christmasgreetings

If you are still checking on this blog, at least we can reward you with a little christmasgreeting from the Polsellis. We wish we could exchange the greetings with you in person, give you a big christmashug and maybe share with you a short moment in a busy but beautiful period. This is as close as we could get...

Last blog?

This might just be the last blog we write here. Mum says that we are changing so fast, and so many things are happening to us all the time, that she feels that if she doesn't write here every day this blog wont be able to give you an idea of who Oscar and Irene really are, and so there is no point in continuing -for she can't write every day. If she could write every day you would know how Oscar is a new animal every day, and insist that his teacher calls him penguin, giraffa, elephant (or whichever animal he is that day), you would know how he loves to read books and listen to music, he has his favourite page of almost every book he has, normally the most dramatic page of the book, which he will analyze until there is nothing about the picture on that page that he will not understand, or how he will connect better to the music by holding the sleeve of the CD he is listening to, be it Ruben Gonzales or Karíus og Baktus -or how he will sit quiet with his granma listening to Peter and the wolf, knowing the sound of each character. You would know how he has improved his dental care after being introduced to the odd fellows Karíus and Baktus. You would know that he had his first nightmare after seeing a Tin soldier cartoon on youtube before going to bed, and how he overcame the fear by identifying himself with a little boy who wanted to bring the moon into his room in a madeup story by his mum. You would know how he loves to watch animal documentaries, asking for more after seeing 86 minutes of migrating birds or the march of the penguins. You would know how he jokes with his parents, tells them e.g. that he has eaten a missing coin (which he had hidden in his pocket). You would know that he made his first rhyme on Irene's first birthday: Irenina, afmælina, piccolina. You would know that every time someone says that he has become a big boy he asks if now it might not be the right time for him to learn how to skate! And you would know a million other things that he does or says but get lost forever because his mum doesn't find time or the right spirit to blog. And Irene, you would know how our little sweet earthquake is growing fast. You would know how she wakes up grumpy if she hasn't slept enough, but how her face is illuminating and she is ready to laugh and joke and play if she gets enough sleep, she will sit on mum's chest and pull hear nose. You would know how she has switched from being a book-terrorist that tears away pages of the books, to be one that can turn pages of her favourite books forever -and you would know that her favourite books are animal books. You would know how she can sit endlessly and scribble with her colours. You would know how she has learnt to walk and how she will start dancing as soon as someone turns on the music or starts singing. You would know how she climbs on just about anything and how she has fallen of her chair and hit her head very bad. You would know how she has learnt to be jealous of Oscar and will push him away if she retains that he should not be involved in what she is doing. You would know how Irene is a cuddling girl that has a warm smile for everyone. You would know how she wants to pick up flowers when we are outside and how she likes to stop in the bridge over Brembo and watch the birds for hours. You would know how she can imitate the animals, the favourite being the lion -which earned her the nickname: Liongirl. You would know how she manages to express herself well with her limited vocabulary, and you would know how her voice is sharp and how determined she is.
You would know...

5 things you didn't know

Oh, we've been busy, or mum has mainly been busy thinking that she should be doing something better with her time than blogging. To make up for lost time, and let you catch up with Oscar and Irene, here are 5 things you didn't know about them:

