Cookies and Milk

Ben is really good with his hands.  His fine motor skills are definitely his best skill set.  He has a little lion that plays music when you push a button (the size of a watch battery) hidden in his hands and feet.  Ben has been able to push that button for months now.  I tried to get him some finger food like those yogurt puffs, but I couldn’t find any over here, and banana pieces were too slippery. 

Finally, we caved and gave him teething biscuits (we were trying to wait as long as possible for the wheat).  His first one was a few weeks ago, and only about a quarter of it made it into his mouth.  He could pick up the pieces with his pincher fingers, but if the piece slipped into his fist, it never came out.  Within a few days, he was getting most of the cookie into his mouth.  He was opening up his fingers to put up to his mouth.  Only the pieces in the very deep recesses of his palm got lost, but he was still gagging every once in awhile if he got too big a piece. 

Now he is getting really good at eating them, and even big bites don’t faze him.  He can see a little piece on his tray, pick it up, and usually get it in first try.  Even the pieces that get stuck to the back of his hand, he can turn his hand over and get the right part to his mouth.  A few times a piece has fallen on his bib, and he reached down and carefully lifted the bib to get the piece right into his mouth.  I realize this sounds silly as I am writing it, but it has been entertaining to watch this whole learning process, and to see notable progress every day.  He can even get those slippery banana pieces now.  This weekend, I am going on a mission to find more finger foods and plain cheerios.

Ben's first Easter

 We started with brown eggs, food coloring, and vinegar.  All things considered, I think the eggs turned out quite nice.  Then we went to a park up the street to take some pictures.

Easter in Florence

Ben got his Easter present one day early, on Saturday morning.  No baskets over here.

 

 We spent Easter weekend in Florence.  We left about noon on Saturday, driving, and got there at about 3:30.  The road was all highway, but the last hour of it was really curvy, with several tunnels and bridges and lots of pretty scenery.  We first checked into the hotel.  It was a really nice hotel, with a cute little garden in back that our room overlooked.  Our room was large by European standards.  We fit the pack-n-play no problem. 

Then we set off for the sight-seeing.  We had a 5-10 minute walk to get to the historic area, but it was along the river, with beautiful buildings going up the banks, and mountains in the distance.

Saturday afternoon and evening we walked by the Duomo (Cathedral) and went in the Duomo Museum, which housed the paintings and sculptures that used to be in the Duomo.  They were removed at some point because it was decided that they “took away from” the church itself. 

We walked around more of the historical center and admired the architecture of the buildings (renaissance and gothic).  Many of the buildings, art, and sculptures were from the 15^th century.

Florence is said to have the best gelato in Italy.  Honestly, I think it's all good!
 


Michelangelo’s David.

We had a wonderful traditional Tuscan dinner, pasta, sausage, and veal.  On the way back to the hotel, we walked across the old bridge, Ponte Vecchio.

Sunday, we went to the Duomo first thing to see the parade and the Explosion of the Cart, Scoppio del Carro.  The cart was pulled by four white oxen.  They were bigger than Clydesdales.

When we got into place in front of the Duomo at about 10, we were about 15 people back, and could see bits and pieces.  The parade consisted of several people in costume, drums, bugles, and flag twirling.  Finally the cart pulled in.  Then it started raining, but we waited.  We had umbrellas, so we didn’t get too wet.  At a few minutes to 11, it stopped raining.  The dove shot out of the Duomo at 11 and started the fireworks.  They lasted about 20 minutes.  Promptly when it was over, it started raining again.  Ben was a champ, with the rain and the fireworks. 

After the fireworks, we went into the Duomo for Easter Mass.

It was still raining, and hard to walk around with the stroller and stay dry, so we had a long lunch.  By then it stopped raining, so we walked around some more.

Ben's Easter outfit.

We met Matt and Kristen and his parents and brother for dinner.  We had a wonderful 4 course meal of meats and cheese, four kinds of pastas, 8 pounds of steak, and dessert.

Monday, we went up to the roof of our hotel.

We had a couple of things we wanted to do, but we started with the Galileo Science Museum.  This museum was fascinating, and we really enjoyed it.  We stayed there all morning and early afternoon and didn’t have time to do anything else before we needed to leave.  We will have to go back someday to see what we missed.

Me with Galileo.  Tim and Ben with the amazingly accurate constellation map and globe from the 16th century.

 

McDonald's

We went to McDonald’s for lunch the other day.  It was basically the same as in the US, and it was packed!  They had the Big Mac and a few other burgers.  They had some crispy chicken sandwiches, but I did not see a grilled option, though I did not try to ask.  They had some wraps, salads, McNuggets, wings, and a barbecue something.  Happy Meals still come in the same cardboard box.  Some of the items were exactly the same, some looked similar but had different names, some were completely new to me.  The coke tasted like a standard coke, not a McDonald’s coke like in the US.  It was first fountain soda I have seen here. 

Tim had the Big Mac, and said it was the same as in the US, and I had a chicken sandwich that was similar to what you would find in the US, and it was really good (for a McDonalds).  The best part was the fries.  They had the regular ones (called potato fries, not French fries), which looked the same, but were not nearly as good, and they had Miami Fries, which were really good.  They were long thin strips, crinkle cut seasoned fries. 



