Red Sock Dance

peek a boo

Ikea bookshelves make for endless entertainment! Luca's friend Helena came over to play the other day, and it was one of the most joyful exchanges of smiles, jibberish, and laughter I've seen. Helena, one year Luca's senior, would pop her head through and babble a series of vowels and consonants to the delight of Luca who would giggle with glee. 

tree trimming

Saturday night, after picking out our tree with some friends, we trimmed the tree while watching 'It's a Wonderful Life' and we let Luca touch the tree, just once. He loves watching the lights sparkle and reaching to grab the lowest ornaments. Now all that's left to do, is build an electric fence around it, so that it lasts til Christmas!

GrazieGiving 2010

We have much to be thankful for this year as we celebrate our 4th italian thanksgiving with many friends and a happy baby boy.

A special thanks goes out to Carmine & Piera from the pasta shop who raised, butchered and cooked the turkey for us (!), Fabrizio Gola who opened his home to 27 hungry folks, and Tom Hardman who made a special trip from England and managed to peel 5 kg of potatoes for the cause. Click on the picture, to see the complete album.

Cheers!

4 + 1 Days in Holland

on November 17th Luca and Erin made their first solo trip (without Dad) to Holland to visit our good friend Anna. It was full of good food, warm cafe's, windy beaches, sleepless nights of teething, birthday parties, long walks, airport drama, and the canals of amsterdam. Click on the sheep to see our full adventure!

surprise ending

i dug this video up from august 2010 and couldn't help but post 3 generations of dancing colettis.

Thanksgiving x4

celebrating our 4th consecutive thanksgiving in italia and especially thankful.

killing time

what to do when mamma's cleaning the kitchen, making dinner, spying on the neighbors or taking a break? so many possibilities, as long as i don't get caught.....

dolcetto scherzetto!!

"sweet or joke" is what's yelled on halloween when large groups of witches and princesses enter the shops in pecetto. We made the rounds with Luca, but it was obvious that the enjoyment was all ours, as well as whatever candy we managed to get. We tried hard to get fresh ravioli instead of chocolates, and cannoli instead of lollipops, but even Luca dressed as tigger didn't work. We did enjoy a 3 day weekend and for our 'treat' went to wine country for hazelnut gnocchi and pears poached in red wine, bathing in cream gelato......mmmmm.

baby beLuca!

he's just a little white whale on the go.....this video is dedicated to Luca's cousins; Sophia, Isabella & Sabatino.

Luca under the tuscan sun

just another weekend of fun.

the UN moms & tots

Today, Luca and I joined the mom & tots group for the first time. For Luca, this meant an eternal rug that he could crawl all over and all new, never seen before objects he could put in his mouth. For me, it meant a cup of half drunken tea, and a bite of whatever was left on the table before i had to rush back to take Luca out from under a towering two year old.

Luca and his new pal Jack (it's hard to get good photos of babies)

today's moms were representing Holland, Canada, France, Norway, England, Ireland, and the USA.

the melon can crawl

Life as we know it, is over at 6 months and 2 weeks.

sick day

Luca is still sick free after 6 months of life, thank goodness, but I am not so lucky. Having never been sick with a child to take care of, I didn't know how hard it could be. Fortunately my dear husband has been easing the burden by taking the night shift and entertaining Luca when he wakes up at 7am.

I had high hopes of posting highlights of our 6 week summer vacation, but instead I will leave you with this picture of what Luca managed to do in the time that I wrote this short blog entry.

3 x 2 = 6

Someone asked us recently if Luca was 4 months old. We said, no he's nearly 6, obviously. Well, it happened to be one of our loyal blog followers who we've let down by not posting anything over the past 3 months. Now today, September 22nd, in honor of Luca's 1/2 birthday, here's a snapshot of his growth and joyful spirit. We are enjoying each day with him as he pushes himself to crawl, walk drunkenly after something shiney and preferrably plastic, laugh until his sides split and share in a windfall of chatter about how he sees the world. Here he is enjoying a moment with fellow "first" cousin Jeff Ellingson.

3 is the magic number...

I can't believe our little baby isn't a little baby anymore! At 3 months he's more than doubled his birth weight, his smile nearly cracks his face in half and his seriousness has given him the nickname of benjamin button. Mark has moved from calling him the peanut to little monkey, very appropriate as he's constantly on the move. He tends to spit up a lot, but once the pediatrician put him on the changing table to examine him, his ability to get tangled in all the loose sheets made her certain that the regurgitation had something to do with his crazy amounts of energy. Here's a snapshot of our family of three!

2 Months!!!

Today the little guy turns 2!..Daddy is happy it is only months old. As you can tell from the smiling video he is very alert..and now he is trying to talk. I am trying to capture his attempts on another video, but he has also become much more aware of the cameras presence and will just stare at is when I try. So for now, I post this beautiful photo taken by our neighbor Anna to mark his progression. Also today marks Pininfarina's 80th birthday which allows us the very rare opportunity to bring our families to work and even see inside our studio. One colleague told me this is the 2nd time in his career there has been a bring your family to work day, and he has been there for 30 years! Unfortunately it falls on one of the few weeks in the last 2 months that we have not had family visiting, so it will just be the three of us. But that is alright. I am excited to show Luca off some more!

Luca Laughing?..Almost!

