Ahhh, Verona

Today we went to Verona to have lunch with Venusja's family. They wanted to have us over one last time before we leave. It was just us this time; Nigel and Alessandra and baby Lorenzo couldn't make it. But it was okay -- we had the Italian-English dictionary. Among all of us, we were able to mostly understand each other. Venusja's dad, Angelo, speaks pretty good English, and her mom, Lidia, is learning. Her sister and her boyfriend, and her two brothers understand more English than I think they realize. It was fun, everyone was having a good time stumbling over words, myself and Win included. I just hate that now, after 5 years and right when we are moving, my Italian decides to "click."

Anyway, time to talk about food. Venusja's parents are Sicilian, and Lidia is an awesome cook, so we had a really good meal. First cheese, salami piccante, and olives. Then tortellini-style pasta with a red tomato sauce and mushrooms and ham. Then pork scallopini with what I think was a piccata sauce, and yummy oven-roasted rosemary and olive oil potatoes. Finally, assorted pasticci (little pastries), then coffee, then gelato, and finally, limone for Angelo and Win. I'm still stuffed. Lem loved the pasta, and the dogs loved cleaning up after him.

Speaking of dogs, as most of you know, Venusja's dog is actually a Czechoslovakian wolf named Ares. He did not make the move to Florida with them. He is a sweetheart, but huge and rambunctious. He had a muzzle on most of the time because of Lem. A couple of times, Lem got a big, wet nose in the face that scared him, but for the most part he liked Ares. He did understand that Ares was really too big to play with. One of the times he got scared and cried, and when I asked him what happened, he told me! He said, "dog," then pointed to his face and said, "mouth" (well, his word for "mouth"). But this was the first time he'd actually told me what happened when he got hurt. Usually he just cries, and I have to figure it out. He was fine, by the way.

We also got to meet Marley, Pamela and Roberto's new dog. They just lost their dog, Zeus, a couple weeks ago. He was poisoned by eating food containing rat poison left in the park where he usually played. That food was left there for that exact purpose by people who don't like dogs in the park. It is really sad and really horrible that someone would do something like that. But I think it was a good idea to get a new dog right away, because Marley is adorable and has an incredibly sweet disposition. He was named, by the way, after a lot of pushing from a certain person (Venusja!) and a certain book that she loves.

I'm adding "Lunch with Venusja's family" to my list of things I'm going to miss when we leave here. The good news is, we will only be two hours from Venusja and Alex when we get to Alabama.

Soldier of the Year

So the reason Win got to come home from Germany early a couple weeks ago was because he was sponsoring a soldier for the SETAF Soldier of the Year competition. The competition was to find the best enlisted soldier in the entire unit here in Italy. The competition consisted of a 4-day even of physical tests and then a board. Win sponsored the soldier, Payne, and helped him prepare for everything. And on Thursday night, Payne called to say that he had won!

Not only had he won, he had blown the competition away. There were 3 other competitors, and it turns out Payne scored more points than all of them combined. In the 12-mile road march, he came in first, a full 40 minutes before the second-place finisher. There was an awards banquet on Thursday night, but Win didn't attend because he is still recovering from being sick.

So now that Payne is our Soldier of the Year, the next step is to compete in the USAREUR Soldier of the Year, which is for the entire Army in Europe. And if he wins that, he will compete in the Army-wide Soldier of the Year competition. It is quite a big deal. The Europe one, however, isn't until August, and we will be gone by then. But this is just more proof that these guys are incredibly talented at what they do.

St. Paul de Vence

Drinkable water (Mom, this one is for you)

On Sunday, we were up before the crack of dawn, thanks to one little goober. Luckily, French cartoons are just as good as American ones. Not so luckily, the hotel required a reservation for the 10 Euro breakfast. But even on Sunday, all the shops were open, so we went to a boulangerie for croissants and then to a cafe for coffee. Win was feeling better and decided he wanted some chicken, so we stopped at the boucherie and he bought half a rotisserie chicken and had that for his second breakfast.

We checked out early and then headed to St. Paul de Vence, which is a walled village turned artist colony just a little ways north of Cannes. It is tiny and perched on a hill top overlooking Nice and the Cote d'Azur. It is also completely pedestrian. I went there with my mom and Lem a year ago and loved it. It is very beautiful and very unique. It is also the "France" I prefer, rather than the craziness of Cannes.

We just spent an hour or so wandering around. It isn't really stroller friendly, and we didn't have the backpack, but it is small enough that Lem just walked (and ran, and jumped). He particularly liked the drinkable water fountains placed around the village.

