missing the twenties

i rarely regret things in my life, because there is no big use in doing so. i just usually miss things, which i want to return back in my life. 

among such things are my 20 years old age. i know i haven't left my twenties yet, but i can see a big difference between now and back then. 

now i usually get invitations to lunches and dinners, then it used to be the invitations to cinemas and parks. now we quickly text, whatsapp and imessage each other, then we used to call. the landline. for hours. we used to say everything we thought, now we think 10 times before saying, weighing each word, so not to offend anyone and be as diplomatic as possible. now we have so many things to worry about, so many things to plan, we keep the diaries, we schedule meetings, cancel them, reschedule and shake hands with the partners. then we left home in the morning and did everything without any plan or purpose. now we commit, then we didn't. we walked and walked when we didn't have cars. now we do. and we drive and drive. we used to drink everything, now we know the names of favourite wines, cocktails and how they are made. we eat healthy food.. we grew up.

i won't lie, i miss those days. and i miss myself, the person i used to be then. person, with pink sunglasses and pink hair, in cinemas, parks, with telephone talks, hugs and smiles, no worries, with sincerity, walks and millions of plans for the future.

i know i don't have much to regret, and all the great things are still ahead, but it was so much fun being 20!

ilia's birthday photobook

what can you get our child as a present for his 1 year birthday?

when ilia was turning 1 on 13th of June, i was thinking about possible birthday gifts for days and days. and you know, i think i came up with the best decision - to give him his first-year review in pictures in one big 90-pages photobook. you should have already noticed what a crazy collector i am, so i have all his moves and pictures collected during the whole year - the only thing left was to put them all in one book, add stickers and comments to each page - and a photobook with all the memories was ready. i have received it today and can't wait to go back home and show it to my son :)

and i have a plan - to keep making such photobooks every year - that's a great thing to have for my son, who will probably love memories just like his mom, genetically ;)

                                   

shampoo for coloured hair

you may think what a weird title to a post in a mother-baby blog, but today morning one detail  made me smile and i decided to share it with you.

as a child, i have always watched the red shampoo bottles standing in our bathroom. those used to be shampoo bottles of my mom for coloured hair. i never used them, always thinking they were only for older women. i had all kinds of shampoos - first with princesses, then with flowers and all of them were different colours possible - except red.

today looking at my bathroom shelf, filled with red bottles, i realized that i have entered the category of women, who are grown-ups, dye hair and have children of their own, who have their own shampoo bottles with dinosaurs and princesses and never use shampoos in red bottles.

entertaining cards

the one thing i know is that my son (and every child of his age) adores small little things. he may be staring at something for minutes and i can't even see what it is. so this little game is specially for children who are at the age of exploring world, different surfaces, materials and objects.

first of all, you will need cardboard, which you should cut in small square pieces. the cardboard may be white or you can colour it. then you will need everything that could be glued on the cardboard - spaghetti, candied fruits, beans, buttons, zips - the main rule here is to stick similar things on the same cardboard. i suggest you use a paper glue, which doesn't stick to the fingers of children and is much safer than the glue for all the surfaces. ilia used paper glue, but when i had to stick something that was heavy, i used the superglue, but kept it far away from my child.

the main goal of the game is not to ultimately stick the objects to the cardboard, but to show you child different textures and materials. children at the age of 1 love to tear off everything, so once the objects are stuck, they will try to tear all of them off. keep an eye on your child, don't let him eat any of those objects ;)

when you have cardboards ready you can teach your child how the objects are called. we have a big box where we keep those cards: i name an object, and ilia finds the right cardboard in the box and gives it to me. you can't even imagine how this game works, ilia has learned all of the objects in one evening.

thank you

i have been writing a book from some time now. about music and my personal memories connected to different songs and melodies. as you may have noticed i am a huge nostalgic. but i'm also a great believer of memories. and that things happen for some reason. some things happen for you to remember, some things happen for you to learn a lesson and never repeat, but some happen just to bring smile to your face.

i want to thank all those people, memories about whom will bring smile to my face anytime i remember them. some of those people i may not see again in my life or those moments may never repeat, but what i know for sure is that when i'll pass familiar places, or hear familiar music the smile will come to my face and those memories will make me happy.

i saw a movie the other day where the main heroes were talking about the future and that when we are young we think that there are so many things ahead us, and we believe that we have so much time left and we never hurry. but in reality, there are not as many opportunities in life. so if life gives us one, we should grab it.

let's start living fully and let's be happy and gather the moments for us to remember when we are older and nostalgier :)

  

make somebody happy

what it takes to make somebody happy? not that much i guess.

we sometimes lack happiness in our hearts. there may be serious reasons for that or there may be no reason at all. but we still feel down from time to time. and suddenly, a small comment, a small gesture, a small gift, a smile and even a glance can change everything and bring back the sun. the sun may be coming from a close friend or an absolute stranger, but it may light up you day in a way it hasn't been lighting from the early morning.

so what it takes to make somebody happy? it actually takes smiling to the strangers, saying nice words to people, giving out compliments, encouraging those near us, making them laugh, thanking them, hugging them and loving them.

and you know what is the best part of it? happiness is contagious. by making others happy you get happy too.

oh, it's so important to make someone happy

un bacio a mezzanotte

i'm absolutely in love with a song that i found not long ago. and not simply in love with one version of it - but with all the versions that i gathered. 

this version by quartetto cetra is the one i heard first and the one i listened to thousands times..

until i found this great version by jumpin' up. with amazingly cute video clip.

enjoy this song my dear readers, with a lemonade, a smile and nice thoughts about upcoming summer with some nice midnight bacio's for everyone.