Convergence

From BambiniPt2

Videos:
Valerio tastes a lemon
Visiting friends Sunday park lunch band
Nico demonstrating his dexterity with the vertical blinds
Working in the office with two little helpers
Taking a little video break


Life has a funny way of throwing everything at you at once, or nothing at all. We are in the process of finalizing a surgeon for Nico's surgery, fighting with Kaiser, evaluationg alternative medical plans, researching the likely result of Obama's health care reform, looking for a new place to live and preparing for Barbara's trip to Europe in a few weeks while raising two newborns during the biggest recession since the great depression.

Despite the govt's feeble attempts to manipulate the numbers, everyone is feeling the pinch these days. In the discussion forums I contribute to, there is story after story of professionals in foreclosure, expensive toys getting repossessed and many people out of work.

The stress level is pretty high and its hard to remain calm with this much pressure. Luckily the bambini are oblivious and greet us every day with a smile. They are almost ready to crawl. Their motor skills are improving very quickly as you can see in the videos.

We go to the park most days just to interact with other families. The bambini love to watch the other kids pplay and their little legs start thrashing around as the kids run and play.

We take the opportunity to talk with other parents who's first comment is always "don't worry it gets easier" or "the first year is the toughest". Parents that have one child at a time have no idea. I feel like telling them that its like describing WW2 as slight difficulty between a few nations.

Barbara is exhausted, but still manages to play with the babies like she has not seen them all day.

I had a meeting with the landlord and negotiated a couple more months. After a long conversation with the HOA here, they agreed to do the fumigation at the beginning of November. It seems August is the worst time to look for a place to rent because parents want to move before school starts in September. Anything that come up on Craigs List is gone within 48 hours. This should change in the next few weeks.

Despite the free fall of the housing market nationwide, the bay area has proved quite resilient. This is changing. The number of properties on the market now is climbing and more importantly the length of time they are on the market is increasing. People everywhere are feeling the effect of this recession.

Nico appears to be adjusting to his helmet. It is quite hard and we have to be careful he does not hit Luca's head with it. They both love to play on the bed. As soon as we take them in there they get excited. They associate it with fun.

Unfortunately, Luca has now firmly associated the car seat with torture. As soon as you strap him in it, he starts crying and that rapidly turns to screaming. If you try and drive he just screams and will not be consoled. The last two car journeys were horrendous. I ended up stopping and taking him out of the seat. He continues to sob and he has little body convulsions for about ten minutes after.

As a result we cannot go anywhere in the car with him. We are not sure how to remedy this, but we will probably have to add this to the list of research topics. For now we just schedule around the nanny and leave him at home with her. Looking at places to live in the next couple of months will probably mean going separately. For now we just carry him or push him everywhere.