So close...as we were hanging out this Saturday morning, we almost got a little laugh out...hard to believe, since behind me right now, his spirits are quite the opposite....but I have this video to replay to get me through the tougher times!...

1 Month!

Wow, one month has passed..and a lot has happened. First, I usually start with an update on his weight, which as of today, I am not really sure. That of course is a good thing, meaning we are not too concerned about that any more. But last we checked about a week ago, he was 3.5 Kgs which is a little over 7.5 lbs...and a whole kilo more than when he left the hospital. This can be attributed to the combination of milk from momma supplimented with some formula. This works out OK, because we are able to share nighttime feedings....Unfortunately, the formula typically is a bit harder to digest and has given him a bit of the colic...anyway, more on that in a min...

I was hoping to post more photos with everyone who has come to see Luca, sorry grandparents, cousin Chad, and all the people from our little town, but as I type, I am losing percious moments of sleep. I will try to post more soon..But for now you get to see some more recent photos..most of these taken at my favorite time with the little guy, at his 6 oclock AM feeding. As you can see, he is still very attentive, and has even started giving me these beautiful smiles. They go a long way after we experienced our first colic meltdown last Sunday. Lets just say, those are no fun...But Erin and I are learning that these are the highs and lows of our new responsibility...and we are loving it!

I dont know if this post makes any sense. Obviously, my objective was to get some more photos posted to share our joy with everyone else. So if the writing is incoherent, just look at the pics!

Weeks 1 and 2

There is a lot going on in our little town. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom and the famous Caminata (Cherry Walk) is arriving this weekend...As I was getting ready to post this new Blog, I realize the last entry started out talking about Lucas weight, which is sort of ironic. We had a bit of a scare as we went to meet our pediatric for the first time and she informed us that Luca had lost a bit of weight, and she sent us back to the hospital. We found out that the little Peanut (check out the shirt grandpa found) was not getting all the food we though she was from mommy...so long story short...we added a little powdered suppliment and the little guy has gone from 2.38kgs all the way to 2.75! He has continued to be a dream...says a proud daddy. We have showed him off throughout our town and even in our favorite town in the Langhe (wine country)..Neive. Luca was also able to say good bye to our good friends Alice and Michael as they head back towards their homeland of Oz! They will be missed..

Erin and I are still learning our new roles and getting used to our new time schedule of waking up a couple times a night...but it is all worth it!

Luca comes home!

Mommy and baby were released from the hospital on Thursday morning. Luca was able to maintain his featherweight status at 2.5 kgs (5.5lbs), but never lost any in the hospital, which they tell me is a good sign.. We are planning a Picassa Album ASAP, but for now I will attach a few more precious moments. As I said, we have been very busy since being home. We went directly to our neighbors restaurant (i Sibilla) for an incredible Pugliese meal, and then had some visitors in the afternoon. The much anticipated first night sleep was better than expected, as Luca only woke up twice, but slept for a 4.5 hour span..(at least Erin told me so) Yesterday, the clouds broke, the surrounding mountains were out and we were able to parade him through Pecetto and visit all of our local shops who have been asking every day about his status. Three of the four grandparents in tow served as our paparazzi to document his first passeggiata.

Today, mommy is returning to form and demanding a trip to the seaside. So we are taking a little car trip to the seaside to find Grandma a nice plate of pesto. This of course will delay our album, but we promise a big collection by Sunday!

Luca...addendum

Day 2: I don't know if I finished telling the day 1 story, but hopefully mommy can add her side soon. I will just put a couple more photos on and tell you that becoming a dad has been very special and emotional. I just found myself staring at the photo I posted..and I am in awe. He is great....very alert. Cries infrequently.....mostly when being changed..which is where the photos I have posted are taken. But over all he is calm, and likes to take in his new world. Grandma and grandpa Coletti...as well as nonni (grandma) Ellingson have been great at sharing time during visiting hours. Again, thanks for all the kind words. I wish we could share him in person.

é nato Luca Enrico Coletti!

On Monday, the 22nd of March, our son was born at 5:36 am....The delivery went well. Erin tried to deliver the baby in water, but eventually had to get out of the tub to finish the job. The job of the mommy is difficult, but all in allwent well. Labor was about 10 hours and the delivery came naturally. The job the daddy has is not much easier, as it entailed a lot of seemingly ineffective rubbing of Erin's back as she screams in pain. BUT, all the trauma, physical and mental, washed away when the PNut arrived.

surprise!

a got a nice one of those on the last day of february. in italy typically they don't have baby showers, so i wasn't expecting anything of the sort, but on a typical sunday, i was dressed in my finest pjs for our trip to ikea to buy the baby some proper storage space. mark opens the door to our apartment and there were 7 ladies and Doeke! Ahhh, if i was going to have the baby early, that would have been it. Anna, Alice, and Doeke had been busy cleaning our apartment, and laying out a gourmet brunch while we were gone. After a day of good food, company, an abundance of gifts, and a foot massage (!), mom, dad & colettino were feeling pretty loved....

shes got the whole world in her hands

week thirty two

i ciliegi surgelati

winter in pecetto means foggy mornings afternoons and evenings with a nice mix of frosty clear days: enough snow to build a one foot puppazzo: and then of course those candle light dinners with cannoli and good company

Christmas

christmas could not get any better this year: all of marks family was present including sophia: isabella: and sabatino: then out of the blue unbeknownst to me my family flew in the day after christmas to celebrate the rest of the week with us!