Heritage Week

I'm going to make it a week in pictures because I am really busy creating chaos, crawling and trying to break things so don't have time to blog! It has been Heritage Open Week this week (free museums) so mummy made sure we got our cultural money's worth!

Chloe visited and while her and mummy gossiped away, they occasionally got round to taking me places. The best bit was definitely Segedunum where there is a Roman fort in Wallsend as well as a recreated bath house. Mummy called it 'cool!', Chloe kindly humoured her, and I fell asleep in my pram. It was a good lunch though in the cafe (cheese sandwiches)! We also went for a walk along from Whitley Bay to Tynemouth. All that sea air made us need a nap at the end!

Weeeeeee!

On Saturday, we went for a bike ride to Earsdon. Thank you to Uncle Jamie and Auntie Sue for the bike seat. I loved it and spent the whole time watching the wheels go round on daddy's bike (and trying to put my fingers down the back of mummy's trousers). I also got a trip to the park out of this. By the time I got back I was very tired yet again!

Phew! All that peddling tired me out!

The best was yet to come when on Sunday we went to the George Stephenson railway museum and got to go on a steam train for free!! It was so much fun and I even made friends with the Engine driver!

Estate in Italia!

Hello bloggers!

Sorry it has taken me so long to get round to this. Too busy having fun. anyway I better update you first on my two lovely weekends in Italy with my Nonno and Nonna.

We flew to Geneva this time, adding to my long list of international cities (London, Paris, Milan - almost!). There we met with Dominique and her husband, and her two children Anouk and Oscar. We had great fun on Geneva lake beach where I spent a while eating pebbles until a concerned French man told mum. Mum and dad ate a really good fish thing at the bar on the beach and then we said a sad goodbye to our hostess Dominique and headed through the mountains via train to Domodossola.

When we arrived in Rovesca at last, who should be there but my little cousin Sara and uncle Fabio! This time I really loved Sara and wanted to do everything she did. That included eating sandwiches!

That looks good..

Sara was a great friend through the holiday and sat and played with me a lot, even though I sometimes climbed all over the place and she had to keep putting me back on the rug.

Peekaboo!

They got the message!

I also liked to watch her while we ate dinner. It seems the grown ups like eating a lot since I spent a big part of the holiday in my high chair.  Here I am eating Nonna Assunta and Zia Rita's hand picked blueberries. They were really good, both fresh and in jammy form!

Nonna Assunta managed to cpnvince me to eat from a spoon with a little gentle persuasion. I especially enjoyed my morning biscotti (Plasmon) with milk and since we've been back in England mummy had to scour the shops to find these for breakfast, as well as my little pasta stars (stelline!) yum yum!!

After eating so many blueberries, it only seemed right that we go and explore for the real thing. Here I am with daddy and Nonno on a blueberry hunt at the dam! We did quite a bit of walking but not as much as Nonna Assunta and Zia Rita who went to an undisclosed location to find the best blueberries. They came back with some very juicy ones which we all demolished for dinner that night! I mainly ate mine on the walk around unfortunately!

Zia Ines and Sylvana in their garden

 Now that I was eating so much food, mummy and daddy decided to leave me in the capable hand of the Nonni while they went on a mountain climb with their friend GianPaolo. I had a great day with all the family and friends of Rovesca, eating yogurt and sleeping in the swing chair (Dondola) at Zia Ines' house, until 6pm when I decided mummy should really be back by now so I cried until 7pm when they finally decided to turn up!

While I was here I got to see lots of the traditions of Rovesca, like the costumes, the candlelit procession of San Lorenzo, the San Lorenzo Mass (I fell asleep!) and some beautiful fireworks. Even though it was late and I was tired, I watched the fireworks quietly while daddy covered up my ears.

Traditional dancing?

Mummy's idea!

Making hay while the sun shines

Rovesca still does lots of things the traditonal way. We saw a lady gathering the hay on they day we were leaving, and Zia Rita even rescued a little calf who had fallen down the hill into the pipework!






Before we knew it, it was Ferragosto and my second cousins, Stefania, Giuliana and Mara came to visit with her boyfriend Rui. We had some great food cooked by Nonno Vittorio and Nonna Assunta and I talked a lot through the dinner! Ba ba ba ba ba!

Mara and Rui visit

Of course holidays wouldn't be the same without walking. And we did lots and lots of that - to compensate for the eating. Here we are on yet another walk in the mountains:

We didn't just walk though. There were plenty of chances to be at one with nature. I had lots of crawls in the field, as well as a dip in the lake Antrona (don't tell Nonna!)

Buon Compleanno Nonna!

