New year's eve soccer practice, Forza Bologna!

 Lo zio Daniele ha portato i bimbi all'allenamento di calcio il giorno della vigilia. I bimbi erano gasati!

 Bologna's soccer team practice on New Year's Eve.  The boys went with uncle Daniele!

Christmas 2015

 L'ultima natale in Italia!  Che nostalgia che ho già.  Ho imparato dai miei vicini di casa di fare i tortellini.  Spero di riuscirci quando torno a casa!

Our last Christmas in Italia!  I'm already feeling nostalgic.  I learned how to make traditional tortellini by hand from my neighbors.  I hope that I can make them when I move!

 My children loved preforming, and I think that aunt Ivana loved it even more getting it all ready to go!  She likes to prepare things and go big!  I also love that my kids love their cousins.  I'm grateful that in years to come we get to be with lots of cousins!

 My brother-in-law commissioned this cake.  All of the figures are my kids and their two cousins.  It was very impressive!

being sweet

Tonight Aaron pulled out a lollipop that he had gotten from one of his classmates a few days ago.  Considering all of the dental work that my kids have had, they RARELY get lollipops, and it's always from someone else, not from me.

It was just Aaron and Isabel in the house.  Isabel was very aware that Aaron had a sweet that she didn't and made her feelings known.  Aaron was so sweet with her and shared it with her.  One lick him, one lick her, and so forth.  Then they sat on the couch and took turns making it fly like an airplane into each other's mouth.  There were a few times when I thought Isabel was going to get a uvulaectomy but they both come out smiling and happy.

I think I was the happiest one of all, seeing my children be sweet angels!

a night in the life of a mother

Night life at my house is EXCITING but not in the way that most folks hope for.  It's a lot of getting up at night.  Having Isabel's tonsils and adenoids definitely helped with this, but she still wakes up a night.  The last week she's been having "night terrors" or some crazy dreams and has been waking up a lot.  Every once in a while Jordan wakes up too, just to keep things interesting.

Jordan's waking up is usually because he wants to sleep in my bed and be cuddled.  He comes randomly, usually when he's not feeling heard or cuddled enough.  Somehow he manages to always come after Paolo has gone to work (about 2 a.m.).

Most of the time when he comes to bed I've already been woken up multiple times by Isabel and I am passed out.  It's definitely much less than 1% of my brain working when he shows up and it's all I can do to verbalize.  Last night he came into bed and announced, "mom, I have a question!"  And it's serious business for him!  He doesn't give voice very often to what I expect is a lot of questions that he may have.  Somehow in the middle of the night they come out!  Oh deary me!

He actually comes in needing some cuddles or physical contact and with lots of questions.  A few weeks ago he came into my bed and said in a sweet soft voice, "mom?".  After I mumbled he burst out in an excited voice, "Mom!  I have 22 questions!"  I told him that he could ask me one then and then the rest in the morning.

Sigh.  Big sigh.  As hard as it is being woken up so much, I love my kids and being a mom!

a raccogliere le olive

 Abbiamo raccolto le olive con lo zio sabato!  Aaron è stato davvero diligente.  Isabel riesce a stare dentro un cestino... e Jordan ha deciso di raccogliere foglie invece di olive. :)

 It feels like the autumn leaves have JUST barely started to change colors. Global warming?!  These are beautiful leaves!  There's a delicious fruit tree that our neighbors have.  It's called a "caco" or persiman tree, but they're not persimans that you find elsewhere.  When they're ready to eat I'll post a picture.  They are seriously so sweet and yummy!

My boys with their BFF!

Florence with the boys

 Monday we had to renew Jordan's passport and so headed down to Florence.  I had hoped to see some touristy sites with the boys, but it ended up just being a trip to the consulate and finding a cool park not too far from the consulate.  I sure love these boys!