Poor bear

"Poor bear. Don't worry. Your grandfather will fix it."

She said, after snapping his legs off. He'd already been decapitated and that's where she got that sentence.
Went into Anna's room to see where she was.

Here she is saying, "Cheese!"

4/27/2016

Melanie and I had a good morning. I picked her up after I dropped off Anna. We went in her car to the Lidl which was right next to a McDonald's with a play area. I must make a mental note for the future!!
The Lidl was fun. I didn't know what to expect. It's German so therefore better than anything Italian in my eyes. I bought a bunch of stuff and didn't end up spending a lot, either. First, though, we went to coffee. There was a cafe and I'm always up for a cup but now I'm a little awake. Anna is awake in her crib these days. It's impossible to get her to sleep and then it's impossible to get her to wake up. Yesterday afternoon, she didn't go to sleep until 3:00 and then I ended up waking her up at 4:00 pm. I ended up just skyping with mom and dad in the living room. I was nervous about Anna going to sleep at her usual time, but it wasn't a problem. I put her in her room with some stories on repeat and she loved that.
Finally I got her to sleep at 2:00 pm. It's cold around here. It's sunny and bright but the wind is strong and cold. It's rattling the shutters. Giovanni is going to the states on Saturday morning. He says it's like a holiday for me.

Cute Anna

This morning, while I was putting a fresh diaper on Anna, she was babbling as she typically does when she said, "Non nella bocca, Francesco!!"

When I went to the daycare, Monica told me that there was, indeed, a kid named Francesco and he does put things in his mouth!!

***

This morning, I had to go to the bathroom, so I made a BIG DEAL about sitting on the potty and making faces, etc.

Anna came running up and said, "Spinge!! Spinge!!!" (push! push!)


4/26/2016

Had a good morning. It was short and sweet. Anna had daycare but I had no school. It's a holiday so the schools are closed. Thank God Helen told me that at my Birthday party on Sunday (that went very well, thank you).
This morning, I dropped Anna off at 8:50 and then picked up Melanie and her son, Julian, at around 9:20. We were running late because Anna did a poo right as we were about to walk out the door.
We drove to Collegno where the subway ends and parked the car; there's a ton of parking there so you don't have to worry. We took the subway in and then took a bus to Piazza Solferino? to a French Market that's there at Christmas, too.
It was just getting started when we arrived at 10. Almost no one was there except for the vendors so we were able to look at all the things without too much bother. We bought some stuff. I bought some smelly stuff for the bathrooms: a vanilla cat for Giovanni's bathroom and a little green Verbena turtle for my bathroom. Let's see if they stink up the joint. Probably not. 10 euro down the drain.
Then, Julian wanted to go to the main Piazza so we walked over there, but we stopped for a cafe on the way and took some pictures. It's really great to walk around Turin and I'm more in my element when I'm in a city. Although Turin is nothing like New York. It's an old city and it was still pretty quiet.
We went to the main Piazza where I bought some postcards. Then, it was time to get back on the streetcar and metro and come home. I was just in time to pick up Anna at daycare.
I think I'm going to record a couple books for Anna. Last night, to put her to sleep, I put my recording of "Green Eggs and Ham" on in her room on repeat. She likes that. It didn't put her to sleep, however. I went in there and got it out and she didn't protest. She loves the "Say! In the Dark? Could you would you in the dark?" I guess I had a particular way of saying it and she repeated it like that one day. So now I go over the top with it and even let her read that page when we get to it. My God she's so great. A pain in the tukhes no doubt but just great. This morning, we read "Goodnight Moon" and she knew some words.
No plans for this afternoon although I probably should clean up this place. Giovanni cleaned up after the party. He was really a great help. He insisted on using real glassware instead of the phoney baloney plastic cups that I bought at the Auchan. He was right; it was more classy. I should buy some at the consignment shop.

This morning, I had an espresso instead of a regular coffee and maybe I should just do that from now on. Maybe the Borg is sucking me in.

4/21/2015

It's my sister's birthday today. I'm not on Facebook so I can't wish her Happy Birthday there. I sent her a card through my mother. I hope that she gets it today (probably). Who knows what they're up to today. I'm one of those jerks not on Facebook so I don't know what's going on in peoples lives.
Yesterday afternoon, I took Anna over to Joleen's house. Basically Via Buttigliera Alta but on the other side of town. They do that here: have a billion different names for the same damn street. Whatever. As long as google maps has it figured out.
She has a lovely house that is pretty big and well furnished. Turns out, like everything else in Italy, it belongs to her MIL but her MIL moved to another apartment to give them space. So Joleen had very little to do with the interior and its look. They have a sidewalk that goes all around the house so we did a couple laps following Anna. Anna had a great time with Enzo and Linda's toys and they were pretty good about sharing and not getting in her way. First, Anna just played in the yard which was all enclosed like all yards in Italy. She had a good time getting into everything and looking at the beautiful flowers.
Then, when Joleen's MIL showed up  with the kids, we all went into the kitchen and had nutella croissants. Joleen's kid speak Italian and Chinese so I couldn't speak much English with them like I can with everyone else's kids. So it goes. They're adorable, though. Joleen's English is pretty good so we had a good time. She showed me where thieves tried to break into their house by beating on the bricks with a hammer. Yikes! This country!! It's because Italians have so much cash laying around their houses. I guess it's worth it for the thieves.
She invited me to a puppet show today at the Oratorio. I'll probably go but Anna probably won't sit still. I learned my lesson during "Toddler Time" at the SF Park Branch library. *sigh*
This morning there was school and it was Lino's birthday. Giovanni took the day off in order so we could all go fireplace shopping across town.
I sent Lino a message telling him I wasn't going to be there but Helen called me anyway from class asking me if everything was okay.  I don't think that anything was resolved at the fireplace store but I got a better idea of what it's going to look like and not look like. I thought it was going to be flush with the wall, but it's not. Because we don't have a chimney like our other houses. *sigh* So we're going to have a big fireplace that protrudes into the room. Phooey. I said it's not going to work well with our enormous couch and Giovanni said we'd get rid of the couch and my heart broke into a million pieces because the couch isn't perfect but it's our couch and we had it specially made so Giovanni could lie down completely.
I just sent Giovanni an email saying we could put our enormous couch up on the second floor. I have no idea how the hell our house is going to shape up. It's not a money pit, but it costs money!!
Anna was okay last night but not great. She had some nasty coughing fits after I put her down to sleep that made her cry. They sounded horrible but she managed to sleep pretty okay for the rest of the night and we all got enough sleep. She doesn't have the nasty coughing fits during the day.
Not much else to report. Giovanni is going away for a week and is preparing himself for that. I made chili last night.