Il Dylan

Buone feste!

2011-12-20T22:05:00.005+01:00

Christmas concert: Dylan is in the front row

to the right of the little black girl. Those are his two teachers

in the back row.

I didn't do an official holiday card this year to send out to friends and family, and I'm really sad about it. I normally order them through a photo service in Amsterdam and it takes a while so when I realized the first week of December that I had forgotten to put the order in, I knew it was just too late. :( Today Dylan had a mini Christmas concert at school. The school is not big enough to hold all of the parents, grandparents, etc. so we kind of had to stand in the doorway while the kids sang in the "great room" where they play during indoor recess. So my pictures and videos are not very close up. I'm posting a couple of things here.

Pregnancy-wise, I'm feeling really great and the baby is kicking up a storm. I am HUNGRY 24/7 after months of eating boiled potatoes and crackers.

I just wish I wasn't so far away for the holidays. That's always a killer, and this year it is hitting me more than ever. I would drown my sorrows in Christmas food but Italian Christmas food is very heavy on the meat and fish and vegetables are scarce. There aren't even any good desserts. I think I'd rather eat fruitcake than panettone. Oh well. At least 2012 has lots of (or at least one big) things in store. Happy Holidays!

I posted a couple more videos from the concert here.

Nineteen week ultrasound

2011-12-05T11:22:00.007+01:00

It looks like Dylan will have a little brother. Considering I will have a scheduled C-section sometime around week 38 (the week of April 16), I am halfway there! So far Dylan is not all that interested in his little brother (though nor is he jealous), though he has picked out a name for him and is pretty adamant. The first name he picked out was the name of the kid who bullies him at school (Sebastian). We weren't sure what that was all about but we quickly nixed that idea. But it's still too early anyway to decide on names. I'm finally feeling better. I had a rough first (into second) trimester and have probably only been really feeling much better for about two to three weeks now.

Everything went well with the ultrasound (pic below!) and the baby is doing just great. I'm already feeling him bounce around like a little tadpole. We are very excited! Now if we just had more space. Raising two rambunctious boys in 900 square feet and with no yard is going to be a challenge. We are trying to figure out ways to optimize our space in the best way possible.
Above a (grainy) 3D image and below a profile view.

Bagel making fools!

2011-10-27T14:25:00.003+02:00

He said he wasn't going to eat a bagel but then he ended up eating a plain bagel fresh out of the oven with strawberry jam. Busted!

Bagel Making from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Exciting news!

2011-10-18T09:46:00.004+02:00

One of the reasons I haven't been blogging lately is that I've had a rough couple of months with morning sickness. Yep, I'm pregnant and Dylan will have a new brother or sister (at this point it's looking more like a brother - a 70% chance, they say, though the doctor seemed pretty certain at my NT scan) in mid-April! My due date is April 29, but I will have a scheduled C-section a few weeks before. We are super excited and really happy. I've put a ticker in the right-hand column - for now we are calling the baby "fratellino," which means "little brother" in Italian - so that anyone interested can track the new bambino Cugini. Now that I'm past 12 weeks, we are announcing it though I'm not "out" on Facebook where I've got work contacts. I still need to figure out how I will cover my maternity leave, and I want to deal with that at a later date. But this is a fairly "closed" blog for close friends and family so it's fine to spread the word amongst yourselves!

Dylan knows he's going to be a big brother, but so far doesn't seem to be all that interested. I guess he's got time to get excited (or jealous?) about it!

I have been a bad blogger

2011-09-07T11:54:00.002+02:00

Hi guys. Sorry I've been missing in action all summer, though many of you (all 8 people who have the link to this blog) either saw us this summer, talked to me daily this summer or saw most of my pictures already on Facebook. Nonetheless, here's a random collection of videos and pictures from our summer in the U.S.. It was GREAT, and looking at these photos now, I get really sad and nostalgic. We are back in Milan. Dylan is back at school (he had his first day on Monday). Fall is almost upon us and for another year I will miss changing leaves, the "smell" of fall, pumpkin patches, hay rides, apple cider, Halloween and much more. One day I hope to share these things with Dylan because, honestly, fall here in Milan just means it gets cold, gray, foggy and depressing, leading into winter when it's colder, grayer, foggier and even more depressing. Can you tell I'm happy to be back?

Down to the wire

2011-06-17T17:49:00.004+02:00

We are leaving for the U.S. next Thursday (June 23) so I'm rushing to finish last-minute projects and get organized. Here are a couple of recent pics. Hope to see everyone in the U.S.!!

On Tuesday nights, Cristiano has his wine courses so Dylan and I have begun going out for pizza and gelato. He's turning into a great dinner companion and we talk and have a good time.

Dylan discovered the Boppy (the old breastfeeding pillow) somewhere, and he really likes the car pattern on it so now he likes to sit in it. I'd say he's outgrown it, no (as compared to, say, here)? He likes to hear the story of how when we first brought him home from the hospital, we put him in the Boppy right on that spot on the couch.

Summer fun

2011-06-13T23:09:00.003+02:00

I'm really behind in posting pictures. Here are a few recent ones from our trip to Tuscany (before Dylan started vomiting due to some type of flu and before I sprained my ankle), some homemade pizza making and birthday party salami sandwich eating. They are kind of random.

Under the Tuscan sun with nonna

The chapel that was part of the little borgo/village where we stayed

Two Ferraris from Austria outside our hotel

Dylan had been asking me for a salami sandwich for days, which is weird because a) he doesn't eat salami and b) he doesn't eat in general and never says he's hungry or asks for food (unless you count candy/sweets). We went to a kiddie birthday party and they were serving salami sandwiches so his "wish" came true.

Homemade pizza making

Class picture

2011-06-08T13:42:00.007+02:00

Sorry if I've been radio silent over here. We've had one of the most action-packed springs ever and have been out and about doing quite a bit. I'm also busier than ever with my little translation empire and am preparing to head off to the U.S. with Dylan in two weeks. I have a lot of pictures of Dylan to upload, but I thought I'd start with his class picture. It was taken the day after he got his big hair cut. Of course he's making a funny face. He's turned into such a big boy lately. He goes to the bathroom (to the toilet and washes his hands) completely independently. That's no small feat if you consider that our toilet and sink are so high that he barely reaches on his own even with the step stool. He just decided one day he didn't want me coming to the bathroom with him anymore and yelled "you stay there!" while he went on his own. I would be offended or feel nostalgic for the "good old days" of changing diapers or accompanying him to the bathroom at home, but, um, I don't. I'm actually relieved! We still have all the same old sleep issues so nothing has changed on that front, but what are you going to do?

Click on the picture to make it larger. Dylan is looking silly in the middle row on the left. One of his girlfriends (Aurora) is in the front row on the right with the black bob and pink barrette. His other girlfriend (Lucrezia) is in the back row on the right with glasses. Both older women. His 5-year-old "big brother" Omar is right behind him. Omar takes him to the bathroom and makes him wash his hands before eating, among other things. Funnily the girl who has cried hysterically all day every single day since the beginning of the school year (to the point where the kids scream "basta!" at her) is laughing joyously in this picture. She's in the middle row smack in the middle of the picture.

Mother's Day Weekend

2011-05-08T21:42:00.008+02:00

We had an action-packed Mother's Day weekend. Yesterday we went up to the lake and mountains with friends. Today I did a 5K (with a very bored and complaining Dylan in the jogging stroller - BAD idea) for breast cancer, made homemade bagels, had lunch with the famiglia and then took my in-laws to the airport for their flight to Madagascar. Here are some great pics my friend shot yesterday. Makes me want to get a nicer camera. And learn how to take photographs.

Love this shot

Dylan, the Price kids and their nanny

Mr. Cool

iPhone shot taken by me. I cut off Miles' hand and popsicle. That's how I take pictures...

Wine tasting

2011-05-06T14:25:00.002+02:00

Enjoy your vino. I'll just sit here with the iPad...

Haircut!

2011-05-04T14:14:00.003+02:00

I finally got this kid a real haircut here in Italy. I don't know why I didn't do it sooner. It was only 12 Euros, and as much as he looks traumatized while sucking his thumb, he really isn't. He sucks his thumb quite often as it is.

Chilling in the chair

Gelato reward for a job well done

New buddies

2011-05-02T13:43:00.003+02:00

Dylan has some new American buddies here in the neighborhood, and it's doing wonders for his English. He's used to speaking to me in English, but he doesn't usually play in English. Unfortunately this American family is here from Omaha to get treatment at a nearby hospital for two of its four children who are very ill. Cristiano and I will be participating in an auction to raise money for the family. We've donated a gift basket full of wine and gourmet foods that will be shipped when I'm in the U.S. this summer. If you'd like to learn more about the family, you can here. Through the expat network, we have all been offered a trip to Sardinia, and I think we are going to go. Actually they were offered the trip, and then we were asked if we wanted to accompany them. I think we just might!

Italian breakfast at the bar

The iPad is always a crowdpleaser

See you soon!

2011-04-22T09:24:00.006+02:00

Dylan will be riding into town on his new suitcase. At least we hope this is how he's going to "roll" (literally) through the airports because mom is not going to be able to carry him and the luggage as well. Dylan and I fly MIL-CDG-CVG (Milan-Paris-Cincinnati) on June 23 and return on the same route August 28. Can't wait! The plan for now is to be based in Ohio and decide from there if we want to make other trips - like down to North Carolina to see Aunt Cindy or a weekend in New York perhaps for mom - but Ohio will be our home base. Cristiano will fly in at the end of July. Hope to see everyone. I just realized how big my baby has gotten since last year. Normally I'd be buying diapers and wipes on Diapers.com in bulk to be sent to my mom's house. But since his third birthday, he's been completely potty trained even at night, which actually isn't such a great thing if you consider that he wakes us up in the middle of the night to take him to pee. Of course this kid is not happy unless he's waking us up in the middle of the night anyway. That's why I don't fear jet lag. I'm already sleep deprived so it's no big deal.

Roundup of recent shots

2011-04-03T15:46:00.009+02:00

I've been a bad blogger again, but I am really swamped and will be until at least May 1 when I hope to return to a normal workload. In the meantime, here are some recent pics of the D man.

