Winter Wonderland

These are more pictures of the most recent snow storm. It's going to be a white Christmas around here. This is to show our friends in Italy.

Queste sono le foto dalla piu recente nevicata. Sara` un natale in bianco qui.
This is our condo complex where we live. We live in the first building on the left.

Questo e` il condominio dove viviamo. Stiamo nel primo palazzo alla sinistra. Sotto e` una montagna di neve creata dalla spazzaneve.

Aaron gets to know his Grandpa Copple (he met grandma when he was a week old). Aaron loves his grandparents.

Finalmente Aaron conosce il suo nonno meglio. La nonna ha conosciuto appena nato.

This is Aaron in some really cute cowboy boots from Tenessee that one of my cousins gave him.

Aaron nei suoi stivali di cowboy, che gli sono stati regalati da una cugina di Julie che abita a Tenessee.

Aaron 6 months

We finally have internet, so we'll be posting on a more regular basis again!
Aaron just turned 6 months a week ago. He celebrated it by getting his first tooth, and within a week his second tooth. They're both on the bottom. Thank heavens that the second one has come in because he was pretty cranky for a while. Aaron chews anything and everything in site as you can see below.

Aaron ha compiuto 6 mesi e per festeggiare l'occasione sono spuntati 2 denti. Cuccia tutto (e` un po come avere un caniolino in casa). Sta crescendo bene.

This is the snow (one of three in the last 2 weeks) for all of our friends in Italy to see. I love it, being from here, but Paolo isn't used to it and he doesn't like a lot yet. Eventually he'll get used to it.

Questa e` la neve per tutti i nostri amici in Italia di vedere. Era una di 3 nevicate. La prima foto e` della macchina di Paolo, e la secondo e` un campo vicino a casa.

moved back to Utah

Well, we just moved back to Utah. That is why it has been so long since we've posted on our blog. If anyone wants to call and talk to us, our number is 801-652-5312. It has been a hard transition but we've been very blessed. It's so good to be close to family! Aaron's new accomplishments is that he is now 5 months, he can sit up well by him, and he LOVES being with his cousins. Paolo and I are both working. Aaron gets babysat by my sister-in-law. Aaron loves playing with his cousins.

Ci siamo trasferiti nello Utah. E' stato un cambiamento piutosto grande, ma le cose vanno bene. Il bimbo ha compiuto 5 mesi e adesso riesce a stare seduto da solo per i tempi lunghi. Il bimbo sta benissimo quando sta in mezzo ai cugini.

These are my grandparents. They were so happy to get to know their Italian grandson. He's actually Italian-Irish if you ask my grandma.

Questi sono i nonni di Julie. Erano felici di conoscere il loro nipote italiano.

This is Halloween. He was actuallly dressed as a bumblebee, but the devil horns were cute.
Aaron loves his bath time. His favorite thing to do is suck on the wash clothe. He tries every time to put his face in the water with his mouth open, but I won't let him.

This is Aaron's cousin, Park. They look a lot alike.


This is my mom with all the grandkids. We love it when grandma comes to visit.

Cousins in Italy

As we're getting the last minute things done to leave, I had my aunt and uncle (Marcia and Rick) and 3 cousins (Jen, Tiffany, and Ashley) that were in Italy on vacation that came to visit. It was a really fun day! We walked around Bologna, ate gelato, and Paolo made a really good Italian meal. It was fun to have family visiting. I'm actually suprised they weren't dead from jet lag, but they held out really well. I don't think I'm going to be that lucky going home.
This is at our friend's house. It's hard to say goodbye to all of our good friends.
Aaron is starting to grab blankets and cuddle them against his face. It's really cute.
Aaron is happy most of the time (except when he can't poop, poor kid!). He has the funniest expressions
He also loves looking at himself and his mom in the mirror. There are mirrors right next to his changing table and he loves to look at himself while he gets changed.

Moving to Utah

This at the wedding of our friends, Claudia and Giuseppe. The outfit was from when Aaron was blessed, but it actually fits him now. Aaron rolled over for the first time last week. He rolled from his tummy to his back 3 times in a row and hasn't done it since. He sits up by himself when propped against the couch. Today he took his first fall from the couch onto our marble floor. I felt like a bad mommy afterwards. It was bound to happen, but I still felt bad.
These are my friends, Germana (left) and Andrea (right). I stayed with them when I went on vacation in 2005 and met my husband Paolo. I'm really going to miss them when we leave.
Aaron is going to miss his uncle Daniele. For those who we haven't told yet, we're moving back to Salt Lake City from Italy. I'm leaving October 11th and Paolo is coming a month later. We're staying with my sister, Maureen, until we can find a place of our own. It's a lot harder than I thought leaving Italy, but I'm glad to go home and be near my family. It'll be nice for Aaron to be closer to his grandparents, and cousins.

Fingers or the binky?

