Cousins make the best friends

Cousins make the best friends .

digital painting

"She likes it anywhere by the ocean"

"She likes it anywhere by the ocean"

digital painting.

Love you so much!

Another mom, another boy, another unique love .

Love you so much.

8.5x11 inches

battesimo

You are my son, my stars, my moon.

You are my son, my stars, my moon.

You are capable of amazing things.

There is a little super lady in NYC, this last illustration is for Vittoria!

You are capable of amazing things.

digital painting.

Happiness looks gorgeous on you.

Giving myself a day off today :) which means giving myself some me time once I dropped Alex at Hope, once I have cleaned the house, cooked dinner and did a laundry ;).

Me time ended up with me drawing my boy ( just in love with his gorgeous smile!!) while wearing a mud facial mask.

I took many nice photos yesterday while at Fort Funston, this was my favorite.
Happy Friday everyone!

Because...there is always Hope!!

We were thinking  to start sending Alex to daycare starting  January 2018 but things did not go as planned .
I love being a stay at home mom, don't get me wrong....but after 2 years and 2 months just at home with my boy I was in need of some time for myself.
In the past two years I have been doing my art studies on line and doing my homework mainly during nap time and early morning sometimes late at night.
One day I woke up and I was just so tired...I totally couldn't do this anymore, not one more day.
My body was on strike. Something had to change.
Went for a morning walk to Playland on 43rd and met this awesome lady and the kids she takes care in her in-house day care.
She had such a positive energy and the kids with her were so happy. I asked for a business card. Her name was Hope. Just the name I needed to hear, YES!
When you are so tired, and so sleep deprived , well, there is Hope :) to help out .
Alex joined here day care the following week, he loves it there.  Three morning a week, 15 hours per week when I can do my art with no one attached to my legs.
I managed to finish my book and I did plenty more.
I am so glad  I bumped into her!
I was just scared of letting my boy go.. because me and him we have aways been together, but it turned out to be ok. ALL IS GOOD.

So this is my Christmas gift to hope, hopefully she will like it!

There is always Hope!

with love from Laura and Alex

Thank you for everything you do for the most important little man in my life.

I love you to the moon and back. Three under three.

This mom business is hard.

 My mom always told me how beautiful it is to have children ( I have two brothers ) but she never mentioned the tough part. And I totally can see this part now ;)

Today illustration is for an amazing mom, she is raising three under three.

Hello  Sara :)

I know you like my drawings and this one is just for you.

You are doing an awesome job with your little ones!

My Christmas gift to you.

Enjoy!

3under3 I love you to the moon and back!

Love you to the moon and back.

I hade a couple of rough weeks lately, week 5 of hubby with right arm in a swing means baby care (and dog and house and all the rest!) is just all on me.

Sometimes is hard but at the end of day I am just happy and in love with my family and our little boy. 

Yesterday we had an awesome day jumping the waves here by te beach and last night he fell asleep on me super fast (!! we should go and jump the waves on a DAILY base i guess!).

I totally love him form the moon and back and more than that.

Nutella first time.

This Bibi had his first taste of nutella few days ago...
We prepared together a small slice of bread and spread the chocolate on top.
Then I walk to bedroom to start cleaning and when I walk back to the kitchen I find him with his hands inside the jar and full face covered.
And he was saying " Ancora!!!"," More" in Italian.
Mona was patiently waiting for some chocolate to fall down. Of course ;)
Way too funny not to draw :)
My bibi!!!

It's bed time! A true story. Almost one year and the book is finished. My dear boy this book is for you .

I decided I wanted to do a book for my baby last year,  here is the short movie I did the day I started sketching few ideas down.

I played around with some concepts for a couple of months till I found the one I really liked and in January 2017 I started with the first thumbnails .

It is just amazing to look at how much Alex has changed in this past year.

From baby to toddler.

At Sf zoo, sept 2016. ALEx was in love with the train.(he still is!)

And now he is a little boy, with so much hair!!! And he talks so much :)

I love spending my time with you, even though we are not together every day all day as we used to be. You started day care last september ( no way I could have finished the book without the help of the amazing Hope!) and you are becoming more independent . 

You are such a funny little man, full of smiles, and full of energy.