Test driving a Ferrari with papi

Silly post-bath face

Cooking in the new apron mommy bought me at the Tate Modern in London

New big boy bed

Lunch on the lake with mommy

New York state of mind from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Carnevale

2011-03-16T14:37:00.005+01:00

Carnevale was a bit of a bust this year. Dylan had his costume for weeks before (he was to be the red Teletubby - Po), and he'd picked it out himself. He seemed really excited to wear it to the Carnevale parade in our town this year but then when it rolled around, he threw a fit and wouldn't put it on. Of course they could have planned things a bit better. The parade was to kick off at 2:30 p.m., which is kind of prime time for Dylan's all-important afternoon nap. So we woke him up early and he got super cranky. He wouldn't put the costume on, but he did decide he'd go out and see the float (1 float in our lame-o town parade) and throw some confetti. Well, he hadn't been out the front door for more than two seconds when he was shaving creamed by some of the ridiculous teenagers in our neighborhood. He came running back in the house crying. He and Cristiano (at that point I was over Carnevale and stayed home - it's just not "my" holiday; perhaps because I didn't grow up with it and it means nothing to me) went back out on their own, and I guess he had an OK time. I have one picture of him with the hat portion of the costume and some confetti, and that's it.

I'm leaving for London tomorrow with a friend. It's the first time I've "flown away" from Dylan on a plane. I'm a little nervous about it, but I know he's in good hands.

Parent-teacher conferences

2011-03-08T06:04:00.006+01:00

Fun Sunday morning activity

I met with Dylan's teachers last night to get an idea of how he is doing at school. They didn't tell me much I don't already know about my son: 1) he's a thumbsucker, and they spend all day saying "Dylan take your thumb out of your mouth." Even the kids tell him to take his thumb out of his mouth all the time. Think of all the germs he's putting in his mouth. Great! 2) he barely eats anything (there goes my $7 per day for well-balanced organic meals) and 3) he talks well for his age and talks a lot. The teacher said that some kids at 3 are still a little hard to understand, but he enunciates really well and speaks conversationally in full sentences. I think this is especially true of his Italian. His English probably needs more work, especially in the pronunciation department.

I told the teacher that sometimes when I drop him off in the morning I notice that instead of going to sit at the table where the other kids are drawing, he will go do something by himself in the toy corner, and it breaks my heart a little. I sometimes watch him through the window to see if he will go play with the other kids but he's a little bit of a "lone wolf." She said that he is one of the youngest in the class (they are 3-,4 and 5-year-olds) and that it's normal that he is not into drawing at this age, and that boys typically don't like drawing as much as girls anyway. She said that the girls in his class are very clique-ish and "little gossips" who don't want the boys sitting at the table while they are having their conversations. hee hee. She put my mind at ease because I was feeling that while he is an intelligent kid, maybe he's lacking somewhere in the social department, but I guess that's not the case and it's just this age.

It was nice to find out about the projects they are working on at school and see what they are doing. Sometimes he mentions things in passing, but it's hard to get the full picture from a 3-year-old. They are currently studying "pollution," which is why now every time we take the car Dylan says "Mom, you know the car pollutes? It spits smoke!" I love that he is getting in touch with the environment, but I remember back in my day we sang songs about, uh, trees, grass and lambs. They are learning songs about smog and exhaust and drawing ominous pictures of cars with gray smoke coming out the back. Kind of disturbing actually. His favorite day at school is Friday because they go to the school library and he gets to pick a new book for the week. There was one week where we forgot to bring back the book from the previous week, which meant he didn't get to pick a new one, and that was tragic, to say the least. When I went to pick him up he was crying because the other kids were leaving school with their "new" books and he didn't get to pick one that week.

Well, here's some big news: Dylan has recently begun to sleep through the night (sort of and in his own way). His eczema has not been that bad lately, which means he is much less restless. He goes to bed in his own bed, but then in the middle of the night (usually around 1 a.m. - that's a typical wake-up time for him), he comes into our bed and lately he's been doing it without waking us up. That means WE have slept through the night. Honestly, I feel like I could scale Everest. How we ever went three years+ without sleeping is beyond me. Now that I'm sleeping undisturbed, I only need, like, 5 hours of sleep. In fact, it's 6 a.m here and I've been up for an hour. I naturally wake up because my body doesn't understand why it isn't being woken up. Let's hope this continues. Everyone (well everyone who ever had a kid who didn't sleep and knew what we were going through) told us that three years would be a turning point. I hope it is!

Some new videos

2011-03-06T10:13:00.004+01:00

I've been a horrible "baby" blogger, but I have a new full-time freelance job on top of my part-time freelance jobs, and I am busier than ever. Friday night Dylan and I were flying solo because papi had a wine event so we made a few videos. In one video he talks about his "girlfriend" at school Aurora. He's been calling her his girlfriend for a few weeks now and even seems to know her name now (before he called her "you know, the girl in the white smock") so it seems pretty serious. For some reason, he calls her "Aurora Carrots" in Italian. In the other one, he is counting fruit in his book and I indirectly correct him on the interrogative form with my annoying language teacher voice. We really know how to have fun on a Friday night! As always, he needs a haircut. I guess we'll get another one this summer in the U.S.

Untitled from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Being Dylan

2011-02-16T12:51:00.008+01:00

Long time no post. I've had quite a bit of work lately and as part of my New Year's resolutions, I want to make better use of my time. Unfortunately blogging is not part of "using my time wisely," though if I could just learn to be less wordy and have more photo posts then perhaps I would blog more. Here are a few photos showing what's happening lately.

Ever since Luana got a puppy (named "Happy") Dylan wants to go over there every single day. Last night he ate dinner there and passed out while they were watching TV. We let him just sleep there (six hours of uninterrupted sleep for mommy - woo hoo!). Luana posted this to her Facebook so we could see him. Aww.

Every Monday I take Dylan school with a suitcase full of stuff (sheets, towels, bibs, his personalized cup, extra clothes and underwear in case he gets dirty, any library books to return, etc.). It's like he's moving into the dorms. Then on Fridays I bring everything home to wash so they can sterilize the place over the weekend. Now on his cot he's got the Lightning McQueen cover that Uncle Rob gave him for Christmas!

I was so tired of seeing coats, hats and scarves draped over our kitchen chairs that I bought a wall-mounted coat rack for everyone. Nothing says ~~pick up your crap or else~~ love like a wall-mounted coat rack! I got Dylan this one from IKEA. The best 4 Euros I've ever spent!

Toddlerpalooza

2011-01-17T10:41:00.001+01:00

IMG_1278
Originally uploaded by michellanea

It was sheer craziness at Dylan's third birthday party in nonna's basement yesterday. Kids trampoline-ing and running everywhere. I didn't get any good shots at all, and Dylan was whiny, sulky and bratty at his own party (he'd open a present and say "A book? I don't want another book! I want a toy!" - NICE!). We still haven't gone shopping for a new "big boy" bed as he came down with the most horrific stomach flu on his birthday, which he then shared with mommy and papi. We only recovered on Saturday and then it was time to shift into party preparation mode.

A few other pictures can be seen here, but they are pretty crap.

This is what 3 looks like

2011-01-11T09:44:00.006+01:00

I wish I had taken a better picture of him this morning. Here he is brushing his teeth before school. I also forgot to take a picture of the treats (Kinder snacks wrapped somewhat artfully in Cars paper - baked goods are not allowed) I sent for the kids in his class. I think the only reason he did not cry before school this morning is because he knew candy would be involved at some point during the day. He's no longer a baby. Sniff, sniff.

I asked him where he wanted to go for dinner and he said Ikea. Hee hee. Swedish fast food, it is!

Back to the grind

2011-01-07T16:00:00.005+01:00

Grandma Mimi left yesterday so no more exciting adventures in the south of France or Switzerland for us. After three weeks off, Dylan goes back to school Monday. I have to say that I'm not looking forward to it. Being the night owl he is, he now likes to sleep late-ish, which has been kind of nice and we've had some great lazy days together. Plus I'm not ready to hear all of the whining each morning. Now not only is he going to be cranky when woken up, I'm going to have to break the news that he also has to go to school! Sigh. In any case, here are some random recent shots taken with my cellphone camera.

This is either the best Christmas gift he got (lets him burn off energy on those cold, rainy days - in other words from September to April) or the worst Christmas gift he got (something feels kind of "dangerous" about it and Dylan has a very weak gag/vomit reflex)

We took Grandma Mimi to Montecarlo, one of the most exclusive towns in Switzerland...and our local mall. Here's Dylan riding his beloved "Cinquecento" (Fiat 500) at the good old mall

Out for brunch at a "real 1950s-style American diner" that recently opened in Milan. Not necessarily authentic but they get an A for effort. The muffins were excellent (though who eats muffins in a real diner?). I think Dylan looks quite collegiate here. As if he's having a malt before the sock hop.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-02T20:49:00.006+01:00

Skipping stones on beach in Nice on New Year's Day

Beach Nice, New Year's Day

Amazing Christmas market in Monaco on the port

On the carousel in Montecarlo with our French-Italian buddy Elsa

The holidays

2010-12-26T23:44:00.008+01:00

Grandma Mimi is on the plane and making her way here. It's a miracle she got out considering the blizzard that is hitting a huge swath of the Midwest and East Coast. Normally she changes planes in either JFK or Atlanta (which would have really been an issue with today's bad weather) but this time she's changing in Paris - and Paris was a mess through Friday with over 50 percent of flights canceled. In any case, her flight out of Cincinnati took off on time and she is scheduled to make her connection in Paris in the morning. I just checked and she's flying over Maine as I type. Fingers crossed that her travels continue to go smoothly!

Below is a slideshow with some pictures of our holidays. It was a tiring holiday weekend with three long days dedicated to eating and long tables full of extended family. I don't know if I've mentioned it before but I like Italian food 362 days of the year, but I'm not a huge fan of Italian Christmas food. There are not many "Michelle-friendly" dishes, and even the desserts are kind of boring. Somehow I still end up eating too much (potato chips, olives, sundried tomatoes, pandoro and other snack crap), and go heavier on the vino since the food portion of the meal is not particularly to my liking. At least I have a slice of America headed my way just when I'm falling into my usual far-from-home, post-holiday funk (not to be confused with my far-from-home, pre-holiday funk). I'm excited for my mom to get here, relax, watch movies and play with Dylan. Then after New Year's we will go away for a few days but we have yet to decide where we are going. It will be an adventure!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-22T08:56:00.004+01:00

This was done at school and given to the moms as a Christmas gift. It's a really cute picture, and he is actually smiling. They can't be torturing him too much if he smiles at school when I'm not looking. With me, he puts on an Oscar-worthy performance before school each morning and in the coatroom, screaming and carrying on about how he doesn't want to go and how school is "terrible." The other kids say "Why is Dylan crying?" and "Why is Dylan speaking another language?" One day one of the 5-year-olds said "He's speaking English, you dummies. I know because I had to get my tonsils out one time on vacation, and they spoke English to me in the hospital." Starting today, he's off until January 10, so that should make him happy. Happy holidays, everybody!