OSCAR

1. With kindergarten and the first cold autumn-days of september, came the running nose -punctual as the appearance of natural phenomenon like the eclipse of Europa by Ganymede or the arrival of Santa Claus. Fed up with having his nose cleaned Oscar has forbidden mum to approach him with a tissue, claiming that "my nose is making honey!!"
2. After a year or so with Icelandic being his first language, even mum has to accept the fact that Italian has overtaken that role. Being the parrot that the age predicts, he can be heard repeating word for word instructions and orders given at the kindergarten and he will only speak to Irene in italian.
3. For some reason or another, Oscar has always been terrified of water. When finally mum and dad decided it was time to take him to the pool, all he did was clinging to them and begging them with tears in his eyes to go out of the water. Little by little, Oscar has been making friends with the water and although he hasn't completely overcome his fear, he had no problem playing with the waves on the beach this summer (see photo).
4. Oscar has invented the identification game. It goes like this: Oscar will first ask the colour of the house of any number of people his parents may or may not know, then he asks the colour of the same people's car, trousers and T-shirt. You are in deep shit if you don't answer consistently to these questions (e.g. invent 2 different colours to Gloria (whom you don't know at all), his classmate's house on two separate days). Then he inverts the game and asks: who lives in the blue house (right answer: Afi Lalli), who has a red motorbike (right answer: Aunt Raggy), who is wearing green T-shirt (boh, don't know Oscar, who is wearing a green T-shirt....? Oscar angry: THE man...!!!, ehemm, of course oscar, the man!).
5. Late August we took Aunt Kidda to Crespi di Adda, an industrial village (on the UNESCO list) where basically ALL the houses look the same, give and take small details. When we had walked for about half an hour Oscar said: where is the cat that lives in this house? and pointed to a house in front of him. The cat? In this house? Why should a cat live in this house? We all just scratched our heads and had no idea what Oscar was going on about. Then our memory was rewound approx. 3 months back, when we took Steina and Guðjón to see the same village and in front of that precise house, Oscar had seen a cat playing. THAT's what I'd call good memory!
   
   

IRENE

1. Beeing able to walk 10-15 steps alone, while not yet having gained full confidence to walk by herself -and therefore preferring to hold mum's or dad's hand while trotting about the flat, Irene might give the idea of a sedentary child. This is only an illusion. What she lacks on her horizontal mobility, she gains with her vertical mobility. There is not a piece of furniture in our home that she hasn't tried climbing. Her favourite places are:the kitchen table, the water bowl (see photo) and the upper rack of the dishwasher!
2. Having passed months being a desperate mummy-girl, who would cry inconsolably whenever mum went out of sight, mum and dad were curious to konw how she would react to the start of kindergarten. A week of adjustment-time was planned and mum got herself psycologically ready for a tough period. But Irene didn't need any adjustment to kindergarten, she just fitted in, right from the start. What mum and dad had underestimated was the fact that she had accompanied Oscar to the same kindergarten every day from when she was born, and therefore the place was no mistery to her, and she knew that even if mum disappeared for a couple of hours, she would come back eventually to pick her up!
3. Irene decided by her own initiative, at around 10 months, that baby-food was nothing for her, she wanted plain food, just like everyone else in the family. At the same time she decided that she was capable of eating all by herself. Despite the fact that this leads to food accumulation under her chair (gradually diminishing though, we must admit), she has been nicknamed "the little hoover" for the way she seems to suck up any food item within her reach.
4. As the gap between Irene's front teeth predicts, she is a very determined girl. She knows just what she wants, and if she doesn't get it, or if she doesn't manage to do something she wishes to do, she gets very very angry. And then she tries again.
5. No opportunity goes wasted in this little girl's life to let people laugh. She will put things in her mouth and make funny sounds, she will hide herself behind a cloth for then reappearing laughing, she will offer to feed mum with her fork for then to pull it back at the last moment, she will climb on a table and spill the water for then to say "splash" with her hands, all this with the face of the lovely rascal that she is. When she get's rewarded with a smile, a laughter or a little extra cuddling, she is happy.
   

IRENE 1 YEAR

Yesterday we celebrated the first birthday of a special girl. Unfortunately she has been bothered by the sixth disease the past week, and was therefore not in her best mood yesterday, but she tried her best to enjoy the day anyway. Here you can see her as she picked the blueberries off her birthdaycheescake. Yummie...

Daddy nursing

Oscar walks into a room where Irene is sleeping on dad´s chest.