Oops, forgot to turn this picture the right way before I uploaded it. You get the idea anyway. The pediatrician, after almost 3 1/2 months that Aaron can't poop by himself, decided that enema's were no longer enough, so she told me to start feeding him pears. This is his first time eating food (other than my milk). They're actually prunes because that's all I had. He LOVED eating fruit (granted he was really hungry). He ate from the spoon like he had always done it. I only gave him 3 spoonfuls because it was the first time.

Aaron is now 14.5 lbs and 25 inches long (at 3 and a half months). His 6 months clothes fit well, and some almost tight, and his 9 month sock don't fit anymore either. He has enormous feet. He gets that from the Palmieri side.
I went to visit friends in Prato, the Furia family. This is there youngest daughter, Letizia, who loves Aaron. While he was taking his afternoon nap, Letizia went into the room every two minutes to make sure that he was ok. Good thing that Aaron is a good sleeper!
This is one morning after Aaron woke up, starving as usual.
So the other night we got home really late from visiting friends, and had to get up early the next morning to go to church. That night he woke up twice, and barfed all over me one of those times. I don't believe in letting your children sleep in your bed with you, but to keep him quiet I made an exception. This is him in the morning (slept right through my alarm).
Aaron's new thing is sucking on anything and everything possible. His favorite items are his four fingers. When I took him to the pediatrician this week she told me not to let him suck his fingers, but to give him the binky. She said that I can always take away his binky, but not his fingers. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I don't mind him sucking his fingers. If anyone reading this has an opinion, I'm willing to hear it. Just don't be offended if I don't take your advice.

Cute kid

This is Aaron taking his nap today. He put his hand under the crib bumper and was cuddling it against his face while he was sleeping. It was really cute. From this angle you can only see his hand, but he's holding it while he sleeps.
We've started doing "tummy time" a few times a day, and Aaron's getting a lot stronger because of it. Sometimes he screams and sometimes he smiles at me. The picture below was a smiling moment.
Aaron's able to grab things and pull them towards his mouth. Some of his favorite items include my fingers, and the toys from the baby bouncer. The only problem is that he still lack coordination. This morning while pulling on the toy that makes the bird swirl and the music play (on the baby bouncer), he decided that it would be best put to use in his mouth instead of merely to make music. The only problem is that the toy was made to be pulled down and not stretch as far as his mouth. So he pulls it, and it arrives just short of his mouth. He has his mouth wide open and he's looking anxiously, almost desperately at it like why isn't going in his mouth. After about a minute of pulling it close to his mouth he decided to pull it as close as he could, and then shove his free hand into his mouth. Apparently it did the job for him. He'd look at the toy and chew on his hand.

The other funny news (all of this happening by about 8 am) is that while drying Aaron off after his bath, he had his first major blow out. The only problem is that he was laying on his stomach, on the towel, with no diaper on. It went everywhere! So I did my best to clean him off with some wipes. I had to put him back into the bath and get a new towel. Way to go Aaron! Trying to hand wash out baby put stains is not an easy task.

big boy

I realized how long Aaron is getting. The first picture is Aaron at one week, and his feet arrive at the boppy cushion. The second one is now (3 months) and his knee arrives at the edge of the boppy. By the way that's a 6 month sleeper and it's almost too small.
This is Aaron with his uncle, Daniele.
I like his frog bib.
Aaron can sit up for short periods when propped against something.

Aaron 3 months old

Aaron just hit 3 months. He's almost in his 6 month clothes, and we'll see how much he weighs next week when I take him to the pediatrician. He's such a happy baby I don't know how we got so lucky. His eyes are looking really blue, and I think they'll stay that color.
As we're getting ready to leave, we're trying to visit a lot of Paolo's relatives. This is one of his aunts (called Elvira).
This is another uncle, Luigi. He's the oldest of 12 kids. Paolo's dad was the youngest of all of them. His wife, Paola, is holding Aaron. There's one of there daughters, son-in-law, and Paolo.

Almost 3 months

Dad and Aaron hanging out in bed.
This is dinner at our friend's, Daniel and Luana. Luana is due in 2 months.

Paolo says that Aaron wakes up like an adult because once he's awake, he does a long series of stretching (as demonstrated above), he yawns a little bit, and then he looks around dazed for a minute, like I sometimes do in the morning when I wake up but my brain hasn't turned on yet. He doesn't do it all the time, but a lot of the time.

These two pictures are when Aaron was awake 2:30-5:30 a.m. the night after getting his vaccinations. He slept poorly for about 3 days, but I think (cross my fingers) that he's getting back to normal (4-5 hours at night). He makes some funny faces as seen above.
In the last week or two he's started to really like his toys. Once in a while he even manages to pull the toy, make the bird spin, and the music play (quite by accident I'm sure).
His new thing is that he plays with his hands. He rolls his hands over and over, kind of like Mr. Smithers in the Simpsons. Often he holds his arms up does the hand thing. I'm not sure if other babies do that or if he's just "special."
This is a blanket that one of my mission companions made and mailed to me. It is absolutely beautiful. Thankyou Briawna.