Jul
6
Letting go
by Sofia - in Random
Do you have trouble letting go of items of importance, stages of life, saying even temporary goodbyes to people you love? I am definitely the kind of person who gets teary eyed at the last Spring recital of pre-school, hugging a loved teacher goodbye, I mourn a lost toy if it was a very important one to my child and so on. Moving houses would be very high on my list for things to mourn. Even if it were time to say goodbye and move along in life I find it hard to even think about letting go of important memories, not walking up the familiar stairs my children first crawled up, then walked with wobbly feet and now jump two stair at a time. Even the thought of it kills me and brings tears to my eyes.
I know people who love moving along in life, they find it exhilarating. The children´s milestones are just that, milestones on a forward moving life. To me they are mileposts where I stop and look back at time and get all sentimental.
I wonder how, where and why we humans got built up so differently. So many time someone has told me I´m silly or ” you are really not going to cry are you?” or ” you are so ” sweet” ” , but the emphasis on the word sweet speaks more for sentimental fool. I literally started crying at our last “Neuvola” or baby & child nurses meeting a few weeks back when we went in with both girls and the nurse hugged them and wished them well in life and told us how much she has enjoyed all these years with our family ( I have had the same person from the first time I got pregnant over 9 years ago). We bought her a pretty bouquet of pink peonies to say proper thank you´s and good bye´s and when I told this to my friend she basically just said ” Sofia” in the tone that says “are you nuts?”.
Don´t get me wrong. I´m always enjoying the moment as much as I can and planning and daydreaming my future daily. I already dream of days when the girls are older, when they get their first boy ( or girl)friends. I can even imagine what kind of grandmother I would be. What I can do with my husband when the girls want to do their thing and it´s just us two etc. I´m not opposed to moving ahead. I love planning a ” next apartment” ( bigger and better of course like we would even need such) and I love the thought of a lovely future ahead. But yet, I can not help but always feel so sentimental and sad when a certain part of our lives is left behind. A certain phase. it´s like finishing a really really good book and being a little sad it´s over even though you could not stop reading to spare it to last a little longer.
Jul
5
Sales shopper
by Sofia - in Random
Have you already shopped the sales? What are your picks this year? I have been absolutely off my game as we only seem to need stuff for the Fall but I guess it would make sense to check all the delicious choices for next summer. But for some reason I am not up for it. Can I be all shopped out? What is that? I´m already looking for Fall pieces to arrive. I feel like summer has been on the shelves for so long.
Anyway here are some of my favourite brands/ sites online for kids if you are on the hunt…
We have the coat and the shoes and love both very very much! Coat now on sale.
Bonpoint is such a favourite but it feels so much better on sale if you know what I mean.
Our favourite dress is now on sale and it will be just as on point next summer.
This one could be my sales buy for Bubble Gum. She loves these kinds of dresses and I think it would be a cute first day of school outfit with her white avarca sandals if it´s warm or even white sneakers.
Petit Bateau dresses are so timeless. We buy their stripes, t- shirts and underwear every single year. Best quality too.
Have fun shopping!
Lattemamma
Jun
19
Bucket list
by Sofia - in Random
For the longest time in my life I have been the kind of person who lives in the moment and enjoys the little things and I have also been very aware and grateful for all the blessings I have been given in my life. But I have also always been a dreamer! Not so much yearning for more all the time but just a big time daydreamer. Most of my dreams are very doable and some have come to life with pure luck and some just remain these lovely things I can imagine perhaps someday coming true. Then there is the bucket list. I have not written it down anywhere but in my head there are a few things that top those daydreams and I hope to actually get to experience. And I can tell you that when those dreams come true and you are there pinching yourself it´s really amazing.
Even though I am a dreamer I´m also very realistic. I can imagine beautiful places but I ´m also aware that old houses sometimes have a mild mildewy scent or that hotel rooms don´t always look exactly like they do in the promotional pictures. If it´s windy a fabulous yacht still rocks in the sea. I know the most beautiful country houses in the archipelago have mosquitos and I know what it feels like to get sand in my shoes. But to me that is part of the whole thing. It´s what makes it real. It´s what makes pinching yourself unnecessary. And when you realise that, you are in for a whole new experience. It´s about enjoying your dream without the disappointment of it´s little reality flaws, so to speak.
This year, as I have perhaps said before, is a continuance for last year as I´m crossing more things of my bucket list. For the longest time life was filled with such high points of a humanbeing´s life. Engagements, weddings, babies, nieces, nephews and godchildren born. New houses and new careers for yourself and for the people you love. So at some point the bucket list was just there waiting and not needed. Every year had a new amazing life experience waiting. But then came the lull. And it was time to open the page of the bucket list. The kids are old enough to join you for the ride or if necessary they are also old enough to enjoy supplemental fun whilst you enjoy the list with your spouse or friends. Most of my bucket list things include travelling so it´s a very important point. For instance we really want to go to the safari with our children one year but we wanted to wait so that they are old enough to remember the experience their whole lives as it´s not a trip we plan to make many times.
One of the things on my bucket list has been staying in a castle in France or Italy with a bunch of our very best friends. We have spent more than a decade of midsummers sipping rosé wine and talking about our dream. And last midsummer we decided that now is the time. We came home, we found a castle ( we needed one that houses our group of 25) that has vineyards surrounding the area and booked our flights last August. We found ours in Italy. One of the things on our list was to have a pool for the kids ( we have 13 all together) and this one had it all. So on Wednesday we fly to Rome, rent cars from there and start our amazing journey towards Lombardia ( next to better known Tuscany on the map if you are looking for it). We have cooks there so for once midsummer is not about rotating turns on catering for our huge and partly very ” foodie” minded group ( which is also fun but sometimes it´s nice to not think about cooking and to just enjoy the food).