Out to play in the snow

2010-12-09T13:32:00.003+01:00

Dylan was off six days over the Sant'Ambrogio/Immaculate Conception holiday, and is gearing up to be off three weeks over Christmas. At least Grandma Mimi will be here after Christmas to keep us company. The weather has been extra wintry. My least favorite season of the year. Bring on spring!

Fun times in Florence

2010-12-07T19:04:00.004+01:00

This past weekend we took Dylan and Luana to Florence for the weekend on the new fast train, which now gets us there in only 1 hour and 45 minutes (as opposed to 2.5-3 hours). We had a great time! Below is a video of Dylan and Luana out to dinner one night. He's "shooting" her with a piece of bread. He keeps asking for a toy pistol, but I haven't given in. Yet. We'll see!

Dylan and Luana in Florence from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

It's the eczema, dammit

2010-12-02T12:15:00.009+01:00

These (almost) three years of not sleeping can all be chalked up to the eczema. I've had my suspicions for a while, but now I really believe it. Our kid is not sleeping not because we are terrible parents (maybe sometimes), because we don't have a good bedtime routine or because he merely wants to torture us. He is being tortured by this horrible condition. The reason I know it's the eczema is because he has had two short periods of "remission" from the eczema in the last six months and both times he slept much, much better - like almost through the night. He's also had several very severe flare-ups and during those times we have been back to newborn land with him waking up and keeping us up ALL NIGHT LONG. With this see-sawing of his eczema (really bad or almost gone), I've really been able to make a correlation with his sleep patterns. I really hope the eczema goes away - and not just for the sleep issues. It's terrible to see your child uncomfortable all the time and not be able to do much about it - except apply lotion all the time, give daily tepid baths with special oil and watch that he doesn't eat too many histamine-rich foods. I know that being itchy is pretty much the norm for him as it is all he has ever known, but as I've had two eczema flare-ups myself in the last year (I never had it before - could it be sympathy eczema?), I now realize how much it sucks.

Home sick/new stats

2010-11-30T16:06:00.011+01:00

Eating popsicles for our throat while wearing our chef hat
(for no good reason)

Dylan has been home from school since Friday though technically he wasn't off "sick" on Friday. He has not liked going to school lately - he seemed to be due for a "mental health day" and it was snowing, so I decided to keep him home. But then Saturday we realized part of the reason he'd been so crabby was that he actually was sick. He's now on antibiotics and will go back to school tomorrow. We've had lots of bonding time, but it's time for mommy to get some work done.

I took him to the pediatrician yesterday for his high fever, vomiting and sore throat and she said that while we were there, she may as well do a wellness check-up since the last time he'd actually had one, he was small enough to fit on the infant scale and to be measured with a tape measure. My pediatrician is one who likes to "call in" her performance by offering the minimum in health assistance (she's just as parsimonious with smiles and good humor - things you'd think a pediatrician would be equipped with) but I think she's obligated by the state to justify her existence, so she insisted we do the wellness appointment as well. I had to sign two forms saying she'd actually done it. She almost had me sit Dylan down on the table that had the dirty paper and urine from a previous patient. When I pointed that out, she motioned for ME to clean it up, which I did since I wasn't going to put my kid on there. Oh how I loathe my pediatrician. Though we have some new official stats for Dylan.

He's 1 meter tall (39 inches), which blows my mind since I'm 1.65 meters and it seems like he's catching up to me too fast! He is still the same weight as he has been for a very long time - around 13.5 kilos (29.7 pounds). That makes him tall for his age, but very skinny, which is not surprising since he eats NOTHING. We are still having the constipation issues (I know - TMI, but what can you do?), and I have to perform an enema about every five days because he refuses to go on his own. Eek. He pees on the toilet just fine though and really doesn't have accidents. Since July, he has only worn a diaper at night, and usually wakes up dry in the morning. In other medical news, I've set up the appointment to get his heart checked out after age three because of the "issue" they detected when he was born.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-11-27T10:44:00.003+01:00

I had a crazy busy week so didn't have time to post any of our pics from last weekend's fantastic Thanksgiving celebration in Tuscany with friends. Here are a few photos!

Chef Dylan

2010-11-18T17:14:00.002+01:00

He made no-bake Nutella cookies (not pictured as he ate them all right away as his afterschool snack) at school today. And a chef's hat.

Nato Milanista!

2010-11-14T22:34:00.005+01:00

Dylan was "nato Milanista" (a born fan of the Milan soccer team) by way of his papà and nonno. Tonight was the big derby game against Inter, which is the other hometown team and Milan's archrival. Dylan was rooting on "black and red" with his papi by saying "Forza Milan!" (Let's go Milan!). You can also see that he's scratching himself, which is what he does pretty much 24/7 as the eczema is just not improving. Sigh. On a positive note, we beat Inter 1-0. Woot woot!

Forza Milan! from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan's "track"

2010-11-10T12:31:00.003+01:00

I bought a long roll of paper at IKEA imagining rainy winter afternoons spent in the house finger painting. I have found that while the finger paint is somewhat washable, it's just so incredibly messy, and I don't have an "activity room" where I can let Dylan splash about. I've decided that finger painting is not an activity to be done on the kitchen table in dangerous proximity of my white curtains, cream carpet and beige living room set (yes, I'm one of "those" moms - I know, I suck in that regard). I have concluded that it's more a spring/summer activity to be done on the balcony when we aren't wearing six layers of clothing (trying to take off your clothes with painted hands and arms is tricky) and can just jump right into the bathtub at the end. So then we began using the roll of long IKEA paper to design "tracks" for Dylan's cars to run on. The tracks have evolved into entire towns complete with houses, trees, sidewalks and traffic lights. I call this place "Dylandia" and we spend hours creating new features for "citizens" (ie, his Little People) of this world. I am terrible at drawing, but Dylan doesn't seem to notice. Here's a video of Dylan last night with one tiny track I created to fit into a corner of our living room. The one that went the entire length of the hallway was getting difficult to navigate, and every time someone would open the front door, Dylan would happen to be behind it running his car on the "track" and get pegged.

Pista from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan playing with his "pista," which means track in Italian

Dry

2010-11-06T12:02:00.006+01:00

Another rainy weekend, but no worries here. I did not have to check the time of sunrise and set my alarm accordingly to be able to try to get my first load of laundry outside so that I'd also be able to get a second load in the sun before noon. Actually, there is no sun but that's my normal Saturday routine. Today we picked up the dryer! Fortunately we were able to just push it up our stairs because there was no way the two of us would have been able to lift it. I've got arms like toothpicks. It looks like Dylan's smocks will be ready for school on Monday, won't smell like a wet dog AND I won't have to iron them. Yeah! I even took a video of the dryer actually DRYING. Exciting stuff!

Untitled from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Don't mind the packing materials. Isn't she a beaut? I hope so because it's the first thing you see when you walk in our apartment! The big fat plug makes it jut out into the hallway so we need to figure out how we can enclose it and make it fit in that space.

School days

2010-10-30T09:54:00.009+02:00

Dylan is really starting to like school and to go willingly in the mornings - yeah! The first month was about as fun (for mom) as having a root canal every single morning of the week what with his crying, complaining, carrying on and refusal to get dressed and ready. Now he says "Look at me, mom. I'm NOT crying!" and skips out to the car. He is learning a lot (one day he said "Mom, did you know it was autumn?"), and is really making friends. The school is set up Montessori style, so his class has a table of 3-year-olds, a table of 4-year-olds and a table of 5-year-olds. He has a 5-year-old "big brother" who takes him to get a drink of water or into the nap room after lunch. A mom of one of the 5-year-olds told me that the "big kids" had a vote on who the least annoying 3-year-old was, and Dylan won since he is the one who cries the least.

His teacher lives across the street so often when I run into her she will tell me little anecdotes about how he is doing. She said that he is a child who pays a lot of attention to adults and what is going on around him. He is not "in his own world" and he processes everything he sees, hears and overhears. This is very true as lately when he gets frustrated playing with his cars, I sometimes will hear him say "dammit!" There is only one person he could have learned that from, and she will make a bigger effort not to say that word around him! Oops. The school nutritionist is a family friend and lives in the neighborhood. She has promised to put pasta al pesto back on the menu just for Dylan as he was getting tired of pasta al pomodoro and is not a big fan of ravioli, lasagna or baby pasta in broth. He loves risotto, however, and doesn't complain on risotto days.

In other news, we will have a new "addition" to the family come this Thursday!!! After much research, I have finally settled on a clothes dryer. It is not a "big, mega powerful American clothes dryer" but it should get the job done. I've only seen dryers here in the last few years, and they work via condensation (you have to dump out a tub of water after each load) so I'd heard mixed things about them. But the new generation of condensation dryers seems to work pretty well and be very energy efficient. We have limited power in our apartment so I had to find one that would only use about 1 kilowatt per cycle. The funny thing is that the dryer we decided on is the same model we had in our New York rental apartment this summer, so every time I use it, I'll feel like I'm back in the Big Apple, but with no bagels and less Bounce. The only space we have for it is in our entryway where we always meant to put a telephone table or a plant (but never did) so we are going to enclose it in something to make it appear to be an extension of our kitchen. Otherwise, the dryer would be the first thing you'd see upon entering our apartment, which actually would probably be fitting considering how much I've complained about doing laundry these last ten years!

Feeling mellow before school in flannel PJs from Grandma Mimi.

Before school we put our "little people" on the school bus and Dylan tells them "Don't be scared. The teachers are nice." He's making a funny face because he doesn't like his hat.

I have struck a deal with the laundry Gods, and on warm sunny days I will still hang things outside! Promise!

Rainy weekend

2010-10-18T12:37:00.003+02:00

It was a miserable, gray, rainy weekend - shades of December in October. Aargh. Fortunately, all of the activities we had planned were indoors. Yesterday the big event was cousin Matteo's fifth birthday party, which was held at the indoor play space where we had Dylan's second birthday party. Fun was had by all (the kids). Dylan got a much needed haircut, though it's a "home cut" so he will be sporting "the Dorothy Hamill" until it grows out a bit. Having him look like a female figure skater from the 1970s was not our intent, but then we aren't hair stylists and he doesn't sit still.

