How Sweet It Is...

...to be an Aunt!

 At the end of a last minute trip to the US I was lucky to be able to meet my newest little friend before I headed home to Italy. Even Erie and Wildman were pumped! And when the much anticipated signal came to head up to the hospital that excitement turned to nerves for us all- this was my baby sister and I had never been on the waiting side of the equation. Erie was nervous that her good friend might not want to be her friend anymore. She said over and over on the way to the hospital "Nannie Aims gets a new friend today. Someone for her to talk to and look at!" And the Wildman- he was nervous because we had skipped breakfast! That boy is always nervous he won't get fed again. Nerves turned to jubilation pretty quickly and we all got to spend a few days snuggling and smelling his newborn head.

So Cheers to you Harrison (and your momma and daddy too)! I'm so excited to watch you grow and change and am beyond proud that I get to be your aunt.

You Live, You Learn

We had two trips scheduled back to back- Rome and Venice. And after a rough trip to Rome I knew I better take note and figure a few things out for Venice. So here is what I learned and what I changed...

1. You can not expect your child to be on restaurant behavior all the time. By the end of Sunday in Rome wildman was so fed up being stuck in a highchair for 2 hours at a time that he threw a plate of spaghetti in the floor. Not acceptable behavior but I can't blame only him! So instead of long drawn out meals we stopped and had lots of snacks in Venice and grabbed a few things from the grocery store so we could eat quickly and let them play. And picnics too- grab something "portare via" and head somewhere for a picnic lunch. It's the best of both worlds: you get good food, they get to play!

2. A day spent in the stroller seeing new things is still a day spent in the stroller. Both kids were just bored- not enough time running around and playing and too much time being drug from one cool sight to the next. While it is tough to find a safe place for kids to play during the high tourist season it became a must in Venice. We found some smaller piazzas and spent more time in our hotel room just letting them play. It meant we were able to keep them going later in the day and had a better time doing it!

3. A nap in the stroller is not a real nap. My wildman is still a two nap a day kind of guy. He tosses and turns all night and wakes up early, so he requires a short rest in the morning and a good nap in the afternoon. Hoping that a nap in the stroller would suffice just didn't work. No one sleeps that great outside of their bed and sure as heck not surrounded by a bunch of loud tour groups. 

4. Overscheduled is a recipe for disaster! In Rome we tried to go, go, go and see it all. Thus we ended up with two cranky, sick kids by Monday and ended up catching the early train home. So in Venice we scheduled one thing a day. Whether that be a museum, or walking around to see sight see or a gondola ride. One thing... and after the kids played for a bit we would set off for something less structured. Much nicer time! 

Of course it is not always possible to adopt the attitude "we will see it next time" because there may not be a next time. So here are a few suggestions:

- some hotels offer baby sitting. You could utilize them during nap time or after dinner so you can go and see more.

- one parent gets an afternoon free to explore while the other takes the kiddos to play. You can see a ton while by yourself or see those things your other half doesn't want to. This is usually when I shop or my husband heads to his 4,000th art museum! 

Learn from my mistakes people- don't end up red faced frantically trying to clean up a broken plate of $15 spaghetti!

Roman Holiday

I can not tell you how many times I have seen the old Audrey Hepburn movie and day dreamed of one day seeing Rome, so it was a thrill to finally be off for our quick weekend. Of course seeing Rome on Easter weekend and with two little ones meant my trip would be nothing like the movie! We certainly did not see all that Rome has to offer but I loved (almost) every minute of it.

The night before we left we realized that the Easter Bunny and the Mimi Bunny were entirely too generous for us to pack and bring with us, so the Easter Bunny decided to make an early stop just for us. So early Friday morning E-rie and Wildman were delighted to find a table full of presents.

Every day for a whole week leading up to our trip E-rie asked if she could ride the train, so you can only imagine how excited she was when we finally said yes. I swear she made no fuss about putting on her coat and getting out the door, in fact I think she even volunteered! Since our trip I have told everyone I know that I will not get on another plane if it isn't necessary. There is all kinds of space, a large table, internet, a much nicer bathroom and coat hooks too. 

My husband and I both love to explore new cities and try to find what we call "the real feel" of a place. We try to get away from everything tourist and see what the normal people do. So it came as no shock to me when he suggested we walk to our hotel. It was only a couple of miles away and we got to see some amazing sights. We even stumbled on the changing of the guards (though much less impressive than the ceremony at Arlington National Cemetary).

Do these uniforms remind anyone else of the costumes from a musical?

We spent the next couple of days just meandering around seeing the Trevi Fountain, Piazza Navona, Piazza de Fiori and of course the Vatican. I'm pretty sure E-rie's favorite thing is the fountains where she throws the "mooneys" and Wildman is always a fan of food. 

Mama look there is lots of mooneys!




I definetly want to buy some fruit from this guy!

 

This man loves him some gnocchi! And yes that is E-rie in the background in timeout for pitching a 2 year old fit :)

I think I will always be in awe of how modern cities just build up around some of the most important sites of the ancient world. I swear I walked around a building and there was the Pantheon! No fanfare, no signs even just a centuries old building with a law office next door! 

We walked around the corner and there it was- the Pantheon!



