Monkey Bean-Sprouts: June 2012

What a great weekend we had last week! We decided to be adventurous and do a two night stay in Genoa with Leigh and family, so that Liam and Stirling could go to the aquarium there. We had heard it was worth seeing, and thought it would be a nice idea for the kids. There are so many things that could have gone wrong with the trip and somehow nothing did. We had really easy drives up and down with a maximum travel of 2.5 hours, and our accommodation worked out great. We stayed in two separate apartments just around the corner from each other and they were rented through the hotel Palazzo Cirocala or whatever it is. The location was perfect. We parked the cars on friday evening and didn't get back in them till we were leaving on Sunday afternoon. We were right in the Porto Antico where everything we wanted to do was located. Stirling and Liam had such a good time together wherever we were, so we were able to sit down and have decent meal times. Even our dinners were at a regular time around 7pm and the kids were up till 10pm with no problems.

We had a one bedroom apartment so Liam slept in a crib in the living area and we had Eowyn with us in our bed in the bedroom. It was totally fine because we were basically all going to sleep at the same time anyway! Eowyn was amazing and managed to sleep really long chunks both nights. The first night she slept about 6.5 hours from when we were out at dinner till early in the morning. The second night she slept from around 8pm at dinner again, till something like 4:30 am. I couldn't believe it!

We went to a traditional typical Genovese restaurant the first night with homemade pasta and other tasty treats. Liam and Stirling were thrilled to be together. This photo was from when they thought it was funny to suck on lemons!

Playing around after dinner on our way back to the apartments. Not a meltdown in sight!

The next morning James and I discovered a cute cafe place right by our front door that made crepes and fresh squeezed juice. Perfect breakfast before a long morning at the aquarium! Here's Eowyn hanging out, as she did most of the trip!

At the port there were naturally tons of boats to keep Liam occupied, including this really old one behind us. Looks like a set for Pirates of the Caribbean!

The aquarium was bigger, cleaner and better than I had imagined. We even got to see the dolphin, which apparently doesn't always happen. Liam and Stirling definitely enjoyed seeing the different tanks of fish, but I think the best part of it was hanging out together. Here they are rolling around on the ground in front of the dolphin tank.

Grayson is so eager to be part of the big kids group. I love how they are all looking up to see the dolphin in this photo.

They had some great open exhibits with beautiful colorful fish from more tropical places. We got to see them from above as well as straight on. Here Liam and Stirling were looking down on one of the tanks.

The final bit of fun in the aquarium was the touch tank. They kids loved splashing their hands in the water and trying to touch the ray or fish swimming by. The photo is a bit blurry but you get the gist and at least you get to see Stirling with Gavin, James with Liam and Leigh in the background.

This tank had baby sharks in it. I'm sure they were the non biting kind. Or maybe they weren't sharks at all!

After the aquarium visit we had a lovely lunch at Eataly and then back to the apartments for a nap for everyone. Later in the afternoon when we were all awake again we went to this indoor play and explore place for kids called Citta Dei Bambini. Unfortunately it was closing just 30 mins after we arrived, so we made a plan to return the next morning. But here's Liam in his element in the construction site area. He loved pushing around the wheelbarrow and filling it with foam bricks etc.

We had a nice walk and some time outside while Gavin made dinner reservations (that's him in the background on the phone!). Here's a picture of the little ones who were so very patient with all the activities for toddlers and adults.

Love this photo that I managed to take of Eowyn in the bjorn. She's got the drool going on but the sun hat borrowed from Cassidy looks just adorable on her!

James had many fun games for the kiddos, including balancing on posts.

Sunday morning was a nice leisurely morning hanging out as I packed us up. Liam and Eowyn hanging out on the bed a bit:

We met up with Stirling and co for breakfast at our little crepes place. In this particular alley of Genoa there was no driving traffic so the kids spent some time dancing in the street waiting for their breakfast to arrive.

We spent a little while at Citta dei Bambini so the kids could explore the place a bit more. They had a chance to play with giant bubbles, look at an ant farm, do more construction, and test out a bunch of funky mirrors, including this human kaleidoscope.

After another tasty lunch at Eataly we were ready to pack up and head back home. We had a smooth drive back with two napping babies and made it home with a bit of time before dinner. Perfect!
It really couldn't have gone any better!

School has finally ended and the sun has been peeking out a bit more in the past few weeks so that it feels like summer is here. We have had a few nice hot days and some in between but I'm still nervous that I won't get to see Eowyn in all her summer outfits because our days just haven't been that consistent. She's already 3 and a half months, which just boggles my mind. Where has time flown?!

As usual I we have a trip to chronicle, but before that I wanted to do a general recap on things round here. They have been full on and mostly great, although the end of year stuff at TASIS can always get to be a bit much. The other big issue was what would be happening with child care stuff in the fall. Sarah, who has been helping us out since before Eowyn was born, was scheduled to graduate in Sept leaving us with a big old void. Unfortunately for her, but great for us, things have worked out so that she won't graduate till March, so it gives us a little more time and consistency. The number of hours will change, but at least it looks like I will have regular help in the mornings from her so I can still work.

What else? Eowyn is chatting up a storm these days. Her smile lights up my heart every time, and there's something so familiar when I look into her shiny brown (yes, I do believe they are brown!) eyes. She has even started to giggle more which is truly the most precious sound on earth. The big change with her is that she suddenly decided that sleeping on her belly wasn't doing it, and so as of about 2 weeks ago she's been primarily sleeping on her back. But because of that and her flailing arms we have been swaddling her so that she doesn't always disturb herself. Many times it's successful, but we still have issues with her whacking herself in the face. She is also mostly out of the swing for sleeping (though last night I can't say what was happening!) But she's been napping in her crib if we're home, and her first sleep of the night has been in the crib too. If we get her in bed on time she will often fall asleep on her own, which is wonderful. Maybe she needs a pacifier popped in or something once or twice, but mostly she's good. There were even a couple of days she did 2 two hour naps during the day, which was totally text book. Most often she'll nap her 20-30mins in the morning, maybe twice and then take one longer nap in the afternoon. Still, we have more routine than we did with Liam at this point, I think!

And finally an update on the things Liam says! Recently I asked him to do something like come for a diaper change or whatever. He looks at me as says: "Let me think about it....um...no".

Not even joking. So then I told James and because he realized it was funny of course he did it multiple times over. The other thing that cracked me up the other day was when I asked him to take his shoes off and get ready for nap. He says to me: "I take my shoes off and then help with the groceries, how bout that?" Little fire cracker!