This is what I get when I ask Luca to smile for me....he's a little jokester!
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Foggy Day
It was very foggy this morning and Luke and Susannah and I walked to the library, which happens to be in this villa, Villa Tittoni. On the way out, I caught this photo of the villa with all the statues on the roof. It was eery, and quiet, and Luke pointed at the sun and said, "Look Mama, the moon is out!"
She's creative
Norah figured out how to make airplanes out of my clothespins, so she lines them up and she and Luca fly them around the house. Here's the fleet, ready for action!
Beware of dog
We were walking through Desio the next day and saw this sign on someone's gate. It makes me chuckle every time I see it!
Where pigeons come from
James kept luring Norah along on our winding walk through Venice by saying, "Don't you want to see where pigeons come from?" Yes, she did! So, she kept trudging along...
Here she is chasing some pigeons on Saint Mark's square. I don't know what it is about this place, but it's always crawling with flying rats...I mean, pigeons. Otherwise, it's a beautiful square!
Venezia
James' colleagues Brian and Kai came to visit last weekend, and we all took the train to Venice for the day. It was so nice to have other adults with us to help with the stroller and the kids. We couldn't have done it without them!
We had a fun day traveling around Venice's side streets and then taking a water bus to Murano. Here we are on the Rialto Bridge--a famous bridge in Venice.
Carolina
Norah got this doll, whom she named Carolina, for Christmas from Zia Raffaella. Carolina always looks great when Norah takes photos with the camera...if only real kids were this easy!
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
30 seconds
I walked out of the room for 30 seconds one day while Luke and Norah were coloring, and I heard Norah say, "Luca, NO!" in her disappointed voice. I ran in the room, and this is what I found.
Thank goodness for washable (and hopefully non-toxic) crayons and markers!
Monday, January 14, 2013
Como
We took another day trip to Como and stumbled upon this carousel. Norah had a blast! Luke had no interest in riding it, however.
Sunday, January 13, 2013
7 months old!
Don't I look chubby and cute in my new 12-month sized outfit?
Now mommy knows why these month-by-month stickers were such a steal on Amazon.com: the sticker for "7 months" says "7 month!" Argh...
7 months old!
(Actually, 7 and a half months old--Mommy forgot to take my picture earlier!)
Name: Susannah
Skills: I can finally roll over on my own--I just don't like to!
Favorite things: playing with my sister and brother, playing peek-a-boo, holding non-toy, electronic items like remotes and phones, and, as always, being held by mommy or daddy.
Favorite food: Sweet potatoes! Mommy finally found them here in Italy, and I LOVE them!
Saturday, January 12, 2013
Ceiling
What a beautiful ceiling in this little chapel of this stupendous church. What a labor of love this must have been! This cathedral was begun in the year 1106 A.D. It has been added to over the years, but you can see the amount of time in the art and in the smoothly-worn stone floors of of the floor of the cathedral. It was really special.
My favorite chapel
My favorite chapel in the whole cathedral was this one. It was so peaceful and beautiful, and the colors were so rich compared to some of the other chapels.
Why do they look so sad?
Here's one of many chapels with statues of Jesus. In this one, Jesus is being tended to by his mother Mary and Mary Magdalen after his death. Norah and Luca spent a lot of time asking me why they looked so sad, who they were, etc. This chapel was dedicated to soldiers from Parma who had died in WWI.
Um...yeah
THIS is the inside of the cathedral! Do you hear angels singing? Can you imagine our surprise when we entered the cathedral and saw this? Virtually every surface that wasn't marble was painted beautifully with stories from the old and new testament. It was truly magnificent! James and I were both speechless, and even Norah was impressed. Her reaction: "Wow! It's so pretty in here!"
Not just your old, run-of-the-mill cathedral
Our guidebook said that the cathedral in Parma was not really anything super special, other than that it is an example of Romanesque architecture. When we got there, we could see what they meant--it's really nothing to write home about on the outside. In fact, we had 10 minutes to wait before it would open for the afternoon, and I almost convinced James to just skip it and move on to other sites in Parma. Here's a lesson in "Never judge a book by it's cover!" Check out the next post.
Action shot!
