Best. Park. Ever.

Perhaps you all remember our local park. The extent of it is pretty much this. Today we took Dylan to a local park here near my cousin's house in suburban Dayton, and he had the time of his life. He could spend all day every day here. I had never really considered the importance of having a good local park, but the fact that we don't have a yard and that our local park is dirty, decrepit and full of graffiti means that we have limited places for Dylan to play outdoors. I don't know if all 19-month-olds are like this but Dylan seems to need at least a few hours per day dedicated to running wild. I'd kill to have access to a park like this on a regular basis. It's free, clean and the neighbors all bring and leave toys for the kids to play with in the sand. And they don't get stolen or defaced. I took a video of Dylan playing in the park's spray pools here.

Trip update

Dylan and Josie looking cute in their pajamas but undoubtedly plotting mayhem all the same

When I planned this trip, I did not factor in how hard the car travel would be on a 19-month-old. He is not the 7-month-old of last year who could be transported around like a chubby little accessory. Now he NEEDS to run around and play and is not enjoying traveling so much in the car. In the last week, we've zig-zagged all over the Carolinas, and it is taking its toll on the little man. For the most part, he's been doing great but you can see that he's getting very tired and irritable. Wednesday we head north to Ohio and will stay parked there for almost ten days, so that is probably a good thing.

He's been at his best when we've been with friends and around other kids. We just left "la Josie" in Charlotte who is seemingly mellow but bursting with personality all the same. Dylan enjoyed helping carry out Josie's strategies for manipulating the kitchen chairs around the living room and wedging large toys into unlikely places.

I've begun to post some trip pics on my Flickr here.

Heading north and inland

Now that Hurricane Bill is roaring up the Atlantic coast, we've headed inland. Actually it worked out with our plans that it was time for us to leave the coast. Though we saw some surfers catching some of the initial big waves off of Wilmington, North Carolina. Above is a picture of Dylan on the Isle of Palms, which is a small island off of Charleston. It was a large sandy beach dotted with colorful, characteristic homes and we had it almost all to ourselves. The water was really warm and there was a sandbar to play on for Dylan so it wasn't too deep. These are the kinds of beaches I love - long, sandy, clean and with very few people. Oh, and free. That's an absolute rarity in Italy, at least up in the north where we live. It has been really hot. I'm talking Caribbean weather - 100 degrees Fahrenheit with 96-percent humidity. I love it but Cristiano is dying. I think he's happy to head a bit north.

Pool fun in Charleston

poolcharleston
Originally uploaded by michellanea

Relaxing on our first day in Charleston in an attempt to combat our jet lag. Cute town!

We are here!

More updates as we get settled and over our jet lag. I still don't have a U.S. cell phone but hope to be getting one this morning (I don't think TMobile opens at 5 a.m. but as soon as they do...) Dylan did GREAT on the plane and having his own seat fitted with his car seat was fantastic. It was well worth the money, and though we spent a lot of time up and walking him around, the car seat kept him restrained during those crucial moments. He fell asleep before we even took off (as pictured) and probably slept four hours off and on during the ten-hour flight.

Last-minute preparations

This morning we did a bit of last-minute shopping in preparation for our big trip tomorrow. We fly out at 10:45 a.m. Milan time and arrive in Atlanta around 3:15 p.m. Yeah! We are staying overnight in Augusta, Georgia the first night and then heading on to Charleston, South Carolina for two days. From there we head up the coast to Wilmington, North Carolina and then inland to Charlotte, Chapel Hill and Asheville before hitting Ohio. We are super excited!

I have met my match...

Look at that mischievous face!

...and he's 19 months old (today!). In our daily wars of wills, I think he wins most of the time. We are in the full-on "no" phase, which is his response to most everything I say from "Let's eat some lunch" to "Time to go to bed." He's incredibly mischievous and knows what he likes and what he doesn't like. His new thing is putting the word "due" (two) in front of anything he likes or anything he wants to emphasize. He'll say "Due Sara!" Sara is his beach buddy, and he's obsessed with her. The other day I asked him if he needed his diaper changed and he said "Due poo poo!" He wasn't exaggerating. Today I told him that on Sunday we were flying to see Grandma Mimi (when he hears a plane lately he screams "Merica!" - for him all planes apparently go to America) and he said "Due Mimi!"

After the four days spent at the beach with his nonni last week he's speaking much more Italian than English and is now speaking in short phrases. It will be interesting to see how he reacts to hearing English all the time. I think he will switch over pretty quickly because he definitely understands that his mom speaks English and his dad speaks Italian and he speaks to us in the "right" language.

Grandma Harriet

It's been a tough summer for our respective grandmas. My great-grandmother (Dylan's great-great-grandmother) died late Friday evening. She was 102 years old. Grandma Harriet was such a larger-than-life presence in my childhood that I could start an entire blog with all of my memories of her. Unfortunately, Dylan never got to meet her because as she was technically physically still here while he was alive, she hasn't been herself for quite a few years due to Alzheimer's.

She most certainly was the "boss" of the family and you didn't tangle with her. She was such a strong, sassy lady that when I was little I called my great-grandfather (a gentle soul with a twinkle in his eye who really could pull candy out of my ear!) "Grandpa Harriet." He didn't have his own name. He was Harriet's sidekick. When I was little, I'd spend hours in her sewing room just watching her at work. She always wanted to teach me, and I should have let her. She'd tell me stories of crossing the plains in a covered wagon when her family went West to search for gold (they didn't find any). They returned to southeastern Ohio and she later moved to Dayton. When I was little she took me to "the country," down near where I'd eventually go to college and we stayed in Uncle Warrior's house on the farm. We milked cows, churned butter and played with one of those victrola phonographs. I had a cousin my age down there and she and her family lived in a (very modern) log cabin. It was a wild experience for a suburban kid.

We always did Christmas Eve at her house and she had an enormous white Christmas tree. We'd get new pajamas and a new robe (made by her), which we wore every Christmas morning. Grandparents are so important, and I've been lucky to have several of my grandmas well into adulthood. Though Grandma Harriet has been "gone" for some time, now she really has gone away and I miss her greatly. She is so tied to my childhood that I can't think of the first 18 years of my life without thinking of her.

Life's a beach

For the Dyl man. We left him yesterday with his nonni at the beach and have returned to Milan to get work done before we leave for the U.S. on August 16. We will go down to get him on Friday (if I can wait that long - if I get everything done by Thursday, I may drive down myself) and spend the weekend at the beach. Thank God for video calling and that Dylan likes to talk on the phone. Though lately when I call he's busy playing or taking a swim, so I'm just happy he's having a good time. It's quiet around here without him and I really do wonder what in the world we did with all of our time sans child. I couldn't even sleep last night without him here! Tonight some vino therapy may be in order...