Behind the wheel of the "Ferrari"

Ready for cake with nonna

Getting into the Halloween spirit

2010-10-17T09:22:00.005+02:00

After school it seems like most moms show up to pick up their kids with a snack or "treat." The first few days when I showed up empty handed, Dylan asked why all the other kids had a juice box and usually a Kinder chocolate bar or some other pre-packaged (what I'd call a "Little Debbie" in Midwesternese) snack. If left to his own devices, Dylan would be a junk-food junkie and would subsist on candy, Kinder bars and Nutella. He has a massive sweet tooth. He's too young to understand what trick-or-treating is and that he is seriously missing out on that living here (Halloween is fairly "new" here and is not really celebrated at all but happens to coincide with All Saints and the Day of the Dead Catholic holidays so they put up a few random decorations). For his snack, I usually bring a mini pizza from the bakery, but he complains when he looks around and sees all the other kids munching on their Kinder bars. So I was happy when I went into the bakery on Friday and saw they made these Halloween-themed cookies. It was the perfect snack (still sugary but fresh baked and not full of preservatives) especially because he had worn his glow-in-the-dark Halloween shirt to school.

Stupendous

2010-10-02T22:36:00.004+02:00

Dylan was sent home from preschool yesterday with a fever (in the end, we think he just has a tooth coming in because the fever went away and he has no other symptoms) so we played around at home making videos. Here he's talking about the red car his zia always says is "stupenda." His hair is super long. He really needs a haircut.

Stupendous from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Off to school

2010-09-21T09:08:00.002+02:00

Time to get ready for school. I don't want to go, but I like my briefcase thingy for storing my projects.

Let's get this over with!

Scuola Materna

2010-09-17T09:30:00.004+02:00

He's old enough to go to school, so when will he stop waking up every hour all night long?

How do I look?

Starting to have second thoughts about going...

Tomorrow is the big day

2010-09-16T15:10:00.006+02:00

Cars-themed smock and some of his "school supplies." He is in the "pink" class, which is why his stuff has to be in pink bags with his name on it.

Tomorrow we begin the orientation process so he only goes for two hours. When he feels comfortable, he will stay for lunch. And then when he feels comfortable at lunch, he will stay for a nap. After the nap, I pick him up and the school day ends. I can't believe my baby is beginning his three-year journey in "kindergarten." Starting scuola materna is a huge rite of passage in Italy. When he finishes he will go right into first grade in elementary school.

Each student at Dylan's scuola materna is given a symbol to represent him. Dylan's symbol is the umbrella. A lot of kids get their symbol embroidered on to their smocks, but we aren't all that attached to the umbrella symbol. The car was already taken!

Beach

2010-09-07T10:43:00.005+02:00

New York was sweltering (my black flip flops were literally melting on the pavement under my feet), smelly, noisy and chaotic, so it was great to get out of the city and get some beach time in. Dylan loves the water and is just like his father in that he could spend sunrise to sunset on the beach. He was even able to nap on the beach once! That's pretty unprecedented.

Beach in Rye, NY

Lunch on the beach in Rye

I love the water!

On the beach in Westport, CT

Ridiculously big Coke...and fries
Tired boys on the beach!

Westport beach from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Counting the towers on his castle

The nighttime bandit

2010-09-06T17:28:00.006+02:00

I've decided that the upside of having a kid who doesn't sleep at night is that you don't worry about things like jet lag because your "routine" is already thrown off. So you are equally tired pretty much anywhere you go and it feels just like being at home. During the two months away, Dylan got used to sleeping in our bedroom since we never had a bedroom just for him. Fortunately, he was in his own toddler bed or in a pack and play (which he seems to like even though it's small - he likes sleeping all cuddled up to the sides). Now that we are back home and he is in his own bed, he can get in and out of it freely. He knows he's not allowed to sleep in our bed, but he gets around that by waiting until we fall asleep and then crawling surreptitiously in between us. At some point during the night, Cristiano and I will wake up (Dylan kicks, tosses and turns like crazy) and realize that Dylan is in our bed and that neither of us put him there. Sigh. Last night I said, "Dylan you have to go back to your bed" and he told me "Mommy, but my bed is not comfy cozy," which made me laugh. I realize how much he takes in the things I say and then repeats them back to me verbatim to get on my good side. The compromise last night was that we wheeled his bed into our room and let him sleep there. These are the compromises you make at 3 a.m. when you are exhausted and don't know what to do anymore. When will this kid ever sleep like a normal person?

The good thing is that he is (so far) maintaining his English. He is set to start "big boy" preschool on Sept. 16, but we are seriously considering sending him to an international school. My father-in-law had one of the big international schools as a client for many years. He just spoke with the principal of the school and he said Dylan is welcome any time. I am a big proponent of public school and have been reluctant to consider private school, but if it means Dylan maintaining his English and keeping in touch with his American side (perhaps even Cristiano and I would meet more "mixed" families that way), then I'm open to it. We should be visiting this week and then make a final decision.

Amici

2010-09-04T22:23:00.004+02:00

We have been back in Italy for two days, and I realize I was not a great blogger while away. I was either at my computer frantically trying to get work done or out doing stuff with no desire to be on my computer if not absolutely necessary. Here are some pictures of Dylan with some of the friends he hung out with while in and around New York.

Dylan and Jack eating pizza

Dylan and Claire in the wagon

Kylie, Dylan and Avery at Dylan's Candy Bar in New York (three whole stories of candy, candy, candy!)

Dylan took a particular liking to Kylie and they walked down the block hand in hand

City kid

2010-08-19T04:57:00.004+02:00

Hailing a taxi at 57th and Lex

Maniacs riding the rides at Victorian Gardens in Central Park

Our working vacation becomes a real vacay!

2010-08-11T03:03:00.002+02:00

Work has finally begun to slow down and we are able to enjoy this trip a bit more. This weekend we got away with friends. Here are some pictures of what we've been doing in and around New York City.

First night in New York

2010-07-30T03:30:00.004+02:00

I've been lame about posting, but my days have been insane. I've been rising between 4 .m. and 5 a.m. to work on "Italian time" and then going about my day and to bed on U.S. time. I am beyond exhausted. Did I mention I spent the last two days in the car alternating driving while trying to translate and write articles "on the road" with a laptop whose battery dies after about 15 minutes? By about mid next week work should slow down, and the vacation portion of this trip should begin. Today is our first day in New York. We were really sad to leave friends and family in green, leafy Ohio. Dylan had a fantastic time. I hope we are able to make New York kid-friendly and fun for him. Here we are tonight having Pinkberry frozen yogurt after our Chinese food dinner. If you look closely you'll see that my black circles have black circles.

Two beds are not necessarily better than one

2010-07-21T17:21:00.005+02:00

Dylan has two beds here. One is the toddler bed that is going to stay at Grandma Mimi's and the other is his inflatable bed that we are going to use in New York. We have both out just for fun and so that Dylan gets used to them. You'd think having two beds would (perhaps) make him a better sleeper. Naw, no such luck. He likes to alternate between the two but he prefers the bigger toddler bed. That is when he is not stealthily climbing into bed with us while we sleep and waking us up with his tossing and turning. You can see both beds have the same theme - Cars! It's to the point where he actually quotes the movie running around the house saying: "I ain't no Mac. I'm a Peterbilt!"

Dylan in the toddler bed with my flowery childhood blanket he's become extremely attached to

Dylan zipped into the Cars inflatable bed with the Cars pillow and looking like he's ready to nod off. Don't let him fool you!

Fun stuff!

2010-07-20T04:23:00.003+02:00

We are having a great time exploring new parks, new pools, new museums and new "spraygrounds" every day. This is the one nearest our apartment. Dylan loves it!

More sprayground from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Very first haircut!

2010-07-17T13:56:00.001+02:00

07162010052
Originally uploaded by michellanea

Sprayground

2010-07-13T04:12:00.003+02:00

My big new discovery is the "sprayground." It's a playground with water features for the kiddies. There are tons of them here in Ohio, and so I'm realizing that we are going to need to have a swimsuit (or swim diapers as it were), sunscreen and towel at the ready at all times. Today we encountered one at a shopping center. Tomorrow we move into our new rental apartment where we will have a little "office" making it easier for the two of us to juggle working and taking care of Dylan, and I just found out that there's a huge park nearby with gigantic "sprayground." Here's a slide show of some of our adventures so far, many of them involving water. Some I've already published in the previous post but there are a few new ones from the Cincinnati Children's Museum and other random spraygrounds we've encountered.

U.S. fun

2010-07-09T22:35:00.007+02:00

Our plane touched down on U.S. soil exactly a week ago. I think we are finally over the hellacious trip and jet lag. Here are some pics of our week. I love the parks and pools here. Life just seems so much easier with a kid here, and it makes me realize even more the things that are lacking in Italy. Cristiano and I are balancing working from "home" and getting to spend lots of quality time with Dylan. It's working out great, and I love that I can do my job from anywhere. Here are some pics of our week!

Cool local park with water features

Fun with water at the park on a hot day

The Kettering pool. This is the pool I went to as a kid, where I learned to swim and where I used to scope out boys as a teenager.

Everyone in this pool is a cousin of Dylan's. How fun!

Pool from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

This pool has EVERYTHING. Multiple shallow pools for the kids, free lawn chairs and a huge playground and sand pit. Dylan gets in free. In Italy, going to the pool costs a lot and the pools near us are usually Olympic-sized indoor pools (no shallow kiddie part) and they let you sit outside on the concrete if you want. You pay extra for a lawn chair.

T-2 days

2010-06-29T13:13:00.003+02:00

Two days from now we will be on a plane flying over the Atlantic. Woo hoo. We get into JFK about 1:50 p.m. on Thursday. The plan is to hop in the rental car, make a run for the Verrazano Bridge, drive about four hours and stay overnight in Pennsylvania. The next day we will drive to Ohio where we will stay (except for a jaunt down to Charlotte to visit my aunt from around July 12 - July 16) until July 28. After July 28 we will be in New York until Sept. 1. I currently have no U.S. cell phone so I'll have to let everyone know my info once I get set up. I'm sure I'll find a way to get on the Internets...See you in the U.S.! Perhaps over a bagel, a burrito or Chinese food! Mmm, what to eat first?