Apparently I was so excited to see the Colisseum that I closed my eyes!



And everywhere we turned there was another church. They truly were neighborhood churches that seat at most 100 people. Each one was more beautiful than the last with art and altar decorations that were hundreds of years old. 

Of course the main reason we were there was to celebrate Easter Mass in Saint Peter's Square. And it was every bit at awe inspiring as I could have ever imagined. The Pope, the Latin and the people. It is definetly something I will do again once the kiddos are older. 



I got goosebumps when he processed out. The holiness of the whole experience was breathtaking.





Watching Pope Francis' Easter address on the big screen.





So close to holiness- it was awe inspiring!





Proof we were all there, Mickey too!



Just a few parting shots of a great weekend. Can't wait to do it all again!











Look Mama I threw the moooneys. I need more moooneys Mama.

I'm a cool cat!



Modeling her Peter Rabbit dress



Yummy Eats...

May has officiallly been declared "tighten your belt" month in our house!. April was a busy (read: expensive) month with two trips, a new washer/dryer and deposits for the new house. So instead of dipping into our savings account we are going to try and recoup that money this month. The easiest way for that to happen is to cut the grocery bill by getting creative in the kitchen. In that vein I had to share what I made for dinner last night. It was too good not to! I would love to be able to take all the credit for it, but let's be honest I'm not that good of a cook :)

Quinoa and Black Beans

I read some of the reviews and decided to add red bell pepper when I added the corn and used only one can of beans. It was delightful! And to stretch it even farther I'm going to add it to a taco salad with some shredded chicken over a tostada. Ta da- two dinners and I haven't had to buy a thing. Here's hoping that the rest of the month goes this well and if anything else is such a success I'll be sure to share. 

Happy Day!

Erin

Oh What a Month...

I can't believe it has been a month since I lasted posted anything. But don't worry, I've got real internet now in my new completely unpacked house so "I'm back in the game!" And since it has been a great month I have lots to fill you in on including:

• One visit to Rome
• One visit to Venice
• Tons of travel tips I learned from those two trips!
• Our new house
• Our big girl's big girl bed!
• Our mostly misadventures in potty training
• Many trips to the park and lego castle construction :)

So while I have enjoyed this transition time immensely I'm glad to be back. Look for lots of updates coming soon and some travel learnings too!

Can you guess what I'm doing?

I've got my tea and my iPad set to google translate so I must be doing something important... Yep that's right I'm registering my baby girl for kindergarten. It is customary to start scuola materna at age 3 in Italy! So I'm getting everything ready to send my little friend to Isituto Tavelli with the nuns. To say I'm not doing okay is a huge understatement, but I know she need this and is ready for it too. Now to do all the fun stuff like buying her first backpack, picking out her outfit for the first day of school, teaching her enough Italian to know what is going on and getting her completely potty trained. (I'm thinking the backpack and clothes will be the most fun)

I'll be back soon with tons of pictures from our vacanze romane!

Happy Day!
Erin

Habemus Papem!

We have a pope! By now I'm sure those words are known to everyone whether they are Catholic or not. It is amazing to me how much one event can captivate and inspire the world. Not to mention the excitement of seeing the white smoke!

Now I'm a huge dork and once I heard the news that Pope Emeritus Benedict was retiring I decided I was going to become more knowledgeable about the whole conclave process. I highly recommend the book Selecting the Next Pope by Greg Tobin. He gives a high overview history of the Papacy and discusses how conclave became what it is today and why many of the rules came to be. For instance did you know that the rulers of Italy, Austria and France used to have veto power? And the tradition of selecting a new name is just that a tradition it has no basis in church law.

“The first pope to exercise the option of choosing a new name was Mercury, an elderly Roman presbyter, whose given name was that of a pagan god; he reigned as John II (533–535).”

Excerpt From: Tobin, Greg. “Selecting the Pope.” Sterling. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

Check out this book on the iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/selecting-the-pope/id425139342?mt=11
All in all I enjoyed it.

I am excited about Pope Francis I. I am no theologian, bible thumper or even that religious but I feel he is a grand new beginning for a new phase in church history. Call me naive but I don't think we can look to his past actions to see how he will lead our church. It is such a life changing role that to try to compare it to when he was a parish priest or even a bishop is like comparing apples to oranges. And maybe the College of Cardinals were right to select an older gentleman to be the Bishop of Rome. The world changes much more quickly than in the past, so maybe we should have a more frequent change in leadership as well.

One more thought and then I will retire my soapbox... There will no doubt be many naysayers who say the Church is flawed and that the Holy Father should  make more rapid changes to our faith. And they are right the Church is flawed because the Body of Christ is flawed. All humans are flawed. The beauty of our Church, our Body of Christ is that it is OURS to change. Gandhi had it right when he said "Be the change you want to see in the world"

There you have it... my thoughts on it all. As you react remember I'm just a stay at home mom trying to figure all of this out too- so be kind. I just feel so excited to be able to see it all and in a few short weeks visit the place where it all happened.

If you would like the thoughts of someone much smarter than me check out Whispers in the Loggia. He has actual degrees that make him have qualified opinions!

I promise I will soon be back to my regularly scheduled program of kids antics and travel quips!

Happy Day!