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Monday, June 30, 2008

House renovation

Ecco le prime foto dei lavori in casa, scusate il ritardo. Le prime foto sono del pavimento del soggiorno e della sala da pranzo. Era molto rovinato e molto scuro. La settimana scorsa e' stato rimesso a posto (come anche il pavimento delle camere da letto al piano superiore) ed e' venuto benissimo. Abbiamo scelto di lasciaro del colore naturale, cosi' adesso e' molto piu' chiaro e luminoso. Appena riesco vi mostro le foto del lavoro finito.

Here are the first pictures of the house renovation, from lest week. More as soon as I find my camera...

The first two photos show the sanding of the hardwood floor in the living room and dining room. The floor, was scratched and looked terrible. It had also been stained a dark color, which we didn't like and the quarter rounds were missing so the perimeter of the room looked completely unfinished. We chose to keep the natural color of the wood, which turned out to be oak and the result is quite nice. The bedrooms received the same treatment, but the wood was damaged by water in a few spots, so the result is not as nice, although still better than before.





Le altre due foto invece mostrano le scale di accesso al seminterrato. Come molti di voi gia' sanno, qui abbiamo svolto la nostra principale opera di fai-da-te finora. Abbiamo tolto l'orrenda tappezzeria nera a fiorellini e abbiamo comiciato a mettere una carta da parati bianca con con vari ghirigori in rilievo che imitano un muro grezzo. Nele foto vedete il muro giallino che viene lentamente coperto, un riquadro ala volta, dalla carta bianca.

The other two pictures show the stairs that lead to the basement. This was our main do-it-yourself project so far. We removed some horrible black wallpaper and we substituted it with white textured wallpaper that imitates the texture of a plastered wall. In the pictures you can see the yellowish wall being covered by sheets of white wallpaper. Unfortunately we abandoned the work to focus our energies on the move, but we hope to get back to it and finish in a few days.

Not very thrilling pictures, sorry. More soon (?).



Thursday, June 26, 2008

Over!

At 10:30 PM the move is done (!!!) and we are relaxing at the office with free sodas - for the parents - and free screaming - for Rajiv. From tonight we have a new home, even though right now the chaos is a bit discouraging. Now showers and sleep, goodnight!

Ce l'abbiamo fatta, abbiamo traslocato! La casa al momenta sembra un magazzino, ma c'e' un letto che aspetta e al resto penseremo domani. Buonanotte!

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Domani...

.. si trasloca! E ora devo scappare perche' arriva il camion dell'Ikea, a dopo...

Tomorrow we are moving to the new house! Some of you have asked to see pictures and I promise to take care of that soon. Now I have to run though, because the delivery from Ikea could be any time now...

Bye bye Kelly

This is Kelly, the babysitter I have often mentioned in the blog and who saved us from disaster in the past months. Appu really likes her and in fact he is smiling at her picture as I type this (too cute!).

I say "bye bye" in the title because starting next month she will not be looking after our little one anymore, although I am sure we will still have plenty of opportunities to meet. She is giving a try to freelance editing instead, while taking time to finish her novel. So good luck to Kelly - I will post a link to her site as soon as I find it again - and good luck to us in finding somebody else as good as her for our little Appu!



Questa e' Kelly, la babysitter che si e' presa cura di Appu di tanto in tanto da Settembre. Adesso Kelly ha deciso di dedicarsi a tempo pieno alle sue attivita' editoriali e al romanzo che sta scrivendo. Ci dispiace un po', perche' Appu le si e' affezionato molto, ma continueremo sicuramente a frequentarci. Nel frattempo, incrociando le dita, abbiamo forse trovato un'altra persona che ci possa aiutare e che ci ispira fiducia.

Quindi buona fortuna a Kelly con il suo libro e a noi con la nuova babysitter!

Monday, June 16, 2008

Peek-a-boo!

Appu has learned to play peek-a-boo hiding himself behind a sheet. His technique could still be improved, but his parents find it irresistible!

Appu ha imparato a coprirsi la faccia con un lenzuolo e a riapparire all'improvviso per sorprendere i genitori. E i genitori sono pieni di ammirazione!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Happy anniversary to us!

Due anni fa, in quest giorno...

Buon anniversario, mamma e papa' di Rajiv!

Friday, June 6, 2008

Bits

We are insanely busy with the new house these days, plus there was a conference this whole week at our institute, so this should explain the lack of blogging. The most I can do at the moment is giving you a list of small things possibly worthy of note:
  • Many thanks to everybody who sent a gift or a card or good wishes for Appu's birthday. We are happy to know that so many people think of him with affection, it is a good beginning.
  • As for us, our birthday present for him was a wooden pull-toy, a cute snail with funny eyes. We bought this in Italy a few days before he was born and surprisingly managed to keep it wrapped until the night before his birthday. Almost as surprisingly, he is actually able to pull it. Ha, we laugh at the 18 month + recommendation on the box!
  • Another toy he got recently from us is an easily grabbable ball and he is learning to throw it. We are able to play with him exchanging the ball at least a few times, before he gets impatient and throws the ball away.
  • Other favorite games: peek-a-boo, hide and seek (I hide, he seeks), run-away-from-mommy-and-laugh-when-she-catches-me, and so on. As you might have noticed none of this involves sitting down and relaxing, I think we are going to get fit playing with him...
  • He is getting a bit more clingy. Today for example I was unable to leave him at daycare, because he would cry desperately as soon as I tried to leave the room. I think he is teething again though, so maybe that's why he needs some extra comfort.
  • Not that we would complain: we love his cuddly self!