Little Gymmers

In Missouri, there was plenty of time for book reading with grandma and grandpa!


There was an open play at the children's gym near their house. So many things to do...we managed to snap a few pictures of them together. Most of the time, they were running in opposite directions.



The foam pit was Amedeo's favorite thing. They could jump from a platform into the blocks. He must have done that 100 times.



Two boys hopping on a balance beam!

On a different day, we visited a tire playground. I'll share a few more of those next time.

I learned that Springtime is a strange season for travel. You have to pack short and long sleeves, plus sweaters, hats, coats, gloves, sun hats, sunglasses, shorts. The temps were anywhere from 40 to 85....very difficult to fit all of that into a suitcase!

Report From MO

We returned from Missouri on Saturday. We traveled with my parents and decided to take only my dad's camera, so I am waiting for them to give me the pictures. I have been assured that it will be soon.

Things went fantastically well. Amedeo traveled like a champ. That might have something to do with the portable DVD player I bought. Bro's house is huge. Like hotel-sized. Amedeo and I slept together in one bedroom, Finn slept in his room upstairs, master br on main floor, and mom and dad slept in the basement bedroom. Top accommodations, I tell you. We each had our own bathroom. Compare that to their previous house where all 7 of us shared two baths.

We did many things...visited a farm, got to "drive" huge trucks, saw their awesome library, went on a hike, went frog hunting, and generally hung out.

I promise, pics will follow...plus bonus pics of Pietro's hard work on the floor.

Kite Flying on Our First Spring Day

We had an unusual schedule last week. Pietro worked through the weekend and took off on Tuesday and Wednesday. We had our weekend in the middle of the week. I only have 4 months left before the baby girl comes, so we are getting going on our ongoing projects.

Amedeo and I are going to visit my brother at the end of March. While we are gone, Pietro is going to put in bamboo flooring on the other bedroom, hallway and stairs. Our carpet is getting a bit ratty, and I hate vacuuming the cat hair off the steps. I can't wait! Pietro did a great job with Amedeo's room, so he is looking forward to some construction work.

Either before or after the floor is done, we're going to paint the bedroom and redo the closet for Amedeo. He'd like to have it green. We'll see. That bedroom has been the guest/computer/junk room, so it has taken a long while to get rid of or redistribute all the accumulated stuff.

Enough with the blah de blah...here are some pictures!

We bought a kite when we were at Costco. Amedeo has wanted to fly it for days. Friday evening, it was warm and breezy, so we gave it a try.




Thank goodness Pietro knows what to do with a kite!





We decided to head to an area with fewer trees.




Amedeo enjoyed "helping" Pietro fly the kite.



We hit the playground once the wind died down.



That isn't how you go down the slide, Pietro!



Of course, Amedeo wanted to try it...


Here's a pic of the baby girl. I'm feeling good these days. It is great to be able to go for walks again now that the winter is mostly gone.


Amedeo in the sandbox. What could be better than visiting 3 playgrounds in one day?

Shorn like a Sheep

I'm not sure how it happened, but Amedeo has a nice, full head of hair. My hair is baby-fine and on the thin side. Pietro has fine hair that is quickly falling out. I was convinced that he'd be a bald baby for the first 6 years of his life.

Here he is on his birthday...first thing in the morning. I like it when his hair is on the long side, but when he sleeps on it, it tends to be a little crazy. He isn't that fond of combs, so we reached the point of desperation....last week I used my electric trimmers and tamed the coif.


See! It's fairly long...getting-in-his-eyes long.



In the summer, I cut the boys' hair outside, but in the winter, we use the basement. So much junk down there. I promise we're not hoarders.

Before...



After.


Very happy to be done. It doesn't take very long to cut and I try to go fast because a 3 year old can only sit still for so long. When I'm finished, there are always a couple of pieces of hair that somehow lept out of the way of the scissors. (To leap can be conjugated leaped or lept or spelled leapt...I had to look it up because the speller did not like it.) The haircut isn't perfect, but I'll take it!


A whole bunch of hair...between him and the cats, we could stuff a couple of pillows a year!

Valentine's Day

In Pietro's home in the winter, they eat fondue about once a month. He hasn't had ANY, so I decided to try the Trader Joe's pre-made fondue from their refrigerated cheese section for our special Valentine's Day dinner. I planned to make a pork tenderloin and sides, but once we ate all the fondue, we were too full to eat anything else.

Here is the fondue master heating up the cheese. I already cubed the bread and stuck it in a bowl.


Amedeo concluded that any food which involved sharp sticks is great. He kept trying to blow out the candle. This fondue pot works ok. We really need something that is electric or has a fuel burner to keep the cheese melty. Either that or we need to eat it faster!


The boys were tired after all that bread and cheese.


After I took down all the decorations from the party, I couldn't resist harassing Zenzero who was sleeping peacefully. I'm sure he loved it.

Partieeeee for the 3 year old.

As promised, here are some photos from the party. I don't think I managed to get everyone, sorry about that!

Here's Emily and Jack, Kristin and Sonny, my mom, Melanie, Jessica and Jillian, James and Nicky and Jane...and our birthday boy who is waiting for his cake.


We were happy to see Pontus and Saga (and Petra who isn't pictured.) We rarely see these folks since they had a little one....we know how that goes!



Kinu, Anthony and Ayaka joined us too!


Chris and Natalie had a good time with our dining room light. I must say that I love Natalie's animal print dress.


Amedeo and his cake. I think he inherited my heavy duty sweet tooth. He LOVES cake.



Yummy yum yum. How can you go wrong with buttercream on your 3rd birthday?



This was our first birthday that we invited our friends to come. Mostly we have done just family parties, but I felt that Amedeo might enjoy one last party before our new little one comes along. The day before we had the party, Amedeo told me that he didn't want anyone to come to the party. Silly child. Too bad, was what I told him. I was glad to see that he did have fun. I did too. I'm about a month behind with blogging...hopefully I can catch up soon!

Happy Birthday, Amedeo!

February 10, 2011 was an excellent day to become 3!!!

Dear Amedeo,

You are a very special little boy. You are sweet and kind and enthusiastic. I think you'll be a great big brother. I can only imagine the fun we will have this year!

Love,

Mama and Poppy

As far as his actual day went, Amedeo had a good birthday. We started out with a trip to Dunkin Donuts. Almost anything you do after DD is great because we WENT TO DUNKIN DONUTS and everything is AWESOME because we had LOTS OF SUGAR! Even going to the grocery is fun after you have been to DUNKIN DONUTS!!! We did lots of RUNNING in the grocery and managed to buy some food too.

We had a party the Sunday before for him and his buddies. I'll post some pics of that later.