Norah and Luca running around the piazza of the basilica at Parma. We were waiting for the cathedral to open for viewing, so we thought they should run around a little before we went in.
Parma
After Christmas, we took a day trip to Parma, known as one of the culinary capitals of Italy. It is a very charming little city, and we had a good time walking around there. Here are James and the kids in front of the cathedral at Parma. The kids liked the lions.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Unique
Monza's duomo is unique in that it has this striped patten (in marble) on it's facade...beautiful!
A happy mistake
We meant to go to the nearby town of Bergamo one day, but we missed the train we wanted to take, and decided on a quick trip to the nearby town of Monza instead. It was a happy mistake! Monza is a charming little city with nice pedestrian streets and a nice Duomo, too, in striped marble on the facade. We had lunch and then walked around during rest time (about 1 to 3:30 p.m.--it seemed like a ghost town!)
Guess who...
...lost her first tooth? NORAH! That little sucker (the tooth) hung on for dear life--it was gross--but it FINALLY fell out. The Tooth Fairy left Norah a little note and 2 Euro. Not bad for a little tooth!
Watch your kids!
After the kids had finished eating their Christmas dinner, we let them go play while we continued to eat the next courses of our 6 course feast! At some point, I thought that maybe I should just SEE what they were up to, and this is it: Norah had tied the "seatbelt" around Luca's neck and was pushing him wildly around the house--good thing he didn't fall out! We had to have the "nothing-gets wrapped-around-anyone's-neck-EVER" talk (again).
Too much noise
I am a firm believer that when babies are around too much stimulation (noise), they fall asleep to escape. Case in point: Susannah fell asleep about 10 minutes after eating while we were at Chiara's Aunt and Uncle's House for Christmas dinner. We just reclined the high chair and she took a nice long nap there, in the middle of everything!
I just like the paper...
Susannah would be happy to play with wrapping paper all day--if only we knew that BEFORE we got her these cool blocks!
Fancy Norah, I mean, Nancy
Norah LOVES her some "Fancy Nancy" books--these are from Aunt Alessia and Uncle Jim--thanks!
I actually enjoy Fancy Nancy books, too. They are sweet, they encourage good use of language, and the illustrations are fantastic. If you have a 4-6 year old girl, you might want to check them out!
Christmas!
Luca's favorite gift of all, I think, was this train set that we purchased with a gift card on behalf of Nonna and Jeri--so thanks!
How did he...?
Norah was shocked and amazed (and impressed) when who should knock on the door but Babbo Natale (Santa) and some helpers! And, when Babbo Natale asked if this was the place where he could find Norah, Luca, Susannah, Asia, and Emma because he had some special toys for them, her jaw dropped to the floor!
Luca was terrified (and a little sick)--that is why he looks half-dead. Afterward, Norah commented on how neat it was that Babbo Natale knew we were in Italy, and not in Chicago anymore!
All of us
Here we all are on Christmas Eve!
For those of you who have no idea who these people are, they are Chiara's extended family:
Uncle Marco and Aunt Raffaella, plus
cousins:
Andrea (+ Mary and their daughter Asia, and Mary's mom)
Arianna (+ Lorenzo and their daughter Emma)
Alice (+ Danilo)
For those of you who have no idea who these people are, they are Chiara's extended family:
Uncle Marco and Aunt Raffaella, plus
cousins:
Andrea (+ Mary and their daughter Asia, and Mary's mom)
Arianna (+ Lorenzo and their daughter Emma)
Alice (+ Danilo)
Christmas Eve
We were invited to Andrea and Mary's house for Christmas Eve. It was a lot of fun, and we had Chiara's cousin Arianna's husband Lorenzo there (who, from this point forward, shall be called simply: Lorenzo) who set up his tripod and took family photos of everyone.
Castle
We also walked to this big castle in Milano. Here are all the girls by the castle entrance. Norah liked thinking about how many princesses could have rooms in this castle--it was HUGE, complete with moat, drawbridges, iron gates, everything!
Milano
The Family Band went to Milano before Christmas, and, while it was cold and gray, we still saw some beautiful things, like the Duomo inside and out. We also had a chance to see Amore and Psiche, a beautiful sculpture by Antonio Canova, which was being housed at the Milano City Hall for the winter. It was a fantastic sculpture!
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