You love jumping, especially on the bed but literally everywhere.  You love dinosaurs, trains, alligators and mermaids. Your favorite cartoon is Peppa Pig and you have a stuffed Peppa you take to sleep and Peppa's house is one of your favorite toys, together with your trains and cars of course:) You probably love Thomas the train as much as Peppa...i think. 

You also love to draw, and we spend hours  drawing inside and outside with charcoals . WE love sunny day of but we also enjoy rainy days and jumping in the puddles.

Dear dada, I feel honored you have chosen me to be your mommy!!I am loving this part of my life . (Even though I am  always tired and in need of sleep !) and I would never EVER trade my time with you for some more sleep ;)

So my dear boy, this book is for you. 

A sweet funny memory of our bed times together .

I hope you will enjoy it! 

I love you.

your mammina.

FIRST TIME Alex slept through the night.

For some people this happen at two months and for some people it happens after 2 years, to us it happened last night. After 2 years , 4 months and 6 days. ALEX SLEPT THROUGH THE THE NIGHT. ( He fell asleep at 9 and woke up at 6.15!).
 I am feeling like texting everyone I know, calling my mom and telling it to every persons I met on my way. (But justing writing this post instead lol!)
Are you asking my how i feel?
I still can't believe it, and I just hope he will repeat tonight:) !

The picture below is a page from my JUST FINISHED BOOK (yes!!!!!this is happening too!!) showing our normal night routine , but it looks like there is finally light at the end of the tunnel !

pag 15-16

If you like my illustrations and you want to follow the progress of my "coming out soon" book click LIKE on my Its Bed time FB page IT S BED TIME , A TRUE STORY. Fell free to share the page :)
Thank you everyone for your support!

Have a happy Thanksgiving!

Upside down!

Upside down

Digital painting.

Mammina !! I am hiding!

Finishing the "Mammina !!I am hiding!!" series.
This morning we received a large amazon package and by the time I was back from putting the content to place Alex was already hiding.
It took me some time to find him, just the time to sip a coffee and browse my fb :) lol

Mammina! I am hiding!

Mammina I am hiding! #3

Another illustration for the " Mammina I am hiding !!!""series.

I have to say that this is one is the FAVORITE spot :)

Alex has been hiding in our bedroom behind the curtains for over here now. Same safe spot several times a day.

It is so sweet how he is never EVER tired to play hide and seek!!

Mammina! I am hiding!

" We will be friends for ever! won't we poo?" " Even Longer!"

Sharing here one of my last commissions.

" We will be friends for ever! won't we poo?" " Even Longer!"

Is date night!!!! :) another page from "It s bed time!A true story"

We try to have a date night once in a while... but we don't last up too long these days... 

If you like my illustrations and you want to follow the progress of my up coming book
click LIKE on my FB page It's bed time! A true story. 
Thank you for supporting my project !

Welcome baby Henry!

He is finally here!
Eager to spend time with his mommy, daddy and sweet big-little sister.
We can't wait to meet you :)

Laura and Alex

It's bed time!!

Another page done, just few more left.

Drawing this scene was quite straight forward, I had just to look around our living room to get inspired :)

Please like the page:

  It's bed time! A true story .

to follow the book's development! It's coming out SOON!

Mammina!! I am hiding ! #2 A sunflower kind of day .

Before having my baby I used to do oil painting and sunflowers was one of my favorite subjects .

Sunflowers fields, still life with sunflowers, girls with sunflowers....whatever with sunflowers basically :)

We have plenty of paintings on our wall and my boy who is getting more curios every day is asking me daily to talk about each image, what is there? what is this? what is that?

It was just a matter of days before he started asking for sunflowers, of course.

And on the next trip to trader joe they were the first item on the list.

Apparently they are also perfect for hiding behind! 

Mammina!! I am hiding ! #2

Mammina ! I am hiding! number ONE

Alex LOVES playing hide ad seek....like he is NEVER EVER tired of it ! 

He inspired this small series of "Mammina! I am hiding !"illustrations, here is the first one:

"Mammina!! I am hiding!"

#1

Jumpy Puddle !

A wet Friday here in San Francisco today, but no complain!
My boy and I had actually a lot of fun.
We went to Fort Funston for a full hour of "jumpy puddle" as he likes to call it, after "Peppa Pig"! :)

Jumpy puddle.

Some moms were asking where we got the AWESOME rain outfit , on Amazon , following is the link :

Tuffo Overall<made in italy!>

We are looking forward to the next rain day already!!

