Ah, what a gamble … mornings are just unpredictable … if all goes well we wake up around 7:45 AM and Julius is peachy and cooperative … .. and then there are the other days .. when he wants to sleep longer .. or of course .. weekends .. when he wakes up at 6 AM …
Anyways .. since we have to work around the time his bus arrives, I usually (hopefully) end up with some extra time .. and we spend that by going outside. Part of our street is a dead end, so there is no traffic and Julius can run around. There are also some pigeons that he can scare away …
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.. before I go to bed …
It is a habit that needs to be eliminated sooner or later … but as part of his ‘going to bed’ routine, Julius asks for either juice or tea. As with last night, of course he asked for tea, because I had already put a cup of juice on the nightstand.
I wonder sometimes if he is really thirsty or if he is just going through is collection of ‘what else can I do to stay up just a little bit longer’? (The other evening he asked for yogurt, I told him that yogurt is breakfast food, but if he really is hungry he can have a banana … sure enough, after several ‘no’s he wanted banana .. and took his sweet time munching that away.)
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I am keeping at it with the diaper free time in the afternoon. Usually at first Julius will object and comes running at me singing his sad ballad ‘diaper change’ … I console him and tell him he does not need a diaper right now, that he is a big boy and that he is doing so well with the potty … then he goes to the drawer and grabs a diaper and returns to me for an encore:
Then I distract him, let’s say with peeling and cutting a pear … and suddenly all is well.
As for the gory details: (Judging by the lack of comments, no one is reading these stories anymore anyway, so I can get into gory details)
Today I started reminding him several times about the potty and twice he went and did #1 … then a while later I noticed him in a squat position while playing and I was about to say something, when he got up by himself, sat on the potty .. and 5 minutes later he said ‘fato’ (Italian for ‘i am done’) and tadaa … #2 missed the floor. Yeah. A bit later he did the same thing again (without any reminder) with another pee.
Then it was time for bath, bed and beyond.
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Thanks to Adwoa lending us her car again, Julius and I ventured off over the hills along curvy roads to the hinterland of Torino to visit his school pal Sebastian and to have lunch altogether. Sarah and Jan just bought a wonderful house there which I had been very curious to see and indeed, it is great and even greater is the location (lots of outdoor space for kids and the only traffic I have noticed during the time was a herd of sheep passing by). I had made bobotie for this occasion while Sarah did the rice and a very yummy salad.
It was interesting to notice that when the 2 boys played alone, they spoke Italian (their school language) with each other. I could not make out much of what Julius was saying … but he understood everything that Sebastian told him.
After lunch we went for a walk with the dog. The weather was a bit murky, but one can imagine how fantastic the view must be when the sun is out. The boys and the dog enjoyed running around and Julius was naturally tired when we returned. So I put him in the car right away and he fell asleep on our drive back within 10 minutes.
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Julius is indeed lego-crazy these days and he starts building the coolest things … I was very surprised about this plane he built all by himself and then ran around and let it fly around.
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I try my best to give Julius some diaper free time when he comes back from kindergarten. Sometimes he is fine with it and even surprises me with potty usage. But often he comes whining to me with sad/asking face and says ‘diaperchange?’ .. I try to tell him a few times that he does not really need the diaper and that he is so good in using the potty … but then he goes to the drawer and gets a diaper and waves it in my face.
At that point I don’t want to traumatize him and he gets his diaper back. I keep reading that kids will give clear signals when they are ready for serious potty training … I guess Julius is signaling me that he is not there yet. But a few reminders here and there cannot hurt.
On a very different note: it is video chat time again.
Ritsu is on a business trip in Thailand and the 6 h time difference works pretty well this time. In the above pic Julius is trying to show mommy his toys, holding them in front of her face (not the camera). Very cute.
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The little joker trying to ‘help’ getting ready to get out.
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Recently Julius started reacting to that red beam of light that my camera is emanating every time I take a picture (I think it has something to do with the auto focus mechanism).
Anyways, when he sees that, he curls up his nose, closes his eyes and gives me that fake smile. And makes a funny sound. Getting good shots can be a bit tricky.
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Just 3 silly pics of the 3 of us going to bed
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Something wonderful has happened: a sushi place opened just a minute walk away from our house .. actually I think I can do it in less than a minute … technically there is no closer commercial space they could have opened.
This is very tempting .. but since we were out for a italian food pig-out weekend, we waited until Monday to try the place.
It is 99% likely that this “Oriental KiKi” belongs to the ‘other’ KiKi we have visited a while ago (and again) .. at least they use the same logo.
They label themselves as a ‘sushi bar & take away’ .. not a restaurant (but they sure charge coperto … more on that later). They also open at 6:30 PM, which is great for us .. since Julius demands food around 6 PM and Italian restaurants open usually at 8 .. maybe 7:30 ….
