Wednesday, June 18, 2008

comincia!

The title means "a little of everything" in Italian, and "comincia" means "it begins." I'm starting this blog because I realized that though I feel like I'm in touch with far-flung friends (and those not so far-) through their blogs, they are not in touch with me. The title refers, perhaps uncreatively, to my many interests: children, my new garden, cooking and (even more important) eating, reading, watching trashy reality TV, knitting, &c. I will also be counting myself among the mommy bloggers, as my 22-month-old son, ASH, is the best thing that ever happened to me (along with his father, my husband T). And I've been partly inspired to start blogging by the amazing Moxie and the equally stupendous Snickollet. I'm very proud to say I know both of them IRL. (But OK, if I'm being truthful, Moxie and I went to the same college, and we didn't really know each other particularly well. Alas. One of these days I will get to see her in New York, I hope.)

Another goal for this blog is to find out how parents in other countries do things. I find that here in the US, not only do a lot of the parenting books tell you that their way is the ONLY way to prevent your child from growing up to be a sleep-deprived ax-murdering Twinkie-addicted junkie, but also imply that their way is the way all right-thinking parents everywhere do things. When my son was starting solid food, for some reason I couldn't stop thinking about what was OK to feed him. Though I was obsessed with feeding him the "right" things, I couldn't help feeling like nobody in Italy (where I lived for 5 months in Siena in 1995 and almost a year in Reggio Emilia in 2001-02) was tearing her hair out wondering if it was OK to feed her 9-month-old some pasta. If I ever get some international readers, I hope they will feel free to say how they do things in their part of the world. What are children's first foods? Do they sleep in a crib by themselves or do you cosleep? Do you nurse to sleep (do you nurse at all?) or do you put them down awake? And will someone tell me if I can feed ASH prosciutto crudo? It's technically raw meat, so I feel like he shouldn't have it yet. And I doubt he would eat it if I offered. But I wonder.

I'll wrap this up for now, but check back later for posts on So You Think You Can Dance (can this season possibly live up to the glory that was Danny, Neil, and that cute B-girl whose name I've forgotten?), growing broccoli (should I have already divided up the 4 or so seedlings that were packaged together in a cup when I bought them at the nursery? I thought the contents of the cup got planted and that was it!), and my son's first joke.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am so excited to keep up to date on you, T and ASH!

Kate :)

JR's Mom said...

Yeah! Another mommy blog to follow. Of course, if you've been inspired by Moxie - I'm expecting great things.

I will say that although I don't know what Italians think about baby's first foods, my Italian-American MIL had what I considered odd ideas. No salad before age 5 or so, but lollipops dipped in water to wet a 6-month-old's lips are fine because babies should have "a taste of sugar."

Anonymous said...

Just commenting on your 'avoiding reading' sidebar. Briony is pronounced 'BRY-un-ee' -- kind of like Brian with an ee at the end.

Anonymous said...

Ciao e benvenuta to bloggo-lando!

Italians want you to shove in your little junior's maw: broth, tiny pasta, parmesian cheese, zucchini, and veal all pureed together. That was the list the pediatrician gave me at 5 months. They always give teething babies the waxy crust of parmesian wheels to gnaw on -- mold and all.

They feed kids raw ham and eggs here, but then they don't have trichonosis (sp?) and salmonella outbreaks every 2 days in Italy...
Food production is still pretty local. The giant ag. and processing industries in the states are making food deadly. I would be cautious with your little one over there. But let him have carpaccio over here, no problem (oops Mad Cow).

Ginevra said...

Thanks to all my commenters! (Including those who emailed me offblog.) I feel so loved. Eurydice, if you click on my Chestnut Farms link you will see where I get my meat and eggs from, so no worries on that score. Phew! We just went to the farm yesterday and it was a lot of fun. And when I get prosciutto it's the true Italian kind, usually San Daniele. Yum. I am grateful that EU food importing requirements are still standing in the way of GMOs and other US giant-scale ag horrors. (Not that I think GMOs are necessarily a bad thing ALWAYS, but they make me nervous.)

Rachel in London--thanks! If I ever make it back to Atonement at least now I know how to pronounce that name.

Amazing toddler's mom--hi! Great to "hear" from you. I'll check your blog when I can to see what JR is up to. That little cutie. :-)