While we were out in Italy, it was also Nonna Assunta's very special 70th birthday! Sara made Nonna Assunta a special card and Zia Luisella came to visit too and brought a special cake! Here is Nonna with her grandchildren:













Sadly we had to say goodbye and I waved goodbye to my nonni at the station by banging on the window which did break mummy's heart! See you very soon though when I hopefully come out to Alba for the truffle festival!

Teddy bears' picnics, seaside and park - fun, fun and more fun!

Hi blog fans,

Last weekend, the weather was nice so on Saturday mummy and daddy took me for a picnic to the Rising Sun country park. We watched the ducks and I had fun crawling in the grass. It got even better when out of nowhere Mr Turtle turned up and I could play with him, followed by Paddington Bear, so it was like a proper teddy bears' picnic! I sat quietly for a long while just climbing over daddy as he sunbathed.
Then on Sunday after dinner in a pub (where I sat like a big boy in the high chair and ate roast dinner), we took a walk along the Whitley Bay beach. At first I was asleep, but when mummy and daddy stopped I woke up and they let me out of my pram. They thought I might be put off by sand but no, I liked it! So much so that I wanted to shovel handfuls of the stuff into my mouth!! The spoil sports wouldn't let me for some reason but I did have fun crawling over the sand and trying to locate sticks on the beach.

I wonder what this feels like?

I wonder what it tastes like?!

As you can see from the video, I'm a speedy crawler now, but I am fast becoming a furniture walker too. I'm good at pulling myself up that when I wake in the night I can pull myself up to the edge of the cot to cry for help. Daddy was cruel enough to capture this on camera...

Let me out of here!

I don't normally look that sad though. Here I am the morning after with my usual smiles!

That's better!

My goos and gaas are starting to sound more conversational (between my coughs this week which are the aftermath of my cold) and I now try to say Mummy (Mmm, Mmm, Mmm). On Tuesday, me and my mummy went to babysit Bella the dog after her operation. Bella liked me and I LOVED Bella. We spent the day watching Bella in the garden and I thought it was very funny when she licked my foot and I could chuckle. Since then I have been playing a lot with my Pound Puppy dogs.  On Wednesday we went for a play with my friends outside in a school field and I had a good time exploring the grass as well as the toys, as usual.

babypoorly

I am a sad baby today. I have a cough, cold, snuffly nose, ear infection, diarrhoea and the make matters worse my top two teeth have started to come through painfully. I have not really slept for two nights and I am struggling to breath when I feed so as you can imagine it hasn't been a lot of laughs these last few days. I am also regularly force fed antibiotics, Calpol and cold things for my teething which is not improving my mood. I even pooed on my favourite pound puppy. She has been washed, but sorry about that pound puppy dog!

Before this sad affair began I had been having a good couple of weeks. Last weekend we went for a walk with Carys, Steve, Besty, Sarah and bump and (my favourite) Bella the dog. It was even quite sunny despite the rain all week in July. Here is Bella enjoying a little stream:

 I also got a photo with my new little girlfriend - no not Sarah, the bump! Funny to think that in May next year she will be as big as me (and hopefully out of that confined space by then!)

Here's a pic of the whole gang together:

Despite the weather we have tried to do lots outside and as you can see although I needed to wear my coat we've still been going on our regular walks. Mummy took loads of me here as she was tryong to get the perfect toothy peg shot!

Despite my efforts to show her, mum still wanted an even closer look so for the top ones that have just started to poke through this week she resorted to the stealth method:

As you may be able to see they are uncomfortable and inflamed looking. This morning I looked long and hard at a piece of toast before crying in frustration that I couldn't chew it. I even tried to carefully place it at the back of my mouth to avoid the danger zone but no luck!
All this teething has resulted in some late nights. I can still look adorable and cheeky though even at 8.30pm:

I was so sad last night that mum and dad gave me a cuddle while they watched 24 and I slept on the sofa in their arms like in the old days! Heaven!
On Thursday, to take my mind off teething, mum and dad let me stay up and watch my first barbeque in the back garden. They had burger and pork ribs so I couldn't eat anything - except grass!

Hopefully this weekend things will improve for me and my poor teeth!

love Vittorio xxx

The Shiremoor Treat

Hi fans!

Guess what?! One week after my first tooth, my second little tooth appeared next to it! This means the majority of my misery is now over and I only drool when I am really excited about something. It also means I can focus on my climbing efforts which are really coming along well. I have now got a little toy to climb up (thanks mum) and I am still enjoying chasing my ball around the living room.