So .. we were actually the only guests while we were there .. some people dropped in for take out and we noticed nicely gold on black written reservation cards for much later.
We had 3 rolls: Unagi (eel), Shake (salmon with avocado) and spicy tuna … and then a tempura udon soup and for desert Ritsu had the green tea ice cream. All we drank was a shared 0.5 litre bottle of Kirin beer. See how much fun Julius had with the chopsticks and eating his sushi:
While the quality was really good, the service nice and the setting quite new york-ish .. the big draw back: the price tag! For the above mentioned we paid 50 EU .. that is by now 75USD !!!! … compared to what we had the weekend before … this was rather a snack .. a good one .. but THAT expensive ???
And they do not offer any lunch special menu … or discount for take out .. and only one restaurant before this has charged coperto for Julius (which was 2EU per person). While coperto in Italian restaurants usually means cover charge .. and gives your bread sticks / bread, in some cases even bottled water … here there was nothing.
Which makes me kinda sad .. it is so great to have a good quality sushi place around, and even with their silly pricing, they will survive, as our neighborhood has lots of young people with money … I think they should offer a discount to people who live in a 200m radius 
Here is the full menu
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Last night, our host at Cascina Barac recommended this nearby restaurant to us, since they have stopped operating their own. As it appears he recommended it to all guests (we saw familiar faces this morning at breakfast) who asked and one wonders if he gets a commission, but we were very pleased.
| The place is just 1 km down the curvy road. The room is comfy and the atmosphere very warm. The hostess spoke some English and was very nice. We had some trouble understanding the menu … not the items on it … more the ‘how it works’ .. take a look at it and make your best guess … the only price we saw was 26EU … and it listed what we could have .. so we started ordering 2 appetizers per person and then the first course .. and at that point the waitress said something like ‘but that is a lot of food’ … ok .. well .. we kinda thought that was the deal … so … we asked for some more time to try and solve the puzzle .. and in the end resolved to order only one appetizer per person, and then a first and second course each … |  |
And then we saw that most of the stuff came in family style portions at other tables … so .. no a plate of pasta .. but a bowl .. and we had ordered 2 of them …
But let’s get to the food, shall we? We had vitello tonato, which was not as pretty looking as the one we had at Osteria dell’Arco the other time and came with the huge blob of tuna-caper-mayonnaise I had described earlier .. but it was very very good. I had the oven snails, which were nice, a bit chewy, but the broth it came in made me dip and eat way too much bread.
We then had 2 different kinds of pasta, also very good .. and plenty … and then Ritsu had the rabbit and I had the pork shank, which looked like it was meant for 4 people.
Somehow we still managed to get desert in. I had a semifreddo of white chocolate and Ritsu the lime sorbet.
The food was very good. Quite different compared to the more fancy place we had lunch at. And in the end I finally found out ‘how it works’ (because the chef / owner speaks English pretty well and while I was paying we had grappa and were chatting) … the 26 EU thing you can see at the menu is a ‘tasting suggestion’ … if you order this you get small portions of each item you select (or maybe they select for you, not sure) … anyways … at that point I got a bit scared .. since I have not seen any other pricing .. I was wondering if they now charge for each item we had ordered separately … but … we were charged 25EU per adult ‘menu fisso’ and then our water, wine and coperto. And we even took some leftovers home! (So, it appears for 25EU per head [toddlers excluded] you can order whatever is on the menu until you burst)
If you plan on going to this place, I highly recommend skipping lunch .. maybe even skip breakfast. I really want to go back there again. It was really really good. Not haute cuisine, but very homey and very piemontese.
Osteria Italia
Fraz. S. Rocco Seno d’Elvio, 6
12051 Alba (CN)
I’d like to mention that for the second time that day, Julius behaved very well in the restaurant environment!!!
For our pigging out weekend, Ritsu had found this beautiful place for us to stay the night: Cascina Barac.
Only a few minutes away from Alba, it is nestled on top of one of the many wine covered hills and has a great view (if only the weather would not have been that murky). the place looks like it has been recently redone, our ‘junior suite’ was impeccable and the manager was very nice and resourceful. Too bad that they stopped operating a restaurant, the website made it sound really nice (and convenient … no more driving winding roads after dinner) but we got a really good recommendation for a nearby osteria (which I will talk about later).
The breakfast was also very nice, everything we wanted and lots of it (but we were still digesting two large meals from Saturday)
I can highly recommend this B&B as a romantic getaway. But, while everyone is very nice and they do have a baby bed and a high chair, it is not the perfect spot to bring little kids. There are no animals to play with, the outside area is not very safe (e.g. thorny shrubs everywhere) .. so, it is ok for one night, but it is not a ‘farm vacation’.
