T-2 days

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

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

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

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

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

Finger painting from Michelle Marie on Vimeo.

Fun weekend!

Pre preschool antics

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?

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!

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.