Reward system

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

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

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

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!

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

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

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

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.