Monkey Bean-Sprouts: Early Summer Fun and Grandma's Visit

It's not a big surprise that Eowyn's first word was pretty much "More". What's funny is seeing her continue to babble on, every once in a while striking on an actual word. Last week I'm pretty sure she told me to "sit here" - just not so clearly. She still is using "Doww" for either up or down and it can be where she wants to be, or that something she had fell down. You have to figure it out based on the situation. I love that in the morning we hear: "daaadeeee, daaaddaaaa" coming from upstairs. I'm sure it warms James' heart even more. Funnily enough she also uses "dadee" as thank you when she hands something to you. Probably the funniest thing is her animal (specifically dog) enthusiasm. She barks at them and points with great gusto every time. In books and in real life.

And speaking of books - thank heavens our lack of bed time stories for the first year of her life hasn't stunted her enthusiasm for books. She absolutely loves to plop herself down in your lap (Anyone's really) with book in hand, and have a story read to her. A few favorites at the moment are "you are my I love you", The "Counting" book from Nassim, "My Truck is Stuck" and "Each Peach, Pear Plum", oh and of course "Dogs". But really, she's not that picky! She now gets at least one, but often two books before bed, just like Liam, and on some occasions even together. But mostly bedtimes are separate because she is so quick and he is, well, he's just not. No need to slow her down though!

Our biggest news with Liam was the triumph over the poop situation. We finally have conquered that hurdle and are so far, safely on the other side. It all started on Mothers day when he told James he would start using the potty when he finished his last couple of diapers in the bag. So 2 days later we were there and I reminded him, when he asked for just one more, of what he said. Amazingly enough it didn't take too much convincing for him to agree to try. And for sure, it wasn't that easy, but eventually he did what he needed to do - smallish though it was - and voila, the winning streak began. It helped immensely that there was a book prize for the first large poop on the potty. The Gruffalo's Child was the well earned prize! There was another minor attempt to revert the following day and 3 poops down, but I stood my ground firmly and kindly and we made it through. Now he's got it so down that we have him on the big toilet to reduce our clean up. Woo hoo!!!

Liam is also frequently experimenting with Italian (which he calls 'Talian). He is often heard saying words that sound like Italian, interspersed with the few words he does actually know, while flipping through a book. We hear a lot of Macchina, or macchina di corso, and questo, quando, ciao, quatro, cinque. Quite a funny little smattering of words, really. He is also talking a lot about school now and playing pretend school games on his own or with his friends. He pretends he goes to school and comes back and tells me what he's done at school. It's really sweet. I think in general, his imagination with games is pretty awesome, and I love it when he's playing on his own in his room and I just hear this ongoing dialogue about what's going on!

I was sure I wouldn't go for the pink tutu look, but I can't get enough of this one! Look at my little ballerina belly!

Mims unfortunately came in a bout of our not so great weather, which kept us indoors for more time that we would have liked. I can't help but feel a bit jipped by things as the time dwindled away with not much to show for it, and even worse, nothing to really photograph. The major highlight was a pause in the rain one morning, long enough for us to go for a quick walk. Liam rode his bike, Eowyn was in the stroller, but on our way back they both decided just to walk. We were so impressed to see Eowyn make it up some pretty steep little hills there!

Walking the path back up from campus

Three or four days of rain later we finally had some sunny skies, and I was at least able to have a nice morning out with mims in town. In fact we left the kiddos at home with Sarah, and I had my hair cut and we enjoyed a lovely lunch in the piazza, just the two of us. Well at least we had something!

And of course the day before mims' departure the weather was at least somewhat ok, so we made a quick dash to enjoy what little sunshine there was in the Montagnola square (aka our back yard. We go there whenever we need a quick run around).

meeting up with friends in the square - look at how big Jamison is! Eowyn is still loving him!

Not sure exactly what the game was, but at least it included everyone!

We recently had another fantastic TASIS teacher appreciation dinners. The parents put on a great spread, and in the spring they hold it at Bora de Bessa down in Gentilino. We love it there because it's so easy to go with the kids and get them fed, enjoy ourselves and get home. We even went a little earlier so we could have some time to play in the playground. As has been the case for a couple of months now, Eowyn spent her whole time in the baby swing. She's obsessed with it. In fact she thinks it's hers and cries when someone else is it, she is taken out, or someone goes in after she gets out. It's pretty sad and also kind of funny. The two of them love swinging side by side, and sometimes Liam even likes to push Eowyn which is just adorable to watch.

Back to the bora dinner, awesome time while we were there, Liam and Eowyn ran around with the other kids, ate food etc, but leave was a disaster with Liam throwing one of the largest tantrums to date. Poor James got his first taste of the full blown thing. It's definitely tough, but we're working to stay the course and use love and logic to get by. Mostly it seems to work ok, but it really does take time.

Happy swinging in Gentilino!

Jen and the kids - she's so awesome with these little guys, you'd think she has her own!

This was our thank you photo for the TPA parents

The rain is mucking everything up. Including our home grown foods. This year was supposed to be our big year with cherry picking and strawberry picking as well as our tomatoes. Well the tomatoes are still stunted, the cherries never ripened and we are only getting to have the first few strawberries now, a week before we leave! Well hey, at least we can be happy we got to try them this year!

Liam holding the first of our strawberry harvest

Finally a couple of weekends ago, just on the 2nd of June, we felt like it was warm enough to make it a lido day. The weather was perfect though the water was FREEZING. Us adults all stayed clear but the kids were all about it! We met up with the Millers, the Dibberts and another family with one young girl, and with picnics in one hand and shovels in the other we made the most of a few hours in the sun. Liam and the older kids had a great time on the beach, and after a while we headed over to the kids pool where we watched the romp and play about. I'm so glad Liam is getting more comfortable in water these days. He even went down one of the little water slides face first! Eowyn wanted non of the water. It was way too cold and she's way to sensible! She hung out on the blanket and ate her way through the time, every once in a while playing with Jamison, or walking about.