The Opposite

Yesterday was a bittersweet day. I had one of the best experiences I have ever had with Lucas by attending his first soccer game, but at the same time 14 or more of my fellow countrymen were dying protesting against a criminal regime. This is the guilt us Venezuelans living abroad have to live with every day. It doesn't matter how great things are going in your life, there is always that hollow feeling inside reminding you that you will never be truly happy until your country is free. I named this post the opposite because that is how my relationship to Venezuela feels sometimes, the better things get for me in my life, the worse they get in my country. Today is a difficult day, I been questioning if things are ever going to get better, can the bad guys really win? All I can really do from here is hope that things get better, and that just makes me feel powerless.

In Venezuela the bad guys have the guns, the money and the power but we must not let them take our hopes and dreams. So I will focus the rest of my post on the positive. Lucas's first ever soccer game at a stadium was a success. It was Roma Vs. Juventus at the Gilette Stadium at Foxborough. We had great seats and we were able to see great players up close like Buffon, Chiellini, De Rossi, Nainngolan and almost every star of each of the two teams. Unfortunately, the only Venezuelan playing for Juventus, Tomas Rincon, captain of our national team, did not play. We did get close enough for him to say hi as you can see in the above picture.

Lucas was great during the whole game. That is 90 minutes of soccer that he was able to watch without getting bored, a great demonstration of his attention span.  His uncle did get him a huge bowl of popcorn and some Gatorade that kept him entertained for a while. Juventus scored first and he was really disappointed. But when Roma scored he had the experience of celebrating a goal at a stadium, he was happy and wanted more. During half time after drinking all of his Gatorade bottle I knew I had to take him to the bathroom. He freaked out with the crowd and the sound of all the toilets and urinals flushing at the same time and he refused to pee on any of them. I had to think fast, I knew he really had to go, so I picked my water bottle and had him pee there on a corner of the restroom. I threw the bottle on the trash and the problem was solved. In the end when I asked him what he enjoyed the most of the whole game experience his answer was "Peeing in a bottle".

Today was a normal day, a lot of smiles and easy feedings from Matias. He gave me time to reflect on what's next for Venezuela and to try to keep it positive. It's hard not to be positive with his smiley face staring at you.

What did I watch?
Crossfire: I have always been a fan of stories that use the unreliable narrator technique to tell the same story from different points of view. This movie does it really well as well as tackling some pretty advanced discrimination topics for the era in which it was made. Perhaps it is not surprising that the producer and director where eventually blacklisted for their political beliefs.

The Maestro

I come from an Italian family, so to us soccer is like a religion. I am a Napoli fan, the biggest team in the area from where my family comes from. Napoli was big in the 80s, when Maradona was playing for them and was decent for about half of the 90s. I am old enough to remember some of this so I became a Napoli fan. In the late 90s and early 2000s Napoli was bad and playing on the 2nd and 3rd tiers so my brothers did not have a chance to follow them. Instead they are Roma fans.  Because of this now there is this big friendly rivalry whenever we are together Roma Vs. Napoli. Part of it is trying to get Lucas to root for one of the two. My brothers have gotten him Roma gear, but until now my influence has prevailed and he confidently states that Napoli is the best team. When he plays soccer he will tell me that he is Hamsik or Insigne (Napoli players).

However, this Sunday there is a game in Boston, Juventus Vs. Roma. It is going to be Lucas's first experience on a soccer stadium so I have been building it up for a couple of weeks. I want him to be excited and for it to be special. I found out that Roma would be training today in Harvard, so I had Lucas skip daycare, dressed him and Matias from head to toes in Roma gear and went there.

The day was cloudy and it looked like it was going to rain, but luckily it never did. We were at Ohiri Field at about 10 AM and I was amazed of how little the crowd was. It had to be about 10 people tops. The players just walked in from the hotel, no bus, no crowds. They must love the anonymity the US gives them. The players started walking in and I kept whispering the names in Lucas's ears. He would shout De Rossi! Florenzi! Perotti! and they would all wave. De Rossi actually came to him and gave him a high five. Lucas was beaming with happiness and so was I. I kept telling him to yell for Nainggolan but he must have gotten scared with his haircut.

In the end he was asking where is Totti? I had to explain that he was no longer playing for Roma. "Il Capitano" retired. Then an interesting conversation started: Why did he retire? Because he is getting older and the older you get the slower and weaker you get. But I am growing stronger, when I'm 4, I'm going to be very strong. Yes, Lucas but once you turn 30, it all goes downhill and he was 40. Now my son is scared of growing old and he's only 3. Meanwhile Matias was just hanging out in his stroller, smiling as always, no complaints about spending a couple of hours outside under an overcast sky.

What did I watch?
A lot of Pokemon again, that's what I get for making my kid skip school.

UPDATE: They took our picture and posted it to Instagram

The Seven

Sometimes raising a baby unconsciously becomes a race to the next milestone. Does he hold his head up? Does he follow your face? Then comes turning over, sitting down, crawling, walking, talking, etc. These are all important milestones in their development and of course you want to help them achieve them. I try to do some tummy time every day with Matias so he can gain some muscle strength for his next milestones. But I have another set of milestones that I find more interesting and amusing that I observed on Lucas and I am curious to see how Matias develops them. I will call them the Seven Vinciguerra Milestones.

1. Holding their own bottle: My least favorite part of taking care of  a baby is feeding it. You are pretty much trapped and you can't do anything else except just sit there. When you can finally free your hands while he is feeding feels like a great advancement.
2. Understanding the concept of blowing their nose: There is nothing worse than hearing your baby breathe through some nasal congestion. I have become an expert in using the suction nasal aspirators but it is a relief when you can just put a tissue on his nose and say blow and he knows what the hell you are talking about.
3. Understanding the concept of pointing: The moment when a toddler finally understands that when you point at something he should be looking in the direction of your finger instead of at your finger feels like a great advancement in abstract thinking.
4. First fart joke: This might be a boys only milestone, but I can't deny I was very proud the first time Lucas imitated a fart sound and had that grin that said to me "See what I did there?". I find the whole process of developing of a sense of humor very interesting.
5. Jumping with both feet at the same time: Apparently this is one of the most complex motor skills a human can do. Try asking your toddler to jump at different ages and you will see how hard it is for them.
6. Kicking a ball: I love soccer so it's obvious why this is important for me.
7. Sitting through an entire movie in the theater: As you can probably tell from the blog movies are important for me and being able to share that with my kids is important for me. I tried having Lucas watch a Star Wars movie for the first time in a theater but it didn't work, he was too young and Rogue One was darker than your average Star Wars movie. Disappointingly, his actual first movie was Despicable Me 3. I hope I have better luck with Matias on this one.

For the other parents that read the blog feel free to comment on what other non-traditional milestones you enjoyed watching on your kids.

What did I watch?

The Misfits: It was good, not very special or memorable. Clark Gable's performance is pretty good but the movie felt too long.

Please remember to vote before noon tomorrow on the Friday poll.