Il Divo

2010-06-25T13:09:00.005+02:00

Did I mention Dylan sings constantly? He was singing in the car one day while I was on the phone with my grandma and she is convinced he has talent and is going to be the next "famous Italian tenor." Those were her exact words. My grandma was also convinced I was going to win big on Jeopardy but alas I never even tried to get on the show. Forget Mensa. In grandma's world, you are smart if you make it on Jeopardy. Or even the show that comes on after Jeopardy that is actually more about how "fortunate" you are than how high your IQ is - "The Wheel" as she calls it. Anyway, grandma can't wait to spend six hours in the car with Dylan driving down to see my aunt in North Carolina (Josie are you going to be around?) in mid-July because she wants to sing along with him. We are all already rolling our eyes imagining the duets that are going to be heard coming from the backseat between 80-something grandma and mini "Il Divo." The other option is to put grandma on a plane so she will be "more comfortable." Or maybe we would be. Hee hee.

Yard work

2010-06-23T15:25:00.003+02:00

I'm trying to embrace my "yard" (ie, the intermittent and uneven patches of green space we have outside that belong to our whole building) as a place for Dylan to play despite all of the hazards and obstacles out there. There's also the incredibly steep stone driveway that he loves to run down. When we are out there I pretty much have to watch him like a hawk. Dylan loves yard work and watering the plants and flowers. I wonder if he will feel the same when he's 14 and we want him to take an interest in yard work? Something tells me he won't.

D pushing his lawnmower up the driveway

Turning the hose on to water some plants. Note 10-foot drop on to stone driveway to the right. We were supposed to have fenced that off years ago but neighbors are cheap/difficult.

Getting things done with my shades on...

Last day of preschool

2010-06-19T16:22:00.004+02:00

These are not the best shots, but Dylan is not the easiest subject to photograph these days. There was a nice party at the school for the last day. I thought it was just going to be "a piece of cake on the playground," but it was really well organized with a special story hour for moms and kids in the school and then a circus performance outside. I was more emotional about it than I thought I would be. Dylan only went to the school for five months, but he was really attached to his teachers and the other kids. His favorite teacher said she was really, really sad to see him go and wished they had had more time together. They gave him a scrapbook full of all of the art projects he completed while he was there as well as photos of him "in action" at school. I can't read the messages the teachers wrote to him without sobbing. If I am this emotional after just a few months of preschool (he starts "big boy school" in the fall), I will have a nervous breakdown when he finishes elementary school. He's growing up, and it is very hard to "let him go." Sniff, sniff.

Before school

A little slide action

Every other picture I have of him, he is drinking. He must have been thirsty. Here he is with nonna.

Party in full swing!

Jackson Pollock with finger paints

2010-06-17T21:56:00.004+02:00

Rainy day activity. Starting off with a bit of blue...

Finger painting from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Fun weekend!

2010-06-13T22:36:00.001+02:00

Pre preschool antics

2010-06-11T11:07:00.003+02:00

The good thing about Dylan being an early riser is that we have several hours in the morning to lazily eat breakfast, cuddle and play before he goes to school. One of the teachers was telling me that some kids wake up so late that their parents don't feed them or change their diapers before they get there. That would suck (plus sending your kid to school on an empty stomach and with a dirty diaper is kind of weird, but then who am I to judge?). I think morning is my favorite time of day. Afternoons are very "rush rush" with trying to find the perfect park that isn't too overcrowded or locate some other kind of safe outdoor play space. And then we hit the most hectic portion of the day - bath, dinner, dishes and attempting to wrestle the maniac into bed. So I like mornings because they are very chill. Here is Dylan this morning playing the "1,2,3 Go!" game that we made up. You'll see I repeat every single thing he says in Italian in English so that he makes an association between the words. It will be interesting to see how fast he switches over into English once we get to the U.S. We leave in 20 days!

Pre preschool antics from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

When did my kid turn into such a clown?

2010-06-08T15:21:00.005+02:00

D making a ridiculous face for effect

Dylan is such a social creature. He LOVES to be around other kids, and goes out of his way to ham it up or try to be the center of attention when other children are around. I'm wondering if this is a passing phase or a glimpse into his future as a class clown. He either gets so excited to be around other kids that he just can't contain himself (throwing toys or he's even been known to walk up and slap kids in the face out of sheer excitement - I do not find this cute, and I have no idea how to curb this because punishing him and explaining "that's not nice" so far have had no effect) or he will go out of his way to make sure all eyes are on him. This past weekend he was playing with a couple of little girls on the beach and suddenly put a ball in his mouth just to look silly. Now normally, he doesn't put things in his mouth. Even in the phase when kids normally put inappropriate things in their mouths, he wasn't too extreme about it. But now he is doing things that are potentially dangerous (putting things in his mouth, running away from us and toward heavy traffic, climbing under cars in a parking lot) just to be a "show off." Another thing he does is flip his eyelids up! This is so gross. I hated when kids did that when I was in school, and I have no idea how my 2.5-year-old learned to do that. He'll walk up to kids he doesn't know and say "look, look!" with his eyelids flipped up. Most kids are not impressed and run away. I know these are his attempts to be "social" but, so far, he doesn't seem to have the skills down. He is definitely not the most suave of toddlers out there...

Back from the beach!

2010-06-06T18:25:00.005+02:00

Dylan was able to spend a total of nine days at the beach (a couple of weeks ago when we went in for a check-up, his dermatologist "prescribed" 15 days at the seaside as his eczema has gotten really bad), spending two days alone with his nonna, zia and Luana while Cristiano and I were finishing up work in Milan. Despite the nine days and the fact that we finally broke down and put him on antihistamines, the itching does not seem to have improved. Though, aesthetically speaking his skin does look better, he scratches constantly and wakes up more times in the night than many newborns. We are really at a loss for what to do, but the dermatologist assures me that his sleep issues are "normal" for kids with eczema and he has an 80 percent chance of outgrowing the eczema by adolescence.

Oh, and that promise of nonna and zia's to have Dylan potty trained in the two days we were gone? Didn't happen. If anything, he's more confused than ever. They just stopped putting his diaper on (even when they left the house) and didn't explain what was supposed to happen next. The book I sent along with step-by-step instructions, pictures of boys going on the potty and reward stickers to be used as an incentive was never even unpacked. Dylan got annoyed with having pee running down his leg and having to change clothes every 20 minutes, and now doesn't want anything to do with the potty.

Anyway - and on the bright side - Dylan had a great time at the beach. Here are some pics.

Reward system

2010-05-29T14:14:00.002+02:00

Cristiano told Dylan that if he slept in his own bed all night that he'd buy him a car at the Autogrill on the way down to the beach. Well, he did it! He did wake up a couple of times, but he stayed in his own bed all night and did not come in to ours. Cristiano must have been feeling especially well rested without bony little knees and elbows in his side all night. Look at the "car" he bought D!

Outdoor space

2010-05-27T11:50:00.004+02:00

Because we have no real yard, I'm constantly looking for big open spaces where I can take Dylan to play. Last year he was still pretty much toddling, but now he runs, so space is a necessity. I really dislike our local playground (it's full of graffiti, overcrowded, there's absolutely no shade and the "big kids" who have no business being on playground equipment for little kids are constantly knocking Dylan over, etc.) and the local park is kind of creepy and empty until later in the evening when people come home from work and go jogging or biking. Cristiano doesn't like me taking Dylan there alone because there are always gypsies or various shady characters lurking behind the trees.

They recently created a new piazza and pedestrian zone in front of the church in our town. Now our new routine after school is to get gelato, watch the church bells and then go play in the piazza. It's kind of boring, but until we have our own yard one day, I'm at a loss for what to do with Dylan outdoors.

At least next week, we will be at the beach as there is a big national holiday on Wednesday. Dylan is staying all week with his nonna and zia while Cristiano and I go back and forth to Milan for work.

Dylan in the piazza. How long until they graffiti the place up and break the new benches?

When I asked him what he was doing, he said "Making the car have an accident with the tree." OK!

Leafy courtyard of palazzo in the piazza. My hairdresser used to be here, but she moved to a less suggestive location. And hired a girl who always botches my hair cut, and since you can't specify who you want to do the cut, I stopped going there.

New project

2010-05-26T11:26:00.006+02:00

I forgot to mention here that I have a new blog project called "Viva la Pappa" (loosely translated "Hooray for food" in cutesy, kid-friendly Italian) where I write about feeding and raising an Italian-American bambino. It's not a "mommy blog" per se, but I wouldn't recommend it as reading for anyone uninterested in children. Or food. Or Italy. I'm really excited about my graphics, which were created by my friend Cindy. Many of you may remember Cindy from "back in the day." We've been friends since 6th grade. She's hit the big time with her graphic design business (she designs custom stationery) in Cincinnati and works with Colin Cowie and many other famous names, which is why her stuff has been featured on Oprah. Check her out (cool video!) on the Colin Cowie Fab Friends site here. Anyway, all of this was to say that she designed the logo and graphics for Viva la Pappa. Who would have thought when Cindy and I were riding our bikes around suburban Dayton in our bathing suit tops and jean shorts (not sure quite why we did this and then why we wondered when perverts in pick-up trucks would honk their horns at us) that she'd be on Oprah, and I'd be, uh, translating stuff and writing a couple of dorky blogs...

Dylan's weekend

2010-05-24T10:16:00.005+02:00

Dylan with his milk foam "cappuccino." They used to give it to us free. Now they charge 20 cents! Cheapskates!

Riding the rides alone for the first time. He told Cristiano to "get off, papi!" He's growing up! Sniff, sniff...

Riding the rides with a silly face. A very "Dylan" face.

Mom's not ready!

2010-05-21T12:25:00.009+02:00

Dylan will wear a smock like this in September
when he goes to "big kids' school"

Next week I'm going to the information session on "scuola materna," which is where Dylan should go in the fall. Going to scuola materna is a rite of passage for three-year-olds, and while it is not obligatory, it seems the vast majority of kids here do go. It is kind of like a kindergarten that lasts three years, after which they enter first grade at elementary school. It is part of the state school system, and is absolutely free. Because Dylan was born 11 days into 2008 (meaning he will not yet be three or even almost three by September), they gave me the option of sending him in September or waiting until his birthday in January. I decided to sign him up for September for several reasons: a) all of the kids he is in class with now are older than he is and will go to scuola materna in September, and if he goes back to preschool for those few months until he turns three, he won't know anybody b) his teachers tell me he is ready and that he has had no issues with being in a class with older children c) all of the other moms I've talked to with kids in the same situation (born January 2008) are sending their kids and we believe this will force the scuola materna to group them together in a special class d) scuola materna is said to be a highlight of the Italian school system. Italy does early education incredibly well (evidenced by how popular Reggio-Emilia and Montessori programs are even in the U.S.), and I don't want Dylan to miss out.

