...and talking

Chiara now says "ba ba" for banana, and "Daddy" (or "Daddy Daddy Daddy Daddy"), "Khakha" (for Chiara), "Maah-mm" (for Mummy), "dee da" for cars, truck, fire engines etc, and lots of funny noises for animals. She climbs everything, puts clothes (clean or dirty) in the laundry basket, eats pizza, generally keeps us entertained.... More recent photos on Flickr

Walking!

Chiara is now walking! She loves books, and tearing up pieces of paper (but she doesn't tear up her books), and listening to her favourite CDs. She claps when she hears her favourite songs, or when she is happy, and shakes her head seriously when we say "no". We think she is the cleverest 1-year old ever, but perhaps we're a bit biased? See our flickr site for recent photos.

Tall towers 

Looking at Mummy 

Rolling, rolling, rolling

It's official - Chiara can roll from back to tummy on her own. She did it once yesterday morning, and then again this morning. I wasn't even in the room this time. Is Mummy proud? Is she ever!

With Chiara I've been more consistent about giving her a bit of "tummy time" each day, and it seems to have paid off. She is happy to lie on her tummy for a good few minutes, using her hands to play with toys. When Matteo first started rolling he would almost immediately cry, wanting to be turned back onto his back. We were like yoyos for a couple of weeks until he learnt to roll from front to back himself.

Life with Chiara is magic at the moment. She's interested in everything, smiles a lot, and laughs when I tickle her tummy, or play "this little piggie" with her toes. I want everyone to see her in action!

Tummy time, 2 1/2 months 

Tummy time, nearly 5 months

Chiara loves her Daddy

Introduction

I'm just discovering the world of blogs. I want an easy way to share photos of my 2 beautiful babies, and to tell my friends about things that are going on.

Our first baby was Matteo (Mat-tay-oh). He was born August 22, 2003, and died of pneumococcal meningitis nearly 8 months later. We miss him enormously. During his short life he brought us so much joy.

Matteo now has a little sister. Her name is Chiara (pronounced Kee-ah-ra), and she was born on January 21, 2005. She is growing, and growing up, fast. She is as full of smiles as her big brother was. She is really thriving - well padded all over, with delightful rolls and creases.

One of my big projects for my long maternity leave (8 months) is to try to sort out our photos - way back to our wedding photos, but especially the photos of Matteo and Chiara, and to share them with friends and family scattered around the world. As well as blogging photos, I've started putting photos on the web using Flickr - tell me what you think (either about this way of sharing photos, or about the photos themselves!).

Matteo, 7mo