But as you can see, Julius had a fun time throwing sticks down a slope and then try if he can walk down there (which he managed .. 3 out of 4 times)
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Since we enjoyed the food there so much last time, we returned to Alba (about an hour drive from Torino) and had lunch again at Osteria dell’Arco. We ordered different things this time: Ritsu had some very nice veggie/cheese between pastry sheets baked appetizer and I had carne cruda all’albese, which is basically ground beef from local cows which one eats with olive oil, some lemon and pepper. Julius had the same pasta again as last time .. and finished the WHOLE plate by himself, using a fork (we saw a little girl at the next table, older and bigger than Julius, but eating the same pasta by hand).
Our main dishes were some seared tuna for Ritsu and I had oven roasted lamb which were both fantastic.
Gladly the portions were not too big so we had room for desert, and after last time’s experience, we both ordered the superb panna cotta which had a different sauce this time, but was equally wonderful.
Besides the nice ambiance, the nice service and the great food, we were most amazed how surprisingly well behaved Julius was the whole time. No tantrums, no wild running around … after he had finished he walked around the table a bit and tried to check out the girl nearby (who went hiding every time Julius came near) .. maybe his terrible twos are coming to an end (or this is just the calm before the storm called ‘early puberty‘)
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He just loves them and he gets better every day building stuff … currently he just keeps making towers as high as he can reach (and before they tumble and fall down)
On health related issues: His rash is getting much better … but the ‘diaper free’ time is a tricky task .. besides whiping up puddles … I sometimes fear that he gets some potty aversion and just does not want to use it .. so I am looking forward to give him diapers again .. and then gradually pick up the training again …
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Sorry again for the lack of updates … but the situation with Julius had been a bit of a roller coaster ride:
Last weekend we finished giving him his medication and he seemed ok again, so off to kindergarten on Monday. I had noticed a somewhat funny looking rash in his diaper area and started treating that with some ointment. Kindergarten called during the day asking if I had noticed that and if they should apply some cream, too, which they kindly did …
The the night from Monday to Tuesday, Julius suddenly coughed a bit weird and that led to throwing up 3 times and giving us really mean looks (as if it was our fault). So I let him sleep in next day and called the school that he would stay at home for observation. But once he woke up he was very peachy and enjoyed the day at home with papa. But I noticed that this skin rash was not really getting better. Until Wednesday morning, when I had the impression it had gotten better …
I called kindergarten again that Julius is coming again, but that he still has this rash. Then Wednesday afternoon kindergarten called again, saying that they think we should see a doctor with that rash.
Once again I called Dr. Mostart and he was willing to drop by and check on kiddo. He arrived at 8PM and had an interesting explanation for us, which I hope I get straight again: Due to his cough last week, Julius must have swallowed a lot of his own mucus (which partially he threw up) … but what was already in his stomach made his poo more acid, thus more aggressive once in the diaper.
Besides prescribing a special cream for the rash and something to help J’s stomach, he recommended that Julius should stay out of diapers for the next 48 hours … which of course sounds like a lot of fun.
This morning I went out with Julius to get the medication and since then I have been chasing him with a towel and keep reminding him about his potty, which he used occasionally (so far we had ‘only’ 2 floor accidents). He seems healthy besides that rash, but the doctor said the cream will fix that within 48h …
I hope I get to add some pictures and some past updates today and tomorrow … so keep scrolling down from time to time.
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Julius woke up in the middle of the night coughing … so hard that he actually had to puke .. 3 times … gladly it never hit the bed .. always nicely on the hardwood floor. Easy cleanup.
But the face he made .. he was not happy at all:
Not sure what it was, but it did not look like anything he has eaten … but I decided to keep him home anyways and let him sleep in. And when he woke up he was peachy again and is enjoying a fun play day with dad.
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Clearly a sign that I forgot to take a pic during daytime …
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funny how I find them sometimes when I check on them
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Today Julius received a belated xmas package from his uncle Tim. He sure loves his legos … we are at a point now that we have to get an extra box for all his legos
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Lots of thanks to Tim from Julius, Ritsu and your big bro.
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Sorry for the lack of updates … Julius has been sick and stayed home pretty much the whole week (I have tons of pics and will add them later)
It started last weekend with a nasty cough .. I went out to get some new cough syrup … but that was not working too well .. in fact, Julius coughed all night Saturday to Sunday … and the fact that he did not nap at all that weekend did not help.
But he slept better Sunday to Monday and so I still sent him to school, with his bottle of cough syrup … but when he returned I was told that he has been coughing a lot all day …
So I kept him home Tuesday … and while the first half of the day was ok, he got worse again in the afternoon .. and in the evening he had 38.43 C (101.17F) fever. And then we called the doctor.
He was great as always and Julius was surprisingly cooperative, I think he remembers his doctor by now and he ran to greet him with a handshake.
For the last few days Julius has been on antibiotics plus some anti-cough stuff and he is doing better and hopefully on Monday is is fit for school again!
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