A trip down memory lane

Your great-grandparent's home is going up for auction in two weeks and I thought I would share some photos with you to mark four months since your Nonno's passing. It's hard to believe that the home in which we all spent much of our childhoods and of which we have so many fond memories, will soon be passed over into someone else's hands. Whatever happens one thing's for sure, I will never forget the wonderful experiences I had visiting and living there. The warmth that oozed from this home is something I will never forget. They say it's the people that make a home and I couldn't agree more but it's also that passion and commitment and pride that your great-grandfather had for his home that always made it a joy to come home to. 

Some are of these photos are of me and my siblings as kids and others are from later on. All are from times spent in the company of your great-grandparents and what lovely memories they were. Their house was always a safe haven for us, a place to play and enjoy. A place of calm and of rest, a place of learning and quite contemplation. As children we would visit during our school holidays. I remember the first time we came to visit after your great-grandparents moved here. My family was still living in Sydney and my sister and I caught a plane on our own for the first time. I remember feeling exhilarated as we climbed the staircase and were ushered to our seats at the front. We were given colouring in kits and upon arrival were escorted off with the flight attendants. I loved having a big, new and unfamiliar house to roam around, corners to explore and hiding spots to uncover. As kids, the pool was a big attraction and we loved having our cousins visit as we would have so much fun in the pool together. Later when I started high school my parents decided to move house yet again. I knew that I wanted to stay put in a school for long enough to make a few good friends and so I asked your great-grandparents if I could live with them. They agreed of course. That's the kind of people they are. My sister followed and soon we were living and studying together under their roof. There were rules to be followed but grandad was always fair. He allowed us to go out but gave us curfews and would always collect us when the time came. I was quite a homebody and enjoyed my grandmother's company, in fact I got so used to be around people their age that I soon began to prefer the company of my elders. I never had to impress them and the conversation never turned to relationships or school or teachers. It was like an escape from the demands of high school for me. 

I stayed in this home until I graduated from high school in 1997 but would often return on holidays. Whenever your daddy and I were visiting the Gold Coast we would come and stay and after you were born we spent our first December here and it was the first and only time you met your great-grandad. I am so grateful for the opportunity he had to meet and spend some time with you. He was such a gentle man and you really took to one another. During his dying days he told me to give his regards to your dad and to give you a cuddle. He was always thinking about others.

From Left, uncle Phil, uncle Chris, aunty Sarah and mum

My birthday (here with aunty Sarah, my cousins Jacqui
and Matt and uncle Chris). Can you spot Nanny and Nonna?

Nonna, mum, uncle Chris, Nanny and Nanny's sister's
family

Mummy on the night of her Yr 10 graduation

Mummy with a couple of her high school friends - Jenny,
Nicole and Karina

Nonna on one of the few occasions she used the spa or pool.
Your great-grandparents couldn't swim, although we did try
teaching them a couple of times

Whenever guests came over for lunch, Nonna always made
her famous pasta alla napolitana. Nonno and his brother with
Nanny, mum and Nonna's sisters Francis and Helen.

Aunty Sarah and mum in their high school
days

Mummy and her beloved Nonna. Here I am
in a pair of  her leather pants which she
insisted on having taken in just so that
I could wear them!

Your Nonno was a keen fisherman and often
caught fish in the canal. Every morning he'd
check the bait on his lines and inspect his
crab trap. He enjoyed eating bream, mud
crabs and garfish.

When your daddy and I met your great-grand
parents for the first time they took us out  for a
day on their boat. We didn't have Nonno's luck
that day while fishing and only caught a small
fish which wasn't good eating.

Meeting your Nonno for the first time in Decemeber 2011

Meeting Nonna for the first time. She made you giggle.

Relaxing in their pool with Nanny during a family holiday

The living room of your great grandparents' house

Feeding the swans in the canal

Nonno with his crap trap and you and daddy

The multi-tasking mumma

I am the primary grocery shopper in our family and for good reason. Your father is painfully slow when it comes to shopping. I know he thinks that you and I spend our days frolicking around, drinking coffee all cute and carefree but really it's mostly the cleaning, entertaining of you, household chores and shopping that take up the bulk of our day. A perfectly blended hot coffee, whether home made or bought is definitely a luxury that I don't get to indulge in often enough. Likewise high intensity exercise and time alone are things I definitely took for granted before you came along.

But back to the shopping. The practicality of aisle-hopping with a toddler is never an easy one. You're finally at the age where you enjoy sitting in a shopping trolley but given your increasing mobility, only for very short periods. Consequently, our shopping trips need to be focused and quick, no dilly-dallying or poring over what brand of tea bag or soft cheese to try. Any lapse in concentration invites disaster. I am reminded of the occasion we met a friend and her baby in the supermarket and our attention was averted momentarily as we exchanged greetings. In the meantime her daughter had inched closer to the shelves housing jars of olives and other Mediterranean preserved vegetables. It wasn't until the sound of shattering glass sent us jumping that we realised in horror what had transpired, and all in the space of time it took to stop and say hello. What horror!

Given that this image is burned in my mind for all eternity and that I have never had much time for shopping, I always write a list before heading to the shops and when I don't, I have in mind what I will cook. It is with some regret then that I sent your daddy into the supermarket this fine Saturday morning because although he went sans baby, he didn't have a list or the faintest idea what of what to buy for dinner and let's face it, men just don't multi-task like women do, especially when they are bombarded with such choice. It's been precisely an hour and I am still sitting in our car waiting for your father to return with the two meals I requested on top of a few essentials. In the meantime you've woken from your morning (and only day) nap a frustrating 30mins early and I can already feel my stress levels rising and your patience waning. I can just see your daddy pushing the trolley up each aisle to retrieve a single item and then getting to the checkout before realising he'd forgotten something - and forget he did. The main item in the dish he'd called (mid way though his meandering) to tell me he would make. Oh well, lesson learnt.

Even after arriving home I take on the tasks of feeding you lunch, cooking your dinner, throwing our lunch into the oven and entertaining you before your swimming class. When it's time to go your daddy asks me if I can change your nappy as well. I have to laugh inside because I know that if the roles were reversed he would never make swimming in time. That, my son, is multi-tasking. Half the time I don't even think your father realises. He comes home from work each day to find us happily playing in the bath with not an inkling of the madly intense hour that has preceded this. We do it all without much thought and my word am I getting better at it. I can now prepare and feed you dinner (often it's different from ours), cook  mum and dad's dinner and bath you, all in the space of an hour so that when daddy gets home he gets to enjoy you.

That's life as we know it right now.