Oscar: Dad is breastfeeding Irene (notice the affirmation in his speach, he had no doubt!)
Mum: No, dad can not breastfeed, only mum can!
Oscar: Is she drinking water then..?
Mum (giggling): No Oscar, she´s not drinking water!
Oscar: Juice..?
Mum (giggling more): No not juice, she´s just sleeping!
Having never had cola-drinks, and knowing that only mums and dads can drink wine and beer and coffee and stuff, at this point Oscar had finished the list of things he knows kids can drink, and as he did not get a satisfactory, explanatory answer from mum, he is still wondering what it might be that Irene got to drink from dad´s breasts!

Mum's bag!

Mum used to be a backpack-girl, but since me and Irene were born, she's become a bag-woman, and always carries her cheap black bag that she bought at the market some years ago. Despite mum's reputation of being ordinate and practical, these good characteristics never seem to have extended themselves to her bag, which is known to be the final destination for a lot of rubbish -sometimes mum even suspects it to be the famous black hole as things that enter it never come out again!! But approximately once a year, mum challanges nature and re-organizes her bag. Last time was when Irene was born, when she found amongst others half a kilo of small stones that she had collected for her niece -and forgotten all about, and thus had carried all over the place together with her two toddlers! Today mum decided that it was time to re-organize the bag again, and as I know that you have often wondered what might be in that big black affair that mum carries over her shoulder and always seems to be about to explode, this blog has the pleasure to announce that it has got the exclusivity to the publication of the list of her bag's contents.
1 wallet, 1 set of car-keyes, 1 set house-keyes, 2 pair of sunglasses + 2 sunglas-cases (all separate), 3 lip-balsams, 1 hair elastic, 1 pen, 1 umbrella, 1 multiusable shopping bag, 4 lady towels, 1 pair mittens (the winter being over since...well..ehemm), 5 packets of tissues, 1 loose tissue (so far so good, you may think...but let's continue): 3 nappies (all of a usable size), 1 packet of wipes, 1 pair of Oscar's pants, 1 pair of Oscar's socks, one pair of Oscar's trousers, one pair of Irene's t-shirt, 1 pair of Irene's trousers, 3 sunhats, 1 sunblock cream, 1 afterbite-stick, 2 bubble-soap boxes, 2 tennis-balls, 1 packet of biscuits, 1 empty packet of biscuits, 1 hot-chocolate recipe, 1 packet chewing gum, 1 empty packet of chewing gum, many loose pieces of chewing gum, wrigley flash chewing gum, 1 packet mint, 1 packet throat lozenges, bottle of water (ok ok, most of these things are needed when you've got small kids, but it's not over yet): 1 drawing of the apartment, 1 list of size of picture frames needed, 7 receipts from supermarkets (loose), 1 medical prescription, 2 USB-keyes, 1 shopping-memo, 3 used train-tickets, 2 Bergamo's white night program, 1 Bergamo's carnival program, 1 touristic brochure, 1 furniture offer, 1 memo from kindergarten, 1 drawing by Oscar, 3 business cards, 2 tickets to the zoo, 1 ticket to an amusement park, 1 map of an amusement park, 2 tickets to outdoor cinema, 1 lid of a yougurt box (sic!). Sometimes there is also a digital-reflex camera but then mum is forced to take out the umbrella and the multiuseable shopping bag.
Maybe mum should just buy a smaller bag...!

Year

It's been a year since we came to Ponte San Pietro. This means that I've spent quite a big part of my life here, and Irene has spent, well, all her life here. In fact, for her the world begins and ends right here in our little town. Actually I can't remember at all that I've lived somewhere else, and few weeks ago when I went with mum and Irene to Pavia and mum kept saying, once we lived in this street; this is your old kindergarten; you used to play here, I thought she was just joking -I can't remember anything about Pavia (although it did look slightly familiar), or my memories are buried so deep in my brain that I had a hard time pulling them out there and then.