His preschool now is doing everything they can to prepare the kids for scuola materna in the fall. They keep telling them stories about, like, "the little bird who grew up and flew away from preschool and landed at scuola materna." They took a "field trip" to visit the school and they were all paired with an older student who showed them around. Dylan came home with a little handmade card from his new "amico" that said "Dylan, I can't wait to see you in September. Your friend, Samuele." I have no idea why I got so emotional, but that little card choked me up!

But the bigger issue is that I don't have the final confirmation from the school that he has been accepted. Those of us with children born in January 2008 may not have confirmation until the beginning of September! This means that all the time spent preparing Dylan for "big kids' school," making him draw pictures of birds leaving the nest and taking field trips to visit the school will have been wasted and then he will go back to preschool until he turns three in January. That could be confusing to him. In Italy, they don't even decide when the first day of school will be until late in the summer! How can they not have a school calendar ready?

I'm feeling a little nervous myself. I feel like I'm practically sending him off to kindergarten, and he's only two years old! I've always seen the kids walking to school in their little scuola materna uniforms (blue smocks for boys, pink smocks for girls), but I didn't think my baby would be going so soon. Preschool feels like play but this feels somehow more serious. I'm going to be a mess the first day of school!

I don't know whether to blame preschool or the weather

2010-05-19T14:55:00.005+02:00

The first three months of preschool, Dylan didn't come home with so much as a sniffle. Then he got scarlet fever and bronchitis within a two-week time period. I've had him out of school eight days so far this month. The bronchitis he passed along to Cristiano and I. I feel like I have the flu combined with the world's worst head cold. After three weeks straight of rain and gray November-like weather, the sun has finally come out in the last two days. But I'm too sick to enjoy it. Here are a few recent pics.

Baseball hat with mouth full of food

Pensive baseball hat. You can see he's wearing lots of layers. This has been the coldest, wettest spring in northern Italy in 30 years. Brrr!!!

With friend Sofia in Siena. We were at a beautiful agriturismo in Tuscany but the kids were trapped inside because of the rain and cold. Hence, the rain boots.

"Rain, rain go away!" in Siena

Mother's Day fun

2010-05-10T11:30:00.005+02:00

Yesterday, we had a kiddie birthday party in the neighborhood. Fortunately, it stopped raining for a couple of hours, which was nice as it has been raining for about two weeks straight now! Today it is back to being cold and rainy. Aaargh! Dylan's hair is really long in the pictures, but last night we subjected him to a hair cut at home. There will be no pictures of that.

Toddlers fighting with the birthday girl over her new computer

Dylan loved this cat and kept chasing him around

Waiting for the cat to wake up from a nap

Home sick with scarlet fever

2010-05-04T10:15:00.005+02:00

Dylan has scarlet fever so he can't go back to preschool until next week. Most of the symptoms are gone, but he may still be contagious. We've been trying to come up with fun things he can in the house since he can't go to the park and be around other children either. Here are a couple of silly videos. In one, he says "E' mio Dylan" (Dylan is mine). He's become kind of possessive about whose is who. He'll say "mommy is mine" or "Dylan is mommy's." In the video, when I ask him who mommy belongs to, first he says "me too" in Italian and then he says "yours" in English. It's basically a nonsensical conversation in two languages. Then in the other video, he is singing his version of Fra Martino, which is like the song in English "Are you sleeping? Are you sleeping? Brother John! Brother John!" (actually I remember singing it in the French for some odd reason - "Frère Jacques"). Yes, he is wearing a clippy in both videos. His hair is so long, I don't know what to do with it!

Nonsensical conversation from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Fra Martino from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Preschool

2010-04-22T10:38:00.001+02:00

"Welcome Dylan!" At school, they put up some pictures of Dylan so the other students and parents could get to know him.

Whenever I come pick him up, he runs over to the play area and it takes me 15 minutes to get him out of there.

This kid has never had a real haircut (shocker, I know!) and we are waiting until we get to the U.S. where we can go to one of those kiddie haircut places

After school, we usually go get gelato in front of the church in our neighborhood. He's obsessed with the church bells and he wants to stand there every hour and half hour to hear them ring. He's kind of a sloppy eater...

With papi

2010-04-21T12:38:00.002+02:00

We had a baptism on Sunday for our friends' little girl, but since I still looked like the Elephant Man at that point after having gotten two wisdom teeth out, I stayed at home so as to not frighten anyone. Here's Dylan eating a prosciutto panino with papi.

This cracks me up

2010-04-20T11:17:00.006+02:00

This hospital (which is not the hospital where Dylan was born, but is where I was treated for post-partum depression - TMI? Sorry!) is touting itself as the "first hospital in Italy with Skype phones in the maternity ward." I don't know why I find that so funny, but wouldn't it just be easier to provide WiFi and let people Skype from their own computers? It might also be more sanitary. I don't see anyone Purell-ing before using the shared Skype phone and while holding a newborn. You can see that the maternity ward is clean if a bit sterile and sad. Where I gave birth was very similar. What do you want to bet that within a couple of months all of the phones will be "out of order"? That's the way it always seems to work...

Still here!

2010-04-16T21:51:00.003+02:00

The blog is not on hiatus. There has just been a lot going on, and I haven't been taking many pictures. For one thing, Cristiano FINALLY got his Green Card (well the immigrant visa - the Green Card will be issued when we are in the U.S.) after an emergency return trip to Naples because the U.S. Consulate there made a mistake with his fingerprints. Aargh. We've both been busy with work, and I just got two wisdom teeth out this morning.

In Dylan news, he got his first bloody fat lip at school. He retaliated the next day by hitting back on the playground. Though he hit another kid not the kid who had hit him originally. The teachers say that he is very sweet and overall very good but is still disruptive in class. They say he provokes other kids, which is why he got the fat lip. He still has issues with playing rough with the toys and smashing things on the ground. There can be three kids in the little kitchen setting the table and Dylan will run up and turn the table over letting everything crash to the ground. I'm hoping this is a phase and the "disruptive in class" thing is not going to follow us into elementary school and beyond.

He's as active as ever and sleeps as little as ever. The funny thing is that now he realizes his not sleeping is an "issue" so he makes jokes about it. He'll say "Mommy, I'm not tired" right before bedtime and then laugh his head off. I have come to the conclusion that he really doesn't need that much sleep. The good thing is that now I'm pretty used to it.

Back to icing my face!

Easter

2010-04-04T22:42:00.005+02:00

This year we braved the avalanches, mud slides and driving rain (which turned to snow by the end of the weekend) to celebrate Easter in the mountains with Cristiano's parents and some family friends. Dylan got a new car to add to his collection and, of course, lots of chocolate. We colored eggs and then had "egg wars," which apparently is a yearly tradition invented by one of the lunch guests (he also happens to be my dentist; did I mention I have to get two wisdom teeth out in two weeks? :( ), and which consists of smashing hard-boiled colored eggs into each other to see whose will crack first. It's not all that interesting, but I was the "reigning champion" from last year and made it to the semi-finals this year.

Easter 2010 from Michelle Marie on Vimeo. Dylan with his chocolate eggs and Polda the labrador.

This kid is giving me gray hair

2010-04-01T21:27:00.004+02:00

I know I'm a broken record on this, but getting this rebellious kid into bed every night is such a struggle. Switching to daylight savings has also thrown him for a loop. I really don't know what we are doing "wrong" because we have our nighttime routine and do the same exact things each night. When Cristiano is gone for his sommelier course (and thus I can parent however I want without any comments from the peanut gallery), I experiment with moving up Dylan's bedtime to see if perhaps going to bed earlier will make a difference. Doesn't change a thing. Every once in a blue moon we will go out to dinner or take him over to my in-laws for dinner, but compared to your average Italian kid who stays up to all hours and has no regular schedule, Dylan is incredibly regimented. We've really had no alternative but to let him cry it out each night (he's crying now - sigh), and last night he decided he was going to make good on the "promise/threat" he made not to sleep in his bed. When I finally heard him quiet down, I went in there and this is what I found:

Dylan sleeping on the couch cushion I usually sit on when I'm reading him his bedtime story. He swore he wouldn't be sleeping in his bed...

Afternoon snack

2010-03-31T15:42:00.005+02:00

I love Dylan's school except for one little thing - they find a reason to close at the drop of a hat! In the six weeks since he has been in school, they've been closed once for a teachers' strike and two times for "teachers' assemblies" (whatever those are). And the thing is that they usually notify us the day before! Yesterday when I went to pick Dylan up, I thought the moms were going to riot when the teachers mentioned "Oh, by the way, tomorrow we have an assembly so no school." Now he has six days off for Easter, and since I don't have all those days off, I'm scrambling to try to work from home while he takes his brief 90-minute afternoon nap. Tomorrow I'm breaking down and asking Cristiano's aunt if she can take him at least for half a day.

Today for his afternoon snack he wanted "juice and Philadelphia" with bread sticks. Italians call "cream cheese" by the brand name and Dylan has picked up on that. In the video below, he totally flubs the pronunciation and has to repeat it several times. He always chokes or stutters when the camera is on him!

Juice and Philadelphia from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Saturday with mommy

2010-03-28T18:47:00.009+02:00

Yesterday, Cristiano had a cantina visit for his sommelier course so Dylan and I were on our own for the day. Fortunately, we had great spring weather. I decided to go to the big park in Monza, which is nearby (anyone who came to my wedding may remember that everyone stayed in Monza one night and we did an aperatif in front of the beautiful Duomo there) but, for some odd reason, we rarely go there. It's one of the largest walled parks in Europe, and is three times the size of Central Park in New York City. My friend Cathy met us there for a while and she's the one who took pictures of us. We had a great day. First we went to pet the horses in the stables in the park. Then we found a cool playground. After the park, we went out to eat pizza and Dylan ordered his favorite: pizza margherita!

Attempt one at having our picture taken with the horse. This guy didn't want to move out of the way....

Attempt two at having our picture taken with the horses. The horse on the left began furiously eating the hood off of Dylan's jacket and I had to wrest him away.

Learning the ropes
Riding the cow at the park

Speaking of cows, there's a cute Dylan quote of the week: "Mommy, the cow goes 'moo' not the 'moose,' right?" This was said as we put on pajamas from Grandma Mimi with a large glow-in-the-dark moose.