We stopped for a coffee at a restaurant (La Fontaine) overlooking the main fountain, mainly to use the bathroom, and ended up going back there for lunch because it smelled so good. And, wow, was the food amazing. I had a salade Nicoise, and Win had the plat du jour, "Tournados." We weren't quite sure what he was getting, even with a broken English explanation, except that it was beef. It turned out to be a delicious piece of beef, amazing baked baby potatoes, salad greens, and a zucchini casserole. It was a huge amount of food, but of course, Win ate it all. I think it was good for his illness.

After lunch, it was time to head out. Lem fell asleep almost immediately and slept for 3 hours. We just kept driving until he woke up and made good time. Beemy took us around Genova and Milan so there wasn't much traffic.

I'm really glad we went. I think France is to me what Florence is to Michelle: It's good for my brain. Cannes was nice, but St. Paul was what I needed -- the bright blue sky, the Plane trees, the smell of lavender and jasmine, and delicious food.

I'll post more pictures on my photography blog, here.

Festival de Cannes

Sunning on the Cote d'Azur

Film festival!

All the tourists getting their pictures taken on the red carpet.

Well, we didn't actually get to have a play date with Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, but we did have a really good weekend in Cannes, France. It was the last weekend of the film festival, so it was packed, but it was still really nice.

Win had a four-day, so we drove down Friday morning. It's about a five-hour drive, straight across northern Italy to Genova, then along the coast to France. Once you get to Genova, the entire way is perched on the mountains above the coastline, and it is all bridges and tunnels. Lem was really good, he slept part of the way and didn't get impatient until the last hour or so, when I took over driving and had to deal with French drivers and tolls. If anyone is planning on make the drive, make sure you have plenty of change when you get to France. There are tolls about every 5 km, and most booths are automatic machines that only take coins or credit cards. No paper money!

We stayed a little way away from the center at the Pierre & Vacances Cannes Beach Hotel. It was nice; it was more of a resort type place, I think more for long term vacationers. But our room was decent, there was a separate area for Lem to sleep, a big balcony, and kitchenette. It had a great pool area in the courtyard area, where Lem and I went when we got there Friday afternoon. Win was sick all weekend, and so he slept for a couple hours after we got to the hotel.

Since Win was sick, Lem and I ventured out alone after our pool time to find dinner. I was so proud of myself for not being afraid to do that in a foreign county any more. And really, it was very easy. The French in Cannes were incredibly nice and extremely friendly. We saw it everywhere we went, and I don't think it was because we had a cute little boy with us. I think they are just that nice there. Anyway, Lem and I looked around a couple blocks near the hotel and found a kebab shop (perfect!), and picked up some bread for breakfast and some juice. We had a picnic dinner on our balcony and then went to bed early.

Saturday, Win was still feeling pretty bad (fever, exhaustion) but we made it to the beach. The hotel was only 50 m from the public beach. It was really nice, with sand and nice waves. We spent most of the day there. Both Lem and Win napped, we all swam and got very sandy. There was a family from the hotel that sat next to us that had a little girl the same age as Lem, and she was totally smitten with him. She even came over and offered him her bucket, but he wasn't interested. Every time we saw them at the hotel she got so excited and he just ignored her. Either he doesn't like French girls or he only likes older women.

Saturday evening we took the city bus into the center to check out the festival. Cannes was super crowded, mostly with tourists. It was fun, though to wander around and see what was going on. We sat at a pub across the street from the main area and watched the "strip." We didn't see any famous people, but we saw all kinds of people. Paparazzi with their huge cameras and credentials around their necks, couples dressed in formal wear, families pushing strollers, people in beach wear, groups of "spring breakers." We also saw all kinds of cool cars: Bentleys, Ferraris, Aston-Martins, BMWs, Mercedes, Audis, as well as beat-up VW vans, clunkers, and dump trucks (that's what excited Lem the most).

We didn't stay too long because Win wasn't feeling good, and Lem was tired, but we did get to see Cannes and the craziness that is the film festival. After an early dinner we hopped on the bus and headed home.

Summer Days

A few pictures from our last baby group with Michelle and Brittany. Michelle had us over in the afternoon last Thursday for Popsicles and baby pool time.

Cherry Wednesday

The cherries are here! Went to the market this morning and somehow wound up with two kilos of cherries. That is A LOT of cherries. I'm blaming my preggo brain and preggo stomach.

Also broke down and turned on the AC. It's definitely summer.

