Those who read the past two blogs probably think that we, the "italian-trio", are a bit extreme on certain things. If you know my mum, then you're probably thinking
well, yes, hmmm... they are...!!!and maybe we are, from a certain point of view -although we are mainly just practicing what my mum calls
heilbrigda skynsemi (healthy intelligence!). Only that it is sometimes bloody difficult in practice!
I'll take an example. As you may well know in these modern times, together with the inhabitants of the Linfen-region of China and Ranipet in India
, babies are among the world greatest ecological monsters. Before we learn to control our weewee and poopooh we consume/produce several tons of diapers and the experts say that it takes something like 500 years for them to break down in nature!!! I don't think parents in general go around throwing the used diapers in nature -not even curious parents like mine (just to check how long it really takes them to break down), but they don't go around very proud of what they are doing to mother nature either. So, if the parents are a bit aware of these things, like mine are (or were..!!) they do something about it. So how do you think that my parents spent the evening of 28 of december, the day before I was born -their last childfree day for years and years. Candlelit dinner? Cinema? Romantic walk in christmas-decorated Pavia? No, theese geeks spent the evening on internet searching among the offers of re-usable diapers!!
Then a couple of days after I was born and was desperate for my parents attention, my mum sent my dad some 80 kilometers away to spend a lot of money (those modern re-usable diapers are not really cheap!) to buy the chosen brand of diapers! Then my mum treated the diapers with some kind of wax to make them softer and dried that thing off with a hairdrier, then she washed them all and hung them to dry in their bedroom (our flat IS small). The thing scared the shit out of my parents when they woke up to my crying during the night, for the diapers looked like 20 dead chicken hanging on a line! The instruction said the diapers would dry in about 8 hours, but with the humid january-weather in Pavia, it took a lot more for them to dry and my mum almost refused to eat chicken after this fearful experience. When finally they dried, my mum folded them up neatly and put them in a big bag, ready to use. To make a long story short, that's exactly where they are still today!!! My mum only made one trial to let me use the diapers. I was 1 months old, and no matter how one-size-fit'em-all these diapers were meant to be, they fitted me just like a king-sized bedsheet would have done!
What's more, they completely blocked my below-hips-mobility and made me look like a pear -and I was NOT ready to face the pear-shape complex yet! You can see it on the photo. On the left I'm using the straitjacket-diaper, on the right I'm using a normal one (I'm only crying on the one on the right because my mum said she would make me wear the re-usable one again!). Just as good they didn't continue to use them, for I wouldn't be the happy crawling-standing-climbing rascal that I am today, if I'd continued to use them!!
After this frightening trial, my mum put the diapers away and planned to try again when I had grown a bit -which I did pretty quickly, but she never gained enough courage for a second try. Sometimes my dad asks my mum what happened to the diapers, and then my mum feels a bit ashamed and a bit guilty, so she says that she is just about to make another try. Then she never does because they take too long time to dry. Or, because our flat is too small to house a bin with dirty diapers waiting to be washed. Or, our flat is so small, and the weather is so unstable that we can't count on drying the diapers outside, and we can't have 20 dead chicken hanging all the time in our bedroom -with the baby and all......and so one (you get the picture?). Each time a new excuse -and my father sees his great investment gone up in smoke -and the last childfree evening for years and years, gone wasted. Let's face it, the ecological-monster-diapers are so handy and simple, that once you get used to using them, there's no going back to the washable ones! I guess my mum would not have made it in the good old boil-the-diapers-in-a-big-pot-on-the-stove days!
So you see, being
extreme might be noble and worth a try...but it
can be bloody difficult in practice.
P.S.
The diapers are for sale...anyone?
There is a magical carpet in my grandparent's house in Iceland- well, my grandfather's house now. It's not a flying carpet, although that would be a lot of fun, but it is really magical! Last summer I started crawling on this carpet. I had been up on my knees for more than two months, but not realized which potentials that positions could have -until I arrived to Akureyri. I hadn´t been there for many days when I started crawling. Now I´m back to Akureyri, and I´ve been up on my feet for months (since the beginning of august to be precise), and I had started to do a few steps without holding anything, but I lacked the confidence to throw myself into the walking business. A few days after I came to Akureyri, on the magical carpet, I decided that it was time to start walking. The first morning I was very careful, but already in the afternoon I could do several meters, turn around, and clap my hands in ecstasy for the acquired skills! Now, a few days later I'm literally running around as if I'd never done anything else. My Icelandic cousins say that if I have problems getting the talking business going, then I'll just have to come to the magical carpet to fix things...I'll keep that in mind :)
