MN Little Italy 20 ........Buon Natale !

[Rosa]

Here we are then ........

Hello everyone!

Feel so behind - someone fill me in in two sentences!

V. busy at work. Painfully so. Can't figure out how I'm going to get even the minimum done; and spending evenings working is having no effect, apparently...

Anyway - I've missed you all.

Pippi and Mcnulty being Stepford keep fit wives.
Waiting for Sg baby and had big discussion on daft names
MM having a few probs in Switz settling in
Brange popped in - hurrah -
Franca and Gio nasty colds
le Cruset dishes
Buch educating people on uses for fresh Ginger and as usual keeping us in good spirits
Sputnik I think is ok
Have I forgotten anybody?????

DOn't work too hard Penthe and keep smiling you will get there......

Rosa. Italians amongst us can you answer me this - am I missing something in translation? Is Influenza actually a more generic word than it is in the UK covering all forms of temp, sniffles etc?? Am I being unfair in my British "it's not bloody flu, if it was flu you'd know about it, I couldn't get out of bed for 2 weeks blah blah hard British emoticon type response"?? Genuine question there, no sarcasm intended.
Booked summer holiday today HURRAH!!!!!!!!!! Going back to same apartment in Follonica for 3 weeks in August. I think I love the owners of the apartment. DP called them to confirm today and they were all "dai come for a few days for pasqua, so ds can prendere l'aria buono for a few days, you don't need to pay!!!!!" How lovely is that?? Not that I would do it gratis but still, how lovely.
Welcome back Brange! Penthe I feel your pain

at rosa's recap... Hello Penthe we miss youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu! .

Minerva is busy back to work too.

Gio, influenza should mean in fact influenza, but for the average Italian mamma it covers pretty much everything from a cold to gastroenteritis

The Follonica guys sound lovely indeed

Well done Gio we are going in Feb to look for our Mare appartment for 2 - 3 weeks in June and then montagna we need to fix dates . Will be going to the UK later this year as can't do another wet summer.......
( Oh and DH has to work bloody hard to pay for all this.........Its ok I have said that to him and promised to buy 3x2 etc and look for bargains in the supermarkets !!!)

hello! Lol at Rosa's recap.

I feel really weird. It is true i am finding hard to settle in but also i am in an incredibly lazy mood, i don't want to do anything despite having tons to do- jobs to apply for, boxes to unpack, decoration, etc etc. All i want to do is stay at home and read really crappy twilight fanfiction on the internet. the dds are also a bit lazy and want to stay home. it's freezing out and we don't know anyone and i have no energy. But i feel incredibly guilty. Thursday i literally sat on my arse all day, bar for taking dd to school and picking her up, and a load of laundry. i don't know- i feel like i am living in a dream, or i am on holiday so i don't need to engage with reality

maybe i am abit depressed. I should cut out the fanfic though, don't think it's healthy...

Gio i think italians in general tend to refer to influenza with a lot more frequency than anyone else. My dad says "mi sento un po' influenzato" every time he sneezes!

My family think i am crazy because i don't give antib/aerosol when dds cough (whcih is usually all winter long)

Never done an eaerosol in my life either and LOL at Franca description of Influenza... so sos so spot on!!

Gio can you describe the apt and location a bit for me? It is tempting to go there as well since you seem so happy. Friend have a house in Punta Ala so going to Follonica could be a good move. Also we cannot wait to come to Rome .

MM I think feeling like you do is pretty normal. You must have done a lot in the past few years weeks and I bet your body and soul is taking the chance to relax and with such a horrid weather nobody would feel to do anything anyway. I would just take it easy for a while and don't feel guilty for having lots of pj days.

Hi Penthe!

Masseuse, I totally second what Pippi said. You must be feeling drained (is this the right word?) both physically and psychologically. There's no harm in taking it easy. And the cold weather doesn't help, I'm dreading the alarm clock going off in the morning in these cold and dark, gloomy days.

Ah and yes, my mother and my friends are all that we don't do aerosol (I gave in and bought the macchinetta for aerosol in november when the kids had swine flu and used it once).
Another capital sin that we committ to the eye of our diligent italian friends is that we don't cleanse the dc's nose with soluzione salina

no never done that either. tbh I do very little to them when influenzati o con tosse except giving them calpol nurofen for the former and Tixilix to make them believe it will cure them more than anything when kept awake by the latter.
My mother always tells me to take them to GP at the first signs of cough...yea right as the gp would care!

ah btw MM this is how it is it just came to me:

wahm: busy in a rush
sahm: busy at a slow pace.

While one is used to the former it is very very hard to get used to the latter. Much more complicated as it means doing everything you would do at speed at toddler pace with kids in tow. The hardest thing ever.

It just occurred to me that dd2 has never had antibiotics in her 20 months. Dd1 loads though, mostly because her eczema keeps getting infected

thanks for words of wisdom and i know i should give myself a break, but soooo hard!!!

Yes, I agree with Pippi about being busy at a different pace.

Yes, cough is taken very seriously in Italy. There is a consumption of sciroppi, aerosols that's unheard of in the UK.
I do give them Calpol when they are under the weather, even if they don't have high fever. For high fever I prefer to use Nurofen.
I also usually give them multi vitamins during the coldest months of the yr, even if they actually eat lots of veggies and fruit, as a friend told me it works. Boh!

