Dylan is talking constantly now and saying a bunch of new words. It's hard to capture it on video though. Here's a video of him saying "bye bye." And another where he says "papà" here. So much for bilingual babies talking late! We've also made some progress on the walking front but I don't have that on video.
If Dylan ever wonders where he was when the first black president of the United States was being inaugurated, all he'll have to do is watch this video of him rebelliously pulling off his socks (after I told him repeatedly not to do that)...
This load is not dry from SATURDAY and I need to wash and hang dark clothes today, so, you know, desperate times call for desperate measures....All of my radiators look more or less like the above. Not having a dryer means that drying clothes requires multiple steps, including strategizing, hanging and re-hanging. It's not as quick and easy as gathering up the wet load and throwing it into another appliance. I feel like I spend hours a day on this. And to add insult to injury, I then have to iron. There is nothing I hate more and am worse at (my burnt up hands attest to that) than ironing! I personally would live in perma-press but people keep giving Dylan clothing items that unless they are ironed would make him look like a homeless person or gypsy boy. Being a conscientous mother, I can't let him out of the house looking like he crawled out from the bottom of the dirty laundry basket. For his birthday back in November, Cristiano had asked to not see a drying rack or any laundry around the house just for the day. I obliged.
Dylan with the cool new bath toy he got for his birthday
Papi and Dylan can't share clothes just yet
He's somewhere between 23 and 24 pounds and is noticeably taller as his head now bangs the kitchen table when he stands up under it. We haven't had an official check-up in a while but we are estimating he's about 31 inches now.
Dylan's very own sink.
Dylan during his morning "toilette" routineNothing could stop the festivities! Dylan woke up with a hacking cough. Then proceeded to fall in the bathtub (my fault - he was standing and I had him only with my left hand) and bump his head, resulting in a huge knot. Then he busted his lip against Cristiano's shoulder while sneezing. All this before 10 a.m. and while the cupcakes were still baking.
Here's a video of Dylan eating his cupcake after lunch with the famiglia. His cough prevented him from eating much anything else but he managed to choke this down. The rest of the pics here. The person screaming in the video is Cristiano's aunt. She's not mad. That's just her normal talking voice. Most people in Cristiano's family talk like that.
laundry to do. It is now Thursday and load two is still drying on the rack and hanging from the rafters because, uh, nothing is going outside to flap in the sleet. I've been telling Cristiano for years that I wanted to come up with an ecological clothes dryer operated by a Stairmaster, bicycle or elliptical machine. He'd be the engineering mind behind it. He did some calculations and told me that an exercise machine could not generate enough power and I'd have to cycle or Stairmaster for a few days just to dry one load. Having dry laundry would be the perfect incentive to work out, right? I'd be slim AND wearing dry, wrinkle-free, non-musty smelling clothing. Well, of course, I saw on CNN yesterday that someone has "stolen" my idea. If only Cristiano had listened to me and we'd made it happen!
Cristiano's nonna (Dylan's bisnonna) says that Dylan inherited Cristiano and I's "long foot" because we all like to travel and go, go, go. Here Dylan is in a taxi cab in Lisbon enjoying the view and the ride. More trip pics here. Here in Milan the snow continues to fall. It's a blizzard!
Here's my Befana stocking
Why did I get (candy) coal in my stocking? Is it because I am back to waking up every hour?
Another surprise this morning...And to think that just a few days ago, we were in short sleeves on the deck of the boat as we sailed near sunny Africa!