Husband Love

Good husband deed of the day:

I was getting ready to leave today and asked Win if I looked fat. (If you know Win, you know this is a dangerous question.) He said, "No, you don't look fat at all. You just look pregnant."

PERFECT answer.

Mother's Day Recap

OK, I am finally getting around to telling the details of our beach trip last weekend. It was really nice. I'm so glad Win got to come home early, and we could go.

We went to Caorle, which is a beautiful beach town north of Venice. Pretty much the farther north you go from Venice, the nicer the beaches get. Jesolo is great, but full of tourists and people from Venice. Caorle isn't much farther than Jesolo (about 20 extra minutes on the autostrada), and totally different. There is a beautiful cove with church at the end of the jetty, and a quaint little old center that is closed to cars. It has all the usual beach shops and entertainment, but has a lot more character than the Jesolo promenade.

We stayed at the Hotel Austria, which I found on venere.com (a great Web site). It on the beach, clean rooms, with parking and beach chairs. The only funny thing about it was the old man who took our information. He insisted on speaking German to me, even though I insisted I didn't speak it and spoke Italian to him. Even after seeing our U.S. passports, he still spoke to me in a mixture of German, Italian and English. But we managed to understand each other. That's the only thing about going farther north along the coast. There are more Germans/Austrians and everyone assumes we are German. I get super confused because I'm expecting people to speak Italian to me, and I don't understand a word of German.

We drove down Saturday, spent a couple hours at the beach, and then walked along the promenade into the old center for dinner. Lem loved the water this time, maybe because it was a little bit warmer. He had a blast running in and out of the waves and digging in the sand. The Adriatic is great for kids -- no big waves.

Sunday was Mother's Day and we spent the whole day at the beach. It is really nice to have the beach chairs and umbrella. When Lem started getting sleepy, I made a little tent for him on one of the chairs and sang to him until he went to sleep.

The meal we had Sunday night was amazing. We managed to find this little trattoria we ate at the last time we came to Caorle (when I was pregnant with Lem), called Ristorante Tipico All'Anguilla. We got there just as the opened and sat outside. We were on a side street with no traffic, so Lem was able to run around a bit between courses. He was pretty well behaved, he hammed it up for the waitress (who easily could have been the owner), and didn't make too much of a mess of his spaghetti with olive oil and parmesan. At least we were outside.

This is what I had for dinner, it was amazing. It was Mother's Day so we went all out.
Started with antipasti of cappesante (Mediterranean scallops)
Skipped primi piatti (pasta) but ate some of Lem's spaghetti
Secondi piatti was grilled whole Orata (Gilthead Seabream), which was flaky and buttery and delicious. We wondered if Lem would be upset with me eating a "gol-ga" (goldfish), but he was fine. He just tried to pull it off my plate. (When I say whole, I mean head, eyes, tail.)
And the Dolce. I got a Panna Cotta, which was absolutely amazing. It came with Frutti di Bosco (mixture of berries) on top, and it was the perfect end to the meal.

After dinner we wandered around again and then headed back to the hotel. It was a really quiet, simple weekend but perfect. I'm really glad I got to share Mother's day with my mom.

Mother's Day

For Mother's Day weekend we spent a couple days at the beach in Caorle. I'll write more later, I just wanted to post some pictures. Let's just say Lem loves the water.

Baby Group

Wednesday we went to Brittany's for baby group. Our babies aren't really babies anymore. I caught this picture while they were distracted by the cat.

Lem, Isabella, Vivian, and Semaya

And here they are two years ago, at one of our first baby group meetings, also at Brittany's.

Isabella, Vivian, Hannah, Lem, and Semaya

Hanging Out with Oma

Showing Oma his Halloween costume.

Pajama shorts and bubbles

Vivian's Birthday Party

Vivian and Lem

Lem, Ian (in red), and JJ. Those boys loved that stroller.

24 weeks

Saturday was Vivian's second birthday party. It was a blast. The kids played happily for hours. The theme was Tie-Dye, and all the kids got a shirt as a party favor.

Arrival

My mom, "Oma," is here! Lem was very excited when she got here, and had to show her everything. He really loved his new John Deere tractor.

On another note, my friend Michelle has started a new blog, Traveling with Tikes. After talking about all our adventures with traveling while pregnant, with babies, and now with toddlers, she decided to start a blog featuring what we have learned. She asked me to be a co-author, and I'm excited. I think I could write a book alone on flying internationally with a kid. Anyway, you can see it here: Traveling with Tikes. It's also on my Blog List.

Both Lem and Oma are sleeping (it's riposo time here), and I think I'm going to do the same.