This will not go down well

On the 12th we're off to Italy. We will be: on a minibus, in an airport, on a plane, in an airport, on another plane, in an airport, on another plane, another airport, car, FINALLY the riviera, around midnight (having left the hotel at 5am).

And what else is happening? Oh yes... Italy's first match in the World cup. Which starts at 2100 (Italian/German time). Our flight lands at 2155. Father in law will be driving to pick us up - just over an hour each way.

Not going to be popular....

Let's just hope they manage to stay in it long enough for us to watch some games together this time.

just as we prepare for our holidays....

er pupo goes and gets allergic. Probably to figs, but possibly pine nuts. One minute he's happily munching away on some home made bread, with figs and pine nuts; the next he has some spots by his mouth. Five minutes later, they are all over his face; half an hour later and his eye is swollen and red and I'm packing him in the car to A&E. Of course, when he gets there, he miraculously recovers before we actually see the doc. Typical! He has a referral to the paed whom I'm expecting to run some tests to find out what he can and can't have. Meanwhile, I need to keep him on baby food till we work out what the problem is :(

A little time

has passed. Er pupo is one month older and still blabs away: "papá, papá, papá" and I swear he said mamma this morning, but he wasn't for repeating it and hubby didn't hear so we'll have to wait to tick that one off in the books. He finds it very funny to make very unPC native american calls with my hand and is now learning to do it with his own hand, though his attempts to stick a whole fist in his mouth are making this a little difficult. He's losing his puppy fat and becoming a proper little boy. Proper crawling is still beyond him (why bother, when one can drag oneself on the parquet) but he is into EVERYTHING! He loves to explore the house. He had a couple of traumatic days when we were teaching him the word "no" (in connection with power sockets), where he would start to bawl every time we said it - but now he looks guiltily at the power socket, we say "no", he looks over again, thinks about it, then moves on back to something far more interesting. Like tearing up the tv guide.

We're all off to Italy in three weeks, which is much needed after a very stressful term. Hubby is officially back at work, but we are basically sharing the caring of er pupo, working a lot at home, including evenings and getting a babysitter when needs must. He'll start with the dagmamma when we come back at the end of July. And then... independence hails. I'm hoping he'll learn to walk during his time in Italy and Scotland, but I don't have great expectations. To be quite honest, I don't give a toss that he seems to be behind the average child on his movement. He'll get there when he's ready and it won't make any difference by the time he starts school. He's very happy, blethers non-stop and is pretty smart at getting his own way. What more does he need?

So that's us; holiday much needed, so I can actually do some work. That is, take the laptop, NOT sit in meetings all day, and get some research going.