Developments

Guess who is going to bed in his "new" big boy bed and sleeping cuddled up with his transitional objects and Mr. Bow the Carnevale costume? We unscrewed a side of the bed, and I'm not even sure if the manufacturer suggests that since they also sell a "toddler bed" kit with a larger mattress but aside from having to figure out a way to keep the world's most restless sleeper from falling out (right now we prop our large couch cushions outside the bed after he falls asleep), it's working for us! I expected tears. I expected tantrums and fits. But he has gone pretty willingly all things considered. I guess he sensed the family bed jig was up. And he likes that he can get in and out by himself, which means we do often get an early morning visitor. Anyway, small victories, small victories...

Another birthday brunch in the city

The birthday brunch is the new popular kiddie birthday party idea. We had another one this Sunday. Since we "fell back" time-wise this weekend and Dylan was up at the crack of dawn, we decided to go into the city early and take a walk around. We had some great weather after a dreary week of rain.

Dylan and mommy in front of the castle

It was World Pasta Day! Barilla was giving out free samples of over 100 different kinds of pastas (sadly we were there too early...)

The pope was speaking in Piazza Duomo (via satellite from Rome - go techie pope!)

In Milan's Galleria, you are supposed to spin around three times on the bull for good luck

Dylan looking handsome at the party

It's going to be a long winter...

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Originally uploaded by michellanea

This is what we do in the house when we can't go outside

Pre- Pre- Potty Training

I just started reading the No-Cry Potty Training Solution in an effort to plant the seeds for what the author calls "potty learning" since it's really all about how good the teachers are. No pressure! We are sleep training dropouts, and I used to console myself with the fact that even if my kid goes to bed late, sleeps with us and wakes us multiple times throughout the night, at least he was a good eater. Now as we've entered toddlerhood, he's become a picky eater and eats maybe one square meal a day. He even hates his morning bottle of milk anymore. If it's not pasta, pizza, risotto or yogurt, he won't touch it. And even then, there's no guarantee. Last night, I made broccoli cheese soup, and he had a fit. I had to heat up some pizza or he wouldn't have eaten anything. I know I'm supposed to just let him go hungry, but I can't do it.

Anyway, that's why we've got to be potty training superstars! According to the quiz I took in the book, Dylan could potentially be ready. But the author says that the longer you wait, the more you have a guarantee that they are indeed physiologically and psychologically ready. And I'm nothing if not a practical girl. I'm not starting ANYTHING that requires tons of laundry and clean-ups right now. We had a few vomiting incidents on Monday and Tuesday that I'm still digging myself out from laundry-wise. I'm thinking February would be a good time. He will have just turned two and the weather will (if I'm lucky) start to be warm enough again where I can at least hang things outside and not have them draped from the rafters in here. Which is why we are pre- pre- potty training (letting him watch us go to the bathroom, having him "discover" on his own that there's a new kind of potty in town and get curious about it - the author says that even if he wants to play with it or wear it on his head for a few months, that's OK!) now. There will be no pictures.

A day in the mountains

We do not have the obligatory seasonal picture of Dylan in a pumpkin patch (maybe next year!) or out picking apples. But we did spend the day in the mountains gathering chestnuts for a nice autumnal treat.

We saw some cows!

Dylan soon tired of hiking and needed a lift

Mr. Bow

Dylan and Mr. Bow settling in for some Little Einsteins

Dylan's Carnevale costume from February no longer fits, but that doesn't mean that it is no longer getting use. Dylan has become particularly attached to it and he drags "Mr. Bow" around the house. At night, we have to tuck Mr. Bow into the expensive Norwegian crib that Dylan doesn't want to sleep in so he can spend the night with Dylan's transitional objects Freddy the dog and Roo the kangaroo. In the morning, he runs to "wake" Mr. Bow up and then drags him into the living room with his toys. At least the crib is getting some use and the transitional objects are keeping someone company in the night...

In other news, it has gotten incredibly cold here. I'm really worried for the winter as I have no idea what I'm going to do with Dylan when the weather is too bad to go to the park. As it is now, he goes twice a day and if he misses one of his park sessions, especially the afternoon session, he freaks out and says "park, park, park, park" ad nauseum. And then we pay for it at night because he doesn't go to bed because he didn't have the opportunity to burn off steam. The other night we missed the afternoon park session and at 11 p.m. he was still wide awake despite our having repeated his routine countless times and read him about ten books. Are all kids this active or is it just boys? Or just mine? I now understand the house with a yard or house with an extra play room concept. Sometimes I take him out and let him run up and down our incredibly steep stone driveway, which is not really the best idea. But it's the only outdoor space I have for him. I've found a couple of indoor play areas on the Web but they are almost all in Milan, and that means I'd have to pack him in the car and then deal with insane rush-hour traffic on the way home and sit stopped in smog with a hungry toddler ready for dinner. It sounds like such a silly dilemma, but I literally have no idea what we are going to do in this cracker box of an apartment all winter. (we are going back and forth on the preschool idea because we didn't sign him up for a state preschool in September and the private ones are incredibly expensive and will take a chunk out of our moving-to-America budget). He's too young for sitting at the kitchen table and doing crafts (not that interested in coloring or my homemade play-dough) and his main interests are running around like a maniac, kicking and throwing balls and climbing on things. Help.

The things I do to get this kid to eat

Ricotta cheese drizzled with vitamin-enriched baby olive oil, avocado pieces and bread sticks presented colorfully. Will he take the bait?