Night night. Kiss Kiss.

Another page done. And this is one of my favorite.

A couple of months ago I took a nice photo of my sweet boy sleeping and I decided to draw this page around that image.

Trick or treat, final illustration.

It was our very first Halloween this year. Alex LOVED going trick or treating and enjoyed wearing his cat costume (no complains for almost an hour!!)  .

So many kids dressed up, beautiful decorations all around town, pumpkins at every doorstep. It was a really lovely celebration :)

For my illustration Halloween themed I created a composition with some of the photos posted under my thread on the MSM fb page.

Here it is :)

Trick or treat!

I am kind of sad is finished already. but well...Christmas is next! And I am sure Alex will love it too!!

Trick or treat, work in progress.

Taking a day off from my book to do this Halloween illustration.
Totally enjoying creating this composition and looking forward to have Alex in bed this evening to start coloring it.
Posting the finished piece soon!

watch out: Bay watch on duty :)

We had a mini heat wave in SF last week and Alex and I visited our good friends in Palo alto for a pool day.
First time for the little man to wear his swimming float, " Bimba-pesce" and alligator were invited to the party too.
 What a fun day!!
Thank you to Stefi and Ettore!!

I carry your hearts in my heart.

Surely Lucy will do an awesome big sister!

Lots of love to all the three of you from Alex and me.

We made it ! Night weaning success!

Last night I slept in my bed on my own (hubby is traveling this week!) from 10 pm till 6am.
Last time I had such a long stretch of sleep was on the 18th of July 2015. The night before my baby was born.
I had to say this morning I was feeling pretty great!!

As you can tell from my drawing I followed the "lemon theory" for our night weaning and the good news is that it was much less dramatic that I was expecting.

Before the lemon trick I was telling my boy that "nene" need to sleep at night and he can nurse again when the sun is out but honestly he wasn't really getting it.
He would normally wake up around 1.30/2 am and he wanted to come into out bed to nurse, nurse and nurse some more. And BIG drama if I was saying NO to nursing.
To avoid big crying and big noise at night in the end I was always giving up and that was it.

One day I started telling him that mom's nene had BuBu.  Such a big BuBu that they need to sleep at night.
He seemed to understand what I was talking about.
That night I went to bed with two slices of lemon and the moment he wanted to nurse I just offered to him and he was so not into the taste!! A big short cry than he gave up and fell asleep on his own.
Second night the same, but no cry on his side just cuddle to me into our bed and went to sleep on his own.
And so we went on for a week or so.
The second week he stopped waking up around 1/2 am to come into our bed.
Now is sleeping into his bed for a very long stretch, till 5 am or 6 am.
I am extremely happy!! I was thinking we could never get to this point.
No he tells me "nene YES" when the sun is out , and"nene"NO when is dar :)
Probably I will be using the lemon to drop some nursing session during the day too, but no hurry for that!

I am enjoying my "long" night now :)
Funny enough, I keep waking up at 1/2am and 3/4am just because my body is so used to it!  Looking forward to  loose the habit and have a real full night of sleep.

Cuddle, snuggle, turn ogg the light, time to say good night!

Another spread sheet is finished :)

This is one of my favorite page!

 It is very personal, because ....YES we do really REALLY sleep like this !

Time to say Goodnight.

That is how our car looks like.

" ...Jump in! But the car is not that clean!!Sorry!" That was I used to say before my baby came along if I had to give a ride to a friend.

Well... the car pre-baby was so much cleaner compared to what I drive today!!!

Of course the "car cleaning" task is on the next week list of things to do ;)

Let's get ready for bed!

Another page from my coming soon book "It's bed time! A true story."

And surely enough this is true story for many of us.

My boy stopped the brushing teeth drama this week, he is 27 months old. (!!!!) He has 5 different type of toothpaste and I have lost count of the number of toothbrushes, more than 7 probably. We tried playing movies, singing while doing it, let him brush our teeth...there was not a thing that made him brush his teeth with no tears. One day (last week!) he just suddenly stopped crying and now he is ok with it. Hopefully it will stay this way :)

And every evening is a bargain for the numbers of books we agree to read in bed. He wants always so many! And I want always so few..... We normally end up reading three...

815.

Yes I have become one of those" "moms : still nursing, baby wearing, co sleeping, attachment parenting ..."crazies"!!

LOVING EVERY MINUTE OF IT .