Here's a quick video of me scaling my toy:

This weekend we have been busy having fun. On Saturday we went to the Shiremoor Treat which is a parade and a funfair down the road in Shiremoor and has been running for over 100 years. If you're interested, here is a link to the treat site. I was part of the Backworth leg of the parade and wore my 'Sunday Best' clothes!

There were lots of flashing lights, treats for the children and I even got talent spotted for Backworth Primary school who were already trying to catch me! I clung to daddy for dear life. Here's a photo of the children getting their treats and me reading the programme.It was very muddy but we still had fun!

On Sunday, the rain continued but that didn't stop me and daddy doing a bit of gardening! Here we are planting the tomatoes in the back garden.

Daddy's pride and joy - and I don't mean me!

Steve also came round for Sunday lunch on Sunday and he was a mixture of interested and disgusted by my eating habits. I made sure I spat out plenty in his direction! We watched the tennis final which Murray lost and I looked up occasionally which I played with my toys but it wasn't worth watching once I saw where it was going.

Today I went to baby signing in the morning and then baby club in the afternoon. after all that playing by 2pm I was shattered as you can see!

My food progress is still going well. I am now eating banana, sweet potato, carrot, pear and I even ate a little soft gnocco today which was buono! Mummy complained though because I also did my first brown poo today. Yuk! Sorry if that's too much information for you fans, but a baby's gotta do what a baby's gotta do! At least there's no photo!

See you soon for more poo updates! xxx

Vittoriotube!

Our holiday in France

5 months old and I'm already onto my second holiday. I'm making good use of my baby passport! The bad news is because I have been so busy having fun I didn't write the blog the last few weeks. The good news is mummy still took lots of photos of me having the fun so I can share what I've been up to!

But I have to tell you my exciting news! I can sit up now! And I can crawl a bit! And I can go from crawling a bit to sitting up. This means I can pretty much reach whatever I want. What I mostly want as the moment are wires, dvd players and anything else that looks like it isn't a baby toy.

My other big news is that since I'm 24 weeks old now I have been trying a few flavours of food, including pear, sweet potato and (to papa's amusement this morning at my disgusted face) nectarine. I also ate a selection of grasses in France, my favourites being Parsley and Marigolds!

Anyway, I'll let you see for yourself....

Grandma liked to kiss my neck and make me squirm and close my eyes!

Mum and Dad ate lots of these - I'm not allowed!

I also learnt to scream this holiday. It's great fun and I like to practice first thing in the morning!

Me and grandad who found me lots of marigolds to eat

Baby shadows

We enjoyed singing nursery rhymes in the sunshine

Dribbling and teething continues!

Me and mum exploring le jardin. We also did lots of walks up and down the road to the Madonna and back

After a nice meal I got to play with my balloon. I enjoyed dropping it and trying to pick it from the floor

I saw my first fountain here! (La Roche Sur Yonne?)

Mummy pretends the clown is coming to get me. I find it so funny. Auntie Colette might not!

Me looking cute by the strawberry well

I love piggybacks from papa and grandad

Eating me first pear (I wouldn't allow grandma to hold it and didn't like eating off a spoon)

The harbour on one of our trips out

Back in the UK - I continue to eat my favourite bananas!

Tyoical sleep pose in France. This buggy was much comfier than I thought it would be and I loved to watch the wheels go round.

I watched Papa and Grandad put nets to stop the birds eating the plums on the plum tree. We'll see how that goes in late June! Papa fell through the ladder and I cried a bit but it was ok!

I found the flowers on our walk but here's Grandad taking the credit!

Grandma teasing me again! Stop it Grandma!

And again!

She managed to hold off my neck on this one.

Mummy and Daddy's Anniversary. They went out for dinner. I woke up and got walked around for an hour or so until I finally gave in and dropped asleep for Grandma and Grandad. They had a great time though apparently!

Eating again - I'm partial to parsley

I got lots of attention!!

The ducks visited our garden a few times. I loved to see them waddle along.

Daddy made a digger

I spent lots of time playing on my mat

Now it's daddy's turn to blow on my neck. Give me a break guys honestly!

I loved to comb the grass and watch the lawn mower go up and down

Mother's day in France. We went to pick wild flowers for mummy and grandma.

Chillaxing with Papa!

I now love the theme tune to pretty much all programmes. Especially Coronation Street!

Wires! At last!

Grandma let me drive the car

One for the history book - me watching the Jubilee celebrations in London

A precious moment with Grandad

Relaxing in the shade with the yappy woman and the man who likes to bully me.

My first attempts at a baby walker. It was love hate these last few weeks but I am slowly getting the hang of it!

lThanks for a lovely holiday Grandma and Grandad, for walking me round the garden and up the road a million times and putting up with my teething!

lots of love Vittorio xxx