Nonno's birthday

2010-03-24T10:54:00.007+01:00

Dylan running wild in his new Ferrari shirt

Blowing out the candle with nonno

After dinner, a discussion ensued about Dylan's sleeping habits (or lack thereof). He still wakes up after a couple of hours in his own bed to come into our bed. Below a video of the discussion at the table as to why he doesn't sleep in his own bed. His papi told him that if he sleeps through the night in his own bed, he will get him the "green Ford," which is the only car Dylan doesn't have in his collection of real model cars that they give you at the gas station if you fill up your tank. He turns to the table and says where he thinks he'll be sleeping that night: "with mommy and papi..."

Where are you sleeping tonight? from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

So what's the big deal?

2010-03-19T21:13:00.005+01:00

There is no doubt that Dylan is all boy, but he does like to get in touch with his feminine side. For example, he occasionally likes to put a clippy in his hair, and he has a weakness for Hello Kitty. Every time he sees something with Hello Kitty on it, he says "Mommy, let's buy it!" I have no problem with it, but Cristiano really doesn't like Dylan wearing a clippy in his hair around the house. Dads are so weird (today is San Giuseppe - St. Joseph - and thus Italian Father's Day. Dylan insisted he wanted a cake because he couldn't understand that he was supposed to be extra nice to papi for "Father's Day" not his birthday so Cristiano brought a cake home after work). As you can see in the picture above, Dylan is wearing a clippy while playing with his beloved cars. He is obsessed with cars and knows the make and model of pretty much every car he sees on the street or on TV. Walking down the street with him, he has to point out every "Renault," "Ford," "Chevrolet," "BMW," "Mercedes," "Subaru," "Citroen," "Mommy's car" (the Lancia), etc. etc.. As he is (half) Italian, his absolute favorite car is, of course, the Ferrari, and though we don't see a lot of those on the street, when he does see one, he says "Mommy, let's buy it!"

Weekend

2010-03-14T22:22:00.003+01:00

Watering flowers on a sunny afternoon in nonna's garden

Making pizza. I made him wear an "art shirt" as he'd just had a bath

I think he ate more dough than actual pizza

Friday night with Dylan

2010-03-13T18:31:00.004+01:00

School talk from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Cristiano has been working a lot and has his sommelier course two nights a week, so Dylan and I have had lots of bonding time in the evenings. We sit around and make silly videos. His favorite new thing is to call everyone "ugly." In this video he says his teacher Eugenia is "brutta/ugy."

We like preschool

2010-03-06T21:58:00.008+01:00

It's such a relief! He really loves going now, and has made some good buddies (shout outs to Giovanni, Sebastian and Ninna!). I was worried that he'd really freak out and refuse to go while we were in Naples earlier in the week, but my mother-in-law said he woke up every morning raring to go. We now have our little ritual, which is that I pick him up at 3:30 p.m. and we go to eat gelato in the park if it is warm. If it isn't warm, we go ride rides (Dylan is on one of the motorcycle rides above) at this indoor carnival or to the children's library, which I only recently discovered. This schedule works really well for me, and because it is a consistent schedule every single day, I seem to have more time to work than I did before.

On Friday his teacher told me that he has integrated really well, that he's very sweet and that his verbal skills are off the charts, but that we all need to help him work on some behavioral issues. She said that he plays very rough with the toys and, as a result, with the other kids. He's always played rough with toys, but I thought that was just normal for his age. He's always smashing things on the ground, overturning tubs of blocks or running his cars into things, which would sort of be OK if he were playing alone at home but these behaviors are dangerous when he's playing in a room with other kids. I love, love, love his teachers. They are incredibly sweet and really know their stuff. One teacher gave me a 20-minute description of how Dylan is a child who "plays with his entire body" and what that means in terms of motor skills and development. Another teacher kept me after school showing me a Powerpoint presentation on the importance of finger painting, playing with Play-Doh and polenta flour. I guess I'm glad they are so enthusiastic!

Before Dylan started school, everyone told me that he'd come home so tired, he'd fall into bed by 8 p.m. No such luck. If anything, he seems to be so stimulated that he has even more energy. Even though he naps earlier than he did with Cristiano's aunt, he is wide awake at his normal (already late) bedtime, and it's a struggle to get him into bed each night. Oh well. I'll take sleep deprivation over him crying every day before school!

Adjustment

2010-02-25T12:11:00.002+01:00

Everyone tells me that if I can just push through this initial period, Dylan will soon adjust to preschool and be begging me to go even on Saturdays and Sundays. As it is now, he whines about going every single morning. He tries to bargain with me ("I don't need to play with kids. I could stay with zia!") and as we walk toward the car he says "No mommy's car. Let's go on foot!" He knows that he goes on foot to his zia's or his nonna's, but if we take the car, we have to go to preschool. As soon as we pull up to the school, the hysterics start. He goes into a panic and has that same "I'm trapped!" look on his face I get when they close the door on the airplane and prepare to push back from the gate. It's very hard for me to keep my calm as he is pried out of my arms and taken away kicking and screaming by the teacher. I can hear him crying and begging for me to take him home all the way down the hall. The teacher told me that after I leave, he's always fine. She told me that yesterday he got really excited because all of the kids were circled around him and asking him to say numbers and colors in English, and he knew the answers. We are going to give it a bit more time and then evaluate. If he's still this miserable in a month or so, we may ask if he can go part time, which is what we wanted to begin with. As it is now, he still has not even gone a full day. Today I left him at 10 a.m. and have to go pick him up at 1 p.m. Everyone said that this period is harder on the parents, and now I understand why!

An ode to sleep

2010-02-23T11:33:00.005+01:00

When oh when will we sleep again? Will we ever sleep again? Cristiano and I were talking about it and realized Dylan has never slept more than six consecutive hours. EVER. When I hear people talking about their kids sleeping 12 hours a night, I just can't fathom it. I don't think Dylan has ever stayed in his bed for an entire 12 hours. A couple of Saturdays ago Dylan didn't get his afternoon nap, which meant he passed out at 7:30 p.m. Honestly, I felt as if I had put in a "half day." Like I was getting away with something. I got to eat dinner in peace with my husband, watch some television and drink an actual glass of wine on the couch without wondering if a ball, truck or rambunctious toddler would knock it out of my hand. Of course, Dylan woke up a couple of hours later but just to have a few hours in the evening to myself was the biggest luxury. As it is now, he's waking up every two hours again. He comes into our bed and jumps on me and says "Mommy, cuddle!" We need to do something radical to make him stay in his own bed and in his own room, but it's not going to happen now that he's just started preschool. He's become so clingy and wants me to hold him or stay near him while he's playing. I can't even go to the bathroom. I know this phase will pass, but I'm just beginning to wonder if this kid will ever sleep. He's good to go on five hours of restless, interrupted sleep. Unfortunately, we are not...

Day trip to Genoa

2010-02-21T11:10:00.005+01:00

Playing with colors and shadows at the children's museum

We had a great day at the Città dei Bambini children's museum and the beach in Genoa yesterday. It's only 90 minutes away from Milan, but the weather was downright spring-like compared to where we live. That Mediterranean Sea makes all the difference. It was nice to get away from the smog and take in the sea air. More pics here.

We don't even need coats, hats and gloves. Imagine that!

Fun times

2010-02-19T11:38:00.006+01:00

Dylan seems to be adjusting well to preschool and is not so aggressive at home. He is now eating lunch there, and yesterday he cleaned his plate (the school lunch menus are very impressive - five-course meals and no chicken strips, sloppy Joes or other junk-food-made-healthy-because-that-is-supposedly-all-kids-will-eat to be found). They eat fish on Fridays. Let's see how that goes as he is no fish fan... I've been giving him lots of "mommy time" and doing as many one-on-one activities as possible. Yesterday I took him to the mall specifically to play on those little token-operated cars, which made him very happy as I'm usually in a rush and have to drag him away from those things. Here are a few shots from the last few days.

Dylan and I made pesto together and then he tasted his handiwork on some orecchiette pasta

Dylan driving the London double-decker bus at the mall

Preschool

2010-02-17T17:32:00.005+01:00

First day of preschool

We started preschool. It's been kind of a whirlwind and not what I expected. Dylan actually is very happy to go to school each morning and is sad when it is time to leave. That's the good news. So far, we've only stayed for a few hours each time and today was the first day I left him alone in the classroom while I went outside "to get a coffee." He didn't cry but the teacher said he kept asking when I'd be back. Tomorrow we will stay longer and eat lunch there together, and on Friday he will eat lunch alone (with me outside waiting) with the other kids.

What has taken me by surprise is Dylan's behavior. He's much more aggressive. He's begun to hit us and lash out at us. He calls me "ugly ugly" in Italian and says things like "This pasta is disgusting!" This morning as we were going to preschool he told me I was ugly and so was my car. At school, he's very rough with the other kids and does things I've never seen him do before, such as rip a toy out of another child's hand or shove another child. That is not my sweet little boy. The teacher asked me if the other kids at his play group were older or younger. I told her they were all younger, and she said that may explain it. At preschool, he is the youngest kid in the class. Even though he's tall and the teacher said he has a surprising vocabulary and speaks better than some of the three-year-olds (insert proud mamma emoticon here!), he realizes he's younger and he is being aggressive to show he can run with the big dogs. It's like survival instinct. She said that at home he's probably acting the way he is to punish us.

The teacher said that this period is almost like a "mourning period" for him where he realizes that his mother will not always be around, and all of this is his way of dealing with it. If that doesn't make a mother feel guilty, I don't know what will! I can see that he loves going and that he is going to learn a lot and thrive there, but this whole orientation process is a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

P.S. Mom, empty your mailbox. I've been trying to email you for a few days. You may be getting a Gmail account for your birthday!

Taking a bath

2010-02-08T21:32:00.003+01:00

Bath time from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Allow me to make up for this morning's rambling laundry rant with this cute video where Dylan actually responds to me in English. The bathtub is pretty much the only place I have a captive subject!

Weekend excitement

2010-02-08T10:23:00.006+01:00

My sheets (bottom) basking in the morning sun and snow

Another weekend of toddler birthday parties. We took a lot of pictures of Dylan but none of them came out as he was running around like a maniac. He doesn't stop for a second when there are other kids around and lots of toys to play with.

