????
2 days at nap time dd stayed in her bed .....She woke at 6 and wanted a cuddle ever seen a 7mth pg whale try to get over bed guard to get in single bed for cuddle- I got in just but getting out was fun

Pippi, I really wouldn't bother: make a big show of your Italianita', after all, we are famous for having no shame . Otherwise get her a costume intero, they are 6 euros at decathlon... Still, I always think they'd get too cold in a costume intero (italian mother emoticon).

Sputnik, your perfectionist dd sounds lovely though. Have you tried to "monitor" her when/if you have Italian children around at home? Does she speak to them, in a less formal environment??

lol at rosa and the bed rail

ah Gomorra is very good although super depressing.

ds has just deliberately written his first sentence "AEIOU asino ce (che) sei tu" I'm proud

We rarely have other kids over, and then it's usually random children of friends. She does do the odd word in a 1 on 1 situation. We have some friends with an older DS (around 9ish), trouble is, he likes to practise his english while she's around! She still plays "in parallel" rather than interactively IYSWIM. I think it would help to have more contact with other kids in a smaller group, just not sure how to go about it.

You are of course right that she is lovely, how did you guess

Bravo!

I think it might be interconnected: she doesn't play interactively because she can't speak Italian as well as she wishes to do, she doesn't get more confident about her Italian because she doesn't play interactively enough, iyswim... she'll get there of course. I don't think there is much you can do, apart from lots of praising, which I'm sure you already do .
You could ask the teachers to try to go and have a little chat with her a few times during her school day. I appreciate teachers have to look after lots of children, but she might be more comfortable around adults?

She's fine with adults, in fact the teacher commented she was more mature than the other kids, even though she must be one of the younger ones. Maybe because she's always been mostly round adults as we don't know many kids.

I was talking about this with my mum, she had problems settling at school as there were no other kids where she grew up and she was an only child. Whereas where I grew up they were all young families and loads of kids around so great in that respect.

Where we live most people have lived here all their lives and tend to hang out with their families. There are no eg toddler groups etc, the parks are crap and people don't generally take their kids there. It's hard to know how to break in really.

Yes, I agree. I had similar problems in the UK, as we were the first in our small group of friends to have a child (and btw when ds was born I didn't have a close friendship in Exeter yet) and I was too insecure/didn't like the mother and babies groups etc. In fact, one of the reasons why I chose to send him to nursery was that I didn't want him to inhale my loneliness day in day out (and trust me, I'm a very sociable person, but when ds was little I was still finding it hard to make friends in the UK).
I appreciate it must be very difficult to enter the small Italian village. How do you find the other mothers at your dd's scuola materna? Here in Milan it's an endless chit chat, I find myself chatting away every morning after dropping ds to school... I'm turning into a portinaia

Well most kids take the scuola bus in (we can't, as from a different comune) and the school is quite flexible so we don't get everyone dropping off at once. So you might pass someone and smile but that's about it. I do know some of the other parents actually, but never seem to co-incide!

Actually we have some quite good friends with a DD in the year below DD, we should probably try and see more of them.

Ah that's a pity, about different drop off times...
I'm sure she'll make friends on her own soon. I only had one friend before starting primary, our next door neighbour's son (and we moved house when I was 5, I missed him...). I made more friendsonce I started elementari, really

That's what my Mum said: "It'll all come out in the wash"

Sputnik I know exactly where you are coming from as I feel so much the same no baby groups - I went to the continuita not only to have dd weighed but to see other mums just to get rid of that 'alone' feeling esp when Dh was working so hard. As she grew the park is a dump and its lonely. I kept in contact with 2 mums from anti natal swimming and I made another mum friend as we lived near each other. But its not the same . In the Uk I made more friends and so did dd via the baby gym and word of mouth.
However since dd has started nido she is already saluting her friends when we see them outside and I am hoping that maybe we can do some playing - esp when No2 arrives - might have to break the regola and invito a casa.
Does your dd watch tv or maybe try some canzoni ( but please not the singing children something d'oro). Right bed time and crawling time for me to help dd pick up toys

Your mum is very wise sputnik

Life can be pretty lonely when you live in a foreign country and know very few people. I do feel for you Rosa, as Venice sounds like a difficult place to live and raise little ones if you haven't been a local for at least 2 generations... also it looses population every year, I suppose there aren't many activities for toddlers.
Milan has changed a lot in the last 10 yrs and there are loads of activities for little ones (pricey though) and there is still some tempo delle famiglie left (heritage of more progressive giunte comunali...). But I'm pretty sure things will change when your dd will be at scuola materna. As I said mothers are dying for a bit of chat here.

We were just saying today we should put on Italian tv. She does have DVDs in Italian and has no problem watching them. Funny, she used to sing along loads at the nido, then come home and sing them. They do listen to music at school but maybe not as repetitivly. Any recommendations?

Anyway, I expect you're all bored to tears with my DD by now

Did you all know that Zara Home have a website?