Honestly, I'm very apprehensive when they get ill, my first reaction would be to ring the dr. But having lived in the UK has helped me being a bit more rational.

at Rosa and her generic MIL. This is the kind of conversation I have in the schoolyard every day. The other day it was a child who had wet herself, for the first time in years, so the mother ran off to the paediatra because it was obviously "influenza e cistite (sp?)" Or maybe because kiddo was engrossed in the telly and forgot to go and pee. (oh, and she had a "febbre" of 35.6 so that must mean she was even iller than if it was a proper febbre (or maybe the thermomenter wasn't working) (or maybe the child was dead and no-one had noticed )

We trawled round the sales yesterday looking for non-Moncler padded jackets for me and dd. Mine is a man's after spending an hour in the women's department and turning my nose up at gold zips, trollopy purple fake fur collars, leopard skin interiors and suchlike I went for nice sensible man's ski jacket thing. Dd has baby pink (not that bright trollop Barbie pink) so everyone happy. Surprisingly price also good, 50% of 50% (it was an outlet place) so 22 euro for dd and 40 for me.

Dp and dd are at His Mother's so I'm having a baked potato and watching dvds.

MM know just how you feel - well if you don't feel like it then stay in as it is so cold but as soon as it gets a bit warmer then you will have no more excuses - plus you will need to walk off some of that yummy chocolate! Just do a box a day or one thing I expect you list is so long that the whoe thing feels overwhelming.
Buch - bargains I bought dd a long pumino in Iana the other day Eu45 - I was well pleased with that !
I am an aerosol convert but esp for Minirosa - since dd1 can blow her nose then I use it less on her. Having said that she has done 10 mins of aqua di sirmione and blown out the most amazing green rainbow (TMI sorry !). NO febbre DD1 here today but Minirosa has been mega clingy and grumpy she somehow got an apple ( me thinks sister was involved) and was biting ( all 6 teeth )huge chunks and the tears when I hooked out a huge lump skin and all- I was laughing at the time as it was so funny I did of course feed bits to her afterwards am not that nasty.
Oh and no nose washes etc here either. When they were little yes and if needed in minirosa but thats it.
Cold and damp here today not even gone for a stroll......

That's a bargain Buch!

and at ringing the paed for 1 night of bedwetting

I've got to take the dc to a birthday party this afternoon, when all I'd like to do is spending the pm of the sofa looking at magazines. Yawn!

on the sofa.

Yes, cold and grey here too. When will this weather end? It's been freezing cold and gloomy for a month now.

MM- I always feel like you describe when I first get here, after being in the UK for a while. I think my Britbrain needs time to acclimatise to Italy. Maybe your brain is saying it needs time to get used to Switzerland so you want to hide away for a bit? I'm sure once this wintery weather isn't quite so wintry we'll all feel better.

Am about to do an Amazon order for DD phonics books I want to get a couple of books for her ( for me to read to her ) any suggestions??? I seem to be trawling through pages and pages and not getting anywhere.

Rosa- the ORT are OK, but soooooo boring Floppy the dog etc. yawn.
Someone recommended Songbirds to me, but I never got them.
At Christmas I got dd a set by Ruth Miskin (a well-known phonic reading guru bod) called Superphonics. We haven't looked at any of them yet I got them from the book people though - really cheaply.

DD1's school uses the Ruth Miskin. I have bought the flash cards but have not used them yet. -I- We prefer the balckboard in the kitchen... I feel all maestra when I write there with a chalk and call the DDs for attention .

DD1 never on antibiotics, Dd2 once. Thinking about it Dd2 was given those salt water nose things when she was ill in greece and they are horrendous - they do work I admit. I would only do them in extreme occasions.

All day spent putting pictures up...

Thx Buch - Not many Superphonics on Amazon . I might start with one set and see how she goes . I was taught the old fashion way and I really have to think when I go through the letters with her so I need a bit of brain help!

Rosa you could try looking with your DD at Starfall, lots of phonic, starting reading stuff on there, my DD basically taught herself to read using that site.
I got really cross with the Book People at xmas cos they wouldn't take my non-UK credit card, grr.
Anyway, sunny weekend here (sorry) and we went sledging, but not very satisfactory as they've now banned sledges from the slope we used to go on, so we farted about on a really piddly one instead. By the time we decided to get in the car and look for a decent place DS was looking tired so came home. We'll probably go back next week though as it's only an hour from our house.

I'm an aerosol convert too, I cured really bad sinusitus with it while pg, and use it quite a bit with DD as she always seems to stay snotty for weeks after having a cold. Must say though this winter has been a million times better (so far) illness wise.

Oh that website is superb Sputnik!
As I said on another thread, my ds is much more able to read many english words now that he reads fluently in Italian. Reception key words were totally lost on him

Oh yes, Starfall is good too! (although dd prefers Headpsrout.)

Dp very very cross this morning. Our across the landing neighbour bashed his car on Saturday night (the bloke next door witnessed it) but didn't say anything.... Will keep well out of his way methinks.

Bucharest!

Is the car very injured?