I haven't had a laundry post in a while so I thought I'd share my weekend strategizing. I've had sheets I've needed to wash now for about two weeks (I mean, we have other sets so it's not like we are sleeping on dirty sheets but still...), but there's no room to hang them in the house. It's been raining, snowing or really cold out so I haven't been able to hang them outside. Word on the street was that Sunday was going to be sunny and perhaps even hit 5 degrees Celsius (41 Fahrenheit). I put the sheets in Saturday night on the automatic timer to get them going early in the morning even though it meant we'd be awoken by the spin cycle as the washer is in the bathroom and directly behind our bed. It was also a risk as if the weather report was wrong, I'd have wet sheets and nowhere to hang them. I've been burnt like this before, and it means I have to take the wet sheets to my mother-in-law's house and ask her if I can hang them in her basement, which I hate doing because then she feels compelled to iron them when they are dry and that makes me feel guilty. In any case, my calculated risk paid off and I was able to get the sheets hanging out at the exact moment the sun was rising over the balcony Sunday morning. They were dry (enough) by 5:30 p.m. when the sun was going down. I have no idea what I will do when I have access to a clothes dryer. Knowing me I will still hang a lot of things on the drying rack and find something else to complain about. Hee hee. Though sheets and towels (or anything that has been vomited on or soiled in any other disgusting way) will be washed and dried immediately.

Say hello to immigrant 210032005

2010-02-04T11:59:00.008+01:00

I got the confirmation yesterday. Next stop: Naples for the formalities. Would they doubt the validity of a marriage between two people who have been together 11 years and have a child together? I wouldn't think so. I also can't think of any reason Cristiano wouldn't pass his "medical exam." I'm kind of suspecting it's just an easy way for the consulate's doctor to pocket 180 Euros for the visit and an extra 10 Euros for every extra vaccination they feel he should have.

So now on to Naples.

And the next stop after that?????

My mother-in-law had a breakdown out of the blue the other day and begged me "Please don't go. Please don't go." In tears. Grasping my shoulders. My heart truly breaks, but what can I do? Help.

Handsome

2010-01-31T11:25:00.005+01:00

We told everyone that Dylan will no longer be at playgroup after Feb. 15. His favorite teacher Lucia was super sad but said she was happy for Dylan. She knows the preschool where he will be going, and she thinks he will thrive there. I hope so!

Aquilone

2010-01-28T15:45:00.007+01:00

Back in November we applied for Dylan to go to preschool part-time in the mornings from Monday to Friday. They called us a few days ago to tell us that Dylan had been accepted but they only had full-time, so we had to make a snap decision. We went to tour the place and were really impressed. The teachers are super sweet and know their stuff. They were already giving me tons of tips on potty training (which they said they are more than happy to help with) and getting him to eat better. There's a room full of balls and a room full of tricycles, which I'm sure will be Dylan's two favorite rooms. His group is called Aquilone (Kite) and he will be among the youngest as the kids are from 24 to 36 months. His teacher assured me that there are other kids his age and he will be just fine. Even the cook came out to say "hello" and we were very impressed with the all-organic menu with the food cooked fresh right on the premises. We start orientation on Feb. 15 and I will stay with him at least part of the time for two weeks. Starting March 1, he will stay all by himself from 9:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. My little kite is flying away. It's bittersweet. I really hope he likes it.

In other developments, Spouse IR-1 201b's (aka Cristiano!) Green Card application was accepted at the Embassy and we are "this close" to getting his Green Card. Now the path has been cleared for us to go to Naples for the interview and physical exam (for "the immigrant" not for me). I was notified today by mail. He said he feels more American already! I've been tearing through the house looking for the baseball hat we bought him this summer to go to the Cincinnati Reds' game...

Then I applied for my first job in North Carolina. It's something I'd really be interested in doing. Maybe they'll hire me over the Internet? Who knows?

Sick days

2010-01-23T10:39:00.010+01:00

Dylan touching something germy (or "playing," if you will) at a birthday party last Sunday. I realize looking at this picture that his sweater needs to be ironed. That gives me mamma guilt. I bet a dad wouldn't a) notice or b) care. Not fair!

Dylan was home aaaaaall week, which meant mamma was home too playing nursemaid and unable to get much work done. I think the three toddler birthday parties from last weekend were the culprit. Word on the street was that, like Dylan, many of the kids from party #3 were vomiting by Monday morning. He had a high fever for four days and though the vomiting had subsided by Thursday, he was still listless and lying on my chest whimpering. I finally got him in to the pediatrician on Thursday afternoon and she told us that he also had a bad ear infection. Ouch. No wonder he was soo, soo sick. Poor little guy. We got him on antibiotics right away and this morning he is good as new and wants pizza. However, Cristiano is now vomiting, though fortunately, he vomits in the toilet and not on himself, me, two comforters and the couch. I'm using the last of my Lysol stash to spray this place top to bottom.

The good thing about Dylan being with me 24/7 for five days is that his English exploded and he began to favor English over Italian. Wee hoo! I was also able to watch some U.S. TV on the Internet and totally got hooked on Mad Men. I so rarely watch TV (when your kid goes to bed and gets up when you do, there is no "me" or "couple" time at night) and I had forgotten how much I like watching television. If the TV is on around here, it's usually tuned to Backyardigans, Little Einsteins or old episodes of Pippi Longstocking, which they play constantly here and which is Dylan's absolute favorite. Dylan laughs his head off at Pippi.

More birthday pics

2010-01-17T21:22:00.001+01:00

We had THREE toddler birthday parties this weekend. Mamma mia.

Birthday Bash!

2010-01-16T17:56:00.003+01:00

I asked for a car-themed cake, and I think they did a pretty good job

This morning we had a birthday party for Dylan in an amazing play space in Milan. I will definitely take him back there. Fun was had by all - except maybe Dylan who threw tantrum after tantrum and was in "time out" half the party. He was putting the "terrible" in the Terrible Twos. To be expected, I guess. Below is a video of Dylan, Luana and his buddy Sara from the beach playing in the "0-5" room.

Dylan's Birthday Party from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Dylan's 2nd Birthday!

2010-01-12T10:39:00.007+01:00

We had a mellow celebration at home last night as the big party is this weekend in a giant play space in Milan. Unfortunately, Dylan got sick in the middle of the festivities and today he is home with me. I called the pediatrician and she said it sounds like he's got the same stomach bug all the other kids have and to give him probiotics. Poor little guy was up all night doubled over and crying. He already seems a bit better today and should be on the mend for Saturday.

Birthday pizza made with love by mommy

Wow, a new book!

The new bowling game is perfect for our corridor. The Prince Valiant bangs are not as much of a success

Carrot cupcakes (I cut myself out of the picture as I was not camera-ready)! Dylan must have already been feeling a bit sick here.

La Befana came again this year!

2010-01-06T22:29:00.009+01:00

The pagan witch who brings candy (or coal) to boys and girls all over Italy swooped in on her broom and left a stocking full of candy for Dylan this morning. Now that I'm a mom, I like candy-based holidays much less than I used to. I would have skipped the early morning sugar fest altogether if Dylan hadn't already been "prepped" by his cousin Luana and others and knew he was supposed to get loot. We are just thankful that the Befana was the only one lurking around the house last night. Two nights post-break-in, and we are not sleeping well. It could be that I found muddy boot prints on my pillow case. Nothing like knowing criminals entered through your bedroom window and were in your bed to kill the urge to sleep. And did I mention that we later realized they took the coins from Dylan's piggy bank? We keep realizing other things that are missing (a cell phone that looked new but didn't work - enjoy that guys!), and it's all just really creepy.

In other news, did anyone notice Dylan's super short bangs? Cristiano thought it'd be a good idea to "trim" them with his razor the night before we left for Budapest. He will no longer be cutting Dylan's hair!

P.S. Mom, if you are reading this, I tried to email you back, but your mailbox is full!

2010 was off to a great start until...

2010-01-04T15:59:00.006+01:00

I was going to blog about our great trip to Ljubljana, Budapest and Lasko, Slovenia, but we returned this morning to find our apartment had been broken into while we were gone. They took Cristiano's computer and the jewelry he gave me when Dylan was born. I'm sick, sick, sick over it. I am beating myself up over having left the jewelry here, but they are pieces I only take out for special occasions and we have an alarm system and complicated shutter/grate system on the windows, so I thought they'd be safe. We also have upstairs neighbors who are incredibly vigilant (to the point of being nosy at times) and whose parents live on either side of our building and are constantly monitoring the comings and goings here. The only thing we can think is that these guys broke in at midnight on Dec. 31 while the fireworks were going off and somehow disabled the alarm. They obviously knew what they were doing. From their muddy footprints and where they went in the house (they didn't even enter Dylan's bedroom) and what they decided to take and to leave, you can see the method to their thieving madness.

When I came in this morning, I noticed the hall light was on and my bedroom door was closed, which was odd as I'd been the one to lock up and that's not how I'd left the house. As soon as I turned off the alarm, it started screeching "intruder, intruder, intruder" and I opened the bedroom door to find the place ransacked and the balcony door wide open in sub-zero temperatures. There are muddy footprints on EVERYTHING from my comforter to the rug to all of the clothes they left on the floor.

What makes me angriest of all is that Dylan saw me crying hysterically and it made him so upset and he was anguished and begging me "Mommy stop crying. Mommy stop crying." Bastards. At the end of the day, the jewelry was a gift for his birth and what is important is that he is a happy and healthy little boy. With that, I leave you with some photos of the trip and hopes that 2010 can only get better.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-26T09:20:00.001+01:00

Play group Christmas party

2009-12-24T17:10:00.006+01:00

It was a bit more subdued affair than planned because of the weather, but in the end, Babbo Natale (Santa Claus) was able to brave the snow and make an appearance. Dylan wouldn't pose with him for a picture though. My cinnamon cranberry bread was a hit even though I didn't think it turned out as well as it normally does. I'd been hoarding cranberries since my last trip home just for use for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I thought this event was cranberry-worthy. Too bad cranberry translates into Italian as "red American swamp berry." Try offering "red American swamp berry bread" to people. Buon appetito!

Dylan eating pizza with his bud Kyne.

Notice how the girls have no fear of Babbo Natale while the boys cowered with their mammas. Next to Santa are the two fantastic teachers. They really are pros.

Wintered out!

2009-12-22T11:23:00.004+01:00

This is the second major snowstorm we've had in a week and between snow, ice and record low temps, I'm really wintered out. I'm not a winter person in the best of years, but this year is really doing me in. And how's a girl supposed to dry her laundry when the temperature in the house feels almost as cold as outside? Our boiler was not meant for use in Siberia. Sigh. Dreaming of living in a warmer climate! Dylan is dying to play outside but I left his snow suit up in the mountains. Poor little guy. He's climbing the walls with cabin fever.

My car is out there somewhere under the snow

Balcony view