No No No No No- Sputnik go stand in the corner then write 100 lines I will not post addictive websites on mumsnet so Rosa will spend more money .
As for your dd Sputnik don't be daft we are all here to support each other through hairy legs and asilo problems
I love the bed linen and I have only got that far !!! I can't waste more time and will look in depth later if dd has a nap.
The manin songs that they all seem to sing here are from the ??? d'oro , Franca will know - Its groups of children dressed in matching outfits and fake curls all singing songs - drives me mad and I cannot stand them. The other one who I hate ( this is just me BTW) is Cristina d'avena - she sang most of the cartoon intros. I just find the voice grates. DD has learnt Heidi at nido and I have yet to learn the words - I am happy with mothercare nursery rhymes thanks !!!

lol lol lol at rosa's description of the b zecchino d'oro.

I did know that zara home has a website, which I avidly browse when I daydream about renovating my soft furnishing... which I never do... . Luckily, as I said the actual shop is too far away from where I live, which saves me loads of money.

Sputnik, as rosa said, we are here to support each other... and we can't possibly spend the whole time talking about body hairs .

Why not trying "fiabe sonore"? You can buy cd of fairy tales even in Italian (I buy them in English hoping to maintain the kids' listening comprehension)
fiabe sonore fabbri this is the re-edition of those we had as kids in the seventies (we had the 45 giri)
this are "fiabe da ascoltare" edited by Fabbri, it's a book plus cd (30 minutes). We have a few of those, nice illustration, all the most famous fairy tales. One warning: they are the originals, so no edulcorated version of Hansel and Gretel, for instance.

Rosa - I can't stand Cristina D'Avena either. Even her face on CD covers makes me want to run away screaming. However I have become slightly addicted to Zecchino d'Oro, which I'd always hated on principle. DD used to come home from nido singing 44 gatti and other such gems which led DP to download others from his childhood memories, which in turn led to them being on 12 hours a day and those tunes just kept worming their way in. I now know all the words to a lot of them and Il coccodrillo Come Fa has found its way onto my iTunes.

Sputnik - as the others have said, we're not here just to moan about hairy legs. I'm sorry your DD is still having problems, I didn't realise from what you'd written that speaking Italian was such an issue for her. Could it be some sort of selective mutism, which apparently is quite common in bilingual kids? Franca's suggestion for story CDs is a good one, as is the dreaded Italian TV.
I sympathise with you regarding the breaking in issues, I've had the same although after many years it does finally seem to be getting better. However, nobody seems to do playdates or invite anyone round for a cup of tea type thing here, it's all meeting up in the park. They can't all be embarrassed about having a messy house.

Talking of which, nonna went home today, so I'm back to having to do my own cleaning and getting up early with DD at weekends. DD was thouroughly spoilt and keeps asking when she'll be back. The plus side is that I can finally watch telly without someone making constant mad comments through the programme. Unfortunately I think DD's inherited the same trait.

This last couple of weeks has really brought home to me just how handy it is to have family nearby to help out and am quite of those around here with nonna living down the road. Maybe long term it would be too much and do my head in, what with the frequent popping in and all that, but a discreet nonna who will come only if and when you need her only would be ace.

I have never watched the actual Zecchino D'Oro, but I remember a friend had a DVD they got at the edicola, with some of the songs along with cartoons. One which really stuck in my mind was called "Metti la Canottiera" (sp?) . I think I'll ask the lady from the nido if we can copy hers.

Went to a party today, the parents were brave and had it at their house, though we were outside luckily. Most of DDs class were there, she didn't really speak to them but played quite happily. Her class seem like nice kids apart from 1 who seems to delight in smashing things, for ages he was trying to eat a plastic pollo! In fact I remember him from the very first day I took DD to school, he was hitting another kid and there were no teachers around so I told him off.

Thanks for those links Franca. I am in favour of bloodthirsty fairytales myself!

Do any Italians have a messy house?

I've never seen one (except for one of DP's friends), but they're always apologising about the mess. I then get all paranoid about my place and hesitate about inviting anyone over. I know DP gets all het up and frantically cleans if one of his friends has to pop round, including the messy one.

My previous neighbour had a very messy house, but then they were in 4 living in a monolocale of 35mq. However, when her DH was away (v.messy artist) her flat was spotless. Mine was a tip with just me there - but then in my defence I was a busy career woman by day and party animal by night (oh the energy I must have had) so I never had the time to tidy. That's my excuse anyway. I have improved somewhat but I'm never going to be Miss Casalinga dell'anno.

My (Italian) mother used to be Mrs Casa Perfetta, but she had it knocked out of her by living with someone who collected newspaper cuttings and dusty history books. I wish she'd met him earlier, it would have saved me from many years of grief from the heinous crime of Leaving Crumbs.

Actually tell a lie, I have seen 2 messy houses (apart from mine, obv.) here, both older men living alone.

One was a house we were thinking of buying, the smell was so bed the agency said lots of people had refused to go in. There were overflowing cat litter trays in every room, altroche fresh flowers and baking bread.

There doesn't seem to be that thing of inviting people in, which explains the taverna thing. I have had many a sunday lunch on plastic plates in someones taverna.

Yes, the taverna thing is strange, though I have noticed it more in "deep" provincia. The same people usually have a perfect salotto with the settee still encased in cellophane.

Yuk at the smelly cat litter house. The worst we had when househunting was overpowering chemical air fresheners. No flowers or baking bread here either. I was pg at the time and frequently felt sick after 5 mins within range of a plug in air freshener. Why do people buy these things?