They also had the McFlurry, but the flavors were different.  One was called Smarties, but I don’t know if it is what you would think or if it is something different over here.  They also had a hazelnut flavor.  That is a really common flavor for sweets  here, and it’s usually good.  Then they had the regular sundaes and cones.  Of course, they had the McCafe, so you could get coffee.  This side counter was less busy than I would have expected, since everyone always gets a “coffee” (actually a tiny espresso) after every meal.  I didn’t really look at what they had for coffee, but the pastries they had were about half and half what I would consider American and Italian ones. 

 Overall, the experience was more “American” than I thought it would be.  And, it has been so long since I have been to a McDonald’s in the US, it is possible that the US has the same new items, and I just don’t know about it.

April 6, 2012

All week I have been a single parent.  This is a tough job!  Even something as simple as carrying in the groceries gets a new level of complexity trying to carry a baby at the same time.  Okay, carrying in the groceries isn’t as simple here regardless, since we live in an apartment and our car is not right outside our door, but you know what I mean.  So… even something as simple as walking out the front door in the morning is difficult, when I’m already late because I have to do everything by myself, and then carry Ben, the burp cloth, his bag, my purse, my bag, and find a free hand to pull out my key and lock the door.  Major props to anyone who has to do this all the time.

I finished Ben's letters for his room!

I went to the grocery store the other day thinking “Easter stuff for Ben.”  I came back with 10 brown eggs (they don’t come in a dozen here, and they are not white), food coloring, and vinegar.  No plastic eggs, no basket, no green plastic grass.  I did get a big chocolate egg for Ben, but unfortunately, he can't eat it ;).  We may have to wait until the next weekend to dye the eggs because we will be in Florence this weekend.  

These big chocolate eggs are all over.  Kid versions, adult ones, colors, flavors, tons of these.

At work, they gave us a cake/bread goody called a “colombe Pasquali” Easter dove.  There are quite a few of these in stores too, but not as many as those eggs.  It is a sweet bread with  candied fruit (mostly orange peel), baked in the shape of a dove.  It's pretty good, but I don't eat the pieces of orange peel.  Our work holiday is Easter Monday, not Good Friday.

 

We are going to Florence for Easter weekend for a festival and site seeing.

Buona Pasqua!

April 2, 2012

Ben is getting a tooth!  I can actually see two, but the one on the left is closer, and I can feel it poking out a bit.  I’ve been expecting one “any day now” for 3-4 months, but the later the better for me feeding him.  I think he is handling it pretty well.  He was a little fussy all day Sunday, and we first noticed it Sunday afternoon.  But, him being fussy is nothing new, and this is no worse than his normal bad days.  I sent him to daycare Monday with Tylenol, and they said he did okay.

 Not the best picture, but you can kind of see them. The one on his left is cut through, can't tell about the other.

 

Sunday morning Tim went to the airport for his first business trip as a Sales Engineer.  He is headed to Korea, returning Friday. 

After dropping Tim off, Ben and I met some friends for lunch at Trattoria San Salvatore, an old monastery on the summit of Mount San Salvatore overlooking Lago Maggiore (the same lake we drove around a month ago.)  It was a really neat place, with the main building and separate little chapels with beautiful frescos and grottos all between 500 and 1000 years old.  It was a steep and winding drive to get there, but the view was incredible.  The food was really good too.  We had beef, veal, sausage, and rabbit.

Trattoria San Salvatore

Frescos in the chapel

 

The view of Lago Maggiore from the restaurant patio.

I recently booked two trips for this month.  This weekend, Easter, we are going to Florence for three days.  We are staying in centro so we can walk to everything.  They have a festival for Easter called Scoppio del Carro (Explosion of the Cart), with a parade and fireworks.  Then, we have a couple holidays at the end of April and first of May, and I booked five days in Rome.  Again, we will stay in centro to be close to everything.  We plan to do all the normal tourist things.

On Saturday, we walked to the park, the gelateria, the grocery store, and the pharmacy.  The park did not have baby swings, so there was not much Ben could do.  They did have one of those animals mounted on a spring that had a seat he could sit on. 

Ben in the park

Next, we had several gelato places to choose from.  I know of at least 6 in the few city blocks of the center, and three more within a few blocks of our apartment (which is only a few blocks from the center).  Tim always tries to say that we don’t need it, but I’ve been able to convince him that we do, about once per week.  We have to keep trying until we decide which one is best!  This place coated the inside of the cone with chocolate fondue, and they had a really good dark chocolate flavor.

On this particular trip to the grocery store, I bought a liter of milk and a liter of wine, and the wine was a few cents cheaper.  And, at just over a Euro, they are both cheaper than our 1.72 €/liter gas.  I also bought Ben’s first jar of baby food.  I decided he needed fish because it’s good for the brain, but I didn’t want to make it at home.  Someday I will start making fish for all of us at home, but I’m not ready for that yet.  The farmacia was for allergy medicine.  My normal springtime allergies hit me full force on Saturday, but they had Claritin and Zyrtec over the counter, so all is well.

The weather has been beautiful.  It’s been in the 70s since we got back from the States, and things are really starting to turn green and bloom.  Unfortunately, it is cloudy today, and it is supposed to rain the rest of this week.  I guess they have April showers over here too.