Well, he did eat the bread sticks out of the Dylan cup...

Dylan is just not the eater he once was and getting him to eat at least two square meals a day is a struggle. He does usually eat most of his lunch or dinner but never all of both meals. And he snacks throughout the day on yogurt and fruit. I'm getting really tired of people commenting on how skinny he is. Height-wise, he has shot up and so he's looking pretty lanky. I read an article saying I should present his foods "Bento box" style in colorful containers. I've been trying it with mixed results. Below is a video I took when I thought I was taking a normal picture. It's kind of cute though it gets cut off in the middle.

When Dylan gets his picture taken, he says "gorgonzola" instead of "cheese." He has his own particular way of pronouncing "gorgonzola"

Just being Dylan on a Sunday night

Milanese brunch

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Originally uploaded by michellanea

This weekend we had a special Sunday brunch/lunch to celebrate Luana's Catholic confirmation. We went to a restaurant that offers a "family brunch" on Sundays and we went there a few weeks ago and really liked it because of the activities offered to the kiddies in the courtyard. They created this restaurant in a restored 15th-century guesthouse, but the courtyard is full of modern sculptures and other fun things to discover. Here's Dylan outside in the courtyard checking out a motorcycle. He always runs to the license plate first to see if there's a "D." He likes to tell you when he sees "D for Dylan" (or "M for Mommy, Mimi and Mary," "C for Cristiano" or "L for Luana") on signs, keyboards, license plates and other such things. It was an especially warm day for being mid-October. More pics here.

Auguri, mamma!

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Originally uploaded by michellanea

Dylan takes a break from his ice cream to wish mommy "happy birthday" in Italian. Got my new camera and just learning to use it!

The case of the broken pajamas

Ugly pic taken with my camera phone this morning. This old toy is out because I'm packing it up for sale on eBay (shhh!)

It's starting to get cold, so last night I put Dylan in a new pair of pajamas with feet in them that we picked up in the U.S. this summer. As soon as I put the pajamas on, Dylan started throwing a fit. He hadn't napped much during the day, so I thought he was just really tired and cranky and having a pre-bedtime meltdown. He was trying to tell me what was wrong, but he was crying so hard and was so inconsolable, I couldn't understand what he was saying. After about 20 minutes, he calmed down, grabbed his feet and said "Mommy, broken! Feet out!" He was so upset because he wanted his feet out! I tried to explain that the pajamas were supposed to be that way, but he started getting upset again. So I put socks on a couple of his stuffed animals and told him they were going to sleep that way too. He finally calmed down and went to sleep, but I think this pajamas-with-feet thing is going to be a winter-long battle. He woke up this morning and the first thing he said was "pajamas broken!"

My kid is almost three feet tall!

How did that happen? He's so tall, in fact, that I'm putting his crib on eBay. See, the whole transition back into the crib thing didn't go over well (in the sense that he hasn't yet mastered climbing out, but he easily puts his leg up over the edge and straddles the bars precariously - until we catch him so he doesn't fall and crack his head on the wood floor). Every time I put him in the crib, he races to straddle the bars and get up and over. So the expensive round crib that was supposed to be a "happy nest" for our baby reminding him of the softness and coziness of the womb never did get that kid sleeping.

If he's going to sleep in our bed anyway, I may as well make some space to play in his room. So we are officially co-sleepers! Aside from moving around and talking a lot in his sleep, which doesn't seem to bother him but bothers us, the kid sleeps much better than he ever did alone. We could turn his crib into a child's single bed, but the extension for that costs something like 500 Euros, and since we plan on leaving Italy next year, that doesn't make much sense. We did find a basic toddler bed at IKEA (it's called Kritter and comes in all different colors but he likes the one above with a cat and dog on the headboard), and have been trying to get him used to the idea of sleeping in a "big boy bed." We took him to IKEA and let him jump all over it.

He's gotten so big in many other ways as well. The other night he and I were sitting at the dinner table having dinner, which is unusual because I usually feed him early and then eat when Cristiano gets home, but Cristiano was coming home especially late. In any case, at one point, I realized we were having an actual CONVERSATION. Dinner conversation. With Dylan. How crazy is that? Granted, he doesn't speak in full sentences but he can half carry on a conversation, referencing things that happened to him throughout the day. Like he told me, "Mommy, cat under the car!" and I knew he was talking about a cat we saw run under a parked car that day. So I said, "Yeah, did you see that cat run under the car?" and he said "Careful cat!" That's kind of a conversation, right?

The naughty mat really works! It's funny because now when he does something he knows he's not supposed to be doing, he will point out that it's time for him to go on the naughty mat. Last night I was trying to cook dinner and watch him at the same time. At one point I had my back turned to him but he called for me, and I turned around to see him standing on top of the back of the couch perfectly poised to fall and crack his head on our wood floor. That seems to be a common theme with him. He smiled broadly and said "Mommy, Not Mat!" He dutifully sat his two minutes and when it was time to get up and I asked him if he knew why he went on the naughty mat, he got a very serious face and told me "Mommy says 'no, no, no'." Yep, that's usually why he goes on the naughty mat - for doing something for which I said "no, no, no."

Pictures coming back to Il Dylan soon. Rumor has it that I'm getting a digital camera for my birthday. Dylan has been practicing saying "Happy Birthday, mommy" all week, and if he can pull it off, it will be my best birthday present ever. Aww. I'm a sap. I know. But it's a baby blog, so what do you expect?