We like Ponte San Pietro. It is a small town, and we live in the town's center. Every day we walk through the center to go to kindergarten. We cross the river Brembo, we pass 6 cafès and meet a lot of people going to work or bringing their children to school or kindergarten, or just heading off for their favourite coffee-bar for breakfast. We exchange words with some of them, greet some, nod our head to many and then there are some that are so lost in their own thoughts that still after a year they can't remember ever having seen us. There are the shop-owners and bartenders that stand outside their shops and exchange a few words. There is the group of men that no matter the weather, time of day, or whether the cafè is open or not, will be found smoking outside one of the bars we pass. They are far to busy analysing Atalanta's last match and wont move when a mum with two babies has to pass on the tiny sidewalk of the narrow road, but will keep their breath and their beer-bellies "in" when the bus passes, -if not the bus won't make it around the corner where the cafè stands. A lot of old ladies stop to tell us how cute me and Irene are, and many old gentlemen pat me on my head (I actually hate it) and giggle to Irene and so a micro-friendship evolve and more and more people move from the greeting-category to the chat-category and sometimes it can take ages just to walk to kindergarten. We've started to form friendships as well, mainly with people in nearby towns, but I have the feeling that mum knows all parents of young children in Ponte and everyone seems to know my name!

Ponte is quite a pretty town, or let's say that it has it's pretty sides. Here is one -these two pictures show the view from the old bridge over Brembo (the one we pass many times a day on the way to and from kindergarten), and the view towards that bridge. The bridge is maybe the most important structure of the town, for it was THE bridge over Brembo in the old days, and because of it Ponte developed as a commercial town and became what it is today.

And here is another one that shows and old courtyard where the outdoor theater is held in summer (you can see the stage if you look well).

And here is an archway that we pass every day, and through it you can see the old church and the bell tower of the new church.
Every town in Italy is crammed with history, and so is Ponte. Unfortunately much of the town was ruined during the WW (being a strategic point) but if one looks closely there are interesting historical points hidden here and there. Here are two examples that mum has come across, one is an old austrian cannon-ball from italy's second war of independence 1859, buried into the wall of a house by the river. The other one is a sign on first floor (above the street) on one of the houses that stand by the bridge over Brembo and it says that during floodings in the year 1646, the level of the river arrived just there - quite incredible if you ask me!
But although we appreciate many things about our little town, there are many things that could be better. E.g. the walk by the river could be made attractive (note that I didn't write MORE attractive, for it isn't attractive at all today -actually it is dirty and attracts only drunk people and people that contribute to making the place more dirty), the beauty of the houses by the river could be used more in favour of the city. There are spots like this one, in front of one of the 6 bars that we pass every day -full of pigeon-poop, that hasn't been cleaned so much as ONCE in this year that we've been here -maybe they are waiting for the piegeons to clean it by themselves, or for it to reach an acceptable level so that they can plant roses directly in the dirt. And there is this house, that is on the street that crosses the center and is just about to fall a part. It is owned by 2 or 3 cousins that can't agree about what to do with it, except to let it rotten and become an ugly landpost.
What is so contrasting to the degrading state of the town is the price of the items you can find in the shops here. I find it really strange that in a small town like this there can be 4-5 fashion-shops with prices so high that a pair of trouses cost more than a monthly salary of an operaio.
There are many initiatives in Ponte, weekends of market, street fairs, an amusement park on the square in front of the town hall (for 2 weeks in june), chocholate-feast, christmas market, the presepe by the river, a spring-party and you just name it. Most of them are sponsored by the shop-owners, but sometimes I wonder if they really attract people to come to shop in Ponte, for if the people only find shops here that are far too exclusive for any normal person (I doubt that those who can afford a 450 € T-shirt come for a street-fair) and if the town has nothing else that can attract (such as a well kept and interesting walking path or a park by the river-side, or nice cafè by the river, or some origina, interesting and affordable shops) then those who come from other towns to these intiatives won't be back to spend some money!
Sometimes mum wonders if she should start a group of people that wants to make Ponte more beautiful, a few simple things could make such a change...