Two weekends ago, I had a "
proud moment in Italy". As most know, Im
not a big fan of living here in Italy. I miss the simplicity of the states. Its just
such a culture shock coming here. I miss our family and friends, I
hate that they have to miss out on our kids lives, not to mention the language barrier. But, there seems to be
some light at the end of this "living in Italy" tunnel! We ventured out for the first time and got to experience a mini Carnevale in the town that we live in. (Yes, Carnevale as in what you see on the movie Rio with all the floats, music, dancing, and most of all..
costumes! Costume wise, its like their Halloween. The one we went to wasnt as big, but theres a bigger one here in Venice that were hoping to go to next year. Ive been told that the float that is voted the best gets to go to Brazil to praticipate in theirs!) I have to say, the states parades has
nothing on Carnevale. It was
so amazing. They had all kinds of floats ranging from businesses to movies like Harry Potter, Grease (even their music was in English, definitely my fav!), Shrek, Pinocchio, 101 Dalmations, Sleeping Beauty and we cant forget the vulgure floats. They had a jail float with porn pictures hung up then they had men dressed in skirts high above your head on a float flashing you (they had undies on but still to much for me & kids at that) so that when you looked up..
BAM! And for some reason, almost 85% of the
guys were dressed as girls. But overall it was an amazing experience and as I stood there watching I thought to myself.."Am I
really witnessing a Carnevale parade
in Italy
and living here?" Crazy, I know but it was so fun!
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| Notice the 2 legged giraffe? |
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| How cute is that little Zoro? Then theres Fred Flintstone in the back. |
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| The witch off of Sleeping Beauty, with one of the fairy Godmother's. |
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| This is another thing thats different..instead of throwing candy they throw confetti/colored shredded paper. & its not just them throwing it at you..you throw it at them too! |
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| Look at those kids! |
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| The Harry Potter float..then my camera went dead :( |
That same weekend, while Chance was at work I had an Italian police officer come ring our gate. Of course he spoke no English, but had a piece of paper with an English translation (that still made barely any sense) saying
Sir (ha, I liked the 'Sir' part) Jordan C Ryan was
invited down to there police station. Nice way to put it, huh? So I signed the paper and told Chance. That following Monday morning he went to find out that hes the father of Jamie Ryan here in Italy...
JOKING. But this is what they told him, remember how I said recycling is
very serious here? Well they found a bunch of trash on the side of the road in a town about 20 mins away from where we live, unsorted, and in it was a piece of mail addressed to this Jamie Ryan. Assuming this person was American the police contacted the base and the base told them that Chance was the only possible person who could be this kids father that was currently stationed here, not taking into account that weve never lived there and the people who did, just PCSed. They were gunna try and fine us for someone elses trash just because they thought, but had no proof, that this kid was Chances. Im
sure it was also because were American and truth be known the
Italians have it out for us. Of course Chance explained to them that we just got here and that he has two kids but neither are named Jamie.
I
finally done something with my hair. It was getting to where I was just putting it up in a bun all the time because it took too long to straighten or style. My choices were between a short cut with bangs or a long "emo" cut. I got the long cut because if I done the short style Id have to wait another 1 or 2 years to let it grow out again so I could do the long cut. I figured if I done the long cut first, this summer I can do the short cut and experience both.
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| Before.. |
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| After. Credit to myself, I cut more of my bangs and sides because I wanted it to stand out more. |
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| Styled and acting silly. |
*Knock on wood*, were in the process of potty training again. But this time Im not giving up and going at it
hard core. Hard core means, shes in underwear and if she has an accident I show her dissapointment and explain to her that she needs to go potty then put a new change of underwear on her.
No more diapers. Period. Youre probably wondering how she doesnt ruin our floors or furniture. Well the Italians
did do some thinking ahead on this potty training thing so that
no house here has carpet, its all hardwood or tile which is super easy to clean up. Then I took an old shower curtain and covered the part of the couch she usually sits on and took puppy pads and covered her Dora couch and recliner. Since yesterday weve had
one accident and that was when I first put her in the underwear before she realized they werent a diaper. When she had her accident she
freaked. Obviously she was wet and
hated it! After that it took an act of God, tickling, and pushing on her stomach to get her just to pee again. She wouldnt even
attempt to pee in the underwear in fear of peeing on herself again but she hadnt fully understood the concept that if she peed on the potty it wouldnt get all over her. So I sat her on the potty and a few seconds later it was like the
flood gates opened. You could tell she had been holding it for a
while (a while meaning,
even through nap time). Then later she started crying that she had to "stink" and was holding herself, so after
lots more coaching she went again. Put her to bed, still with underwear on because like I said..
no more diapers! She got up and was
dry. It took her a few hours and lots of holding it in again, but she pulled through and used her potty again! I
really think were gunna get somewhere this time. Do you know how much
easier it is to only change one kids diaper instead of two?! Now we just gotta hope pooping goes just as easy, because we havent experienced that yet. Her bowel movements are so messed up but you can tell when shes going because she stands still, grunts and pushes, and tells you shes pooping. So Im just hoping I can catch her and just stick her on the potty in time.
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| I wasnt kidding. |
Gavin, ah, hes forming
such a personality. Hes such a happy and good baby. His new thing right now is right after hes done nursing, he looks at me and just starts grinning from ear to ear. It makes me feel
so good inside that he relys on me for so much. And knowing that he loves nursing just as much as I do, ah theres
nothing like it. People really
dont know what theyre missing when they pass up the opportunity to breast feed.
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| Look how long his eye lashes are?! |
Time to cook lunch, Ciao!
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