sunshine and puddles

The last 2 days have been perfect!  It's been 20-24 degrees C (70-75 F) and on Saturday we spent all day at the park, and I'm talking 6-7 hours at the park with other moms and kids.  It was record long, but also record fun.  I've never been so happy to see sunshine.  The last weeks and months have been a long blur of rain and gray skies.  Even just a couple of days ago the park was wet and full of puddles and mud.  I went out of desperation and Isabel found a very muddy puddle to play in.

 We had a good picnic and the kids played and digged in dry dirt all day long.  What a fun day!

 Isabel stealing a sandwich.

This is the other day when Isabel played in the muddy puddle.  The picture doesn't do it justice.  The whole park was wet and muddy.  There was one big puddle that I managed to keep Isabel out of for about 20 minutes.  She finally managed to jump into it before I could stop her.  So I let her have fun.  I've never seen her dance and stomp her feet like that in all her little life!

Then she LAID down in it and tried to lick the water like a dog.  I picked her up by the coat and got her out of the puddle.  She dived back in before I could stop her and the second time was successful in drinking some of that mud water.  Yuck!  No kisses for you my dear.  Not until after your bath anyway.

Hold them close

This post is mostly for me as a mommy.  The other night as I was getting the boys in bed, I usually have my obligatory cuddling of Jordan, and Aaron was a little jealous and wanting his fair share of mommy cuddling.  As I held my children close, and stroked their heads or rubbed their backs to help them relax and go to sleep, it was one of those inexplicable moments of joy.  I had my small child who wanted me close.  I could feel their warmth, and they could feel mine.  Everything was warm and safe and calm.  It was heaven.

I started asking myself:  Will they know when they are older and no longer wanting to be held by mom that they are loved?  Will they remember that they are special?  Will those terrible teenage years totally rob them of those feelings of comfort and peace, or will they be able to remember how they were loved and held, and will always be loved?  Will they remember that they have a Father in Heaven that loves them and helps them along in life?  Will they be able to cling to faith?  Will they be able to be strong when life is hard?  I prayed fervently that they would be able to be strong, faithful, loyal, courageous.  You never know what life is going to hand you.  You have no control over that.  But you have control over how you choose to react, and how you to choose to act.  You have control over only you.

So if years ahead are hard for these little ones that I love more than I love life itself, then I can remember that I don't have control over that, but I have control over me.  I can choose to love, to support, to counsel, to stay silent when it's the right thing to do.  I can choose to trust that there is a God, that there is a purpose for me.  There is a purpose for them, and that He's able to guide us through life.  I'll trust that He knows what He's doing, even if I can't see the big picture.  I'll trust that wrongs can be made right, and that to love and to give is what makes me happy.  I hope that I can teach them well enough to trust and to love too.

Dozza

 Dozza is called the "City of Art".  It's a unique little town about 30-40 minute drive from my house.  It's famous for it's outside murals/frescos and each year they hold a competition to see who's fresco gets to go up on a wall.  It's all modern art, meaning from about the 70's on up.  The modern art on old, antique walls is fascinating.

 I went with these two ladies- Rebeca and Nicola.

 The stair is painted to look like it has a wood grain.

 You can't see it in the picture, but this door was totally warped and crooked, and if you were one inch taller than me, you'd hit your head every time you walk into that door.

 This was my favorite of all, maybe because it depicts where I'm at in life.  There are different phases of womanhood here.

Isabel was a pretty good tag-a-long, especially because she's a very active toddler who doesn't like being still, and she had to sit in a stroller or a car a lot.

The eentsy weentsy spider

The other evening as we were getting ready for bed, Aaron was laying on the couch and spotted a very small spider on the ceiling.  He pointed this out to us, which is the signal for Paolo or I to smash the spider.  So Paolo took a book and smashed the spider.

To our surprise, Aaron burst into tears and said "ma non schiacciarlo.  La sua mamma lo aspetta!  La sua mamma gli sta aspettando a casa!!!" singhiozzo.

"Don't smash it.  His mommy is waiting for him! (sob) His mommy is waiting for him at home!"

He was totally distraught.  So we explained that even though it was a small spider (compared to the other ones that we smash around our house) that he was an adult and that he'll be ok.  After a little convincing we were able to calm him down.  This is also the first time that Aaron has expressed this kind of emotion.  Even though he was traumatized, I'm grateful that those emotions are starting to come out and he can express them in some way.

flowers

 Jordan as we were leaving the library had to stop and pick flowers.  About one of the cutest things (in this mother's eyes) is that he likes picking them for his mother.  When he was done, he came and handed me this saying:

Ecco Mamma!  Questi fiori sono per te!

Hear you go Mom!  These flowers are for you!

 Then as an afterthought he walked back through the weeds and after examining several flowers, he chose this one and said

Mamma, questo fiore e` per Papa` quando si sposa!

Mom, this flower is for Dad when he gets married!

 Aaron after we got home from the library had a snack with bread and apple slices.  As far as I can remember this is the first time this kid has played with his food like he would with his toys.  He started having the apple slices being persons that were talking to each other.  It made me glow to think of how he's growing, and becoming more of my little boy.

And I can't help but mention that this little turkey PRINCIPESSA has evolved over the last week.  She's trying to say many, many more things, although not very comprehensible.  Her falling apart over not getting what she wants is a little more showy, and she's starting to discover that she can go new places (aka my drawers) and from there get up onto the counter tops, or at least what's on them.  This time it was a liter of milk.  Sigh.  I should have taken my grandmother's advice and tied her legs.  Just couldn't bring myself to do it though.

Tonsillitis

I have had a nasty tonsillitis.  Nightmare.  And yes, that is my uvula being put in a full nelson by my tonsils.  It came on rapidly.  The very, very worst part of it wasn't not being able to swallow, or having it be horribly painful.  It was the fever, body aches, chills, hot and cold, headache, and feeling like I was going to die when I had that fever.  I couldn't keep it under control with tylenol and ibuprofen either.

Last Saturday I went to the ER.  That was my first time being an actual patient, instead of an employee there.  I got good treatment too.  They wanted to admit me to the hospital because my white blood cell count was through the roof, and so were a couple of other tests, and clinically there was  a good reason.  But I couldn't do it.  I needed to go home to my husband and kids. We didn't really have any long term kind of help with them, and Jordan has just gotten a fever and started vomiting after I got home from the ER.  Then the next day Paolo didn't feel great either.  Not too surprising since he lives with me, would work all night, come home and not be able to rest because I couldn't do anything anyway.

Long story short, I'm now doing LOTS better.  Only one tonsil still swollen, but I feel a ton better compared to before.  I started to feel better when I stopped having a fever.  A big thanks to my brother-in-law for helping with kids and taking me to the hospital a lot of times for follow up visits, to my friend Alessandra and Rebeca for helping with my kids, and mostly to my good husband who broke his back for me and the kids.

floods and tonsils

 This is a river that runs near our house, and this summer there was barely a trickle of water.  Well Monday it was a monsoon and the river rose so high that it was about to flood some houses.  Fortunately it came up to few door steps but didn't flood any houses.  The water level went down that night, but it was scary for those people that live there.

 I have the first tonsillitis of my life, and the first time that I felt like I'm going to die.  I remember people in the ER saying that they felt that way, and I remember thinking, cowboy up!  Now I can have sympathy for them.  I can barely swallow or talk, and have the worst body aches, fever and chills of my life!

Poor Paolo has been working at night and helping me when he gets home. I'm so grateful for his help!